Nichols aims for perfect 4-for-4 finish to Gopher career

Andrea Nichols picked a good time to have a three-point game – her final regular-season home game for the University of Minnesota – and the Golden Gophers needed her goal and two assists to hold off Bemidji State 5-3 and gain a split of their weekend series. The victory, and the split, set up high drama for the final weekend of league play, when Minnesota travels up Interstate 35 to take on arch-rival Minnesota-Duluth.

With the Gophers trailing UMD by two points, second place in the WCHA is hanging on the series outcome. If Minnesota should win SaturdayÂ’s first game, the two would be exactly tied in points and second place would come down to Sunday afternoon in the WomenÂ’s WCHA final regular-season game.

There are other WCHA questions yet to be answered. For example, Ohio State (11-11-4) and Minnesota State-Mankato (12-12-2) are dead even for fourth and fifth places, and they collide in a final series at Columbus this weekend. Their battle will determine the fourth and final home-ice spot for the playoffs, which, of course, start with team five at team four in a best-of-three, so this weekendÂ’s outcome will decide where theyÂ’ll collide again.

Of course, the Minnesota-UMD outcome this weekend also carries an “I-got-you-last” psychological edge for the upcoming playoffs. The rivalry was just as big as it was five years ago, when Nichols was a pint-sized but irrepressible scoring machine at Hibbing High School, and both Minnesota and UMD sought her services in exchange for a signed tender. She chose Minnesota, and the next four years have proven that you can take the girl out of the North Country, but you can’t take the North Country out of the young woman. She knows Duluth is closer to home, and she is well aware of how UMD won the first three NCAA national championships, then, when Nichols showed up at Minnesota, the Gophers accounted for the next two, before they lost to Wisconsin in last year’s title game.

“Four years have gone by fast, but in my three years here, we’re 3-for-3 making the Frozen Four,” Nichols said. “We have two firsts and one second. That’s not bad. But it would be great to make it all four years.”

To say Nichols has been a solid and steady contributor takes on extra significance because Nichols has played more college hockey games than any other current player in the WCHA. Her 144 games in a Gopher uniform are one more than Wisconsin’s Sara Bauer – so when Nichols talks about the UMD-Minnesota rivalry’s place in women’s hockey history, she has personal ownership in a lot of the details.

“Not only are we playing for second place, but for national rankings,” said Nichols, after her goal and two assists helped subdue Bemidji State last Saturday. “Going into the weekend, we were ranked ninth and they were eighth, so wherever we are ranked, these games will affect it.”

For her career, Nichols has 41-37—78 over 144 games, including 13-8—21 this season, as an always-hustling left winger on the third line. Bigger scorers on the top two lines see a lot more duty on power plays, but her 13 goals rank Nichols third on the team behind only Gigi Marvin, a sophomore on the first line who has 17 goals, and Bobbi Ross, a junior who centers the second line and has 15 goals. At that, Nichols shares the team lead in even-strength goals with Ross at 11, because 9 of Marvin’s 17 goals have come on the power play.

Nichols grew up in Mountain Iron, and enrolled at Hibbing while in junior high because she was ready to play high school hockey before anyone other than Hibbing had established itself in girls hockey. Her team concept made her captain last year as a junior, and this year she and Ross are co-captains. That only intensifies her curiosity about the inconsistency that has afflicted the Gophers in the last six weeks.

Bristling with talent, and capable of displaying great firepower from three lines, Minnesota was flying high after a 10-game winning streak through the end of December, including eight straight victories in a WCHA run – which started, incidentally, with a 5-3, 1-0 sweep against UMD at Ridder Arena. But when the second semester started in January, that streak was snapped by five losses in the next six games, starting with a home ice sweep at the hands of league champion Wisconsin, by 4-1, 3-0 scores. More startling, Minnesota next went to Ohio State and got drubbed 7-1. The Gophers bounced back for a 3-1 victory in the rematch, but the following weekend, the Gophers went to Mankato and were swept 3-2 and 4-3 by Minnesota State-Mankato, allowing UMD to catch and pass the Gophers for second place.

All seemed back in place when Minnesota swept North Dakota and St. Cloud State – scoring 19 goals and allowing just 5 in the four games. That four-game mini-streak left the Gophers tied with UMD for second, so both the Gophers and Badgers had reason to look ahead to their season-ending clashes. Sure enough, Bemidji State threw a wrench into the picture by coming into Ridder Arena and stinging Minnesota 2-0. It was only the second time in 33 games, over seven years, that Bemidji had managed to beat Minnesota. But the 28-1-3 Gopher edge meant little against the shutout goaltending of Emily Brookshaw.
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“It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where the problem has been,” said Nichols. “The competition all around the league is much better, for one thing. Along with Bemidji, Ohio State is tough, and Mankato is good too; they’ve got some flashy forwards. For a lot of that stretch when we weren’t winning we played well, we just couldn’t find a way to put the puck in the net. It seemed like the harder we tried, the worse things were getting. But in the first game against Bemidj, they outplayed and outworked us.”

In the second game, Nichols set up Whitney GraftÂ’s first of two goals after just 1:11 of the first period, but Both of GraftÂ’s first-period goals were offset by goals from Tara Hiscock of Bemidji. Nichols scored unassisted midway through the second period, and MarvinÂ’s goal made it 4-2 after two. While outshooting Bemidji 43-25 for the game, the 4-2 lead looked imposing, but BemidjiÂ’s Kelly Hart intercepted the puck and scored on a short-handed breakaway sprint with 1:48 remaining in the game. The solid-looking lead suddenly was 4-3, and suddenly the imposing shot margin was meaningless. It took one more shot, a power-play goal 34 seconds later by Jenelle Philipczyk, to clinch the 5-3 outcome, as Brookshaw made 38 saves.

“I felt confident in my play and how things were going,” said Nichols, after being named No. 1 star for her goal and two assists.
The split dropped Minnesota two points back of the Bulldogs for second, although it hardly relieves the drama. As usual, the Gophers and Bulldogs will start out with an extra twist. The DECC has a rental commitment, so the series will be Saturday and Sunday afternoons at Mars-Lakeview Arena, atop Skyline Drive at Marshall High School. It is the newest arena in Duluth, and while limited in seating, the cozy setting should be perfect because it will only take 1,000 fans to create an exciting atmosphere.

Because of its earlier sweep, Minnesota holds the tie-breaker edge over UMD should they tie, but the bigger drama would come if Minnesota happens to win the first game Saturday, because that would leave Minnesota at 18-8-1 for 37 points, and UMD 17-6-3 for an identical 37 points – a deadlock that would be decided Sunday afternoon in the second game. Needless to say, all the winner of second place really gains is home-ice attributes should they meet in the WCHA playoffs. If the top seeds all advance through the first round of playoffs, the semifinals at Ridder would see the Gophers face – guess who? – UMD for a one-game shot that gives the winner a chance at the WCHA playoff title and, presumably, a higher see for the upcoming NCAA tournament.

Nichols and the Gophers – as well as the Bulldogs – are aware that all of the inconsistencies and flat spots of the season can be overcome with a strong finish. And having the renewal of their rivalry simply means that both teams will get a chance to shift into playoff mode a week early.

Badgers work overtime at UMD to win women’s WCHA

There may be more dramatic games in the upcoming Women’s WCHA and NCAA tournaments, but if not, Wisconsin’s pivotal pair of overtime games at Minnesota-Duluth on the first weekend in February will suffice. It took two nights of near-perfect hockey for the Badgers to fight off the Bulldogs for a 1-1 deadlock, followed by a 2-1 sudden-death Wisconsin victory that earned the Badgers their second straight WCHA title.

The Badgers knew they would be in for a severe test at the DECC, because UMD is the only team to have inflicted a loss on the newest edition of the Big Red Machine this season. That came in a 2-0 victory back about Thanksgiving time, and Wisconsin came back to win 1-0 the next night, and start a run that has now reached 12-0-3. That runs the Badgers up to a 19-1-4 season, and an amazing 25-1-4 overall ledger.

The showdown series of the season was exactly that, as Wisconsin needed at least three points in the two games to capture its second straight league title, and UMD was the only team that could still overtake the Badgers – who last year followed the WCHA title by also winning the league playoff and the NCAA women’s hockey championship.

Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson enjoyed watching the game, and games, and while his team’s second straight WCHA crown seemed only an exponent of the spectacle of the games themselves, Johnson also knows there are more challenges to come. He also said he rather enjoys Wisconsin’s No. 2 rank in national polls, behind Mercyhurst – Mercyhurst? – because it leaves an extra carrot of incentive dangling out ahead, and the WCHA’s fierce competition gives its top teams an edge.

“I told my team that both teams will benefit from this,” said Johnson. “This was typical of a playoff or NCAA game. Look at the games we’ve had with Duluth. We’ve had to battle at both ends of the ice, and our games have been 2-0, 1-0, 1-1, and 2-1. Duluth has the capacity of beating anyone.”

Asked about Mercyhurst, Johnson was typically diplomatic. “They’re No. 1, and that’s fine,” he said. “But whoever gets there from our league will benefit from this.”

The weekend was a showcase of tense, playoff hockey. In the first game, UMD scored a last-minute goal to tie the Badgers 1-1, as UMD freshman goaltender Kim Martin dueled Jessie Vetter through 65 minutes. Martin had by far the tougher duty, making 32 saves, while the Badgers smothered the Bulldogs to make VetterÂ’s night easier, with only 13 stops.

UMD, still playing without four injured regulars, including dynamic senior and offensive catalyst Jessica Koizumi, played a much stronger game in the Saturday rematch. Thanks to goaltender Riitta Schaublin, who more than upheld her end of senior night with 39 saves, the Bulldogs traded rushes with the smooth-running Badger machine for almost the entire game, following the same script with a late goal to forge a 1-1 tie for the second night in a row.

The games were so fast and clean that they could have been penalty-free, but both teams seemed frustrated with referee Jay MendelÂ’s selection of penalties, not the least of which was a tripping call to UMD defenseman Ashly Waggoner at 1:14 of the five-minute overtime. Still, UMD freshman Emmanuelle Blais was the recipient of a rare Wisconsin turnover 15 feet in front of the Badger goal, and she had a startling shorthanded open break, but Wisconsin senior Christine Dufour came up with a huge save, her 28th of the game.

“I almost had a heart attack,” said Johnson. “But our goalie makes the big save.”

Moments later, Meaghan Mikkelson fed an outlet pass ahead to Meghan Duggan, who relayed a perfect feed to Jinelle Zaugg, a 6-foot-1 junior winger with a reach that seems to be the only thing longer than her great skating stride. Zaugg was crossing the neutral zone, left to right, at full speed when she caught the pass, and UMD coach Shannon Miller said later: “I knew we were in trouble as soon as she caught that pass, because she has such great reach.”

Zaugg cut into the UMD zone, outflanked the retreating defense, and cut across the goal-mouth, right to left. Schaublin, a 6-footer with great reach herself, stayed with her almost all the way to the far, left pipe – almost. Zaugg sent her forehand shot just between Schaublin’s skate and the left pipe for a power-play goal at 2:02 of the overtime, and Wisconsin had secured a 2-1 victory.

Oh, and by the way, the WCHA season championship along with it.
Not that you’d know it by talking to coach Johnson after the game, because the game itself was all-consuming. “It was a good play all around, with 27 (Mikkelson) moving the puck up to 7 (Duggan), and she got it over to Jinelle. She had speed and momentum, and she’s got that long reach, and she needed every bit of it.”

Maybe using numbers is the easiest way to keep his Meaghan/Meghan combination straight, but they are typical of the consistently outstanding style of play Johnson has installed with the Badgers in every zone. They can defuse an equal opponent, and smother a lesser one. They defend their net with poise and precision, with a blue line crew led by co-captain Bobby-Jo Slusar and Mikkelson, both seniors. The two have been vital to the offense – Mikkelson with 8-29—36, and Slusar with 10-17—27 – while the other four defensemen haven’t scored a single goal, but they defend goaltenders Vetter and Dufour mightily.

Up front, Sara Bauer – one of six seniors on the team and last year’s Patty Kazmaier Award winner – has been both an inspirational and productive leader with 18-34—52, while her junior left winger, Zaugg, a junior, is one of five homestate Wisconsin players, is the team’s goal-scoring leader with 21-15—36. Freshman right winger Duggan stands at 20-19—39 after her goal and assist in the 2-1 victory. The other three lines contribute great balance and also show the benefit of Johnson’s smooth-fitting machine, whether breaking out of their end, sweeping across the neutral zone, or pinning foes into the offensive end with a stifling and supportive forecheck.

Bauer is only 5-foot-3, almost a foot shorter than Zaugg, but Bauer doesn’t look short, not with Erika Lawler coming out at center on the following shift. Lawler, a sophomore, is only 5-foot-0, but adds a quick, smart impact. She has 7-23—30, with her 23rd assist on the first goal in the Saturday game, when she recovered the puck on a rush and fed Duggan, who carried in on the left side and drilled a perfect shot, high to the far side, to beat Schaublin with 59 seconds remaining in the first period.

That goal, giving Wisconsin a 1-0 lead, climaxed a stirring period. The Badgers had a 12-11 edge in shots, and, as Johnson said, “They could put a video of that away as a showcase for women’s hockey.”
The 1-0 lead stood through the second and third periods, although Schaublin had to be brilliant to stop repeated attacks in the scoreless second period, when Wisconsin had a 16-5 edge in shots. It was 12-12 in the third. “For the first four or five minutes of the game, we had a good pace, but then in the next seven or eight minutes, they had four real good scoring chances,” said Johnson, recalling the flow of the game as if he had it on video inside his head.
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From UMDÂ’s standpoint, the Senior Night performance was highly emotional, although sophomore Michaela Lanzl, a 5-foot-2 speedster from German, had an outstanding weekend and accounted for many of UMD’s best threats. “We have no superstars on this team, just a super team,” said coach Miller. “We still have four players out, and with the depleted roster we had, this was a great weekend for us. We had to go and go, push and push. We gave it everything we had, and IÂ’ll take it – going into overtime both nights against Wisconsin.”

The two games were similar, but different. In the first game, Emily Kranz beat Martin with a high backhander from the right side after one of dozens of scrambles at the UMD crease, and the goal came with 2:03 left in the first period. Martin then held the fort, as Wisconsin buttoned the Bulldogs into their own end, outshooting them 9-1 in the period. UMD didnÂ’t get its first shot of the third period until midway through, meaning the Â’Dawgs got only one shot for a full 30-minute span in the middle of the game.

“They outplayed us, and outshot us,” Miller said. “But sometimes you could have 100 shots and not score, but as long as it stayed 1-0, we didn’t need a lot of shots – we just needed one goal.”

The break came when Wisconsin iced the puck, a rare flaw, in the final minute. Miller got Martin out of the game for a sixth attacker. “First, you obviously have to win the draw, then get the shot through,” said Miller.

Saara Tuominen, a freshman from Finland, won the right corner faceoff, and got the puck to Elin Holmlov, a freshman forward from Sweden who was at center point. After countless UMD shots had been blocked by WisconsinÂ’s bunching defense, Holmlov found an opening and sent a hard wrist shot through traffic. Vetter spotted the puck late, but blocked the shot. But Noemie Marin, another of UMDÂ’s seniors, backhanded the rebound in with 47 seconds remaining for the 1-1 tie.

The second game similarities were that Duggan also gave Wisconsin a 1-0 lead late in the first period, and UMD again scored late in the third, this time when Tawni Mattila won a right-corner faceoff, and the puck got bunted back to Finnish freshman Heidi Pelttari, who fired a shot. The puck came out to Karine Demeule, whose 11th goal of the season was the 1-1 equalizer.

This time, however, Zaugg brought victory to the Badgers.
“Again we ended up with a faceoff in our end, and now it’s tied,” said the relieved Johnson. “The game had everything – two senior goaltenders, one from Quebec (Dufour) and the other (Schaublin) from Switzerland, battling each other toe-to-toe. And after two games, it took a power-play goal in overtime for one team to win.”

That one team was Wisconsin, and the victory, slim as it was, was all that separated two teams that had battled 1-1-1 for the season until that overtime. And while the two teams might renew their rich and intense rivalry at playoff time, or in the NCAA tournament, or both, that slim victory on the first weekend of February was good enough for the WCHA championship.

DOT Line leads Fighting Sioux to sweep of Gophers

Ryan Duncan, Jonathan Toews and T.J. Oshie of North Dakota are not related, but if they were, theyÂ’d be Siamese triplets. Joined at the heads and hands.

After three months of creating mostly questions, the best forward line in the nation is supplying the University of North Dakota hockey team with some good answers. If you happened to be inside Mariucci Arena last weekend, you realized this weekÂ’s WCHA Offensive Player of the Week should be the Duncan-Toews-Oshie line. Yes, itÂ’s possible to have co-winners of the award, so why not co-co-winners? It would make sense, because the top Fighting Sioux line is impossible to separate.

The three quick, and extremely skilled sophomores seem to read each otherÂ’s minds, and their hands simply react to share the puck with spectacular passes. Their play led North Dakota to resounding 5-3 and 7-3 victories at Minnesota, for a sweep over the No. 1 ranked Golden Gophers.

The Sioux are far more than just one line, of course, and they are quick to point to their teammates, and particularly goaltender Philippe Lamoureux for credit. But in the case of these guys, “just one line” is a misnomer. Maybe they should be called the “DOT” line – for Duncan-Oshie-Toews. It also works because if the Fighting Sioux are to make their familiar second-half surge to national puck prominence this season, all they need to do is sign on the Dotted Line.

In Friday’s 5-3 victory, North Dakota fell behind 2-0, then stunned the first of two standing-room-only crowds at Mariucci into silence by volleying five consecutive goals past Kellen Briggs. Of the five, the Dotted Line scored three of them, punctuated by five assists. On Saturday, when the Sioux shelled Jeff Frazee with three first-period goals, and then tormented Briggs some more with two more in both the second and third periods, the Dotted Line got four of them, with five more assists. For the weekend, then, the trio snapped passes around to leave their signature on 7 goals and 9 assists for 16 points. Duncan scored 4-3—7, Oshie 2-2—4, and Toews 1-4—5, with virtually every point a reward for some spectacular and inseparable passing plays.

Duncan now has scored 21 goals-15 assists—36 points for the season, and Oshie has 9-20—29, and Toews 7-18—25. Duncan’s totals are outstanding, and his 21 goals lead the nation, as do his 16 WCHA-game goals lead the league.

“They’re the best line I’ve seen,” said Minnesota coach Don Lucia. “If they play like this the rest of the season, they’ll all have 25 goals.”

Any other questions?

Well, yes. Where the heck has this line been all season? Going into the season, that line was the reason some observers thought the Fighting Sioux would win the WCHA title, even thought the coaches picked them only for third, behind Minnesota and defending NCAA champion Wisconsin. Their prolific output at Minnesota – which produced the first Fighting Sioux sweep at Minnesota since Feb. 15-16, 1980, but where have Oshie and Toews been, after remarkable freshman seasons? Why weren’t they scoring, when the Fighting Sioux followed up a strong 4-1-1 start in the WCHA by suffering through a painful 1-8 plunge that dropped them down below also-ran status, to a 5-9-1 league record that dropped them hopelessly out of contention, and out of any discussion for home-ice in the playoffs. About that time, Minnesota was on a nation’s best 22-game unbeaten streak to take command of the WCHA race.

The Gophers didn’t lose the nation’s No. 1 rank by splitting at Wisconsin, and then splitting against Denver. But suddenly, they didn’t bounce back from a Friday loss and were swept by North Dakota, which means the Golden Gophers have lost four of six to let Denver and St. Cloud State move back into contention. And, as if to supply yet another answer to whether the Fighting Sioux will be heard from this season, North Dakota has finally risen to 9-9-2 in the WCHA – even .500 – and is 6-0-1 for the longest current unbeaten streak in the nation.

As for the magical DOT line, all three are strikingly different, although they share a basic humility as easily as they share the puck. Duncan, who is from Calgary and played at Salmon Arm in the British Columbia Junior League, is 5-foot-6 and 158 pounds. After the Saturday game, a Twin Cities reporter, perhaps baiting him, asked Duncan if he thought the Gophers were over-rated. “I wouldn’t say they’re over-rated,” said Duncan. “I would say we had been under-achieving. We played well on other weekends, we just didn’t seem to get the breaks. These were a huge two wins for us. We came into a tough arena and won two big games.”

As for playing with Toews and Oshie, Duncan, who is a free agent, said: “It’s great. Those guys are first-round draft picks, and they’re going to make a lot of money some day.”

Oshie is a 6-foot, 188-pounder from Warroad, Minn., who was a first-round draft pick of the St. Louis Blues, and who scored 24-21—45 as a freshman last year, leading the nation with nine game-winning goals. He also agreed that the Gophers were far from over-rated. “They’ve earned it,” he said. And the Sioux?

“We came together on December 17, when Michigan Tech swept us,” said Oshie. “We realized right then we had to change what we were doing. No, I don’t think we were taking it easy because we had come on so strong at the end of last season. As the start, we just had nobody grinding. We were not playing with a lot of grit. We might have four going, instead of five, on a shift. Or two going instead of three.
“Maybe me and Jon [Toews] felt like we had to do too much. But this weekend will definitely help us out and be a springboard for us the rest of the way.”

Toews, who is 6-foot-2, 202-pounder from Winnipeg, was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks, and scored 22-17—39 as a freshman last season, as the Sioux reached the Frozen Four before losing a semifinal 6-5 thriller to Boston College. He helped beat Team USA in the recent World Junior Tournament when he scored three consecutive goals on a three-round shootout that decided a 2-1 victory for Canada.

“We lost five key players from last year’s team,” said Toews. “With those guys, it was easy for T.J., Ryan and me to fly under the radar a little. This year, we got off to a slow start by not doing the little things. Now, we’re doing them.

“I played better at the World Juniors than I had been. I got something like 4 goals and 2 assists,” Toews added. “When I got back, it was more of a mental thing for me. Obviously, your body is tired, but it’s such a mental boost, I was excited to get back. We played with a lot of confidence this weekend, and we’ve got to use this and keep playing the way we are. Our line is firing on the power play, and no one really worries who does what, because somebody will come through.”

To hear Oshie and Toews talk, they worked hard but just had a lot of bad luck the first half. Nice try, guys, but the shroud of trying to avoid any alibi and now be explained, because theyÂ’ve recovered, but Oshie and Toews were pretty much taken off their game while trying to play through serious injuries. Oshie was trying to grip his stick after suffering a broken thumb at the start of the season, Toews missed nine games overall, most of them with a shoulder injury, and he came back to play but wasnÂ’t 100 percent.

“They’ve all played that hard all season, but they haven’t had the rewards until last Saturday night,” said coach Dave Hakstol, referring to a game when North Dakota fell behind Bemidji State 2-0 before roaring back for a 6-3 victory.

Once Hakstol knew that his interrogator was aware of the seriousness of the Oshie and Toews injuries, he acknowledged that they had been severely hampered through the first half of the season. “Those guys compete every game,” said Hakstol. “But Toews and Oshie are just now getting back to 100 percent. It wasn’t like Toews had a great World Junior tournament because he got healthy – he didn’t get healthy until it was over. Their energy is back, both mentally and physically. But it was hard getting through those injuries.”

Getting the big line clicking again gives the Sioux a positive bottom line. Or, make it DOTted Line. When things started going their way, nothing could stop them. Saturday, for example, they came out flying, with freshman Darcy Zajac scoring on a swift counter-rush 2-on-1 with a short-side bullet at 6:16. Barely a minute later, Chay Genoway got the puck after turning back another Gopher rush, and after he carried into the Minnesota zone, the puck was poke-checked off his stick. But Toews arrived just in time to keep it in at the blue line, and fed Duncan, a left-hand shooter deep on the right, and DuncanÂ’s short-side goal made it 2-0.
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A very interesting byplay followed. Mike Howe of Minnesota broke hard for the net on a power play, lowered his shoulder and barreled into Lamoureux. Instead of a penalty, referee Jon Campion called Genoway for holding less than a minute later, and Erik Johnson scored for Minnesota on the two-man power play. Five minutes later, Ryan Stoa scored another power play goal, and then Howe boosted the Gophers to a 3-2 lead on yet another power-play goal. For the game, Minnesota had a 12-5 edge in power plays, and for the weekend series, it was 23-10. But compared to the first half of the season, that sort of adversity was nothing. Instead of being knocked flat, North Dakota bounced back. Literally.

Robbie Bina got the puck while killing yet another penalty with 1:13 remaining in the wild first period, and as he took a step across his own goal line, he flung a long clearing attempt on goal. The puck sailed down the ice, bounced twice, and, when goaltender Jeff Frazee dropped to his knees in the crease, it took a bad-hop and went over his shoulder and into the left edge – a 165-foot fluke goal, which tied the game 3-3. Lucia sent Kellen Briggs in to relieve Frazee for the second period, but the Fighting Sioux were flying again.

With Duncan deep on the right and Oshie deep on the left, the Sioux power play always seemed to have one — or both — open for the good-angle, off-hand shot. Duncan connected from deep on the right for a power-play goal at 11:29 of the second period to put North Dakota up 4-3, although nobody could know it would eventually stand up as the winner. Erik Fabian tucked in a wraparound on Briggs 24 seconds later, and the Sioux were up 5-3.

That left it to the third period, but Oshie, a right-handed shooter deep on the left, one-timed a Duncan pass for a power play goal at 5:13, and Oshie converted a highlight-film pass from Toews, with Duncan also assisting, to make it 7-3 midway through the period.

Lamoureux was solid in goal, the Sioux defense was hustling, everybody chipped in – and the Sioux signed off on the Dotted Line.

Gophers trip Badgers twice, grip No. 1 in WCHA, nation

MINNEAPOLIS, MN. — The University of Minnesota hockey teamÂ’s strong start through the first two months of the season has reached 6-0-2 atop the WCHA, and 10-1-2 atop the national ratings – so impressive that the only remaining person predict the likelihood that the Golden Gophers might falter isÂ…Golden Gophers coach Don Lucia.

Lucia is not a pessimist, but he realizes the unlikelihood of avoiding a slump all season. And heÂ’s painfully aware of what can happen if that flat spot comes too close to the end of the season.

It seemed unfair when the WCHA coaches picked Minnesota as preseason favorite, since it was clear the Golden Gophers would have to count on freshmen to fill the very large skates of players like Ryan Potulny, Phil Kessel, Gino Guyer and others. But so far, MinnesotaÂ’s freshmen have played a pivotal role, outplaying the best freshmen on every other WCHA team and helping Minnesota roar off to first place in the WCHA and the No. 1 rank in the nation.

Tyler Hirsch, returning from a redshirt year off, leads the team, and the WCHA, with 17 points in all games, and tied for second with 16 points are Gopher freshmen Kyle Okposo and Jay Barriball, both with 9-7—16, ahead of sophomore Blake Wheeler (7-7—14), junior Ben Gordon (5-9—14) and senior defenseman Alex Goligoski (4-9—13). The play of Okposo has been little short of spectacular, while Barriball has been an unexpected sparkplug.

“We’re not going to play nine freshmen and not have our ups and downs,” said Lucia. “We’ll go though a couple of weekends with some injuries or something, and my thought is that if we can just find a way to get points every weekend, we should be OK. We’ve been fortunate to catch teams when we have. We played Colorado College when they had a couple defensemen out, and Duluth was a little banged up when we played them, and Wisconsin was missing Jack Skille, and then got a couple more guys banged up against us in the first game.

“I think you’ll see our league have more compression, instead of separation,” Lucia added. “We haven’t seen Denver or North Dakota yet, and we know they’re both tough. Michigan Tech and Alaska-Anchorage are much better, and CC will be fine, and St. Cloud is in good shape right now. But while we’ve been fortunate when we’ve played teams, we’ve taken advantage, too, and put some points in the bank.”

So far, the Golden Gophers have faced good teams, bad teams, inexperienced teams, traditional rivals, and the defending NCAA champions, and theyÂ’ve done more than just take a point or two every weekend — they havenÂ’t lost a WCHA game. Their only loss this season was 3-1 against Maine in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame game at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul. Since then, the Gophers have put together the nationÂ’s longest undefeated streak (10-0-2).

Now, at 6-0-2 atop the WCHA, Lucia says he focuses on the “lost” column of the standings. That shows Denver is second at 5-2-1, North Dakota 4-3-1, and Colorado College 4-2, but while all of them are certainly within striking distance, that zero in Minnesota’s loss column looks larger and larger. The toughest games in that 12-game undefeated streak were a pair of ties, 5-5 and 3-3, against St. Cloud State, but the Golden Gophers came back from that to topple defending national champ and archrival Wisconsin 2-1 and 3-1. That sweep was a role reversal from a year ago, when Wisconsin came to Minnesota, swept the Gophers, and it seemed the Badgers were going to run away with the WCHA title.

“But look what happened last year,” said Lucia.

True, last season the Badgers lost All-America goaltender Brian Elliott, dropped into a slump for a few weeks, and Minnesota stormed past to win the league title and gain the No. 1 rank. However, at the end of the season, Wisconsin beat the Gophers 4-0 in the WCHA playoffs, and the Gophers never recovered, losing to Holy Cross in the NCAA regional, while Wisconsin got things back in order and went all the way to the NCAA title.

The Gophers are going so well right now that Lucia pulled star winger Tyler Hirsch out of the lineup against Wisconsin. Lucia said Hirsch had fallen behind in a couple of classes, and he not only has decided to tighten up his discipline this season, he wants to make sure he has Hirsch’s skills for the whole season. “When Tyler came back this year, I said I wanted two things,” said Lucia. “I want him to have a big year, and to graduate.”

Without Hirsch, the Gophers had to work harder to score, but, as usual, they scored just enough to sweep Wiscoonsin. They won 2-1 when Goligoski scored on a first-period power play, then Barriball made it 2-0 in the third period with a goal that looked more like a veteran than a freshman. Wheeler had skated up the right side and passed across the slot. As Elliott, WisconsinÂ’s ace goaltender, slid anticipating the shot, Barriball already had anticipated that move and had quickly rapped a backhand for the far side of the net to score.

“I’m not surprised by Kyle’s play, but Barriball is definitely a surprise,” said Lucia. “He was going to play at Sioux Falls in the USHL, and when Phil Kessel signed a pro contract, he came in. He’s tenacious around the net, and he’s got great hockey sense – the instincts about where to go, and the puck finds him. He also has a good shot, and he has that habit of scoring goals.”

BarriballÂ’s goal proved to be the first-game winner against Wisconsin, after Ross CarlsonÂ’s goal broke the shutout bid of senior goalie Kellen Briggs.
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The next night, Minnesota fell behind 1-0 on Ben StreetÂ’s deflected goal in the second period. In the third, Ryan Stoa tried to pass out front to Okposo, but the pass hit the back of ElliottÂ’s blocker and caromed into the net for the equalizer.

With 5:43 remaining, the winning goal was an all-freshman happening. Tony Lucia – the coach’s kid – played an outsnding shift, hustling and forechecking and circling to attack again. Amid the flurry, freshman defenseman Brian Schack got a shot away from inside the left point. Elliott blocked it, and it popped up. Minnesota’s Mike Carman went hard to the net, and it was impossible to tell whether Badger freshman John Mitchell shoved him into the crease or chased him there, but they both bumped into Elliott, who fell facing south, while the puck landed in the north end of the crease. Lucia, about 20 feet out from the cage, saw the congestion of bodies and zipped around to the right and made a headlong dive, poking the free puck as he slid to the end boards. It was his first goal, and it was a reward for an outstanding shift.

At the end of the game, Okposo fed Wheeler for an open-net goal, and the Gophers had a 3-1 victory for the sweep.

Sophomore Jeff Frazee tended goal in the second game, as Lucia – the dad – continued to alternate him with Briggs. In league play, both have 3-0-1 records, and Frazee has a 1.71 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage, while Briggs is 1.96, and .924.

Goaltending has been easier because of strong defensive play. Goligoski, a junior, pairs with senior Mike Vannelli, the captain, while junior Derek Peltier pairs with freshman Erik Johnson, the NHL’s No. 1 overall draft pick last summer. The third unit has a pair of freshmen, Brian Schack and David Fischer, but the rookie blueliners have been solid, rather than inconsistent, and their size – all three are over 6-foot-2 – lets them make up for any uncertainty with a dose of aggressiveness.

So far, everything has fallen into place so well, itÂ’s understandable that coach Lucia might be looking for a possible flat spot, and heÂ’d prefer it to come early enough for the Gophers to be able to rebound. Of course, thereÂ’s always a chance there wonÂ’t be any slump, but if there isnÂ’t, it will take coach Lucia until about a week into April to realize it.

Gophers trip UMD in OT, face Wisconsin for title

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. — The University of Minnesota proved thereÂ’s no place like home Saturday, rising up to defeat favored Minnesota-Duluth 3-2 on sophomore Gigi MarvinÂ’s power-play goal in sudden-death overtime in the WomenÂ’s WCHA semifinals at Ridder Arena – the only facility of its kind built specifically for a womenÂ’s college hockey team.

The victory earned a spot in Sunday’s championship game against No.1 ranked Wisconsin, which blanked Ohio State 4-0 in the first semifinal at Ridder, and it also proved the Gophers were true to their insistence that they had been able to put out of their minds two thrashings – 7-1 and 5-1 – at the hands of UMD in Duluth two weeks ago. The victory also rekindles Minnesota’s hopes to reach the eight-team NCAA women’s hockey tournament field. The Gophers were No. 9, and UMD No. 7 going into the WCHA semifinals, and while the result may not drop the Bulldogs out of the top eight, it could lift the Gophers just enough to squeeze into the select field, which will be announced Sunday.

Of course, a victory for Minnesota (23-11-1) in today’s league playoff final would secure a spot, and that was what Gopher coach Laura Halldorson was focusing on. “We can only worry about playing Wisconsin,” said Halldorson. “We’re just really excited and proud, because we gave everything we had to win a tight game against Duluth. We’ve had great games in the past, a lot of them with much at stake, as there was in this one.

“Kim Hanlon was fantastic in goal, and getting on the board first was huge – a huge momentum boost. We’re going to have to do that against Wisconsin, too.”

UMD coach Shannon Miller said she was uncertain of her team’s security in the NCAA selection process. “You never know,” she said. “We were fairly solid in seventh coming in, and Boston College and Harvard both lost. We do have the strongest league in the country, so it would seem logical that we should have three teams in the field.”

Unlike the pivotal series which boosted UMD (22-10-4) into second place and dropped Minnesota to third, in which the Bulldogs jumped off to 5-0 leads through two periods both nights, Minnesota battled through the first period by outshooting UMD 9-6, and taking a 1-0 lead on the first goal, scored by senior Andrea Nichols on a power play in the last minute of the period. Anya Miller shot from center point, and when UMD freshman goaltender Kim Martin blocked it, Nichols smacked in the rebound from wide to the left of the goal.

The Bulldogs didnÂ’t exactly get the upper hand in the second period, being outshot 5-3 in the tight, defensive struggle, but they did tie the game at 4:12 on a power play of their own. Freshman Emmanuelle Blais carried deep on the right side, circled behind the net, and came all the way out to complete the circle at the top of the slot before firing toward the net. Saara Tuominen, another freshman, knocked it in.

Minnesota regained the lead at 2-1 at 12:39 of the middle period when sophomore defenseman Melanie Gagnon sent a harmless-looking shot on goal with Marvin screening in front. Martin appeared to have the shot under control, but it eluded her and trickled in, putting the Gophers up until the third period.

UMD senior Jessica Koizumi tied the game, sprawling to poke in the puck at 4:50 on another power play, and UMD rose up to take control of the game, outshooting the Gophers 14-3 in the third period, but unable to put anything else past Hanlon.

“There was a scramble, and I was falling,” said Koizumi, who is playing with a brace on an injured knee. “We want another chance. Our team has just gotten everybody back from injuries, and we’re just coming together. I’ve been in this position many times, and I’m crossing my fingers that we get into the NCAA tournament, because this is my last year, and I really think we’ve got a team that could win it.”

In the overtime, UMD senior defenseman Ashly Waggoner and a Gopher were scrapping for the puck and when the Gopher went down, referee Jay Mendel called Waggoner for tripping, at 0:52. The Gophers kept the pressure on after a corner faceoff, and Marvin scored at 1:08.

“I looked up, and saw an opening, and put it in,” said Marvin, who scored her 18th goal to tie Bobbi Ross for the team lead. “We’re high right now, we just won a big game against a great team, and we’re excited to play Wisconsin. We were very calm before the overtime, focused, and very confident.”

UMD coach Miller waited afterward to talk to Mendel. When asked about it, she said: “All I did was ask him whether it was proper to talk on the ice, or if we should go down in the corridor. We went off the ice. I asked him how he could make a call like that and not let the teams decide a game like that.”

Asked about the difference in the teams in the semifinal, compared with the two games two weeks ago in Duluth, Miller said: “They obviously played a lot better. You can’t come to Duluth and get spanked 7-1 and 5-1 and not come back and play with some fury. I was proud of our team, because we competed hard, and I thought we played our best when we outshot them 14-3 in the third period.”

Halldorson, meanwhile, said she decided to not mention that shot differential when the teams went off for resurfacing before the overtime. “I didn’t mention the shots, because the score was 2-2,” she said.

The third period gave UMD a 23-19 shot advantage for the tight contest. “After we played at Duluth, we just wanted to forget about it and finish strong,” said Hanlon. “We knew we were going to win.”
Hanlon was asked if she was as confident when a shot by Michaela Lanzl in the third period hit the left post and the ricochet went out through the crease behind her. “I guess I had my angle right,” she cracked.

Minnesota winger Erica McKenzie said: “Warming up, there was a weird vibe. We were calm, and people weren’t talking, but you could see it in everybody’s eyes – we were ready. I knew right when we got that power play, we were going to score and win the game. And then coach came down the bench and had some choice words for us.”
Halldorson clarified. “Wait a minute,” she said. “All I said was, ‘Would you guys please end this?’ And I’m glad Gigi took me up on it.”

BAUER, BADGERS WHIP OSU 4-0

ItÂ’s been a fantastic year for Ohio StateÂ’s womenÂ’s hockey program, and coach Jackie Barto credited a special crop of seniors for raising the Buckeyes to previously unattained heights. Unfortunately, the Buckeyes ran smack into the No. 1 rated Wisconsin Badgers, who stifled Ohio StateÂ’s offense and skated to a 4-0 victory that returns Wisconsin to the championship game. It wasnÂ’t like the Badgers overran the Buckeyes. They got a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal by Jasmine Giles late in a very evenly played first period. But much as the Buckeyes tried after that, they were never able to sustain enough offensive pressure to puncture Jessie VetterÂ’s 22-save shutout at Ridder Arena.

When the media requested players to interview after the game, the Badger staff declined to call on captain Sara Bauer, their captain, the defending Patty Kazmaier Award winner, and the just-named repeat winner of the Women’s WCHA player of the year award. After all, she gets interviewed all the time, and she undoubtedly will be called upon after the championship game. Besides, other players starred in the 4-0 victory – Meghan Duggan, who scored shorthanded in the second period to make it 2-0, and Angie Keseley and Jinelle Zaugg, who padded the margin in the third period with timely goals against Buckeye goaltender Erika Vanderveer. And also, of course, there was Vetter.
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However, Bauer made her presence felt with her usual near-flawless performance, and brilliant plays by the tiny but tenacious 5-foot-3 senior center from St. Catherines, Ontario, orchestrated easy goals by both Duggan and Zaugg.

“We’re thrilled to get another opportunity to play in the championship game,” said Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson, who had guided the Badgers to an even more outstanding season than a year ago, when they won the WCHA, the WCHA playoff, and the NCAA title. This year’s Badgers are 32-1-4, and ranked No. 1, with the WCHA league title in hand, and the playoff title within their grasp today.

The final count obscured the competitiveness of the game. The only goal in the first period came on a power play at 17:38 by Giles, giving the Badgers a key opening lead. Badger defenseman Meaghan Mikkelson, named the top defensive player in the league, got her first of two assists on the goal.

Ohio State coach Jackie Barto, whose team finished a program-best 20-13-4, said: “We had a couple real good scoring chances in the first and second periods, and if one of them had gone in, it might have been a different game, We’ve had some success on offense against Wisconsin, though; we’d been able to crash the net and get some rebounds this season.”

But not this game. In the second period, Wisconsin was killing a two-skater penalty shortage when Bauer got the puck in her own zone. She played the puck off the boards to herself, and seemed to mesmerize everybody in the rink as she raced down the left boards. Instead of merely dumping the puck in to kill time, Bauer held onto it, and carried deep into the left corner. About then, Meghan Duggan, a 22-goal-scoring freshman winger from Danvers, Mass., came out of the penalty box and skated for the net. Bauer passed it, and Duggan had her 23rd goal, a shorthanded gem.

“That second goal put a little dent in us,” said Barto. “Our team kept competing, but Vetter played solidly, and Wisconsin is very good defensively.”

Early in the third period, Angie Keseley made it 3-0, getting her stick on a loose puck while diving into a scramble at the crease at 6:05. And as the game neared its conclusion, Bauer did her thing again to seal it. With 3:06 remaining, Bauer forechecked to swipe the puck behind the Ohio State goal. She did a quick stop and go, reversing her direction on the end boards and carrying back behind the net, then passing out to the goal-mouth. Zaugg, a 6-foot-1 junior from Eagle River, Wis., was there for a one-timer. Vanderveer had no chance, and the Badgers had their 4-0 victory.

“I liked the way the last 40 minutes went,” said Mark Johnson. “The first 20 was a chess match, because nobody wanted to make a mistake. We made a couple of adjustments, and the team really responded well. We scored first on the power play, then Sara made a great play to Duggan coming out of the penalty box for the shorthanded goal.”
Vetter, who is 17-1-3 but only alternates with Christine Dufour (15-0-1), credited her defense. “Our D has been great all year, blocking shots,” Vetter said. “We had a little case of nerves in the first period, but we settled down.”

The Badgers settled down, and prepared to defend their league playoff title.

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• About the Author

  John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
  
  For those who want to keep up with John Gilbert's view of sports, mainly hockey with a Minnesota slant, click on the following:
  
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• Exhaust Notes:

  PADDLING
  More and more cars are offering steering-wheel paddles to allow drivers manual control over automatic or CVT transmissions. A good idea might be to standardize them. Most allow upshifting by pulling on the right-side paddle and downshifting with the left. But a recent road-test of the new Porsche Panamera, the paddles for the slick PDK direct-sequential gearbox were counter-intuitive -- both the right or left thumb paddles could upshift or downshift, but pushing on either one would upshift, and pulling back on either paddle downshifted. I enjoy using paddles, but I spent the full week trying not to downshift when I wanted to upshift. A little simple standardization would alleviate the problem.
  
  

  SPEAKING OF PADDLES
  The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution has the best paddle system, and Infiniti has made the best mainstream copy of that system for the new Q50, and other sporty models. And why not? It's simply the best. In both, the paddles are long, slender magnesium strips, affixed to the steering column rather than the steering wheel. Pull on the right paddle and upshift, pull on the left and downshift. The beauty is that while needing to upshift in a tight curve might cause a driver to lose the steering wheel paddle for an instant, but having the paddles long, and fixed, means no matter how hard the steering wheel is cranked, reaching anywhere on the right puts the upshift paddle on your fingertips.
  
  

  TIRES MAKE CONTACT
  Even in snow-country, a few stubborn old-school drivers want to stick with rear-wheel drive, but the vast majority realize the clear superiority of front-wheel drive. Going to all-wheel drive, naturally, is the all-out best. But the majority of drivers facing icy roadways complain about traction for going, stopping and steering with all configurations. They overlook the simple but total influence of having the right tires can make. There are several companies that make good all-season or snow tires, but there are precious few that are exceptional. The Bridgestone Blizzak continues to be the best=known and most popular, but in places like Duluth, MN., where scaling 10-12 blocks of 20-30 degree hills is a daily challenge, my favorite is the Nokian WR. Made without compromising tread compound, the Nokians maintain their flexibility no matter how cold it gets, so they stick, even on icy streets, and can turn a skittish car into a winter-beater.