UMD set for matinee puck tournament
It’s been 15 years since UMD brought a college hockey tournament home to Duluth, and the First Silverado Shootout already is assured of a record number of U.S. skaters on the ice at the DECC in the Saturday-Sunday event at the DECC.
The Bulldogs will, of course, have their share of U.S. skaters, and Massachusetts-Lowell will bring some American players from Hockey East, but the addition of military academies from Air Force and Army assures a record, because, naturally, all their players are from the U.S.
The first college tournament in Duluth since the 1983-84 season will be held in daylight, as Mass-Lowell faces Army at 11:05 a.m. and UMD takes on Air Force at 3:05 p.m. Saturday. The third-place game will be at 11:05 Sunday, with the championship game at 3:05.
The Bulldogs shook free of the scoring ills of their first half in the WCHA by beating Union 4-2 at the RPI tournament Monday, getting goals from Shawn Pogreba, Mark Gunderson, Nate Anderson and Jeff Scissons. They lost 4-1 to RPI in the final, with an empty-net goal widening the margin, but it was one of their better games of the season. They attacked the net, dominated play offensively, and outshot RPI 51-21, but only Derek Derow scored.
“Everybody played really well,” said coach Mike Sertich. “We never had a problem with our attitude all season, but I think everybody came back from our time off ready to start in fresh.”
The Silverado Shootout will have a festive touch, mainly because it is as close to home as Air Force can get for first-year head coach Frank Serratore, a former star high school goaltender at Greenway of Coleraine. Serratore, a highly successful assistant coach at North Dakota who later rebuilt Denver University’s program as head coach until an injury-plagued season ended his term with a controversial firing.
Serratore then was named the first coach and general manager of the Minnesota Moose, the International Hockey League pro franchise that played in the St. Paul Civic Center for two seasons. Serratore moved to Winnipeg when the franchise went north, but his urge to return to college coaching led him to Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.
This will be the first time UMD has played Air Force. The Bulldogs played Army two years ago to open the season, and were stunned with a 6-4 opening loss before winning 3-0. UMD is 6-1 against Lowell, but the teams haven’t played in 10 years, since the interlocking schedule between the WCHA and Hockey East.
The Bulldogs can be excused if they aren’t exactly in a hospitable mood for the tournament, but they have less-festive things on their minds.
Arriving back home Wednesday night, UMD had New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day to prepare to overturn a couple of stinging trends:
* The Bulldogs are winless at home this season (0-6-1) and they’ve scored only 10 goals in those games — four of them in a 5-4 loss to Colgate.
* UMD has gotten stellar goaltending from Brant Nicklin, but opposing goaltenders have resembled Hall of Famers while recording a 1.89 goals-against and a .934 save percentage against UMD shooters. Scoring one goal in 51 shots against RPI won’t help those stats.
Ah, but all that could be left behind as 1998’s ancient history if the Bulldogs can score some goals this weekend.
In the 1982-83 season, UMD played host to Jeno’s Holiday Classic, in which the ‘Dogs smacked Northern Arizona 7-3, Northern Michigan 4-2 and Harvard 3-2 to claim the title. Those victories made UMD 19-5-1 at midseason, and Sertich went on to win coach-of-the-year honors after a fourth-place WCHA finish, which vaulted him from interim to permanent status in his first year as coach.
The next year, UMD lost to Lake Superior State 4-3, beat Ferris State 7-2 and lost to Boston College 6-4, but the Bulldogs went on to win their first WCHA title that season, climaxed by an incredible 5-4 loss in four overtimes against Bowling Green in the NCAA final at Lake Placid.
Since then, the Bulldogs have only played in four other holiday tournaments, and they hit the road for those. They won the Sheraton/USAir Classic in Burlington, Vt., in 1995 and won the Syracuse Invitational last season, beating Clarkson 5-2 and Colgate 6-2. Until that tournament, UMD was 8-10 overall; from the tournament on, the ‘Dogs went 11-5-2, rising to fifth — and home playoff ice — in the WCHA.
Currently last in the WCHA and 4-12-2 overall this season, the Bulldogs are in need of a similar turnaround. But while they may be 4-12-2 this season, they are undefeated this year.
Falcons stun Vikings in 30-27 overtime thriller
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
Atlanta tore the big-play page out of the Vikings playbook and left their Super Bowl aspirations crumpled on the Metrodome turf Sunday afternoon when Morten Andersen’s 38-yard field goal in sudden-death overtime gave the Falcons a stunning 30-27 victory in the NFC championship game.
The Vikings, who were favored by 11 points by odds-makers, and even more by the 65,060 purple-clad followers who set a Vikings playoff attendance record, lived up to their season-long image as the league’s top-scoring team with the best record by romping to a 20-7 lead in the first half. But some improbable and implausible things started happening to the Vikings, and the Falcons were forceful about taking advantage of every opportunity.
Their 15-1 season and NFL record 16 victories counting last week’s playoff romp over Arizona had made Vikings followers talk about a team of destiny. But the Falcons players are convinced that it is they who were destined to reach the Super Bowl, having come back from a 1-7 start a year ago under the coaching of Dan Reeves, who himself had to take a week off in the stretch drive for heart surgery.
“I can’t control my emotions, even if I can’t holler as loud, and I get tired easily,” said Reeves. “But if I can stand what happened today, my heart must be in great shape. I feel great for us, but to go through a season losing only one gme, like the Vikings did, and then lose a game like this…I also feel for them.”
Reeves takes Atlanta to its first-ever Super Bowl in two weeks in Miami to find a familiar foe in Reeves’ former team, the defending Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos.
Andersen’s game-winning kick came after the Vikings’ vaunted offense had failed to sustain a drive on two possessions in the 15-minute overtime. After an exchange of punts, the Falcons marched resolutely from their own 9-yard line to the Viking 20, with Jamal Anderson’s last two runs carefully aligning the ball for the winning third-down kick.
But Andersen wouldn’t have had the chance to win the game without the heroics of a skilled but comparatively unheralded journeyman quarterback Chris Chandler and a stubby, 5-10 wide receiver named Terance Mathis, who collaborated for the game-tying touchdown pass with 0:49 left in the fourth quarter.
“We had been trying to take their crowd out of the game,” said Mathis. “And when I caught that touchdown pass, man, it was quiet. It was like someone turned the lights out.”
Did he ever catch a bigger touchdown pass? Mathis, his eyes sparkling, said: “No.”
However, he did catch a similar touchdown pass to end the first half, turning that early 20-7 Vikings lead to a suddenly catchable 20-14.
Statistically, the Vikings looked solid. Cunningham was 29-48 passing for 266 yards and two touchdowns; Randy Moss and Cris Carter caught six each, and Robert Smith carried 21 times for 71 yards. But Atlanta offset that with Chandler’s dart-like passing, 27-43 for 340 yards, with Mathis and running back Jamal Anderson catching six each, and Tony Martin snaring five for a game-leading 129 yards. Jamal Anderson added 67 yards on 23 rushes.
While it was an exciting and surprising game throughout, the biggest surprises were that the Vikings failed at the critical junctures where they have succeeded all season. Vikings placekicker Gary Anderson — who hadn’t missed a field goal all year — missed one. It was from 38 yards, and it only missed by about a foot, but it came with barely 2 minutes remaining and it would have secured a Super Bowl trip by giving the Vikings a 30-20 lead.
“Obviously, it was a disappointing time for that to happen,” said Anderson, who had kicked two field goals and three extra points to raise his tally to 39 of 39 field goals and 67 of 67 extra points. “You have to be a man about it. When you’re a field-goalkicker, that’s your job –to line up and fire those field goals. And unfortunately, that one didn’t go through.”
Coach Dennis Green also said it was just part of the game, and that Anderson “worked hard and tried to help our team win. He’s a big part of the reason we won all year.”
There were other surprises. Atlanta took the opening kickoff 76 yards for a 5-yard touchdown pass from Chandler to Jamal Anderson. Order was restored when the Vikings responded to cover 80 yards in five quick plays, the fifth a 31-yard touchdown pass from Randall Cunningham to rookie Randy Moss, who simply buzzed past defender Michael Booker to get free in the end zone.
A pair of Anderson field goals sandwiched a 1-yard touchdown sneak by Cunningham, boosting the Vikings to the 20-7 lead. Everything was by the book to that point, including a key fumble recovery by Robert Griffith at the Falcons 33 when Atlanta’s O.J. Santiago fumbled a pass reception, setting up the Cunningham touchdown.
But when the Vikings got the ball on a punt and tried to pad the lead with a minute to go to halftime, Chuck Smith swatted the ball out of Cunningham’s cocked hand on third down and Travis Hall recovered at the Viking 14 with 0:59 on the clock. On first down, Chandler hit Mathis for the touchdown that closed the gap to 20-14.
“Randall was going to throw the ball and got hit and it got ruled a fumble,” said Green. “We were trying to add some points, to put ’em away. That’s been our style all season.”
The only points of the third quarter came on Morten Andersen’s 27-yard field goal, which closed the gap to 20-17. But Cunningham directed an 82-yard, 15-play drive, passing to a diving Matthew Hatchette for a 5-yard touchdown to again achieve security at 27-17.
Another Andersen field goal made it 27-20, but even that didn’t appear dangerous, because the Vikings lost the ball on a fumbled snap by Cunningham, but the defense stopped Chandler on fourth down.
With only 6 minutes remaining, the crowd kept screaming to the amplified, dome-shaking beat and waved their gold-colored “purple pride” towels with confidence. There still wasn’t real concern when Andersen missed his field goal.
But when Chandler got the ball with 2:07 left, and needed only 1:18 to guide an 8-play, 71-yard march — including a 29-yard pass to Ronnie Harris, and the 16-yard touchdown pass to Mathis — it was time for genuine concern. And, as Mathis said, “Silence.”
Bulldogs clip Falcons 7-2
UMD beat Air Force 7-2 Saturday afternoon. Yes, it was a hockey victory, and yes, it was at the DECC — two things that had been mutually exclusive for the Bulldogs this season.
It came in the first Silverado Shootout tournament, and even though the ‘Dogs outshot the Falcons 57-14, it was never as easy as it sounded. In fact it was hard labor for two full periods which shouldn’t have been surprising, since the Bulldogs had gone 0-6-1 in seven home games, and scored only 10 goals in those DECC games.
But this is a new year, and when the explosion came in the third period, it was so impressive it was almost unpatriotic. The Bulldogs pumped five consecutive goals into the Air Force Academy net to expand a 2-1 lead to 7-1 over the stubborn but overmatched Falcons.
The game drew 4,068 to the semifinal tournament game, and sends the Bulldogs (5-12-2) into today’s 3:05 p.m. final against Massachusetts-Lowell — a 6-1 winner over Army in Saturday’s first game. Air Force (7-11-1), which has three seniors and nine freshmen and six sophomores, will regroup to face Army in a decidedly militaristic third-place game at 1:05.
“I told our players that they won’t face a tougher, more physical game than this one,” said Air Force coach Frank Serratore, a former Greenway of Coleraine goaltender who is in his second year at the Academy. “That’s the most physical Mike Sertich team I’ve seen. They were honest, tenacious and physical. He just rolled the lines over, but I noticed a definite sense of urgency in their play.”
Derek Derow and Curtis Bois scored two goals apiece for the ‘Dogs, while Jeff Scissons, Colin Anderson and Shawn Pogreba added single tallies. Air Force got a goal from Justin Kieffer, a senior from Brainerd, who assisted on Scott Bradley’s game-ending goal as well.
UMD outshot the Falcons 57-14, but shots-on-goal have not been the Bulldogs problem this year; shots IN goal has, and for two periods, the game was a spooky replica of Tuesday’s 4-1 loss at RPI’s tournament, when they outshot the host team 51-23.
“In that one, we outshot RPI 39-15 after two periods, and we were behind 3-1,” said goaltender Brant Nicklin, who yielded one goal before turning the nets over to Tony Gasparini for the last 10 minutes.
This time, the shots were 39-8 after two periods, and while UMD led, it was only 2-1. Derow converted a neat 2-on-1 pass from Tommy Nelson for the game’s first goal, but Kieffer scored when Nicklin went down sliding toward the left pipe while the puck ricocheted off a skate to Kieffer on the right side, so it was 1-1 despite a 23-4 shot advantage for UMD.
Scissons poked in a power-play rebound late in the second. Hardly reason to breathe easily for the ‘Dogs. And it looked like a repeat of the weekly trivia quiz: “Who will be player of the week? It depends on who’s playing goal against UMD.” This time, it was Marc Kielkucki, an Air Force sophomore from Brooklyn Park, who played at Champlin Park.
“I thought about that, after two periods,” said Pogreba. “But when you’re not scoring, there’s not much you can do about it but keep shooting.”
Not a bad theory, and this time it worked. The third period explosion was truly a breakthrough for UMD. Richie Anderson swiped the puck and fed Colin Anderson to make it 3-1 at 3:50; Derow scored, from his knees, with a rebound at 5:30; Pogreba strained against a defenseman to curl outside from behind the net, then spun free to the inside and scored from the crease at 8:17; Bois got in alone on the right side and shot over the falling Kielkucki at 10:21; and Bois was sprung on the right side of a 2-on-1 by Ryan Homstol’s neat pass and drilled a shot into the upper left at 13:49.
“Our kids tried hard,” said Serratore. “Our goaltender gave us a chance for two periods, but Duluth had too much for us.”
LOWELL WHIPS ARMY 6-1
Massachusetts-Lowell spotted Army a 1-0 lead for a period, but came back to score three goals in the second period and three more in the third to whip the Cadets 6-1 in the first semifinal of the Silverado Shootout at the DECC.
K.C. Finnegan’s goal put Army up at 1:29 of the first period, and goaltender Scott Hamilton made it stand up until the second period. Wil Tormey’s goal at 0:46 of the second period, Jeff Boulanger followed with a power-play goal, and Kyle Kidney made it 3-1 late in the middle period. John Campbell’s goal at 0:25 of the third made it 4-1, and Dan Fontas got his first two goals of the season 52 seconds apart late in the third to finish the victory.
“That goal at the start of the third period was a big turning point,” said Lowell coach Tim Whitehead, whose RiverHawks outshot Army 45-18 and will take a 7-9 record into today’s tournament final against UMD. Army is 7-8 for the season.
UMD blanked 3-0 by Lowell
It turns out, UMD does not have the only players in the country that have been playing well but not getting fairly rewarded for their efforts. Massachusetts-Lowell has been suffering through a similar first half in Hockey East, and, like the Bulldogs, the RiverHawks were determined to use the Silverado Shootout tournament as a springboard to second-half success.
On Sunday, the RiverHawks prevailed, spoiling UMD’s hopes to win their first tournament at the DECC since 1983-84 by beating the Bulldogs 3-0 in the championship game of the Silverado Shootout, before 4,514 fans and a live afternoon home television audience.
Goaltender Scott Fankhouser, a senior from Littleton, Colo., came up with 30 saves for the title-game shutout, but couldn’t remember a tough one. “That’s how good my defense and forwards played in front of me,” said Fankhouser, who was named the tournament most valuable player. “It was a total team effort. This weekend was a big step for us. We really took it to ’em defensively.”
The Bulldogs, who rallied for five goals in the third period to whip Air Force 7-2 in Saturday’s semifinals for their first home-ice victory over the season, found the traffic considerably more congested against Mass-Lowell, which had beaten Army 6-1 in the first semifinal. A UMD offense that had launched 110 shots in the previous two games, outshot Lowell 30-23, but a persistently rugged RiverHawk defense, which had given up more than 30 shots only once in the last eight games, prevailed.
“No excuses, we flat-out got beat,” said UMD coach Mike Sertich. “We didn’t compete 1-on-1. They sure eliminated us, right away. They wouldn’t allow us to cycle the puck along the boards. They’re a big, strong team and we didn’t fight through it. It was nothing fancy; well done, though.”
Mike Mulligan gave Lowell a 1-0 lead at 6:50 of the first period. Brad Rooney’s power-play shot from the left circle was deflected by goaltender Brant Nicklin off the right pipe, and Mulligan knocked the rebound out of the air and in.
The pace was hard and the hitting was harder in the second period, when the RiverHawks increased their lead to 3-0 on goals by Kevin Kotyluk adn Chris Bell. Kotyluk moved in from right point to play a clearing attempt of the boards, and flung a shot from there that found its way past Nicklin at 5:45. Bell scored at 17:23 after Kevin Bertram’s pass sprung a 2-on-1, and John Campbell shot from the right side, with Bell rapping in the rebound at the crease.
The RiverHawks were so good defensively that they seemed to take penalties without concern as the game wore on. They took five of six penalties in the third period, and while the Bulldogs pressed to control the puck, the aggressive penalty-killers kept the shots to minimal danger. UMD wound up 0-for-10 on power plays, although their time with the man-advantage and Lowell’s concentration on tight defense gave them an 11-2 edge in third-period shots.
“We’ve got a lot of similarities with UMD,” said Lowell coach Tim Whitehead. “I’ve seen Duluth outplay quite a few teams without winning, and we had the same situation. Right before break, we outplayed Boston University twice but lost both games. I saw them score five goals in the third period last night, and I knew we’d have our hands full. That’s a good hockey team, but tonight they couldn’t finish.”
Mainly because the RiverHawks finished them before they could finish.
Air Force outlasts
Army for 3rd
Air Force coach Frank Serratore, being an Iron Range native, would have dearly loved to have his Falcons beat UMD in the Silverado Shootout, because all the intense hockey fans among the cadets back at the Academy in Colorado Springs would have congratulated the young Falcons. But Sunday, the Falcons got the more important victory for them, beating Army 2-1 in a feverishly fought third-place game, and all the cadets will appreciate that one.
“Army and Air Force — this is not about feeling good or bad,” said Serratore, who once tended goal at Greenway of Coleraine. “We’re the only two service academies playing hockey, and these kids were playing for their lives. It’s such a big game for the kids on both teams that you almost feel bad for the team that loses.”
Almost is the operative word here. Serratore equated the victory to the pride the whole administration displays when Air Force beats Army or Navy in football. And there could be extra pride because Minnesotans were involved in all the scoring on both sides.
Derek Olson, from Baudette, scored at 13:53 of the first period after Billy O’Reilly, from Rochester, fed him on the rush for a 1-0 Air Force lead that stood until the third period. Jace Anders, an impressive freshman defenseman from St. Louis Park, scored at 1:41 of the third, with a shot from the left point that filtered through a dozen legs and found the net for a 2-0 lead.
Andy Lundbohm, from Roseau, scored for Army at 5:14, shooting from 12 feet out, near the left circle. But that was the only shot among 32 to elude goaltender Marc Kielkucki, even though Army stormed the net through the final period, outshooting Air Force 32-23 for the game.
“We’re pretty evenly matched,” said Army coach Rob Riley. “Every time we play them, it’s like this. It’s even bigger when one of us is at home, because of the fans, but for a consolation game, at 11 a.m., you’re not going to see a more intense game.”
Fankhouser paces
all-tourney team
Massachusetts-Lowell goaltender Scott Fankhouser, who blanked UMD 3-0 and yielded only one goal all weekend, was named Silverado Shootout most valuable player, and outstanding goaltender. The six-man all-tournament team included goalie Marc Kielkucki of Air Force, defensemen Wil Tormey and Anthony Cappelletti of Lowell, and forwards John Campbell of Lowell, Derek Derow of UMD and Andy Lundbohm of Army.
What quarterback controversy?
Pardon me, if I don’t get all worked up over the Vikings so-called “quarterback controversy.”
If you’ve read the Twin Cities newspapers, or listened to talk shows or watched television, you are aware that the media has concocted something called a quarterback controversy every since the days of Tommy Kramer (who came up with a few controversies of his own, come to think of it), Wade Wilson, etc.
So why should we be surprised that the media has stirred up a hornet’s nest about the assumption that Brad Johnson, who has a big contract as the No. 1 quarterback, now will undoubtedly be traded elsewhere because Randall Cunningham has stepped forth during Johnson’s injuries and became the NFL MVP (if you like initials), and now has also signed a large contract.
What am I missing here? True, the “insiders” spew forth all they know and can project, but let’s break this down a bit. Is a team like the Vikings supposed to have only one good quarterback, and something approaching dogmeat for a backup?
The only reason the Vikings have the best record in the whole NFL, with only one loss in 16 games, is because they had two such talented quarterbacks as Johnson, who is computer-perfect, and Cunningham, who is reborn — you should pardon the expression — and throwing long passes that seem to have destiny and a guy named Moss on the receiving end.
Not once, but twice Johnson went down with injuries and Cunningham stepped in and kept the team percolating along without missing a bubble. By amazing coincidence, Johnson came back and was finally pronounced ready to play in a game when Cunningham got hurt, and Johnson stepped in and completed something like 11 straight passes. Then he got hurt the second time.
Remember the horror Vikings fans emitted when it appeared both Johnson and Cunningham might be hurt at the same time? Only a remarkable recovery by Cunningham prevented mass hysteria.
So, salary cap or no, my question is why must the Vikings keep only one half of their stellar combination?
True, they both want to play, and now that Cunningham has regained his old form — exceeded it, actually — both want to start. Johnson seemingly has said he’ll look elsewhere if he won’t be starting for the Vikings next year.
But maybe it’s time for Red McCoombs to cut a corner elsewhere and keep the two high-dollar stars as the NFL’s best signal-calling tandem.
Quarterback controversy? Consider the alternative. When a team like the Vikings has a great left tackle, they also want the best back-up left tackle they can afford. And yet, to hear the quarterback controversy zealots talk, you get the feeling they can’t afford to have two such outstanding quarterbacks, even though having them has thrust the Vikings into the playoffs as Super Bowl favorites.
Seems to me, they can’t afford NOT to have them both.
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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