Lighter, quicker Sejna explosive leader of young CC Tigers

In the course of a long, WCHA season, fans may miss a game, and so they may end up overlooking a great player on some team. If that team happens to be Colorado College, and the player overlooked happens to be Peter Sejna, no problem – just ask any coach in the league. Then stand back for a barrage of superlatives.
His own coach, Scott Owens, puts it best.
“He’s a top-three player in the country,” said Owens, “and I don’t even know who the other two are.”
Owens, of course, gets to see Sejna up close every day in practice, not just a couple times a season, when he dashes around, trapping defenders flat-footed with an amazing change of pace, then zipping into the open in a blur of speed. He could be the best player in any game, the one who causes opponents to be back on their heels, even if he didnÂ’t score any points. He does, however, score points.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Sejna is one of the best in the country,” said Scott Sandelin, coach at Minnesota-Duluth. “He’s so strong on his skates, and on his stick. He can stop on a dime and change direction. And he’s got an NHL shot.”
Sandelin had just seen Sejna on the ice sheet at the DECC, where the UMD Bulldogs held him to only one assist in a 4-4 tie, only to have Sejna come back and score two goals that made a difference in a 4-3 CC victory in the second game of the series. “He had an improbable angle on the goal line on one of those goals,” said Owens. “It’s nice to get something out of a play like that.”
That ran SejnaÂ’s total to seven goals and five assists after six games this season, including another two-goal performance in a 3-0 victory over Maine a week earlier.
Sandelin paid the highest possible praise to Sejna behind closed doors, when he was talking casually after the game to a friend who is also a player agent. He was only kidding, of course, when he assigned his friend one task: “See that he gets signed after this year, will you?”
But Sejna, only a junior, has shown no sign of going away. But he would rather talk about his teammates than himself.
“This was a huge three points for us, because UMD is hard to play against in this building,” Sejna said. “I think we’re younger this year, but our young guys are learning fast, and our older guys are getting used to the younger ones. Tom Preissing and Joe Cullen are playing really well.”
Preissing, a dominating defenseman, scored a hat trick in the season opener, a 6-4 victory over Mass-Lowell, and has scored six goals to match his best season output, both as a sophomore and junior. Cullen is the latest of the Cullen brothers from Moorhead, Minn., including Matt, who starred at St. Cloud State and is now with the NHL’s Anaheim Mighty Ducks, and Mark, who was a senior star at CC last season, and Joe centers the second Tiger line. One of the young guys -–freshman Aaron Slattengren – centers Sejna and senior Noah Clarke on the first line.
“Slattengren is playing great,” said Sejna. “He showed what he can do when he played at Omaha and played very well.”
Sejna said he renewed his commitment this past summer, when he decided to stay home in Liptovsky Mikulas, Slovakia.
“I always had worked out at home until last year,” said Sejna. “Last summer I stayed in the U.S. and worked. But I didn’t think I played good enough last season. I think I was too strong last year. I weighed 215, but our line just wasn’t clicking, and I got less points last year.
“I decided what I had to do this last summer. I always have to be faster, and I stayed back home in Slovakia and just worked out all summer, with my brother Milan, who plays in the Central Hockey League for Indianapolis. I came to school at 195 pounds, and I feel better. And the puck is going in a little easier.”
The Tigers have been in the thick of WCHA contention for the last decade, and Owen, who is in his fourth year since taking over for Don Lucia, knows it might take a little time for this team to hit full stride, because he’s playing six freshmen on regular status. The Tigers do have the appearance of being “Minnesota West,” because three of his four centermen are freshmen from Minnesota – Slattengren from Proctor, Marty Sertich from Roseville, and Trevor Frischmon from Blaine, as are defensemen Weston Tardy from Duluth and Mark Stuart from Rochester. That’s in addition to juniors Colin Stuart, a winger from Rochester, and defenseman Andrew Canzanello from Rochester, and seniors Cullen, from Moorhead, and Preissing, from Rosemount. That’s nine Minnesotans out of 18 skaters.
But there is no mistaking who the offensive sparkplug is.
“No question, Sejna is carrying us in the early going,” said Owens. “He came back sleeker and in better shape this year, and he’s taken the bull by the horns. He’s truly improved every area of his game – mental, team, and individual. He’s on a mission. When the game is on the line, he scores big goals.”

(John Gilbert has covered the WCHA since the mid-1960s at the Duluth News-Tribune, Minneapolis Star-Tribune and Murphy McGinnis Newspapers. Back home in Duluth, he has just published his first book, “Return to Gold Country,” chronicling last season’s University of Minnesota NCAA championship run. He can be reached by email at jgilbert@duluth.com, and you can visit his website at jgilbert.duluth.com.)

Gophers reload to defend 1st NCAA puck title in 23 years

Summertime came late in Minnesota, and it went away early. Meteorologists might blame Global Warming, while those associated with the University of Minnesota hockey team had an added factor – winning the NCAA hockey championship. Nobody minded playing the last college hockey game of last season, on April 6, 2002, but the euphoria that followed the championship also made the summer seem to flash past.
Now itÂ’s time to go back to work, facing the extra challenge of defending that national championship, while striving for new ones this season, at the WCHA and NCAA levels. And this Gopher team appears ready and willing to face those tasks.
Coach Don Lucia kept his perspective, and sent the message to his new team right from the start of summertime off-ice workouts.
“It’s really kind of been like any other summer,” said Lucia. “You chase your children around, recruit, and get ready for the next season.”
His players found it a little different, however.
“The biggest thing about winning the title is that you’ll remember it forever, and you can look back on it when you’re 60 years old,” said Matt Koalska, a junior center who scored the last-minute goal against Maine to send the championship game into overtime. “But now we’re back to normal. It stayed in the back of our heads while we were working out all summer, but then it was like, we won it, it’s over, so let’s get the season going again.”
Junior defenseman Paul Martin said: “Summer went by fast. Every time I see a picture, or a highlight, I can watch it over and over and it still sends chills running up and down my back. But it’s already in the back of our minds. It’s in the past, it’s over. Maybe in five or 10 years we can sit back and think about it some more.”
But for now, thereÂ’s work at hand. The major task for Lucia is to replace the likes of Hobey Baker winner Jordan Leopold, national scoring champion and All-America Johnny Pohl, goaltender Adam Hauser, defenseman Nick Angell and forwards Erik Wendell and Pat OÂ’Leary. Those were seniors on the championship team. Jeff Taffe, a junior center who scored 34 goals last season, left to sign with the Phoenix Coyotes.
“We have a ton of question marks,” said Lucia. “We have a lot of good players back, but when we looked in our locker room for our first meeting, those seniors were gone. Who is going to step up and fill some of those roles? We hated to lose Jeff Taffe, but you can’t blame a guy for leaving for a million dollars. In goal, we were able to give both Travis Weber and Justin Johnson some games as freshmen last year, and we know both are capable.
“The beauty of college hockey is that when good players leave, other players move up and produce more when they have a bigger role on the team. We may not have a 30-goal scorer this year, but I think we’ll have a lot of guys who can score 12 to 15 goals. You never know who will step up, but losing players like Pohl, Taffe and Leopold opens the window for guys like Troy Riddle, Matt Koalska and Paul Martin. Jordan and Johnny were special leaders, among the best I’ve been around in 20 years. It remains to be seen if the new captains can step up, check their egos and do the same kind of job.”
.”I think Paul Martin not only has a chance to be a great defenseman in our league but also nationwide,” Lucia added. “He’s one of the special ones.”
Martin, a smooth and technically brilliant passer, is looking forward to the increased role, and the challenge of leadership. “Last year’s success started with our seniors and captains,” said Martin. “Good teamwork depends on how the freshmen are accepted and brought into the unity. Last year, the captains and seniors did that and created a positive atmosphere. Leo, Johnny and Jeff had such great seasons, I don’t think anyone can replace them by himself. Hopefully, all the guys will chip in. Jordan was our main guy back there on defense and he left some pretty big skates to fill.”
The season opened for Minnesota at its “second home,” in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame game at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, site of last year’s NCAA tournament. The Gophers put Lucia’s concept to work with a 7-2 victory over Ohio State, getting goals from seven different scorers. While returning stalwarts Koalska, Dan Welch, Troy Riddle and Keith Ballard scored, three Gopher freshmen notched their first goals as well. Thomas Vanek made it 1-0 in the first period, and Tyler Hirsch and Gino Guyer also scored.
But the Gophers learned that things wonÂ’t all come easily this season either, as new captain Grant Potulny slid into the boards and suffered a broken leg. Potulny, a junior from Grand Forks, N.D., who was the lone non-Minnesotan on last yearÂ’s team and who scored the overtime game-winner to beat Maine 5-4 in last seasonÂ’s NCAA final, will be out indefinitely, and the loss of his leadership left alternate captains Martin and Nick Anthony to take over.
The Gophers went out to New Hampshire last following weekend and played a fast-paced 5-5 tie before losing 3-1 to the powerful Wildcats, another Frozen Four performer from last season. They journey to Houghton to face Michigan Tech in the WCHA season-opening series this weekend. Guyer, last yearÂ’s Minnesota Mr. Hockey award winner at Greenway of Coleraine, scored against Ohio State when his pass attempt to Dan Welch was blocked and he retrieved it and scored, then he added a highlight-film-quality goal at New Hampshire to get his college career properly launched.
“We’re young, with only two seniors in the lineup,” said Lucia. “Our freshman forwards look good. Thomas Vanek is a big kid, almost 210 pounds, and he has great skills. Gino Guyer will certainly be one of our top three centers, right from the start. And I think our defensive corps is very strong with our freshmen added in there, Chris Harrington, P.J. Atherton and Peter Kennedy. All three of them have stick skills and are good with the puck, and Atherton brings some toughness.”
Harrington is from St. Cloud, the son of John Harrington, the former UMD and U.S. Olympic star who went from being assistant coach at Denver and St. Cloud State to turning St. John’s into a viable Division III power as head coach. Atherton is 6-foot-2, 205 pounds from Edina. Kennedy is from Nova Scotia. Harrington and Atherton stepped into the first-game lineup, joining returning veterans Martin, Matt DeMarchi, Keith Ballard and Judd Stevens.
DeMarchi and center Nick Anthony are the only seniors in the lineup, along with juniors Potulny, Koalska, Martin, Riddle, Welch and Jon Waibel, and sophomores Barry Tallackson, Mike Erickson, Jake Fleming, Ballard, Stevens and goaltenders Weber and Johnson. That doesnÂ’t leave much room for rookies, but the skill level of freshmen Guyer and Vanek up front, and Harrington and Atherton back on defense gives the Gophers an overflowing treasure chest of talent.
Whether itÂ’s enough to challenge for supremacy in the WCHA, or NCAA, is dangling out in front of them like a carrot. Just like last year.

(John Gilbert has covered the WCHA from outposts in the Twin Cities and Duluth for most of four decades. He just completed a book, “Return to Gold Country,” on Minnesota’s 2001-02 NCAA championship year. He can be reached at his website jgilbert.duluth.com, by email at jgilbert@duluth.com, or by telephone at 218-525-4934.)

UMD women focus on bringing 3rd NCAA puck banner home

As the lights dimmed inside the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center, the beam of a bright spotlight focused on University of Minnesota-Duluth womenÂ’s hockey cocaptains Maria Rooth and Navada Russell. It followed them as they accepted a large rolled-up banner from athletic director Bob Corran and skated over to a pair of waiting cords, dangling from their berths in the rafters of the west end of the harborside arena.
They attached the banner to the cords and stood back as it was pulled aloft displaying the full message – “NCAA Champions, 2001-2002.”
As the banner was being raised, before the October 18 home opener to the 2002-03 season, it was impossible not to think back over the three brief years already inscribed in the UMD womenÂ’s hockey history. The time flashed by, and the accomplishments of this truly international program staggers the imagination.
Shannon Miller was hired as coach, coming from Calgary, where she had coached CanadaÂ’s WomenÂ’s Olympic team to its silver medal after being upset by the United States in 1998 at Nagano, Japan…She assembled a team of scattered backgrounds, which included some holdovers from UMDÂ’s club team, some apprehensive homestate recruits, a key pair of transfers, a couple of Canadians, and then she had to make a decision. A lot of Minnesota high school prospects were reluctant to choose a new program at UMD over some larger or more established programs. So Miller had to decide whether to fill out the roster with marginal players and accept a couple of losing seasons, orÂ…
Well, with Shannon Miller, there was no choice. Accepting mediocrity is not in her lifestyle. So she put her considerable international influence to work and went off to see what she could find. She found some very good players from Sweden and Finland, elite players who were eager to pursue an education in Northeastern Minnesota.
They fit together in perfect harmony. In UMDÂ’s first season, which also was the first season of WCHA WomenÂ’s hockey, the Bulldogs won that WCHA regular-season title. They also won the leagueÂ’s first playoff title, and went off to what was then considered the national tournament, conducted by the coaches association. UMD was beaten by eventual champion Minnesota in the semifinals.
In Year 2, the Bulldogs improved considerably, although Miller willingly gave up players to their home countries for various international competitions, even though it may have cost UMD just enough to leave them second to a very strong Minnesota team in the WCHA season. However, the ‘Dogs won the league playoff, then went all the way to win the first-ever NCAA Women’s Hockey Tournament, which was held at Mariucci Arena on the University of Minnesota campus.
Last season, the Bulldogs finished second to Minnesota again, struggled to third in the WCHA playoffs, but then got everything aimed in the right direction just in time to win the second NCAA tournament title, at the University of New Hampshire.
An incredible run, with a league title, two league playoff titles, and championships in the only two NCAA Women’s Hockey Frozen Four Tournaments – so incredible that outdoing it seems impossible. So as the players on this season’s UMD team stood at attention along the blue line as the banner was raised to accompany its predecessor, the question persisted: How could UMD live up to the standards it has already achieved?
“This,” said coach Miller, “is the best team we’ve ever had.”
That might be fortuitous, because a couple of hours south on Interstate-35, the University of Minnesota has assembled a powerhouse, and the rest of the WCHA seems to be improved at every station. Plus, the relentless rise in quality of womenÂ’s hockey everywhere means the competition has increased dramatically every season. But an extra incentive for UMD this year is that the third NCAA WomenÂ’s Hockey Frozen Four will be held at the DECC, that harborside facility in Duluth, at the tip of Lake Superior, where two NCAA championship banners hang from the rafters.
“We’d like to be the first team to host the NCAA Frozen Four, and also play in it,” Miller said.
She left off “winning it,” but with Miller, that’s generally understood.
The Bulldogs have added some exceptional recruits, and got one keepsake – Jenny Potter – back in uniform, which creates an intriguing USA-Canada alliance with Potter skating with Caroline Ouellette from Team Canada. Altogether, six nations are represented on the UMD team. Intrasquad scrimmages could be called the mini-Olympics.
Last year, the primary reason for UMD to be unable to win the WCHA league title the past two seasons was the frequent departures of its multinational players. Jenny Schmidgall, the teamÂ’s offensive catalyst and the nationÂ’s top scorer in UMDÂ’s first season, took a break from school, had a baby daughter and married boyfriend Rob Potter, and made a remarkable comeback to play for Team USA in the 2001 World Tournament and at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. She was joined in Salt Lake City by UMD teammates Maria Rooth and Erika Holst, the top players on SwedenÂ’s bronze-medal team; goalie Tuula Puputti and Hanne Sikio on FinlandÂ’s team; and Kristina Petrovskaia, who played for Russia.
All came home to roost. All but Shmiggy – now Jenny Potter – didn’t have to spend the full season with their national teams, and returned to school in time for the league and national playoffs.
Coach Miller had watched the Olympics closely, and noted the wild, wide-open attack used by Sweden in the men’s competition. The so-called “Torpedo” style of sending four attackers on offense and holding only one defenseman back stunned powerful Canada 6-2 in opening-round play. Unbeaten Sweden was upset by a hot goaltender from Belarus in the semifinals, but back in Duluth, Shannon Miller decided to throw away the highly successful offensive system the Bulldogs had used, and installed the Torpedo.
“I had to design probably 50 drills to make it work for our program,” said Miller. “I told them I didn’t know if it would be possible to get it in three weeks, and they had to realize it could cost us some games while we were getting ready. The big thing last year was that the players really, really liked it.”
It was ragged in its first two weekends – which happened to be the last weekend of the regular season and the WCHA playoff weekend, where Wisconsin beat UMD and finished as runner-up to Minnesota. But the system clicked much better the following week, when the Bulldogs went off to the NCAA tournament and beat Brown in a rugged championship game to bring home the big trophy again. Every goal UMD scored in the tournament was either the direct or indirect result of opportunities from that fourth-attacker offensive pressure. An interesting note was that when Tuula Puputti returned from tending Finland’s goal at the Olympics, where opposing coaches called her the best goaltender in the world, she couldn’t get her regular job back. Patricia Sautter, a junior from Switzerland, tended goal through both NCAA tournament games and was outstanding.
Now itÂ’s a new season, and the Bulldogs opened up by living up to MillerÂ’s bold pronouncement. They whipped Minnesota State-Mankato 12-1 and 6-1 on opening weekend, under the new banner in the DECC. Returnees like Holst, Rooth, Sikio, Joanne Eustace, Tricia Guest, Jenny Hempel, Russell, Julianne Vasichek, Satu Kiipeli and goaltender Sautter were outstanding, as usual. Especially Holst, who scored four goals in the first game.
But of captivating interest was the return of Potter, who was paired up with newcomer Caroline Ouellette, from Montreal. Ouellette, a star on the Canadian Olympic team that beat PotterÂ’s USA outfit in the gold medal game at Salt Lake City. The two of them played together like a hand in a glove, throwing passes around and creating numerous scoring opportunities. Together they scored six goals and assisted on seven for the series, led by Ouellette, a rangy 5-foot-11 winger who scored two goals and four assists in her first game in a UMD uniform.
In addition, freshman winger Amelia Hradsky played impressively, and freshman defenseman Krista McArthur from Alliston, Ontario, made an immediate impact on defense. In fact, McArthur seemed to enjoy the freedom to attack from defense, scoring two goals in the opening game. The Bulldogs launched over 60 shots both nights.
“It’s nice to have Jenny Potter on the ice because she sets a great pace in practice,” said Miller. “Caroline Ouellette is a big, strong player, and as good as she is, she’s very humble. Krista McArthur is a solid defenseman from the Canadian national program, and Amelia Hradsky, a true freshman from Calgary, has been playing hockey only one year, but she’s played a lot of ringette. Our other new player is freshman goaltender Lisa Hagen, who played guys hockey in Detroit Lakes.”
With the lure of international competition continuing every year, and Miller a strong advocate of letting players go to experience that level, something had to give. “I don’t mind if the younger players go, but with so many on this team, we can’t afford to let everybody go in the middle of our season,” she said.
Potter, Rooth and Holst – all veterans of their respective teams – have informed their national coaches that they would not participate this year in the Four Nations Cup, staying with the Bulldogs instead. That’s bad news for UMD’s opponents, and good news for the UMD team, its fans, and coach Miller, who, it appears, was not overstating her case when she called this the best team in UMD’s brief, and glowing, history.

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UMD beats Tech 5-2

Bulldogs erupt to beat Tech 5-2
By John Gilbert
Up North Newspaper Network
HOUGHTON, MICH.—There were all sorts of omens that Friday would be the night, but none more obvious than early in the third period, when UMD hockey trainer Terry Hanson briefly left the bench: He had won the $300 prize for the fund-raising drawing at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena. Yes, it was UMD’s lucky night. One game away from tying the school’s record of 11 WCHA winless games in succession, and after scoring only 12 goals in their first 10 WCHA games, the Bulldogs erupted to whip Michigan Tech 5-2 in the first of a two-game series.
“We finally stuck everything together,” said coach Mike Sertich, his tie hanging, undone, around his neck as another sign of relief. “It’s a relief, yes, but mostly it’s a great feeling of satisfaction for the kids, because I know how they’ve battled. They got some validation, finally. We got great goaltending, our power-play got a goal, our penalty-killing worked well, we got great goaltending, and our fourth line got a goal. Did I mention we got great goaltending?”
Tech coach Tim Watters also stressed that “Nicklin was the difference.” But Nicklin has sparkled all season, and even he was relieved when his team, which had scored only 12 goals in its first 10 WCHA games, broke free.
“We played a solid three periods,” Nicklin said. “I hope this is just one of a lot of routine wins.”
Ryan Homstol scored two huge goals for the Bulldogs, freshman Eric Ness got his first college goal in only his second game, and Jeff Scissons and Shawn Pogreba scored on rushes in the last five minutes of the third period to secure the outcome for UMD, which is now 1-8-2 to Tech’s 4-7 in league play.
The validation goals were hard to come by. Tech had not exactly been tearing the league apart for scoring either, but the Huskies had beaten Wisconsin in Madison, beaten Alaska-Anchorage in Anchorage and swept St. Cloud Tech in St. Cloud, and the Huskies took a 2-1 lead in the first period when sophomore Matt Ulwelling of Warroad — proclaimed by coach Tim Watters as the most effective Tech forward so far this season – set up Adrian Fure for the first goal, then scored himself to break a 1-1 tie.
That tie was gained when, with each team short a man, Mark Gunderson carried up the left side 1-on-2 and left a long drop pass. Homstol arrived skating hard and put full force behind a 40-foot slapshot that zipped past goalie David Weninger at 15:20.
Ulwelling regained the lead barely a minute later, putting a great move on Nicklin before pulling the puck left-to-right at the crease for a backhander.
The Bulldogs struck back in the second period, however, outshooting the Huskies 12-8 and scoring twice to vault into a 3-2 lead. The rally was inspired at 2:58 when Ness took a Nik Patronas pass out from the left corner and whirled to fire a shot into the upper left corner, tying the game 2-2. Good as it looked, Ness was quick to admit he hadn’t exactly picked the corner, after being a bit uptight in the first period. “When Nik got the puck to me, I just turned and shot,” Ness said. “I didn’t even look at the net, and I’m not sure where it went.”
That goal from the fourth line clearly got the Bulldog forwards forechecking more forcefully, and the defensemen started moving to pinch in on the puck-side and had good success keeping the puck in the Tech zone. The intensity led to a couple of Tech penalties, and the previously misnamed UMD power play clicked at 14:13.
Defenseman Mark Carlson shot from the left point and was originally credited with the goal, but Homstol, in the thick of traffic in the slot, deflected it past Weninger. His second goal of the night, third in two games, gave UMD a 3-2 lead to cling to in the third period.
Nicklin held off the Huskies on repeated good chances, particularly one by Tom Kaiman who was in alone at handshake distance. Then Scissons scored on a 3-on-1 rush with Homstol and Colin Anderson with 4:22 left, and Pogreba followed with 1:44 to go by shooting off a 2-on-1 with Tom Nelson and cashing in his own rebound.
The Scissons goal was another indicator of how good things were going. It was one of the most botched up 3-on-1s imaginable. “We weren’t really moving very fast to start with,” said Scissons, grinning sheepishly. “Then I tried to give the puck to Colin and it went to Ryan. Ryan beat the goalie, but he lost the puck and it came to me.”
By then, Scissons was deep on the right and it appeared he tried to pass back to Homstol, but was in too deep and the puck went into the goal instead. They had a good laugh about it, and being able to laugh about a shot that went in was a large departure from moaning about shots that didn’t.
UMD 1 2 2 — 5
Michigan Tech 1 0 0 — 1
First Period: 1. Tech–Fure 6 (Ulwelling, Kaiman) 12:22. 1. UMD–Homstol 3 (Gunderson) 15:20. 2. Tech–Ulwelling 6 (Fure) 16:33.
Second Period: 2.UMD–Ness 1 (Patronas, N. Anderson) 2:58. 3. UMD–Homstol 4 (Carlsokn, Fiberger) 14:13, PP.
Third Period: 4. UMD–Scissons 5 (Homstol, C. Anderson) 15:38. 5. UMD–Pogreba 1 (Nelson) 18:16.
Saves: Nicklin, UMD 3 8 8–19; D. Weninger, Tech 5 10 10–25. Attendance–2,501.

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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:
  
  Click here for sports
  
  

• 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.