Elk River wins one for the north
Score one for Up North.
This has been a cruel tournament season for Up North hockey teams, with this being the first year in the state tournaement’s 55-year history that no Duluth or Iron Range team made it in Class AA, and with Hermantown and Silver Bay both reaching the Class A tournament, only to be dispatched in two straight games.
But Elk River, the Twin Cities suburban power that won Section 7AA, carried the Up North colors well, whipping Hill-Murray 5-1 in Thursday night’s quarterfinal battle of heavyweights.
The Elks weathered and returned some heavy hitting, got two goals from Joey Bailey, and the usual excellence from junior defenseman Paul Martin, and whipped the Pioneers with three goals in the second period and two more in the third.
After talking to coach Tony Sarsland, who insists the Elks should be in Section 4 where they belong and leave 7 to the Up North teams, it’s obvious that a little of Section 7AA stayed with him, after Elk River beat Duluth East 4-2 in the semifinals and Hibbing in a three-overtime 2-1 final.
“It took me three days to recover from Hibbing, and I didn’t even play,” said Sarsland. He then paid heavy tribute to his first and second lines, stressing their balance, although the first line, of Bailey, center Jed Leonard and sophomore Joel Hanson, scored four goals,
with Bailey getting two, and Stewart’s empty-netter gave the second line one.
“And I could talk all day about Paul Martin,” said Sarsland, who claims his junior defenseman is the best player in the state. “I don’t have words to describe him. The best thing about him is he plays within himself so well. He saw that they were really keying on him, so he moved the puck up to other players, which is what a smart player does.”
All true. And Martin was content to outlet the puck for two-plus periods. The Elks broke the scoreless game when Bailey took Martin’s power-play pass back at the left point, moved along the blue line to find the right hole, then sent a low wrist shot that went cleanly in at 3:15 of the second period. Hill-Murray struck right back, for a power-play goal by Bobby Ammann on a perfect set up across the crease from Andy Nolan.
But Leonard scored at 8:04 and Hanson hammered in a rebound at 12:34, and the Elks had a 3-1 lead at the second intermission.
At the finish, after Trevor Stewart’s empty-net goal with 1:21 left made it 4-1, Martin shows what happens on the outer limits of playing within himself. He took a bank pass off the end boards from Jake Wood, looked up ice, and took off. He cruised across center ice, beating two and three Pioneers, then he carried up the right side to get a step on one of two retreating defensemen. Finally, he cut in sharply toward the net, and as the defender tried to muscle him off, Martin simply slid the puck across the goal mouth and Bailey cashed in with 20 seconds remaining.
Martin, a lanky 6-2 and 165, has nine goals and about 24 assists this season, which isn’t bad, considering he missed six games at the end of the season while playing with a U.S. Select team in the Czech Republic. He came back just in time for sectional play, much to the dismay of East and Hibbing, who both could only marvel at his control of the game.
Goaltender Mitch Glines came up with some big saves, but the Elks repeatedly turned back the Pioneers and then kept them pinned in their own end for much of the third period.
“I thought, in midseason, after we had played a lot of the toughest teams in the state, that this could be the best team in the state, and we might have a chance to win the state title,” said Sarsland.
And now, the Elks are one of only four teams with a shot at it.
Lucia’s Tigers see UMD in path to NCAA
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.
Colorado College coach Don Lucia accused UMD of resorting to germ warfare for their WCHA best-of-three playoff series this weekend.
Lucia was kidding, of course, but when UMD lost 4-3 and 3-2 games at CC last weekend, a half-dozen of the Bulldogs were slowed by a strain of flu that includes headaches more than stomach problems.
“So this week, what happens to us? We get four or five guys down with that same flu,” said Lucia. “We’re hoping they’ll be ready to play, but you never know.”
Among those afflicted are Brian Swanson, CC’s super-center who should be a primary candidate for the Hobey Baker Award. If he played in Boston, or Ann Arbor, or Madison, or the Twin Cities, Swanson would be a cinch, so long as he wasn’t confused with defenseman Scott Swanson, no relation, who is the WCHA’s best defenseman.
For those who only know Don Lucia as one of the elite new guard of coaching, one of the genuinely good, positive, progressive young coaches in the game, it is easy to overlook what must rank as the greatest accomplishment in college hockey coaching history. Just six years ago, Lucia came out of the cold, so to speak, when he left his first head coaching job at Alaska-Fairbanks and came to Colorado College.
That CC team, coached by Brad Buetow, had been picked to finish about third in the league, but it wound up a distant and dead last. So sad were the Tigers that season, that the WCHA coaches were unanimous in ranking CC dead last again the following year, because not only had Buetow been fired, but new coach Don Lucia was coming in too late to really do any recruiting.
So what happened? Lucia led Colorado College to the WCHA championship, and he did it with all the proper values and ethics, with that good-person look in his eye, which tells you immediately that you’re dealing with an honest man, who expects honesty in return. In his second year, Lucia led the Tigers to a second WCHA title, and in his third year, CC won the title yet again — becoming the first team in the WCHA’s long and storied history to ever win three straight WCHA titles. Those fantastic Denver, North Dakota and Michigan Tech teams of decades gone by never could string together three in a row.
He did it by recruiting the kind of players who would be great college players, not being consumed by some egotistical craze that sought future NHLers and overlooked good little players — like Darren Clark of Superior, Toby Petersen of Bloomington. CC hasn’t won the title the last three years, including this one, because North Dakota has beaten the Tigers out, with Dean Blais — another great, young, principled coach — flat out saying he admired and copied Lucia’s method, and put it to use to become the second team to ever win three straight WCHA titles.
Lucia, whose CC Tigers now play in the fabulous new World Arena, which seats 7,343 for hockey, offered a tour of the year-old Olympic-sized facility, which has unexcelled sightlines, an exceptional press box, and a lower middle section reserved for big hitters behind the CC program, who can go on down under the stands to the richly decorated “Penrose Room,” where they can enjoy between-periods camaraderie in secluded comfort, or even go off to the smoking room, with its walk-in cigar humidor and privately owned humidor cubicles for their prized possessions.
Everything is going smoothly for Lucia and the Tigers, but he is not taking the Bulldogs lightly this weekend.
“We played well last weekend,” Lucia said. “Looking at Duluth, Brant Nicklin is as good as any goaltender in the league, maybe the best. They skate well, and Jeff Scissons is a big-time player. They are positive in their specialties [power plays and penalty kills]. And their shots on goal with their opponents is about even.
“Those aren’t the statistics of a last-place team; they are more likely proof of a team that’s been unlucky. If we started the league over tomorrow, there’s no way UMD would finish last.”
Lucia, a Grand Rapids native, is a big fan of UMD coach Mike Sertich, and he’s outspoken about it.
“You know, there are three men I really look up to for influencing my life,” said Lucia. “One is my dad, one is Sertie, and one is Tom Drazenovich, my old football coach in high school. Sertie was my JV coach at Grand Rapids, and I had him as a history teacher in junior high. We won the state championship my sophomore year at Grand Rapids, and Gus Hendrickson and Sertie left the next year to go to UMD.
“Sertie is a tremendous coach, and when he has top talent, he wins. He’s won four WCHA championships in 17 years. I think that’s pretty outstanding. His teams are always very well coached, and they do some unconventional things that other teams are afraid to try. They’ll catch you by surprise doing things like getting their defense involved in the offense, or flying a guy in the neutral zone. But he’s the type of coach who lets his guys play, and play creatively.”
Lucia has stayed in tune with the controversy swirling around the University of Minnesota, and he has heard speculation that has linked North Dakota coach Dean Blais and Lucia as possible successors, if Minnesota decides to replace Doug Woog. Some people suggest Minnesota won’t make a change now, because putting out the multiple brush fires of the hockey program suddenly pale next to having its basketball house on fire right now. Should we be surprised that an athletic department that not only condones but supports what has happened in the deteriorating Minnesota hockey situation would also find a scandalous academic problem rampant in its basketball program? Funny how such problems just seem to link up. Must be coincidence.
The contrast from those problems to a program run by Lucia is amazingly stark. He, of course, is far too classy to do more than shake his head at wonderment as the latest details of Minnesota’s corruption spread nationwide in a flash on Wednesday.
He has taken note of various recruiting debates, because his team once was accused by the Gophers of having older, more experienced players, in a year when the Gophers actually were older.
“We try to get the best players from the USHL, and we do like it if they’re a little more experienced, because it costs $28,000 a year to go to CC, and we think there is less risk of making a mistake in recruiting with players who might be a year older or more experienced,” Lucia said.
“But look at our roster now. We only have five Canadians. And while we have players with junior experience, we also have Toby Petersen from Bloomington Jefferson, Mike Colgan from Rochester Mayo, and Jon Austin from International Falls, all of whom came right out of high school. And we have four other players who played in the USHL, but they played there during their senior year in high school, so they aren’t any older.”
The Tigers, after a strong run, finished second to North Dakota this season. They are primed to make a strong run at the WCHA playoff championship, and should already be a cinch to gain an NCAA tournament berth.
But Lucia isn’t looking for an instant beyond UMD. He knows their coach, he likes their players, and he is aware the Bulldogs are a far better team than their last-place record indicates. He also knows that while his team should be a cinch NCAA entry, UMD finally has put its back up against the wall, and it’s win or start summer vacation early.
Holy Angels beats Eden Prairie 4-1 in debut
Thirteen saves is not a lot for a goaltender, particularly in a state hockey tournament game, but even though Holy Angels goaltender Justin Eddy didn’t have overall quantity, he came up with the quality saves when it mattered to guide the Stars to a 4-1 victory over Eden Prairie in Thursday’s opening Class AA quarterfinal.
The victory puts Holy Angels (25-1) into tonight’s 7:05 semifinal against Roseau, in its first-ever trip to the state tournament.
Eddy was not used to being the standout on a team that scored a lot of goals to outdistance foes this season. But his exceptional saves early in the third period proved to be the difference.
“They got us running around a little, especially in the third period,” said Greg Trebil, the former Bloomington Jefferson Bantam coach who has put this Holy Angels team together well. “Our goaltender came up big when we neede him right then.”
Eddy shrugged it off, mainly because 13 saves didn’t seem to be as significant as the 24 made by Jon Volp in Eden Prairie’s net.
“That’s what I have to do for my team,” Eddy said. “The reality is that’s my contribution to the team. In most games, I don’t face too many shots, but then there might be a couple places where there’s a bunch of them. I’ve got to stop them.”
The Stars star center Billy Hengen was silenced by Eden Prairie’s quick forwards, but their second line came through got a pair of goals in the second period by Casey Garven and Justin Hauge to take a 2-1 lead. They put the game away when Hengen’s wingers came through in the third period, with Josh Singer scoring midway through the third period, before Adam Kaiser scored into an empty net at the finish.
But back when it was 2-1, and Holy Angels had applied most of the pressure, the Eagles opened the third period with a rush. Sophomore Garrett Smaagaard bolted to the net after winning a left-corner faceoff and shot high off the left crossbar, with the puck glancing behind Eddy, but out — not in. “That was a nice shot,” said Eddy.
Then Mike Erickson, another sophomore, had a point-blank chance with a goal-mouth pass, but Eddy stopped it. “I practice those a lot,” said Eddy, matter-of-factly.
The Eagles pressured for three or four more chances, and Eddy made a couple more exceptional saves. Then the Stars regained their form and escaped from their zone to turn the pressure back the other way.
Eden Prairie took a 1-0 lead when Brian Rassmussen scored a shorthanded goal with 48 seconds left in the first period. Dave Siler had chased down a loose puck on the penalty kill and fed to the slot, where Rassmussen’s quick shot to the upper right glanced down and in off the crossbar.
“That was a nice shot,” said Eddy. “I usually try to come out and challenge, but I followed his body instead of his stick.”
Eden Prairie coach Lee Smith was frustrated. “We’ve got great depth, going with three lines while they mostly used two,” he said. “I thought we could wear them down, but we were really uptight early. We finally played with energy in the third period, but their goalie made some big saves. Then their sniper [Singer] made a great play for their third goal.”
CC’s Austin scores twice to sink UMD 3-1
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.
Senior winger Jonny Austin, who came to Colorado College four years ago from International Falls when several other colleges considered him too slight to be an effective Division I player, scored midway through the third period to break a scoreless tie Friday night, then clinched a 3-1 Tiger victory over UMD with an empty-net goal in the closing seconds.
The victory, which wasn’t secured until Austin slid a 75-footer into the empty net with 2.8 seconds remaining, gives CC the first of a best-of-three WCHA playoff series before a paid crowd of 7,002 at the World Arena.
“It was the same as last weekend, they battled us right to the end,” said Austin, who has 11 goals for the season. “You’ve got to hand it to them. When it was 0-0 after two periods, we were getting frustrated because we had a lot of chances, but not many great opportunities. But we’ve had a lot of close games in the last few weeks, and we know that’s the way it’s going to be in the playoffs.”
The last-place Bulldogs, who lost 4-3 and 3-2 here a week ago to end the regular season 4-20-4, battled the second-place Tigers (20-8 in the WCHA) on even terms until 11:38 of the third period, when UMD goalie Brant Nicklin made a pair of big saves, the second on Austin, in the slot. Austin played the puck off Nicklin’s pads and lifted a backhander over the fallen goalie, who made 37 saves in an outstanding performance.”
At 1-0, the Bulldogs got a bit of a bad break when Craig Pierce, who had his stick pulled from his hand by Cam Kryway moments earlier, leveled Kryway in the slot and was called for interference at 14:07. The CC power play, stifled all night by the Bulldogs, came through at 15:51, when Paul Manning moved in from right point for a low shot, wide to the right, that Justin Morrison tipped past Nicklin.
Still, but gritty Bulldogs came back, with Shawn Pogreba stickhandling out from the right corner and firing a shot from the circle that glanced in past goaltender Jeff Sanger with 2:35 left.
“I knew we were getting late in the game, and we hadn’t gotten many shots on net, so I just threw it in front,” said Pogreba. “It hit a skate or something, I don’t even know. But it went in.”
That renewed hope for the Bulldogs, who were outshot 40-23, but had cut the deficit to 2-1. But after pulling Nicklin they couldn’t penetrate to get the equalizer, and when the puck was blocked out to center ice, Austin made sure of his shot into the empty net.
The Bulldogs came out totally focused, and played a crisp first period, backchecking to prevent any 2-on-1 or 3-on-2 CC rushes, and spreading the game out offensively by passing or reversing the puck to use the full 100-foot Olympic width of the World Arena.
After the first couple of UMD chances were turned away by CC goalie Sanger, the Tigers got on the power play and forced Nicklin to come up with some big saves. The Tigers had a clear shot advantage early, but the Bulldogs weathered the opening attack and forced the Tigers to shoot from longer range as the scoreless first period progressed.
If there was a striking contrast to most of their games this season, it was that the ‘Dogs countered quickly, turning every transition into an offensive rush. When Cam Kryway’s penalty gave UMD its turn on the power play, the Jeff Scissons line got a few chances, and Mark Gunderson and Judd Medak came out next and got some excellent chances, setting a tempo that gave UMD the edge territorially to the end of the opening period.
The second period also was scoreless, and both teams had a turn at dominating play. UMD, bolstered by an overlapping power play from the first period, got a good chance when Derek Derow and Ryan Homstol collaborated for a chance, then defenseman Craig Pierce moved in from left point and fired one off the right post.
At the other end, Nicklin came up with a spectacular save on Brian Swanson, point blank, but the Bulldogs outshot CC 9-2 in the first half of the period.
When Pierce was penalized, however, CC’s power play got some chances, with Moorhead’s Mark Cullen getting the best one, but shooting a close-range rebound from the right side, only to hit the crossbar instead of the open net.
UMD’s had two more excellent chances in the middle period, but Homstol shot wide left after a set-up, and Colin Anderson feathered a 2-on-1 pass to Curtis Bois, who missed the net. At the same time, the Tigers fired 11 of the last 12 shots on goal in the middle period, but Nicklin came up with all the answers, and the Bulldogs reduced the challenge of upsetting the powerful Tigers to a 20-minute game in the third period.
Fergus Falls fails to solve Benilde’s Riddles
Here’s a state hockey tournament “Riddle:” If Benilde-St. Margaret’s wins the Class A championship, who is most likely to score?
Right. The answer to the riddle is Riddle. As in Troy Riddle, but sometimes Jake Riddle.
If there can be such a thing as a “routine” state hockey tournament semifinal victory, Benilde-St. Margaret’s enjoyed one Friday afternoon, sailing past outmanned Fergus Falls 6-0 with two goals each period and a 33-14 cushion in shots. That puts the Red Knights (24-2) into today’s 2 p.m. final against East Grand Forks.
Brothers Troy and Jake Riddle and Joe Schuman led the attack for the Red Knights in the semifinals, with Troy Riddle, the leading scorer in the state, getting two goals after getting all three in the 3-2 victory over Hermantown, to run his two-game total to five and his season total to 52. Schuman also scored twice, while Jake Riddle scored a power-play goal to get the whole thing started. Jake Riddle and Schuman had two assists each, and Troy Riddle had one assist.
After the game, the Riddle brothers were standing together for an interesting comparison. Jake, the sophomore winger, is 6-1 and 180 pounds; Troy, the senior center, is 5-10 and 170.
“We don’t play the same,” said Troy, who occasionally can be found lurking in center ice. “He plays with a lot of heart, takes the body and gets the puck free.
“I felt really comfortable today. Everybody talked about how important our first game was, because we were playing Hermantown, and some thought we were the two best teams, but also just to get our feet going and not be uptight. Today it was different. Jake and I both came into this game feeling ready to go, and we wanted to make sure we played well enough so there’d be no excuses.
“Fergus Falls was definitely a challenge, because they’ve got some talent,” added Troy, “but we think if we can play our game, it’ll be tough for anybody to beat us.”
Benilde came out flying and jumped ahead when Schuman had a chance at the crease and Jake Riddle retrieved the puck beyond the goal line on the right of the net, pulled it back and put it in, 19 seconds into the game’s first power play. Goalie Kevin Ackley got even by robbing Jake Riddle on a break-in later, and Benilde goalie Jake Schuman, a ninth-grader who alternates in the nets, stopped Josh Anderson’s shot and dived to thwart Aaron Olson’s rebound.
It was still a contest at that point, but Troy Riddle rushed up the left side at 13:56, and when the defenseman turned one way to confront him, Riddle cut the other way and scored with a 25-foot wrist shot.
Adam Ahern made it 3-0 at 9:41 of the second period by lifting in a rebound, and Joe Schuman scored on a power play 11 seconds after it started. Schuman’s second goal made it 5-0 at 4:37 of the third, and Troy Riddle scored the final goal, 24 seconds into another power play.
“We figured the key was getting after their defense,” said Fergus Falls coach Brad Bergstrom. “Their defense are so good at the transition game, they’re the ones who get the puck up to those forwards. Trouble was, we couldn’t get to ’em. And then we took three penalties, and they scored three power-play goals, all in about 15 seconds.”
Benilde-St. Margaret’s coach Ken Pauly acknowledged that the team focused on the tournament’s first game, so as not to get caught up looking ahead at the final. “Absolutely, the first game is critical,” Pauly said. “If you lose, you go to Mariucci Arena and nobody hears about you. Our kids like the spotlight, and the only way to stay in it is to keep winning.”
And now, of course, Benilde can look ahead to the championship game.
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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