Gophers have questions, Sioux answers in NCAA meet

Minnesota and North Dakota, both Frozen Four entries a year ago, will not both make it this time, because they are in the same West Regional of the NCAA menÂ’s hockey tournament in Grand Forks, with semifinals Friday and the final, which will determine one of the Frozen Four entrants, on Saturday.

Minnesota is the No. 1 seed in the regional, while North Dakota rode in as No. 2 after an impressive showing to win the WCHA Final Five with victories over Wisconsin and then upstart St. Cloud State. The teams could, indeed, collide in SaturdayÂ’s final, if Minnesota can beat Holy Cross at 5:30 p.m. Friday, and North Dakota subdues Michigan in FridayÂ’s 8 p.m. semifinal.

North Dakota, with an amazingly young team finding its maturity at the right time, is playing with confidence and skill, and will have the enormous support of the avid Fighting Sioux fans in Ralph Engelstad Arena. It will be interesting to see if some of those fans show up at the Minnesota-Holy Cross game to cheer on Holy Cross, with yelling against an archrival being more a more compelling target than WCHA unity.

Minnesota, of course, canÂ’t be concerned with such trivia. The Golden Gophers swept two 4-3 games from North Dakota in early December to start on a 20-1-1 streak that carried them through the first round of league playoffs and right up to the Final Five. But the Final Five left the Gophers answering a lot of questions.

A week ago, the prospect facing MinnesotaÂ’s certain move into the NCAA was intriguing. As the clearcut No. 1 ranked team in the nation in all the polls, as well as in the NCAA selection committeeÂ’s pairwise power structure, would the Gophers prefer to go to Grand Forks, N.D., where they might have to face North Dakota, or to Green Bay, Wis., where they might have to face Wisconsin?

Now the NCAA regionals are upon us, and while the question of Minnesota’s whereabouts for the four regionals was easily configured – Grand Forks – there are several more perplexing questions gnawing at the Golden Gophers.

• Did the two losses in the WCHA Final Five, an 8-7 thriller to St. Cloud State in the semifinals and a 4-0 snoozer to Wisconsin, indicate the Gophers took the weekend off, because they knew they were set in the NCAA, or did they get off their game in the process?

• Did the fact that the losses, coupled with Wisconsin beating them, knocked Minnesota off the No. 1 spot, but did allowing Wisconsin to take No. 1 have more than just a psychological impact?

• The Gopher defense, which had been the key to that 20-1-1 cruise through the stretch drive and right up to the Final Five, reverted to the haphazard giveaway style that confounded the team during its 7-5-4 first half struggle; are such problems easily corrected in practice?

• Will Minnesota be able to avoid looking ahead while facing unheralded Holy Cross in Friday’s Region game, making them vulnerable as they consider the prospect of facing the North Dakota-Michigan winner on Saturday?

• Can goaltender Kellen Briggs regain the form of three shutouts in the five games leading up to the Final Five, or did giving up 12 goals in the two Final Five games dent his psyche, as well as his invincibility?

• Can the Gophers, who have ridden an even-keel approach through most of the season, find the emotional spike, or spikes, that might be necessary to carry a team to victory in the pressure of NCAA playoffs?
Stay tuned. The answers are expected soon.

“I think that our schedule left us with some games that were too easy at the end of the year,” said Minnesota coach Don Lucia after the Final Five setbacks. “We played a couple of tougher teams here.
“As for which Regional, it doesn’t matter where you play. If you’re better, you win.”

Minnesota needed no concern after a highly entertaining 8-7 loss to St. Cloud State, which had to win the tournament to advance, and scoring star Ryan Potulny led them back from a 6-3 deficit in that game with an amazing four-goal performance. But the 4-0 loss to Wisconsin is the kind of loss that can shake up a teamÂ’s confidence, while obviously bolstering the Badgers, and it was only the second time all season Minnesota had lost two in a row.

“The last time we got swept in a weekend, good things happened,” said Gopher captain Gino Guyer, noting that Minnesota’s long streak began after two embarrassing losses to Wisconsin. “From here on out, though, you’ve got to win or else.”

As Minnesota prepares to take on Holy Cross, North Dakota is a team that seems to just be rising to its peak, and the Sioux have only one challenge. Michigan.

That is a formidable task of facing the perennial CCHA power is tempered only slightly by the fact that the Wolverines were not a factor in the CCHA race, and come to Grand Forks as a No. 3 seed.

North Dakota has played solidly all season, but with six of their 12 forwards and four of their six defensemen all being freshmen, the Fighting Sioux were pretty well unable to string together any concerted bids for the title, but continued to improve while working under the radar. A pair of 2-1 losses to St. Cloud State at Grand Forks seemed to doom theSioux, but they bounced back to split at Colorado College, sweep Minnesota Duluth, split at Denver, and sweep Michigan Tech to end the regular WCHA with a 6-2 run.

Losing 3-2 at home to Minnesota State-Mankato caused the Sioux to snap to attention. They won 4-1 and 3-0 to reach the Final Five, then beat favored Wisconsin 4-3, and moved ahead 5-1 against St. Cloud State before winning 5-3 for the Broadmoor Trophy.

“A key to our success is the ability of our guys to keep bouncing back, and close out games,” said coach Dave Hakstol. “We looked at it, and said let’s see where we’re at, and what we have to do to get better. We hoped we’d have the ability to compete with the best teams in the country, and we hoped to be playing our best hockey of the year at the end. We’re doing that.”

The Sioux won the Final Five without leading scorer Drew Stafford, whose impact may upgrade the North Dakota offense for the regional. Otherwise, veterans like juniors Chris Porter and sophomores Rastislav Spirko and Travis Zajac have been supercharged by the infusion of freshmen T.J. Oshie, Jonathan Toews, Ryan Duncan and others up front, while Zach Jones, Taylor Chorney, Brian Lee and Joe Finley are all freshmen back on defense.

“At the beginning, we had a bunch of new guys,” said Jordan Parise, the junior goaltender who was the most valuable player at the Final Five. “Communication has gotten a lot better and the guys are more comfortable with each other, and in the last month, we’ve taken a turn for the better.”

To win the Final Five, Parise said: “We weren’t thinking of the past, and we’re not thinking too far ahead, either.”

While Toews is certain to be a first-round NHL draft pick, fellow-freshman Oshie has been igniting the first line for the Sioux all season. If the Gophers and Fighting Sioux do end up in the region final, keep an eye on No. 7 in green along with No. 26 in the Gopher uniform, because the sideshow of Oshie against Minnesota’s Phil Kessel will be an added treat. Kessel has enjoyed the prominence of the multi-media print and television of the Twin Cities, but Oshie has made his presence felt as well. Kessel has 17-33—50 for the season – a tremendous output for a freshman and a number which made him the runaway winner of the WCHA freshman of the year award.

But Oshie has 23-19—42 for the lighter-scoring Sioux, and he has 13 goals at equal strength compared to 7 for Kessel. Also, while Oshie likes to run into people physically, he doesn’t shoot enough. Kessel has taken 170 shots, and scored on 10 percent of them, while Oshie has taken only 85 shots for the season, and scored on an amazing 26 percent of them.

“Oshie is a very exciting player to watch,” said Hakstol. “He is a tremendous competitor with some special skills and ability. If he’s not scoring goals, he’s effective as a physical guy for us. He’s a pretty complete player.”

The selection committee, in fact, appears to have taken a stand against what happened last season, when the Frozen Four all came from the WCHA, because champion Denver, runner-up North Dakota, Colorado College and Minnesota each won a different regional. This year, there are four WCHA teams among the 16 selected teams, but all four are gathered in two regionals.

While Minnesota and North Dakota are 1-2 in the West Regional, Wisconsin and Colorado College are both in the Midwest Regional at Green Bay, with Wisconsin facing No. 4 Bemidji State and CC taking on Cornell in SaturdayÂ’s semifinals, and their winners meeting in a Sunday final.

Interestingly, it is the CCHA that gets three potential avenues to the Frozen Four, as the Midwest Regional is the only one without a CCHA team. Both Miami of Ohio and Nebraska-Omaha are at Worcester, Mass., for the Northeast Regional, where Miami meets Boston College and UNO faces top-seeded Boston University in Friday semifinals. Michigan State wound up the No. 1 seed in the East Regional at Albany, N.Y., where it will take on New Hampshire, while Maine plays Harvard in the other Saturday semifinal.

It is a tall order to expect Michigan State to win the East, Miami or Nebraska-Omaha to win the Northeast, and Michigan to win the West, but it is interesting that the selection committee chose to move Cornell, from Ithaca, N.Y., away from Albany, and leave the East Region essentially without a close-proximity host.

Fighting Sioux top St. Cloud 5-3 for Final Five title

SAINT PAUL, MN. — Freshmen Ryan Duncan scored two goals and T.J. Oshie and Jonathan Toews scored one apiece and set up three others, as the North Dakota “kiddie corps” claimed a 5-3 victory over St. Cloud State Saturday night. The victory won the WCHA Final Five championship before 19,282 fans at Xcel Energy Center – the perfect tonic for the Fighting Sioux, who seem to be reaching their peak just in time to play host to one of four NCAA regional tournaments next weekend.

No team that started the Final Five by playing the “play-in” game has ever won the tournament, but the Huskies gave it a run. They knew they had to win the tournament to gain an automatic berth in the 16-team NCAA field, but instead of showing signs of fatigue, St. Cloud struck for the game’s first goal. North Dakota countered just 10 seconds later, scoring twice in 15 seconds, in fact, and sped away to a seemingly secure 5-1 lead. But the Sioux never could put the scrappy Huskies away, and their rally to the finish – and a 40-29 edge in shots for the game – made it an entertaining final.

North Dakota (26-15-1) moves on, while St. Cloud State (22-15-4) goes home, but not without satisfaction from a strong finish.

Konrad ReederÂ’s opening goal for St. Cloud came at 3:50 of the first period, but Rastislav Spirko countered by knocking in OshieÂ’s try at the crease at 4:00, and Toews shot from the slot and knocked in his own rebound at 4:15. That flurry got the attention of the big crowd, but Parise stifled St. CloudÂ’s ability to keep pace with the Sioux scorers.

Oshie finished the first period with a power-play slap shot for his 23rd goal of the season, and Duncan scored two picture goals in the second period to boost the lead to 5-1. At 4:58 of the middle period, Duncan rushed up the left side, faked a slapshot to get goalie Bobby Goepfert to commit, then strode in deeper to shoot into an empty net behind him. At 14:41, Toews rushed in hard and fed a great pass to Duncan for another power-play tally.

The Huskies stormed back, closing the game to 5-3 on goals by Brock Hooten and a third-period marker by Billy Hengen, and were battling for more to the final buzzer.

“I want to congratulate St. Cloud State on a tremendous performance,” said North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol. “Everybody knows what they’ve gone through the past nine days.”

At a time when other coaches might be rationalizing away setbacks by staying focused on the “big picture,” North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol said he and his staff have instead gone after short-term objectives, and this weekend’s strong tournament play was one of them. We’ve taken things on a short-term basis, and we had an opportunity to win a championship, and we did that. The Broadmoor Trophy is going home with us.”

While the Fighting Sioux came in as No. 3 seed, St. Cloud was No. 4, which meant the Huskies, who upset Colorado College in three games last weekend, had to defeat Minnesota-Duluth on Thursday, then get past No. 1 ranked Minnesota in FridayÂ’s semifinals, which they did, 8-7 in overtime. That put them up against the Fighting Sioux, who defeated second-seeded Wisconsin 4-3 on Friday.

St. CloudÂ’s first-year coach Bob Motzko was emotional, but handled it well. “IÂ’ve got to congratulate North Dakota and its coaching staff,” said Motzko. “Five goals by freshmen – what a job that coaching staff did to prepare a young team like that.”

Actually, it appeared freshmen had scored all the goals, but Oshie’s crease-crashing attempt on what appeared to be the first Sioux goal was later changed to Rastislav Spirko. Oshie, runner-up for freshman of the year to MinnesotaÂ’s Phil Kessel, was the best freshman at the tournament, and was a factor with his forceful play every shift he played. While Oshie had a goal and an assist, Toews had a goal and two assists, Duncan two goals and one assist, and freshman defenseman Brian Lee two assists.

“This one hurts, because we came to play,” said Motzko. “We made three mistakes and they cost us the game, but we had a very strong game. North Dakota played well, and their freshmen carried them. Pretty impressive, and with Zach Jones and that young defense, killing penalties – itÂ’s scary how well they played.”

The Fighting Sioux had six freshman forwards and four of their six defensemen were freshmen. And Drew Stafford, one of their few veterans, and the Sioux leading scorer, is out with an injury suffered last weekend in the first game of a tough, best-of-three victory over Minnesota State-Mankato. The Sioux also had to engage a St. Cloud State team that had beaten them three out of four times during the season, including a sweep at Grand Forks.

“When St. Cloud swept us in our building, it was the low point in our season,” said Duncan. “After that, we decided to collectively come together as a group, and we’ve been going the same direction every since.”

The losses to the Huskies were both 2-1, with the second in overtime. Since then, the Sioux have gone10-3, and four straight victories, including the two in the Final Five.

Jordan Parise, North Dakota’s goaltender, came in comparatively unheralded against the likes of St. Cloud’s Goepfert and Wisconsin’s Brian Elliott – the two goaltenders he and his teammates beat in the tournament. Parise was named most valuable player of the event, and was joined on the all-tournament team byu defensemen Kyle Klubertanz of Wisconsin and Matt Smaby of North Dakota, and forwards Oshie, St. Cloud State’s Brock Hooten and Minnesota’s Ryan Potulny.

Parise had no chance on the opening goal, a power-play rush with Reeder one-timing a neat backhand pass to the slot by Aaron Brocklehurst. He also was beaten at 16:20 of the second period by Hooten, whose speedy burst up the left boards got him past the defense, and he cut across the goal-mouth before scoring inside the right pipe. That goal gave the Huskies life for the third period, and HengenÂ’s goal came in a scramble when his shot hit Parise, popped up high, and as Joe Jensen crashed into Parise in the crease, the puck landed behind him and trickled across the line at 5:07, inspiring the Huskies to keep pressing.

“We weren’t thinking of the past, and we’re not thinking too far ahead, either,” said Parise. “There have been games I haven’t been at my best, but it hasn’t caused my confidence to deteriorate a bit. I have a job, and my teammates rely on me; they have a job, and I rely on them to do it.”

A few goals didnÂ’t hurt, either.

Motzko, reflecting on how far the Huskies came this season, said: “We became a good hockey team, and we belong here. Maybe we had to experience this – to stand out there on the ice, and watch North Dakota get that trophy.”

Elliott, Badgers stop Gophers for 3rd, and much more

SAINT PAUL, MN. — Had Minnesota and Wisconsin played for the WCHA Final Five playoff championship Saturday night, it is impossible to predict what might have happened. Instead, they played in the afternoon third place game, which meant the duel of the two teams that have dominated the nationÂ’s No. 1 ranking all season were left with whatever intensity they could muster after disappointing semifinal losses.

It was no contest. Wisconsin whipped Minnesota 4-0 before a third-place-game record crowd of 16,164 fans at the Xcel Energy Center. The Badgers (26-10-3) thoroughly outplayed the Gophers (27-8-5) from start to finish, getting shutout goaltending from Brian Elliott, while Andrew Joudrey scored in the first period, Jack Skille scored midway through the second, and Ross Carlson and Robbie Earl chipped in with third-period goals.

The victory pushes Wisconsin from No. 2 to No. 1, displacing Minnesota, in the Pairwise computer rankings that the NCAA selection committee uses to select the field that will be announced today for the national tournament, which starts next weekend. Both teams undoubtedly will be top seeds for NCAA regionals, which will be held at four sites, including Grand Forks, N.D, and Green Bay, Wis.

Wisconsin undoubtedly will now be the No. 1 seed at Green Bay, while Minnesota very likely will be No. 1 seed at Grand Forks – where North Dakota, a resurgent team that played St. Cloud State Saturday night for the WCHA playoff title, will be the host, and a crowd-favorite.

Neither team came to the tournament to play in the third-place game, and both had reasons to lack intensity Saturday: Minnesota lost an emotional 8-7 overtime semifinal to St. Cloud State Friday night after rallying from a 6-3 deficit to tie it in the closing seconds; Wisconsin had earlier lost a tough 4-3 game to North Dakota, after blowing a 2-0 lead.

“Our team responded well, redemption being a great motivator, and nobody on our team was looking at this as just a third-place game,” said Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves. “We were playing for possible No. 1 in the Pairwise, and this was also the rubber match between the two teams. With the rivalry, intensity is going to be there all the time, but the intensity goes up a level this year, because both teams are good.”

Indeed, Wisconsin was virtually unbeatable from the start of the season, going 19-2-2 overall until mid-January, and then losing four straight games and five of six when Elliott was injured, and struggling to a 7-7-1 finish. The drop-off cost the Badgers the No. 1 rank in the nation as well as a huge lead in the WCHA. Minnesota, meanwhile, started off with an under-achieving 7-5-4 through a painful sweep at home against Wisconsin on December 2-3, but since then had ridden an amazing 20-1-1 streak into the Final Five – including a revenge sweep at Wisconsin – while winning the WCHA regular season title and the No. 1 national rating.

After both teams lost in FridayÂ’s semifinals, SaturdayÂ’s game turned WisconsinÂ’s fortunes upward, while the Gophers must shake off their first two-game lost weekend since December. The Gopher players seemed frustrated and a little angry that they had failed to play with any competitive fire against Wisconsin, but their coach rationalized a bit.

“The reality of the game today was what happened last night,” said Lucia. “We worked so hard to get back into the game, then lost in overtime. Had we won, I’m sure we would have been more excited about playing today. Maybe if we had gotten a goal it could have been different, I can’t say I anticipated us lacking intensity, but there were a lot of blank stares today. Both teams are moving on, so you come here to play for a trophy, and we lost that right last night.”

The coaches’ different feelings may best be filtered through a bit of historic perspective. Both Eaves and Lucia stress even-keep approaches to coaching, keeping the big picture in mind throughout the long season. But at playoff time – even league playoff time – spikes in emotional fire can beat even-keel every time. “No question,” said Eaves, who smiled at the recollection of those electrifying Gopher-Badger games of 30 years ago. “You can never forget them.”

Eaves lived through the fullest intensity of the Gopher-Badger rivalry as a star at Wisconsin back in the 1970s, when “Badger Bob” Johnson coached against Minnesota’s Herb Brooks, and the two schools were the premier hockey programs in the country. Hatred is too strong a word for their rivalry perhaps, but then again, maybe not. On the other hand, Minnesota coach Don Lucia played for some very good teams at Notre Dame, but the Fighting Irish never had a rivalry that approached the Minnesota-Wisconsin electricity.

The Gopher players refused to accept any crutch from the night before. “As players, you’re supposed to be able to bring it,” said captain Gino Guyer. “It wasn’t there, for whatever reason. We weren’t into it. After the first period, you could tell we were pretty dead. Every time we can win a trophy, we want to win it, and from here on out, we’ve got to win or else.”

Teammate Danny Irmen agreed. “Give Wisconsin credit,” he said. They played well, and they’re a good defensive team. Last night, the energy was there, but today, everybody was looking around for someone else to do it, and you can’t have that.”

Just 3:30 into the game, Jake Dowell chipped the puck off the boards in the Wisconsin zone, and Andrew Joudrey broke up the middle, caught the pass, split the flat-footed Gopher defense, and was gone. Speeding in on a breakaway, Joudrey deked and slid a backhand through goalie Kellen Briggs. It was the 11th time the Badgers had scored in the first four minutes of a game this season.

Wisconsin outshot Minnesota 11-7 in the first period, even though the Gophers had three power plays to one for the Badgers. The 1-0 score stood until midway through the second period, when Jack Skille broke up the right side with both teams a man short, leaned hard against a defenseman as he veered toward the net, and jammed his shot past Briggs at 10:07 for a 2-0 count.

The Badgers clicked on a power play at 3:02 of the third period, silencing the predominately Gopher crowd, which hadnÂ’t had much to cheer about anyway. Defenseman Kyle Klubertanz had the puck at the blue line, and he angled to his right to pick up a screen, then shot for the left edge. Briggs kicked out and blocked the shot with his right skate, but the rebound went right to Ross Carlson, who quickly shot it in.

The Gopher defense, which had a shaky tendency to throw the puck carelessly – something it had overcome during the team’s recent hot streak – saw that issue return in some cases. The costliest might have been when Robbie Earl stepped in to pick off sophomore Alex Goligoski’s D-to-D pass and broke in alone. His shot was blocked by Briggs, but the puck trickled in behind him, and Earl tapped in his own rebound as he sped past the net.

A night before, Gopher fans chanted “HO-BEY BA-KER…” over and over for center Ryan Potulny, who scored four goals and an assist as the nation’s top goal and point scorer. On Saturday, the chant came from the red-clad Badger fans, who chanted “HO-BEY BA-KER…” for Elliott, who seemed to be back in top form, with his third shutout in his last six games.

“I don’t even know what ‘back’ is,” said Elliott. “We kind of took it to them in their end, and when our forwards are going, that’s our best defense. Our defensive corps pushed them to the outside and didn’t allow many good chances.”

Lucia said: “Elliott is a good goaltender, but he didn’t have too tough of a game today.”

North Dakota nips Badgers 4-3 to reach Final Five final

MINNEAPOLIS, MN. — The University of North Dakota faced an imposing challenge Friday afternoon. As if facing Wisconsin was not enough, the underdog Fighting Sioux also gave up the first two goals, and faced star goaltender Brian Elliott in the Badger nets. But North Dakota pulled out something of a secret weapon to charge back with the next four goals, and whipped Wisconsin 4-3 before a first semifinal session-record 16,468 fans at Xcel Energy Center.

The victory sends North Dakota (26-15-1) into SaturdayÂ’s championship game of the WCHA Final Five for the seventh time in the last 10 years, where they face the winner of Friday nightÂ’s Minnesota-St. Cloud State game. Wisconsin (25-10-3) will face the late-game loser in the 2:30 third-place game, which takes on some extra importance for seeding purposes for the NCAA tournament, which will be announced Sunday.

“Wisconsin made a couple of plays early that got them going, but we were fortunate to come back,” said North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol. “There were some good goals, and good goaltending, at both ends. The championship game will be a big challenge, but that’s what we came here for. I don’t care whether we play Minnesota or Wisconsin. We’l prepare ourselves to play as well as we can, and you can’t pick your poison.”

The magic potion for the Sioux Friday was Rylan Kaip, a sophomore from Wilcox, Saskatchewan, who hadn’t ever scored a goal in two collegiate seasons, albeit missing half of his freshman term with recurring concussions. Kaip scored in the final minute of the first period to lift the Sioux to a 2-2 tie, then, with the Sioux leading 3-2, Kaip scored again late in the second period for a 4-2 lead – a goal that stood up as the game-winner.

“It definitely felt good,” said Kaip. “I can remember the last time I scored – it was back playing junior hockey in Saskatchewan. Scoring slumps happen, buyt mine probably went longer than most. Both teams came out pretty strong, and when we got behind 2-0, we just had to take a deep breath and start picking away.”

The Badgers had jumped ahead when Joe Pavelski picked a shot by Kyle Klubertanz out of the air, deflecting it down, where it went past goaltender Jordan Parise like a bad-hop single to left. That came at 7:43 of the first period, and right after North Dakota freshman flash T.J. Oshie had zigzagged the length of the ice for a scoring chance, the Badgers returned to the Sioux end for a perfectly-executed 2-on-1 rush. Jake Dowall, a left-handed shooter, rushed up the right side, pulled the puck back and snapped a pass across the slot, where Andy Brandt, a right-handed shooter skating up the left side, one-timed it past Parise at 11:05. It looked good, but for Brandt, a little-used fourth-line junior from Wausau, Wis., it was his first goal of the season and second of his career.

The Sioux responded quickly, but it took several minutes of generating momentum before they broke through on a power play at 18:07. The goal looked surprisingly easy, as Ryan Duncan walked in from the right point to the top of the circle, and fired a wrist shot over ElliottÂ’s glove and into the upper right corner.

“I thought we had made as many plays as they did when we were down 2-0,” said Hakstol. “Duncan’s goal was a major turning point, and then we got one in the last minute of the period.”

That one came with 58 seconds left in the first period, less than a minute after Duncan’s goal, when Matt Watkins passed the puck out from the end boards on the left of the net to Kaip – who was playing his 38th game of the season at right wing, despite never having scored. Kaip let go with a wrist shot from the left circle to tie the game 2-2.

“We got ahead 2-0, then we became kind of complacent,” said Pavelski. “We had a number of chances to make it 3-0, and to put them away, but we weren’t desperate all the time. We need every guy going out there.”

The Sioux seemed to like the momentum, and they resumed it when the second period began. Rastislav Spirko, a sophomore from Slovakia who counts as a veteran on the youthful Sioux team, came out from behind the net on the left just in time to deflect OshieÂ’s wide shot past Elliott at 4:10.

A succession of penalties – and successful penalty kills – filled the middle period until the 18:24 mark, and then Kaip struck again. This time, he looked like a veteran goal-scorer instead of a kid getting his second collegiate goal. A shot by Chris Porter had been blocked and caromed to the right circle, where Kaip caught it on his stick blade. Instead of shooting the wide-angle shot immediately, he coolly stepped ahead, and shot a wider-angle shot high into the net for a 4-2 cushion.

Wisconsin got a power-play chance before the middle period ended, and Robbie Earl made it click, waiting in the slot for a perfect feed from Pavelski, deep in the left corner, then one-timing a low shot between the pads of Parise as he dropped to the ice at 18:59.

That set the stage for a wild third period, but the Fighting Sioux managed to prevent any more scoring, with Parise turning acrobatic to stop all 12 Badger shots in the final session.

“We got off to a good start, which we wanted to do, but North Dakota stayed with it and got themselves back in the game,” said Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves. “The third period was pretty even, we just couldn’t get the tying goal. We seemed to be disconnected; if one guy was forechecking, another would be holding back instead of supporting him. It’s a learning process, and individuals learn at different rates. So do teams.

“The question we have to face is do we have the mental toughness to get it done? Even when we were playing so well earlier in the season, one thing we haven’t had to deal with is coming from behind.”

The Badgers almost pulled it off, but Parise’s brilliant finish stymied them. “Wisconsin came at us hard, especially down the stretch in the last four or five minutes,” said Hakstol. “As he’s done all year, Jordan was there. The guys play extremely well for Jordan, and he came through for them.”

U.S. accepts learning curve of women’s bandy event

The Winter Olympics are well underway in Turin, Italy, but in Roseville, Minnesota, another world competition is taking place. The United States lost 2-0 to Finland, then 7-0 to Russia, but despite the early results, the American players are totally satisfied with their performance, because for them, the WomenÂ’s World Bandy Championships are a learning experience.

ItÂ’s the same for North Americans all across the continent, who have no idea what bandy is, or of the great interest there is in the game in Scandinavian countries and Russia, where it is more prevalent than hockey.

The tournament is being conducted at the John Rose Oval adjacent to Roseville Arena in the northern suburb of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Bandy is played on skates, without contact, and using a light but hard ball instead of a puck, and short, curled-blade sticks. The team is more like a soccer team, with a goaltender, sweeper, two fullback defensive players, maybe two halfback defenders, three midfielders and two attacking forwards, and it is played on an ice surface the size of a soccer rink. So the interior of the speedskating oval is the only place in Minnesota that can house the tournament.

“We’re trying to get more nations playing the game to elevate it to an Olympic sport,” said Leif Klingborg, chairman of the Federation of International Bandy (FIB), and was coach of the Swedish men’s team in 1994 and 1995, which won the World Championship, also held at the Roseville facility.

With Russia, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Canada and the United States participating in this weekÂ’s tournament, the sport may not be far away. There are not that many more teams playing womenÂ’s hockey, which is being played for the third time in the Winter Olympics. While Canada and the U.S. are far ahead of the rest of the field in hockey, and have played in every gold medal game of every world and Olympic tournament, in bandy Sweden is the power, with Russia next, and then Finland and Norway, while the U.S. and Canada are in the learning phase.

It turns out, the 2-0 loss to Finland, on goals by Katri Niemela and Paula Niskanen, was an outstanding performance by Team USA, which contained the Finnish attack with strong and disciplined defensive play.

“We knew they were a lot better than we were, so losing 2-0 was really good for us,” said Heather Pritchard, U.S. alternate captain and a defensive player who was named the team’s player of the game against Finland.

“Bandy is the No. 2 sport to soccer in Russia,” said Klingborg. “In Sweden, it also is a big sport, second to hockey. There is women’s bandy all over Sweden, and there is not much hockey for women yet. In Finland, bandy is big, but not as big, and hockey is more popular. In Norway, though, bandy is bigger than hockey.

“The U.S. and Canada are getting better all the time, but right now, Sweden and Russia are the two most dominant teams. This is the second World Championship for women’s bandy. There is some bandy played in other countries, like Hungary and Poland, but we’re trying to get more nations started in the sport.”

Klingborg has coordinated the tournament closely with Magnus Skold, a Swede who now lives in Minneapolis, and is a vice president of the executive board of FIB. Skold is responsible for getting bandy a foothold in the Twin Cities region, where men and women play, and youth bandy programs also have begun. The absence of purposeful body contact, and the free-skating style with very little equipment makes it a stylish and feasible sport for some who are concerned with the more physical style of hockey.

Many of the top Russian players dating back to the Soviet Union days were great skaters because they grew up first playing bandy. The sport is particularly popular all across Siberia, where itÂ’s not unusual to attract crowds of 20,000. In Moscow, there is an enormous, ultramodern indoor bandy and skating arena, which reportedly cost the equivalent of $2 million.

The WomenÂ’s World Championships continue with all six teams seeded off preliminary round-robin results for games at 9 a.m. Friday for the fifth and sixth ranked teams, followed by Friday night semifinals with the No. 2 team facing No. 3 at 5:30 p.m. and the No. 1 playing No. 4 at 8 p.m. The third-place game will be at 12 noon Saturday, with the championship at 3 p.m.

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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.