Goepfert, Huskies trip UMD, face No. 1 Gophers

August 29, 2006 by · Leave a Comment
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SAINT PAUL, MN. — Minnesota-Duluth was the biggest surprise entry to the WCHA Final Five, and the Bulldogs rode in on the startling success of unheralded reserve goaltender Nate Ziegelmann, who had upset Denver in two of three games last weekend. But where goaltending is concerned, St. Cloud State’s Bobby Goepfert won all the league awards as top goalie, and he gave a display of how that happened to lead the Huskies to a 5-1 victory in Thursday’s tournament opener.

There was some disagreement when Goepfert was named first team all-WCHA goaltender earlier Thursday, but the Huskies junior, a transfer from Providence, strode out onto the Xcel Energy Center ice sheet and eliminated the critics – especially any of those wearing Minnesota-Duluth jerseys – by kicking out 36 of 37 shots he faced to frustrate the Bulldogs in the “play-in” game of the WCHA Final Five tournament.

The game drew a first-game record crowd of 16,312 – perhaps a benefit of the busride range of all five entrants, where UMD, St. Cloud State and No. 1 Minnesota are all within an hour or two, and the most distant teams are Wisconsin and North Dakota. Wisconsin might have filed the most valid complaint about the identity of the league’s best goaltender, because of Brian Elliott, who will face North Dakota in Friday’s first semifinal. But few will question the choice of the lightning-quick Goepfert after his performance allowed St. Cloud State to return to Xcel Center to face the Gophers in the second semifinal.

“As a team, it’s big for us to do well here, but the personal accolades didn’t mean anything to me as far as this game went,” said Goepfert, a transfer from Providence. “Playing the Gophers, who are No. 1 in the country, will be a big test. We’re all excited for that, but you can’t look ahead at more than one game at a time, and we were focused on Duluth.”

Motzko wasn’t so sure. One of the key factors in St. Cloud’s favor when the Huskies put their 21-15-4 record out against Minnesota’s 27-6-5 ledger will be that the Huskies got past any Xcel Center awe in the UMD game. They were apparently uptight at the start of the game, and yet they jumped ahead 3-0 – an ironic twist for Motzko, who said he hoped they’d be hustling and outworking UMD, but instead they got outhustled and yet jumped into the lead.

“We got three in the first to get ahead, and I don’t know when that’s happened,” said Motzko, whose team usually has to work hard for goals. “We needed our first line to score, and they got two, and we needed our power play to come through, and it did.”

He started to add that the Huskies also needed a strong game from Goepfert, but that was a given. “We didn’t have the energy at the start, but we got it in the third period,” Motzko said. “Everyone was surprised that Duluth beat Denver last weekend, but to me the surprise was that Duluth finished ninth, because they’re the second fastest team we’ve played, after Colorado College. We’ve become a good hockey team, and Bobby gives us a good chance to win. Bobby is what you saw tonight.”

Goepfert got all he needed in the first three minutes. Just 44 seconds after the game started, Bill Hengen got the puck back after a left corner faceoff, and drilled a shot past UMD goaltender Nate Ziegelmann for a 1-0 lead. At 3:18, Nate Dey scored for a 2-0 St. Cloud lead, and UMD hadnÂ’t had a shot yet. The Bulldogs started shooting, as well as skating and moving the puck in something close to dominant fashion, but when St. Cloud got the only power play of the first period, Brook Hooten got free on the left side of the net and quickly converted a perfect pass across the goal-mouth from Joe Jensen, deep in the right corner, at 12:55.

With Goepfert in goal, the 3-0 lead must have seemed like a mountain to the Bulldogs, although Tim Stapleton came back to snap a screened shot past Goepfert at 13:56 to cut the deficit to 3-1.
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A goal of any flavor in the second period might have lifted UMD back into it, but after outshooting the Huskies 11-6 in the first period – and 11-2 after St. Cloud’s opening flurry – UMD stormed the net in the second period, outshooting the Huskies 15-3. But Goepfert allowed nothing to pass.

“It’s a great building to play in, and the whole event is great for our team to be a part of,” said Goepfert. “The three quick goals made things a little easier, but I figured after the first period that the second period would be big, so I got really focused in the dressing room. I might say a few things at the start of the intermission, but then I’m pretty much silent, and I zone out…except when coach is talking.”

Stapleton was not surprised by Goepfert’s play. “I played against him in juniors, and he’s always been that way,” said Stapleton. “He makes the first save, and he doesn’t allow rebounds. We had our chances; at one point I looked up at the scoreboard and the shots were 24-8.”

But the score never got closer. The Bulldogs, who finish 11-25-4, could have made it more dramatic with a goal to open the third period, but instead Andrew Gordon scored at 0:48 off a left corner faceoff, and it was 4-1. The Huskies started firing on all cylinders after that, and got off 17 of their game total 26 shots in the final 20 minutes. They scored the final goal when UMD coach Scott Sandelin pulled Ziegelmann for a sixth attacker with 3:36 to go, hoping to cut into the three-goal deficit. But Goepfert stayed invincible, and after missing the open net twice, Hengen fired a 125-footer into the net at 17:34.

“After the first five minutes, I thought we played pretty well for the next 35 minutes,” said Sandelin. “I was proud of the way we played after being down 3-0. Obviously, when you’ve gone 1-15, things are not looking very bright, so ending our season here, instead of at Denver, was important. We had our chances, but obviously Goepfert made some saves.”

It was a tough night for Ziegelmann, whose touch turned magic last weekend in the playoffs, when he rose from No. 3 in DuluthÂ’s goaltending scenario to win his first two college games in upsetting Denver. The victories came after the Bulldogs had won just one game in calendar 2006, and reinvigorated the Bulldogs after a drop to ninth place. The victories also cost two-time defending NCAA champion Denver a chance to return to the Final Five, and ultimately will probably prevent the Pioneers to get invited to the NCAA tournament.

The 16-team NCAA field will include the top 14 ranked teams plus two independent teams, not counting any other teams that might win their league playoff and advance, despite being unranked, by displacing ranked entries. That’s where the Huskies enter the picture. They know they only have one chance to make the NCAA field, and that would be to win the Final Five championship – which, of course, means beating Minnesota in the semifinals.

Marty Sertich’s Hobey will be impossible to duplicate

August 29, 2006 by · Leave a Comment
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Marty Sertich seems mature beyond his years, but he may have to grow old, with kids of his own, before he will fully appreciate what he meant to his mother during this wonderful, glorious, heroic Hobey Baker season.

ItÂ’s already obvious what Patty Sertich meant to Marty. She was his inspiration, his special beacon for both focusing on what he had to do, and realizing what things are truly important in life. But itÂ’s the reverse role that may take some time. Marty Sertich is far too humble to even acknowledge what he meant to his mom this past year, when he provided her with inspiration, serving as her beacon to try to push herself to extend her own finite boundaries, even while she accepted the horrible inevitability of inoperable, terminal, brain cancer.

Patty Sertich made it through the WCHA season, including a few trips to Colorado Springs to see her son win the WCHA scoring title for league co-champion Colorado College. She made it through to see him play in the WCHA Final Five. And she made it to Columbus, Ohio, to see the Frozen Four, and to see her older son win the 2005 Hobey Baker Memorial Award – the emblem of the nation’s top college hockey player.
She didnÂ’t make it to the Hobey Baker ceremonial banquet, on a Thursday night in the Twin Cities. She was in a hospice by then. Two days after the ceremony, on Saturday, May 21, Patty Sertich could fight no more.

The funeral, at Roseville Lutheran Church, was one that will not be forgotten by the hundreds of people who attended. It lasted more than two and a half hours, and it included heartfelt and fond reminiscences by her two sisters, and by some close friends. One of them said it best: “Patty was born nice, and never changed.”

The service also included emotional, riveting comments by Marty, his younger brother Mike, and their older sister Sara. Steve Sertich, who had met Patty while he, too, was a star at Colorado College, and married her to start this remarkable family, spoke last, and by then, the entire congregation was emotionally drained – wiped out by the strength and character it took for those three adult kids to power through their emotion-choked tributes to insist their mom will be with them the rest of their lives.

Steve pointed out that he and Sara had been able to be with Patty almost constantly, but it was tougher on the boys. He knew it had taken heroic levels of performance to go through what they had, but Steve added that nothing could duplicate the heroics displayed by his wife, who never lost her cheery, upbeat outlook on life, throughout her ordeal.

Patty Sertich had beaten breast cancer a few years ago, which made the brain tumor, discovered just over a year before, seem all the more unfair. But “unfair” is a word that Steve refused to use, because Patty had refused to use it, and forbade her family from using it as well.

By the time Patty and Steve and Sara came to Columbus for the Frozen Four to see Marty and possibly freshman Mike play for the Tigers, she was too thin – even for her. Always smiling and vibrant, Patty stood up to an endless barrage of bright media lights and interviews. Occasionally, when she would lose her place while describing something, she’d tap Steve on the arm, or Mike, or Sara, and they’d supply the missing phrase so she could keep on, smiling at her bobble as she recovered to finish the sentence.

For those of us who first knew Patty as the wife of a star hockey player, then later as the mom of a couple more star hockey players, or for those who got to know her in their Roseville neighborhood, or when she went up to chip in as a waitress at the Shoreview branch of Panino’s – a small collection of restaurants started by her father in Colorado Springs – it was impossible not to feel like you’d known her all your life.

The chance to talk to her in Columbus provided a memorable glimpse of the real Patty Sertich, the one weÂ’ll all remember.

“When I was first diagnosed, it was very hard,” she said that day. “But I realize how important it is to have all my family with me. We’ve all been so happy and lucky, and I’ve finally found peace. I’m lucky we have each other every day, and we love each other so much, we don’t have to think about the bad stuff any more.”

In my last conversation with Patty, I recalled how we used to see her either at hockey games, or up at PaninoÂ’s, scurrying around like a hyperactive waitress trying to impress the boss. I told her that when we got back to Minnesota, weÂ’d be stopping at PaninoÂ’s.

“Oh, we will be going up there, too,” she said.

“But I bet you won’t be waiting on tables,” I joked.

“I wish they’d let me,” she said.

None of what she said was intended to distract in any way from her sonÂ’s big day. But it was the last time I saw Patty Sertich. And the light in her eyes told all that was necessary to show how much her son’s special season had meant to inspire her.

Marty Sertich, a junior at Colorado College, had all the statistical ingredients for the Hobey. He led the Western Collegiate Hockey Association in scoring with 17 goals, 25 assists, for 42 points, four more than Brett Sterling, his linemate, fellow all-WCHA, All-America, and Hobey Baker finalist. The two led Colorado College to a share of the league championship at 19-7-2 with eventual NCAA champion Denver. In all games, Sertich led the nation as well, with 27-37—64 statistics, an eyelash ahead of Sterling’s 34-29—63. CC finished 31-9-3, losing only to Denver, its archrival, in the NCAA tournament semifinals.

At 5-foot-9 and 163 pounds, Sertich relies on incredible quickness and playmaking to command the spotlight for both spectators and opponents. Whether it’s darting around and through defenders in 1-on-1 situations, escaping from congestion with the puck, or luring defenders to try to stop him from shooting – only to realize he rarely shoots if he can set up a teammate – he is the consummate team player.

“There was never any competition for who could get more points,” said Sterling, who joined Cornell goaltender David McKee as Hobey runners-up. “We complement each other – he being more of a passer and me more of a shooter. Being able to play on a line with Marty has been a treat for me.”

Two years ago, Sertich had a 9-20—29 freshman year at Colorado College, but critics still said he was too small, too light, and that the only reason he did so well was because he got to center 2003 Hobey Baker Award winner Peter Sejna, and Noah Clarke, a pair of All-America wingers. Two years later, teammates are attributing their success to being able to play with Marty.

When the award was presented at the NCAA tournament in Columbus, Marty Sertich said: “It’s been an unbelievable year, quite a ride. I want to thank my teammates, and the whole coaching staff…and lastly, my family. I love you guys more than anything.”

In the audience, Steve and Patty Sertich beamed with joy at their sonÂ’s award, and they knew that MartyÂ’s tribute to his family was more than just protocol. The family had stressed the importance of Marty and Mike staying in college during their momÂ’s year-long struggle, so Steve and Patty traveled when they could to see them play, but mainly to see them.

“The boys had the hardest part, being away most of the time,” said Steve. “Marty’s compassion, honesty, and strength, comes from her, and the way she’s dealt with this horrible disease.”

Mike Sertich, a part-time player as a freshman, acknowledged that he and his brother often discussed the situation. “I could see it in Marty, that he quietly used it as motivation,” said Mike.

Marty Sertich, whose spectacular season personified courage and character, as well as skill, put it all in perspective. “I realized there are a lot of more important things in life,” he said. “It definitely helped drive me.”

He can’t appreciate, undoubtedly, how much the inspiration flowed both ways between his play and his mom. The family hockey heritage is readily traced on both sides of the family tree.

Steve Sertich, a former high school star at Virginia, Minnesota, went on to play at Colorado College where he was team MVP in the 1972-73 season. His dad – Marty’s grandfather – moved to Colorado Springs when Steve played there, and when he died, the downtown arena he managed was named as a memorial for the beloved “Pa” Sertich.

Patty, meanwhile, was the daughter of Tony Frasca, who remains a legend of CCÂ’s early years, and was a two-time All-America, in 1951 and 1952.

Steve married Patty, prompting Marty, at the funeral, from remarking, “My dad got lucky.” Steve played for the 1976 U.S. Olympic team, and they moved enough to fulfill a vagabond’s resume. Finally they settled in Minnesota, closer to where SteveÂ’s brother, Mike Sertich, was coaching at Minnesota-Duluth. Steve taught and coached both of his sons at Roseville High School, but by the time Marty was a senior, his intended entry to UMD was eliminated when Mike Sertich was forced to resign. So Colorado College, which always meant so much to both parents, became the logical choice.

“The game is a lot faster now than when I played,” said Steve, who now coaches the Roseville girls high school hockey team. “The players are a lot bigger, and the game is a lot more physical. Marty’s shiftiness is pretty much a matter of survival.”

The history, the heritage, and the closeness of both families culminated in the brilliant 2004-05 season by Marty Sertich – a season so special that it will be hard to duplicate, even though he will return, with Sterling, to try to win an NCAA title for CC. Consider how Patty Sertich accepted congratulations at the Hobey Baker Award presentation in Columbus. “It’s wonderful that Marty won it,” she said. “But if Brett had won, he’d have been just as deserving.”

There you have it. From age 9, hockey moms are famous for believing their sons are the greatest ever. If a son someday makes a Division I college team, a mom is more certain than ever that her son is the best. But here was Patty Sertich, a hockey mom so special that, even though she deserved to gloat because her son IS the best player in college hockey, instead was eager to share her familyÂ’s glory.

Ouellette scores six straight goals as UMD women hit 7-0-1

August 29, 2006 by · Leave a Comment
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DULUTH, MN — Caroline Ouellette was stationed at the right edge of the Wisconsin goal when the puck rebounded to her. Her instincts overcame the intense pain in her left hand as she squeezed her stick and flicked the puck into the net before Badger goaltender Meghan Horaas could lunge to cover.

The goal, with 1:43 remaining in the third period, gave undefeated Minnesota-Duluth a 4-3 victory over Wisconsin in the first game of their weekend series at the DECC, but perhaps the most amazing thing about OuelletteÂ’s game-winning goal was the fact that she was playing at all.

“I got slashed in the first period,” said Ouellette. “It broke the little finger on my left hand in three places, above the knuckle. It hurt so bad, I had trouble shooting.”

Tell that to Horaas, or any other goaltender who have been unwilling witnesses Ouellette’s scoring streak – which might be unprecedented in women’s hockey, and maybe men’s as well, for that matter.

Ouellette, UMDÂ’s captain, from Montreal, scored the last three goals in UMDÂ’s 6-0 victory at Bemidji State the previous week, then she scored both goals in a 2-1 victory the next night. In the series-opener against Wisconsin, she tipped in Julianne VasichekÂ’s shot for the first goal in FridayÂ’s 4-3 UMD victory.

That meant Ouellette had scored six consecutive goals over three games for the Bulldogs.

When has any individual player scored six consecutive goals for a team at the Division 1 college level?

Making her individual heroics more impressive is that Ouellette is the consummate team player, always complimenting her teammates and downplaying her own production. ThatÂ’s difficult to do, because in UMDÂ’s eight games (7-0-1), she has scored 11 goals and 13 assists for 24 points.

“I feel great playing with Noemie Marin and Nora Tallus on our line,” Ouellette said. “Noemie has only played hockey since she was 15, and after one year here, she’s really stepped up.”

Marin, who is from Acton-Vale, Quebec, has scored 8-7—15, but missed two games while playing for Canada’s national softball team. Tallus, the senior center from Kereva, Finland, has 3-7—10.

OuelletteÂ’s scoring has lifted Marin individually and the team in general, but if her scoring set new standards, so did her play-with-pain performance.

UMD was ranked No. 4 and Wisconsin No. 5 when they met in Duluth, and after Ouellette started the scoring with a goal, Jackie Friesen scored for Wisconsin to tie FridayÂ’s game 1-1. Ouellette then skated in on a 2-on-1, drew the defender by cutting to her right, then fed Marin, cruising in all alone on the left side for the second UMD goal.

That extended Ouellette’s streak to six goals and one assist on seven straight goals. Marin scored again for a 3-1 lead, ending Ouellette’s personal scoring string, but after the Badgers fought back for a 3-3 tie with 7:46 remaining, Ouellette’s winning goal meant she had scored 7-1—8 out of nine team goals.

Ouellette added another assist on Marin’s game-winning goal in the 2-1 second-game victory for UMD, pushing her run to 7-2—9 – nine points out of the 11 goals UMD totaled over four victories.

Ouellette, one of the 10 finalists for the Patty Katzmeier award last season, would rather talk about UMDÂ’s 7-0-1 start to the season. And sheÂ’d rather not talk about the pain that remains in her shattered finger.

Luckily for the Bulldogs, they are off for the next weekend. That is not lucky for Ouellette individually, however. She was scheduled to leave on Sunday to join the Canadian National womenÂ’s team for the Four Nations Cup tournament during the break, but the break in her finger prevented her from going.

“The doctor said I should avoid playing for a while, so I’m not going to the tournament,” said Ouellette on Sunday night. “In the second game against Wisconsin, all I could do was pass and carry the puck. The pain is acute right now, and they are going to put it in a cast. So I can skate this week, but that’s all.

“The 2-1 game against Wisconsin was a tough game. We got up 2-0, and Wisconsin played well, but I thought it was probably our best game so far. We had to kill a 5-on-3 penalty and a five-minute major, both in the second period, but we played well, and Riitta Schaublin played very well in goal.

“Riitta has improved a lot, and her confidence is huge right now. Everybody on this team feels good about playing together, and everybody put everything they had into that second game with Wisconsin.”

It’s not as though the injury will hurt Ouellette’s chances for making Canada’s 2006 Olympic team. She was a star on the 2002 Canadian team that beat the U.S. in the gold medal game, and she led Canada in scoring for the entire season, leading up to the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. It was there that she played against Jenny Potter, who became her teammate at UMD, and against U.S. stars Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell – both of whom now star for Minnesota.

The Gophers just happen to be UMDÂ’s next foe, in a Nov. 19-20 showdown at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis. Ouellette insists sheÂ’ll be ready to play. And if her finger isnÂ’t healed? Well, based on the Wisconsin series, she might be limited to scoring a game winner and assisting on another.

Gilbert, Badger veterans top BC for NCAA puck title

August 29, 2006 by · Leave a Comment
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MILWAUKEE, WIS. — Defenseman Tom Gilbert put the finishing touch on a spectacular season for both the Wisconsin Badgers as a team, and his own outstanding four years of college hockey in the most memorable way possible Saturday night, moving up to score a goal midway through the third period to beat Boston College 2-1 and claim the NCAA hockey championship before 17,758 mostly red-clad fans at Bradley Center.

It was a homestate triumph all the way for the Badgers, who first had to drive a couple hours northeast to win the Midwest Regional at Green Bay, before driving an hour east from Madison to Milwaukee for the Frozen Four. Typically, the victory was secured by Gilbert and the Badger defensemen, and, of course, goaltender Brian Elliott, with a team defense easily as responsible for the success as the goal-scorers. And a little luck didn’t hurt, as a late, desperation shot by Boston College’s Peter Harrold clanked off the pipe, and didn’t go in, as the final seconds elapsed.

It took all that to win the big NCAA Frozen Four plaque as the Badgers finished a 30-10-3 season with a 9-1 surge for the schoolÂ’s sixth NCAA title, creating a magical sweep, after Wisconsin also won the women’s NCAA hockey title. Boston College finished 26-13-3.

Previous Wisconsin titles came under Badger Bob Johnson in 1973, Â’77, and Â’81, with Jeff Sauer taking the Badgers to the 1983 and 1990 crowns. This is the first one for Mike Eaves, who is in his fourth year. Eaves was a star player on the 1977 title team, and he recalled the euphoria of winning as a player, compared to his measured enjoyment as a winning coach.

“As a player, you have such an emotional investment in the game,” said Eaves. “In Â’77, from the time we won the game until I got to the locker room, I donÂ’t remember anything that happened. As a coach, it was fun to…hug each one of those guys, and look each of them in the eye, and say, ‘job well done.Â’ ”

After all the talk about fantastic freshmen throughout the tournament, the Badgers relied on their veterans, as junior Robbie Earl scored to tie the game 1-1 in the second period on a pass from senior captain Adam Burish. Joe Pavelski – a key veteran although only a sophomore – assisted on both goals, and won a tournament-high 20 faceoffs in the game, while losing 12.

All three linemates had three points in the tournament, But Pavelski, who won a tournament-high 20 faceoffs while losing 12 in the title game, and set up both Badger goals, was the only member of the line that failed to make the all-tournament team, which listed Earl, Burish and BC’s Chris Collins as forwards, Gilbert and BC’s Brett Motherwell as defensemen, and Elliott as goaltender.

Earl was selected most outstanding player of the tournament, but it had to be a close call. Media voters tend to go with goal-scorers, and Earl had three, although his second goal in the 5-2 semifinal victory over Maine was an empty-netter, and it’s doubtful the Badgers would have won the title without the slick feeds of Pavelski and Burish, as well as Earl’s goals.

For Gilbert, another of the five seniors on the team, his 12th goal came at a most opportune time. The Badgers were carrying play, but had to fight to gain the 1-1 tie until midway through the third period.
Manning the right point on the Badger power play, Gilbert moved in, cruising unnoticed up the slot, as Pavelski held the puck near the end boards on the left side. Pavelski saw him coming but didn’t tip off his play before sending a perfect pass out to the slot. Gilbert caught the pass, with an instant of room to coil up and pick a spot, then he snapped a 25-foot wrist shot just inside the left post at 9:32.

“It’s a play we’ve worked on all week, with either me coming in, or Robbie Earl on the backside,” said Gilbert. “I’m an offensive defenseman, and I like to be the fourth guy in on the attack. I’ve got to give credit to Joe Pavelski, though. He was looking at Robbie, and he gave a no-look pass to me. I just knew that shot was going in.”

The big crowd erupted, and stayed on a high through the last 10 minutes, but it was a tough way for BCÂ’s sophomore goaltender Cory Schneider to end his run. Wisconsin outshot Boston College 39-22 for the game, while Schneider kicked aside 37 of those Badger shots to give his team every chance to win.

“I think Wisconsin is the best team we have played this year, over 60 minutes,” said Boston College coach Jerry York. “Cory Schneider kept us in the game. He was terrific. Wisconsin really has an excellent hockey team. There were a lot of comments in our locker room and from our players about how well-coached, how talented, their players are, and how well they played tonight.

“I thought our club got just what we wanted – we got to the third period in a very tough environment to play in, and with 10 or 12 minutes left in the game, it’s 1-1 for the national championship. They capitalize on their power play, we didn’t capitalize on ours. That was the difference.”

Befitting the obvious importance of the game, Boston College and Wisconsin sparred like wary heavyweights from the start, intent upon not betraying any critical weaknesses. Wisconsin had a 17-9 edge in shots in the first period, but the first round of the goaltending duel went to Schneider, who stopped all 19 Badger missiles.

The Eagles, meanwhile, got one past Elliott at 9:01 of the opening session. Dan Bertram, the busiest guy in the rink in the first period with three penalties and an assist, got the assist by burrowing in on the forecheck and prying the puck free on the right end boards, then jerking a pass out to the slot. Pat Gannon, a fourth-line sophomore center, was closing in and smacked a backhander that eluded Elliott and caught the upper right corner of the net.

“When the pass came out from behind the net, I got my stick on it,” said Elliott. “It got through, and somehow their guy got off a backhand, up high. It was a really good goal.”

Getting any manner of puck past Elliott in the last 10 games. Coming into the final game, Elliott had gone 8-1 in his last nine games, with an amazing 0.81 goals-against average, and an equally incredible .967 save percentage. So giving up one goal in the final actually raised his goals-against mark.

He had little chance on the Gannon goal, but he atoned for it anyway by blanking the Eagles through a much more even second period, and all the way to the finish.
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Meanwhile, Wisconsin rewarded the large and loyal crowd by getting the equalilzer on EarlÂ’s goal at 1:17. Earl was upended by a big bodycheck as he rushed toward the BC end. He got up slowly, and limped a couple steps heading for the bench. When he spotted his linemates attacking deep up the right boards, though, Earl had an instanteous recovery that would have made the Mayo Clinic proud. Earl quit limping and broke for the net, arriving at the crease just in time to convert BurishÂ’s pass, an instant before Earl was dumped into the cage himself.

“I was going to the bench,” said Earl. “Then we got a turnover, and Joe Pavelski went the other way. So I went to the net, and Adam made a great pass.”

The goal tied the game and gave Earl the team goal-scoring title. EarlÂ’s 24th goal of the season led Pavelski’s 23 and Burish’s 22. Pavelski leads Wisconsin in scoring with 23-33–56, to Earl’s 24-26–50, while Burish (9-23–32) edged Gilbert (12-19–31) for third.

The emotional victory was well documented by the Badgers in the aftermath.

“This is the best feeling, the best university, the best group of guys, and the best coaching staff,” said Gilbert, who is from Bloomington, MN.

Elliott attributed his strong finish – nine goals-against in Wisconsin’s last 10 games – to the team’s spiritual leaders.
“It’s been a testament to how great our seniors have been,” said Elliott, a 6-foot-3 junior. “When I came here, they were only sophomores…They’ll be my brothers for life.”

Private schools used to have their own puck tourney

August 29, 2006 by · Leave a Comment
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Cretin-Derham Hall ran away from Grand Rapids in a 7-0 state tournament championship final, climaxing a surprise-filled week at Saint Paul’s Xcel Energy Center. The fact that a colorful Grand Rapids team simply ran out of gas after upsetting Roseau and favored Hill-Murray in the first two rounds, was less surprising than the emergence of Cretin-Derham Hall, winning its first title in only its second state appearance.

When Hill-Murray and Holy Angels played to a 3-3 tie at midseason, they were considered co-No. 1 hockey teams. But with No. 1 Holy Angels suffering its only loss in a sectional upset by Apple Valley, Hill-Murray came into this yearÂ’s state tournament No. 1 in Class AA. Duluth Marshall reached the Xcel Center as the No. 1 ranked team in Class A.

Interesting to check through the historical tidbits of the state tournament program to see the listing of tournament appearances. The perennially powerful Pioneers never made it to the state tournament until 1975, while Marshall, a powerful little school on top of the hill in Duluth, never made it until 2001.

That is true, and it is also very misleading. The state hockey tournament program is a great source for historical tidbits such as those, but the Minnesota State High School League’s detailed accounts of state hockey history leaves what amounts to a “black hole” when it comes to the private and parochial schools.

Backers of public schools still bristle at the mention of private schools, and complain that they “recruit” from the productive youth hockey programs in public school areas. That talk subsided after the first Hill-Murray teams appeared dominant, and came back strong when Holy Angels swept to prominence in recent years. Accusations and evidence of recruiting by public schools, through open-enrollment, have pretty much drowned out the protests that private schools should be segregated into their own tournaments.

As a matter of fact, they used to do exactly that. State private school tournaments were held separately from the public school tournament in the 1960s and early 1970s, but the great teams that played in those glory years have dropped into the black hole of state puck history.

Except, of course, in the fertile memory banks of those who played on those teams, and those who played against them.

Bill Lechner, the coach at Hill-Murray for the past nine years, gave in to the demands of Hill-MurrayÂ’s alumni this year and brought out the old horizontally striped green-and-white sweater to wear at the Section 3 championship game. Facing arch-rival White Bear Lake before a doubleheader crowd that counted an over-capacity 7,425 at the state fair Coliseum, Lechner wore the sweater and Hill-Murray defeated the Bears 5-4 in the second sudden-death overtime.

“This is a gawd-awful sweater,” said Lechner, who is a bit more conservative in his game outfits. “But 2002 was the last time we made it to state, and three years tied the longest drought Hill-Murray has had without winning the section. I’ve had so many phone calls from alumni, telling me about how much tradition we’ve had, that I wore the sweater. Now I can put it back in the closet – at least until next year’s section final.”

Hill-Murray’s return was so stirring that nobody – from the referees, to the official scorer, to Lechner and some of the Pioneer players themselves, questioned the call that defenseman Derek McCallum’s shot from the blue line had won the game. Only a few folks standing behind the Bear goal realized that Bryant Skarda deftly got his stick blade on the low shot and deflected it into the upper right corner. “I don’t care if I get credit for it,” Skarda said, after acknowledging he deflected in the biggest goal of his life. “As long as we won the game.”

ThatÂ’s LechnerÂ’s one-for-all and all-for-one attitude at the Hill-Murray helm, just as it was his even-keel attitude 30-some years ago, when he was the goaltender at Cretin. Yes, Cretin-Derham Hall used to be just Cretin, just as Hill-Murray used to be just Hill, before merging with Archbishop Murray girls school, and Marshall School of Duluth used to be Duluth Cathedral, before moving up on the hill and being renamed after a significant donor.

Cretin-Derham Hall’s victory was reported as a shock because Cretin’s historic achievements in baseball and football have been so prominent they’ve overshadowed the school’s hockey past. That, and the “black hole” theory. Only people so naive about hockey are unaware that Cretin used to be a “Paradise” for hockey players, as the Paradise brothers — including NHL and hockey Hall of Fame resident Bob Paradise — led a group of skilled players to the St. Paul school.

“I graduated in 1971 from Cretin,” said Lechner. “We made it to the state independent tournament my junior year at Aldrich Arena, and my senior year at Duluth.”

If you probe the gracious and modest Lechner, whose first love was baseball, he will divulge his greatest moment in the Cretin nets. “We were playing St. Agnes in the section final to go to state,” he recalled. “Tom Younghans came in on a breakaway with a minute left in the third period. I stopped him…or maybe he missed the net. Whatever, the puck didn’t go in, and we son 3-2 to go to state. I’d have been really scared if I’d known what Tommy Younghans would become.”

Younghans went on to star at the University of Minnesota, and then with the Minnesota North Stars, where his always-hustling spirit won over the fans, and could be traced to his hockey roots.

“I played four years at St. Agnes, and we had good teams, but the only year we made it to the private school tournament was 1968, when I was a freshman,” said Younghans, who is trying to pull together a 30th anniversary reunion of his NCAA championship Gopher days. “We played Duluth Cathedral in the title game, and we lost. They had Pokey Trachsel, and Phil Hoene and Kevin Hoene. It’s funny, butnow I play senior men’s hockey with several Hoenes, and last fall we played against a Duluth team that had Pokey Trachsel on it.

“There were some great teams in the private schools back then, just as there are now, but unfortunately we weren’t allowed to play in the public school tournament. Every year, back then, there were two or three teams that would have challenged for the overall state title.”

There were some outstanding teams in the Catholic and private school sectors then, and they’d prove their skill level against the top public schools throughout the regular season. Then, as the public schools started gearing up for their regional play – now called sectional – the private and Catholic teams would go into their own small domain and play each other. Wakota Arena in South St. Paul, where the first private tournaments were held until the tournament began alternating between Aldrich Arena and the Duluth Arena – now the DECC – may have lacked the size, scope and media attention of the “big tournament,” but it never lacked for emotion and passionate hockey.

Blake and Breck were the primary private schools, and both were impressive, with Jack Blatherwick coaching Breck, and Rod Anderson coaching such luminaries as Ric Schafer at Blake. St. Paul Academy, where Tommy Vannelli and Robin Larson led SPA to glory, and St. Thomas Academy came to prominence after those early years.

The private schools were good, but they were usually overmatched by Catholic schools such as St. Agnes with Younghans following Mike Mallinger, Jerry OÂ’Connor and Jim Morin, and Cretin with future pro hockey brothers Bob and Dick Paradise, faced decent teams from Rochester Lourdes, Fridley Grace, St. BernardÂ’s, Benilde, and St. Cloud Cathedral. But without question, the two major powers were Hill and Duluth Cathedral.

Duluth Cathedral, under the brilliant coaching touch of a real estate salesman named Del Genereau, wrote its own rules for practice. The team almost never practiced indoors, because Genereau believed shoveling and flooding the outdoor rink was not only good for conditioning but made the players appreciate their practice time, and facing the elements made for overload training and an easy transition to the smooth-sliding pucks of indoor games.

The 1967 Duluth Cathedral team remains encapsulated as the best team its fans will ever see in high school hockey. Phil Hoene, who later starred at UMD and with the Los Angeles Kings, centered Larry Trachsel and Dan Sivertson on the first line; Kevin Hoene, later a star and coach at Notre Dame, centered the second line, with Tom Paul, a future Harvard star, on one wing, and Tom Cartier, a prominent Duluth businessman these days, on the other. Mike Randolph, the East coach, was a ninth-grader who centered the third line. Pokey Trachsel, who still holds the UMD record for five goals in a single game, was a ninth-grader who led the defense.

“That one might have been the best, but we won the independent tournament the first five years it was held,” said Kevin Hoene, now a financial consultant in Duluth. “I played in four of those tournaments, two at Wakota and one at the Duluth Arena, and the ’68 tournament at Aldrich. I remember Cretin had a great team, with the Paradise brothers and a lot of other good players, but St. Bernard’s upset them 4-3 in the semifinals when a goalie named Carl Swapinski made 51 saves to beat them at Wakota Arena. We were staying at the Golden Steer Motel, and we went out and after we beat St. Bernard’s 9-0 in the final, we thanked Cretin for softening them up.”

In the 1967 public school tournament, history was made because the string of three straight state championships by International Falls was snapped when Greenway of Coleraine won the title behind a sensational sophomore centerman named Mike Antonovich, and the Raiders beat a great Hibbing team, led by Bob Collyard, in the semifinals. Those two teams were probably the best two teams in the tournament. But Duluth Cathedral, which snapped the International Falls streak of 58 straight victories early in the season, beat both Greenway and Hibbing 4-1 that season, while going undefeated against all Minnesota challengers.

The game of the year in Duluth – and certainly among the greatest high school games in anybody’s history – came when Duluth Cathedral faced archrival Duluth East. The teams had tied earlier in the season, and the rematch was on a Wednesday night, at the Duluth Arena, with its 5,500 capacity. The game was on regional television, and it drew an overflow crowd of 6,122.

The tension was electrifying, and East, which had a half-dozen future Division I players in its lineup, led 4-2. Then Phil Hoene scored a goal to make it 4-3. On the ensuing faceoff, “Phantom Phil” sped in and scored again, 7 seconds later, and incredibly, he scored yet again, 20 seconds after that – a pure hat trick in 27 seconds, and Cathedral won 6-4.

“Cathedral had never beaten East until then, and East had won the state title a few years before that,” Kevin Hoene recalled. “We played six or seven teams that season that were rated No. 1 in the state when we played them, and we beat them all.

“When we moved up on the hill, into the new school, we built our own rink and it was almost Olympic width,” Hoene added. “We had a great guy named Bernie Pfeffer who kept up the ice. He build a thing with a sweeper on the front, and hot water tank at the back, and we called it a ‘Zambernie.’ ”

Mike Randolph remembers also, of course.

“Pokey Trachsel was the only one who never picked up a shovel and never picked up a plow, but he had the keys to the Zambernie,” said Randolph. “He’d make me sit up front on the plow, then he’d drive. We’d go up there and play seven days a week, on our own. Being on top of the hill, there would be some days with an unbelievable wind. At practice, we’d flip to see who got to do the drills with the wind at their back.”

Randolph also remembers beating the state’s best public school teams. “We beat the public school tournament champion three of my four years,” said Randolph. “The only one we didn’t beat was Edina, because we didn’t play them the year they beat Warroad in the final. But that year, we went up to Warroad and beat them 3-2 – right in Warroad. I’ll never forget it, because it was Pokey against Henry. We stayed overnight up there, and we couldn’t believe that Henry had a key to the arena, the Warroad Gardens. He took us around and let us in there.”

Randolph has tried to transfer the Del Genereau coaching technique to his current East teams, where he has former teammate Larry Trachsel as assistant coach. “I remember one time Del came up to a kid named Mike Zeman and told him, ‘You’ll never make it as a defenseman… why don’t you try playing goal?’ ” Randolph said. “He did, and we won state with him in goal.”

He also remembers some of the wry touches Genereau would use for maximum effect. Kevin Hoene’s wingers were griping that their centerman wasn’t moving the puck well enough. “So when Kevin went out on a line change for a faceoff, Del kept his wings on the bench,” Randolph recalled. “Kevin asked what was going on, and Del said, ‘We;;, you’re not using them anyway, so I thought maybe you could play without them.’ ”

Hoene didn’t remember that exact situation, but laughed and acknowledged it might well have happened. At any rate, as that Cathedral dynasty started to wane, Hill – and later Hill-Murray – was just emerging.

“We finally beat Cathedral at Aldrich after they had won five straight private tournament titles,” said Dick Spannbauer, a Hill defenseman and later a star for Herb Brooks with the Gophers. “We won the tournament in 1972 at Aldrich, but we had a great team the year before, in 1970 and 1971, too. We had Bob Young and Les aLarson on one defense pair, and I played with Greg Tauer on the other, with Langevin as fifth defenseman in 1970. The next year, it was Young and Larson on once set, and Langevin and me on the other.”
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Not bad defense for a college team. Young, who had a fantastic shot from the point, went to Denver University to play for Murray Armstrong, Larson went to Notre Dame and played with CathedralÂ’s Kevin Hoene, Langevin went to UMD, and later the New York Islanders, and Spannbauer was a giant defenseman who helped the Gophers win their first NCAA title ever. Langevin, of course, later was voted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, but for one season he was No. 5 on HillÂ’s defense.

“In 1971, we lost to Blake 4-2 in the tournament final in Duluth,” said Spannbauer. “We were 26-1-1 that year, and our only loss was to Blake, where Ric Schafer was their star.”

In those days, there were few if any accusations of recruiting, because there really wasnÂ’t the kind of temptations offered by the open enrollment and the high-powered neighboring programs of today.

“We were all from different little parishes, just like the Cretin guys were, or the St. Agnes or St. Bernard’s guys,” said Spannbauer. “We had Matt and Pat Conroy, Tim Whisler, Rick and Mike Belde, Joe Nelson, Fred Simon – a lot of guys who went on to play Division I college. But it was a foregone conclusion that the kids who went to the Catholic grade schools would be going to Catholic high schools. I was in the first graduyating class from Hill-Murray after they merged, and by my senior year, I think some guys might have started to trickle in to play hockey.

“But before, we were No. 1 in in some state polls, even though we were in the private tournament. We didn’t have indoor ice, so our coach, Andre Beaulieu, would have us scrimmage all the time. We’d have standing room crowds for scrimmages against Edina out at Braemar.”

The Duluth Cathedral heydays also were built on respect, not recruiting. “In Duluth, you couldn’t hop from one district to another,” said Hoene. “Our kids came from the different parishes. If you were Catholic, there was a good chance you’d be going to Cathedral.”

Randolph said: “Cathedral was a Catholic school, and kids went there because of their family’s religious background. We knew we couldn’t play in the public school hockey tournament, but we came to Cathedral for other reasons.”

The reasons have been blurred as the years passed. Mike (Lefty) Curran, star goaltender at International Falls, North Dakota, the Fighting Saints, and with the silver-medal-winning 1972 U.S. Olympic team, recalls those good old days in the 1950s and 60s.

“Cretin used to play International Falls every year,” Curran said. “Falls lost to Cretin in 1957, and came back to beat ‘em the next night, and that was a year Falls went on to win the state title (at 23-2). They had a couple of Paradises out here, and we knew how good they were. And of course, Cathedral ended the Falls streak after 58 straight wins.”

That, of course, was long before Bill Lechner played goalie for Cretin, and longer before Lechner pulled out that green and white striped sweater to help this yearÂ’s Hill-Murray make it back to state. Along with Cretin-Derham Hall, and Blake, and Marshall. Strong teams, with a heritage that now challenges the public schools, but which has roots that go far back to the days of the state independent tournament.

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  • About the Author

    John GilbertJohn 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:

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