Streaking Homstol gives Bulldogs spark
Ryan Homstol was pretty adamant about it.
“I wouldn’t consider myself a natural goal-scorer,” he said.
That’s where things stand with the UMD hockey team, in this bizarre season. The Bulldogs continue to play as well as any team in the country, but they find ways to not score, and to not win. And since they seem unified in not scoring goals, even one of the hottest streak-scorers in the country apparently doesn’t want to break from the team’s well-chronicled unity.
While the last-place Bulldogs engage eighth-place Michigan Tech, look at the last three UMD games: UMD lost a wrenching 4-3 game when No. 1 ranked North Dakota scored two goals in the last 25 seconds, and Homstol scored two of those three UMD goals; the next night, UMD stunned North Dakota with a 2-2 tie, and Homstol had one of the two goals; then the Bulldogs saw a 2-1 lead turn into a 5-3 loss at Alaska-Anchorage, and Homstol had one of the three UMD goals.
Of course, the team lapsed back into that “unity” of not scoring on Saturday, when they played a 0-0 tie with the Seawolves. But Homstol — an alert, hustling winger who is particularly adept at converting Scissons set-ups and pouncing on loose pucks and putting them away with a quick and forceful shot — has scored four goals out of the team’s last eight.
“I didn’t even realize that,” said Homstol, a hard-nosed 5-11, 180-pound sophomore. “Playing a 0-0 tie is not the most fun game to play. It’s good for us to know we can play with the best teams in the country, but it’s also frustrating when we lose, to them or other teams.
“There’s really no way to know what the difference is. We had a lot of chances in the 0-0 game, but it’s been that way all season. Some nights the puck goes in, and other nights it just won’t.”
Coach Mike Sertich thinks part of Homstol’s recent success, and the team’s continued optimism, is simply the experience of a young team, and a young line, playing together. “With Ryan, Jeff Scissons and Derek Derow playing together for a while now, they’ve gained some confidence,” said Sertich. “I don’t really see any difference in their play, except the line has jelled.”
Homstol and Derow are both sophomores, and Scissons, consistently the Bulldogs top player and most-covered forward, is only a junior. All three are from Saskatchewan.
Homstol has scored 11 goals this season, after getting eight in his freshman season. Eleven is not a lot, but aside from this current splurge, he also scored four of the team’s eight goals in a stretch earlier in the season. He got the goal when UMD tied Anchorage at the DECC 1-1, and he scored two of the five goals when UMD won 5-2 at Michigan Tech, and got one of the first two in the 6-2 victory at Tech the next night, making it UMD’s only sweep of the season.
That means eight of his 11 goals came in two streaks, during which the team went 2-1-3.
With Tech coming to the DECC this weekend with a four-point lead on the ‘Dogs, and faltering Minnesota coming in two weeks, Homstol said the players still are optimistic. “We’ve got a couple of big home weekends coming up, and it’s exciting to think we have a chance to gain some points,” Homstol said. “I don’t think anybody on the team has given up thinking we can still make something out of the end of the season.”
As for his scoring, Homstol, from Tisdale, Saskatchewan, came out of Tisdale Comprehensive High School to play two years for the Melfort Mustangs junior team, where he led the team in scoring with 92 points on 41 goals and 51 assists two years ago.
“I always scored, growing up,” Homstol acknowledged. “But I still wouldn’t consider myself a goal-scorer.”
On this Bulldog team, who is? Only Scissons, with 13 goals, has more. Maybe Sertich needs to hold a team meeting and suggest that, despite the incredible team unity, it would not be a punishable offense for players who can score to, perhaps, consider themselves goal-scorers.
Hibbing, Greenway, East seeded 2-3-4
In the end, the actual numerical seeding of the Section 7AA hockey playoff didn’t matter. At this point, the pairings are all that count, because records won’t mean a thing when the shooting — and scoring — starts next Friday.
In one bracket, Elk River is heavily favored, and knows it, against St. Francis, while Duluth East faces Cloquet-Esko-Carlton. In the other bracket, Hibbing takes on Grand Rapids and Greenway of Coleraine meets Forest Lake. Winners play in what promises to be a memorable semifinal doubleheader at the DECC on Tuesday, Feb. 23, with the championship being decided on Thursday, Feb. 25, at Hibbing.
But setting up the pairings required an intrigue-filled night. Considering the potential for disagreement, the Section 7AA seeding meeting could have been staged in a gymnasium, on a wrestling pad, instead of at Southgate Bowl in Cloquet, where the eight coaching staffs sat in a room and talked above the backdrop of clattering pins from the adjacent bowling lanes.
Across the state, the only teams whose caliber, schedule and performance in Class AA matches East, Greenway, Hibbing and Elk River are Hastings, Hill-Murray, Roseville and Roseau. That means that the fabulous foursome in 7AA represent four of the top eight AA hockey teams in the state. Eagan’s record is as good, but despite two upsets of Hastings, their schedule and caliber remain a notch below.
Going into the meeting, the different coaches had to examine what would happen if they should win a round or two in the sectional.
Hibbing (17-4) and Greenway of Coleraine (17-4) tied for the Iron Range Conference hockey championship and split two games against each other this season. Both of them respect Duluth East (16-5), which, quite amazingly, has won five consecutive Section 7AA hockey titles and is equipped to run for a sixth. Greenway and Hibbing both would prefer not to wind up facing the Greyhounds in the semifinals, which will be in the DECC on the section’s alternating concept of semifinal and final sites.
Then there’s Elk River (19-1), which is ranked No. 1 in the Up North state rankings. The Elks play on a new, larger, Olympic-size ice sheet at home, so Greenway, Hibbing and East would all prefer to play Elk River on the undersized rink at the DECC, rather than on the larger, near-Olympic size rink at Hibbing. Except for Hibbing, which wouldn’t mind playing anybody on their home-ice.
But East coach Mike Randolph, Hibbing coach Mark DeCenzo and Greenway coach Pat Guyer all were quick to interrupt any such speculation about the likely prospect of a sectional semifinal that would pair up those four powers, because they totally respect underdogs such as Cloquet and Grand Rapids, and even Forest Lake and St. Francis. In particular, East, Greenway and Hibbing would just as soon avoid Cloquet and Grand Rapids in the first round, considering both to be sleeping giants who could awaken at a painful time.
Duluth East athletic director Mike Miernicki called the assembled coaches to order and conducted the seeding meeting. After updating all records, he issued ballots which each team filled out and submitted, excluding themselves and ranking the rest 1-7. He counted the ballots, counting the position voted and listing them with the fewest vote-points at the top. It came out: 1. Elk River (7, obviously with seven first-place picks); 2. tie between Greenway and Hibbing aith 18; 4. Duluth East (21); 5. Cloquet (31); 6. Forest Lake (39); 7. Grand Rapids (42); and 8. St. Francis (48).
It was fitting that Greenway and Hibbing tied, and a case could be made for both, with Hibbing having beaten East, while Greenway lost to East; Greenway having inflicted the only loss of Roseau’s season in a 6-3 game, while Hibbing lost to Roseau; Greenway beat both Eden Prairie and Burnsville, while Hibbing lost to both; Greenway lost to Rochester Mayo while Hibbing beat Mayo. Meanwhile, East had a strong case, because while the ‘Hounds were upset 4-3 by Hermantown, one of the state’s best Class A teams, their other losses were to Elk River, Hill-Murray, Hastings and Hibbing — all among those top eight in the state.
How to break the tie? Guyer had a suggestion: “Paper, rock, scissors,” he said.
“I told our team at practice that we’d probably be fourth and play Cloquet,” said Randolph.
“So did I,” said Guyer.
Next, each coach got a couple minutes to state his team’s season and lobby for a higher place. Finally, new ballots were issued for a revote. There was only one change, of one vote on the secret ballots: East gained one vote, which didn’t change their fourth seed; that point came at Greenway’s expense, dropping the Raiders one point behind Hibbing and into third.
Greenway coach Guyer acknowledged that while he knows Forest Lake is dangerous, he was relieved to have avoided meeting Grand Rapids, in what would have been a neighborhood battle superceding the team’s strength; while “winning” the tie-breaking procedure, Hibbing now gets to face Grand Rapids.
East is locked into facing Cloquet, a team the ‘Hounds just whipped 7-1. That makes Randolph more concerned than usual, because, by luck of the draw and the changed dates for the sectional from recent years, the first round is on Friday at the site of the higher seed, but the DECC is booked for that night. So the teams play at Cloquet. Which, in effect, means that Cloquet gets the benefit of the fourth seed and East gets the road trip of a fifth-seed.
While coaches can’t afford to look ahead, we can envision a scenario with the top four seeds winning their opening games, which would mean a DECC semifinal doubleheader a week from Tuesday with Elk River facing East at 6 p.m., and the third of the season’s Greenway-Hibbing battles at 8.
Guyer, DeCenzo and Randolph all said it all really didn’t matter, because the winner will have to win three tough games. Cloquet coach Tom MacFarlane said: “We had beaten Grand Rapids and Forest Lake, so I figured we’d end up seeded ahead of them in fifth. That meant we’d have to play East, Greenway or Hibbing, and they’re all so strong, what does it matter? We end up at home against East. We’ve struggled this season, and we couldn’t have hoped for anything better.”
Duluth, Hibbing clash for girls section title
For the third time in their three-year history, the Duluth Dynamite girls high school hockey team finds its road to the state girls hockey tournament blocked by Hibbing. The Bluejackets, with one state title trophy in their case and a memorable run to be state runner-up last season, face the Dynamite for the Section 8 title.
The game is at 1 p.m. Saturday in Grand Rapids, rescheduled from its original site of St. Cloud because of the two Up North area entries reaching the final.
Duluth beat St. Cloud 5-1 in the semifinals, while Hibbing eliminated Bemidji 4-0, as both teams showed that they are operating at a peak.
The Dynamite got solid goaltending from Sonya Sandahl, who was named a finalist for the senior goaltending award along with Sarah Ahlquist of South St. Paul, Katie Beauduy of Blaine, Bre Dedrickson of Eagan and Jodi Winters of Roseville.
They also got a hat trick in the semifinal game from Tresa Lamphier, who now has 39 goals but was incomprehensibly left off the Ms. Hockey list of finalists. Selected from among the state’s top seniors, exclusively by the staff of Let’s Play Hockey, the finalists include odds-on favorite Ronda Curtin of Roseville, Sarah Brownless of Blake, Betsy Hegland of Farmington, Kelly Kegley of South St. Paul and Lindsey Ogren of Mounds View.
In the Section 8 semifinals on Tuesday, Lamphier’s first goal was matched by St. Cloud.
“St. Cloud played us tough; it was only 1-0 after a period,” said Duluth coach Jack Scherer. “In the second period, after it was 1-1, we got three quick goals. Tresa scored one to break the tie, then scored again 16 seconds later. Lindsy Carlson got another one, and Leah Wrazidlo scored in the third period.”
Two years ago, Duluth lost to Hibbing in the section final to end the first year of Dynamite hockey. Last year, the Dynamite was seeded fourth despite having split two games with Hibbing, and the Bluejackets beat them 6-2 in the section semis. This season, Duluth beat Hibbing 4-0 at Hibbing, and the teams played to a 2-2 tie in Duluth.
The biggest difference for Hibbing is that goaltender Natalie Lamme played the second game, having returned from an injury that knocked her out the first half of the season, and her shutout of Bemidji indicates her form.
The Bluejackets get an offensive spark from Andrea Nichols, an eighth-grader who asked for, and was given, the No. 4 jersey worn by superstar Amber Fryklund, who graduated last year. She has filled that large jersey, and by scoring two goals against Bemidji, Nichols now has 40 goals for the season.
“They’re going to be tough,” said Scherer. “We watched their game against Bemidji, and Hibbing is moving the puck well.”
Both teams are at a peak, but only one will advance to next week’s state tournament at the State Fairgrounds Coliseum, where the Section 8 champ will face the Section 1 winner in the 7 p.m. opening-round game on Thursday.
Tech stops rallying Bulldogs 5-4 in OT
Devin Hartnell picked off a rebound that goaltender Tony Gasparini couldn’t control Friday night, and stuffed the rebound into the UMD goal at 2:23 of sudden-death overtime to give Michigan Tech a pivotal 5-4 victory over the Bulldogs before 3,840 fans at the DECC.
It was pivotal only because the Bulldogs came into the series four points away from Tech in their quest to escape from last place in the WCHA. Now the Huskies are six points up on the ‘Dogs going into tonight’s rematch, and the gap puts UMD up against the wall for its final five WCHA games.
Getting away from home may seem logical for the Michigan Tech hockey team, because Houghton, Mich., has experienced its usual heavy snowfall — 197 inches of snow on the Upper Peninsula this winter. But rarely has leaving home been so beneficial to the Huskies, who now stand 5-8-1 on the road and only 3-10 at home. The Bulldogs, in fact, won two of their three WCHA victories at Houghton earlier this season.
“They stole four points from us down there,” said Hartnell, whose winning goal was his fifth of the season. “On the winning goal, I went for the net and Riley Nelson shot. He [Gasparini] ended up poking the puck right back out to me. I thought, ‘Wow!’ I haven’t had one given to me like that for a while.”
The setback was tough because the Bulldogs had provided the drama of the night when Colin Anderson scored his second goal of the game to tie the score 4-4 with 25.7 seconds remaining in regulation. With Gasparini pulled for a sixth attacker in the final minute, the Bulldogs first had to escape from their own zone, but they did so on a 3-on-1 rush, with Ryan Homstol getting the puck to Colin Anderson, who carried up the middle and snapped a shot past goalie David Weninger that caromed in off the left post at 19:34.
“I had him leaning a bit and I went for the edge,” said Anderson, who now has eight goals this season.
The Huskies had gained the lead on the second goal of the season by Tim Laurila, a freshman from Moorhead, early in the third period. Laurila, who played for the Fargo-Moorhead junior team last season, notched his second goal of the season. “I got my first one against Wisconsin early [Oct. 19],” said Laurila. “They say your first goal is the toughest to get, but for me, it’s the second.”
Overhearing that, Hartnell, a junior from Lloydminster, Alberta, said: “It took me two years to get my second.”
Leave it to the Bulldogs to turn two light-scorers into the game’s offensive stars.
The Bulldogs brought the league-low scoring tally, with 48 goals meaning an average of 2.18 per game, against Tech, which had scored only 49 goals. So both teams blew away those tendencies when Tech took a 3-2 lead into the first intermission. Tech outshot the Bulldogs 14-7 in the opening 20 minutes, but Jeff Scissons staked UMD to a 1-0 lead with a goal after only 1:20 had elapsed. The Huskies tied it on a goalby Brad Patteron at 8:59, then Riley Nelson victimized Gasparini at 14:13 for a 2-1 Tech lead.
Nelson shot from the slot and Gasparini, still tending goal while Brant Nicklin is coming off a wrenched knee, went down early and had the puck glance up off him and into the net. Actually, it never got to the net, as Gasparini snatched up at it with his glove and caught the puck, but not before it had crossed the line.
Colin Anderson gained a 2-2 tie for UMD 51 seconds later, taking Judd Medak’s pass on a 3-on-2 and skirting the defense on the left before cutting to the net and jamming his shot past Weninger.
But the Huskies again claimed the lead, at 3-2, on a power play. Mat Snesrud, a sophomore defeneman from Cloquet, broke in on the left side and shot. Gasparini stood firm and blocked it, but Jaron Doetzel fired again from the same location. Again Gasparini stood his ground but this time the puck got through.
Tech’s Tom Kaiman took a holding penalty as the first period ended, and the carryover power play gave UMD the chance for the equalizer. Defenseman Ryan Coole was the reluctant scorer, having moved in to the left circle, looking around for a shooter to pass to, and, finding none, he fired a shot that glanced in off the left pipe at 0:29 of the second.
The Bulldogs went on to play a strong second period, outshooting the Huskies 15-4, which was impressive considering that Tech had the first three power plays of the period.
In the third period, however, the Hukies came back strong, and Laurila, a freshman from Moorhead, broke the tie with a 25-foot shot from the right slot at 5:36. The goal seemed to inspire the Huskies, who didn’t need any more goals and seemed content to spend the rest of the period defusing the Bulldog offense before it could generate anything approaching a threat.
Until the closing seconds, that is. After being outshot 10-6 in the third period, the sixth shot made the difference, when Colin Anderson rejuvenated the Bulldogs and the crowd with the tying goal to force overtime.
Michigan Tech 3 0 1 1–5
UMD 2 1 1 0–4
First Period: 1. UMD–Scissons 14 (Derow, Homstol) 1:20. 1. Tech–Patterson 2 (Laurila, Weinberger) 8:59. 2. Tech–R. Nelson 4 (Hartnell) 14:13. 2. UMD–C. Anderson 7 (Medak) 15:04. 3. Tech–Doetzel 3 (Snesrud, Ulwelling) 17:14. Penalties–Bois, UMD (boarding) 3:19; Lardner, Tech (holding) 5:27; Aitken, Tech (interference) 11:07; Fibiger, UMD (interference) 15:31; Scissons, UMD (cross-checking) and Lardner, Tech (roughing) 19:07; Kaiman, Tech (holding) 20:00.
Second Period: 3. UMD–Coole 2 (Fibiger, C. Anderson) 0:29, Power play. Penaltie–Coole, UMD (elbowing) 4:42; Pogreba, UMD (interference) 10:88; Fibiger, UMD (cross-checking) 12:16; Boyko, Tech (slashing) 12:36; Lardner, Tech (tripping) 18:20.
Third Period: 4. Tech–Laurila 2 (Patterson, Weinberger) 5:36. 4. UMD–C. Anderson 8 (Scissons, Homstol) 19:34. Penalties–Lardner, Tech (slashing) and Medak, UMD (slashing) 6:32; Bois, UMD (cross-checking and misconduct) 15:23.
Overtime: 5. Tech—Hartnell 5 (Nelson, Van Tassel) 2:23. Penalties–none.
Saves: Weninger, Tech 5 14 5 2–26; Gasparini, UMD 11 4 9 1–25. Power plays: Tech 1-6; UMD 1-5. Referee–Adam; assistant referees–Hunt, Romano. Attendance–3,840.
Bulldogs overcome Tech 6-4 for split
It all looked so easy. The UMD Bulldogs, who had won only three WCHA games all season, took a 5-4 lead by the midpoint of Saturday night’s game against Michigan Tech, then held the lead stubbornly until the final minute, when an empty-net goal secured a 6-4 victory for a split against the Huskies.
Certainly, it wasn’t easy, but the Bulldogs overcame a shaky start by goaltender Tony Gasparini and erupted for their version of a scoring spree, with Derek Derow scoring twice, and Tommy Nelson, Judd Medak and Colin Anderson once each for a 5-3 lead.
A goal by A.J. Aitken closed the gap at 9:20 of the second period.
But if artistic points could be awarded on an empty net goal, it came when Ryan Homstol rushed out of the UMD zone against an empty net. As he crossed center ice, Homstol feathered a neat backhand pass to Scissons, racing up the left side, and he made sure of his 15th goal of the season with 54 seconds left.
The victory gave UMD three of the four games against Tech, but the lone loss — a 5-4 overtime game Friday — may have rendered Saturday’s game less important. Had the Bulldogs swept, they would have caught eighth-place Tech; instead, the split leaves them in last place in the WCHA by four points.
Scissons appreciated the feed for the empty-netter, but was most impressed with Derow’s goals. “He’s a great scorer, and it’s important to get him going,” said Scissons. “A lot of our goals weren’t pretty ones tonight, but Derek scored a great goal there.”
Derow’s first goal lifted UMD to a 3-3 tie at 0:20 of the second period. After Colin Anderson’s goal 52 seconds later boosted the Bulldogs to a 4-3 lead, Derow scored his second goal, which was a masterpiece, giving him 10 for the season.
The sophomore from Springside, Saskatechewan, carried up the left boards, ducked past a check, and turned the corner for the net at high speed, making adeft move on goaltender Todd Weninger before beating him with a shot into the lower left.
That goal stood as the winner. Tech had countered the season’s second goal by Nelson, a freshman from Superior, with a gaol by Clint Way on a long rebound. After Medak drilled a shot into the upper right corner midway through the period for a 2-1 UMD lead, Tim Laurila scored his second of the weekend and third of the season for the Huskies.
Brad Patterson’s goal on a power play deflection at 14:26 gave Tech a 4-3 lead, while the struggling Gasparini made only five saves on the nine Huskies shots of the period. After that, though, Aitken’s goal, on a rebound in the crease, was the only thing Gasparini allowed. In all, UMD outshot Tech 36-27, with Gasparini stopping 18 of the last 19 shots he saw after the rocky start.
The Bulldogs, now 4-16-4 in the league and 7-21-4 overall, take next weekend off before bracing for Minnesota in two weeks at the DECC.
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