Bulldogs get split, face reality
Hope springs eternal. That is still a fact with the UMD hockey Bulldogs. It’s just that it might be time to adjust the target of those hopes.
No longer is a first-division finish feasible. Good-bye home-ice for the playoffs. Forget striving for mathematical possibilities and deal with realities.
The reality is that, after splitting with Michigan Tech, the Bulldogs ended an eight-game winless streak in WCHA play, but they still are four points behind Tech, six behind St. Cloud State, and seven behind Minnesota, in their quest to climb out of last place. And, with the upcoming weekend off, the Bulldogs have only four remaining games in which to make up their deficit.
“Realistically, we have to concentrate on playing well, playing our best going into playoff time,” said coach Mike Sertich.
That doesn’t mean he’s throwing in the towel. But with only four WCHA victories on the board, and three of them against Michigan Tech, the ‘Dogs would have to sweep Minnesota in two weeks and sweep at Colorado College the final weekend, and still hope for a total collapse by Michigan Tech, St. Cloud and Minnesota. Also, Minnesota and St. Cloud State play each other this weekend, meaning they can’t both lose.
The week off will give injured defenseman Mark Carlson and Jesse Fibiger the chance to heal, and ace goaltender Brant Nicklin should be ready to face Minnesota with the extra recovery time for his sprained knee.
In Nicklin’s absence, senior Tony Gasparini had played very well, in a 2-2 tie with North Dakota and in a 0-0 tie at Alaska-Anchorage. But Gasparini struggled against Tech, having problems covering rebounds that not only got away but wound up on Tech sticks for goals — including the overtime winner — in Friday night’s 5-4 loss. He struggled some more Saturday night, when the Bulldogs might have blown out the Huskies but instead had to work hard to accomplish a 6-4 victory.
“It was a tough night for Tony,” Sertich acknowledged. “It was frustrating when we were outshooting them by something like 15-3 and the score was 3-3.”
But the ‘Dogs came back behind two goals from Derek Derow and one from Colin Anderson in a six-minute spurt of the second period, turning a 3-2 deficit into a 5-3 lead. Tommy Nelson and Judd Medak had scored the first two UMD goals, and Jeff Scissons, who assisted on both Derow goals, scored an empty-net clincher off a neat pass from Ryan Homstol.
Scissons also scored a goal Friday, and assisted on Colin Anderson’s second of the game — a goal with 25.7 seconds left on a six-attacker rush to send the game into overtime. So Scissons had two goals and three assists for the weekend, while Colin Anderson had three goals.
Derow’s pair gave him 10 for the season, a long climb for the sophomore, who joins linemates Scissons, with 15, and Homstol, with 11, as the third Bulldogs in double figures for goals. “He’s a great scorer, and it’s important to get him going,” said Scissons.
Sertich dressed little-used Craig Pierce to replace Carlson on defense, and activated never-before-used Ryan Tessier, a freshman from Warroad — Salol, actually — for Saturday when Fibiger went down. Playing a game meant Tessier spent a year’s eligibility instead of red-shirting. “Jimmy Knapp thought we needed the help on defense,” said Sertich. “And Ryan was anxious to play.
“We had six walk-ons in the game Saturday night, with Tony Gasparini, Tessier, Pierce, Nik Patronas, Eric Ness and Nate Anderson. I thought we played pretty well, considering it wasn’t necessarily a great game. We made some plays and scored some goals on the kind of rushes we’ve been making all year, but the pucks hadn’t been going in.”
The most notable of those was a Colin Anderson goal, when Curtis Bois, who has spent four years proving he would rather shoot than pass, passed across the slot early in the second period and Anderson one-timed it on the bounce into the upper right corner for a 4-3 UMD lead.
While winning three of the four games from Tech should be satisfying, the lone loss to the Huskies was a vital blow. Had the Bulldogs swept, they would have even with eighth-place Tech instead of still merely hoping to catch the Huskies.
After the three Huskies goals in the first 15 minutes, when Gasparini made only five saves on the eight first-period Huskie shots, the senior netminder settled down and only an A.J. Aitkens goal, on a rebound in the crease at 9:20 of the second period, got by. In all, UMD outshot Tech 36-27 in the game, and Gasparini stopped 18 of the last 19 shots he saw after the rocky start.
‘DOGMEAT/Eveleth-Gilbert scoring star Andy Sacchetti visited UMD on Saturday and watched the victory against Tech. Sacchetti, a mercurial centerman who led the Golden Bears to the Class A state championship last year, and to the Section 7A No. 1 seed this season, could provide an exciting boost to UMD’s offense…So far, other UMD commitments have come from Jon Francisco, Hermantown’s star center, who will play a year of junior, while Silver Bay defenseman John Conboy and Superior goaltender Rob Anderson were earlier commitments.
Athlete of the week
SANYA SANDAHL/ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
School: Duluth Central.
Team: Duluth Dynamite
Sport: Girls hockey
Quick stats: The Dynamite reached the state tournament with their first Section 8 girls hockey championship in a 4-3 victory over Hibbing. While compiling a 20-4-1 season, Duluth was outshot quite often, but the goaltending of Sandahl rendered it meaningless. Hibbing outshot Duluth 31-18 in the section final, but Sandahl’s 28 saves secured the victory.
For the season, the senior — and the only Central participant on the Dynamite team that also includes East and Denfeld girls — has a 1.30 goals-against average and a save percentage of 94. She never played hockey until eighth grade, but now has hopes to study, and play goal, at an eastern college, maybe Princeton or Cornell.
Coach’s quote:
“Sometimes we don’t play our best unless we’re facing a top team, but Sanya is always consistent. It seems like our players get overlooked when it comes to post season awards, so it’s great to see Sanya as a finalist for the top senior goaltender award.”
—Jack Shearer, Dynamite coach.
Sandahl reflects pride in girls tournament
Sanya Sandahl, goaltender for the Duluth Dynamite girls hockey team and a finalist for the Ms. Hockey award presented to the top senior goalie in the state, was an integral part of the Duluth team’s first venture to the state girls hockey tournament.
With the majority of the girls from Duluth East, and several from Denfeld, Sandahl was the only regular from Central, and she agreed to keep a journal for the Budgeteer News on her view of the historic tournament.
Sandahl’s exceptional play includes a 1.3 goals-against average and a 94 percent save mark during the team’s 21-6-1 season, and is more remarkable because she never played hockey until eighth grade. Born in Duluth, she and her family moved to Bemidji, then to Edmonton, Alberta, where she lived for six years, until the family moved back to a Duluth residence in the Lakewood area on the Lester River Road.
She was in the eighth grade then and was active in sports, but “hated figure skating,” she said, so she decided to try hockey. She made the first team she tried out for as goalie “because the other goalie had never played, either.” Sandahl is the perfect example of the merits of the combined-school team, because otherwise Central wouldn’t have had enough players to field a team.
Other Sandahl facts: She hopes to attend and play hockey at Princeton or Cornell; she’s quick-witted with a good but sometimes sarcastic sense of humor, a 3.86 student whose favorite subjects are math and physics; she loves animals, particularly dogs, and her family has an Alaskan malamute and a golden retriever; she used to ride horses but gave it up for hockey; her favorite food is pizza, and she prefers cheese-only, from Domino’s; her favorite color is black.
Here is a goalie-masked view of state tournament weekend:
By Sanya Sandahl
Special to the Budgeteer
(Wednesday, Feb. 17) We were all ready to leave Duluth at 8:30 a.m., but one of our captains, Leah Wrazidlo, was late. Not only that, we were held up by a presentation of awards from the city of Duluth.
We finally arrived in St. Paul, but, of course, we went to the wrong hotel. Yes, we had already unloaded and had to reload the bus. Finally, we checked into the Radisson Inn, which I must say is a very nice place. It’s even connected to the Town Square on the second floor, which resembles a small mall.
Ten minutes after checking in, we left for practice in Cottage Grove. That practice led us into the most exciting event of the day. The entire team, half in dresses and the others in sweaters and nice pants, went to the state tournament banquet, held at the Radisson Hotel to welcome the eight teams. We had spaghetti for dinner, and then all the teams were introduced by their coaches. At that point it was just an honor to be part of the experience.
We had a chance to purchase the limited-edition Minnesota Rink Rats tee-shirts. We were so excited to see our jersey on that rat; we really made it to State! I must say, that Duluth jersey sure looks a lot better than Hibbing’s.
After the banquet, we returned to teh hotel. The girls had some energy to burn after sitting for two hours, so the beds were used as trampolines, as our great role models, Tresa Lamphier and Leah, attempted flips from one bed to the next.
(Thursday, Feb. 18) In preparation for our game against Mankato at 7:15 p.m., we went to breakfast at Perkins. After stuffing ourselves, we proceeded to shop at Rosedale to satisfy the girls’ craving for Abercrombie andFitch. Again, we went to Cottage Grove for a pregame practice.
At 7:15, we stepped on the ice at the Coliseum for our first-ever state tournament appearance. We came out flying, but were slowed to Mankato’s pace for the second and third periods. All the girls played well, and we came out ahead 5-2.
After all the press and loyal fans had cleared out, we stayed to scout our next opponent. We watched Roseville romp Burnsville [5-0] to advance to the semifinal. That game was fairly late and we were getting really tired as midnight approached, so we ordered pizza from the hotel and then went to bed.
(Friday, Feb. 19) With our game against Roseville not scheduled until 9:15 p.m., coach Jack Shearer gave us free rein until practice in the early afternoon to roam the area.
We all took off in our own directions, some getting lost in downtown St. Paul, and others just being lazy in their rooms.
At practice, we went over strategies to use against Roseville. Starting with practice, our intensity began to rise, and many girls had fire in their eyes. The nerves had settled and our one team goal was to win this game.
We left the hotel early to watch the first semifinal between South St. Paul and Bloomington Jefferson. We anxiously waited in our locker room while their game went into double overtime.
In our game, we came out flying and won the first period 1-0, even though I kept awfully busy, with us being outshot 12-2. The whole team was focused and determined, but we came up short, eventually losing 3-2. Despite the loss, we played our hearts out and performed better than I’ve ever seen over our three-year history.
Being one goal away from the state championship game was both the best and worst feeling for many of us. We were all so proud of each other having reached this point and the unforgettable game played. On the other side was the disappointment of losing a game that we’d fought so hard for. After all, we gave Roseville — the eventual state champion who beat Burnsville 5-0 and Jefferson 9-2 in their other games — their biggest challenge of the tournament.
That’s pretty good considering people south of Hinckley didn’t believe we belonged in the state tournament.
(Saturday, Feb. 20) After not getting off the ice until after midnight last night, we kind of ran out of gas in the third-place game against South St. Paul. We woke up fairly listless, but gradually perked up to play a good game in the last two periods. We tried, but we had nothing left to give but we lost 3-0.
We took home the fourth-place trophy and the sportsmanship banner, which was quite an honor for most of us. Our finish of fourth out of 98 teams in Minnesota, even our birth in the state tournament, exceeded many people’s expectations.
Yes, girls hockey does exist in Northern Minnesota in places other than Hibbing. The seniors’ emotions were focused on having played our last game, but it was also the last time that the Duluth Dynamite would play. I think we accomplished a lot for a team with only a three-year history to leave behind.
Berg, Gophers outgun UMD 10-7
UMD’s intention, in the weekend hockey series against their arch-rival Minnesota, was to throw a wrench into the Gopher’s hope of finishing high enough to get home-ice in the upcoming WCHA playoffs. Instead, the Bulldogs fine-tuned the formidable Gopher offense, which scored the last four goals Saturday night to claim a 10-7 shootout victory and a sweep of UMD’s final home series.
Both teams had been scoring under 2.5 goals per game coming into the weekend, but Minnesota’s 14 goals in the two games puts them in position of reaching the top five in next weekend’s series against Wisconsin. The Bulldogs can’t finish anywhere but last, and face a trip to second-place Colorado College next weekend, where they also will undoubtedly open the playoffs in two weeks.
Reggie Berg scored four goals, a personal high for the senior from Anoka, to lead Minnesota, with defenseman Bill Kohn scoring twice. Wyatt Smith, who had the first three in Friday night’s 4-1 victory, scored the first one Saturday and added two assists, as seniors scored eight of the 10 Gopher goals.
Friday night’s 4-1 Gopher victory created three distinct challenges. The Gophers, striving for an upper-division and therefore home-ice playoff berth, had to repeat their conquest by again playing in a manner that their high-level talent warrants. The Bulldogs — both those who were embarrassed by the third-period penalty fest and those who should have been — resolved to come out and spend their energy in a more positive fashion and try, once again, to prove they are better than the last-place status they have guaranteed.
But the biggest challenge was to referee John Seidel, who was a victim of the first-game’s third-period flare-ups, when nothing in the first two indicated what was to come. Obviously, his intention was to call everything as closely as possible to keep a tight rein on the teams.
Nobody could have imagined the result.
Here’s the first period: Penalty to UMD’s Judd Medak; power-play goal by Minnesota’s Wyatt Smith at 3:03. Penalty to Minnesota’s Reggie Berg; power-play goal by UMD’s Ryan Homstol. Coincidental double-minors, 4-on-4 goal by UMD’s Judd Medak. Penalty to UMD; power-play goalby Gopher Erik Wendell. Two penalties to the Gophers, with a 2-man power-play goal by UMD’s Mark Carlson followed by a 1-man power-play goal by Shawn Pogreba. Penalty to UMD; power-play goal by Berg.
Finally, with 2:18 to go, Minnesota scored a goal without benefit of a penalty when Bill Kohn broke in from the point to score. Then Berg scored again, also at full strength. And Ryan Coole got one back for UMD before the period ended.
Whew! The two lightest-scoring teams in the WCHA wound up 5-5 in the first period, with both going 3-for-3 on the power play.
Second period, more of the same. Penalty to UMD in the first minute, power-play goal by Rico Pagel at 1:19. Penalty to Pagel at 1:46, power-play goal by Jeff Scissons at 2:35.
At 3:37 of the middle period, Shawn Pogreba was penalized for cross-checking, which became the first penalty of the game on which no goal was scored. Four seconds after it expired, Colin Anderson swiped the puck and scored unassisted, breaking a 6-all tie in UMD’s favor at 5:41.
But goaltender Brant Nicklin, who made 35 saves in the first two periods, couldn’t hold off the hustling Gophers, who came back for a 7-7 tie when Kohn scored his second, their fifth power-play tally of the game. This time they made it carry over, with Mike Anderson scoring at 15:30 and Berg completing his hat trick by converting a rebound 28 seconds later.
Minnesota skated to the dressing room for the second intermission with a 9-7 lead, and the Bulldogs, having already duplicated their season-high seven goals scored against Air Force Academy, badly in need of a field goal.
Instead, as if arm-weary, the teams quit scoring. The only goal of the third period came with 2:33 to go when Berg broke in, fought off a check, and beat Nicklin at the crease.
Mariners storybook trip more than just Cinderella
Silver Bay’s youth hockey program had to work 45 years to become an overnight sensation, but that’s exactly how the Silver Bay Mariners will be regarded when they make their first trip to the Minnesota state high school hockey tournament this week.
The Mariners (18-5-2) won’t have a lot of time to wait, because they meet East Grand Forks in the 12:05 p.m. opening game Wednesday in the Class A quarterfinals at Target Center. But that should be enough time for all the media to focus on the team from the tiny North Shore town and the smallest high school in the state to form a hockey program.
Silver Bay’s emergence as Section 7A’s state tournament hockey team took a lot longer than Silver Bay’s emergence as a North Shore town.
Back in the early 1950s, where the stoplight intersection allows you to turn north and enter Silver Bay, there wasn’t even a turnoff to interrupt travel between Two Harbors and Grand Marais. Just the normally scenic Hwy. 61 curving through the rocky land and pine trees that offered an interlude between breathtaking views of Lake Superior.
That was 1953. In December of 1994, Reserve Mining opened a taconite processing plant right there on the North Shore, where railroad cars from the Iron Range could bring their stuff to be processed and loaded onto Lake Superior freighters in one move. The town of Silver Bay sprang to life around it, virtually overnight.
When the demand for steel receded, and things tightened up on the Iron Range, Silver Bay seemed headed down a one-way road to desolation. Having grown to over 4,000 residents, the majority of them fled to find employment. Population dwindled down to near 1,000, maybe, and homes that had been built new were abandoned, sold on the market for $10,000 to folks looking for summer homes.
Things finally stabilized, with North Shore Mining now the dominant employer, and a state veteran’s nursing home adding to the economic stability, and the neat little North Shore town now numbers about 1,800 population. There are 135 students in the high school, grades 10-12. Not only is that small enough to qualify for Class A, it is the smallest-enrollment school to field its own hockey team, a source of considerable pride in the community.
“I hope people really blow up the Cinderella thing,” said coach Mike Guzzo said. “It’s a great story, and it’s awesome for hockey. It’s a pretty intense time in town, and most people will look at it as a once-in-a-lifetime thing. But we think we’ve got it going the right way, and maybe we won’t drop off.”
If the media get tired of the Cinderella smalltown angle, there’s always John Conboy to dwell on. He’ll be the one who is on the ice more than on the bench, because he plays as much as he’s able, which is plenty. He’s finishing off his fifth year as a regular, and he’s now the captain, defenseman, scoring and spiritual leader of this year’s team.
“Sometimes the more John plays, the better he plays,” says Guzzo. “We jump him up to forward on the power play. But with a big horse like that, you want him out there as much as possible.”
John Conboy has accepted a scholarship to transfer his forceful play to UMD next fall, but for now he’ll be wearing No. 11 on Silver Bay’s blue line. Well…sometimes on the blue line, and sometimes in front of or behind his own net, and just as often hurtling down the ice on skillful puck-rushes which generate a large percentage of Silver Bay’s offense.
Guzzo is amazed at Conboy’s skill, but he hopes that in focusing on the smalltown and Conboy angles, because that focus may cause foes to overlook the fact that this team has a lot of elements all hitting a peak at the right time.
Still, a trip to the state tournament was only a pipe-dream for those who watched the early days, when brothers Donny and John Dumais were the stars. Donny went on to play at the University of Minnesota in the early 1970s. In fact, maybe only a pipe-dream to those of more recent years, when two more brothers, Brian and Brad Johnson, both starred and went on to play at UMD.
But it was not a pipedream to Mike Guzzo, a lifer who grew up in Silver Bay, and played hockey on the 1974-75 team that won the Lake Superior Conference and is believed by many long-time observers to be the best Silver Bay team in the North Shore town’s history. Until this year.
Guzzo is in his 12th year as Silver Bay’s head hockey coach, and he was an assistant for two years before that, helping build and rebuild the team painstakingly in that time. He had one star come along, named Rusty Fitzgerald, but his family moved to Duluth and he wound up helping Duluth East, not Silver Bay, make it to state. Brian Johnson is the all-time Silver Bay points leader with 161, and Rusty Fitzgerald is second with 152, although he left after his junior year. Third in all-time scoring is John Conboy, whose 19 goals, 21 assists and 40 points boosts him to 148 career points from defense.
Doug Conboy was among the pilgrims to Silver Bay. He grew up playing hockey and football in Mounds View, and at Augsburg, where he got his teaching degree 25 years ago and accepted a job to teach and coach at Silver Bay. He’s still there. He stopped coaching hockey but still coaches football. Along with John, a senior, sophomore Jared, is a promising sophomore defenseman on this Mariner team.
But there is a lot more to the team’s success. The goaltender, Greg Buell, is a senior who has a2.10 goals-against and 91.3 percent saves, and may wind up playing junior hockey and advancing to a higher level. “That’s impressive, especially because of our style,” said Guzzo. “We tend to throw the kitchen sink at teams, and we’ve been known to give up a breakaway or two.”
The first forward line is centered by Nic Johnson, a gifted athlete who was quarterback for Doug Conboy’s football team, which included John Conboy as a running back and about eight other of these hockey players. Juniors Sean Buckley and Andy Martinson are wingers on Johnson’s line, and they’ve been responsible for most of the scoring. Johnson has 19-33–52 for scoring stats, Martinson 16-29–45, and Buckley 14-18–32.
But Guzzo’s sensitivity to a small-core program and patience in building has brought along the entire roster.
“Nic and Martinson play together all the time, but we often rotate two left wings on our top three lines,” said Guzzo. “Thomas Christensen (11-10–21) is the other left wing who rotates with Sean. Otherwise our second line has Christensen, who’s 6-3 and 215, with Tanner Paulseth, a sophomore, and Luke Mattila. Luke is a senior who played with Nic and Martinson last year. We broke them up for balance this year, then Luke broke his collarbone. He came back for our last regular season game and the playoffs.
“With Luke out, we were scraping along with two lines so we could keep a junior varsity going. We lost a 1-0 game to Hermantown, and I tried to match two lines with them because we were home team. But I decided, no waywere we going to go anywhere with just two lines.”
Matt Cook, a junior who was a linebacker in football, centers junior Eric Berquist on the right, and either one of the alternating left wings or senior Tracy Pearson.
“Even with a small program, I think it’s important to have a JV,” Guzzo said. “We started the JV a year ago, and we started putting our ninth graders on it. It’s really helped.”
Guzzo trusts the defense to assistant Gary Gustafson, who also is a master juggler. He basically runs five defensemen, alternating John Conboy and Jake Burns on one side. Burns had two goals and an assist in the 4-1 Section 7A victory over Mesabi East. John Conboy and Burns usually play the last shift of each period, and they two usually start each period too. Before a minute is up, Jared Conboy goes over the boards to replace Burns, who then comes back out when John Conboy needs a break, while senior Benji Klemmer and junior B.J. Larson man the other slots.
Big schools with great depth may never have to do that kind of computerized juggling, but the Mariners have made it work for a state tournament trip.
Before this, the closest they got was to be loaded up in a couple of vans for a trip to the DECC to watch the section finals at the DECC. Guzzo wanted his young players to see what could be accomplished, and now they’ve done it themselves.
The trip has consumed the town, where they can’t close the school, but many services are going to be curtailed. It’s also consumed the whole North Shore, from Two Harbors to Grand Marais, where Cook County has made a name for itself in football, but may supply some players from its own youth hockey program to Silver Bay’s hockey team in the future.
The old cliche about the last person leaving town, turn out the lights, used to be a cruel and not unrealistic joke about Silver Bay. It’s true this week, but only because the town is evacuating to watch their boys in a state tournament.
North Shore Mining has contributed to the expenses of a coach bus to take the team to the Twin Cities, and to make sure the kids have a memorable experience. That shouldn’t be a problem.
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