Arrogance is never attractive
[Gilbert/Viewpoint 10/17/98]
Arrogance, whether real
or perceived, is ugly
The University of Minnesota hockey program worked feverishly to develop itself as a fortress from which Minnesota hockey players could take on the world. The late, and sorely missed, John Mariucci took his Gophers to places like Eveleth, at their own expense, to play developing programs such as UMD’s, for the good of hockey.
Glen Sonmor took the Gophers to Madison to play the developing program at Wisconsin on a midweek bustrip down and back when the Gophers had an enormous WCHA series against North Dakota the previous weekend, and another coming up at Michigan the following weekend. Herb Brooks was next, and he took his Gophers on the busride to Eveleth and back to play UMD in a U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame game, asking only for box lunches for his players in return.
Ah, the good ol’ days, when the air of generosity, humility, and what was good for hockey in Minnesota continued.
A few years ago, when the prices went up from $8 to $11 a ticket in old Mariucci Arena, coach Doug Woog expressed genuine concern, because hockey had always been a blue-collar sport for blue-collar fans, and he said he hated to see Gopher hockey become an elitist event.
Times change. The Gophers now play in a beautiful, still-new Mariucci Arena, where they’ve set national records for college hockey attendance, and tickets go for $21. Corporate ticket buyers, who might be baseball-basketball-football types, have driven the prices up, crowded the students to the end seats, and assure there will be 1,000 or more empty seats between the blue lines at every home game. Outside, masses of real, blue-collar fans are left in the cold, trying to buy tickets to sellouts.
A newly created perception of arrogance hangs heavy around the Gopher hockey program these days, and it is an ill-fitting cloak to those who remember the glory days of less glitz but a whole lot more humility and hard-core success.
It is important for hockey that the University of Minnesota program be strong and clean. Which does not mean that everyone else, including UMD and St. Cloud State — maybe especially UMD and St. Cloud State — strive to whip the Gophers in recruiting and on the ice, every time they get the chance. We can only wonder why Duluth, St. Cloud and other areas tolerate having every Gopher game televised by MSC cable into the cable-equipped homes of fans in the UMD, St. Cloud and other regions. It’s good business, good promotion, good for the Gophers, and to-hell-with-the-rest-of-’em.
Certainly a lot of the top prospects in the state still want to be Gophers, but more and more they are looking at valid alternatives, such as UMD, St. Cloud State, North Dakota, Colorado College and Wisconsin. Top players Erik Rasmussen, Mike Crowley and Ben Clymer have left the Gophers as underclassmen at the rate of one-star-per-year over the last three years. Is it inner turmoil, damage control from recent allegations, this perceived arrogance, or a combination of such factors?
When the Gophers look down upon their rivals, it is arrogance of the worst kind. When they spin-doctor their rescue of the financially-strapped U.S. Hall of Fame by going across the river to Target Center to draw 17,000 a game to the Hall game two years in a row, all the while quietly skimming their normal home-game 9,000-plus season-ticket profit off the top, it’s different from the old days.
Manipulating for such exempted games, which don’t count in the NCAA scheduling limit but make extra money and provide an advantage in experience, is a major benefit. The Gophers have five such games this season, then they “complain” about having a tough schedule.
Last spring, the Gophers had to go to Duluth to face UMD in the WCHA playoffs, they took out huge ads Up North trying to suggest that hockey fans could turn the DECC into a Gopher homesite, it not only displayed arrogance but it made it altogether fitting and proper that UMD ended the Gophers season.
It’s a new season. Last week a weekly tabloid called “Let’s Play Hockey” promoted its flashy 12-page section on the Gopher hockey program, with about a dozen LPH staff-written stories, capsules on every player in the program, and photos. It was impressive. If someone noticed that there was nothing on UMD, St. Cloud State, Minnesota State-Mankato, or Bemidji State in that issue, it became understood when it was explained that the University of Minnesota had paid to have that section written. It was an ad.
Hired guns pay to hire guns to shoot either real bullets or blanks. Clever marketing? Spin-doctoring? Creative promotion? Up North, a lot of hard-core, grass-roots, blue-collar hockey folks might just call it arrogant.
The players in that program, almost all of them great kids, deserve better.
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.
Colgate knocks teeth out of Bulldogs
Bulldogs brushed aside by Colgate
By John Gilbert
Up North Newspaper Network
The new and comparatively free-scoring UMD Bulldogs returned to the DECC Friday night fresh from a two-game sweep at Michigan Tech and ready to show the home fans what a victory looks like. But Colgate goaltender Shep Harder would have none of that.
Harder, a junior from Wayzata who starred at Blake, was spectacular as Colgate held off the Bulldogs 5-4 before 3,640 fans in the opener of a nonconference weekend series. UMD outshot the Red Raiders 48-25, but Harder made 44 saves to outduel UMD star Brant Nicklin.
“Duluth outplayed us and worked harder than we did,” said Colgate coach Don Vaughan. “Our goaltender stole the game for us. That was, without question, the most shots Shep has faces all year, but he made some huge saves.”
It was no reflection on how Nicklin played, but UMD coach Mike Sertich decided before the weekend that senior Tony Gasparini would start tonight’s rematch. Nicklin sat out his first game as a freshman, but has since started every game — including 72 straight in the WCHA — except for only one WCHA playoff game last season when he was injured.
“I got a piece of the first three goals they scored,” said Nicklin, who knew that the Bulldogs had played well enough to win.
Chad MacDonald scored the only goal of the first period for Colgate, then Jesse Fibiger and Curtis Bois counted for a 2-1 UMD lead with close-order goals midway through the second period. Mike Marostega tied it 2-2 at 14:12 of the middle period, then Sean Nolan scored two goals for Colgate, starting and finishing a strange three-goal burst in the span of 2:21.
Nolan scored with 30 seconds left in the second period to break a 2-2 tie, and, after Darryl Campbell stunned UMD with a goal eight seconds into the third period, Nolan angled across the slot and beat Brant Nicklin with a 20-foot backhander at 1:51.
“We were facing adversity and needed a couple of quick ones at the beginning of the third period,” said Harder, who said that 34 shots by Northeastern were the most he has faced all season, until UMD peppered him with 48.
Sertich said: “I have a hard time believing that we lost. But we made a couple of boo-boos, and paid for it. We had ’em on their heels, but we made two big errors, and they got a goal at the end of the second and beginning of the third. Our guys don’t want to slip back, they want to go forward, and tonight was a setback.”
Down 5-2, the Bulldogs rallied dramatically. Freshman Tommy Nelson rushed in for a shot at 4:39 on a power play, and defenseman Ryan Coole, going hard past the right of the net, smacked the rebound out of the air and past Harder to cut it to 5-3.
Then UMD’s top line, harnessed all night, broke loose. Harder stopped Colin Anderson, then made a big save when Ryan Homstol tried to carom one off him from behind the net. But Homstol persisted and jammed another try in at the right post with 6:26 remaining.
The Bulldogs pressed to the finish, firing 19 shots in the third period, but the final result was secured when Nicklin went to the bench for a sixth attacker in the last minute. Colgate iced the puck, and Mike O’Malley did a tremendous job of forechecking against four Bulldogs, keeping the puck on the end boards for 20 seconds of the final 30 and ending UMD’s hopes.
Big guns from Little Canada
When UMD’s lengthy practices end, Jeff Scissons, Ryan Homstol and Colin Anderson, the members of the Bulldogs top forward line, can quit passing the puck to each other and go home for dinner. Then they might pass the pork fried rice to each other.
Yes, the Bulldogs top linemates also are roommates, and pork fried rice is the specialty of Colin Anderson, the acknowledged best cook with the best selection of meals. Homstol disagrees. “I’m the best,” said Homstol, but his roommates insist that’s if you count only macaroni and cheese.
“Usually Colin and I cook for Ryan,” said Scissons, setting the record straight.
Nobody at the large and spacious house on East 1st St., out near 21st Ave., claimed the title as best pool player, or responsibility for turning on “The Simpsons” on the television set.
The place is nicknamed “Little Canada,” and a specially created highway sign says: “Little Canada, population 6.” That’s because they and teammates Curtis Bois, Brant Nicklin and Derek Derow live in the six apartments, and all six are from Canada. The sign is realistic enough that some policemen, who were in the neighborhood checking on an alleged disturbance one time, accused the players of stealing a real highway sign. The players weren’t aware that a Little Canada really exists near the Twin Cities, but they were pretty sure that if it did, it must have more than six residents.
Living in such close proximity may help Scissons, Homstol and Anderson interact on the ice, which is vital to UMD’s hopes this weekend against Colgate, and this season. When they weren’t scoring, the Bulldogs opened 0-8-2 in the WCHA, and when the Bulldogs finally broke loose last weekend, the line of Scissons centering Homstol and Anderson scored three goals in the 5-2 first game at Michigan Tech and all six in the 6-2 follow-up. It was nothing the three didn’t expect. It was just a long time coming.
“The only pressure we had was our own expectations,” said Scissons, a junior from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, who was named WCHA offensive player of the week for scoring four goals and two assists at Tech. “We had scored last year, and it would have been OK if we didn’t score, but when we didn’t score and nobody else did, then we started to press.”
As the Bulldogs opened 0-8-2 in WCHA play, and 1-9-2 with only a victory at Providence prior to the Tech series, the anticipated big scorers were as puzzled as anyone. More, maybe.
“When we weren’t scoring, we’d come back here and beat ourselves up trying to figure out what was wrong,” said Colin Anderson, a junior winger from Regina, Saskatchewan, who had two goals and two assists at Tech.
Homstol, it seemed, was the only one on a hot streak before the weekend. “Yeah, one game,” said Homstol, who scored in the a 1-1 tie with Alaska-Anchorage. The sophomore from Tisdale, Saskatchewan, had three goals and three assists last weekend.
With all three coming from Saskatchewan, they knew each other before coming. “I played with Homer for two years of junior in Melfort, Saskatchewan,” said Colin Anderson, who isn’t related to teammates Richie Anderson or Nate Anderson. “I played against Jeff all the way up, but I never actually met him until after his team, from Vernon, British Columbia, beat our Melfort team in the Tier II junior finals.”
The three emerged as a dominant line last year, when Bulldogs foes often focused on seniors Mike Peluso, Ken Dzikowski and Joe Rybar. Peluso wound up leading the team in scoring with 24 goals, 21 assists and 45 points, while Scissons (17-24–41) and Anderson (13-20–33) were second and third. Homstol, only a freshman then, chipped in 8-15–23.
They lived in the same apartment at the on-campus student complex last year, but Bois, who’s a senior, tipped them off to some vacancies at their current residence, and they jumped at the opportunity.
“Two years ago, we had a stretch where we didn’t score for a long time,” Scissons said. “But it was just us; the rest of the team scored. Last year, our line scored pretty well. I’ve never gone through anything like we just did.”
At the start of the season, coach Mike Sertich tried splitting up the threesome. After considerable juggling, he reunited them, but they didn’t click immediately. Going into last weekend, Scissons led the team with 4-4–8 statistics, Homstol was 2-2–4 and Anderson 1-0–1. Going into this weekend’s series against Colgate, Scissons has 7-5–12, Homstol 4-5–9, and Anderson a more-respectable 3-4–7.
“We just finally got some bounces,” Anderson said. “Then we got some confidence.”
“Once we got ahead,” added Scissons, “we created some turnovers and got more chances.”
The three have different personalities, but blend together well. Anderson said when people first meet Scissons they ask if he’s always that articulate and polite. Homstol is “the kid,” who always seems to get his way. Anderson categorizes himself as “somewhere between those two.” Scissons and Colin Anderson are majoring in finance, Homstol in business management.
Anderson said he has no plans to become a player agent, “although I might be Jeff’s agent,” he said.
Scissons, who was drafted by Vancouver, dispelled the rumor he might leave school after this season if he gets a good offer. He agrees that it might be a good decision for some players to leave college to go to the NHL or to a top minor league like the AHL or IHL, but not to go scrap around in the lower minors.
“That’s the reason you go to college,” Scissons said, “so you don’t have to go play for a weekly paycheck.”
They all agreed that the team has great camaraderie, which helped hold them together during their early struggles. Nobody pointed fingers, nobody bickered. Everybody remained upbeat.
“It should make us stronger the rest of the way, because we went through all that and didn’t crumble,” said Scissons. “Whenever we have a party, we have everybody over. There are no cliques on this team.”
And those parties don’t get too rowdy, even though all six Little Canada residents are over 21. The time the cops came to the door, Scissons insists he was in his room, sound asleep. “So was I,” said Nicklin, who, as the team’s goaltender, is used to supporting the top line, whether they score or not.
Gilling is special as UMD captain
Bert Gilling heard praise and criticism, both internally and externally, during his first three seasons on the UMD hockey team. That’s normal, on sport Reierson from Moorhead, Carlson and Tessier from Warroad. More importantly, all four have the experience of playing expanded schedules in junior hockey. Carlson played for Rochester, Reierson for Fargo-Moorhead and Sauer at North Iowa, all in the USHL, and Tessier played for the Billings, Mont., team. “I remember what it was like last year,” said Fibiger. “But the freshmen look really good and I think we’ll be fine on ‘D’.”
Coole, who came right out of Duluth East to play regularly as a freshman last year, concurred. “Three of us played in almost every game, and the freshmen look really good,” said Coole.
Gilling goes beyond the evaluation of his teammates. “I remember my sophomore year, I came in with expectations,” said Gilling. “Things didn’t work out. I got so frustrated, and mad, and I sat out a game, and it was a crushing experience. I could have gone to see Sert, but I didn’t. I played through it. Looking back, my sophomore year was a writeoff but it helped me grow, and it turned me around.
“I didn’t feel like I had anyone I could really turn to, and I know what it’s like to have no confidence. The thing is, I don’t want any player on this year’s team to have to go through that, and I’m trying to make sure everybody, especially the new guys, feel free about talking to us if anything is bothering them.
“Personally, I think we’ll be real solid on defense. It’s tough to tell, but we need the freshmen to contribute right away, and all of them have good skills, and most importantly they’re all great guys.”
That last factor is an interesting observation, because it’s a factor Sertich and his staff always have sought in recruiting, beyond mere talent. And nobody is a better example than Gilling.
“We always try to recruit the quality person,” said Sertich. “When I first watched Bert, it was in the warmups at Estevan (Saskatchewan). I saw who was leading the warmup, directing everybody, and the coach told me Bert was the man in the dressing room. He had 100 percent complete, total respect of all his teammates. He is not a great player, but a good, honest player who thinks more of his mates than himself. He’s unpretentious, and doesn’t need to be seen to be satisfied.
“Confidence is the sum total of the way you feel about yourself, and Bert has complete confidence and no ego problem. In fact, he may have the strongest ego of all because he can do what’s important to the team without being concerned about getting credit for it. If he got a chance to play pro, I’m sure he’d go for it, but he wants to be a teacher and coach, and he has the potential to be unbelievable.”
Sertich said that in his memory, the only other UMD hockey captain who had a similar impact was Mark Odnokon, who was a two-year captain in 1983-84 and 1984-85. Interesting parallel, because those were the only two years UMD won WCHA championships and went to the NCAA tournament’s final four.
We’ve all had to make sacrifices along the way, and we’ve all had our high points and low points,” Gilling said. “We’ve experienced it, acknowledged it, and talked a ton about it. And now we can change some of the stuff from the past. We have a chance to make a difference.”
UMD notes: So far in practice, Reierson has been pairedwith Gilling, Sauer with Coole, Carlson with Fibiger and Tessier with Pierce. Sertich expects to learn more from the 11 a.m. Saturday scrimmage at the DECC. The Bulldogs don’t advertise the scrimmages, although nobody would stop fans from getting a preview look.
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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