Hill-Murray favored in Class AA ‘Year of the Upset’

Sixty years ago, the Minnesota state high school hockey tournament was held for the first time, so naturally the eight teams in that 1946 tournament at the old Saint Paul Auditorium were “new” to the tournament. Amazingly, there has never been a year since then when at least one of the entries wasn’t a returnee from the previous year.

Until this year. All eight of last year’s Class AA section champions failed to repeat, some because of the usual ebb and flow of graduations, but many because this truly is the “Year of the Upset.”

In Class AA, upsets, ranging from mild to wild, knocked out top-ranked Holy Angels, Bloomington Jefferson, Eden Prairie, Duluth East, Cloquet-Esko-Carlton, White Bear Lake, Centennial and Elk River – all teams ranked among the top 10. Those eight, in fact, would make a fine state tournament on their own, but they’ll need tickets to see the tournament this time. All those teams are perennial powers, but Holy Angels, Jefferson, Eden Prairie, East, Elk River and Moorhead were among dethroned section champs from last year.

Hill-Murray did not win its section last year. In fact, the Pioneers had failed to reach the state for three straight years, tying the schoolÂ’s record for futility since private schools were allowed into the public tournament 31 years ago. The Pioneers, the team most of the public-school segment of the state used to love to hate, has risen above that animosity, particularly because any accusations that it could recruit players from anywhere have been washed away in recent years by a new private power at Holy Angels, and by rampant charges of recruiting via open enrollment at many public schools.

The Pioneers won a classic, double-overtime 5-4 victory over White Bear Lake for the Section 3 title, and loom as the favorite in Class AA. Two prolific scoring lines are impressive enough that many observers arenÂ’t sure which one is No. 1, and a poised defense with solid goaltending puts the Pioneers into the favoriteÂ’s role.

Actually, even if all the favorites had made it in other sections, Hill-Murray might rank as the favorite, because they enter the competition with a glittering 26-1-1 record. The tie was 3-3 against Holy Angels in a spectacular game for the No. 1 state rating, and, in the next game, the Pioneers lost to St. Thomas Academy for their only setback.

St. Thomas Academy, however, is no slouch. The Cadets, coached by former Gopher star Tom Vannelli, are 22-5-1, and one of the lower-bracket favorites in the Class A tournament, which starts Wednesday.

The same upset plague infected Class A, where top-ranked Marshall of Duluth made it, claims the immediate favoriteÂ’s role, and could, conceivably, wind up Saturday facing a neighborhood rival in Hermantown, a suburban Duluth school and also a top-rated team all season. Warroad, the annual pick to win Class A, played the Section 8 final at home, held a solid 2-0 lead over Thief River Falls in the third period, and yet the Prowlers came back to tie the game with two goals, then beat the Warriors in the fourth overtime to reach state.

St. Thomas Academy similarly looms as heavy favorite against Orono in the first night quarterfinal, which sends its winner against the northern survivor between Hermantown and Thief River Falls. Hermantown (25-3) had to take on the resident powers of Section 7, getting past perennial power Hibbing to make state. Thief River Falls, which makes its first trip to state after 50 years of reflecting on past domination. The Prowlers –perhaps the neatest nickname in high school sports – are 21-7 after upending Warroad in the Section 8 final, but one of those losses was to Hermantown. It wasn’t just a loss. It was 9-0. That type of scoring is pretty typical of the Hawks, who beat Greenway of Coleraine 11-1 and International Falls 7-1 in other Section 7 games.

Twin Cities power focused on private schools in Class A, but the crowd in Section 5 lumped them together. In Section 5, which produced five of the last seven state champs, Totino Grace upended top seeded Breck, but then lost to Blake in the final, so Blake enters the state tournament with a a 17-8-3 record to run smack into Marshall in WednesdayÂ’s quarterfinals.

At sectional time, Marshall moved to Section 2, where it had to win the final at BlaineÂ’s Fogerty Arena against Sauk Rapids to reach state at 26-1-1. Section 2 has never been a prominent state power, but Marshall gives it that glow. The Marshall-Blake winner rates as favorite to beat the first-game winner, where Little Falls, returning to the state along with Marshall and St. Thomas Academy, stands as solid favorite to beat Mankato East in the quarterfinals.

That winner is Class A upper-bracket favorite, and the Saturday final could find an all-Duluth-area championship game between Marshall and Hermantown. Marshall beat Hermantown during the season, but the Hilltoppers only loss all season was to Class AA power Cloquet, a team Hermantown shocked with a 6-2 upset.
{IMG2}
Picking a team from the opposite bracket to face Hill-Murray is more challenging, but two familiar names from recent years – Roseau and Grand Rapids – collide in Thursday’s final first-round game in a battle of Northern teams that could well produce the finalist. Roseau (24-4) marched into St. Cloud State’s National Hockey Center and knocked off Moorhead 4-0 in the Section 8 championship game, surprising many Twin Cities observers, but not Moorhead coach Dave Morinville, who had projected Roseau as his team’s primary challenge weeks ago.

Grand Rapids, on the other hand, came through Section 7, the Northeast Minnesota section that has produced the most legendary teams of years ago. The Thunderhawks, who used to be the Indians in their title-winning days of decades past, went from struggling in a fairly weak section brought down by dwindling enrollment, to winning a tough section rejuvenated by several new, as well as old, rivals. Elk River, a power from the Northwest suburbs of the Twin Cities, and a team most foes donÂ’t like to face, was sent off to join Section 7, where Brainerd, a Central Minnesota team, also was having its strongest year in hockey. That expanded the power structure of Section 7, where perennial powers Duluth East and Cloquet-Esko-Carlton both had strong entries.

After Cloquet defeated Brainerd, a big crowd in Duluth watched an outstanding semifinal doubleheader. It was classic, old-time Northern Minnesota hockey, as Cloquet’s 6-foot-8 senior defenseman Taylor Vichorek moved in from the right point and scored a goal 1:44 into the second period, and goaltender Reid Ellingson made it stand up for a 1-0 victory in a nail-biter against Duluth East. The Greyhounds, who, as usual, played the toughest schedule in the state, got fantastic goaltending from Ben Leis (30 saves to Ellingson’s 22), but the Lumberjacks prevented the ‘Hounds from threatening very often and settled the rivalry for the season, after they had split regular-season games.

In the second game, Elk River completely dominated Grand Rapids, taking a 2-0 lead while outshooting the Thunderhawks 15-5 in the first period. Only brilliant goaltending from Reidar Jensen – who was named after his grandfather, the legendary Reidar Lund, a former sports columnist at the Duluth News-Tribune – prevented the Elks from running up the score more than 2-0. When Grand Rapids came storming out in the second period, it seemed like only a temporary reprieve, because a goal by Jared Smith late in the period was the only Grand Rapids reward for a 24-4 edge in period shots.

It seemed inevitable that Elk River, having weathered the onslaught, would regain the momentum in the third period, but Grand Rapids surprised the Elks and never let them have it. Trevor Hicks got loose at the crease and tied the game 2-2 with a power-play goal midway through the third period, and Zach Moore broke for the right post and jammed in a perfect feed from Hicks with 3:32 remaining, and Grand Rapids had 3-2.

While many had figured East would play Elk River in the final, both were left at home when Grand Rapids found itself in a curious position in the final. Cloquet-Esko-Carlton loomed as the favorite, based on its victory over East, even though the Lumberjacks had lost twice to Grand Rapids during the season. Grand Rapids didnÂ’t figure it that way, of course, but it had to contend with elusive junior center Tyler Johnson, who scored twice in the first period to stake Cloquet to a 2-1 lead. Robert Maher had given the Thunderhawks a 1-0 lead, but Johnson scored at 6:59 and again with a power-play breakaway six seconds before the period ended.

Just as they had done against Elk River, however, the Thunderhawks showed great poise and talent as they came back for two goals in the second period. Jared Smith and Rob Roy scored 10 minutes apart to vault Grand Rapids from a 2-1 deficit to a 3-2 lead while outshooting the Lumberjacks 11-4 in the middle period. CloquetÂ’s Steve Mlodozyniec tied it 3-3 early in the third period, converting a goal-mouth pass from the ever-dangerous Johnson, but Zach Morse broke the tie at 12:10 for Grand Rapids, and Trevor Hicks notched the clinching goal at 16:08 and Rapids rode a 5-3 victory into the state tournament at 19-8.

“Roseau beat us in the last game of the season,” said Grand Rapids coach Bruce Larocque, after the Thunderhawks gained their first state trip in 15 years. But he didn’t sound worried. After what he just went through in Section 7, of course, getting there was at least half the fun.

The Class AA tournament opens with Blaine (23-4-1) featuring a high-scoiring offense that figures to be too much for Lakeville North (14-11-3). Impressive as BlaineÂ’s record is, it started out shaky, but a 21-game unbeaten surge has swept the Bengals into state.

Cretin-Derham Hall, which made its only predvious tournament trip in 1988, have a solid 24-4 record to face Eagan in the second upper-bracket game. Eagan (18-9-1) is in its first tournament, but to get there it needed to beat Apple Valley 2-1 after Apple Valley had shocked heavily favored, top-ranked, and defending section champion Holy Angels in the Section 5 tournament.

Hill-Murray overwhelmed Mounds View 6-0 and Roseville 5-1 before its double-overtime final victory over White Bear Lake, a game in which star defenseman Derek McCallum was credited with the winning goal from the point. Actually, winger Bryant Skarda skated past the congested goal-mouth and deflected the puck artfully in. “I got it with my stick blade,” Sakrda said. “It was right on the ice, and I deflected it into the upper corner. But I don’t care if I didn’t get credit for it, as long as we won the game.”

Minnetonka (18-9-1) ranks as a clear underdog against Hill-Murray, but the Skippers, reaching state for the first time in 12 years, had to beat a tough Chaska team 3-2, then upset Eden Prairie with a shocking 6-0 victory, and finally upset Bloomington Jefferson 3-2 to capture Section 6. Minnetonka had to play its best in all three games, but beating Hill-Murray will be its biggest hurdle yet.

In the final game, RoseauÂ’s 24-4 record stands above Grand RapidsÂ’s 19-8, but the Thunderhawks lost only one game in its last 12. That one, however, was 5-1 to Roseau to end the regular season.

Great storylines, an Xcel Energy Center wired with its own internal electricity, all in a neatly folded package. But the state tournament will unfold quickly and surprises could loom everywhere before SaturdayÂ’s champions are crowned.

Carle, Pioneers give each other Christmas gift sweep

Â’Twas the last series before Christmas, and all through the house, the Denver Pioneers knew there would be considerable stirring, because this was no normal house, but the DECC, where the creatures stirring would be Bulldogs, not mice.

“This is a tough building to come into,” said Carle. “We got together and talked it over, and we decided that the best Christmas gift we could give each other would be two wins this weekend.”

Carle was talking as the fans left the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center in silence, walking out into the stark, near-zero chill of Northern Minnesota winter, while inside, the Pioneers had succeeded in celebrating a little bit of Christmas a week early by completing a tough 4-2, 3-1 sweep that pushed them clearly into WCHA contention at the holiday break and halfway point of the season.

“We talked all week long about how this was going to be a tough series,” said coach George Gwozdecky. “If we are going to be in the second-half race, even if we’re going to battle for second and third, this was a very important weekend, and I asked the players to approach it like a playoff weekend. This is a tough building, especially for freshmen. It’s a smaller rink, and the fans are right on top of you. It can be an intimidating place for a guy not used to it.

“I remember how it is, because I scored my first goal here. It was on a breakaway. Ken Turko was UMD’s goaltender. I beat him, low to the stick side.”

Gwozdecky traced the goal back to his days at Wisconsin, guessing it was about January of 1974. How could he, a big scorer for the Badgers in their formative days, remember the goal so well? “Listen,” he said, “I didn’t score that many goals. I learned more about coaching from sitting on the bench and watching.”

Gwozdecky, of course, probably got the earliest feeling of Christmas sometime last spring, when Carle passed up what might have seemed like the perfect time to jump at an NHL offer. True, Carle was only a sophomore last season, but he was an All-America on defense, and he scored 13 goals and 31 assists for 44 points to rank third in Denver team scoring, and four seniors were departing from the team that won its second NCAA championship in a row.

It may be more than mere coincidence that Denver won NCAA titles in both of CarleÂ’s seasons. He could easily have signed with San Jose and been playing in the NHL right now. But he didnÂ’t really consider it.
“San Jose respected what I am doing at Denver,” Carle said. “They didn’t throw a lot of numbers around to try to get me to leave. I couldn’t ask for a better place to be than Denver, and to come back with the chance to play a leadership role is something special. We’ve got a lot of freshmen on this year’s team. We’ve only got two seniors, but we have a big junior class, and everybody contributes leadership.”

Four of the six defensemen Gwozdecky used at Duluth were freshmen, and while they might be comparatively unknown, mark down those names: T.J. Fast, Chris Butler, J.P. Testwuide, and Julian Marcuzzi. The fifth defenseman is Andrew Thomas, a sophomore. So as a junior, Carle is clearly the elder statesman among the guardians of the Denver blue line.

“Matt logs a lot of ice time,” said Gwozdecky. “And when he’s on the ice, he’s exceptional at all parts of the game, defensively and offensively. He can defensively stop a rush, and he can break down a rush and anticipate exactly what to do. And he’s a great student. He loves being in college, and he seems to know that these may be the best four years of his life.

“In my mind, he’s the best defenseman – and maybe the best player – in the country. He’s a smooth skater, and he’s strong, poised, and compose. He’s been that way since his freshman year.”

Carle may be without peer in the WCHA – or in the country – strictly as a defenseman, but the key to Carle’s game is his ability to bolster the Denver offense. The cliché phrase “jump up into the offense” doesn’t come close to describing Carle’s ability to read and properly sense when to make his transition to offense.

“In today’s day and age, you can’t expect to score a lot with just three forwards on attack,” said Carle, whose presence means Denver never has just three forwards attacking. If a forward is backchecking and defensive responsibilities are covered, Carle will blend in on the breakout and counter-attack as if he were the third forward. If all three Pioneer forwards are already sailing down the ice, Carle catches up in a couple of powerful strides and, quicker than you can say “Hobey Baker candidate,” he blends smoothly into the rush as a fourth attacker.

In FridayÂ’s game at Duluth, UMD jumped to a 1-0 lead on Matt McKnightÂ’s shorthanded goal at 4:54, to get the Bulldog crowd into it. Carle promptly tied it with a power-play bullet from the right point at 6:57. Then he fed Paul Stastny, who relayed it to Tom May for a 2-1 lead six minutes later. And at 17:36 of the first period, Carle and Stastny threw the puck around until Butler scored from inside the left point for a 3-1 Denver lead. Carle, quite casually, had three points on the three goals.

UMD rallied for a second-period goal by Jason Garrison, and went on to outshoot Denver 41-23, but Ryan HelgesonÂ’s goal late in the second period secured a 4-2 lead and the Pioneers secured the territory in front of goaltender Glenn Fisher, who contributed 39 saves for the victory.
{IMG2}
UMD also got the jump Saturday, when Michael Gergen scored at 4:49 for the only goal of the first period. In the second period, Butler scored a power-play goal and set up Michael Handza for another, and Stastny finished the 3-1 victory on a third-period rush.

Carle, without a point in the second game, has 8-18—26 for the season, trailing only Stastny (5-22—27) in team scoring. That figure puts him ahead of his freshman full-season tally of 5-20—25, and puts him in sight of last seasonÂ’s All-America output of 13-31–44. Humility, however, is another ingredient in what makes him so impressive.

“I’ve progressed every year,” said Carle. “As a freshman, I had decent numbers, but I was a young buck on a really experienced ‘D’ corps, and I had to get used to the college game. I added some offense my sophomore year.”

This season, like last year, the Pioneers struggled early. This season, it was because so many new, young players found their rhythm. That rhythm includes a 5-1 surge that lifted their WCHA record from 3-3-2 to 8-4-2, and overall from 6-6-2 to 11-7-2. The early stumbles might have averted the spotlight away from a team planning to take a run at an unprecedented third straight NCAA title. No more. They swept their pivotal home-and-home series with Colorado College, winning 4-2 and 5-1, then whipped Alaska-Anchorage 5-2. They were unseated, however, when Anchorage stung them 3-0 in the rematch, a loss that caused Gwozdecky to put extra emphasis on the series at UMD.

GwozdeckyÂ’s players appreciate his disciplined efforts, and itÂ’s undoubtedly a factor in Carle staying in college.

“We have great coaching, and I think San Jose knows I’m getting good training here,” said Carle. “We want to win it all, and the last two years, however we played in the first half of the season, we were there at the end.”

A real-estate/construction management major, Carle, a junior, needs one more full year to complete his degree. Gwozdecky and Pioneers fans obviously hope Carle decides to finish his education and play his senior season as well, while opposing coaches might well be sending Christmas cards to the San Jose Sharks, urging them to sign the guy from Denver as soon as possible.

Even though Carle has not even thought ahead about it, the question remains whether San Jose will continue to be so patient after this season – when a 6-foot, 190-pound defenseman with all the moves, skill, and skating ability to swim with the Sharks should be allowed to stay in college, where he might be the biggest fish in the pond.

Which Gopher team will show up in Frozen Four semis?

“There’s a difference between wanting to play well and having to play well.” So said University of Minnesota hockey coach Don Lucia, after he had properly assessed that losing twice in the WCHA Final Five wouldn’t prevent the Golden Gophers from advancing to the NCAA tournament with a favorable seed.

After the Final Five, but before the NCAA seedings were calculated, Lucia said: “These losses didn’t matter. They have no bearing on where we end up. I know we’ll either be the last No. 1 seed or the highest No. 2.”

Right on. The Golden Gophers were ranked in a tie for fourth and fifth overall with Cornell, and by virtue of having beaten Michigan, which in turn beat Cornell, the Gophers got the fourth and final No. 1 seed as host of the West Regional. Two overtime victories later, and Minnesota is off to the Frozen Four, as a legitimate longshot.

Will the REAL Minnesota Golden Gophers please stand up? Nobody knows. Will the Gophers who face North Dakota in ThursdayÂ’s NCAA semifinals in Columbus, Ohio, be the one that soared through the first half of the season, or the one that sputtered through the second half? Will it be the team that went 8-0 to end the regular season and start league playoffs, or the one that fell twice in the WCHA Final Five, or maybe the one that scratched and clawed to two narrow victories in the NCAA West Regional? Who will start in goal? Who will score? Will leading scorer Tyler Hirsch play? Will freshman defenseman Alex Goligoski play?

Questions, always questions. Goligoski will probably play with a light cast on his wrist, but Lucia doesnÂ’t like to divulge any more than he has to, so we may have to wait until the puck drops at 6 p.m. Thursday to find out. Same with the goaltender question, and the others.

If the two West Regional victories mean the urgency is back, credit – and a dose of relief – should go to Lucia. An Iron Ranger by birth, the Grand Rapids native could be known as “The Professor” for the way he calculates the computerized information that goes into the NCAA tournament seedings all season. He is a master at satisfying the criteria, and he knew there was no back-to-the-wall feeling during those WCHA playoffs.It’s time now.

When they wanted to play well in the WCHA Final Five, it wasnÂ’t enough, and the Gophers lost 3-0 to Colorado College and 4-2 in the third-place game to North Dakota. When they had to play well, in the NCAA West Regional, the Gophers were Golden, beating Maine 1-0 and Cornell 2-1 in a couple of overtime classics. LuciaÂ’s ability to come up with answers is one reason the Gophers have reached ThursdayÂ’s Frozen Four at Columbus, Ohio, where they will face North Dakota in the 6 p.m. semifinal.

Lucia, recalling Johnson had a tough time with Maine a year earlier, went with Kellen Briggs in goal. Minnesota won 1-0 in overtime. He stuck with Briggs, and the Gophers also beat Cornell, 2-1 in overtime. Against Maine, freshman center Evan Kaufmann came through with an enormous goal to beat the Black Bears. Kaufmann, whose age and the maturity he gained in the USHL belie his freshman status, had several good scoring chances against Maine ace Jimmy Howard, who gloved everything close.

“WeÂ’d been shooting glove all day,” said Kaufmann, after the Maine game. “Justin (Johnson) told me on the bench during a TV timeout, ‘If weÂ’re going to score on this guy, itÂ’s got to be somewhere other than his glove.Â’”

So Kaufmann won the corner faceoff – he was 9-2 on faceoffs in the game – and got the puck back to Judd Smith at the blue line. He shoveled it into the corner, and Garrett Smaagaard and Sertich scrapped to keep possession by cycling the puck on the end boards. One defenseman was back there, and the second went back after Smaagaard, so Kaufmann yelled, Smaagaard fed him. Kaufmann shot — away from HowardÂ’s glove, just inside the left pipe – and the Gophers were on their way.

It had to be the perfect game for Briggs, winning a 1-0 overtime shutout. “No, I’d rather we win 9-0,” said Briggs. Against Cornell, the Gophers also failed to score nine, but Andy Sertich got the goal that helped get the game into overtime, and Barry Tallackson knocked in his own rebound to beat the Big Red 2-1.

So now itÂ’s the Frozen Four, where Colorado College and Denver might reside as the two best teams in the country, and North Dakota is probably playing the best hockey of its season, and the Golden GophersÂ…are still facing unanswered questions.

The questions started at midseason, after a rebuilding Golden Gopher team earned the No. 1 rank in the country for five weeks, behind the explosive scoring of a line with Ryan Potulny centering Danny Irmen and Kris Chucko, and the goaltending of Kellen Briggs, who led all WCHA goalies in both goals-against and save percentage at midseason. The “Border Line,” so named because all three players were not from Minnesota, had accounted for half the team’s scoring, and Briggs led the league in overall games at Christmastime with a 1.88 goals-against and .931 save percentage.

January arrived, and the big line abruptly stopped clicking. Irmen dropped from being first or second in league scoring to finish in a tie for sixth in league games at 17-15—32, while Potulny dropped to 15th at 15-11—26, and Chucko finished 7-6—13. Pucks started sailing past Briggs, too, and through the second half, he dropped until he finished seventh in goals-against average at 2.97, and 11th in save percentage at .900 in league play.

Justin Johnson emerged from backup duty to win six straight games for the Gophers when Briggs was injured at the end of the season, and Johnson got the start against Colorado College in the Final Five. Minnesota lost 3-0, and Briggs returned to the nets against North Dakota, but the Gophers lost again, 4-2.

The goaltending question, however, was obscured by another large question at the end of the CC playoff game. Tyler Hirsch, an intense and highly skilled junior winger, had risen from third-line status when the Border Line’s scoring turned borderline, to lead the Golden Gophers in scoring. As of the end of the regular season, Potulny had 24-15—39 in all games and Irmen 20-18—38, but Hirsch had 11-31—42 to finish fifth among all WCHA players in overall points. Yet he remained on the third line all season, where he might have had extra bench-time to accumulate frustration during the third period of the CC shutout.

As the fans filed out after the game, Hirsh went out to center ice alone, as if heÂ’d been awarded a penalty shot. He raced in, fired the puck into the net, and followed it by crashing his body into the net, knocking it over on its backside.

Was it in frustration for not having played much in the third period? Was it to prove to the coaches’ constant urging that he could go hard to the net? Nobody knows. Hirsch went home to his parents’ Twin Cities home afterward, and didn’t play against North Dakota, or in the NCAA West Regional. He returned to the team, and spoke cheerfully to the media – but not about this question. He may play in Columbus.

It was suggested to Lucia that his well-calculated projections might work against his fire for getting his team emotionally charged for a game he knows is comparatively unimportant. When the coach knows that the team is cinched for an NCAA berth, and the team plays without any urgency through the second half, and into league playoffs, is there a link? Can the players, whether by their own calculations or by reading their coachÂ’s relaxed demeanor, play without desperation because they know they donÂ’t have to go all out in order to advance?

At Christmastime, Lucia knew that the Gophers, barring a complete collapse in the second half, were going to be assured of an NCAA berth, and one of the better seeds. The Gophers were 11-3 in WCHA play through the 2004 half of the schedule and deserved the No.1 rank in the nation for five weeks. In January, though, they suddenly absorbed a 1-5 month on home ice, at Mariucci Arena, losing twice at home to Colorado College, twice more to Michigan Tech and splitting with Minnesota-Duluth. The only other Minnesota victories in the 4-6 month were a split of 2-1 games at Boston University, and a sweep at Minnesota State-Mankato.

Minnesota opened February by splitting sets with Wisconsin and Alaska-Anchorage, which meant the struggle reached 6-8 for 2005 — hardly befitting a prospective Frozen Four team. Then the Golden Gophers seemed to right themselves in the last three weeks of the regular season, although their 6-0 string was recorded against St. Cloud State, Michigan Tech and Minnesota State-Mankato – the bottom three finishers in the WCHA. Beating Minnesota State twice more in the first league playoff round gave the Gophers an eight-game winning streak, but answered none of the questions.

Frozen Four time means desperation and urgency are the order of the day. Will the same pairings as the third-place and title games of the WCHA Final Five cause a flashback to the Minnesota? Will Lucia dare go back to Josh Johnson in goal because Briggs was just beaten by North Dakota? Will Hirsch bring the lift of his team-high points back into the lineup? Colorado College and Denver are the constants, and North Dakota is the hottest, and which Gopher team will show up?

Zaugg, Vetter lead Badgers to women’s NCAA title

MINNEAPOLIS, MN. — Sophomore Jinelle Zaugg scored two goals and freshman goaltender Jessie Vetter recorded her second shutout in two Frozen Four games as Wisconsin capped a spectacular breakthrough season with a 3-0 victory over Minnesota in the NCAA womenÂ’s hockey championship game Sunday.

The victory, before 4,701 fans at Mariucci Arena, gave the Badgers a 36-4-1 record and came after also winning the WCHA women’s regular season and playoff championships. Minnesota, which tied Minnesota-Duluth for second in the WCHA and lost 4-1 to Wisconsin in the WCHA playoff final, finished 29-11-1 – one game short of winning a third straight NCAA title.

Because Wisconsin had beaten the Gophers four out of five times this season coming into the game, someone asked Minnesota coach Laura Halldorson what it was that made Wisconsin so difficult for her Gophers to play against. “They have three very strong lines, very strong defense, and good goaltending,” said Halldorson. “They’re hard to play against for any team in the country.

“We were the fourth seed, and we beat No. 1 (New Hampshire), and if we’d beaten No. 2, it would have been little short of a miracle.”

Indeed, WisconsinÂ’s great teamwork and balanced skill level provided the breakthrough season. In the five previous womenÂ’s NCAA tournaments, Minnesota-Duluth won the first three and Minnesota the next two, so getting the big trophy out of the state took something special, and these Badgers had it. In their history of Division One hockey, Minnesota had beaten WisconsinÂ’s ever-improving team for a record of 23-4-2 until this season, when the Badgers won five of the six meetings.

But Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson knew history was meaningless when it came to the final game. His Badgers had barely made it to Mariucci, by beating Mercyhurst 2-1 in double overtime, and overcame a strong St. Lawrence team 1-0 in FridayÂ’s semifinals, while Minnesota was stunning top-ranked New Hampshire 5-4.

“I want to congratulate Minnesota and Laura did a nice job coaching them this year, because they were more difficult and challenging for us to play each time we played them,” said Johnson. “We had to dethrone the two-time defending champions, and we knew they weren’t going to go down without a fight.

“We told the players that what happened in the previous five games against Minnesota becomes irrelevant,” said Johnson. “We said we had to play a strong first 10 minutes. When we did that, and came out of it with a power-play goal and then Grace Hutchins tips one in, I felt a lot better. At playoff time, special teams have to be good. They have to score what I call timely goals.”

The first timely goal came at 9:56, when Wisconsin had killed a penalty and then got its first power play. Bobbi-Jo Slusar shot from the left point and the puck hit traffic in front of the net, and Zaugg, at 6-foot-1 the biggest player on either team, found the rebound and drilled it past Gopher freshman goaltender Brittony Chartier. “They gave me an open shot,” said Slusar, “so I took it, and the puck bounced around until Zaugg got hold of it.

If the goal punctured MinnesotaÂ’s opening enthusiasm, it was punctured again 30 seconds later. Nikki Burish got the puck and moved to the top of the left circle where she sent a shot skipping through the congestion in front, and Grace Hutchins deflected it into the right edge. Hutchins, a senior from Winnetka, Ill., had only scored four goals all season, and 15 in her career, and now she has a keepsake for her memory bank, and her trophy case.

Shots were 10-apiece through the first period, and the game tightened up in the second, until the Badgers got their fourth power play of the game. Sara Bauer, recipient of the Patty Kazmaier award as the nationÂ’s top female college player, had the puck in the left corner and passed across to the slot. Zaugg got her full force behind a one-timer, and Chartier had no chance, at 9:08 of the middle session.

“That third goal was a rocket,” said Johnson. “A lot of women players have a problem with the velocity of their shot as they move away from the net, but not Jinelle. Sara got her the puck, and she sent a laser.”

Minnesota outshot Wisconsin 31-19 for the game, but there was no mistaking which team was in command, even in the third period, when the Gophers threw everything they had at trying to score and had a 14-4 edge in shots. Vetter, who was in the nets for the 2-1 double-overtime victory over Mercyhurst and the 1-0 St. Lawrence game, has something under a 0.30 goals-against average for the three NCAA games. She made the final seem routine.
{IMG2}
“We had a three-goal lead,” said Vetter. “We’re not trying to score more goals. We’re just trying to play good defense.”

The Gophers were frustrated, but they also knew how far they had come as a team, after losing Olympic stars Krissy Wendell, Natalie Darwitz, Kelly Stephens and Lyndsay Wall, plus both their goaltenders from the team that won the last two titles.

“She (Vetter) stood on her head today and stopped everything, and their D cleared everthing,” said Minnesota captain Andrea Nichols. “But after losing all the Olympians who carried us on and off the ice, nobody expected us to get this far.”

Bobbi Ross, who scored four goals in the amazing semifinal 5-4 victory over New Hampshire, was part of the Gopher power play that got blanked, along with the rest of the offense. “Coming into this game, obviously we weren’t looking at finishing second,” Ross said. “Right now, we’re unsatisfied, but in a few days, I think we’ll be able to appreciate what we’ve done. We accomplished so much more than anyone thought we would. We replaced raw talent with strength of character and team unity, and that made this season all the more satisfying.”

Having broken through, the Badgers arenÂ’t about to let up. With only five seniors on the team, their top scorers and all six defensemen return. As does Vetter, who got the nod through all three NCAA tournament games after rotating with senior Meghan Horras and junior Christine Dufour all season.

“Jessie red-shirted last year,” said Johnson, “then she got mono and sat out the first two months of this season. The first game I stuck her in was in the third period against Bemidji, and the first shot went in. She faced a challenge because she had lost strength and conditioning, and there were two good goaltenders ahead of her.”

Johnson recalled winning an NCAA tournament as a player, playing for his dad, Badger Bob Johnson, at Wisconsin. And he won an Olympic gold medal playing for Herb Brooks in 1980. Then he had an outstanding NHL career.

“I remember in the early ‘90s, when my dad was coaching the Pittsburgh Penguins, and they were winning the Stanley Cup,” said Johnson. “I came here and watched them in Bloomington, and I got to go downstairs after they’d won it. I saw something special when he hoisted the Stanley Cup. And now, with this team, I can feel how really special it is as a coach.”

Zaugg and Vetter were teammates on a national championship club team, and with Zaugg from Eagle River and Vetter from Cottage Grove, Wis., they are two of eight homestate Wisconsin players on the Badger team. So coming to Minnesota, where the Gopher men’s team had been upset in the NCAA regional, and now the Gopher women’s team was now dethroned, the Minnesota Wild NHL slogan of Minnesota being the “State of Hockey” is in question.

“We were saying in the locker room,” said Zaugg, “that Wisconsin is the new State of Hockey.”

UMD stars lift 7 different women’s Olympic hockey teams

Anyone watching the Winter Olympics had to come away impressed with the development of women’s hockey. They also had to be surprised when Sweden upset Team USA 3-2 in a semifinal shootout. But anyone who has watched the University of Minnesota-Duluth in the Women’s WCHA could be excused for hanging up their rampant patriotism and be totally enthralled with UMD’s impact on the women’s Olympic hockey tournament.

Canada and the U.S. had been practically granted berths in the gold medal final of the womenÂ’s tournament, because neither of the international powers had ever lost a single game to any team other than each other. Canada was a prohibitive favorite for the gold this year, but both Canada and the U.S. figured to dispatch Sweden and Finland in the semifinals, and leave those two Scandinavian rivals to fight for the bronze. SwedenÂ’s upset is the first evidence that womenÂ’s hockey might be on a faster track than anticipated in striving for some sort of healthy parity.

Back in the “real world” of the WCHA, UMD’s current Bulldogs have been struggling against the same sort of new-found parity the Women’s Olympics showed. No question the Bulldogs missed a couple good players who went off to the Olympics, and during that span, Wisconsin clinched its first WCHA title, and UMD dropped back to second, and then to a second-place tie withn Minnesota. The Bulldogs were unable to preserve a one-point edge on the Gophers during the closing weekend.

As UMD regroups for the league playoffs, Bulldogs hockey fans could have found immense satisfaction from the fact that no fewer than seven different nations had their women’s hockey teams improved by the presence of UMD players past and present. Team USA, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Germnany, Switzerland, and Russia all displayed their Bulldog quotient prominently. To their credit, all of those Bulldogs came through.

From the start of the womenÂ’s games in Turin, Italy, network and cable broadcasts heaped praise and publicity on the University of Minnesota-DuluthÂ’s program, and from the way the current and former Bulldogs played, it was more than just well-deserved publicity, and stands as a tribute to the UMD programÂ’s international flavor.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune ran continuing articles about Minnesota’s contribution to the Winter Olympics, and it listed every former Gopher women’s team player, even though they may have been in Minnesota only to play college hockey. But it named only Jenny Potter, who played for UMD, as the school’s only contribution to women’s hockey, without naming any of the others.

The Duluth News-Tribune ran a story, and a follow-up editorial-page column, proclaiming the presence of such former and current UMD players in the womenÂ’s Olympic hockey as: Potter of the U.S.; Maria Rooth and Erika Holst of Sweden; Caroline Ouellette of Canada; and Nora Tallus, Satu Kiipeli, Mari Pehkonen, and Anna-Kaisa Piironen of Finland.

Strangely, however, the Duluth paper completely overlooked current Bulldog freshman sensation Michaela Lanzl of Germany, former UMD goaltender Patricia Ellsworth-Sautter who starred for Switzerland, and RussiaÂ’s Katrina Petroskaia, who played three years ago at UMD.

These players may only be temporary Minnesotans, but no different from the Gopher “imports.” Besides, UMD has made an indelible impression on the Olympians.

“I am not looking forward to leaving, because I love it here at UMD,” said Lanzl, just before departing for the Olympics. “But I am looking forward to playing in the Olympics. It will be very good to play for Germany.”

Granted, there were a lot of standouts from U.S. womenÂ’s college teams, players such as University of MinnesotaÂ’s Krissy Wendell, Natalie Darwitz, Kelly Stephens, Lyndsay Wall and Courtney Kennedy on Team USA, and WisconsinÂ’s brilliant defenseman Carla MacLeod playing for CanadaÂ’s gold medalists, and Ohio State’s Emma Laaksonen playing for Finland, among others.

But consider the contributions of UMDÂ’s representatives.

In the opening game, Team USA won 6-0 over outmanned Switzerland, but it was only 1-0 midway through the game, and 2-0 after two periods before the Swiss skaters ran out of gas. The Swiss goaltender, known as Patricia Sautter when she backstopped UMD to the 2003 NCAA championship, never faltered. She made 50 saves against the perpetual U.S. attack and was one of the biggest stars of the first dayÂ’s games.

Potter might have been the most effective Team USA player, as coach Ben Smith curiously had his lines pretty messed up as the tournament began. Instead of playing the all-Gopher line of Darwitz, Wendell and Stephens together, he had put Stephens on a different unit, where she played well almost all season, but she never approached the productivity that would have been certain had she been with Darwitz and Wendell. Potter played with Darwitz and Wendell much of the second half of the exhibition season – which meant, in some opinions, the best three centers on Team USA were on that line. As the tournament progressed, Potter played with various combinations, always strong and effective. After the victory over Switzerland, Potter, on national tv said: “Their goalie really played well.” Could it be that Jenny was so focused she forgot that she and Sautter were teammates on an NCAA championship team at UMD?
{IMG2}
Another star was Ouellette, who finished her UMD career last season and will undoubtedly be the second player to have her jersey, No. 5, retired by the UMD women. Powerful as Canada has been in winning silver in 1998 and gold in 2002, no Canadian womenÂ’s player ever had scored more than one goal in a period. Ouellette scored twice on her first shift. Her versatility is such that CanadaÂ’s coaching staff uses her both up front and on defense. After her two goals, Ouellette went back to defense and promptly whistled in her third goal before the first period ended. Ouellette would prefer to let others get the glory, just as she did at UMD, and many other Canadians stepped forward to score dozens of goals. But Ouellette was as good a player as Canada had on its gold-medal roster.

Meanwhile, Germany was overmatched, but Lanzl continued to draw praise with her great, quick dashes through opposing defenses, forcing every opponent to respect the Germans. Lanzl scored a goal and set up another when Germany beat Switzerland 2-1, but her most memorable rush might have come shortly after NBC ran a huge between-periods feature on former Harvard star and Patty Kazmaier-winner Angie Ruggiero, calling her possibly the best defenseman in all of womenÂ’s hockey. Shortly thereafter, Lanzl raced down the ice and, with a head fake and a high-speed deke, darted untouched past Ruggiero for a spectacular rush and shot.

Finland opened with the familiar names of Tallus and Kiipeli in the forefront, and Piironen as a goaltender, but Finland’s most effective player might have been current Bulldog Mari Pehkonen, who scored her team’s first goal in each of Finland’s first two games. Russia, meanwhile, battled gamely, showing strong improvement in the past couple of years, yet almost escaping, except when the cameras moved in for close-ups after strong shifts, was No. 14 – Petroskaia. She was one of Russia’s best players.

Sweden, however, was the headline team of the tournament. In 2002, when Rooth and Holst were still at UMD, they were uncertain if they would be leaving to play in the Salt Lake City games. SwedenÂ’s federation was debating whether to even bother sending the team because it might not be competitive enough. They went, they were competitive enough, and Rooth and Holst were their best players.

Now, in 2006, RoothÂ’s No. 27 hangs from the rafter at the DECC in Duluth as the only womenÂ’s number ever retired, a tribute after she led the Bulldogs to the national championships in the first three years of NCAA womenÂ’s tournaments. Rooth is an emotional ambassador for how beneficial it was to attend UMD and play for coach Shannon Miller. Before Sweden’s first game, Rooth and Holst, SwedenÂ’s captain, were singled out as SwedenÂ’s top scoring threats by Cammi Granato, whose presence added class to the NBC analysis set, but who might better have been used on the ice, scoring a few goals for Team USA.

Granato, though, was cut. The less cynical among observers can only assume that it is mere irony that Team USA is living in the past, with a pronounced overload of Eastern players, even while two western schools, UMD and Minnesota, have won all five NCAA titles ever held. There would be grounds for having a decided western flair, but the last cuts included Granato, who is from Illinois, and Minnesotans Winny Brodt, a former Gopher and a speedy defenseman, and goalie Sheri Vogt, a star at Minnesota State-Mankato.

Similarly, we can assume that itÂ’s merely ironic that every Patty Kazmaier Award winner went along with the Olympic programÂ’s Eastern bias every year until Wendell finally broke through last year as the first Western Collegiate Hockey Association winner of the award. Potter, Ouellette and Rooth have been finalists, but all fell short in the final vote.

Can it be linked by coincidence or irony that the WCHA dominates college hockey, Minnesota grows as the unmatched leader in girls hockey development anywhere in the world by its high school structure, and the most impressive three players on Team USA arguably were Potter, Wendell and Darwitz — the only three Minnesota-raised players on the team — yet Team USA continues to focus on Eastern players, while results systematically have dropped from gold, to silver, to bronze?

At any rate, former UMD star Holst was her usual strong, stable and always-smart and threatening self for Sweden, and Rooth was simply the most impressive individual in the tournament.

Given no chance against Team USA, Sweden trailed 2-0 in the second period until Rooth scored, then she scored again, shorthanded, to tie the game 2-2. It ended that way, after overtime, which meant a five-player shootout. Sweden got one goal, the U.S. none, then Rooth skated in and scored her third goal of the day to clinch the shootout 2-0 with only one turn left. Goaltender Kim Martin played brilliantly with 37 saves, and then she stopped everything in the shootout, including Potter, Wendell and Darwitz. Remember that name, Kim Martin, because she will attend UMD this fall as a freshman. Sound familiar?

Team USA recovered from the shock of losing 3-2 to Sweden in the semifinals to beat Finland 4-0 in the bronze-medal game. In the gold medal final, Rooth, Holst and Martin gave it all they had, but Canada was too much for Sweden and claimed a 4-1 victory. Ouellette scored a picture goal to clinch the victory, and the chance to watch Ouellette play against Rooth was a wonderful final spectacle for UMD and WCHA hockey fans.

Back in the WCHA — sounds like a good name for a Beatles song — UMD spent the final weeks hanging on, tying and winning at Minnesota State-Mankato on the final weekend to leave room for Minnesota to climb into a tie with the Bulldogs for second. The return of Lanzl and Pehkonen should help rejuvenate the Bulldogs for the playoffs, however. Pehkonen returned directly, while Lanzl, who was expected to return home for a week to Germany, where her father recently died, came later.

Injecting Olympic heroics into UMD’s struggling lineup could make an enormous difference between struggling and finding new glory at the college level. If not, well, UMD’s Olympians have helped put the school and the WCHA on the international map.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

• 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:
  
  Click here for sports
  
  

• 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.