Martin bolsters WCHA connection to Team USA

SAINT PAUL, MINN. — There seems to be a dry spot in the United States National hockey talent pool, and it may have been to blame for preventing Team USA from defending its World Cup tournament championship. But nobody can blame the WCHA, which continues to contribute a steady stream of talent to represent the U.S.

The most recent example is Paul Martin, who just turned 23 years of age, and was the second-youngest player on Team USAÂ’s roster. He also was just one year away from playing defense for the University of Minnesota, and five years past helping Elk River High School remain a perennial state powerhouse.

Martin surprised all — except those in his hometown — when he stepped onto the Xcel Energy ice and played like an experienced veteran midway through the World Cup tournament. He would be first to refuse the credit, but the U.S. had faltered in losing 2-1 to Canada and 3-1 to Russia, before coach Ron Wilson shuffled his lineup and inserted Martin and four other back-up players. After that, the U.S. came back to beat Slovakia 3-1, then avenged the loss to Russia with a 5-3 victory in the quarterfinals.

Team USA lost a tight, tough 2-1 semifinal to Finland, which went on to lose a tense 3-2 title game to Canada in the final of the eight-team international World Cup tournament. But nobody questioned Martin, or several other WCHA stalwarts on the U.S. team, such as Chris Chelios, Brett Hull, Brian Rafalski, Jason Blake and Jordan Leopold.

“I’ve played a lot of games at this place,” said Martin, who helped the Gophers win successive NCAA championship in 2002 and 2003, with the 2002 tournament and the 2003 NCAA Regional both held at Xcel. “But I felt a little nervous at first, because I hadn’t played in the first two games. I definitely had some butterflies.”

Chelios, the 41-year-old Detroit defenseman and former Wisconsin star, declared this would be his last appearance on a national team. Brian Rafalski, another ex-Badger, was another New Jersey representative and standout on the USA defense. Brett Hull, the seemingly ageless sniper from Minnesota-Duluth, just left Detroit for Phoenix in the NHL and is another of Team USA’s “old guard,” players who obviously can still do the job, but are nearing the end of glowing pro careers.

The gap comes in the “middle-age” national prospects. The oldest players are almost legendary, and the young guard is well-represented by Martin, mercurial forward Blake, who is a former North Dakota star, and Leopold, who starred for Calgary’s rush to the Stanley Cup finals in the spring of 2004, two seasons after winning the Hobey Baker Award on an NCAA championship Minnesota team.

Martin, in fact, wouldn’t have even made Team USA’s final roster until a concussion knocked out Leopold, his former Gopher teammate, during World Cup exhibition play. Martin, who bypassed his senior year at Minnesota to sign a contract with the New Jersey Devils a year ago, had impressed teammates, management, fans and foes with his cool demeanor under fire and his apparently limitless “upside” in his rookie pro season.

U.S. coach Ron Wilson, a former NHL star and an All-America defenseman at Providence during his college days, wasnÂ’t sure about inserting Martin, but he threw all five of his spare players into the lineup for the Slovakia game. It only took one game for Wilson to appreciate Martin.

“I was really impressed with Paul Martin,” said Wilson, after his first game, the victory over Slovakia. “He came in the middle of camp. When Jordan Leopold went down, I asked Brian Rafalski about Paul and he had nothing but good things to say about him. They had been partners at New Jersey, so there’s some chemistry there.
“But tonight I saw why everybody’s so high on Paul Martin.”

Martin’s cool, smooth puck-handling under pressure earned him immediate and continuing duty on the penalty-killing unit. “At New Jersey, I’ve been lucky to play with defensemen like Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermeyer and Brian Rafalski,” said Martin. “But that also means I don’t kill many penalties. So I was glad to kill penalties here.”

Martin also manned the point effectively on the power play later in the tournament, notching an assist on the only goal in the 2-1 elimination loss to Finland.

When the U.S. lost the preliminary game to the Russians, Martin watched from the seats. In the quarterfinal rematch, he was on the ice and played another impressive game. He noted a difference in Team USAÂ’s play.

“The hockey is a little more open, with less clutching and grabbing than the NHL,” said Martin. “We played a lot smarter, about where we put the puck and eliminating turnovers.”

As a humble and respectful player, Martin never showed the awe he had for some of his teammates, and certainly not for any of his extremely skilled adversaries.

“I watched guys like Chelios and Brian Leetch when I was growing up,” said Martin. “And Mike Modano played for the North Stars until the team went to Dallas. His wife is from here, and our family knows her family, so I was able to get posters of him. I still have posters of Mike Modano all over my house. He doesn’t know that.”

When Finland prevailed with two third-period goals to overturn a 1-0 U.S. lead in the semifinals, Chelios, the team captain, came out to address the media. “We knew what we were up against, and we stuck to our game plan and played a good game,” Chelios shrugged. “But they played well, too. We have nothing to be embarrassed about. Everybody stuck to the system and there was no selfishness.”

Chelios disagreed with suggestions that his departure might mean an end of an era of success for the U.S., which won the World Cup in 1996 and the silver medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics, another team with Chelios as captain. “Aside from me, and maybe Brett (Hull), this is a young team. There are guys like Martin and others who can carry it on.”

A similar theme came from Wilson, after he paid tribute to Chelios.
“When you see how Chris Chelios operates in a dressing room, you see what he’s all about,” said Wilson. “Chris is all-inclusive. He’s not an elitist. That’s a rare quality in a modern-day athlete. He makes sure everybody is involved.

“People ask me if there’s a gap in the U.S. program after those older players, and I don’t know about the personnel other than what I’ve seen. But the U.S. won the World Junior title last winter, and not by fluke, either, so the future is bright. There might be a few jars missing in the cupboard along the way, but we’ll be replacing them soon.

“Chris has been a tremendous ambassador for USA Hockey and the NHL. So have players like Brian Leetch, Mike Modano, Bill Guerin and Keith Tkachuk. But players like Paul Martin and Scotty Gomez will carry that torch in the future, and hopefully they’ll remember some of the things they learned from some of those warriors.”

And who knows? Maybe 20 years from now, Paul Martin will still be making pinpoint passes out of the zone, and a much-younger Team USA teammate will marvel at his skill, even while moving his own play up to that levelÂ…and maybe being reluctant to tell his veteran partner that he has Paul Martin posters all over his house.

Miracle makes good movie, but better in real life

The movie “Miracle” has been unanimously acclaimed as the best and most comprehensive attempt to recapture Team USA’s miraculous victory over the Soviet Union during its 1980 gold-medal performance at Lake Placid. The movie takes on eerie extra importance, especially for Minnesotans, because its release followed by only six months the sudden and tragic death of coach Herb Brooks in a rollover freeway accident. Brooks and 12 of his players were from Minnesota.

Everybody who was alive in 1980 remembers where they were on that day in February when Team USA upset the Soviet Union 4-3 in the Winter Olympics. For me, itÂ’s easy; I was in the press box at the arena in Lake Placid. Having chronicled the team since it was put together at the National Sports Festival in Colorado Springs in the summer of 1979, and through its home exhibition base at Met Sports Center in Bloomington, I eagerly anticipated the new movie.

It was ironic that the movie about the greatest sports achievement in U.S. history wound up being recreated in Vancouver, because a huge part of the mystique of what Brooks accomplished was to help extricate the U.S. from the smothering domination Canada has had on American hockey development. It’s Canada’s game, but Canadians long have failed to acknowledge any variations from their style of up-and-down, NHL style of play, whether those variations came from Russia, Sweden, Finland – and especially the U.S. To Canada, the U.S. has mostly been the primary source for monetary support for Canadian professional players and administrators, and certainly not the source of a wellspring of fresh, new hockey ideas.

Still, Canada adopted the magical USA ride in 1980, so there was hope that Miracle would avoid the pitfalls that have plagued whatever movies, television specials and books have been made on the subject. It did overcome most of them, while telling the story with realistic performances and gripping drama.

Kurt Russell is excellent as Brooks. He inserted himself into the only Brooks he came to know, a reflective 66-year-old with glasses, and he captured the mannerisms, facial expressions, the walk, and the speech patterns — except where he says “You OK wid dat?” and slips from Eastside St. Paul into Brooklynese. But the Brooks Russell came to know was 66, not the impulsive, 42-year-old fireball that orchestrated the miracle. Patricia Clarkson plays Patti Brooks as a perky but almost-Stepford-Wife type, which completely misses PattiÂ’s sarcastic wit, which always offset HerbieÂ’s seriousness. In real life, Patti never criticized Herbie’s devotion to hockey, but created her own parallel universe in which to raise son Danny and daughter Kelly.

Real hockey players, some of them Minnesotans, skate and portray the players, which adds considerable realism, although I would have insisted on using real-game footage for some elements. Nobody, for example, comes close to the beautiful long strides of Rochester’s Eric Strobel, to say nothing of Soviet stars like Valery Kharlamov, who was a quicker Wayne Gretzky before Gretzky arrived on the hockey scene. Billy Schneider portrays his dad, Buzzy Schneider, even though he can’t duplicate the hasty, staccato strides of the tough, lanky Babbitt Rabbit,” who played for Brooks at the University of Minnesota as well as on the ’80 team.

The filmÂ’s creators never seem to grasp the circling style Brooks distilled from the Europeans, and the movie demonstrates both the U.S. team and European foes skating in the contemporary up-and-down Canadian/NHL style, universal in Canada. It would have been laudable to insert actual game footage of both the spectacular Soviets against the U.S. college kids, both in their pre-Olympic meeting, and when it mattered — when the U.S. kids proved they could defuse the Soviet style and ultimately improvise better than the masters.

Make no mistake, the Soviet team that Brooks’s Team USA defeated was the most-skilled hockey team ever assembled. One year earlier, virtually the same Soviet team engaged the best NHL all-stars, coached by Scotty Bowman, and crushed the NHLers 6-0 in a spectacular display of hockey brilliance in the deciding game of a three-game series at Madison Square Garden.

Miracle may have lost some realism by failing to capture the skill and style of the Soviets — and the U.S. team — but it definitely didnÂ’t miss the intensity of the teamÂ’s preparation. When Brooks skated the players through repeated “Herbies,” the movie portrays them, except to allow the players to sprint from line to line instead of to each line and all the way back to the end of the rink in flat-out intervals. They also turn in either direction instead of facing the same way, a Brooks-enforced trick so theyÂ’d turn both ways equally over the course of the full drill, instead of to their preferred strong side.

Brooks selected 12 Minnesotans on his final 20-man team – nine of them Gophers – along with two from Wisconsin, two from Michigan and four from Boston University. He diverted attention from the dominant Minnesota concept so successfully that every retelling of the tale has overlooked the Minnesota input to focus on BU teammates Jim Craig, the goalie, and Mike Eruzione, the captain who scored the game-winner in the 4-3 victory over the Soviet powerhouse. Miracle does more of the same, and adds another BU player, Jack O’Callahan, into the third most-prominent role.

Credit it to “Minnesota nice” that the dozen Minnesotans never complain about being slighted, and are satisfied to have been part of the team. They still exchange a few barbs, though, such as when the ’80 team members saw the first screening of Miracle in Los Angeles, and one of the Minnesotans suggested to the group that a sequel could be called “Miracle West,” in order to mention that some non-BU guys played, too. The importance of Mark Pavelich of Eveleth or Mark Johnson of the University of Wisconsin, the clear catalysts of the offense, would be worthy of character development. The Conehead Line, also called the Iron Range Line, with Pavelich centering Schneider and John Harrington of Virginia, was the prominent U.S. line throughout the Olympics, but we learn nothing about any of them. Again.

Pavelich, an improvisational genius who had teamed with Harrington on some great UMD teams through 1979, had a goal and five assists in the seven Olympic games, with almost every point a pivotal one, such as the set-ups on the last-minute tying goal by Billy Baker against Sweden, and to Eruzione for the famous goal to beat the Russians. Wisconsin’s Mark Johnson, who suffered in silence with a heavily taped shoulder injury through most of the Olympics, scored 5-5—10, with two of his goals against the Soviets, plus a goal and an assist in the three-goal, third-period rally of the 4-2 gold-medal-clinching game against Finland.

“The movie ended up three hours long, so they had to cut out nearly an hour of it,” said Harrington, the former UMD star who now coaches St. John’s University. “The first time I saw it, I picked at the things that were wrong. But I went back and watched it again, just as a movie, and it does a great job of telling a motivational story about a group of guys accomplishing a seemingly impossible task.”

It is a well-crafted movie, but it seems curious to alter some nuggets to less-compelling fiction, either for “dramatic effect or because of faulty memories. For example, Brooks closely scrutinized a four-team round-robin tournament at the National Sports Festival, in which everybody played three games, then a semifinal and bronze and gold finals. He pretended to allow input from numerous scouts and coaches that had been assembled, although he kept his own private list for picking the 28-man roster he named at nearly midnight after the “gold medal” game. The movie goes to length to stress that Brooks arrogantly picked his team before the week-long tournament, implying that the fiercely-played games weren’t necessary and maybe didn’t even occur.

Lou Nanne might be miffed that the actor portraying him is a slippery little guy. My theory is it might be a last laugh for Brooks. If he had any influence on the casting, the image remains of Brooks now looking down on the proceedings and chuckling at the final zinger inflicted on his long-time buddy.

The fiery O’Callahan is shown venting left-over hatred for the Gophers who had beaten his Boston University in a brawl-filled NCAA tournament semifinal at Denver in 1976. O’Callahan singles out ex-Gopher Rob McClanahan for having robbed him of the trophy, and blasts McClanahan with a bodycheck followed by an early practice fight. “O-C supposedly hated Robbie, but they never had that fight,” said Strobel. “Think about it: Robbie was a senior at Mounds View High School in 1976.”

Impromptu football games in the snow are neat, but fiction. In reality, Pavelich frequently led his teammates out to some outdoor Twin Cities ice for pickup games, even after long practices. They were rink-rats, and those pickup games may have been more unifying than any late-night skating drills or phony practice fights. “We always played using a tennis ball,” recalled Strobel. “I remember being at some rink in Hopkins, spending the whole time trying to take that tennis ball away from Pav. It was impossible.”

The movie extends the common belief that Brooks carefully plotted for his players to hate him in order to create unity. He was tough on them in his quest for total discipline under fire, as well as conditioning, and when the players gritted their teeth in their determination to show Brooks they could rise to his challenges, it might have evolved to something perceived as hatred. But it certainly wasn’t that Brooks wanted the players to hate him. Brooks created similar “us against the world” scenarios on every team he coached, but there was never any doubt Brooks was part of – and the leader of – the “us” faction.

The mind-games and psyche-jobs are valid, as Brooks deployed them to keep his team alert and ready for anything. Brooks always relied on catch-phrases and barked his “Brooksisms” so repetitively that Harrington logged them in a notebook. The movie shows a softer, emotional side of Brooks, but makes him view everything too seriously. In reality, he heckled himself for recycling some of his favorite phrases and tactics, and sympathized during the Olympic games about how players like Schneider, Strobel, Duluth’s Phil Verchota, Billy Baker from Grand Rapids, McClanahan from Mounds View, Richfield’s Steve Christoff, and Steve Janaszak of Hill-Murray, who had played three or four years for his Gopher teams before making the Olympic outfit. “They must be sick of hearing me by now,” he said.

As for the exhausting post-game skating drills in Norway, following a lackluster exhibition tie in Norway, Brooks indeed enforced endless Herbies. “The guys from Boston, Michigan, Wisconsin and UMD must have thought Herbie was nuts,” said Strobel. “But to me, and to the rest of the Gophers who had played for Herbie, it wasn’t anything we weren’t used to.”

Highlights of the film include Brooks agonizing over cutting Ralph Cox as the 21st player, and pondering whether to keep or replace Eruzione with high-scoring Gopher Tim Harrer right before the Olympics. Those are valid. But the four BU players accosting Brooks about it in the corridor works on the silver screen, when actually the whole team, in the dressing room, made it clear they thought Brooks should stick with the unity he had created.

Brooks kept OÂ’Callahan on the team even after he strained his knee ligaments in a 10-3 drubbing administered by the Soviets in an exhibition game at Madison Square Garden right before the Olympics. OÂ’Callahan makes a dramatic and heavy-hitting return in the Soviet medal-round game in the movie; in real life, he reappeared two games earlier. You could look it up: He assisted on a Christoff power-play goal in the game against Romania, but played only a few scarce shifts the rest of the way, including the Soviet game.

In the Olympics, everyone contributed. Schneider and McClanahan joined Johnson as goal-scoring leaders with five goals each, while Verchota matched Eruzione’s three goals. Gophers Neal Broten of Roseau and Steve Christoff, BU’s Dave Silk and Bowling Green’s Mark Wells scored two goals each, and Baker, Strobel and Morrow got one apiece. With O’Callahan virtually on one leg, Brooks primarily went with four defensemen – Ken Morrow and 20-year-old Gopher Mike Ramsey on one unit, Baker and David Christian from Warroad on the other, with Bob Suter of Madison, Wis., swinging in. Their characters were never developed, including the amazing one-year conversion to defense of Christian, who was a center at Warroad and the University of North Dakota before the Olympic year, and for a long NHL career afterward. Plus, his dad, Billy Christian, and uncle Roger Christian were stars on the 1960 U.S. gold medal team.

At the Olympics, Brooks did indeed jump McClanahan as a prima donna from the wealthy Twin Cities suburb of North Oaks when a painful leg bruise knocked him out in the first period of the opening 2-2 tie against Sweden. The obvious effect it had to startle the team to attention didn’t, however, require the movie version to have Brooks boast “That’ll get ’em going!” as he left the dressing room. In reality, the move inspired McLanahan to leap off the training table and chase Brooks into the hallway in a shouting match that made the wide-eyed Swedish team inadvertent witnesses.

The depiction of Brooks offering inane answers at post-game press conferences in a tiny room was also silly when it could have been a dramatic nugget. Actually, after two games, Brooks announced he would boycott the press conferences, which were held in a huge, high school auditorium across an entryway from the arena. New York columnist Mike Lupica had ripped Brooks for not bringing players for interviews because he wanted all the attention for himself. Brooks had never met nor spoken to Lupica, and he called him out from the podium at the next press conference, then announced that to prove his move wasn’t for personal attention, assistant coach Craig Patrick would be coming to subsequent press conferences instead. He also said the media wasnÂ’t allowed to talk to his players on game-day any more. In the movie, that whole flap is altered to a journalist asking Brooks politely if not bringing players was for self-gratification, and he cordially answers, “No, Mike…”

Eruzione has often retold the story that before the final period of the final game, Brooks came into the dressing room and said if the U.S. couldn’t rally to erase a 2-1 deficit and beat Finland, the players would “take it to your grave; to your (bleeping) grave.” Strobel said he remembers that comment being at practice on the day between the Soviet and Finland games. Going back to my notes and the story I wrote in the Minneapolis Tribune after the game against Romania, a quote from Brooks says he used that exact phrase on the players before that game, when a letdown could have precluded the U.S. from reaching the medal round.

Perhaps the most curious movie change is to the elegantly brief and legendary pregame talk that Brooks gave to inspire his players for the Soviet game. He said: “You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours.” For some reason, the script adds all sorts of embellishing words to all three sentences in Russell’s reenactment, including replacing the priceless “This moment is yours,” with “This is your time.”

Unfortunately, the film-makers, like a lot of fans, were so drained by the Soviet conquest that the movie misses some incredible drama in the gold medal game against Finland – when no medal was yet certain. “Everything in the movie is geared at the Russian game, as if we spent the whole year building up to it,” said Harrington. “Actually, Herb prepared us for every game, and we had no idea we would even play the Russians.”

But itÂ’s only a movie. It’s the best thing done so far on that magical two weeks. And maybe itÂ’s best to leave something more for that “Miracle West” sequel.

(All rights: John Gilbert, Tuesday, February 17th, 2004 02:00:57 AM)

Gophers outrace No. 1 Sioux for WCHA playoff title

SAINT PAUL, MN. — Minnesota coach Don Lucia tried to deny it, but his team offered further evidence that when it comes to playoff time, the Gophers are magic. The latest example was Saturday nightÂ’s WCHA Final Five championship game, when the Gophers exchanged blows in a true battle of college hockey heavyweights, and beat North Dakota 5-4.

There was talk that this game might be low-key, because No. 1 ranked North Dakota and No. 4 Minnesota were already assured of claiming top seeds at two of the four NCAA regionals, which will be announced Sunday. But if the game meant nothing, the WCHA record crowd of 19,306 at Xcel Energy Center certainly was fooled by the spectacle that unfolded on the ice below.

You want magic? The game-winning goal, at 13:58 of the third period, came from Grant Potulny, the captain who started MinnesotaÂ’s magical post-season streak when he scored the overtime game-winner against Maine in the 2002 NCAA final on the same Xcel Energy ice, the first of two straight national championships.

“How fitting for Grant to get the winner in the last game he plays for us in the Twin Cities,” said Lucia. “This senior class is special to me, because it was our first fully recruited class.”

Potulny, as usual, was the team leader. And a mini-tantrum he threw may have had a major impact on the Gophers. It has taken such actions to transform Minnesota from the Complacent Gophers to the Playoff Gophers. The unanimous coaches choice as league champ, and the unanimous preseason No. 1 team in the nation, the Gophers were 0-4 in regular-season games against Minnesota-Duluth, but beat the Bulldogs 7-4 in FridayÂ’s semifinals. Then came the Fighting Sioux, who had beaten Minnesota three out of four games during the season, before confronting the far more focused Playoff Gophers. Just like that, the Gophers turned a combined 1-7 slate into two racehorse victories.

It wasnÂ’t just the seniors who came through. Freshman Danny Irmen, who flanks Gino Guyer opposite of Potulny on the second line, scored his third goal in two nights on a first-period power play to stake the Gophers to a 1-0 lead. Drew Stafford tied it for the Fighting Sioux later in the opening period, also on a power play, by deflecting Zach PariseÂ’s hard pass past Gopher goalie Kellen Briggs.
Jon Waibel, a light-scoring senior on the fourth line, put Minnesota ahead 2-1 early in the second period when he outreached the dive of goaltender Jake Brandt and slid the puck behind him at 4:09. Three minutes later, Waibel scored again, converting the rebound of Barry TallacksonÂ’s goal-crashing shot. But Tallackson was still in the crease after flattening Brandt when the puck bounced out into the slot and Waibel shot it in, so after consultation with video supervisors upstairs, the goal was disallowed.

That reversal sparked the Sioux, who had been outshot 17-8 in the first period, to a 19-8 shot edge in the second, resulting in two goals by top scorers Brandon Bochenski and Parise. Bochenski poked the puck in from the crease after Parise had snapped the puck off Briggs from behind the net. The puck squirted through Briggs, awaiting BochenskiÂ’s fencing-style lunge to poke it in at 8:50.

Later in the middle period, Parise vaulted the Sioux ahead 3-2, pouncing on a rebound in the slot and whirling to shoot into the lower right for his 22nd goal of the year. That came eight seconds after expiration of a power play, which occurred when Parise was left sprawled by Thomas VanekÂ’s cross-check to the head. Fortunately for Minnesota, benevolent referee Bob Ames gave Vanek only a minor penalty instead of a major or disqualification, and Vanek was able to come back later to score a huge goal.

When the first period ended 3-2 for the Sioux, Potulny did his thing. “I kicked over a garbage can,” said Potulny. “After Waibel’s second goal was called off, North Dakota came on and I felt like we were letting the game slip away.”

Bochenski saw it the same way, from the other side. “Having that goal disallowed was as big as us scoring a goal,” said the junior winger. “Once we got it tied up, we took over for a while. Then it went back and forth.”

Vanek got his chance early in the third period, with Sioux defenseman Nick Fuher tried to slam a hard pass out of the zone. Vanek picked it off at the top of the left circle, moved in alone to deke Brandt down, then shifted around him on the right to slide the puck back in an instant before the diving Fuher slid through the crease trying to block the shot.
That tied the game 3-3 at 2:08, and Troy Riddle put the Gophers up 4-3 at 4:48 when he caught a high flip, dropped dropped the puck to the ice, and shot it low. Brandt got part of it, but it slithered across the line for RiddleÂ’s 23rd goal of the season.

The big crowd cheered when the Gophers got a power play, but Bochenski got the puck on the right boards, made a great move to shift past star Gopher defenseman Keith Ballard in a confrontation of Hobey Baker finalists, and rushed at the net, cutting right-to-left to score a spectacular shorthanded goal for the 4-4 equalizer. It was the second goal of the game and 26th of the season for Bochenski, who also had an assist.
Bochenski and Parise, who also is among the Hobey Baker final 10, have been split apart several times by coach Dean Blais, although he reunites them whenever scoring a goal seems mandatory. “I think I’ll be leaving them together from now on,” smiled Blais. Makes sense, after Bochenski, who also got two assists in Friday’s 4-2 semifinal victory over Alaska-Anchorage, and Parise added a goal and two assists, leaving them with matching 2-3—5 slates in the two Final Five games, meaning they had scored four of North Dakota’s eight weekend goals, with 10 combined points.
“I noticed that their big players had come up big,” said Lucia, “and I told our guys it was time for our big players to do the same. They did, with Vanek, Riddle and Grant all scoring.”
Both coaches noted they were more mellow than usual because both knew they had NCAA top seeds already locked up. Blais said he thought it was a “great game from start to end. I even pulled the goalie with four minutes to go to try to get a goal. But there was good excitement from both teams, and we learned we can compete when the pressure is on. It was a fun environment, and it takes a little special character to play well in a game like this. We wanted to win, but we got a lot out of it.”
North Dakota outshot Minnesota 39-38, and Lucia added that he’s not used to seeing his team give up so much – 31 shots and four goals to Minnesota-Duluth, and 39 shots and four more goals to North Dakota.

“I’m not happy giving up four goals a night,” said Lucia. “But that’s what happens when you play the two highest-scoring teams in the country. We played well, and we have to continue to get better, but we know we’re not going to see anybody who’s better than the two teams we saw here this weekend.”

TOURNAMENT NOTES: A three-person committee either showed up only Saturday night, or apparently got completely caught up in the tense final, because they ignored three teams to name an all-tournament team from only the two finalists. North Dakota forwards Parise and Bochenski and defenseman Matt Jones were joined by Minnesota forward Irmen – a great pick – plus defenseman Keith Ballard and goaltender Briggs. While Briggs allowed eight goals from 70 shots for two games for a meager 4.0 goals-against mark and .866 save percentage, Alaska-Anchorage goaltender Chris King, for example, allowed only five goals in two games while facing 90 shots for a glittering 2.50 GA and .946 save percentage while stealing a 4-1 upset victory over Colorado College and holding his team in a 4-2 semifinal loss to North Dakota. More incomprehensibly, the same committee also named Briggs the tournamentÂ’s most valuable player…Alaska-Anchorage used backup Kevin Reiter in goal for the third-place game, and he also played well, although UMD beat the Seawolves 4-2, outshooting them 40-27. He blanked the Bulldogs until Evan Schwabe scored his third goal and fourth point of the weekend midway through the second period for a 1-1 tie, then league player-of-the-year and Hobey Baker finalist Junior Lessard scored a power-play goal and Luke Stauffacher tallied shorthanded for a three-goal second period, and Bryan McGregor made it 4-1 in the third. The Bulldogs lost Lessard to a knee injury later in the second period, while forwards Tyler Brosz and Tim Stapleton and defenseman Tim Hambly all sat out with injuries.

(John Gilbert can be reached by email at sports@jwgilbert.com.)

Potter, Ouellette keep UMD’s NCAA hopes alive

Four incredible seasons, including championship runs in the only three NCAA womenÂ’s hockey tournaments ever conducted, have brought the University of Minnesota-Duluth to an enormous pressure point this weekend at the WCHA Final Five tournament. Winning the tournament is foremost on the minds of all five contenders, but for the Bulldogs, itÂ’s win the tournament or forget about defending their three NCAA titles.

However far the Bulldogs go, it also will end the amazing collegiate career of Jenny Potter, formerly Jenny Schmidgall, as well as for her UMD senior teammates, Tricia Guest and defenseman Satu Kiipeli. Guest and Kiipeli have been a part of all three NCAA championship teams, while Potter missed a couple of years – one to play for the U.S. Olympic team in the 2002 Winter Olympics and another while having a baby.

The post-season run by Potter also will signal the end to an unusual alliance between Potter and Caroline Ouellette, who have been linemates and fellow finalists for the Patti Kazmaier award. Ouellette, a star on the Canadian Olympic team that beat Potter and Team USA 3-2 for the gold medal at Salt Lake City, have become such sensational coconspirators of UMDÂ’s attack that it would seem natural for one of them to defect so they could continue to play together.

After the two went nose-to-nose at Salt Lake City, Potter returned to UMD last year as a junior and found Ouellette there as a new recruit. The two not only were teammates, but coach Shannon Miller found they were extremely compatible as linemates. With the heavy hit of graduation depleting UMDÂ’s roster from the strength of its third straight NCAA crown, the offense fell squarely in the hands of Potter and Ouellette.

They couldnÂ’t have done much more. They went into the final regular-season series 1-2 for the national scoring lead. They faced Minnesota State-Mankato goaltender Sheri Vogt, another Kazmaier Award finalist, who hadnÂ’t given up more than four goals in any game this season. Vogt also had beaten and tied Minnesota, and anchored a pair of season-opening one-goal victories over UMD.

In the first game, UMD blitzed Vogt and the Mavericks 9-0, with Potter scoring three goals, and Ouellette notching two goals and four assists. That tied the two for the national scoring lead at 72 points. Vogt was positively brilliant in the rematch, when UMD outshot the Mavs 56-14 but had to battle throughout to win 3-0. Ouellette scored two first-period goals, and Tricia Guest scored the third-period clincher.

That leaves Ouellette with 29-45—74 as the national scoring leader, and Potter with 35-37—72 as a close second, going into the WCHA tournament. In WCHA games, Potter won the scoring title with 28-29—57, while Ouellette was second at 21-34—55.

Despite their close scoring proximity, there is no competition between Potter and Ouellette. In fact, after scoring two first-period goals Saturday night to pull ahead of Potter for the national scoring lead, Ouellette had a breakaway chance for a hat trick in the third period, but instead of shooting, she tried to force a pass to Potter and the play misfired.

“Caroline wants Jenny to win the scoring title and the Kazmaier Award so bad that she’ll do anything to help her,” said coach Miller. “And that includes trying to pass when she should be shooting in the third period. It’s been a great year for both of them. Jenny has really emerged as a team leader for us this season.”

It’s been a strange year for UMD. First, Miller lost two prime recruits. Evalina Samuelsson, a standout for the Swedish national team and teammate of former UMD stars Maria Rooth and Erika Holst, was set to come in last fall, but she suffered a serious back injury – “it was while playing lacrosse, or soccer, or some off-season sport,” said Miller. Then Laura Stosky, a star defenseman for Canada’s under-22 team, decided to stay home with her father when her mother died last summer. Jen Lipman, another promising player from Phoenix, also was a no-show.

“On top of that, Amelia Hradsky quit school, and then, just when it looked like we were getting going, Bethany Petersen dropped out of school at Christmas,” said Miller. “So we went through the whole season four scholarships short. Then we lost Larissa Luther for two months at the start of the season and for two weeks later, and Jessica Koizumi was out for three weeks with two different injuries. And Tricia Guest was out over a month with mono.”

Despite the short bench, the Bulldogs snapped MinnesotaÂ’s attempt at an unbeaten season, tied and lost to Harvard, stunned Dartmouth 6-2 before losing the rematch at Dartmouth, lost 3-2 to St. Lawrence despite a huge shot advantage, then whipped St. Lawrence 5-0 in a decisive rematch. Minnesota, Harvard, Dartmouth and St. Lawrence just happen to stand 1-4 in the current Pairwise computer ratings, the guide for the NCAA selection committee to use in picking tournament entrants.

Wisconsin is fifth, and UMD split an early series with the Badgers, then lost two close games at Madison to stand 1-2-1 for the season against Wisconsin. Those results are pivotal to No. 6 UMD going into the WCHA Final Five, because the Bulldogs face Wisconsin at 1 p.m. Saturday in the first WCHA semifinal. A loss to the Badgers would undoubtedly leave UMD without much chance of reaching the four-team NCAA field. A victory by UMD would probably propel the Bulldogs past the Badgers in the rankings, making the teams 2-2-1 against each other, and with UMDÂ’s schedule decidedly tougher. Wisconsin, for example, hasnÂ’t played Harvard, Dartmouth or St. Lawrence, while those three teams all must compete against each other in the ECAC playoffs, where two of the three must lose somewhere along the way.

The Bulldogs, of course, also are aiming at beating league champion Minnesota for the league playoff title, because that, too, would positively influence the ranking and just might elevate the Bulldogs to the Final Four. Surely the NCAA would be better served by having two East and two West teams in the Frozen Four, and it would seem beneficial to also have the winner of all three NCAA titles in the field, rather than eliminated by arbitrary committee decision.

Whatever, the scoring of Potter and Ouellette will be pivotal for the Bulldogs. Miller entrusts so much of the teamÂ’s offense to the pair that she let Potter design the first power-play strategy, with an assist from Ouellette, naturally.

One of Miller’s strengths as an exceptional coach – beyond her obvious tactical ideas – is that she is receptive to ideas from wherever they may come. She even listens to observers from the stands, including Rob Potter, Jenny’s husband, and Duane Schmidgall, Jenny’s dad. In fact, after the 3-0 victory over Mankato, and the 56-shot barrage at Sheri Vogt, Duane Schmidgall approached Miller and suggested a few ideas on how the power play might be improved. Miller showed amazing restraint by taking it all in – without telling Jenny’s dad that the power play he was questioning had been designed by Jenny.

Thin as the roster is, the Bulldogs have gotten Guest, Koizumi and Luther back in the lineup from their assorted broken bones, injuries and illnesses.

“We’re happy and as healthy as possible,” said Miller. “All we can do is beat Wisconsin and try to win our playoffs, and then if St. Lawrence drops a game in their playoff, maybe we can make it back to the NCAA.”

It would seem abnormal if they didnÂ’t.

WCHA playoff tradition faces reality of upsets

This is the week that tradition runs into reality. Tradition says the top five teams in the WCHA should end the seasons of the bottom five, but reality says an upset is more than merely possible in the first round of league playoffs.

North Dakota won the MacNaughton Cup for the fifth time in the eight years coach Dean Blais has been at the helm, and heÂ’s taught his assistants well. Scott Sandelin, a former North Dakota assistant, brought Minnesota-Duluth home second. Brandon Bochenski, a North Dakota junior, scored 16 goals with 23 assists for 39 points in strictly WCHA play, while Junior Lessard, a UMD senior, tied him for the league scoring title with a league-high 19 goals and 20 assists for his 39 points.

ItÂ’s been that kind of season in the WCHA. We can go back to last October, before the season began, when the annual Grand Forks Herald coachesÂ’ poll was announced. Tradition says the coachesÂ’ choice almost never wins the WCHA title. Reality says the coaches set new standards for missing the mark this time around.

Consider that not one single team finished where it was predicted to finish by the coaches. There is one close call. Denver was projected to finish fifth, and the Pioneers tied Minnesota for fourth, which means they also tied for fifth. But Denver holds the tie-breaker edge on Minnesota, having beaten the Gophers three out of four games, so the Pioneers technically are fourth.

League champion North Dakota had been projected as second, while second-place Minnesota-Duluth was seen in a tie for third with Colorado College. Third-place Wisconsin was picked seventh by the coaches, making the Badgers the biggest positive surprise in the WCHA. Tied with Denver for fourth, but getting fifth in seeding, is Minnesota, which was the unanimous pick to win the WCHA title.

In sixth place, St. Cloud State was picked for eighth; seventh-place Colorado College was picked in that tie for third, making the Tigers co-holders of the biggest disappointment with Minnesota; eighth-place Alaska-Anchorage was picked to repeat in 10th; ninth-place Minnesota State-Mankato was picked for sixth; and 10th-place Michigan Tech had been projected ninth.

All of that means the coaches are far better at coaching than predicting, but it also shows what a tangle the WCHA has proven to be this season. Which brings us back to this weekendÂ’s first round of playoffs, best-of-three affairs that will determine the Final Five entries at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul next week.

In an amazing finish, every single position in the standings went down to the final weekend, and three of the season-ending match-ups will be duplicated as first-round playoff pairings. Michigan Tech, which could have finished eighth, was swept at North Dakota, dropping the Huskies to 10th and securing the fifth MacNaughton Cup in coach Dean BlaisÂ’s eight years at the Sioux helm. That finish also sends Tech right back from Houghton to Grand Forks this week.

Colorado College, which went into the final regular-season weekend just three points behind Denver and Minnesota, and could have finished as high as fourth, was swept at Denver last weekend to stay in seventh and be destined to return to Denver Friday, to face a team that could have dropped to seventh but finished fourth. The Pioneers, however, will be without speedster Connor James, a senior who has 12 goals, 23 assists for 35 points. James suffered a broken right fibula in FridayÂ’s concluding game against Colorado College.

St. Cloud State, needing a split to stay ahead of Minnesota and claim home-ice, instead lost twice at Minnesota and drops to sixth. Adam Coole returned to the St. Cloud nets in the second game, a 4-2 setback, but he appears to have won the playoff starting slot after a strong showing in the face of repeated Gopher breakaways held the Huskies close. The Huskies chose to return home up I94 after both games at Minnesota, so the route will be more than just familiar after this weekend, especially if their series against the Gophers goes three games, and they wind up doing shuttle service to Mariucci Arena.

The only two playoff pairings that avoided rematches find eighth-place Alaska-Anchorage traveling to Wisconsin, while ninth-place Minnesota State-Mankato goes to Minnesota-Duluth.

“It’s OK with our guys to come right back and play Minnesota again,” said St. Cloud coach Craig Dahl. “We like to play at Mariucci, and it’ll be familiar to our guys who are used to playing best-of-five playoffs in junior hockey.”

The advantage to St. Cloud, Colorado College and Michigan Tech, by that logic, is that they are facing foes in “best-of-five” settings where the opponents’ first two victories don’t count any more.

An intriguing edge to the WCHA playoff picture is that in the Pairwise computer ratings, which replicate the NCAA selection committee criteria for picking teams for the national tournament, five WCHA teams rank among the top eight. North Dakota is first, UMD fourth, Minnesota fifth, Denver sixth, and Wisconsin eighth.

So, in reality, all five rank highly enough that if any of them lose this weekend, and fail to advance to the Final Five, they might still rank highly enough to be assured of a berth in the 16-team NCAA field. That may make the five home teams a bit complacent this weekend, but it certainly will add extra incentive to the five visitors, who know they must win the league playoff to assure themselves a possible NCAA slot.

For good measure, St. Cloud State is 15th and Colorado College 16th in the Pairwise. With Colorado College host to one of four NCAA regionals, the Tigers are in jeopardy of missing the playoffs, unless they can make a dramatic playoff run to strengthen their rating.
It seems unlikely that any league could get as many as five teams into the NCAA, but if all goes according to form in the playoffs, the WCHA may well end up with five.

With Bochenski and Lessard sharing the scoring title, Bernd Bruckler of Wisconsin has the edge in goaltending statistics, leading the league in minutes played, and in goals-against at 2.11, as well as in save percentage at .928. Right behind Bruckler in goals-against come North DakotaÂ’s duo of Josh Parise at 2.14 and teammate Jake Brandt at 2.18. Trailing Bruckler in save percentage come UMDÂ’s Isaac Reichmuth, Brandt, and Chris King of Alaska-Anchorage in a three-way tie at .913.

While goaltending is of primary importance at playoff time, BrandtÂ’s strong finish gave him the leagueÂ’s top winning percentage, with a 12-2 record. Second was Reichmuth, with a league-high 17 victories to go with three losses and two ties. Next comes Parise 8-3-3 and then Bruckler, at 14-6-7.

If the top five regular-season finishers win their opening round playoff series, the spotlight on Xcel Energy Center will shine on Minnesota facing Denver to break their regular-season tie next Thursday night. The Gophers, who play across town in Minneapolis, are contractually bound to play the Friday night game, for attendance draw purposes, so the good news for crowd-size is that the Gophers will have to play all three nights in order to win the league playoff. The bad news for the Gophers – and Pioneers, for that matter – is that no team has been able to win three straight games from the play-in game to the title.

Under those circumstances, the Minnesota-Denver winner would face North Dakota in one semifinal next Friday, while Minnesota-Duluth and Wisconsin would tangle in a match of premier goaltenders in the other semifinal. The semifinal losers, who would meet in a third-place game Saturday afternoon, might need a victory about then to improve an NCAA tournament seeding. The championship will be Saturday night.
Who might win the playoff title is anybodyÂ’s guess. But, based on their preseason picks, donÂ’t ask the coaches.

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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.