Gasparini, Bulldogs tie Sioux 2-2
Goaltender Tony Gasparini was the unlikely hero of UMD’s unlikely performance Saturday night, and the only thing more difficult than the challenge Gasparini faced was to realize it was a 2-2 tie Saturday night — not the victory that it seemed to be for the Bulldogs, nor the loss it seemed to be to the North Dakota Fighting Sioux.
Gasparini was thrown into the nets at 5:39 of the first period, after ace goalie Brant Nicklin sprained his left knee twisting on his second save of the game. Nicklin had been the hero Friday night, making 47 saves to almost beat the Sioux, but UMD the tying goal with 25 seconds left, and the game-winner with 1.4 seconds showing and fell 4-3 to the first-place, and No. 1 ranked Sioux.
It seemed impossible that the Bulldogs could revive themselves for another big effort after the crushing end to Friday night’s series opener, but they actually led 1-0 and 2-1 on goals by Ryan Homstol and Curtis Bois, and Gasparini made 17 of his 28 saves against a mounting third-period barrage to hold the Sioux to their lowest goal output of the season.
“I’m proud of these guys,” said Gasparini, the little-used senior netminder from, of all places, Grand Forks, N.D. “I didn’t have to make the saves Brant made last night. I hope Brant isn’t hurt bad, and gets better by next weekend. But it was fun to play against North Dakota…it was fun to play.”
Sioux coach Dean Blais was philosophical after his team’s record went to 15-1-2 atop the WCHA and 20-2-2 overall — compared to UMD’s 3-14-3 and 6-19-3.
“If we’d have won tonight, it might have sent a false message to our guys,” Blais said. “Give UMD credit. I thought they’d be a little down after the first game, but they played hard and executed well.
“Our guys are acting like they lost. But we’ve had six very emotional games in a row, two at Colorado College, two with the Gophers last weekend, and now these two. We’d have liked to have won, but we didn’t lose.”
Coach Mike Sertich revised some lines, inserting the rarely used Jeremy Zahn, and even more rarely used Ryan Nosan as fourth-line wings, and the ‘Dogs came out howling in their new ceremonial gold jerseys, but without the controversial Gopher-like block “M,” which has been removed and replaced by the lettering “Minnesota-Duluth” arching across the top and bottom, with a small number in between. There had been some criticism when the jerseys were unveiled, about the obvious similarity to the hated Gophers, and athletic director Bob Corran ordered the revision.
Gasparini came in and immediately made a couple of big saves, on Jay Panzer and Jesse Bull, and the Bulldogs rallied in front of him to gain a 1-0 lead on a goal by Homstol at 11:54. Homstol was at the left side when Derek Derow tried to barge out from behind the net. DerHe made it, but lost the puck in traffic, and Homstol slammed it past Karl Goehring.
The Sioux got a 1-1 tie at 18:19 when David Hoogsteen had a clean breakaway, but shot just wide to the right. That was no cause for the ‘Dog defense to relax, becaue in a flash, Tom Philion was on the puck in the right corner and passed to the slot, where Jeff Ulmer scored on Gasparini with a one-timer.
Gasparini stopped everything in the second period, but everything was a mere five shots as the Sioux missed the net with several good chances, and the Bulldogs came at them hard enough to keep them on defense. At 15:43 of the middle period, Shawn Pogreba prevented the puck from leaving the Sioux zone on the right side and whipped a quick pass back in, finding Curtis Bois alone on the left. Bois closed in on Goehring, and beat the WCHA’s top netminder with a short-side wrist shot that glanced in off the crossbar.
The 2-1 lead pumped renewed life into the fans, who may also have figured Friday’s performance would be hard to match. But the 2-1 lead stood until the third period, when, at 3:46, Gasparini made two big saves but was victimized when the Bulldogs failed to clear, and Jason Ulmer finally drilled a third try through a tangle of bodies and into the upper right.
The Sioux came hard after that, outshooting the Bulldogs 18-6 through the third period, but Gasparini was solid and the Bulldogs blocked shots and dived to clear loose pucks, drawing appreciative cheers from the crowd.
North Dakota 1 0 1 0 — 2
UMD 1 1 0 0 — 2
First Period: 1. UMD–Homstol 10 (Derow, Carlson) 11:54, Power Play. 1. ND–Jeff Ulmer 9 (Philion, Hoogsteen) 18:19. Penalties–Medak, UMD (holding) 5:53; Schneekloth, ND (interference) 10:44; Homstol, UMD (hooking) 19:02.
Second Period: 2. UMD–Bois 6 (Pogreba) 15:43. Penalties–Jeff Ulmer, ND (roughing) 10:34; Williamson, ND (hooking) 18:18.
Third Period: 2. ND–Jason Ulmer 5 (DeFauw, Armbrust) 3:46. Penalties–Reierson, UMD (holding) 6:03; Fibiger, UMD (slashing) 8:20.
Overtime: No scoring. Penalties–none.
Saves: ND–Goehring 9 9 6 4–28; UMD–Nicklin 3 x x–3; Gasparini 4 5 17 2 — 28. Power plays: ND 0-4, UMD 1-3. Referee: Mike Schmitt; assistant referees: Gregg Wohlers, Bill Vollbrecht. Attendance–5,247.
Bulldog resilience pays off against Sioux
Everybody in a UMD uniform had a hand in tying No. 1 ranked North Dakota 2-2 on Saturday night in the DECC. Most prominent in subduing the Fighting Sioux with the fewest goals in their 20-2-2 season was backup goaltender Tony Gasparini, who relieved ace Brant Nicklin at 5:39 of the first period, and made 28 saves — 17 of them in the third period.
Equally prominent were Ryan Homstol, who scored his third goal of the weekend to stake UMD to a 1-0 lead, and Curtis Bois, who scored for a 2-1 lead that ultimately held for the tie for the ‘Dogs. Bois, a senior winger, had all sorts of feelings tumble through his mind after the goal, and they described him and his team’s season.
It was a spectacular goal, coming at 15:43 of the second period, after Shawn Pogreba had stopped an outlet attempt and fed Bois at the left corner circle. Bois moved in, wide open, against Karl Goehring, the best goaltender in the league.
“As I moved in, I noticed that both top corners were open,” said Bois. “I looked low to the far side, made a little move that way, then shot high to the short side.”
The puck glanced off the crossbar, down and in. “It was a perfect shot, nothing I could do,” said Goehring.
It should have felt good, the way any goal feels to any proven goal-scorer. But it felt different.
“It felt funny,” Bois said. “It felt good, then I thought, ‘Wait a minute! I can’t feel this good about a goal that’s only my sixth goal of the season. I should have about 16, not six. It’s been a brutal way to end my college career.”
True, the way Bois snapped that shot in, it appeared he should have scored every game. But goals have been hard to come by for the ‘Dogs, and victories have been fewer. But the Bulldog attitude has been as tenacious as their nickname.
Only three times in 20 WCHA games have the 3-14-3 Bulldogs tasted victory, and yet, disappointment after excruciating disappointment, they keep coming back with amazing cameraderie and determination.
The most crushing of the 14 losses came on Friday night. You can’t lose in a more devastating fashion than when you lead by a goal until yielding a goal with 25 seconds remaining, then giving up the winner at 19:58 — actually, with 1.4 seconds showing.
It doesn’t matter that the opponent was No. 1 nationally ranked league-leader North Dakota. It had to be devastating, and the silence in the UMD locker room left the question about how the Bulldogs could possibly come back for Saturday night’s second game.
“I was really impressed,” said Goehring, the diminutive Sioux goaltender who once broke a lot of Duluth hearts when he backstopped Apple Valley to a four-o vertime state tournament victory over Duluth East with a record number of saves. “I thought they’d be pretty disheartened after last night, when they played so well and Nicklin had such a great game. But they came at us with a lot of fight.”
Sioux coach Dean Blais said: “Give ’em credit. I thought they’d be a little down afte rthe first game. We played pretty well, but give Duluth credit, they played hard and executed well.”
The remarkable resilience of these Bulldogs gave them only a token point as reward for playing well enough to win all four games against the powerful Sioux this season. It also drew a Friday night crowd of 4,822 and a Saturday turnout of 5,247 — best since the 5,286 who came out for the Wisconsin game during the home-opening series in November, back when hopes of a contending season were still high.
Homstol had scored for a 1-1 tie in the first period and a 2-2 tie in the second during Friday’s game, when Nicklin’s 47-save performance was the primary reason for UMD’s hope. When Nicklin twisted his knee on his second save Saturday, Gasparini, the little-used but obviously capable senior backup, went into the game eagerly.
Homstol smacked in a power-play goal for a 1-0 lead in the first period, but Jeff Ulmer tied it for the Sioux. Bois got his masterpiece at 15:43 of the second, and it’s possible that every soul among the 5,247 and a regional television audience, plus those on both benches, might have wondered just how the Bulldogs would find a way to lose this one.
After all, the Sioux had come from behind in four of their last five games with third-period charges. That includes three goals in the last six minutes at Colorado College two weeks ago, and overturning a 5-3 third-period deficit against Minnesota one week ago.
This time, the Bulldogs, who had turned up their intensity to aid their compatriot in the nets, were quite efficient in their own end except for one sequence of two botched clearing tries early in the third period. Sure enough, the Sioux capitalized, when Jason Ulmer knocked in a third rebound for the 2-2 tie.
However, the ‘Dogs refused to cave in, battling to survive as the Sioux outshot them 18-6 in the third period. But Gasparini blocked everything, and the ‘Dogs actually outshot the Sioux 4-2 in the scoreless overtime.
Typically, Gasparini tried to give the credit, rather than receive it.
“I’m proud of these guys,” said Gasparini, who is from Grand Forks, N.D., and works out with a lot of the current Sioux players in the sumertime. “I didn’t have to make the saves Brant made last night, but it was fun to play against North Dakota…it was fun to play.”
Blais saw his team lose for the first time after seven straight victories, but was philosophical. “If we’d have won tonight, it might have sent a false message to our guys,” Blais said. “Our guys are acting like they lost. We’d have liked to have won, but we didn’t lose.”
‘DOGS NOTES: The Bulldogs need a couple of victories, soon, to retain any hope of escaping from last place…Next up for UMD is a trip to Alaska-Anchorage this weekend, then a return to the DECC to face Michigan Tech. After that comes a weekend off, then the final home series against Minnesota, and the final season series at Colorado College.
Coach Mike Sertich revised some lines, inserting the rarely used Jeremy Zahn, and even more rarely used Ryan Nosan, as fourth-line wings…The ‘Dogs came out howling Saturday night in their new ceremonial gold jerseys, but without the controversial, Gopher-like, block “M,” which has been removed and replaced by the lettering “Minnesota-Duluth” arcing across the top and bottom, with their individual number in between. There had been some criticism when the jerseys were unveiled, about the obvious similarity to the hated Gophers, and athletic director Bob Corran ordered the revision.
Bulldogs finally win at home — and lose ground
The good news was that UMD’s hockey Bulldogs won their first home WCHA game of the season by beating Denver 4-3 on Friday, which made the split, after losing 4-2 on Saturday, seem a little easier to take.
The bad news was that despite the split, the ninth-place Bulldogs (3-11-2) lost ground to eighth-place Michigan Tech. The Huskies, victimized twice by the Bulldogs in a series at Houghton earlier, swept St. Cloud State for the second time this season. So not only is Tech no longer in eighth place, but now is battling with Denver, Alaska-Anchorage and Wisconsin for third place in the WCHA.
On the other hand, the silver lining there is that St. Cloud State is now only four points ahead of UMD, and is also the next Bulldog opponent in a home-and-home series this weekend, with the Friday game at the DECC. The flip side there, however, is that St. Cloud State swept a similar series from UMD earlier.
UMD was not helped Saturday when Derek Derow missed the game with a flu-like infection, and Tommy Nelson — who scored his first collegiate goal on Friday — left midway through the game Saturday with a possible concussion.
The Bulldogs didn’t help themselves in the third period Saturday, when the game was on the line, and Denver capitalized for two goals and the victory.
“As coaches, you can analyze things like this until you go insane,” said Sertich. “You can work on things to correct them on the ice, but when you make bad decisions, it’s tough. We got down 2-0, then came back to make it 2-2 going into the third period. At that point, it’s up to the players to decide the game. And they did.”
Denver’s Paul Comrie impressed everyone at the DECC with his strong weekend. He scored two goals Friday and set up two on Saturday, and he mesmerized the Bulldogs with his puck-handling.
After Comrie scored two goals in UMD’s 4-3 first-game victory, Sertich said: “I’d say he and Brian Swanson of Colorado College are the best two players in the league.”
On Saturday, Comrie’s line had three of the Denver goals. “Personally, I’d say Comrie is the best player in the league,” said UMD captain Bert Gilling. “I got a chance to play with him last summer, and I’ve got the utmost respect for him. He’s got speed, agility, great hands and great imagination. And he’s a competitor too; when he gets agitated, he just turns his game up a notch.”
With 3,991 fans at the DECC Saturday night, Comrie set up the first of two goals by Mark Rycroft to open the game, and he made a big play to set up James Patterson’s clinching goal, when it was 3-2 midway through the third period.
“I thought Comrie had a lot more support tonight,” said DU coach George Gwozdecky. “Rycroft and Patterson played much better tonight. Last night, Paul was all alone.”
As big a factor as their offense was, the Pioneer penalty killers shared the spotlight, because Denver was almost equally adept at taking penalties and killing them. But they shackled the Bulldogs to 1-for-9 on the power play while Denver was 0-for-2.
The first period was the reversal of Friday’s 4-3 UMD victory, when UMD took a quick 2-0 lead, only to have Denver cut it to 2-1 and later tie it 2-2. This time, it was the Pioneers who jumped off to a 2-0 lead, and the Bulldogs who cut it to 2-1 before the first period ended.
UMD goalie Brant Nicklin made 39 saves as Denver outshot the Bulldogs 43-29, but Nickli.n couldn’t hold off the Pioneers indefinitely. After 11:28 had elapsed in the first period, Rycroft scored at the crease when Joe Ritson and Comrie collaborated to lure Nicklin to the right side and isolate Rycroft.
DU defenseman Erik Adams fired a 30-footer past Nicklin for the 2-0 lead, but 52 seconds later, UMD got back in the game when Ryan Homstol picked off the puck and shot immediately into the short side on Stephen Wagner from the right.
That aroused the Bulldogs, who got a 2-2 tie at 4:25 of the second period when freshman defenseman Mark Carlson strolled in from the left point and shot through a screen of bodies on a UMD power play. UMD had a 2-man power play for a 1:23 span later in the middle period, but Wagner and the penalty killers avoided danger. “Right there, if we could have scored we could have changed the momentum,” said Sertich.
Instead, it stayed 2-2 until Rycroft broke the tie at 3:08 of the third period with his second goal of the night when he slipped behind the defense to the far blue line to catch a 100-foot pass, skate in on the left side and beat Nicklin low to the far side.
Comrie came up with his coup de gras play at 8:12. when UMD defenseman Jesse Fibiger got possession behind his own net, but as he whirled to escape, Comrie was coming from the other direction and swatted the puck right off his stickblade and onto the blade of Patterson, out front. The play happened so suddenly, that Nicklin was completely relaxed, unaware that Patterson had the puck. As Patterson teed it up, Nicklin tried to recover, but too late, and the senior from Wayne, Mich., had his 16th goal of the season.
So much hockey, so little time
If you’re addicted to hockey, these are the best days of the year. Consider how many classic games there were last week, and whether you watched or missed them.
On Tuesday you could watch Greenway of Coleraine win 4-3 at Hibbing…On Thursday, an interesting doubleheader at the DECC became monumental when Hermantown beat Duluth East 4-2, the first time the Hawks ever beat the ‘Hounds; and Marshall was whipping Duluth Central 4-1 in the second game when Central suddenly made a game of it, scoring three straight before Jake Bloomquist and Tony Tomaino scored big goals for Marshall in the third period for a 6-4 victory…
On Friday, there was UMD’s miracle-in-reverse 4-3 loss to North Dakota…Then on Saturday, you could set up camp in the DECC and sneak over to the adjacent Pioneer Hall a few times. That way, you could have seen Marshall get upset 7-5 by Chisago Lakes, while East was getting started to a 4-3 victory over Grand Rapids, then go back to watch Eagan’s slick girls team beat the Duluth Dynamite 3-0, and still have time for a sandwich before UMD’s mini-miracle 2-2 tie against No. 1 North Dakota.
You say there was a football game on Sunday? The Super Bowl? Oh, did the Vikings win? Pretty hard to get enthused about another snoozer of a Super Bowl after all that great hockey.
Tuesday was the perfect day to be on the Range. A little lunch at Zimmy’s in Hibbing, and get to the Memorial Building’s arena early, while the junior varsity game is still going on, so you can be all set up for one of those concession stand ice cream bars — rated No. 1 in the state — before Greenway of Coleraine and Hibbing face off.
These storied IRC rivals knew each other well from past years, and from earlier this year, when Hibbing beat Greenway 5-2 in Coleraine. Neither coach anticipated such a lopsided result this time, mainly because Greenway has defensemen Beau Geisler and Adam Johnson back from injuries. Geisler is a dominant defenseman, much like Hibbing’s Rico Fatticci, while Johnson is a 6-4 giant with a reach that seems larger than that.
“Geisler is good, and with the big guy back on ‘D,’ you’ve got to go to Nashwauk if you’re going to get around him,” said Hibbing coach Mark DeCenzo.
The two felt each other out for, oh, about two minutes. Then they went at it. Aaron Mikulich scored a power-play goal for Greenway at 2:15, freshman sparkplug Gino Guyer filtered through the defense and scored at 3:04 for a 2-0 lead, and Hibbing’s Brad Willis knocked in a pass from Jesse Jagunich at 3:15. Three goals per minute, not bad.
It settled down a bit after that, and Mike Fatticci scored for Hibbing late in the first period for a 2-2 standoff. Jagnich gave Hibbing a 3-2 lead, scoring with a backhander from the crease on a power play, while he was being checked. Then it was Greenway’s turn to respond, and Mike Forconi rushed deep on the left and fed Gabe Miskovich for the equalizer. In the third period, on another power play, Josh Miskovich tipped in Johnson’s shot from the point for a 4-3 Greenway lead. Despite being outsot 33-21, the Raiders held on to win by that score.
“It’s been a while since we beat ’em,” said Greenway coach Pat Guyer, who saw the notion that the Raiders were one-line wonders dispelled forever. “We made a little challenge to our second and third lines, and the third line got two goals [by Mikulich and Gabe Miskovich], and our second line went out there twice and turned the momentum around in the second period with great efforts.”
Greenway assistant coach Joe Miskovich saw his son, Gabe, get a goal and one of his nephews, Josh Miskovich, get another. The Raiders won almost 80 percent of the faceoffs, thanks primarily to Gino Guyer, the ninth-grader, the coach’s kid, and the IRC’s leading scorer. Goaltender Nick Ossefoort was solid with 30 saves, as well.
DeCenzo said the only time Hibbing lost previously to Greenway was in his second season. He’s now in his sixth. “I’ve watched Guyer for a long time, and he doesn’t lose many faceoffs. They’re a gutsy team and they block a lot of shots,” said DeCenzo, who never considered using the injury to ace sophomore goalie Travis Weber as an excuse. Weber, considered by many the best goalie in the Up North area, sprained his ankle in practice and has missed three games now, but Steve Galli has played very well in his absence.
On Thursday at the DECC, Andy Corran qand Chris Baron got Hermantown off to a 2-0 lead. When Nick Licari got one back for East, Clint Van Iseghem scored the only second-period goal for a 3-1 Hermantown cushion. Ross Carlson powered a 60-foot slapshot from the right boards past goaltender Allen Knowles to trim the deficit to 3-2 for East, but then came the play of the game.
Loren Kaake took a pass from J.R. Bradley on the left side, next to one defender, and with two more between him and the net. Kaake shifted past one, then sped past another, and when goaltender Dan Hoehne started to drop, Kaake drilled his shot between his pads. It punctured East’s momentum, gave Hermantown a 4-2 lead that stuck, and would have been a sensational goal by someone on the Hawks’ big first line. It was something beyond that for Kaake, a second-line forward who had only four goals all year.
“I wasn’t sure what was going to happen,” said Kaake. “I just kept my feet moving, and got a chance to shoot through the 5-hole.”
Knowles was still jumping up and down after the game. “This is the first time in my whole life we’ve beaten East,” said the Hawks goaltender. “The long shot by Carlson, I lost it in the glass, with the dark background. I didn’t see it till it hit the net.”
For the new and onrushing program at Hermantown to establish itself by handing East its only conference loss in recent memory, it couldn’t have come at a better time. “We went down to the Twin Cities a couple weeks ago and scrimmaged Eden Prairie and Jefferson,” said Hermantown coach Bruce Plante. “We tied Jefferson and lost by one to Eden Prairie, and it did our kids a world of good. We haven’t lost since.”
Kaake, meanwhile, seemed to have no idea of the magnitude of his clinching, momentum-turning goal. And he disputed the fact that Hermantown hadn’t beaten East before. “We beat ’em a couple years ago, when my brother played,” he said. Turns out, he was talking about Bantam hockey.
The interesting thing about Licari, East’s flashy ninth-grader, and junior Ross Carlson scoring the two East goals in the loss to Hermantown was that coach Mike Randolph made an enormous change on Friday in practice. Carlson and Licari both were shifted back to defense, where they played against Grand Rapids on Saturday.
Zach Burns scored two, Mike Marshall one and Carlson got one — all on power plays — as East went up 4-1 in the second period. Matt Miskovich, Judd Welliver and Seth Nelson got the goals for Rapids, which lost by one goal for the seventh time this year, but will be a handful for anybody in Section 7AA.
East is unaccustomed to losing five games in a season, and even if those losses are to Elk River, Hill-Murray, Hastings, Hibbing and now Hermantown, coach Mike Randolph wasn’t about to let the season fizzle without exausting every idea.
“It was time for a wake-up call,” said Randolph. “Ross and Licari both liked it back on ‘D,’ and they got more ice time and more of a chance to handle the puck back there. We’re planning on leaving them there for the time being. Another reason for the move is that we’ve been having trouble scoring, and Ross and Licari have both been on our first line and are our top scorers. Now, somebody else has to score.”
So much hockey, so little time…
Vikings go down, leaving question marks
All that mattered, ultimately, was what went on inside the Metrodome when the Atlanta Falcons rallied heroically to end the Vikings season in a 30-27 overtime thriller for the NFC’s berth in the Super Bowl.
A couple of lingering points may be bothersome whenever the game is reviewed. The coaching job done by Dennis Green has been outstanding all season, but Atlanta’s Dan Reeves outfoxed the Vikings on Sunday.
To me, it is a sad commentary that artificial and amplified noise is pumped into the Metrodome in an attempt to prevent the visiting team from functioning normally. Reeves, anticipating the deafening noise, put in an entirely new system of calling the plays in the huddle, then having the center signal the snap, eliminating the need for signals to be heard.
“We had the center making a certain move so the linemen had the chance to look in and know the snap was coming without having to worry about the crowd,” said Reeves. “It was incredible, but after having six or seven illegal procedure penalties in the last few games, we had not one in this game.”
When it came to critical decisions, Green, on the other hand, defended the Vikings decisions to go “by the book” on two situations, one at the end of the first half, the other at the end of regulation. Leading 20-7 with 1:17 to go to halftime, quarterback Randall Cunningham was turned loose to pad the lead, which was typical of the Vikings, Green said. After two incompletions, Cunningham fumbled on third down while trying to pass again. Atlanta recovered on the 14, and Chris Chandler threw a touchdown strike to Terance Mathis on the next play, with 0:56 left.
Still, I don’t argue with the Vikings mindset, to try to put the game away. That, however, precludes any chance of agreeing with the decision at the end of the fourth quarter. Right after another Chandler-to-Mathis touchdown had tied the game 27-all, the Vikings had the ball with 49 seconds left. Cunningham scrambled for seven yards on first down. On second down, he forced a bomb for Randy Moss, incomplete. It was third and three from their 27, but with 30 seconds remaining, with two timeouts still in the bank.
In the press box, I tried to anticipate what they’d try. Because I think Cunningham tries to force passes to Moss too often, and the defense would be certain to cover him deep, I know what I’d do — throw two or three sideline passes, preferably to Cris Carter, maybe one to a back drifting out of the backfield, and have plenty of time for Gary Anderson to win the game with a medium-length field goal. If he had to try from long distance, it would still be a worthy try.
Instead, Cunningham was ordered to drop down to his knee and let time expire.
“We were down to 30 seconds, so we wanted to take two good downs, and when we didn’t get the first down, we decided not to try any more,” said Green. “There were a lot of things that could have not worked in our favor.”
A lot of things? Like a fumble or an interception? That’s almost like a hockey coach refusing to pull his goaltender in favor of settling for a one-goal loss.
“The odds weren’t in our favor,” said offensive coordinator Brian Billick. “We thought we’d rather take our chances on the coin toss for overtime.”
Let’s see, now. The Vikings braintrust decided that it would rather trust this marvelous season to a coin-flip instead of having the ball with 30 seconds left? They should have suggested deciding the NFC trophy on a coin-flip; Atlanta probably would have gone for it.
These are the Vikings who set an NFL record with 556 points this season, the Vikings who had the No. 1 rated quarterback in Cunningham, the Vikings who had the No. 1 scoring threat in Randy Moss, and the Vikings who had the best placekicker in the NFL — who would have given anything to atone for his only miss of the season, a few minutes earlier. And their choice was to capitulate?
Thirty seconds isn’t much, but it can last several minutes when an astute offense combines sideline plays and timeouts. And the Vikings have the most astute offense. They had driven to seven of their 56 touchdowns on drives that lasted less than 30 seconds. If you gave Atlanta the ball in the same circumstance, do you think the Falcons would have hesitated to go for it all?
Reeves, you recall, went for a first down on a fourth-down try with six minutes left and the Vikings leading 27-20. The Falcons failed, but destiny would reward Reeves later for the boldness of going for it.
As it turns out, the Vikings won the toss in overtime, which Green said proved the merit of their decision. But during two possessions, Cunningham was erratic, completing his first pass of overtime, then going 1-for-6. Cunningham, curiously, had badly underthrown the speedy Moss several times during the game, but he missed various receivers in the fourth quarter and overtime by a proverbial mile. Or two.
They went down together, though. Cunningham may have seized up with the game on the line, but the coaching decisions under pressure were equally botched.
Cunningham had a strong game — 29 of 48 pass completions. Late in the third quarter and overlapping to the fourth, on what turned out to be the Vikings final scoring drive, Cunningham was 7-for-11 passing, for 25-for-37 to that point. From then on, he was 4-for-11, was sacked twice and fumbled twice.
Similarly, on their first four possessions of the game, the Vikings went: touchdown-field goal-touchdown-field goal. Their next four drives concluded with: a lost Cunningham fumble, halftime, punt, and touchdown. Faltering, but still not bad, with 27 points on the board. Then, with the pressure rising, Vikings possessions ended: punt, Cunningham fumble, missed field goal, and letting the clock expire(!). In overtime, it was: punt-punt.
And wait till next year.
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
For those who want to keep up with John Gilbert's view of sports, mainly hockey with a Minnesota slant, click on the following:
Click here for sports