Gasparini night ruined by Colgate
Gasparini gets to share in UMD futility
By John Gilbert
Up North Newspaper Network
It should be getting familiar by now. The UMD Bulldogs haven’t won at home yet in this hockey season, and the scene inside the dressing room has always been subdued, with quiet, thoughtful comments from various players about how frustrating it’s getting.
But Saturday night was different. As accommodating as the Bulldogs players have been, after losing 2-1 to Colgate Saturday night, the dressing room was silent. Completely silent.
“It was almost eerie,” said coach Mike Sertich, who noticed it too. “Before the third period, I had said I thought we had been outworked through the first two, and I thought we worked a lot harder in the third period.
“But it’s tough. Everybody knows that everything that can be said has been said.”
Colgate is 9-3 with its best start in years, and has won eight of its last nine games. UMD (3-11-2 overall) established a home-ice record for futility by failing to win for the seventh straight start at the DECC.
This is getting pretty strange. Here were the Bulldogs, having shaken their WCHA winless start and their scoring slump with a 5-2, 6-2 sweep at Michigan Tech a week earlier, were returning home to face nonconference Colgate with a chance to show their newly awakened offense to the home fans, and finally win a game at the DECC.
So what happens? Brant Nicklin, the star junior goaltender of almost legendary proportions, who has held the Bulldogs in almost every game all season, was off his game a bit on Friday. The Bulldogs scored four goals — a team high on home ice — but they lost 5-4 in the first game, despite outshooting the Red Raiders 49-25.
“I got a piece of the first three goals,” said Nicklin, which is his way of saying he should have made saves on those three shots, and of demanding to take the blame.
In the second game, Tony Gasparini got to start in place of Nicklin. It wasn’t a punishment pull for Nicklin; he had been told before the series that Gasparini — a faithful senior whose only previous start in four years was last year in the WCHA Final Five when Nicklin was injured — would get a well-deserved second career start Saturday.
Zap! The Bulldogs lapsed back to their previous streak of scoring only one goal, as they had in their first five home losses, and fell 2-1.
Nicklin had sat out his first game as a freshman, then started 92 straight games, not counting that St. Cloud State overtime loss in the playoffs.
“I thought Tony Gasparini played very, very well,” said Sertich. “It certainly wasn’t his fault.”
Gasparini left the ice after the first period, slamming his big goal stick against the boards and bellowing his frustration as he hastened to the dressing room. UMD trailed 2-0 at the time, and a quick little junior centerman named Andy MacDonald had scored both goals. One was on a break-in, when he darted through the whole UMD team before beating Gasparini from the left circle with a shot low to the far side. Two minutes later, he put a backhander just inside the left pipe, again right on the ice.
Gasparini thought they were weak goals, but they were the kind of goals you might think were lucky until you watch MacDonald’s skill level. Then you must assume he put them precisely where he had to. Turns out, MacDonald’s nine-game point-scoring streak had been snapped Friday night, when he was content to harness UMD’s star center Jeff Scissons. He did it again Saturday, proving to be perhaps the only center who defused Scissons all season.
“I was trying to shake Scissons loose, because I realized he was having trouble against MacDonald,” said Sertich. “So I made a juggle, and it cost us. He and Jeff played against each other all weekend — except when he scored those goals.”
That’s the way things go when you’re struggling, and the Bulldogs proved that they got over their struggles at Tech, but they returned at the DECC. Even the lone UMD goal was a testimony to their frustration.
Jesse Fibiger, who is playing outstanding defense for UMD right now and was WCHA defensive player of the week after the Tech series, had scored the first UMD goal Friday, and was trying to kill a penalty in the second period Saturday. In desperation, he lifted a high, zone-clearing flip from his own end. Scissons, figuring a Colgate player might be behind him, lunged high to glove the puck, keeping it from getting out of the zone.
“I was mad,” said Fibiger. “I was working my butt off to get it out of the zone, and finally I got it high enough, and Scissons keeps it in. Luckily, it came right back to me.”
So Fibiger, supercharged with adrenaline, sped up the left side. With nowhere to go, he wound up and put everything into a slapshot from the left circle. It hit goalie Shep Harder, but slithered through his pads. “We got outworked pretty bad in our own zone,” Fibiger said. “They did a good job, and they were quick, but we got outworked, and we have only ourselves to blame.” The shorthanded goal cut the deficit to 2-1, and the Bulldogs put increasing pressure on Colgate through the third period. But it turned out only to be another exercise in futility.
And the dressing room’s eerie silence said it all.
It was a huge night for Tony Gasparini, who, after four years of being a patient team-guy backup goaltender, got his first regular-season start Saturday. The only problem was that Colgate’s Andy MacDonald had no feeling for the storybook nature of the night at the DECC.
MacDonald’s two first-period goals stood up as the Red Raiders survived UMD’s increasing pressure and escaped from the DECC with a 2-1 victory and a sweep of their nonconference series.
“Tony played very, very well,” said coach Mike Sertich, who rested ace Brant Nicklin for the first time in 92 consecutive games. Nicklin missed one start because of injury, last year in the WCHA Final Five, when Gasparini got his only other start and suffered a heartbreaking 4-3 overtime loss to St. Cloud State.
Sophomore defenseman Jesse Fibiger got UMD’s only goal, with a shorthanded rush late in the second period, but he took no pleasure from the accomplishment.
MacDonald, a junior who had a nine-game point-scoring streak snapped Friday night, started a new one and ruined Gasparini’s otherwise flawless first period with goals at 12:06 and 14:36. The Bulldogs had failed to click on two power plays, and Colgate’s Red Raiders were attacking with characteristic quickness. MacDonald, quickest of them all, suddenly burst up the middle, splitting the Bulldog defense, and zooming in alone.
Gasparini was set, but MacDonald beat him from the left side with a perfect shot, low to the right. “He got through and the puck was out in front of him, so I though he’d try to carry it,” said Gasparini. “But he chipped it right away and caught me by surprise.”
The Red Raiders had the puck in deep on the first line’s next shift, too, and MacDonald gained possession deep along the left boards. He veered out toward the slot and put a hard, low backhander into the left side, just inside the pipe.
“That one, I think, went through someone’s legs,” said Gasparini.
For quite a while, the 2-0 lead looked insurmountable. Gasparini, in fact, had tdo come up with a big save on former Blake star Sam Sturgis early in the second period, then pulled a magic trick when Kevin Johns sailed in on a breakaway and fired. Gasparini blocked it, and when the rebound popped up, he reached back and snatched it out of the air. It appeared as thought the actual catch came, shall we say, dangerously close to being across the goal line.
The Bulldogs finally punctured the shutout bid of Shep Harder, another former Blake star, and the architect of Friday night’s 5-4 Colgate victory. The breakthrough came, typically, when least expected.
Fibiger was trying to clear the UMD zone while killing a penalty, but when he launched a high backhanded flip, teammate Jeff Scissons tried to glove it, knocking it down, but still in the Bulldog end. When the puck squirted loose along the left boards, Fibiger stepped up alertly to regain possession, and found himself rushing up the boards, shorthanded.
When he got to the left circle, Fibiger cut loose with a big slapshot, and though Harder got a piece of it, the puck trickled through with 3:46 left in the middle period.
The Bulldogs outshot Colgate 9-5 in the third period, and had several moments of heavy pressure, while the Red Raider defense threw themselves in front of 10 other shots that never got to Harder. With 30 seconds to go, Gasparini came out for an extra skater, but the intensity of the finishing flurry came too late, and the buzzer sounded with the puck in the slot, as Harder prevailed.
Ratings race heats up
Hockey ratings races warming up
By John Gilbert
Up North Newspaper Network
A week of big games, and big surprises, has caused some turmoil in the Up North hockey ratings. That, of course, is the name of the game in high school hockey.
Two games of note found Hibbing invading Cloquet and winning 4-2 last Thursday, while Greenway of Coleraine survived its annual battle in Grand Rapids with a 5-4 overtime victory Friday night. Hibbing’s victory boosted the Bluejackets to No. 10 statewide and No. 4 regionally, while Greenway is No. 8 in Minnesota and protected its No. 3 regional ranking behind Duluth East and Eveleth-Gilbert-Buhl. Cloquet slips to No. 5 in the region.
Hibbing’s high-speed attack was successfully repelled for a scoreless period despite outshooting Cloquet 13-5, but brothers Rico and Mike Fatticci led the ‘Jackets. Defenseman Rico Fatticci converted a John Bottoms pass at 0:21 of the second period, and after Nate Cary tied it on a Cloquet power play, both Fatticcis assisted Steve Suihkonen for a power-play goal and a 2-1 edge.
Despite being outshot 34-14 for the game, Cloquet gained a 2-2 standoff on Eric Laine’s power-play goal with 4:54 remaining in the third period. But the ‘Jackets beat the ‘Jacks when Mike Fatticci intercepted a clearing pass and scored short-handed with 3:04 left, and Rico Fatticci scored his second of the game to clinch it with 52 seconds to go.
Rico Fatticci and Suihkonen are both defensemen, but they bolster the offense so well that coach Mark DeCenzo rotates three lines and insists he doesn’t consider them 1-2-3, but balanced.
“All three lines are capable,” DeCenzo said. “And we’re playing defense with a lot more confidence. Rico and Suihkonen really jump up quick to help the offense — even though they also can give the coach a heart attack sometimes.”
When Greenway and Grand Rapids play, it’s always a focal point of regional hockey, and the fact both of them are strong this season only amplifies the rivalry. It looked like Greenway wouldn’t be needing the eventual overtime to win when the Raiders jumped ahead 4-0 Friday night in Grand Rapids, getting two goals on a major checking-from-behind penalty and making it 3-0 with a short-handed goal before the first period ended. Freshman Geno Guyer scored two of those first three goals, and it got to 4-0 in the second period before Rapids came back with four consecutive goals for the 4-4 standoff.
The most sour note of the night for Greenway is that 6-foot-6 defenseman Adam Johnson will miss some action with a separated shoulder in the checking-from-behind incident.
In recent years, Duluth East has proved its statewide dominance with a rugged schedule that takes the Greyhounds all over the state. This year, the travel is still there but the ‘Hounds lost for the second time to two state powers when Hill-Murray smacked them 5-1 last Saturday.
“Hill-Murray is good, at least as good as Elk River,” said East coach Mike Randolph, whose Greyhounds slipped to fourth in the state ratings but still held the Up North Regional No. 1 spot. At 2-2, East’s losses were to No. 1 Elk River and No. 2 Hill-Murray, both on the road.
“We had Hill-Murray on the ropes for a while,” Randolph added. “It was 1-1 and Mike Marshall went in alone. But he missed, and Hill-Murray came back and scored two goals
in the next minute.”
East had trouble containing Matt Koalska, who had two goals and two assists. After his first goal, Ross Carlson tied it before the first period ended. But after Marshall was foiled, the Pioneers scored twice 15 seconds apart to take command.
Greenway and Hibbing will be in the spotlight for the next week. This weekend, No. 3 rated Roseau and Warroad play at Greenway and Hibbing, respectively, on Friday, then flip-flop Saturday. Next week, Hibbing faces Grand Rapids on Tuesday, then Hibbing and Greenway collide Saturday, and Hibbing finishes one of the roughest six-game stretches imaginable by playing Eveleth on Tuesday the 22nd.
Other interesting games across the state last week included top-ranked Elk River beating Edina 3-0, and Hastings having to battle to slip past Anoka 3-2 in overtime. Regionally, Marshall gave Duluth East a tussle, trailing 3-2 with 10 minutes left before falling 6-3, but the ‘Toppers bounced back to beat Breck 2-1 Saturday. Marshall has a tough week, with a Tuesday date at Silver Bay followed by a Thursday game against a rapidly improving Denfeld team. The Hunters ambushed Central last week.
UP NORTH HOCKEY RATINGS
STATE
1. Elk River (3-0)
2. Hill-Murray (1-0)
3. Roseau
4. Duluth East (2-2)
5. Eagan (3-0)
6. Hastings (3-1)
7. Eveleth-Gilbert-Buhl (4-0)
8. Greenway of Coleraine (2-0)
9. Roseville (2-0)
10. Hibbing (2-0)
REGIONAL
1. Duluth East
2. Eveleth-Gilbert-Buhl
3. Greenway of Coleraine
4. Hibbing
5. Cloquet
6. Silver Bay
7. Hermantown
8. Proctor
9. Grand Rapids
10. Marshall
The Duluth Dynamite kept rolling in girls hockey, improving their record to 6-2 last week to maintain the sixth slot in state ratings, but Hibbing dropped out of the top 10 after two losses on a tough trip to the Twin Cities. Hibbing lost 8-1 at No. 1 Roseville last Friday, then played much better but lost 4-2 at No. 4 Bloomington Jefferson on Saturday. Roseville, incidentally, whipped Hill-Murray 7-0 last Thursday.
The No. 2 Eagan Wildcats made something of a goodwill tour to the borderland. The ‘Cats won 6-0 at Bemidji on Thursday, then beat a strong Winnipeg girls midget select team 4-2 on Saturday in Warroad. Eagan coach Merlin Ravndalen is from Warroad, and he wanted to bring his powerful team up there to put premier girls hockey on display in hopes that the Warroad-Roseau area might start girls hockey.
GIRLS STATE
1. Roseville
2. Eagan
3. Park Center
4. Bloomington Jefferson
5. South St. Paul
6. Duluth Dynamite
7. Rosemount
8. Forest Lake
9. Edina
10. Anoka
Colgate beats UMD 2-1
Colgate star ruins Gasparini night
By John Gilbert
Up North Newspaper Network
It was a huge night for Tony Gasparini, who, after four years of being a patient team-guy backup goaltender, got his first regular-season start Saturday. The only problem was that Colgate’s Andy MacDonald had no feeling for the storybook nature of the night at the DECC.
MacDonald’s two first-period goals stood up as the Red Raiders survived UMD’s increasing pressure and escaped from the DECC with a 2-1 victory and a sweep of their nonconference series.
“Tony played very, very well,” said coach Mike Sertich, who rested ace Brant Nicklin for the first time in 92 consecutive games. Nicklin missed one start because of injury, last year in the WCHA Final Five, when Gasparini got his only other start and suffered a heartbreaking 4-3 overtime loss to St. Cloud State.
Colgate (9-3) won eight of its last night games, while UMD (3-11-2 overall) established a home-ice record for futility by failing to win in seven starts at the DECC.
Sophomore defenseman Jesse Fibiger got UMD’s only goal, with a shorthanded rush late in the second period, but he took no pleasure from the accomplishment. “We got outworked pretty bad in our own zone,” Fibiger said. “They did a good job, and they were quick, but we got outworked, and we have only ourselves to blame.”
MacDonald ruined Gasparini’s otherwise flawless first period with goals at 12:06 and 14:36. The Bulldogs had failed to click on two power plays, and Colgate’s Red Raiders were attacking with characteristic quickness. MacDonald, quickest of them all, suddenly burst up the middle, splitting the Bulldog defense, and zooming in alone.
Gasparini was set, but MacDonald beat him from the left side with a perfect shot, low to the right. “He got through and the puck was out in front of him, so I though he’d try to carry it,” said Gasparini. “But he chipped it right away and caught me by surprise.”
The Red Raiders had the puck in deep on the first line’s next shift, too, and MacDonald gained possession deep along the left boards. He veered out toward the slot and put a hard, low backhander into the left side, just inside the pipe.
“That one, I think, went through someone’s legs,” said Gasparini.
For quite a while, the 2-0 lead looked insurmountable. Gasparini, in fact, had tdo come up with a big save on former Blake star Sam Sturgis early in the second period, then pulled a magic trick when Kevin Johns sailed in on a breakaway and fired. Gasparini blocked it, and when the rebound popped up, he reached back and snatched it out of the air. It appeared as thought the actual catch came, shall we say, dangerously close to being across the goal line.
The Bulldogs finally punctured the shutout bid of Shep Harder, another former Blake star, and the architect of Friday night’s 5-4 Colgate victory. The breakthrough came, typically, when least expected.
Fibiger was trying to clear the UMD zone while killing a penalty, but when he launched a high backhanded flip, teammate Jeff Scissons tried to glove it, knocking it down, but still in the Bulldog end. When the puck squirted loose along the left boards, Fibiger stepped up alertly to regain possession, and found himself rushing up the boards, shorthanded.
When he got to the left circle, Fibiger cut loose with a big slapshot, and though Harder got a piece of it, the puck trickled through with 3:46 left in the middle period.
The Bulldogs outshot Colgate 9-5 in the third period, and had several moments of heavy pressure, while the Red Raider defense threw themselves in front of 10 other shots that never got to Harder. With 30 seconds to go, Gasparini came out for an extra skater, but the intensity of the finishing flurry came too late, and the buzzer sounded with the puck in the slot, as Harder prevailed.
Angie Francisco stars for Harvard
Angie Francisco took heart to Harvard
By John Gilbert
Up North Newspaper Network
Here’s a hockey quiz with a twist: Identify the hustling, tenacious player who figured in a key goal leading to a victory at Mariucci Arena last weekend. Hint: This player once skated on the Duluth Stewart’s A Peewee team that won the state A Peewee championship.
The obvious answer is Dave Spehar, but it could also be Dylan Mills, or Nick Angell, or even Chris Locker, all former Duluth East stars now on the University of Minnesota men’s roster. The twist to the question is that the Gopher men’s team didn’t get any victories last week, suffering 7-1 and 6-1 shellackings against Colorado College.
The surprise answer to the quiz is Angie Francisco, who assisted on the first goal when Harvard spanked Minnesota 3-1 in the All-American Women’s tournament at Mariucci Arena last week. Francisco doesn’t just play for Harvard. Last season, when she scored the first goal in Harvard’s 3-2 victory over the Gophers, Francisco went on to score 21 goals and 36 assists for 57 points. That not only made her Harvard’s leading scorer as a freshman, it set a Harvard single-season women’s scoring record, and it made it difficult to believe she hadn’t played hockey for the five previous years.
Eight years ago, she moved up from playing on boys youth teams at Lower Chester to make the A Peewee boys traveling team, which included current Gophers Spehar and Chris Locker (“I let them do the scoring,” Francisco said). Stewart’s beat a Bloomington Jefferson team which included Toby Petersen and Ben Clymer, en route to the state title, and the nucleus of that Stewart’s team was transformed into a state high school championship team at East four years later.
By then, Francisco had quit playing hockey. She is excited that Minnesota now has 98 girls high school varsity teams, even though there are only two in Duluth — one that draws from East, Central and Denfeld and another with players from Marshall, Proctor and Hermantown. The fact that the Dynamite (East-Central-Denfeld) team opened with a 22-0 victory at Eveleth might indicate it’s time to split into separate programs. But two teams in Duluth is far better than none, which is what Minnesota had for girls in Angie’s high school years.
The year after being a state boys Peewee champ, she stopped playing hockey in eighth grade. Not that she was inactive. She made the East softball varsity from eighth grade on — lettering five years in the sport — while adding basketball in ninth grade and volleyball in 10th. She was a forward-guard in basketball, outside hitter in volleyball, and prefers middle infield in softball.
Still, she loved hockey, and came about it naturally. Her dad is Pat Francisco, who was a star winger back in Huffer Christiansen’s era when UMD started playing as a Division I program and the “Duluth Arena” was brand new. It took the same kind of determination she shows in battling to the front of opposing goals to get herself lined up to play for coach Katey Stone, Harvard’s fifth-year coach.
“I probably didn’t skate more than once or twice a year from eighth grade on through high school,” Angie Francisco said. “I watched a women’s tournament in the Twin Cities, and I talked to coach Stone. I told her I’d really like to get back into the game, and she gave me a chance to apply to Harvard. But I didn’t get accepted. Coach Stone suggested that I should go to a year of post-graduate school, and I went to Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., for a year, even though it didn’t seem like a good idea to me at the time.”
Meanwhile, she contacted UMD assistant men’s coach Jim Knapp about off-season conditioning.
“Angie came to me and said she wanted to play college hockey, and wondered what she could do,” said Knapp. “She skated through our summer ‘Quick’ program for two years. It involves a lot of hard work and no games, and she really worked hard.”
At Andover, Francisco practiced with the boys hockey team. Then she and her dad learned that the University of Minnesota was starting a women’s hockey program, and got excited about the possibility that she could play in her home state.
“I talked to Laura when she got the Minnesota job,” said Angie. “But she didn’t really show any interest in me.”
Her dad was quietly steamed about Minnesota ignoring a homestate player while combing the continent to give scholarships for first-year players. Angie stresses that she always wanted to go to Harvard, and now knows that it was the best decision she ever made in her life. But when Harvard played Minnesotalast year, did she have a little extra incentive?
“Definitely,” Angie said, with a flash of competitive fire in her eyes.
Her dad hasn’t stopped smiling since a year ago, when Angie scored the first goal and led Harvard to a 3-2 victory over Minnesota. That smile was reinforced last week, when the Francisco family pretty well filled up a section at Mariucci for the rematch at the All-America Women’s tournament. Harvard won again, 3-1, and again Francisco figured in the first goal. “We were on the power play, and I took a swipe at the rebound before we scored, so I got an assist, I guess,” she said.
Try as she might, however, Francisco couldn’t downplay her role in the victory or on the Crimson team. She is a strong, aggressive skater, she positions herself and won’t be pushed away from the crease, and she always seems to be in the midst of the action. After assisting on Jennifer Botterill’s opening goal at Minnesota last week, she remained a key performer as Harvard outshot the Gophers 38-19. But it was 2-1 until 11 seconds remained, and Angela Ruggiero broke up the right side, heading toward the empty Minnesota net. Speedy freshman Laura Slominski was the only Gopher with a chance to cut off Ruggiero’s rush up the right side, but that chance evaporated when Francisco veered just slightly to get in Slominski’s path for a moment — just enough to give Ruggiero a clear shot at the open net for the clinching goal.
Harvard came into the tournament ranked No. 5 in the country and Minnesota was No. 4. After also whipping Minnesota State-Mankato, Harvard vaulted from No. 5 to No. 2 behind New Hampshire. “That’s a lot more important than individual statistics,” said Angie Francisco, who is in the process of rewriting Harvard’s record book on such statistics, and is certain she is in the right place at the right time.
Resurgent Greyhounds face long game
Duluth East’s rugged schedule, which included two early losses to Twin Cities powers Elk River and Hill-Murray, did not cause coach Mike Randolph to divert his gaze from the overall picture. Playing a lot of players should pay rich dividends in the next couple of weeks, when the schedule remains difficult but the games actually get longer.
The Greyhounds are taking advantage of the state high school league’s allowance to experiment with longer periods during two holiday games, and next Tuesday’s game at Edina will feature 20-minute periods instead of the normal 15 minutes.
“We’re going to play 20-minute periods in our game against Apple Valley during the holiday break too,” said Randolph.
Other big games Up North this weekend include Hibbing (5-1) at Greenway (3-1) in a Saturday night special. Grand Rapids journeys to Edina and Bloomington Jefferson for a Friday-Saturday 1-2 punch. And in girls hockey, Bemidji plays the Duluth Dynamite Saturday at 1 p.m. in Pioneer Hall. Bemidji traveled to Hibbing for a Friday night game, and Hibbing comes right back to play Apple Valley at 3 p.m. Saturday in a rematch of last year’s state championship game — a 1-0 classic Apple Valley victory in overtime.
The East boys spent a few games finding themselves, but seemed to click into focus in Tuesday’s 6-1 triumph over Cloquet at the DECC.
“We’d been playing in spurts, but that was the first time we put everything together,” said Randolph, whose team also played at Silver Bay Thursday night and goes to Moorhead this weekend (Saturday) before heading for Edina.
“We used four lines most of the way against Cloquet, and it was the best we’ve moved without the puck and to support the puck. We made a lot of little 5-foot passes.”
East got Mark Anunti back from a season-starting injury, which bolstered the defense, but then the ‘Hounds lost sophomore defenseman Jon Hedberg on a heavy hit against Superior. Randolph moved some players around to fill and the response showed flashes the coach hopes will recur.
The Greyhounds anticipated a rugged test from Cloquet, but the Lumberjacks had their own personnel problems, with injuries as well as with the suspension of junior forward Nate Cary for disciplinary reasons. Coach Tom MacFarlane wouldn’t discuss particulars, but said team rules are stronger than the state guideline of two-weeks for such a suspension. He also shifted junior forward Alan Baltes back to defense and called up sophomore Travis Denzel and junior Ryan Lee, both forwards, from JV for the game.
“East played well, but maybe we let them play well,” said MacFarlane. “We were very tentative in the first period, when I thought our veteran players stood around and our younger players played well. We need to finish our checks against East because we can’t go 1-on-1 against them.”
The 6-1 game had an unusual start. Casey Gillman rushed in from the right corner at 5:16 of the first period and the left-handed shooter snapped a wide-angle shot from 15 feet away while skating near the goal-line. Cloquet goaltender Adam Laaksonen was in position, the puck hit high in the netting, causing the water bottle on top of the goal to move slightly, then rebounded straight back at Gillman.
The officials ruled it a goal, but there was no goal judge. It appeared from behind the net that the puck hit the outside of the net, just under the upper bar, which caused the net to tighten enough to wiggle the water bottle. Others said the shot hit the water bottle, but as deep as Gillman was when he shot, the puck would only have had the angle to fit into the far side, just inside the pipe, if Laaksonen had left an opening. The puck would have had to make a 90-degree turn to strike the water bottle, and if it had, it couldn’t possibly have ricocheted straight back at Gillman.
Regardless, it didn’t matter in the outcome. East jumped ahead 3-0 by outshooting the Lumberjacks 16-1 in the period, and wound up with a 41-16 edge in shots for the game. All five of the other East goals were hockey equivalents of basketball slam-dunks: Charlie Norris rapped in Gillman’s pass out from behind; freshman Nick Licari smacked in a Zach Burns pass; Licari scored again after Ross Carlson raced up the right boards and cut for the net before passing to the crease; Nick Serre banged in Chad Roberg’s pass from the left corner, Roberg’s third assist of the night; and Roberg scored after Serre’s power-play set-up at the left edge.
Licari, an impressive ninth-grader, brought the proper jersey to the game. When the ‘Hounds played at Grand Rapids last week, he forgot the black jersey, so, by team rules, he had to sit out one period. “We let him play one period of the JV game,” said Randolph. “He scored on the first shift, and got two goals in that period.”
Roberg, incidentally, learned a year ago that he’s cousins with brothers Johnny and Jim Rodberg of Denfeld, and wih Stu and Steve Rodberg of Proctor, as well. When Roberg’s ancestors first came to Minnesota from Sweden, “they left the ‘d’ off in spelling their name in English,” Roberg said. When other ancestors came to the area, the spelling remained with the “d.”
Speaking of brothers, Cloquet’s Miah Snesrud, whose brother Mat is a sophomore at Michigan Tech, got Cloquet’s goal from behind the goal when he banked a hard pass in off goalie Dan Hoehne’s skate.
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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