Speedy hockey, Speedgrass, and a great burger
It was close to being the perfect scenario. Or at least turning a difficult decision into a great night out.
On Tuesday, we faced the dilemma of desperately wanting to attend the Trampled by Turtles concert at Clyde Iron Works, starting at 9 p.m. However, the Minnesota Wild, after a breathtaking finish to the regular season, which ended with them clutching the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference of the National Hockey League, was to open the Stanley Cup Playoffs at Chicago on Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
If we stayed home and watched the Wild-Blackhawks game, we’d obviously miss the start of the Turtles concert, and even getting there on time meant being unable to find a vantage point. So I made a phone call to Clyde Iron Works. Knowing they were going to have both the main stage and the mezzanine going as part of this week’s Homegrown Music Festival, and also knowing they serve food, I asked if, by any chance, there might be television sets in the eating area where we might watch the Wild game. We were assured there was, and we could.
So my wife, Joan, and I got to Clyde about 6:30 p.m., as a couple of pretty good bands were already getting ready to start at 7 p.m. We went upstairs and found a table with a pretty good vantage point of one of the large flat-screen TVs on the wall, and ordered hamburgers. First of all, these weren’t just hamburgers. They were half-pound beauties that took the whole first period to consume. These were burgers that were so good, The Reader should have another “best of” issues, just to name the Clyde burgers as the best in the Twin Ports. There are a lot of good burger places in Duluth and Superior, but the Clyde burger, with a slice of smoky cheddar (Joan got pepper jack and grilled onions), went immediately to the top of the list.
Duluth-based Trampled by Turtles played a jammed-full Clyde Iron Works concert.
Despite a continuing stream of young adults who had gotten a good start on the Clyde’s supply of beer walking right in front of us and stopping to talk, loudly, between us and the television set, we had a great vantage point as the complete underdog Wild took the ice to warm up for Game 1 against the No. 1 seeded Blackhawks. There was no sound, in the Clyde, naturally, but we watched as Josh Harding pulled on his goalie mask and skated out to the Wild goal. Josh Harding? Yes, we didn’t need sound when a video replay came on to show ace goaltender Niklas Backstrom go down awkwardly attempting to make a save on a warmup rush, then get up and hobble to the bench, and then straight to the dressing room. They will call it a “lower body injury,” although it looked like he either wrenched a knee or pulled a muscle. Whatever, Josh Harding — he of the heroic fight after learning he has multiple sclerosis, and he who hadn’t started a game since January — stalked valiantly out to the nets to start the game. If the Wild were 100-to-1 longshots, it just went to 1,000-to-1.
But Harding is capable, to say nothing of courageous, and he made a couple good saves in the first five minutes. About then, on his second shift on the ice, Cal Clutterbuck carried across center ice and curled in on the left side. Clutterbuck, a right-handed shot, skated hard to the left faceoff circle, then snapped a shot to the inside of a retreating defenseman, and the missile glanced off the arm of goaltender Corey Crawford and went in on the short side.
Harding and the hustling Wild prevented the powerful Hawks from any scoring threats and the score stayed 1-0, Wild, into the second period. Early in the second, Charlie Coyle, one of three rookies in the Wild lineup, rushed in on the left and fired a hard backhander that Coffman blocked, uncertainly. Zach Parise, always hustling, and willing to play half of each shift while being sprawled prone seeking the puck, came hard at the net, as a pair of Blackhawks tried to shove him into the goal. They shoved enough that Parise fell over Coffman and play was whistled dead. The referee, however, called Parise for a penalty for running into the goaltender. It was an awful call, and although the Wild killed nearly all the penalty, right near the end of the power play, Patrick Kane rushed up the middle, attracting three Wild defenders. Kane, one of the slickest men with a stick in the game, made a deft move, then snapped a backhand pass wide to the left, where Marian Hossa was breaking at full steam, and he fired the puck in behind Harding before he could cover.
The 1-1 tie stayed through the entire rest of the second period, and on into the third. We had to choose, and we went into the main hall about then, to try to carve out a vantage point on the balcony. I figured once we did, I could sneak back out every once in a while for a glance at the third period. And then the overtime.
As so often happens in a clash of two teams with some potent big-gun players, the game came down to lesser-names. After 16:35 of sudden-death overtime, Viktor Stalberg rushed up the right side for the Blackhawks, threw on the brakes to freeze the defense, then sent a perfect pass across the slot to Bryan Bickell, who outraced two Wild skaters to break in alone with speed, cut to his right and tuck in the winning goal. Chicago wins Game 1, by 2-1 in overtime.
The Wild played ferociously. They played their best. And Josh Harding was nothing short of sensational. After having absorbed scorn from media types who don’t know hockey, and polite finger-crossing from hopeful fans who thought maybe the Wild could steal a game — just one — had outplayed the Blackhawks through most of the night, and battled them with all they had when the home team gained momentum in the second period.
Remember, the Blackhawks had the best record in the entire NHL, just as the Vancouver Canucks had last season. And the Los Angeles Kings, who were seeded No. 8 in the West a year ago, beat the Canucks and went all the way to win the Stanley Cup. These Blackhawks are better than those Canucks were a year ago, but the Wild, if they can keep playing the same way in Game 2 on Friday night, could get on a roll and be better than the LA Kings were last year, too. As for the Blackhawks, recall also that they were beaten in six games by upstart Phoenix in the first round last year — and five of those games were in overtime. Remember also that our own Masked Fan, just one week ago, picked the Wild to finish ninth in the West and falter their way to finish short of making the playoffs. Oh ye, of little faith! Turn the page and see what he thinks about the Wild now!
Meanwhile, Trample by Turtles was outstanding, playing a lively set that enthralled a mob scene that clogged the main floor of the Clyde Iron Works. We were lucky to be up near the railing in the balcony, although we weren’t lucky enough to get a clear view of the full stage at any one time. But it was a great show. I wonder if they’ve got another Homegrown concert scheduled for Friday night, when it’ll be time for Game 2, and we’ll be about ready for another Clyde Burger.
UMD WINS SPRING GAME!
Speaking of good food at sports events, last Friday was the perfect time to take a walk in the sun and find a vantage point at Jim Malosky Stadium. The event was UMD’s annual spring football game, and new coach Curt Wiese had arranged for the usual feast that the players get to have to instead be turned out for any fans who attended, free of charge. I mean the game was free of charge, and the food — including barbecue from Texas Roadhouse — was free, too.
That time, so dedicated was I to watching the two UMD split squads play football that I passed up the chance to stand in line amid some of the more than 1,200 fans for the barbecue — settling later for a little cole slaw and a couple of other salad-type things — and watched Wiese watch his players. The big turnout celebrated a rare sighting of the sun, and 60-degree temperature, and also was a fund-raiser for UMD lineman Jordan Bauman, who is battling Hodgkin’s lymphoma for the second time.
The new coach has had a little knee surgery, so he’s on crutches these days, which didn’t prevent him from getting out there in the middle of the field for the special-rules game, where nobody was allowed to blast any quarterbacks, or make runbacks of kicks or turnovers. That way, nobody could impress the coach by running over him, either.
Freshman Drew Bauer fired a pass over the middle as new UMD coach Curt Wiese watched, on crutches.
Tyler McLaughlin kicked a 22-yard field goal to help his White team to a 10-7 Spring game victory.
The Bulldogs proved the answers to at least two questions: 1. Is there life after Bob Nielson? and 2. Is there life after Chase Vogler? Nielson, who lifted UMD to a pair of NCAA Division II national championships before leaving after last season for a Division I job, appears to have set the table for Wiese, who was his offensive coordinator for the last five seasons. In the last four of those, Chase Vogler was the quarterback, breaking all sorts of UMD records and proving to be a one-man catalyst for Wiese’s clever offense.
The score didn’t matter, although the Whites beat the Maroons 10-7 for those keeping score. Tyler McLaughlin kicked an extra point and made a 22-yard field goal for four of the White’s points. And the quarterback situation appears to be adequately filled, even though competition will continue right on through next fall’s camp. Junior Brent Jorgenson is one of the prime candidates, although freshman Drew Bauer from Eagan might be a better scrambler and runner from the gang of five that are fighting for the job. Bauer was 5-for-8 with a touchdown pass, and ran well, although those quarterbacks were getting special-ed treatment with their orange no-hit jerseys, so we really didn’t get the chance to see him scramble for real.
Minnesota heads for wild Wild finish
By John Gilbert
If the Minnesota Wild make the playoffs, they won’t have a game with higher intensity or drama than their 2-1 victory over the defending Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul.
A capacity crowd at the X stood and cheered through the final minutes, as Niklas Backstrom and the Wild strained every nerve in the building to hold off the attacking Kings. The Wild got goals from Charlie Coyle and Cal Clutterbuck 13 seconds apart in the first period, and held on against a curious stretch in the second period. Play got particularly intense, with a nasty climax when Dustin Brown KO’d Jason Pomerville of the Wild with a perfectly thrown elbow.
Pomerville caught the flagrant elbow right on the chin, and went down on his back, smacking the back of his helmeted head on the ice. Pomerville got up, stumbled to the bench, and then the dressing room, and didn’t return. Brown didn’t even get a minor penalty, but the play is sure to be reviewed by the NHL, who, if they want to stress cutting down on blows to the head, will have no choice but to hit Brown with a suspension.
The Wild went into the game locked with Columbus at 51 points, in a tie for the final two playoff spots in the West. They played with full intensity for all 60 minutes, and any wavering would have cost them the game. Coach Mike Yeo made a couple of moves, promoting hard-hitting Clutterbuck to the second line, with Matt Cullen and Devin Setoguchi. Coming on right behind the Mikko Koivu-Zach Parise-Charlie Coyle line, that proved to be a 1-2 punch when first Parise went deep on the left and fired a pass out front that Coyle put away, then Clutterbuck, a right-handed shot, dashed in on the left and fired a bullseye into the upper left corner for the 2-0 start.
The finish came down to Backstrom hurling himself across the crease to make the save of the game with 12 seconds left, and the Wild gained two extremely important points. The Wild moved up to 53 points, two up on Columbus, and three up on Detroit. The Kings, hoping to move up from fourth, stayed at 57 points and had to travel to Detroit for a huge game Wednesday night, knowing that St. Louis was only one point behind them, and San Jose two points back.
Without a doubt, the Wild game against the Kings was just like the best playoff game you could see, and suddenly the Friday game against Edmonton doesn’t look so imposing. A Wild victory in that one will clinch a playoff spot.
CRITICS RISE
If a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, how scary is no knowledge? If you read the columnists or listen to the talk-radio guys in the Twin Cities the last couple of weeks, you’d think the Wild is in collapse mode. The Wild went on an impressive tear a month ago, and charged into the midst of the Western Conference’s eight-team playoff picture. That included a victory in Vancouver that I thought might have been the best game I’ve ever watched the Wild play. The next game was in Detroit, and the Wild played at least as well to also beat the Red Wings. That victory over the Red Wings could prove pivotal as the teams head into their final weekend of play, their final two games.
Two weeks ago, the Wild struggled in three home games, against Chicago, St. Louis, and Columbus — three of the league’s best — then went on their last road trip and won convincingly in Calgary and Edmonton, before heading for San Jose where the Sharks feasted. Those media folks who don’t go to hockey games unless their continued absence would embarrass them, ripped the Wild for not doing better in San Jose. One talk-radio guy got his cohort to agree that it was ridiculous to play ace goaltender Niklas Backstrom at both Calgary and Edmonton, where they were assured of winning, because the load might be too taxing for Backstrom
That’s like saying with a half-dozen games to go, the Twins should rest Joe Mauer, or with two weeks to go, the Vikings should sit-out Adrian Peterson. At the risk of submitting a couple of facts serving as evidence, there are no easy games, no sure things, at this stage of the season, and especially a season condensed into a frantic pace by the lockout that eliminated the first half of the season. You play Backstrom at Calgary and at Edmonton because you should win those games, and if you don’t play your best goaltender and lose, the failure to secure those two points might cost you a playoff spot. At Calgary, the Wild roared to a 4-1 lead, and as the fans booed the Flames, they flared to life and rallied for two late goals. Backstrom held on, and the Wild won 4-3. Taking nothing away from the Stars backup goaltending, but a few great late saves by Backstrom proved the merit of him being between the pipes.
The loss at San Jose, yes, that was not the Wild’s finest hour, but it wasn’t a bad night to be off, because the Sharks are good enough to beat you when you’re at your best.
That brought about the current, final homestand, with the Wild playing host to Calgary, Los Angeles, and Edmonton, Friday, before going on the road to face Colorado on Saturday in the finish of the regular season. The race was so tight that winning at Calgary and Edmonton lifted the Wild to third place in the West, but losing at San Jose dropped them quickly, and coming home and losing to Calgary left them tied with Columbus for seventh and eighth places in the West with three games left. The critics hissed about the Wild faltering against Calgary, but they played very well, dominating the first two periods, but couldn’t score after Zach Parise gained a 1-1 tie late in the first period.
The most precarious image was caused by Detroit and Dallas. The Red Wings — still one of the NHL’s elite teams — lurked only one point behind the Wild and Blue Jackets, and the Stars were only two points behind the Wings after winning in San Jose Tuesday night. All had three games left.
That’s why Tuesday night’s victory at Xcel Center over the Los Angeles Kings was so enormous. A loss by the Wild wouldn’t have spelled doom, but it would have allowed Detroit and Dallas to make it a photo finish. And, when you think about it, the Red Wings and the Stars have about a thousand times more tradition and experience about what it takes to make the playoffs than the still-maturing Minnesota Wild.
FORMULA 1 INNOVATION
The Bahrain Grand Prix, fourth in the long and tangled Formula 1 auto racing season, was broadcast at 6:30 a.m. last Sunday by NBC-Sports, a new sports network that swiped the Formula 1 rights from Speedvision. For years, Speedvision has done a magnificent job of presenting the best auto racing series in the world, with Bob Varsha’s deep and familiar voice doing the play-by-play, and David Hobbs, the clever Englishman and former racer himself, doing the color.
NBC-Sports, which wants to be a challenger for ABC’s ESPN stronghold, does a similarly good job with the broadcast, and they kept David Hobbs, but they’ve replaced Bob Varsha with Leigh Duffy. Now, Duffy does a very good job on play-by-play, maybe even as good as Varsha, but he, like Hobbs, is a proper Englishman with a proper English accent. Apparently nobody listened to any auditions by the two together, but when you hear an Englishman’s accent on play-by-play, and pertinent comments by another Englishman’s accent on color, it comes off as entirely too much English accent. The contrasting voices are no longer in contrast, and after four races, I appreciate the job Varsha did for over a decade even more.
As for the race, which was rebroadcast at high noon — a definite improvement from Sportsvision’s dawn-or-else telecasts — it was thoroughly entertaining from start to finish. The impressive 3.4-mile road-racing track is plopped down in the desert of Bahrain, wide enough to allow passing in several areas, and with three high-speed stretches where the F1 guys are all well over 180 miles per hour. I can’t recall seeing as much passing and side-by-side racing in a Formula 1 race.
Sebastian Vettel, the youthful German driver for Red Bull, won his fourth race in a row, but it was not without high drama. After Lotus driver Nico Rosburg surprised everyone and won the pole, he had a good start and cut across Vettel’s bow before Turn 1, allowing Fernando Alonso to also squeeze by for second in his red Ferrari. For three laps or so, the three shuffled positions in a breathtaking skirmish, before Vettel got ahead, then opened a small gap.
The fact he was able to maintain it throughout the rest of the 57-lap sprint around was a proper show of strength, but the dicing behind him was ferocious, and the cameras did an excellent job of capturing duels between the rest. After 18 laps, Vettel led and Red Bull teammate Mark Webber was second, but then it got crazy. Paul di Resta of Force India had his best race and contended up front most of the way before settling for fourth. Alonso had the flap that opens on the high rear wing stuck open, and he had to pit to have it sealed shut, and much as he struggled to stay with the leaders, he ultimately finished eighth.
One of the highlights of the race was that 50 percent of the commercials were done on a split-screen arrangement, where one-third of the screen stayed on the race leaders, while two-thirds flashed ads for Blackberry, Mobil 1, promotions for upcoming NHL broadcasts, Husqvarna, Mercedes, T-Mobile, Infiniti cars, CanAm ATVs, Rolex watches, Bridgestone tires, Evinrude outboards, Tire Rack, Mother’s car polish, Citi, and GoPro cameras. I can’t remember who ran the other ads, because when they interrupted the race, I dashed to the kitchen for more coffee. The no-interrupt idea is a good one, although a 50-50 split would be even more impressive, or an inset into the full-screen broadcast. And it’s something that sports like hockey should adopt, because it would be far better than the minute or two breaks that interrupt anything resembling rhythm.
With 10 laps remaining in the race, Kimi Raikonen, in the No. 1 Lotus, had gained second, trailing Vettel by about 11 seconds, while di Resta had all he could do to hold off Romain Grosjean, in the second Lotus for third. Close behind those two, Webber and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton were battling for fifth. With five laps to go, Grosjean squeezed past di Resta for third just about the time Webber repassed Hamilton for fifth. Sergio Perez, in the second McLaren, had a bumping battle with teammate Jensen Button, then got by him, and remarkably passed Alonso. With two laps left, Hamilton and Webber were side-by-side through several turns, in one of the race’s top moments, and Hamilton edged ahead on the final lap to take fifth. Webber sagged just a bit after Hamilton passed him, and Perez also snuck by Webber just before the finish.
That left the finishing order: 1. Vettel; 2. Raikkonen; 3. Grosjean; 4. di Resta; 5. Hamilton; 6. Perez; 7. Webber; 8. Alonso; 9. Rosburg; and 10. Button. All 10 had their moments in contention in the race, something that rarely, if ever, has happened in Formula 1 in the last two decades. Vettel, on the podium for Red Bull with Lotus teammates Raikkonen and Grosjean joining him, made the comment on how it was a big day for Renault engineering as well, since the top three finishers all were powered by Renault engines.
Actually, it was a big day for Formula 1, because it proved the series can be more than a chess-match of manipulating tire compounds or trading 3-second pit stops. Wheel-to-wheel racing is the best, and when you see the world’s best drivers in the world’s best cars, on the world’s best road courses racing that way, it’s a solid 2 hours of entertainment.
Boston Marathon changed forever
By John Gilbert
You probably remember where you were, exactly, when the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center took place on 9/11/01. If you’re old enough, you also remember exactly where you were when John F. Kennedy was shot. It will be a similar memory, that will come back with haunting regularity, about where you were and what you were doing when you heard about the bombs that blew up at the finish line of the 117th Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15, 2013.
The date itself won’t be that significant, tax-day or not. But from now on, whenever you hear about the Boston Marathon you will think of the chaos we all witnessed, mostly by video replays that seemed interminable throughout the afternoon and night of Monday.
I had gone home, after my morning radio show on KDAL, which got the bulletin just as we were signing off that Rita Jeptoo of Kenya had won the women’s portion of the 26.2-mile Boston Marathon, in 2:26:25. We announced that, just as the closing music was playing, and we were done. The significance of that is that we were all hoping that our own Kara Goucher might pull off a huge upset and win, or at least run with the leaders. Turns out she did, finishing a strong sixth at 2:28:11.
My Monday routine included meeting a fellow who had driven up from Chicago to exchange test-drive cars with me for the upcoming week. Then I drove home. I had to write a few things on my computer, so I heated up some leftover warshue duck from the Chopsticks restaurant, then I flipped on the radio for background sound and started in on the computer. It was about 2:20 p.m. when I heard Joe Soucheray say, almost casually, that he had just seen a bulletin saying there was “some kind a bomb went off at the Boston Marathon.”
I leaped up and ran across the room to turn on CNN, and saw the earliest replays of the first explosion, and I noticed the finish-line timer read 4:09:43. The men’s winners had clocked something around 2:10, so obviously this was occurring two hours after the first finishers had crossed the line. On the second replay, I noticed a puff of smoke on the left edge of the screen. It was the second explosion, a block or two away. It was nearly an hour later before the television folks realized that the second puff of smoke was even visible, and by then, on about the 20th replay I watched, I had counted off from the finish-line timer that the second blast had happened exactly 11 seconds after the first.
The chaos that was evident, and completely understandable, was gripping, and to me, there was also a vague sense of familiarity. When I realized the finish line was on Boylston Street, it hit me. And when the announcers talked about Copley Square, and a witness said he had been watching from where “Comm Av and Mass Av” intersected, I realized that the area was a place I had visited often. I’ve never been to the Boston Marathon, and I never realized that the finish line was right on Boylston Street, and Copley Square, and the wonderfully nicknamed Mass Av (Massachusetts Avenue) and Comm Av (Commonwealth Avenue). It right there, near Northeastern University, and closer to Boston University.
When I wrote for the Minneapolis Tribune, I made dozens of trips to Boston to cover the North Stars playing at the Bruins, and the University of Minnesota hockey team playing at Boston University, nearby Boston College, as well as Northeastern and, right across the Charles River, Harvard. I’ve also covered the Minnesota Twins playing the Boston Red Sox in Fenway Park, back at about the same era. I’ve stayed at the Mandarin Hotel, which is right near where the second bomb went off, and I’ve frequently wandered around Copley Square, and enjoyed the BU Bookstore, which was the only place I could buy the giant yellow legal pads, college ruled, on which I would chronicle an entire season of pro, college, and high school hockey games. That area has big, wide sidewalks, the better for window-shopping or just walking along.
In the aftermath of the horrible tragedy, in which at least three people died, and a dozen more had limbs blown off by shrapnel, among the 173 injured, it took several hours before anyone had the courage to utter the word “terrorist,” even though the person or persons who planted those crude, but cruelly effective bombs was, or is, a terrorist. A person doesn’t have to belong to Al Queda, or to a White Supremacist group, or any other organization to be a terrorist, but there is no mistaking that someone who executes an act of terror is, by definition, a terrorist. There is a report that a publication put out by Al Queda urges followers to read instructions in how to make a bomb, and then look for large gatherings of people and try to create as much devastation as possible. It urges committing such acts anywhere, but preferably in the U.S. We don’t know if the perpetrator of the bombings in Boston was part of such an organization, or acted alone, or took inspiration from such outrageous writings. We’d just like to see the criminal or criminals brought to justice.
From a thousand miles away, we can identify with the shock and terror that everybody at the scene felt. We can sympathize with the victims, and we can be thankful that those we might have known at the scene escaped injury. We can listen to some “expert” on television talk about how many mistakes, or oversights, there were to allow this to happen, but there is no way to assure safety, and to insulate ourselves from some deranged or driven person who is intent on committing this sort of act. We are a nation who likes to blame someone for making an error that might contribute to something so evil, but nobody was guilty of any mistake in this case, and only the person or persons who planted the bombs is guilty of anything.
But we can never let our guard down. At an airport, or a shopping center, or an event, or anywhere. The Boston Marathon comes on Patriot’s Day in Boston, to celebrate the Revolutionary War battles of Lexington and Concord, if memory serves me. Schools are let out, and the civic mood is celebratory. The Boston Red Sox are playing their home opener at wonderful Fenway Park, which is only a few blocks away from the scene of the finish line. With 23,000 runners, and hundreds of thousands of people crowding toward the finish line to watch, along with the schools being out and the Red Sox throng, it is one of the biggest scenes in the country.
We now must worry about upcoming major events, such as the Kentucky Derby, and the Indianapolis 500 — other places where huge crowds of people.
Life will go on, and we’ll watch some beautiful scenes of nature, as well as some spectacular sporting events. We will enjoy them, all of them. But from now on, whenever we hear the two words Boston Marathon, our minds will immediately flash to April 15, 2013. Even if we forget the actual date, we won’t ever forget what happened there, and how it changed all of our lives.
HOCKEY STILL IN THE AIR
It was a superb NCAA hockey Frozen Four, and Yale was the perfect champion, defeating No. 1 ranked Quinnipiac in the championship game. Who could have ever guessed that two ECAC teams would make it to the final? Both were quick, balanced, strong offensively and defensively, and in the end, Yale’s combination of quickness and tenacity won out — just as it had been in upsetting Minnesota, and North Dakota, then Massachusetts-Lowell, before knocking off a Quinnipiac powerhouse that had beaten Yale all three times they met earlier in the season, by a combined total of 13-3 goals.
Drew LeBlanc, from St. Cloud State via Hermantown, gives Duluth its second straight Hobey Baker winner.
St. Cloud State got to the Frozen Four, then had a horrendous start, getting down by three goals before getting into their game against Quinnipiac in the semifinals. I felt bad that seniors Drew LeBlanc of Hermantown, and Ben Hanowski of Little Falls, didn’t really do their thing at the Frozen Four. But as if to prove that life goes on, LeBlanc went on to win the Hobey Baker Award as the nation’s best college hockey player, the day after St. Cloud’s crushing loss. How great is it that the 2012 Hobey Baker winner was Jack Connolly from Duluth and UMD, and the 2013 winner is Drew LeBlanc, from Hermantown and St. Cloud State? We’d never had an actual Duluthian win the Hobey, and now we have two in a row.
Hanowski, meanwhile, signed with the Calgary Flames, went off to Calgary instead of taking his final exams, and scored his first NHL goal in his first NHL game — against the Minnesota Wild, even — as the Wild beat Calgary 4-3.
Maybe it won’t be such a tough transition to springtime after all. We still do get to have springtime, don’t we?
For a while it appeared sports fans in Northern Minnesota would be left to consider shoveling and watching the ice floes go back and forth from the Duluth Harbor as the only verifiable spring “sports.” All we really had to cheer for was the Minnesota Wild, and just about then Matt Cullen and Dany Heatley went down with injuries and the Wild seemed to go into the old, familiar free-fall that we’ve seen from many of our other sports teams in recent years.
Fortunately, Cullen returned from that dreaded “lower body” injury, and the Wild, who were 1-4-1 during his absence, won that big 4-3 game at Calgary on Monday, and followed it up with a 5-3 victory at Edmonton on Tuesday. That sent the Wild winging on to San Jose for a Thursday night date, right in the thick of the playoff scramble in the Western Conference, but suddenly looking like the tight race couldn’t throw anything at them that they can’t handle.
TWINS ON THE RISE
There are no guarantees that the Minnesota Twins will rise to contention in the American League, or even that they will ever play a home game with temperature above 50 in their boutique-like Target Field. But as long as we get to watch Joe Mauer hit, all will be worthwhile.
For the first few weeks of the season, Mauer was mired in a slump the likes of which we’ve never witnessed. He was not getting hits, and more than that, he was swinging and missing. Joe doesn’t do that. But he struck out repeatedly. Three times in one game. And he was hitting something like .225.
Finally he started to make contact. Then he started stringing hits together. He hit safely in seven straight games going into the series with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, or whatever they’ve decided to call them this year, and he had improved his batting average to .298.
On Monday, Joe Mauer went 4-for-5 with a home run, double, and two singles, driving in three runs, and his average jumped to .346. On Tuesday, Joe Mauer went 4-for-5 again. Those were the 20th and 21st times in his still-young career that Mauer has gotten four hits in a game, and his batting average skyrocketed to .386. Almost every hit came with two strikes, which is the way Mauer likes it — getting a good look at whatever any pitcher can throw at him, and then daring him to throw a third strike past him.
“He is the best hitter with two strikes I’ve ever seen,” said manager Ron Gardenhire, in a post-game press conference after Monday’s game. And then he proved it again, the next night.
We can cheer the Wild for as far as they can go into the playoffs. And then, no matter how far that is, we can tune in to watch Joe Mauer swing his bat and smack those line drives all over the park. Any park.
Badgers lead WCHA ‘Final Six’ into NCAA
By John Gilbert
Five of the six WCHA teams that were selected to play in the 16-team NCAA tournament this week — St. Cloud State, Minnesota, North Dakota, Denver, and Minnesota State-Mankato — are primed to get a second chance to regroup and show their best stuff in the win-or-go-home NCAA, with hopes a national championship might be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
But the sixth team, Wisconsin, is so used to playing, and succeeding, with the same win-or-else obstacle, the Badgers would just as soon have nothing change.
Just like in the NCAA field, only one team can win the championship in the WCHA Final Five, and that team was Wisconsin, which continued its upward surge that has carried the Badgers since the end of November. After starting 1-7-2 in their first 10 games, the Badgers have soared to a 21-5-5 mark, for a 22-12-7 overall record as they embark on a very challenging NCAA schedule.
Freshman Nic Kerdiles, who formed a strong connection with linemate Tyler Barnes as they finished 1-2 in Final Five scoring — Kerdiles 3-3–6 and Barnes 4-1–5 — had an ineligiblity issue with contact from an agent after being drafted on the second round by Anaheim, and missed the first 10 games. Ten games was precisely when the Badgers went 1-7-2, so they are 22-12-7 with him in the lineup. They flank center Mark Zengerle on the top line that suddenly has emerged as a dangerous unit, every shift.
Behind their play, and that smothering defense, the Badgers rose form a three-way tie for fourth, fifth, and sixth in the WCHA to claim the automatic slot in the NCAA field by winning the Final Five, and coach Mike Eaves and his players knew that they came to the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, with the task of winning three games in three days, or being done for the season.
Eaves was asked if this, because of the slow start, has been his most challenging season. “Challenging?” he said. “I’d say it was one of the most enjoyable.”
The start was puzzling, he acknowledged. “We weren’t playing terrible hockey,” Eaves said. “We were playing well, we just weren’t coming up with the big goal when we needed it. I was just trying to say the right things to these young men to keep them coming back.”
There was no question they were coming back. Captain John Ramage said: “At the start, even though we didn’t win, we knew exactly what kind of team we had. If we didn’t feel that, we wouldn’t be here rightd now. Our confidence level is high, and we’re riding high — we just want to keep it going.”
Wisconsin is in the Northeast Regional, as the tournament’s No. 14 seed, where the first opponent is Hockey East power Massachusetts-Lowell, the No. 3 overall seed, in a 3:30 p.m. game on Friday at Manchester, N.H. The other teams in the Northeast are No. 7 New Hampshire, also from Hockey East, against Denver, No. 9, from the WCHA, at 7 p.m. The winners collide on Saturday, at 5:30.
The other WCHA entries are also spaced, two each, in the West Regional at Grand Rapids, Mich., where Minnesota, No. 2 overall, opens the tournament at 1 p.m. Friday against No. 15 Yale from the ECAC, with No. 8, North Dakota, facing No 10 Niagara at 4:30 p.m. Those winners play Saturday at 3 p.m.
In the Midwest Region, at Toledo, Ohio, games begin on Saturday, with St. Cloud State, No 13, playing No. 4, Notre Dame of the CCHA, at 12:30 p.m., and MSU-Mankato, No. 11, facing No. 5 Miami at 4 p.m., with the winners meeting Sunday at 3 p.m. for a Frozen Four berth. The East Region, the only one where no WCHA team is slated, also starts Saturday, with No. 1 overall Quinnipiac facing No. 16 Canisius at 4:30 p.m. in Providence, R.I., and No. 6 Boston College, meeting No. 12 Union at 8 p.m. Those winners play at 5:30 p.m. Sunday.
As far as using the NCAA tournament to make up for WCHA playoff disappointments, the rest of the entries have a lot of challenges. St. Cloud State won the regular season title, although they were tied on the final day of the season by co-champion Minnesota. Both flopped after sweeping two games to reach the Final Five, with byes into the semifinals. St. Cloud State fell victim to Wisconsin, which pinned a 4-1 defeat on the Huskies. Minnesota was stymied by red-hot Colorado College, which knocked out favored North Dakota 4-3 in overtime, then beat the Golden Gophers 2-0.
As the top seed in the WCHA, the Huskies incomprehensibly were victimized by the NCAA’s computer system, relegated to the No. 13 seed, while co-champ Minnesota is No. 2, after ranking No. 1 a week earlier. The Huskies have a consistently solid team that plays well at both ends of the rink, but they seemed to fall victim to Wisconsin’s tournament rhythm. After winning their first WCHA league title in their final year in the league, the Huskies need no more incentive than to realize they worked six months to prove they are the best team in the WCHA, then they got far less respect than the league champs from the CCHA, Hockey East, or the ECAC.
Meanwhile, nobody has more ground to make up than Denver, which was upset by Colorado College after winning the first game, then losing twice at home to the Tigers, who were, arguably, the hottest team in the Final Five but knew all along it was win the title or else. Denver, it must be noted, has in its history an NCAA title after losing in the WCHA first round but maintaining a high enough rank to still make the NCAA, rested and ready.
North Dakota, stung by the overtime upset loss to CC in the Final Five quarterfinals, had won three straight Final Five titles, and ranks with the Gophers as co-favorites at Grand Rapids, where they could meet for the final time as WCHA rivals, with both teams going to other conferences next fall — Minnesota to the Big Ten and North Dakota to the National Collegiate Hockey Conference.
And Minnesota State-Mankato had a rough night in a 7-2 shocker against Wisconsin in the Final Five quarterfinals. The Mavericks, with a solid team and the league’s top goaltender in freshman Stephon Williams, had a miserable night and will welcome the reprieve of the NCAA selection — even though most hockey observers are completely overlooking their chances against powerful Miami.
All those five other teams could pile up a mountain of alibis and excuses for their shortcomings in the Final Five, but only Wisconsin can look back at last weekend knowing they have climbed to the top of one pinnacle, while looking ahead to the next one.
“It didn’t look like that early,” said Badger coach Eaves. “We had injuries, ineligibilities, an assistant coach leaving, and a problem scoring goals. But we are what we are today, because of those lessons we learned back then.”
After their terrible start, which included losing twice to Colorado College in Madison, tying and losing at Minnesota, then losing twice at MSU-Mankato, the Badgers tied and won at Denver, then tied Michigan Tech twice. Then Wisconsin took off, winning seven in a row. Thereafter, the Badgers never lost two games in a row, splitting nonconference games with Miami, sweeping Alaska-Anchorage, tying and losing at North Dakota, tying and winning against Bemidji State, splitting with arch-rival Minnesota, splitting a nonconference pair with Penn State, then sweeping at Nebraska-Omaha, and splitting with St. Cloud State.
Still, the Badgers have hit their peak in playoffs, sweeping Minnesota-Duluth, then beating Mankato, St. Cloud State, and Colorado College in five games that have seen them outscore those foes 21-7, as goaltender Joel Rumpel and the stifling Badger team defense has prevailed.
“They play a different style, and they’re so dialed into it, we were always a step behind,” said CC coach Scott Owens, of the Badgers.
The Broadmoor Trophy, given to the Final Five champion, is the last one Wisconsin will be playing for, and Eaves said, “It’s very special, and we will hold it in high esteem.”
But after his Badgers had won it, and were taking turns holding it high overhead on the Xcel Center ice, Eaves stood smiling on the bench, then walked down the runway to the dressing room, rather than joining them on the ice.
“That’s their moment,” said Eaves. “Watching them get together afterward was really fun, but it’s their moment.”
WCHA sends 6 to NCAA in Final Flourish
By John Gilbert
The Western Collegiate Hockey Association is not dying after this season, it just seems that way. The most successful conference in any sport is exploding to form three different leagues, while the rival CCHA is also going to be shattered, with the remnants joining what will remain of the WCHA to make up the WCHA as of next fall.
To briefly explain: Minnesota and Wisconsin were forced to join Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Penn State in a new Big Ten hockey conference. The Big Ten says any time as many as six of its member schools play a sport, that sport must be a Big Ten league. With Penn State starting hockey — and the Nittany Lions upset Wisconsin in Madison for a split late this season! — that was the sixth Big Ten team. That caused some unrest and instability within the remaining WCHA entries, and North Dakota and Denver led an insurrection to start a new league.
Denver and North Dakota coerced Colorado College, Nebraska-Omaha, and Miami of Ohio to start the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC), and UMD had to choose quickly, and jumped on board. That made for a six-team elitist league, which added St. Cloud State and Western Michigan to make eight.
That leaves Bemidji State, Minnesota State-Mankato, Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan, Lake Superior State, Alaska-Anchorage, Alaska-Faribanks, Bowling Green, and Ferris State in an interesting league, and Alabama-Huntsville joined as well, making 10. That group will still be called the WCHA, which is great, because historically it will give the new league a standard to strive for.
CC's Rylan Schwartz (13) set up Charlie Taft for a goal on Joel Rumpel, but Wisconsin won the WCHA title game 3-2.
All of that means that the WCHA’s Final Five last weekend was loaded with historical significance. And it was also loaded with surprises and upsets. Wisconsin beat Colorado College 3-2 in the championship game, which can be called the “final Final Five final.” The title game had added drama, because all the computer calculations said that while the winner would get the automatic berth in the NCAA tournament’s 16-team field, the loser would not make it. Both finalists had played two amazing games to reach the final. Wisconsin stunned MSU-Mankato 7-2, then shocked No. 1 seed St. Cloud State 4-1, while Colorado College — which finished eighth in the regular season WCHA race — knocked off North Dakota in overtime, then played a magnificent game to beat Minnesota 2-0. Rarely does a team succeed having to win a quarterfinal, the beat a bye team in the semifinals, and then win the third game in three days. But in this case, both teams had to play their third game in three days, and because CC’s games were far more grueling than Wisconsin’s, the Tigers seemed more worn out in the final, but played with great heart, and the spark of Rylan Schwartz, to challenge the Badgers. Wisconsin obviously deserved to reach the NCAA, having eliminated UMD in two straight, then Mankato, St. Cloud and CC.
By winning the Broadmoor Cup, the Badgers also earned the right to advance to the NCAA tournament.
The Badgers, with their shut-down style and opportunistic offense, have freshman Nic Kerdiles and Tyler Barnes as first-team wingers who have amazing chemistry for finding each other with passes. As the 14th seed, lowest among WCHA entries, the Badgers are a legitimate threat to win the Northeast Regional and make a run at the NCAA title.
But the most impressive team in the Final Five was Colorado College, both for the grit and tenacity they showed in beating Denver by winning two games after losing the first, and then taking out North Dakota in overtime, but mostly for the flawless, free-flowing offense that left the Golden Gophers looking more befuddled than any co-champ should look in the 2-0 semifinal.
The worst call of the tournament came in the first period of Wisconsin’s 4-1 victory over St. Cloud State. A 2-on-1 rush, with a shot from the right side blocked by Badger goalie Joel Rumpel, with the rebound landing in the slot. As Nic Dowd shot the rebound toward the open goal, Rumpel turned from the congestion of the shooter and his defenseman, pulled his stick free, and whirled to try to get in the way of Dowd’s shot. No chance. So Rumpel let his stick slide, knob-first, from his grasp, diagonally across the crease toward the left post. Incredibly, Dowd’s shot hit the handle of the stick and slid just centimeters wide of the left pipe. Had Dowd scored, St. Cloud would have led 2-1 at the second intermission.
Alex Krushelnyski's short-handed breakaway goal puffed the North Dakota net in CC's 4-3 upset.
St. Cloud State coach Bob Motzko discussed it with the referees, who agreed to check with Greg Shepherd, supervisor of officials, upstairs manning the video replays. The rule book doesn’t say such a play is a penalty — it is a goal, anytime a player throws or slides his stick to prevent the puck from obviously going into the goal! AAfter repeated viewings, the ruling was no goal. I asked Shep about it, and he said one replay showed that Rumpel’s stick hit his teammate’s skate, which knocked the stick out of his hand, meaning he didn’t throw it. We had a pretty good argument about it, but I saved my coup de grace for the end. In the interview room, Rumpel said: “I guess I kind of dove and it hit the knob of my stick, and knocked it out of my hand. But the puck just skirted wide.” For clarification, I raised my hand and asked: “Are you saying another player knocked the stick out of your hand?” And Rumpel said: “No, nothing hit my stick, except the puck.” I told Shepherd he had to call it the way he saw it, but the goaltender himself acknowledged he threw his stick at the puck, and was quite jovial about accepting credit for the accuracy of his “Olympic Stick Slide.”
Badger coach Mike Eaves said, simply: “Obviously, it was the turning point in the game.”
SIX WCHA TEAMS MAKE NCAA
The last hurrah for the WCHA as we know it should be a good one, because six WCHA teams made the 16-team NCAA field, which begins with four regionals this week. On Friday, the show starts with Minnesota facing Yale at 1 p.m. in Grand Rapids, Mich., followed by the North Dakota-Niagara game at 4:30. Don’t look ahead, but very likely we’ll see a Minnesota-North Dakota showdown at 3 p.m. Saturday in that West Region final — two teams that are leaving the WCHA for new horizons next year.
The Northeast Regional follows with Wisconsin facing Massachusetts-Lowell at 3:30 in Manchester, N.H., followed by Denver facing New Hampshire at 7 p.m. Those winners meet at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
The other two regionals are Saturday-Sunday, with the East Regional pitting top overall seed Quinnipiac against Canisius in an odd match between two programs that were basically not on the horizon of elite teams three or four years ago. That will be at 5:30 p.m. Saturday in Providence, R.I., and will be followed at 8 p.m. by Boston College facing Union. Those winners play at 3 p.m. Sunday in the only region that doesn’t have a WCHA team, because the NCAA will do anything to avoid the situation a few years ago when all four Frozen Four teams were from the WCHA. Frankly, it was no fun; more like a rerun of the WCHA Final Five.
The Midwest Regional in Toledo has Notre Dame facing St. Cloud State at 12:30 Saturday, followed by Miami facing MSU-Mankato at 4 p.m. The winners meet for a Frozen Four berth at 3 p.m. Sunday. That’s an interesting region, because Notre Dame and Miami, both leaving the CCHA, will be favored over the 11th-seeded MSU Mavericks, and the No. 13 seeded St. Cloud State Huskies. But both the Mavericks and the Huskies have dangerously talented teams, and have the unique opportunity to make up for disappointing showings in the Final Five. And upset or two there, wouldn’t surprise me.
One thing about the NCAA’s convoluted ratings and computer calculations that has bothered me for a couple of decades. All of that computer stuff and Pairwise calculations are impressive. But the NCAA should be made aware of this thing each league has, called “Standings.” Nonconference games are important, but they are too important with the computer involvement. Used to be that teams could play a few back-up players in nonconference games; now they have to play them for keeps. To me, the conference standings are all-important, and should be given extra weight in the computer input. In the WCHA, St Cloud State was caught and tied for co-championship by Minnesota in the last game of the season, but St. Cloud State was No. 1 seed on tie-breakers. My plan would have each league submit its standings — including league tournaments, if they wish. In the WCHA, St. Cloud State would rank No. 1, Minnesota No. 2, North Dakota No. 3, etc. That’s the way they finished in their tough and exhausting league race. There should be no computer that can say that Minnesota, North Dakota, Denver, and MSU-Mankato should be seeded higher than St. Cloud State — the league’s top seed.
It would, however, be great to see the WCHA as we know it supply a couple of Frozen Four teams and win the national championship as its own going-away gift to the WCHA.
GOPHER WOMEN WIN TITLE AT 41-0
The University of Minnesota women’s team completed a pressure-filled playoff by loosening up and playing its game to beat Boston University 6-3 in the NCAA championship game Sunday at Ridder Arena. A sold-out Ridder Arena, with 3,500 fans jammed in, saw the Gophers become the only women’s team to ever go all the way through the season undefeated and untied, at 41-0. Their winning streak is now at 49 and counting, with their second straight title. Amanda Kessel, the Kazmaier Award winner, finished a brilliant season with two goals and two assists, giving her 46-45–101 for the season.
Amanda Kessel's 2nd goal, 46th of the year, enters empty BU goal to clinch 6-3 NCAA final victory for Minnesota.
That victory followed two very tough games, with the Gophers surviving a triple-overtime quarterfinal before beating North Dakota, then getting past Boston College 3-2 in overtime in the semifinal. The weight of the undefeated season started to get a little heavy once Minnesota got to elimination games, which made the title game a relaxed and relieved performance.
The media, most of which had never paid any proper attention to women’s hockey, jumped all over the bandwagon to claim that this Gopher team is the greatest women’s team ever. I say this team has the greatest record of all, but it can’t be assumed it’s the best team ever. Its statistics are impressive: Kessel’s 46-55–101 is followed by Michelle Brandt’s 33-49–82, and ace defenseman Megan Bozek’s 20-37–57. And senior goaltender Noora Raty has been positively brilliant.
It is apparent that this Gopher team is among the best ever, but let’s look back at the repeat Gopher title-winning teams of 2003-04, and 2004-05. In those years, UMD was also a truly elite power, having won the first three NCAA titles, in 2000, 2001, and 2002. They were still loaded with elite players in the years the Gophers won, and Wisconsin was coming on strong, with a roster full of players that would win the following two titles.
In 2004-05, for example, the Gophers were 36-2-2 overall, compared to this year’s 41-0, and they were 25-1-2 in WCHA play, compared to this year’s 28-0. The difference is that beat the Gophers in league play, and UMD and Wisconsin each pinned ties on the Gopher record. North Dakota and Wisconsin were pretty strong this year, while UMD and Ohio State were a notch back, but none of those four approached the elite quality of UMD, and the emerging Badgers, of a decade ago. That accounts for the slight difference in losing a game or two and going undefeated.
Look also at the team statistics. In the 04-05 title year, Minnesota’s top three scorers were Natalie Darwitz, with 42-72–114, Krissy Wendell, with 43-61–104, and Kelly Stephens, with 33-43–76. Those were in 40 total games. In all-time Gopher scoring, Darwitz has 102-144–246 in 99 games; Wendell 106-131–237 in 101 games; and Stephens 97-121–218 in 148 games. Nadine Muzerall, who played with Darwitz and Wendell on the 2003 title team, amassed 139-96–235 in 129 games.
For their final celebration, Gophers took NCAA women's trophy over to their pep band.
Kessel has 97-134–231 for her three years so far, in 113 games. Kessel is joining the U.S. team for the World Championships right now, and is a cinch to make the U.S. Olympic team, which will take her away from the Gophers for a season. When she comes back, she is certain to pass Muzerall, and Stephens, Wendell and Darwitz to become the top Gopher scorer of all time. But before we anoint her as the best ever, let’s appreciate that like Kessel, Wendell and then Darwitz were chosen outstanding players of the 2003 and 2004 NCAA Frozen Fours, respectively, with Darwitz scoring 3-6–9 in the 2004 event.
In the meantime, we also cannot look beyond those first three UMD teams, all of which won the NCAA titles. in 1999-2000, the Bulldogs went 25-5-3, with a 21-1-2 record in the WCHA. In ’99-2000, Jenny Schmidgall led the league with 41-52–93, with Minnesota’s Muzerall the top goal-scorer at 49-28–77 in second, and then came UMD’s Maria Rooth 37-31–68, and Hanna Sikio 25-39–64. In WCHA play, the top four UMD scorers were Schmidgall (who became Jenny Potter) 36-46–82; Rooth 31-28–59; Sikio 22-32–54, and Erika Holst 23-18–41. At the end of the Schmidgall/Potter-Rooth years, along came Caroline Ouellette, another elite player. We also should point out that while Potter was the best player on the U.S. women’s teams for several years, until Darwitz and Wendell came along to give the U.S. three superstars, Rooth was clearly the best player on Sweden’s national and Olympic teams, as was more recent UMD goaltender Kim Martin, who beat the heavily favored Team USA in the 2006 Olympics, while Sikio and goaltender Tuula Puputti were brilliant for Finland, and Ouellette became the best player on Canada’s Gold Medal teams.
We could go on, and evaluate the stars at Wisconsin during the four Badger championship years — one of which included only one loss (to UMD) and two ties. Suffice it to say that Amanda Kessel may play up to the amazing standards Potter, Darwitz and Wendell have set for the U.S. in international play, and this year’s undefeated Gopher team is definitely at the level of those Darwitz-Wendell Gopher teams, and the Potter-Rooth-Ouellette Bulldog teams, and the elite Badger teams.
It’s certainly not Minnesota’s fault that the competition was a definite cut below the level that featured the Gophers, Bulldogs and Badgers all with elite teams that would take turns beating each other. Nobody could go undefeated in those seasons. But coach Brad Frost has maintained the flow of elite players to the Gophers, while UMD and Wisconsin have run thin in that department. The Gophers, without question, deserve all the accolades of their fantastic unbeaten, untied season, but those who have just discovered women’s college hockey should be cautious about declaring them the best ever.
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.
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