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.
Golden Bears beat Hawks in rematch
Golden Bears earn ‘A’
in rematch with Hawks
By John Gilbert
Up North Newspaper Network
Andy Sacchetti and Steve Denny scored two goals apiece Saturday afternoon to stake Eveleth-Gilbert to a 4-0 lead, and the Golden Bears went on to a hard-earned 4-2 victory at Hermantown in a rematch of the Golden Bear victory in last year’s Class A state tournament final.
Sacchetti, Denny and Tony Dolinski were each on different lines last season when Eveleth-Gilbert beat Hermantown for the Class A title, but this season the three are linemates on the Golden Bear first line.
“All three are rink-rats,” said coach Craig Homola. “They have that mentality about how to play the game.”
And how to put the puck away.
The victory boosts Eveleth-Gilbert to 5-0, and enforces its strong place in the ratings. The Golden Bears ranked No. 2 in the Up North Network’s regional ratings and No. 7 statewide, both in combined AA and A classes, and they stand No. 1 statewide in Class A only.
Hermantown, ranked No. 9 in the Up North regional rating, lost for the first time after four opening victories. Although the shots favored Eveleth by only 22-20, the Hawks had trouble getting inside the Eveleth-Gilbert defense for many quality shots at Matt Uhan until winger Andy Corran scored both goals in the last desperate minutes, after the Golden Bears already had a 4-0 lead.
“Their speed shut us down,” said Hermantown coach Bruce Plante. “They were good on defense, which didn’t surprise me, because they always play with high energy. I thought we played all right, but speed was the difference when their first line got out against our first line.”
Corran scored both goals on power plays at 7:16 and at 14:35. The first one was on a rebound of sophomore Dan Knapp’s right point shot, and the other came from in front, after coach Bruce Plante had pulled goaltender Al Knowles with a two-man power play, giving the Hawks a 6-on-3 skater edge.
“Hermantown was the toughest team we’ve seen so far,” said Homola, whose Bears have a week to prepare for International Falls, preceding a match against Hibbing a week from Tuesday.
The fast-paced game opened with Sacchetti skating up the right side and blistering a power-play slapshot from the top of the circle past Knowles at 3:20. Two minutes later, Sachetti and Dolinski collaborated to spring a 2-on-1, with Sacchetti feeding Denny for a big shot and a 2-0 lead.
The majority in the overflow crowd at Hermantown Arena urged the Hawks to score, but late in the second period, while killing a penalty, Denny stepped up to intercept a Hawk pass and dumped the puck behind the defense, where Sacchetti zipped past, gathered it up and scored with a high slapshot from the circle, making it 3-0.
The Golden Bears got on their own power play to start the third period, and Denny scored with a rebound at the left edge for the 4-0 bulge.
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.
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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