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.

Bochenski, Horak make both UMD teams suffer

By JOHN GILBERT

The only way the weekend could have been better for Deborah Bochenski and Rob Horak is if there was some way to accrue “frequent driver” miles up and down Interstate 35 in Minnesota.

The next-to-last weekend of the regular WCHA seasons for both men and women came on what was arguably the biggest hockey weekend of the season in the state of Minnesota, even though neither the NHL Minnesota Wild nor the two-time NCAA champion University of Minnesota menÂ’s team was involved. The Wild, after a great playoff run last season, were on a road trip, with chances fading of making the NHL playoffs this time. The Gopher menÂ’s team, who captured the fancy of the state for the past two years and were favored to win the menÂ’s league title and ranked No. 1 in the country at the start of the season, were playing in Denver where they were trying to hang on to the fifth and final home-ice playoff spot.

Without them in the state, the girls state high school hockey tournament was underway at Ridder Arena on the University of Minnesota campus, while boys high school teams were scattered all around the state in quarterfinal and semifinal sectional play. The college hockey spotlight, meanwhile, was split between Duluth and Minneapolis.

In Minneapolis, the top-ranked Gopher womenÂ’s team was at home facing three-time defending NCAA champion and intrastate arch-rival, the fifth-ranked Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs.

Meanwhile, at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center, the fifth-ranked Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs and their newly obtained possession of first place in the menÂ’s WCHA, along with a school-record 14-game (13-0-1) undefeated streak, faced the No. 1 rated University of North Dakota, which was in hot pursuit two points back.

This is where Deb Bochenski and Rob Horak come onto the scene. The two have known each other for a lot of years. Ten years ago, Brandon Bochenski was a winger in the Blaine youth program, and Jody Horak was a goaltender in the same program. Some girls teams were sprouting up around the Twin Cities, but Jody Horak was good enough to make the Blaine boys team. “We played on the same A Bantam team,” said Brandon, who was scoring goals while Jody prevented them on the same northern Twin Cities suburban team.

Now we flash forward, past high school days when Horak went on to star at the girls high school level and won the goaltender-of-the-year award in 2001, after leading the Bengals to a 25-1-3 record to earn a scholarship at Minnesota. A year earlier, Bochenski had scored three goals and four assists to lead the boys state tournament in scoring while the Bengals went on to win the state championship. After spending a year at Lincoln, Neb., playing junior hockey, Bochenski accepted a scholarship to North Dakota.

Meanwhile, unattached by marriage, Rob Horak and Deb Bochenski recently started going out with each other, and their get-togethers often involved hockey. They could see Jody Horak play whenever the Gopher women were in the vicinity, and they could travel to see Brandon Bochenski play whenever the Fighting Sioux were within reach, at, say, Minnesota, St. Cloud, Mankato, or Duluth.

But last weekend, with so much riding on both series, Rob Horak and Deb Bochenski ran what amounted to an Interstate 35 shuttle covering the 150 miles from the Twin Cities to Duluth. And back. And up and back again. But it was all worthwhile.

The weekend started out with a trip in Duluth on Friday night. Brandon Bochenski assisted on the first of two goals by defenseman Nick Fuher, and North Dakota whipped UMD 4-1 – outshooting the Bulldogs 10-3 in the third period and 36-23 for the game – to lift the Sioux into a tie with the Bulldogs for first place.

Colby Genoway ruined the hopes of the full-house crowd with a goal at 0:57 of the first period, and after Evan Schwabe tied it for UMD on a power play at 6:06, Fuher scored 59 seconds later to break the tie, and he scored again by moving in from the point to convert at 12:02. It stayed 3-1 until the third period, when the Sioux clinched it with David LundbohmÂ’s shorthanded goal at 2:24 to take the rest of air out of UMDÂ’s sails.

After taking Brandon out for a post-game meal, his mom and Rob Horak headed back to the Twin Cities, where they could make it to Mariucci Arena Saturday afternoon, where the Gopher womenÂ’s team had to shift its huge series with UMD because the high school girls tournament was next door in Ridder Arena. The series was pivotal for Minnesota to reclaim the No. 1 national ranking, and because the Bulldogs are clearly the primary rival for the Gophers. Even in their earlier series this season, UMD had whipped the Gophers 4-1, and Minnesota had to rally from a 3-1 deficit in the second game to swipe a 4-3 victory for a split.

Beyond that, the UMD-Minnesota series put four of the 10 Patti Kazmaier Award finalists on the ice, with Jenny Potter and Caroline Ouellette of UMD and Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell of Minnesota. Potter, Darwitz and Wendell are U.S. Olympians, and Ouellette starred for Canada’s 2002 gold medalists. Overlooked in that spotlight was Jody Horak, but she stymied the Bulldogs until Minnesota had built a 3-0 lead in the second period, and the Gophers won 4-2. The only two goals Horak allowed while making 31 saves were Tricia Guest’s goal with 2:54 left in the second and Ouellette’s goal with 36 seconds left in the third – both on power plays.

Leaving immediately after the Gopher womenÂ’s afternoon game, Rob Horak and Deb Bochenski had just enough time to zip back up I35 and get to the DECC as they dropped the puck for the second UND-UMD menÂ’s game.

UMD played much more forcefully in the second game, but it was scoreless until midway through the second period, as Jake Brandt dueled UMDÂ’s Isaac Reichmuth in goal. North Dakota coach Dean Blais, who played Brandon Bochenski and Zach Parise on different lines attempting to spread out the Sioux scoring, tends to unite them whenever heÂ’s concerned, almost like a security blanket.

So he installed Bochenski on wing with center Zach Parise and freshman Brady Murray, and Bochenski almost immediately went into the left corner and got the puck, firing a quick pass out front to Parise, who scored at 11:18 of the second period. The Sioux went up 2-0, and held on to beat UMD 2-1 for a sweep that reinstalled North Dakota in first place in the WCHA. With one weekend left, the Sioux went home to sweep Michigan Tech and secure the MacNaughton Cup, while UMD tied and beat Wisconsin to secure second place, with Wisconsin third.

Meanwhile, back to I35 for Deb Bochenski and Rob Horak. Sunday afternoon, it was time to go to Ridder Arena for the second UMD-Minnesota women’s game. “Even though Jody won’t be playing,” said her dad.

Little did he know that his daughter would play a key role in relief. In one of those games that fans love and coaches seize up over, the Gophers and Badgers engaged in a shootout. Potter staked UMD to a 1-0 lead on Brenda Reinen, but Darwitz and Becky Wacker vaulted Minnesota to a 2-1 edge. Satu Kiipeli tied it 2-2 for UMD late in the opening period. It was a rugged game, with bodychecks and takeouts all over the ice, leading to several actual scraps. But the scoring dominated.

Wacker scored again at 8:11 of the second period for a 3-2 Minnesota lead, only to have Larissa Luther tie it again 24 seconds later. Julianne Vasichek put UMD up 4-3 at 11:26, but Kelly Stephens made it 4-4 a minute later. Darwitz scored on a power play at 17:42 of the second, but UMD offset that one 39 seconds later when Ouellette finished off a dazzling shorthanded rush with Potter.

So it stood 5-5 after two periods, and Minnesota coach Laura Halldorson pulled Reinen and sent Jody Horak out for the third period. Amazingly, the game hinged on a roughing penalty to Minnesota’s Allie Sanchez at 9:20 of the third period. Wendell blocked the puck free and raced in to score on a breakaway against Riitta Schaublin at 10:36. Twenty-three seconds later, Kelly Stephens pounced on a free puck and raced down the rink to score again. The two shorthanded goals – while killing the same penalty – lifted Minnesota to a 6-4 lead.

Jody Horak made the goals stand up, stopping all eight shots she faced, and the Gophers had swept UMD for the first time in the four-year history of their statewide rivalry. The penalty-kill play alone was worth the price of admission, with Potter and Ouellette starring for UMD, and Darwitz and Wendell, along with Stephens, leading Minnesota.

“I thought Jody played well in goal yesterday, but both goalies have been playing well, and it was predetermined Brenda would start today,” said Halldorson. “I changed after the second period, and Jody played well, but no lead was safe today. I still have a headache from that one. Both teams have great offensive quick-striking ability, and penalty-killing turned out to be the difference. Every time Potter and Ouellette are out there, you have to be on your toes.

“Usually you stress to your team to stay out of the penalty box, but not today.”

With the WCHA title thus secured, Minnesota finishes the season at St. Cloud State, while UMD must regroup at home against Minnesota State-Mankato.

The playoffs follow, with the womenÂ’s WCHA Final Five played at Ridder Arena March 12-14, and the menÂ’s WCHA Final Five at Xcel Energy Center one week later. The Gopher womenÂ’s team and the Fighting Sioux menÂ’s outfit might face more important games on those two weekends. But there will Deb Bochenski and Rob Horak wonÂ’t have to spend much freeway time to enjoy all the games.

Perennial Packer power prevails at girls puck peak

Even the most enthusiastic booster couldnÂ’t have predicted the incredible skyrocket ride experienced by girls hockey in just 10 short years. In the first official Minnesota State High School League girls tournament, even optimistic officials were surprised when Aldrich Arena was filled to overflowing for a four-team shootout.

The tournament moved on to the cavernous but comparatively impersonal State Fairgrounds Coliseum, where it continued to grow. Last season, it moved into the sparkling new Ridder Arena on the University of Minnesota campus. The Gophers women’s hockey team – a national championship challenger every year since its inception – had the facility built specifically for women’s hockey, because it provided a cozier location for the slowly growing women’s crowds than the adjacent Mariucci Arena, which the two-time defending NCAA champion men regularly overfill.

Maybe it is a measure of the impatient upsurge of girls high school hockey that some coaches actually protested that the girls should be placed in the enormous Excel Center in Saint Paul, home of the Minnesota Wild and the boys high school hockey tournament. Cooler outlooks have prevailed, however.

“Ridder Arena is the perfect place for the tournament at this time,” said Dave Palmquist, coach of the South St. Paul team that has been the state’s most consistent girls hockey power. “If we someday grow to the point where we need a bigger facility, great. But I always felt that the worst thing we could have was 3,000 or 4,000 fans in an arena that seats 18,000.”

Besides, there are more serious challenges facing girls hockey, despite the rapid expansion of the sport. Things like the expansion of developmental programs for girls, a comparative fall-off of elite players, the split of AA and A classes by size of schools, the prominence of private schools, and open-enrollment maneuvering as some players seek more-successful programs for their own personal prominence. All of these are difficulties that must be overcome if girls hockey is to continues its growth.

Observing it all, Palmquist is sort of like the driver of a car on a vacation trip – the passengers can all relax and take in the scenery, but the driver has a unique view from a more involved standpoint.

Palmquist, whose hair is thinning on top as the only indication he has aged beyond his 20s, still has the youthful vigor he brought from a job coaching boys hockey at Minnehaha Academy. “I had been at Minnehaha for seven years,” said Palmquist, “I came to South St. Paul for the first year of the program, and this is my 10th year.”

South St. Paul hasnÂ’t overwhelmed the stateÂ’s girls hockey tournament every year, but the Packers have been among the best while developing a unique program. Teams from Apple Valley, Burnsville, Roseville, Blaine, Hibbing, Eagan, Park Center and Bloomington Jefferson have risen to incredible heights and then leveled off, tracing the ever-fluctuating ups and downs of high school athletics, but South St. Paul simply started at the top and stayed there, never experiencing any wavering.

When it comes to ups and downs, South St. Paul has avoided the “downs” while constantly remaining with the “ups.” Palmquist is greatly responsible for being the driver of that limousine, and it never has been more evident than the last three years. After winning the state title in 2002 and 2003, the Packers beat Hastings 4-1 for the Section 2AA championship to ride the crest of a 27-0-1 season, and an incredible 86-game undefeated streak — a record for boys or girls.

A tie against Cloquet-Esko-Carlton early this season was the only reason the Packers record was 85-0-1 instead of 86-0 going into the state tournament.

“On November 25, 2001, we lost 2-1 to Blaine,” said Palmquist. “That made us 2-2 for the season, and we went on to finish 29-2 and win the state title. Last season we went 31-0 and won it again. It’s really something. Winning two state championships really motivates coaches and players, and also the younger kids who see what it can mean. We’ve been able to stay strong because of a special group.”

When Palmquist came to South St. Paul, girls hockey in the state had been confined to only a sparse few youth programs. Individuals like Jenny Schmidgall of Edina either played on boys teams or were attracted to the Minnesota Thoroughbreds, a selected all-star team that gave top players a place to play. From there, a number of girls developed and were recruited by eastern college programs. High school girls hockey, and later the start of Minnesota colleges starting varsity programs at the Division I and III levels, changed all that.

South St. Paul had the benefit of a strong ringette program, which adding the luxury of solid numbers for depth from the start. A tiny seventh-grader named Kelly Kegley attracted great attention as a standout when she transferred in to help anchor the Packers through their development years, and she went on to play at Wisconsin.

Other programs came up with exceptional players – Winny Brodt and sisters Ronda and Renee Curtin made Roseville the early dominant team, and later Krissy Wendell at Park Center and Natalie Darwitz at Eagan made girls hockey a true attraction. Those players, in years to come, may be looked back on as the John Mayasich-type heroes of the first years of boys hockey. Darwitz, in fact, bypassed her senior year at Eagan to join Wendell for a development year with the U.S. National team, and became key players on the 2002 U.S. Olympic team, which was upset by Canada in the gold medal final. Both now play for the No. 1 ranked Gophers.

“Krissy and Natalie, the Curtins, Winny Brodt – they were so talented that they set a standard for girls hockey,” said Palmquist. “They stood out by so much both because they were so talented and because a lot of other teams just starting out didn’t have players who could play with them.”

There is no Darwitz, who scored 85 goals as an eighth-grader at Eagan, or Wendell, who played boys high school hockey up until her junior year, then scored over 100 goals in a season when she switched to girls hockey at Park Center, on current girls teams, or even visible in youth programs. But top teams now have a lot of players from new girls youth teams who raise the average skill level enough to make it more difficult for the standouts to stand out.

So dominant were Wendell and Darwitz that they continue to be universally referred to by their first names only. “We were the only team to beat Krissy’s Park Center team,” said Palmquist, “after beating Natalie’s team to get to state.

“I’ve talked to a number of people who think that the development of girls hockey has definitely leveled off, and maybe even declined a little,” Palmquist added. “A lot of programs just don’t have the numbers coming up. It takes a lot of money, and a major commitment by parents and families, driving the kids around to practice. We’ve been able to stay pretty consistently strong, and I attribute a lot of that to a good group of youth coaches.”

Some of the top Packers players this season include Amanda Stohr, Maggie Fisher, Ashley Young and Felicia Nelson. It helps the program that Stohr, a Ms. Hockey finalist, is one of only two seniors on the squad, with goaltender Sarah Crnobrna – who has never lost a game – the other. Fisher, Nelson, and Young, who is the daughter of former Packer and Michigan Tech star John Young, are among a half-dozen juniors on the team. So there shouldn’t be much letdown next season.

“We’ve maintained it pretty well, but eventually, I think size could catch up to us,” said Palmquist. “We’re a small school, and we’re pretty locked in with no chance of growing. When you look around the state, you see so many good pockets of good players, but I think we’re faced with some of the same situations as the boys.”

Strictly for the sake of nurturing girls hockey, a split into two tournaments might have been more productive if the second class was for new programs, to encourage more start-ups. But the high school league followed guidelines used in other sports and split by enrollment. Smaller schools have been allowed to choose to play up, as South St. Paul has done, but some state powers, such as Warroad and Hibbing, play dominant roles in Class A.

“I think the split to AA and A took away some merit from the state tournament,” said Palmquist. “The South St. Paul boys team dropped down to Class A for the first time this season, and someday we might have to.

“Open enrollment is another problem, because, just like the boys, kids are moving to more successful programs. It’s happening all over the state, and it’s a tough issue. The strong get stronger, and the private schools keep getting better. If you look, you’ll see a lot of the same big schools at the top of the ratings for both boys and girls. The biggest suburban schools keep getting more dominant, and unless you’re in some place like Eden Prairie or Eagan, most of us have the bare minimum of girls coming up.”

For the first decade of girls hockey, however, South St. PaulÂ’s program has managed to stay among the best powerhouses. When the state resectioned its teams, and expanded the state tournament to eight teams, South St. Paul ended up in a section that also included perennial powers Eagan and Roseville. In some years, they were three of the stateÂ’s four or five best teams, all with strong supporting casts as well as standouts.

While some may say that individual stars havenÂ’t been as visible, Palmquist personally knows they still exist. South St. Paul has had Erica Hawkinson, Sarah Ahlquist, Ashley Albrecht and the current crop. The Packers had to find a way to penetrate Hill-Murray goaltender Emily Brookshaw in the 2AA semifinals, and it took 50 shots to produce goals by Fisher, Nelson, freshman Rita Simones and Young for a 4-1 victory.

That sent the Packers into the final, where they had to confront a Hastings team that got by Henry Sibley 5-2 when Erica McKenzie scored a hat trick. McKenzie, a strong-skating stickhandler with a powerful shot, is a two-time Metro player of the year and another Ms. Hockey finalist.

McKenzie is skilled enough, and had a strong-enough supporting cast, to be a valid threat in the 2AA final to South St. Paul’s hopes of a threepeat, while the Packers – well aware that their incredible streak must end sometime – countered with their usual balance and depth of talent. The Pack shut down McKenzie and broke open a tight game late for a 4-1 victory, getting two goals from Amanda Stohr and one each from Fisher and Young.

“We’ve had the quality at South St. Paul pretty consistently,” said Palmquist. “And we want to keep it going as long as we can.”

Gophers urgently need urgency in WCHA

MINNEAPOLIS, MN. — Urgency has become the key word for the University of Minnesota hockey team. Urgency has been notably absent from the considerable arsenal of weapons that made the talent-laden, two-time defending NCAA champion Gophers the unanimous pick as preseason favorites to win the WCHA.

Urgency is usually a given in the high-speed world of college hockey, but this year, it has remained elusive for the Gophers. Even a sweep over Alaska-Anchorage last weekend failed to end the season-long quest for urgency, and with only two weekends remaining in the regular season, that quest has becomeÂ…well, urgent.

“We are lurking,” conceded coach Don Lucia, who is well-aware of the team’s potential compared to its performance. “All of our players are not playing their best, and the next couple of weeks, against Denver and St. Cloud State, will be real indicators.”

Some of the Gopher players are aware that the intangible quality called chemistry has not yet materialized, although the return of Grant Potulny from a shoulder injury seemed to help jump-start Gino Guyer, for example, who got a goal each night against Anchorage.
“I’d say if you measured us against our potential, we’re probably at about 80 percent,” said Guyer, who acknowledges that he was among those sputtering. “For a lot of the season, we’d play two good periods, then take one off. The guys definitely want it, it’s just a matter of getting it done.”

Potulny has watched the inconsistency. “I think 80 percent is right on,” said Potulny, who was eager far more than the spare duty and power play shifts he got against Anchorage. “We’ve been getting a lot of spark from our third and fourth lines, but we seem to have two lines going most nights, and we’ve got to have four lines going. We just need one weekend where we get everything going, and maybe Denver will be it.”

When Minnesota won the last two NCAA titles, the Gophers didnÂ’t win the WCHA title either time, seizing national championships after 2001-02 champ Denver and 2002-03 winner Colorado College both were upset in NCAA regionals. Both times, however, the Gophers were on a steady upward surge through the closing weeks of the regular season. Yet this team is so talented that the Gophers could stumble for another few weeks, even in WCHA playoffs, and still manage to get into the NCAA tournament, then turn it on and go all the way to a threepeat.
Lucia rolled his eyes about lurking to that extreme. “It’s possible for a team to turn it on in the playoffs, but it’s not going to happen very often,” he said. “More often than not, a team has to be playing well at the end of the regular season to do it. I think you finish where you do in the standings for a reason.”

A nice winning surge over the last two months elevated Minnesota to respectability, and since boosters look only at wins and losses, a 16-2-2 tear from mid-December into the first week of February seemed to make everything OK. One Twin Cities columnist, who hadnÂ’t been seen at a game all season, made a point of praising the Gophers for the great turnaround after a dismal start. The greater question was: How could a team so loaded with talented players and depth, as well as expectations, virtually eliminate itself from title contention by starting the season 1-6-1 in the WCHA?

Lucia was jokingly accused of going to extremes to try to make his favored Gophers underdogs, but there were many reasons. Injuries (which every team suffers), too-high expectations (the residue of two straight NCAA titles), a lack of leadership (when captain Grant Potulny was injured), inconsistency (when too many goals were allowed), and inability to score (lack of goals by Guyer, Barry Tallackson and Matt Koalska, key participants the last year or two, who worked hard without tangible results).

The scoring of sophomore Thomas Vanek and speedy Troy Riddle offset the liabilities, but among the team enigmas is Vanek, a finesse player with a golden scoring touch, who inexplicably led the Gophers in penalties as well as scoring. “Thomas still leads our team in scoring chances,” said Lucia.

Early injuries to star defenseman Keith Ballard and skilled sophomore Chris Harrington provided more ready excuses, and Kellen Briggs has taken over in goal and can be excused for a few shaky games because heÂ’s only a freshman, albeit a 20-year-old freshman. Meanwhile, rationalizations have become a clear and present danger as replacements for realistic self-evaluation to recognize and correct shortcomings.

“We have some deficiencies and I don’t know if they’re correctible,” said Lucia.

Technical breakdowns might be traceable to a lack of chemistry or hunger, but such deficiencies can be summed up by that key word – urgency. A nonconference sweep over Bemidji State completed the 16-2-2 run the first weekend in February, setting up a decisive trip to Duluth. Minnesota-Duluth had opened the season by swiping two games from the Gophers at Mariucci Arena, 4-3 in overtime and 4-2. So with both revenge and the chance to climb into WCHA title contention, various Gophers were quoted saying they’d be ready for an all-out effort. Instead, UMD throttled the Gophers 6-1 and 4-1 to take over first place, dropping the Gophers to 11-10-1, and various Gophers were quoted the following week saying they “weren’t ready” at Duluth.

Various media outlets started spreading the latest rationalization: UMD had more older players than the Gophers. It can’t be recalled if any of those sources excused UMD for being at the bottom of the standings when they were much younger than the Gophers. But it provided a diversion from those alumni still grumbling that the Gophers have a half-dozen out-of-state players this season – more than in any season during the all-Minnesotan or almost-all-Minnesotan regimes of Doug Woog, Brad Buetow, Herb Brooks, Glen Sonmor and John Mariucci.

Potulny, who is both old, turning 24 March 4,and from just across the river from Minnesota in Grand Forks, N.D., has long been forgiven for those alleged transgressions as third-year captain and unquestioned leader. His attitude may not yet prevail over all the younger players who may have started this season pretty certain that another title would be automatic.

A season-opening tournament at Omaha saw a 4-0 loss to Maine and a 7-3 victory over Nebraska-Omaha, then the WCHA started with two losses to Duluth and a split with Denver, all at Mariucci, and two losses at North Dakota and a tie and a loss at upstart Wisconsin for a 1-6-1 launch. Even though the only losses for the next 20 games were at Alaska-Anchorage and to North Dakota, the top four teams in the league remained above the Gophers.

Success at Duluth could have pushed the Gophers higher, although the 3-2, 5-2 sweep over Anchorage left the Gophers still with the fifth and final home-ice playoff spot. It also got them within striking distance of St. Cloud and Wisconsin for third place, which avoids the deadly “play-in” game between fourth and fifth when the league playoffs reach Final Five status.

“Getting Potulny and Vanek back is big, because we’re 14-3 with a full lineup,” said Lucia.

Alaska-Anchorage coach John Hill, who was Lucia’s assistant at Minnesota before going north, to Alaska, has made great strides with the Seawolves, but is consumed by making more strides. “Minnesota has got an awful lot of skill,” Hill said. “If they play with some grit, they’ll be awfully tough.”

Grit. It’s a great word that’s almost reached cliché status, and it’s related to those others, like chemistry and hunger, that have been hanging there all season. All the words now are preempted though, because it’s time for urgency.

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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.