Bois and the boys seek redemption against Gophers
Growing up in Longlac, Ontario, Curtis Bois knew nothing about the hockey programs at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, or about the University of Minnesota. He didn’t know that Minnesota played all Minnesotans, while UMD, since its start in major college hockey, always used a blend of Minnesotans and Canadians.
In those days, Bois — pronounced “Bwah” — was one of eight or 10 boys — pronounced “boys” — who comprised the Longlac Timberwolves youth teams.
“We only had eight or 10 players, but we dominated the teams from Thunder Bay,” Bois said. “We beat all their teams consistently. We were only a little logging community of 2,000, located about 3 1/2 hours north of Thunder Bay, but we’ve had some good players along the way. My brother played at Princeton two years ago, and Adam Rodak played at St. Cloud State.”
Bois went on to play junior hockey in the USHL with the Thunder Bay Flyers, and led them with first-team all-star statistics of 41 goals, 54 assists for 95 points in 53 games in the 1994-95 season. Then he came to UMD. It seems like just yesterday, but it has flashed past him. He has been frustrated as a goal-scorer, getting just three in his freshman year, 10 as a sophomore and nine last season. He has six this season.
“I expected a lot more goals of myself,” Bois said. “It’s been a rough year. I really expected to be a big player in the league this year. I’d like to go on and play, and use this year as a building year. Instead, I took a few blocks off.
“This is my last weekend at home in the DECC, and I’ve been thinking about it. You think of the friends you meet and the special bond you have with your teammates. We’ve showed a number of times we can play with anyone in the league, and we’ve been better than our record all season. In all honesty, we should be ahead of a lot of the teams that are ahead of us.
“It’s almost unfair the way this year has gone, for the team and for us. Maybe this is all a test of how much I love the game. We’ve been through all this, and something good could still happen, this weekend, and in the playoffs. It all started off on a bad note at Minnesota…”
Back on season-opening weekend at Minnesota, the Gophers had already played two exhibition games and UMD had played none, but UMD got a 2-2 tie when Richie Anderson scored with 3:29 remaining.
The next night, Ryan Homstol scored a goal that would tie the game 2-2 in the second period; the shot went off goalie Adam Hauser, up into the roof of the netting, and landed in the goal, a couple of inches across the line. The referees, holding a delayed penalty, were slow arriving on the scene, and, inexplicably, the goal judge didn’t turn on the light during the several seconds the puck sat there. Gopher senior Reggie Berg then reached his stick in and whisked the puck out, and the goal never was counted. Instead of a 2-2 tie, the Bulldogs ultimately lost 3-1.
The opening tie and tough loss didn’t seem too bad, but the Bulldogs lost two more close ones the next weekend at North Dakota, then came home and lost two more to Wisconsin. The pattern continued, with the Bulldogs playing well enough to win, but finding ways to not win. And last place, unfair or not, is the result.
That leads to this weekend’s final home series for seniors Bois, Bert Gilling and Tony Gasparini. It didn’t take Canadians Bois and Gilling long to realize the extra intensity involved when the Bulldogs face the Gophers — especially in Duluth.
Hockey collisions between the Gophers and UMD in Duluth have always been memorable.
In the first meeting between the two in the Duluth Arena, before it was called the DECC, when UMD first entered the WCHA, Glen Sonmor was in his first year as Gopher coach, and UMD All-American Keith (Huffer) Christiansen lured the Gophers off with Pied Piper-like ease, then passed to teammates at the goal-mouth. He recorded six assists and the Bulldogs won 8-1.
There was the mind-boggling series to open the 1969-70 series, when Ralph Romano’s UMD team pasted the Gophers 7-3, but fans better remember the second game, when a check near the boards with the score tied caused a fan to reach out to protect himself. Sonmor figured the fan was trying to grab Minnesota freshman Mike Antonovich, so, in a flash, Sonmor leaped off the bench and into the stands and beat up the fan.
Police cleared the entire section, and, with Sonmor’s tie still in place but his white shirt torn to shreds, the Gophers rallied to win 3-2 in overtime. The Gophers went on to a magical season and a surprising WCHA title, and they returned to the Duluth Arena to beat UMD 3-2 in a three-overtime thriller in the WCHA playoff semifinals.
The Gophers traditionally opened the season at UMD in those days, and the Bulldogs had a 5-1 record against Sonmor’s Gopher teams in those season-openers at Duluth. Herb Brooks replaced Sonmor, and after the Bulldogs won the next two season-openers from the Gophers, Brooks quit scheduling games at Duluth on opening weekend. That didn’t reduce the intensity of the rivalry, or the penchant for spectacular games between the teams on DECC ice.
Current Gopher coach Doug Woog is 2-0 in openers at Duluth, but are 18-10-1 overall in the DECC coming into this weekend. The last time the Gophers played at the DECC, UMD won 7-3 in last year’s playoff opener, then Minnesota won 5-0. In the third and deciding game, UMD rallied from a 4-0 deficit in the final period to eliminate the Gophers 5-4 in a spectacle that concluded with UMD coach Mike Sertich sliding into the net in a one-man celebration.
One of the biggest differences between the two is still on display this weekend. The Gophers are all-Minnesotan, while UMD has a mixture of Minnesotans and Canadian players, plus the occasional North Dakotan, or Superiorite. But even the Canadians have learned to love this series.
Gilling said: “For this weekend, we can totally forget we’re in last place, because we’re playing the Gophers.”
Smith, Gophers whip UMD 4-1
Captain Wyatt Smith broke a scoreless tie in style Friday night, scoring a pure hat trick to ignite Minnesota to a 4-1 romp over UMD before 5,347 fans at the DECC in the opener of the final home series for the last-place Bulldogs.
The teams battled through a scoreless first period, but the Gophers’ fleeting chance to still attain home-ice for the playoffs inspired Smith, who scored midway through the second period and twice to open the third to run his season total to 20 goals.
After that, the game became a penalty-fest, which was unpleasant, and showed only slightly more than the lethargic Bulldog performance that left them no chance against the talented Gophers. Minnesota outshot UMD 49-29, and only heavy-duty work by Brant Nicklin in goal prevented a worse runaway in a game that turned ugly in the third period, when 27 minor penalties, one major and three misconducts indicated UMD’s level of frustration.
“That’s the way it always is between us,” said Smith.
UMD’s Jeff Scissons disagreed. “I think the series usually brings the best out of both teams,” he said. “In our case, we’ve been talking for two weeks about how this is our chance to prove something, because we’re playing the Gophers and we know there’ll be a lot of people there.”
The coaches saw the hassles from a similar perspective.
“I think what happened was you didn’t see the usual energy they’ve had, and when you don’t move your feet, you end up reaching. There was some heavy-duty lumber being given out there.”
UMD coach Mike Sertich was exasperated. “Anybody can play,” Sertich said. “But it’s different to compete. I can’t believe a kid can go out there and be uncompetitive. How can you come to the rink and not compete?”
The first two periods were almost what you might predict for two light-scoring teams battling to move up from lowly stations: Neither team could score a goal except for one during a power play, and then not by the team on the power play.
The Gophers had outshot UMD 12-9 in the scoreless but fast-paced first period, then they built a 20-5 edge in shots in the second period, when Smith got Minnesota’s offense untracked.
His first goal came with Minnesota killing a penalty to Mike Anderson, and Smith rushed with a pass from Aaron Miskovich. Crossing center ice, the Gopher captain veered left to get outside UMD freshman defenseman Mark Carlson, in a duel of former Warroad stars, and Smith cut loose with a quick slapshot from the left circle that beat Nicklin low to the far side at 12:46 of the middle period.
Nicklin, just back from recovering from a sprained knee, aggravated the knee on one of the more acrobatic of his 19 saves in the second period, but he was exceptional in keeping the score 1-0 until the second intermission.
The tight game broke open in the first three minutes of the third period, thanks to Smith, who ignited a three-goal splurge.
Erik Westrum picked off the puck at center ice and fed Smith for a goal at 0:36 of the final period. Westrum and UMD’s Jesse Fibiger were penalized for roughing after the goal, but Smith stayed out on the 4-on-4 and deflected in a right-point shot by Dylan Mills at 1:34.
“On my first goal, Misky made a nice play,” said Smith. “On the second, it was Westy, again the product of nice passing. The third one was Moose’s [Mills] goal, I set up in front and he shot and I just happened to get a piece of it.”
When Dave Spehar was penalized at 2:23, Minnesota connected again shorthanded, with Westrum, just out of the penalty box, poking the puck free at the point, rushing up the left side and beating Nicklin with a slapshot to the right edge at 2:59.
The three goals in a 2:23 span boosted the lead to 4-0, but it also seemed to awaken the slumbering Bulldogs, who finally got a puck on net, and actually past freshman Adam Hauser. Derek Derow got the Bulldog goal, on a power play at 4:16, but he had to bat Jesse Fibiger’s rebound out of the air to score.
Then the game turned ugly. It would have been most expedient to end the game right then, because whether UMD’s frustration finally showed through, or the teams just decided they didn’t like each other, they earned a combined 17 minor penalties and two misconducts in a 5:23 span, from 4:45 to 10:08.
Hockey highlights were few and far between thereafter, and every whistle seemed to inspire an altercation. With 4:31 to go, the ‘Dogs had a good scoring chance at the crease, but bodies filled the net and the puck wouldn’t go in. When order was restored, UMD’s Mark Carlson was tossed for a 5-minute major for pile-driving the goaltender.
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.
Benilde stuns Hermantown in overtime
Troy Riddle, the state’s leading goal-scorer, hit the 50 mark at a most inopportune time Thursday night, as far as Hermantown was concerned. Riddle’s first two goals were tough enough, erasing a 2-0 Hawk lead, but his third came at 2:50 of sudden-death overtime and gave Benilde-St. Margaret’s a 3-2 victory in the first-round game that pitted the two Class A tournament favorites.
Benilde (21-4-1) will face the winner of the first round’s late game, between Red Wing and Fergus Falls, in Saturday’s semifinals. Hermantown (21-4-1) plays the loser today at Mariucci Arena in consolation.
It was a bitterly disappointing loss for the Hawks, who were certain they had won the game on a goal by Andy Corran with 24 seconds left in the third period. But the goal was waved off by referees Jeff Shie and Jim VonWald.
“I was on the right side, the goalie went down, but the puck wasn’t frozen,” said Corran. “Jon [Francisco] tapped it over to me, and I put it in. I was caught up in the moment, but I never heard a whistle. They waved it off. That was totally unexplainable.”
Ken Pauly, Benilde’s coach, said: “I heard the whistle. There’s no question the whistle blew. But there’s also no question there was a loose puck.”
In other words, the victors concede that if there was a whistle, it shouldn’t have been blown.
“When they tied it up, our seniors took the game over,” said Hermantown coach Bruce Plante. “Whatever they had left in the tank, they spent it. And we thought we won the game, but other people didn’t see it that way. Andy shot it in, then they blew the whistle.”
Riddle bedeviled the Hawks all night, although he was unnoticeable much of the game, lurking out in center ice, then using his quickness whenever the puck came loose. Early in the game, he got away on a shorthanded breakaway, but Allen Knowles stopped him in goal.
Then the Hawks took the lead, with Chris Baron and Loren Kaake scoring in a 1:11 span late in the first period. The first goal came when Jon Francisco broke around the defense on the left, and was pulled off the rush by a high stick around his neck. As Francisco went down, the puck was left free, and both Baron and Corran swung at it. Baron got a piece of it, and the off-speed shot slithered past goalie David Rogalski at 11:48.
On the next shift, J.R. Bradley fired from the blue line, Rogalski blocked it, and Kaake swung and missed on his forehand, but whirled and scored on a backhander at 12:59.
In the second period, the Red Knights figured they had taken over the game. “If they’re going to upset somebody, they can’t let the other team take the game from them,” said Pauly.
However, Hermantown wasn’t thinking upset; only in the Twin Cities minds were the Red Knights favored. After all, Hermantown had won the Lake Superior Conference and beaten teams the caliber of Duluth East, and the Hawks were favored by those north of Forest Lake.
Plante said: “When we got ahead, we played a little cautious.”
Riddle, who came into the game with 47 goals and 43 assists, knocked in the first Benilde goal at 0:50 of the second period and a scramble after a rebound, putting a shot over the fallen Knowles.
It stayed 2-1 as the Hawks tried to defend the lead, with Corran misfiring on a breakaway later in the second period, and Francisco stopped by Rogalski early in the third. But with 4:03 left in regulation, Riddle got loose for an instant, just as Luke Irwin passed from behind the net, and Riddle’s quick shot tied it 2-2.
Immediately, Hermantown responded. J.R. Bradley carried up the middle on an amazing 3-on-0 rush, but Bradley was foiled by Rogalski with 1:47 left. Corran’s slick behind-the-back pass put Francisco in clean, but Rogalski dived to block it with his stick glove, and two tries with rebounds wouldn’t go with 33 seconds remaining.
It was then, on a right corner faceoff, that Francisco was tied up and Baron grabbed the puck and fired it at the net. Francisco went to the crease but could only poke the open rebound to the left, where Corran calmly shot it just inside the left post.
No goal.
In overtime, Riddle showed what happens to big scorers, even when they botch the play. Still lurking at center ice, he sped to the puck as Ratislav Valko banked a pass off the right boards. Riddle, behind the defense, raced in from the right side at Knowles, who stayed with him. When Riddle deked and veered to his left, Knowles stayed right with him, but Riddle lost the puck at that instant, and instead of pulling it to the backhand, where Knowles was playing him, the puck slid straight ahead — right through Knowles’ legs.
“I tried a little deke,” Riddle said. “And thepuck went 5-hole.”
No justice.
Benilde-St. Margaret’s 0 1 1 1–3
Hermantown 2 0 0 0–2
First Period: 1. Herm–Chris Baron (Jon Francisco, Andy Corran) 11:48. 2. Herm–Loren Kaake (J.R. Bradley) 12:59.
Second Period: 1. Ben–Troy Riddle (Luke Irwin, Jake Riddle) 0:50.
Third Period: 2. Ben–Troy Riddle (Irwin, Mike Grobe) 10:57, PP.
Overtime: 3. Ben–Troy Riddle (Ratislav Valko) 2:50.
Saves: Benilde–David Rogalski 3 6 10 0–19; Herm–Allen Knowles 7 10 8 1–26.
Fergus Falls comeback beats Red Wing 3-2
Cory Donnay and Josh Anderson scored goals 48 seconds apart midway through the third period Thursday night, vaulting Fergus Falls to a 3-2 victory over Red Wing in the final game of the Class A boys hockey tournament first round.
The victory, which completed a comeback from a 2-0 first-period deficit, gave the Otters (16-7-2) a berth in Friday’s second semifinal, against Benilde-St. Margaret’s. Red Wing faces Hermantown in today’s 12-noon consolation semifinal at Mariucci Arena.
To win, Fergus had to overcome a 27-19 edge in shots for Red Wing, and the forceful leadership of Red Wing’s Mark Pohl, who was overlooked by the Twin Cities area’s metro all-star teams that his brother, Johnny Pohl, made a year ago. It’s not as though the younger Pohl has spent the winter in hibernation. He came into the tournament having scored 44 goals and 41 assists for the Wingers, and while he’s not the crafty set-up man type, he is bigger, stronger, and can shoot the puck with force.
He also is alert about being in the right place at the right time, as he was in the first period Thursday night. Derek Kuglin had fired a slapshot from the right point, and when Fergus Falls goaltender Kevin Ackley blocked it, Pohl shoveled in the rebound from the right edge for his 45th goal of a generally overlooked season.
The Wingers couldn’t build on that 1-0 lead despite an 11-5 edge in shots in the first period, but Ackley was tough. It wasn’t until 3:00 of the second period that the Wingers got another goal, and that, too, was mostly due to Mark Pohl. This time he skated behind the net from the left corner, and came out to try a wraparound at the right post. Ackley went down and succeeded in blocking the shot, but Nate Anderson converted the rebound at the crease for a 2-0 lead.
Chad Hopponen got Fergus Falls untracked with a great individual effort late in the middle period. The junior right winger broke up the left side and had enough speed to turn the corner behind defenseman Kuglin, who dived to try to stop him. In the process, he cut Hopponen’s legs out from under him, and as he toppled, and a delayed penalty was being signaled, Hopponen managed to get a backhand shot away and the wide-angle attempt fooled goalie Mike Anderson and zipped between his pads.
“That goal really lifted us,” said Fergus Falls coach Brad Bergstrom.
The lift reached greater heights in the third period. As if to sneak up on Red Wing, the Otters played possum with the 2-1 deficit until 8:11 of the third period.
At 8:11, Jason Lee fed out from the corner to the left point where Ben Brimhall fired a shot. Mike Anderson made the save, but Cory Donnay, whowing great poise, pulled the puck back from the crease and flicked it past the goaltender for the 2-2 equalizer.
Before you could say “overtime,” Fergus Falls sprung junior Josh Anderson with a Rob Myster pass up the left boards 48 seconds later. Anderson raced straight in on the goaltender, made a deft move as if going for a forehand try before quickly shifting to score with a backhand at the right post.
Red Wing came back hard, to the finish, taking a time out with 1:21 left, getting goaltender Anderson out for a sixth attacker in the final minute, and getting two shots from Pohl as the clock ticked down. But No. 46 wasn’t there. It’ll have to come in consolation play.
Fergus Falls 0 1 2–3
Red Wing 1 1 0–4
First Period: 1. RW—Mark Pohl (Derek Kuglen) 2:49.
Second Period: 2. RW–Nate Anderson (Mark Pohl) 3:00. 1. FF—Chad Hopponen (Ben Shaw) 12:59.
Third Period: 2. FF–Cory Donnay (Ben Brimhall, Jason Lee) 8:11. 3. FF–Josh Anderson (Rob Myster) 8:59.
Saves: FF–Kevin Ackley 10 8 7–25; RW–Mike Anderson 6 5 5–16.
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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