Sioux upset, Badger title prove Women’s WCHA parity

Ever since the WCHA sanctioned womenÂ’s hockey, league members have patiently awaited the day when parity would truly arrive, and when the University of Minnesota-Duluth and the University of Minnesota would be challenged by teams throughout the rest of the league.

The time might have arrived, officially, on Saturday, February 11, 2006. That was the day that Wisconsin defeated Minnesota to gain a split of their series, and successfully clinch the WomenÂ’s WCHA championship for Wisconsin. It is the first time someone other than UMD or Minnesota has won the league regular-season championship after six seasons of Bulldog/Gopher domination.

Of course, UMD won the first three of five NCAA womenÂ’s hockey tournaments, and Minnesota won the most recent two, as well. WisconsinÂ’s rise has been evident all season, but the actual mathematic clinching of the crown, outdistancing second-place UMD, made it official.

The Badger title may have been a foregone conclusion, but more specific evidence of WCHA parity came in Duluth, where the leagueÂ’s newest member, North Dakota, defeated the UMD Bulldogs 2-0 to split their series.

“This was definitely huge for us,” said North Dakota sophomore Cara Wooster, who scored the first goal – and the first winning goal the Fighting Sioux have ever registered against UMD. “It’s the first time we’ve put everything together.”

St. Cloud State, Mankato State, Ohio State, and Bemidji State had gotten things together earlier this season, and all had sprung an upset or two this season. Part of that is the superstar players at Minnesota and UMD are off playing with the Olympic teams, or have graduated. That still left North Dakota out in the cold, so to speak, and the Sioux were fresh off two losses to Bemidji State when they came to Duluth with a 2-18-2 league record, compared to UMDÂ’s 16-6-2.

North DakotaÂ’s first-ever triumph against UMD was accomplished under interesting circumstances, not the least of which was that just 24 hours earlier UMD had crushed North Dakota 8-0. That first game came when UMD climaxed a rocky week of turmoil with a flawless performance, and it was one that made observers wonder when North Dakota could ever hope to defeat a power like UMD.

The answer came quickly, the next night. But there was more to the story.

While beating Minnesota 4-2 on January 20, the Bulldogs stormed to a 4-0 lead and then went into neutral. The Bulldog machine started unraveling right then, as the Gophers not only dominated the second half of that game, losing 4-2, but beat UMD 2-0 the next night. That started an unraveling of the Bulldogs, who had stayed in contention with Wisconsin until that weekend.

Coach Shannon Miller had been privately concerned about warning signals earlier in the season. The team had talent, speed, defense and superb goaltending, a blend of skilled veteran players and impressive newcomers, but cohesiveness was rivaled by the threat of attitude divisiveness, preventing the elusive attribute called chemistry. It didnÂ’t seem to matter when the Bulldogs cruised through a 12-1-1 streak, with only Wisconsin able to inflict the tie and loss, in a pivotal December series at the DECC.

But when the first-game fade led to the second-game loss against Minnesota, UMD went to St. Cloud State and lost 2-1 and 3-1, meaning the Bulldogs had scored two goals in 11 periods of play. Next came a trip to Ohio State for a shaky 3-2 victory, then a 1-1 tie. The offense had fizzled, proving disfunctional by scoring only six goals in five games over that 1-3-1 stretch, which led into the North Dakota series.

UMD has always had a nearly cocky attitude under Miller. She is abrupt and mercurial, and one of the best coaches in the sport, and her teams are always confident of being well-prepared. But this team was different. The confidence teetered on cockiness, and where past teams have been occasionally raucous, this one was sometimes a little raw in its demeanor. In past years, the few loose cannons were always kept in check by the prevailing majority with high-level character, such as Caroline Ouellette, Julianne Vasicheck, Maria Rooth, and numerous others.

Miller addressed the situation occasionally, and during between-periods talks, and individually with some players, including captain Allison Lehrke. But nothing changed, and it appeared to worsen into more divisiveness during the recent stretch. Miller said it reached beyond her patience level on the Ohio State trip.

So Miller took action. She took the captaincy away from Lehrke and awarded it to goaltender Riitta Schaublin, with defenseman Krista McArthur an assistant who would also wear the “C” to talk to officials. She suspended junior defenseman Jill Sales and junior winger Juliane Jubinville a game apiece for violating team protocol, with Jubinville missing Friday and Sales Saturday against North Dakota. A spare forward, Becky Salyards, was dismissed from the team, but that was believed to be an unrelated academic issue.

Whatever, the week of turmoil seemed to unite the Bulldogs for an overwhelming effort, resulting in a flawless first game against North Dakota. Freshman Tawni Mattila scored the first two goals of the game, Myriam Trepanier and Karine DeMeule made it 4-0 at the first intermission, and Noemie Marin boosted the lead to 5-0, and Trepanier scored again, for a 6-0 cushion after two. Marin got her 20th in the third period, and Lehrke, who may have played her strongest game of the season, finished the 8-0 rout with the final goal.

“After what we’ve gone through, we’ve got to hope our team would come together,” said Miller. “This is a new beginning for us this week, and I honestly don’t think it mattered who we were playing, with all due respect to North Dakota. Our whole focus this week has been on looking at ourselves, and the whole emphasis has been on respect. All we have had to learn is to treat each other and ourselves with respect, and I think everybody responded with a strong effort.”
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That was what North Dakota skated into – a whirlwind of emotional fire, as well as a strong array of talent. So impressive was UMD’s first-game attack that North Dakota coach Shantel Rivard pulled starting goaltender Amber Hasbargen after Mattila’s second goal, at 7:59 of the first period, and replaced her with senior backup, Margaret-Ann Hinkley. The onslaught continued, and Rivard sent Hasbargen back in to finish, as UMD outshot the Sioux 45-19.

Overlooked, perhaps, was that while UMD allowed only 19 shots, goalie Riitta Schaublin had to make a half-dozen saves on breakaways, providing a security blanket for some disturbing defensive lapses. Even her home public relations staff overlooked Schaublin’s shutout, giving the “three stars” to Mattila, Trepanier and Marin — the trio of two-goal scorers.

In Game 2, Hinkley started for North Dakota, and blocked shot after UMD shot until she had thwarted all 25 shots for the shutout. Few of the shots were truly threatening, however, because he Sioux teammates pretty much outplayed and outhustled UMD on every shift, from start to finish. It was the most impressive, and most nearly perfect game North DakotaÂ’s womenÂ’s team had ever played, and Schaublin had to play well again.

North Dakota opened with force, and paid for it when Melissa Jaques was called for a penalty at 0:22. The Sioux killed it, and it was Jaques who fired a shot on a later North Dakota power play that led to Cara Wooster converting an unchallenged rebound for a quick shot and goal from the right edge of the net at 9:07.

That didnÂ’t seem very substantial, because it seemed inevitable that the Bulldog offense would take over. The Bulldogs were clearly not as sharp, not as inspired as in the first game, but credit must go to North Dakota, which was playing a game for the archives of the program’s history. When North Dakota got a power play in the third period, Schaublin blocked Christey AllenÂ’s shot from the left side, but the rebound went to the right, where Devon Fingland was all alone to convert at 7:38.

“After last night, we wanted to come out and make a statement,” said Cara Wooster. “We knew they’d come out hard and we had to play well to weather it, but we wanted to show we could play, too. It was our best game, and our biggest win. We just wanted to make a statement.”

That statement was: Parity has arrived in the WomenÂ’s WCHA.

Should make for an interesting playoff.

Newell’s ‘dream’ gets abrupt third period wake-up call

For every dream-come-true there are dozens of unfulfilled dreams, and a fair number of nightmares. In sports, sometimes they can happen simultaneously. Kendall Newell qualified as evidence when she got her first goaltending start of the season for St. Cloud State on the same Minnesota-Duluth ice once christened by her dad, Rick Newell.

If it had been a dream, Kendall Newell, a sophomore who has only played hockey for seven years, and most of those in the southwestern desert area of Phoenix, would have blanked the third-ranked Bulldogs to overturn the nightmarish ending of the first series game. She watched that one from the bench as a 2-1 Huskies lead dissolved with five minutes remaining, when UMD scored a pair of power-play goals 42 seconds apart to steal a 3-2 victory. The Bulldogs barely outshot the Huskies 30-28, and St. Cloud junior Lauri St. Jacques made 27 saves, 12 of them in the third period by the late-arriving Bulldogs.

The rematch started out pretty much in dream-come-true form for Newell, even though UMD’s aroused Bulldogs played a much more spirited game, pelting her with shots from every angle. For two periods, Newell stopped everything – including all 19 second-period UMD shots – as the Huskies grabbed a 2-0 first-period lead on power-play goals by Megan McCarthy and Hailey Clarkson.

The dream ended in a rude awakening when UMD scored three straight goals in the third period, then hit an empty net in the closing seconds for a 4-2 victory and a sweep. The nightmare was slow to build as UMD again started slowly, being outshot 8-3 in the first period, then roared back with 19 shots in each of the last two periods for a 41-24 margin in the game.

St. Cloud State coach Jason Lesteberg accepted the two near-misses, even though the Huskies outscored UMD 4-1 during the first two periods of the series, only to be overturned by UMD’s 6-0 edge in the two third periods. “They’re a good hockey team, but it’s an even league with a lot of parity,” Lesteberg said. “We’re 0-4, but if we play like we did in the first two periods, we can win a lot of games.”

Even though she was overlooked in the point-happy “three stars” selection, Kendall Newell’s 37 saves gave the Huskies a chance to win the second game. The disappointment of the loss, however, overshadowed the thrill of her strong performance.

And the fact that the game came on the same Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center ice where her dad once skated was not overlooked. Rick Newell had come down from Winnipeg to Duluth to go to college in the 1960s, a wide-eyed, eager kid, who provided a quick-trigger temper on defense as he helped the formative University of Minnesota-Duluth menÂ’s program get formed.

Rick Newell played in the first UMD game in what was then the new Duluth Arena, and was a strong force on defense for a UMD hockey program that as it moved into the prestigious WCHA. Among Rick NewellÂ’s teammates were Keith (Huffer) Christiansen, who was just voted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, and a winger named Bruce McLeod, who later became athletic director at UMD and is now commissioner of the WCHA.

After a pro career, Rick Newell settled in Phoenix, where he and his wife, Lesley, raised Kendall. She never saw any videos of her dad playing, and she only saw a few scrapbook-type photos of his days at UMD. But genetics won out, and she cultivated a dream of someday playing college hockey in a skating class in seventh grade. She found a girls team in the area to play on as an eighth-grader, and a year later, when that team dissolved, Kendall played on a boys Bantam team in eighth grade.

The Newells enrolled their daughter as a ninth-grader at prestigious Xavier College Prep, a private Catholic girls school affiliated with the Brophy boys school. The girls didnÂ’t play hockey, so the self-taught Kendall Newell played goal for the Brophy boys junior varsity, then moved up to become the only girl to ever play on a varsity team at Brophy, in the Arizona High School league.

Significant social pressure – and a number of boys who played goal – caused Kendall to be asked not to play as a senior, her dad recalled. Through a friend, Rick Newell learned of a team in Milwaukee, Wis. – an Under-19 team called the Wisconsin Wild. “Kendall became a frequent flyer as a senior,” Rick said. “On weekends she would fly to Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Boston, or Chicago, then she’d come home to go to school and practice with a boys traveling team.”

Kendall Newell also had found a few USA Hockey development camps to attend along the way, and several colleges contacted her after her season at Milwaukee. “Jason flew out and talked to her, and she told him she’d go to St. Cloud on a Tuesday,” her dad said. “The next day, UMD called, and the day after that, Boston College offered her a scholarship. But she had given her word to St. Cloud, and that’s where she went.”

Deep down, Kendall may have dreamed of playing for the same college where her dad played, but she made the St. Cloud team as freshman back-up to Laurie St. Jacques last season, although it was often frustrating. When St. Jacques was injured early, Newell not only filled in but won several games, even recording a shutout. That didnÂ’t make it any easier to wait, on the bench, without playing for dozens of games after St. Jacques came back and assumed the starting role. For the season, St. Jacques was 5-15-3, with a 3.44 goals-against, and an .892 save percentage. Newell proved she could play, however, with a 4-5-1 record, a 3.00 goals-against average, and an .896 save percentage.

This season, St. Jacques is a junior, and played well when the Huskies lost 2-1 to open the season at Ohio State. The next night St. Jacques was the primary victim in a 5-1 Ohio State romp. Newell replaced her late in the game, giving up only one goal on 12 shots.

Lesteberg watched videotapes of the games and decided he was going to try alternating goalies, relieving St. Jacques of the heavy burden, while giving the eager Newell a chance to share the load. When that planÂ’s implementation came in Duluth, it was dream time.

Out in Phoenix, the Newells found a way to tune into the Duluth broadcast of the games over the Internet, although itÂ’s hard to say whether their daughterÂ’s aggressive goaltending was adequately conveyed to the desert. UMD was pretty passive in the first period, when St. Cloud outshot the Bulldogs 8-3 and took a 2-0 lead as McCarthy scored from the top of the left circle with a short-side shot at 14:35, and Clarkson got loose on a breakaway two minutes later.

In the second period, the Bulldogs got more aggressive, but so did Newell. She showed great style when she had to, and she turned acrobatic when style points weren’t going to be sufficient against repeated UMD flurries. She blocked all 19 shots on goal in the middle period, and at one point, she knocked down a UMD skater with a chop of her big stick, which drew a tripping penalty. “I didn’t hit her that hard,” Newell protested.

In the third, however, things came undone. At 3:39, Newell had stopped a wraparound attempt and a couple of good chances before Jessica Koizumi scored for UMD. “They made a pass across in front, and I was down, trying to pull the puck in,” Newell said.

“Apparently,” she added, sounding unconvinced, “it ended up behind me.”
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If that ended the dream of a shutout, the second goal was a sudden nightmare – coming just six seconds later. A young goalie could be shattered enough by the first goal that she wasnÂ’t ready for the second, but that wasnÂ’t the case. UMD’s Allison Lehrke fired the puck in from center ice after the ensuing faceoff, and speedy freshman Mari Pehkonen smacked it off a defensemanÂ’s stick and in. “They dumped it in, and I stopped it,” said Newell. “I played it off to the side for one of my defensemen, but she [Pehkonen] came in so fast she got to the puck first.”

Newell regained her composure and stopped the aroused Bulldogs until a power play at the 8-minute mark. Michaela Lanzl fired a screened shot from inside the right point, and the puck deflected in at 8:34. Tawni Mattila, a UMD freshman from Duluth who had scored her first college goal Friday night, was at the crease for a tip.

“She tipped it right in front of me, and it almost hit my leg, but it went in,” said Newell. Mattila said she didn’t tip it, but the puck changed direction off something. The dream had blown up, and with Newell pulled for a sixth attacker, Lanzl scored an empty-netter with 10 seconds left.

The dream of a storybook victory was shattered, but the larger dream – of playing college hockey – gained a broader horizon.

“I can see my parents at home, sitting around the computer,” said Newell.

In the Arizona desert, Rick Newell stayed glued to the broadcast, although he admitted his wife barged out of the room after the second goal. It was suggested to Kendall that her first-period penalty might have been an appropriate tribute to her father, whose hot-blooded play compiled penalties more often than points.

“I never saw any tapes of my dad playing,” she said. “That was my first penalty, but I don’t think I’m going to call him and say I got it in his honor.”

Rejuvenated Michigan Tech sweeps stunned Gophers

MINNEAPOLIS, MN. — Finishing first in the WCHA means you get to play at home against the last-place team in the first round of playoffs. But if Michigan Tech stays in last place, there will be a terrific scramble at the top to try to avoid facing the Huskies. Of course, if Michigan Tech continues to play the 2005 portion of the schedule the way it played the first two weekends of January, the Huskies have no chance to remain in last place.

Michigan Tech swept two games from Minnesota at Mariucci Arena last weekend, winning 6-3 and 3-1 against the nation’s No. 3 ranked – and previously No. 1 ranked – college team. Maybe some credit should go to an eight-inch snowfall on Friday that transformed the Twin Cities into “Houghton West,” but it was the first time Tech had swept the Golden Gophers ever at the new Mariucci Arena, and the first time any Tech team had swept any Gopher team in Minneapolis since John MacInnes’s Huskies inflicted two losses on Herb Brooks’s Gophers in 1975.

That’s not all. The only other WCHA series Tech has played in calendar 2005 was at Denver on January 7-8, when the Huskies stung No. 5 Denver 3-0 before losing the rematch 1-0. So Tech is 3-1 since the first of the year – and now stands 4-14 for the season.

“Yeah, and we should have won the other game out at Denver,” said John Scott, Tech’s gigantic junior defenseman. Scott would be gigantic under any circumstances, at 6-foot-7 and 255 pounds, but he looks even more gigantic in Tech’s lineup, which features Chris Conner, Lars Helminen, and Mike Batovanja, all of whom are 5-foot-7, and Jimmy Kerr and John Hartman, both of whom are 5-foot-9.

With Tech returning home to engage Colorado College in Houghton, all those technological students at Tech might be wondering if “turnaround” is one word or hyphenated. Also, is “road warrior” two words or hyphenated? The term “player-of-the-week” is easier; it can be hyphenated, or it can be spelled “Ellsworth,” although goaltender Cam Ellsworth was deflecting credit after stopping 39 of 42 Minnesota shots in the 6-3 game, and 37 of 38 in the 2-1 second game to earn defensive player of the week laurels.
“The best thing about it is we got two wins,” said Ellsworth. “Goaltending is an easy job when the team is playing well, and it’s tough when the team is playing badly. I’m not doing much different, but now that we’re winning, it’s a lot easier.”
Now that weÂ’re winning? How about now that weÂ’ve gone on the road to beat two of the best teams in the country? Ellsworth apparently found an invisible shield under his Christmas tree, because he has stopped 189 of 196 shots in his last five games, which also includes a 6-2 victory over Notre Dame at Green Bay, on the way to Minneapolis. So Tech goes home 4-1 for January.

“The biggest difference in our team?” said captain Colin Murphy, who was offensive player of the week. “Goaltending. We’ve had a lot of close games, and we know we can play with anybody.”

Tech coach Jamie Russell said: “I’m proud of Ellsworth the way he’s turned his game around. The first half was frustrating for our whole team, but everybody kept working. There are still some areas where we need to improve, but we want to be playing our best hockey at the end.”

Consider that through the 2004 half of the schedule, Tech was 1-13 in WCHA games, and that 5-1 victory against Alaska-Anchorage seemed a long time ago – because it was, coming back on October 29. After that came a couple of losses at St. Cloud State, a couple of losses at Colorado College, a couple of losses against North Dakota, and a couple of losses against Denver. December ended with a couple of tough losses at the Great Lakes Invitational Tournament in Detroit, 4-2 to Michigan and 4-3 against New Hampshire.

The outlook for January was pretty bleak, with a return series on the road at No. 5 ranked Denver, then a series at No. 3 rated Minnesota, before returning home against No. 1 Colorado College, then a trip to Duluth to face preseason favorite UMD. “We’re ALWAYS playing top teams,” said Ellsworth.

At Minnesota, Tech also was running into a determined foe. Getting past Minnesota State-Mankato twice had hardly healed the sting the Gophers felt from losing twice at home to Colorado College. Those were the first home losses after a two-year streak of Mariucci invincibility for Minnesota. Besides, the Golden Gophers had beaten Tech 16 straight times, nine of them at Mariucci.

But Tech struck first in the Friday game, on a goal by defenseman Lars Helminen, and silenced the crowd of 10,147 in the second period when Taggart Desmet converted MurphyÂ’s feed for a 2-0 lead, and made it 3-0 when Murphy rapped in a 2-on-1 pass across the goal-mouth from Chris Conner.

The big crowd got fired up when Gino Guyer countered with a goal for Minnesota, and Even Kaufmann cut the deficit to 3-2 before the middle period ended. But Jimmy Kerr skated in to play the ricochet as the puck caromed off the corner boards to the right circle, and golfed a one-timer high and to the short side against Kellen Briggs for a 4-1 Tech lead early in the third period.

A Gopher goal was disallowed because of a dislodged net later, and Ellsworth and the Huskies weathered a furious Gopher attack, then most of a power play, during which frustrated Gophers winger Ryan Potulny crashed right over Ellsworth, knocking him out of the crease. When freshman defenseman Alex Goligoski scored from the point before that power play ended, it was 4-3, and a Gopher comeback seemed inevitable.

Conner, the 5-7 dynamo who had worked hard for minimal rewards all season, wouldn’t let the Huskies falter. “It was tough scoring early on, but I was still getting chances,” said Conner. “That’s something we’ve had to work on. We used to let down when things didn’t go our way, but we’re starting to learn that you’ve got to keep working.”

Conner kept working, retaliating 54 seconds after GoligoskiÂ’s goal with a rush up the left side. He battled defenseman Chris Harrington all the way to the net for a shot, then when Briggs left the rebound in the crease, Conner hopped over the sprawling Harrington and Briggs to score. Conner said he thought Harrington, who was sprawled, might have knocked it in with his hand, and Harrington said he had no idea what happened in the tangle. What did happen was TechÂ’s lead expanded to 5-3, and it ended 6-3 when, on a last-minute penalty kill, Ryan Markham rifled a 150-footer into the empty net with 14 seconds to go.

Tech started the second game with the same resolve, but Minnesota wound up with a two-man power play for a 1:15 span when Schwartz went off for slashing at 11:00, and Scott was whistled for cross-checking at 11:45. Minnesota scored when Tyler Hirsch’s shot from the left circle glanced off teammate Danny Irmen’s skate and then Tech defenseman Jake Wilkens’s skate, finding the net at 12:17. A two-man power play double deflection goal, and it turned out to be the only puck to elude Ellsworth all night. The crowd of 9,677 continued to chant “Ellsworth sucks,” however, meaning their script prevented them from paying attention to what was happening. If Ellsworth sucked, as they say, what does that say for the Gopher shooters?

Justin Johnson was in goal for Minnesota, making it the second weekend in a row he got the second game. Before that, Briggs had started 21 straight, but had yielded 20 goals in his last four starts. Trailing 1-0, Tech played an amazing second period, outshooting Minnesota 18-14 even while killing three penalties, and the Huskies scored twice, as Scott and Conner connected in a 1:05 span.

Scott, a junior at age 22 who has somehow been missed in the NHL draft, played a mighty game on defense, and moved in forcefully from the point after great forechecking by Nick Anderson and Murphy, and drilled his shot at 16:37. It may have looked routine, but it was only the second goal of the season for the big blueliner. “Whenever you get a chance like that, you’ve got to put it in,” said Scott, who laughed about the infrequency of his goals. “My other one was a one-timer from the point against Alaska – it was a pretty good goal, actually.”

A minute later, Conner was in deep, pestering the defense as usual, when defenseman Clay Wilson shot from center point. The shot deflected off the end boards to the right of the net and came right back out, where Conner bunted it in at the right post. “That one barely made it, too,” said Conner, who leads the Huskies with 10 goals.

Murphy had passed to Wilson, so he got an assist on ConnerÂ’s goal, his nation-leading 30th assist of the season. It ended a productive week for Murphy, who had four assists against Notre Dame, and his seventh goal along with three assists in the first Minnesota game. Murphy plays right wing on a line with Desmet at center and Conner at left wing, and is a superb player and strong captain.

But the Huskies know that their chances of success increase greatly if Conner keeps scoring. “Chris is a big-time player,” said Ellsworth. “He’s fast, he has all the moves, and he’s probably the strongest player in the league. He’s also a special type of person.”

Scott attests to Conner’s strength. “Conner is impossible to check in practice,” said Scott. “He practices just like he plays, going all-out. He’s the most laid-back guy off the ice, but in practice, he’s so strong I have trouble knocking him down.”

The Gophers won’t question the strength of Scott, the giant among some jockeys. A pretty lively scrap erupted during the second game, and everybody but the goaltenders were involved. Scott and Minnesota’s Hirsch were paired up, “I had 23 (Hirsch),” said Scott. “Then I saw 15 (Mike Vannelli) jump on one of our guys.” So Scott grabbed Vannelli as well, and for the last half-minute before order was restored, the 6-7 Scott casually held Hirsch harmlessly at bay in one hand and Vannelli in the other.

Harrington, outside the Minnesota dressing room, said, “We’ve got to remember how we won all those games early. Tech won the way you’re supposed to – with hard work. They did all the little things you have to do to win.”

Which, as the Yoopers like to say, is better than doing the things you do to lose.

NHL’s new long-pass rule may help fans forget lockout

The National Hockey League not only returns to action this fall, but it could be the fastest, most wide-open NHL in the leagueÂ’s history. College hockey fans, a fervent cult unto themselves, already know what the NHL hasnÂ’t yet comprehended: Eliminating a little nuisance called the two-line pass will open the floodgates to let the best hockey players in the world fully explore their potential.

Pro hockey has used the center red line to determine how long a pass can be ever since World War II, while college hockey rules only use the center red line only for determining icing. When the NHL resumes play after taking last season off, it will do so with the college passing rule.

Traditionalists have long fought to keep the two-line passing rule, without ever knowing why, except that it was traditional. Tradition, by itself, is the worst justification for anything. But NHL old-timers have never known anything different. Whenever a team was in its own defensive zone, it could pass ahead to a teammate, but only across the nearest blue line; the pass had to be completed before that teammate reached the center red line, or else – whistle! – the dreaded two-line pass would be called to stop play for a faceoff.

In college hockey, a player pinned up against his own end boards, could fire a pass all the way to the far blue line, hitting a streaking winger with a 120-foot missile. Still, you can’t try to clear the puck from your side of the red line to the far end without it still being called icing and brought back to your end for a faceoff.

If pro hockey stalwarts have never watched a college game, they have no idea how exciting it is to see such wide-open scoring chances. Defensive zealots, and a few goaltenders, who prefer trapping defenses to forechecking and breakaways, may wake up in a cold sweat at the very thought of finding defensive players who can skate with those fast-breaking wingers, rather than merely waiting until the attackers had to slow down at the red line.

Another asset to the long-passing rule is that, even though traditionalists argue that the rule could ruin defensive concepts of the game, instead there will be some spectacular defensive plays. But the defenders will have to be extremely alert, ready to turn and go at high speed, rather than trust their usual assets – clutching, grabbing and hooking.

Nobody can calculate how many spectacular scoring chances and how many more high-speed breakaways and 2-on-1s have been forfeited by the stifling and archaic NHL rules.

The only previous chance the NHL had to adopt the non-redline rule was at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Recall that Sweden, playing a long-passing, wide-open style, would send one or even two forwards streaking up the rink, all the way across the far blue line. NHL-trained defensemen dropped back but relaxed at their own blue line, because any pass across that line would, of course, be offside. But the Swedes would then circle back to catch those 100-foot passes and finish their high-speed circles to sprint in at the unprotected goaltender.

The style confounded NHL purists. Heck, it confounded NHL players. Remember that Sweden humiliated what had been called the strongest Team Canada ever assembled with a 6-2 blowout in a preliminary round game. Canada went on to win the gold medal, but the biggest gasp of relief came when Sweden was upset by Belarus in a quarterfinal game. Otherwise, Canada would have had to beat Sweden in the semifinals, instead of the drained and satisfied Belarus, before getting past the U.S. in the final.

The point was, throughout the Olympics, the action was fast and furious – and eye-catching with its excitement. The International rules, like college, allow the long passes. All along, top NHL executives grudgingly acknowledged that the games were faster and more exciting in that wide-open style, and hints were everywhere that the NHL would reexamine its rules.

Then Canada won the gold medal, and the same NHL executives and management types puffed out their chests and said, “Well, I guess our style of play is OK after all.”

All that work, all the effort Herb Brooks had put in to distill the top U.S. National Hockey Leaguers to adapt to his hybrid, fast-breaking, puck-controlling style, were swept away. Canada rules, helped by an NHL officiating staff that called the final like a typical, clutch-and-grab NHL game, forgetting entirely about International rules. Ask Mike Modano, or Jeremy Roenick, or Brett Hull, which style they’d prefer to play – Herbie’s style, or the NHL style of the past 50 years.

Stubbornness has long been the biggest liability the NHL has had in preventing itself from achieving its own potential. For example, few observers who praise the two-line pass presence of the center red line seem to be unaware of the wonderful story about how it was put in place to begin with. During World War II, so many of the young men from Canada and the U.S. went off to war that the NHL faced a shortage of players. So it was decided to put in a red line across the middle of the rink, and declare that nobody could pass across it until they had the puck across their own blue line. That would allow some of the old and aging defensemen, who were too old to go to war, to keep playing, so that the league could keep functioning through the war years.

As a cynic who always has preferred the college game, I once wrote that the pro hockeyÂ’s biggest problem is that nobody has told the NHL that World War II ended.

If stubbornness prevailed, in the name of tradition, it took more stubbornness on both sides to cost the National Hockey League a full season of play, and also established pro hockey as an easy target for columnists throughout the United States who needed somewhere to vent any accumulated venom. Those columnists, particularly those who rarely attend hockey games anyhow, took great glee in ridiculing the NHL by calling both sides stupid, suggesting the lockout could be suicidal to the leagueÂ’s future, or, worse, saying that nobody cares anyway.

Critics have a point. Hockey, many agree, is followed by the most intense body of fans on the planet, but the sport is nowhere near as universally popular as baseball, football or basketball. As Bill Clinton might say, however, “It depends on your definition of universal.”

Baseball is big in the U.S., big in Central America, and big in Japan – and that’s it. In case you forget, the International Olympic Committee just dropped baseball from being an Olympic sport because of scant participation around the world. Football? The NHL tries to force it into England and Europe, but everywhere outside of the U.S., soccer is what they mean when they say football. Basketball is played some in countries that can grow 7-footers, such as Russia, or Italy, with a flurry in China, and Yugoslavia, but not much, considering it only takes five players to create a winning team.

Hockey, meanwhile, is played and played well in Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, and on a lesser scale in the Far East, and even in Great Britain and Australia. It took far less to create the gold medal upset when the old USSR beat the U.S. in Olympic basketball than it did for the U.S. collegians to conquer the USSR, Sweden, Finland, Canada and the Czechs in 1980Â’s hockey tournament.

Still, hockey is not major in many parts of the U.S., and the lack of a strong national television contract is evidence. ThatÂ’s what led to the nobody-wins lockout situation, where both sides were at fault, or neither side was at fault, depending upon your perspective.
Hockey needed to make itself more wide-open, to let the skaters and playmakers have enough room to skate, make plays, and score more goals. But the sport seemed helpless to help itself. Television revenue is what makes football successful at those colleges where it is a success. Removing television revenue, shared among conferences, reduces the number of college football programs that actually make a profit to a half dozen or so, according to nationally circulated statistics a few years ago.

No question, pro baseball, football and basketball have lucrative network contracts, and thus make more money, and can better afford the outrageous salaries players command. Hockey could never afford such salaries, but, driven by the demands of agents, some of whom also represent players in the other pro sports, caused the NHL teams to pay and pay until even the highest ticket prices couldnÂ’t assure financial stability.

Something had to be done. The owners needed a salary cap, and the players, deep down, knew it. But the players association went into negotiations saying they’d do anything – “except a salary cap.” Since a salary cap was the most pressing need, there were no serious negotiations. The lockout kept the players – and fans – out of the arenas, and things got particularly tough when, at midseason, a couple of owners whispered that they were losing less money by not playing than they’d be losing by playing the way things were.

Finally, faced with what might have been the complete eradication of pro hockey as we know it, the players association gave in. Giving back 24 percent of their salaries, and seriously limiting team and individual player salaries will make for a far more even playing surface. And there is a chance for profitability.

In the big picture, however, the best chance for a more exciting game — and the possible TV contract that could follow – is in place because of a couple of rule changes. There had been talk of not letting the goalies handle the puck(!), and of making the goals larger, like soccer goals, to allow more goals – forget about having to throw out all the old scoring records. Widening the blue lines to make the offensive zones larger is questionable, and not really necessary. Making the goaltendersÂ’ pads closer to the size configuration that the rules call for, will help to give shooters some openings, and perhaps officials will have to measure goalie pads the way they measure sticks for illegal curves.

But without question, the elimination of the two-line passing rule is the biggest attribute that NHL players and fans can look forward to. After everyone gets used to the new, high-speed game, and teams start acquiring players who can skate and pass rather than those who can lift heavy things and clutch and grab, they will look back someday and think about how archaic the old rules were. Remember hearing about the way girls basketball rules used to be in some places, where a player could only dribble two bounces, then had to pass, and a player on the defensive side of the court couldnÂ’t advance across to the offensive side? ThatÂ’s the way the old NHL rules will someday be recalled.

When you get a chance to catch the “new” NHL, on television or in person, check it out. The only remaining cynics – aside from those who donÂ’t yet realize World War II is over — are those who donÂ’t want to see guys named Modano, Naslund, Forsberg, Datsyuk, and Kariya skating at full speed to catch a 120-foot breakaway pass. Can you say: “breathtaking?” Can you say: “Where can I buy a ticket?” Can you say: “What lockout?”

Games in hand scramble WCHA race at midpoint

If any WCHA series could rank as a microcosm for the whole first half of the season it might have been when defending NCAA champion Denver played at preseason coachesÂ’ favorite Minnesota-Duluth in the final series before holiday tournament break. It could hardly have been a closer duel, as the teams played to a 4-4 tie in the first game, then did the same in the rematch, before Denver escaped from the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center with a 5-4 victory in overtime.

Denver coach George Gwozdecky expressed some relief after taking three points out of the DECC series, and remarked about how typical both of the games were in the recent history of DU-UMD matches.
Then Gwozdecky said: “At times it was hard-fought, and at times it was helter-skelter.”

There. That says it all about the fast-paced and crazy series between the two teams, but it also best-describes the first half of the WCHA race, where, if anything, the amazing momentum swings leave a title race looks more wide-open than it was at the start of the season.
Wisconsin stands in first place at 10-4, for 20 points, and North Dakota second at 9-6-1, for 19 points. Impressive as those two teams have been, however, there is reason to suspect that the next three teams in order rank as the primary threats – Colorado College and Minnesota – tied at 18 points – and Denver with 17 points.

Minnesota-Duluth, after zooming to a 4-0 for first place in the league, 5-0-1 overall, and the No. 1 rank in the nation, went into an incredible 1-6 tailspin to and stand 6-7-1 in league play, for 13 points, but nobody doubts the BulldogsÂ’ chances for getting everything back in order for the second half.

The reason Minnesota, CC and Denver all look like such title threats, however, is the all-important loss column. When the number of games varies among teams on the way to final equality, the most victories capture the headlines, but the fewest losses generally win championships. In addition, when teams make up the game disparity they have a chance to add victories, while those with more victories cannot deduct losses.

Wisconsin has only four losses, and the Badgers first-place points were accrued over 14 games, while North Dakota has played 16 WCHA games, with six losses. CC, Minnesota and Denver, however, have played only 12 WCHA games. At identical 9-3 records, either Colorado College or Minnesota could vault into first place simply by winning the two “games in hand” they have compared to Wisconsin.

When it was suggested to Minnesota coach Don Lucia that his Gophers and CC, having split a crucial series at Colorado Springs, might be favorites, said, simply: “Watch out for Denver.”

The Pioneers, who sputtered and struggled through most of last season, then came alive at NCAA tournament time and rose to capture the big trophy, also have only three losses, at 8-3-1.

UMD, meanwhile, never scored fewer than four goals and averaged 5.75 goals per game in running to its 4-0 league start, then never scored as many as four in a game while averaging a paltry 1.7 goals per game during their 1-6 league reversal. The Bulldogs’ inability to score climaxed in a 5-1 loss to North Dakota at the DECC, when they trailed the Sioux 5-0 before Marco Peluso scored something of a fluke goal on a two-man power play for a 5-1 loss. The next night, trailing 2-0, finally reached that “4” plateau for a 4-3 victory.

That game ended a string where UMD had won only two of 11 games overall (2-8-1), and that was when Denver came to Duluth.

Fast-paced as the first game was, it was odd because it never was racehorse, back and forth. Instead, one team dominated, then the other. Jon Foster and Luke Fulghum gave Denver a 2-0 lead in the first period, when Denver outshot the Â’Dogs 11-7. UMD then took over for goals by Brett Hammond, Todd Smith and Tim Hambly in the second period, and Luke StauffacherÂ’s power-play goal gave UMD its fourth straight goal and a 4-2 lead. But Fulghum scored shorthanded for Denver, and the Pioneers reclaimed the momentum when Gabe Gauthier scored a power-play goal a minute later for a 4-4 tie that withstood the final 13 minutes and overtime.

With coach Scott Sandelin off coaching the U..S. team in the World Junior tournament, assistant Steve Rohlik coached UMD. “I told our guys before the game that I wished I could play just one shift, to get rid of the jitters,” said Rohlik, a former star whose last college game was when he helped lead Wisconsin to the 1990 NCAA title, and whose last previous game as head coach was in the 1997 Minnesota state high school tournament, when Rohlik’s Hill-Murray lost to Edina in three overtimes.

The next night, it was more of the same – again, typifying both UMD and Denver, and the whole WCHA tangle. Ryan Helgason staked Denver to a 1-0 lead in the first period, which established a startling record that best-explains UMD’s struggles: It was the 16th game out of 20 this season’s first 20 games that the Bulldogs yielded the first goal.
UMD came battling back, as usual, this time with Peluso, Steve Czech and Stauffacher scoring second-period goals for a 3-1 Bulldog lead. The third period caused a similar reversal, as Matt Carle scored on a power play and Mike Handza tied it 4-4 at 6:54. Rohlik pulled starting goalie Josh Johnson at that point, but Isaac Reichmuth was greeted by FulghamÂ’s third goal of the weekend just 28 seconds later, and Denver led 4-3.

That led to a dramatic finish to the third period, when Evan Schwabe scored a one-timer from the right edge with 3:53 remaining for a 4-4 tie that duplicated FridayÂ’s ebb-and-flow battle. This time, however, the puck dropped for overtime and Jeff Drummond went to the crease to score at 0:15, and Denver had its 5-4 victory.

So preseason favorite UMD seemed to get healthy – scoring four goals for three straight games, even if they only went 1-1-1 – and the Bulldogs could take extra satisfaction in knowing that their seven league losses include five on the road, and they are 4-2 at home, where they open the second half with four straight at the DECC. And Denver stayed in hot contention with the three points on the road, a perfect launching pad for the second half.

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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.