Riddle, power-play carry Benilde to A puck title
Try as they might to convince the world that their success is not wholly dependent on Troy Riddle, the Benilde-St. Margaret’s Red Knights needed Riddle to score two goals and set up another Saturday afternoon at Target Center to beat East Grand Forks 4-2 and capture the Class A state hockey championship.
Riddle, an elusive senior with a deadly shot, scored all three goals in the 3-2 opening game against Hermantown, then added two goals and two assists in Friday’s 6-0 semifinal blowout over Fergus Falls. His three points against East Grand Forks gave Riddle seven goals and three assists for 10 points out of the 13 goals scored by the Red Knights.
“We knew that if we kept our focus, as soon as we got some bounces to go our way we’d be OK,” said Riddle, who ends the season with 54 goals. At the end, Riddle had a chance for another goal turned away. “I wasn’t thinking hat trick, I was just thinking hurry up and end it.”
Benilde coach Ken Pauly, whose team ended 26-2, was soaked by a bucket of ice water his players dumped over his red blazer. “It’s colder than heck, but if I ruined the sport coat, that’ll be OK because my wife hates it,” he said.
The Red Knights stressed that they expected to win the game, but confident or not, it was the goal that Riddle had nothing to do with, early in the third period, that rescued a game that had been controlled for two periods by East Grand Forks — the Class A darkhorse, which had never won a championship bracket tournament game before this year, but was on the brink of the championship before ending 16-11-1.
At the start of the game, Andrew Alberts, a giant 6-4, 205-pound defenseman, was penalized for blasting a Green Wave skater into the corner boards. The call was checking from behind, which, in high school, is a 2-minute minor but carries a mandatory 10-minute misconduct.
The Red Knights killed the penalty, and took a 1-0 lead when Troy Riddle scored an opportunistic goal at 14:04. Riddle was skating up the left slot when his brother, Jake Riddle, threw a hard pass from the left boards across the slot. East Grand backchecker Neil Purcell slid to block the pass, and when the puck hit his shinpad it bounced straight back — right on Troy Riddle’s stick, and he put it away in an instant.
But East Grand outshot Benilde 7-4 in the first period, and vaulted to a 2-1 lead in the second, when Shawn Bartlette scored with Jon Stordahl’s breakaway pass at 9:41 and Jonathan Hussey scored with Kyle Cash’s rebound at 10:04. The two goals in a 23-second span didn’t dampen Benilde’s confidence, as they came back for several good scoring chances, particularly on a late power play, when East Grand goalie Tommy White had to be solid.
On the first shift of the third period, Troy Riddle tried to break around the defense and Green Wave defender Hussey tried to stop him. As he cut in, Riddle appeared to step on Hussey’s stick blade and stumble. Hussey was called for tripping. Back after sitting out his 12 minutes in the first period, Alberts, the big defenseman, was sent up front to set up in front the East Grand net.
“I was really excited to get back out there after sitting so long,” said Alberts. “Sometimes I play up front on the power play to get a big player in front of the net. This time, the shot came from the point and I ‘yo-yo’d’ it around, then shot it in.”
With Troy Riddle stationed right at the crease, Alberts teed up the backhand, and snapped it off, high and hard. White, who had an outstanding tournament, was going down, but kicked his leg high. The puck glanced off his leg pad and in, for a power-play goal at 1:18. That tied the game 2-2, and injected the Red Knights with a new supply of energy.
Troy Riddle broke away from the last defender at center ice and scored on a breakaway to put Benilde up 3-2 at 4:08. And Adam Ahern scored Benilde’s second power-play goal at 5:54. Although the bigger Red Knights were the physical aggressor, East Grand Forks drew the only four penalties of the last two periods, and two of them produced power-play goals.
“No question the two power-play goals were the difference in the game,” said Jim Scanlan, East Grand’s intense but always gracious coach. “We did what we wanted to do for two periods, to make it a 15-minute game. Troy Riddle stepped up his game; he’s a smart player who has a high panic-level.
“But the biggest difference was their defense. They’re solid back there, and when they get a power play they have three of those defensemen on the ice.”
With the Alberts goal, that proved one too many.
Roseau championship quotes
[Quotes from state championship AA hockey game, insert where you need them…JG.]
What does the title mean to the Roseau players?
“I broke down on the bench,” said Roseau captain Phil Larson. “This has consumed me since I was 8, when I was sitting in section 234 of the old Civic Center, watching Billy Lund pick up the trophy. I’m sick and tired of looking at all the banners in Roseau that we had nothing to do with.
“This is for my dad, my mom, Roseau…everybody.”
There was no panic when the Rams were outshot 7-0 in the early going.
“I knew they’d come out really rockin,’ ” said Roseau coach Bruce Olson. “I was hoping we could weather that and keep going. They were coming at us with speed, and I had told our guys the game would be won in our end. Jake was fantastic in goal, and after we got past that first part, I thought they looked pretty tired.”
Hastings outlasts Elk River in 2 OTs
After both team’s star players battled themselves to a standoff, sophomore Travis Kieffer slammed in Pete Swanson’s feed from behind the goal at 10:15 of the second sudden-death overtime Friday night to give Hastings an exhaustive 2-1 victory over Elk River in a classic state tournament Class AA semifinal.
Swanson stopped abruptly to reverse directions behind the net, lost possesion but regained it off the base of the net, then chipped a pass out on the left side of the cage, and Kieffer banged it in just after midnight to send Hastings into tonight’s championship game against Roseau.
Seemingly exhausted when outshot 7-1 in the first overtime, the Raiders rejuvenated themselves after the ice was resurfaced, outshooting the Elks 10-3 in the 15-minute second overtime. Hastings advances with a 22-4 record, while Elk River (23-3) will face Holy Angels for third place.
“Our plan was to put our second line, and our top set of defensemen, out against their big line,” said Elk River coach Tony Sarsland, referring to the Welch-Taffe-Nick Husting line.
Executing such a plan against the state’s most explosive offense is far different than planning it, but the tenacious Elks executed it well, bolstered by an outstanding early save by Mitch Glines, and the only goal of the first period from Carson Ezati.
Taffe opened the game with a strong rush and fed Welch for a shot, but Glines came up with a great save, which had to energize the Elk River segment of the crowd, to say nothing of the Elks on the bench.
Elk River’s splendid junior defenseman Paul Martin, who displays his greatness by almost always making the easiest, simplest play efficiently, also is capable of the huge play, and he pulled one out midway through the first period. He beat one forechecker in his own end of the rink, then set sail, stickhandling up across center ice, meandering all the way up the left side.
When he couldn’t go any farther, Martin fed John Brumer, who flung a shot from the left corner at the crease. Goalie Matt Klein blocked it, but Carson Ezati shot again from the same wide angle. This time, Klein gave him a couple of inches short-side, and the puck pinballed off the goalie, the pipe, and then back off the goaltender before tumbling into the net.
Playing defense to protect a lead — especially a 1-goal lead — usually is strategic suicide, but the Elks squelched Hastings throughout a scoreless second period. Elk River had a 14-6 edge in shots at the second intermission, but it seemed unimaginable that anybody could hold off the Raiders that totally for three periods.
It was true. At 1:56 of the third period, Adam Gerlach rushed up the left side. A right-handed shooter, Gerlach had a better shooting angle from the right circle, and he snapped a wrist shot just over a fallen defenseman, and it glanced off the glove or left shoulder of Glines and caught the upper right corner of the net.
That meant Elk River had to open up offensively again, and the Elks did so effectively, outshooting the Raiders 13-4 in a wildly entertaining third period, as the teams exchanged rushes and stirred up more chances than in the first two periods combined.
Martin made a strong charge, had his shot blocked by a defender, and Joel Plude put the follow-up over the net. Then Welch picked off a loose puck and sped away on a breakaway, but Glines held his ground and Welch shot wide right. Next, Klein came up with an enormous save for Hastings when Joey Bailey cut loose with a 1-timer from the right circle.
The crowd gave the teams a heartfelt standing ovation at a stoppage in play for their amazing display. Then, in the closing minutes of the third period, Welch took off again, kicking the puck ahead for a breakaway. This time he beat Glines, but his shot hit the right post and the carom came back between the goalie’s legs…and out.
In the first overtime, Elk River’s conditioning came into play. The Elks, who are run through a boot-camp style conditioning program during their fall training, had outshot the Raiders 27-10 through the regulation three periods, and had a 7-1 edge in the eight-minute first overtime. At that, the only shot Hastings got in the first extra session was from center ice, while Martin led three or four Elk attacks.
Klein made a big, sprawling save at one point and Plude’s rebound hit his leg pad.
State title more than just hockey to Roseau
In groups and by themselves, Roseau’s hockey players headed for the dressing room late Saturday night, and coach Bruce Olson finished the last television interview and also disappeared. But Rams captain Phillip Larson stayed out on that chewed up Target Center ice, willling to keep talking, and also anxious to take his time, as if he wanted to absorb every last vibe of Roseau’s sixth state championship.
Beating Hastings 4-0 in the final game meant a rallying point for a new era in Roseau hockey, and it meant something special to the town itself.
Bernie and Nancy Burggraf, back in Roseau, missed this tournament, which is rare. It is unheard of for the Burggrafs to miss a tournament with Roseau involved. Bernie used to be mayor of Roseau, while his wife, Nancy, taught power-skating to every Roseau hockey player for the last 20 or so years and captured her skill on videos that remain in demand.
In the past year, Nancy has slowed down, but not by choice. She learned she has Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis(ALS) — Lou Gehrig’s disease — which causes deterioration of nerves that control muscular functions, and she has been helpless to stop its irreversible toll. It cannot be treated, although life expectancy can vary. Nancy lost the ability to speak several months ago, and these days she must be fed intravenously. She was moved into Roseau Area Hospital before the tournament.
“I had a chance to fly down for the games, and I was going to,” said Bernie, the town’s former mayor, during a telephone call just before the tournament. “But Nancy and I have never done anything separately, so I stayed home with Nancy. She’s alert, and in no pain.
“On Tuesday, a bouquet of flowers came to the hospital for Nancy,” Bernie added. “It was from the Roseau team, and the card said: ‘We miss you, we love you, and we’re going to win the championship for you.’ Tears rolled down her face when she saw that.”
When the Rams completed their title game victory, they piled up and danced in celebration. Then they got together in front of the television cameras, and as they held their trophy high, they shouted, in unison: “One, two three…Nancy, we love you. This is for you.”
“She taught us all our skating skills, from the time we were 8 or 9,” said Phillip Larson. “We didn’t even like it at that age; we didn’t know what she was doing for us. But we dedicated the tournament to Nancy.”
The blue ribbon with the gold medal was hanging around his neck, and Larson captured what the championship meant to him, personally.
“The thought of this has consumed me since I was 8, when I was sitting in section 234 of the old Civic Center, watching Billy Lund pick up the trophy,” said Larson, recallling the 1990 championship, the most recent of Roseau’s five previous titles. The others were in 1946, 1958, 1959 and 1961. “I’m sick and tired of looking at all the banners in Roseau that we had nothing to do with.
“When the last seconds were ticking off, I broke down on the bench. This is for my dad, my mom, Roseau…everybody.”
The Rams had polished off Rochester Mayo in a tough 2-0 opener, then cruised past Holy Angels 6-2 in the semifinals, in what was a lopsided enough game that coach Olson could play his fourth line some, keeping everybody fresh for the final. Hastings, meanwhile, had miraculously escaped from Blaine in a 7-6 opener that required two last-minute goals by Dan Welch, including the winner with the clock showing “0:00.2,” then had to survive two overtimes to overcome Elk River 2-1 in the semifinals.
Still, Hastings, a team that depends on first linemates Dan Welch and Jeff Taffe for most of its scoring, stormed out and fired the games first seven shots, meaning goaltender Jake Brandt had to be solid before Roseau could begin to function.
“Hastings came at us hard at the start,” said Larson, a senior winger whose leadership capacity has been exemplified by this being his second year as captain. “After a few minutes of the first period, I looked up at the shot board and saw it was 7-0 for them. They were pinching down from the points on our wings to keep the puck in our end. We looked at each other on the bench and we knew, that as good as they were, we had to get settled down and start playing our game.
“When we finally got our first shot on goal, you could feel it on the bench, and in our hearts.”
There was no panic when the Rams were outshot 7-0 in the early going.
“I knew they’d come out really rockin,’ ” said Roseau coach Olson. “I was hoping we could weather that and keep going. They were really coming at us with speed, and I told our guys the game would be won in our end. Jake was fantastic in goal.”
Josh Olson scored at 6:40 of the second period, and David Klema scored after first poking the rebound free from the crease at 8:03. In the third period, Mike Klema scored a power-play goal at 1:27, and Matt Erickson glanced one in off the goaltender at 5:24. Fittingly, four different players scored. Teamwork till the end.
The Rams had a modest 25 shots, but limited Hastings to 19 shots. That meant after yielding the first seven shots of the game, the Rams outshot the Raiders 25-12.
Coach Olson, who ignored checking tactics to simply rotate three lines regularly, said: “You have to have a team. You can always shut down people.”
Phillip Larson said the superior individual achievements of Hastings or Elk River were impressive, but had limitations. “Every team here has skill, and you can get through a season with one or two lines,” Larson said. “But once you’re here, hard work and teamwork can make the difference.”
About then, some Target Center maintenance crew members walked onto the ice surface and asked Larson to leave, so they could get to work covering the ice and preparing the arena for Sunday night’s Alanis Morrisette concert.
Larson nodded and skated, slowly, toward the exit. But you could tell he didn’t want to leave.
CC ends Gopher puck season, 7-4
MINNEAPOLIS, MN.—
The University of Minnesota’s hockey season ended artistically in Friday night’s semifinals, and ended in fact Saturday afternoon in a 7-4 loss to Colorado College in the WCHA third-place game.
The Tigers (28-11-1) already were certain to be among the NCAA tournament’s 12-team field, which will be selected today, while the Gophers (15-19-9) knew they had to win the Final Five for the automatice berth in order to advance to the NCAA.
“A lot of people didn’t think this game meant much,” said CC coach Don Lucia, a native of Grand Rapids. “But while we didn’t need to win this game to make the NCAA, I think winning this game makes us 13-3 in our last 16 games, and might get us a higher seed. Ideally, I’d like to see us get the No. 3 seed in the West, because we’d prefer to play on the Olympic sheet at Madison.
“We had a little extra incentive today, because while most people may think Denver is our biggest rival, it’s actually Minnesota, because we have so many players from here,” added Lucia, whose Tigers now have beaten the Gophers nine straight times. “We’ve won the third-place trophy here four years in a row, but the bottom line now is that we have to win two games to get to Anaheim.”
The Gophers battled from a 3-1 deficit to gain a 3-3 tie on Dave Spehar’s power-play goal at 5:19 of the second period. But Justin Morrison scored at 6:06, and the Tigers followed up with goals by Cam Kryway and Jesse Heerema in a 1:02 span later in the middle period.
Morrison, a sophomore from Los Angeles, wound up with his first collegiate hat trick, getting a goal in the first minute of the second period, and ending the game with an empty-netter with 30 seconds to go. He is particularly excited about the Tigers winning at the NCAA regional and making the final four, because the finals are in Anaheim.
“I played two years of hockey in Anaheim, so it’d be a big thing to play before friends and family,” said Morrison. “It’d be humungous. I was hoping to get an empty-net goal, since I blew a breakaway a couple minutes before.”
The Tigers took a 2-1 first-period lead with goals by Scott Swanson and Mike Stuart sandwiching one by Minnesota’s Johnny Pohl. All three were on power plays. After Morrison’s goal at 0:43 of the second, Gopher senior Mike Anderson countered for the Gophers, then Spehar connected with a quick reaction to a rebound at the left edge. But Morrison, Kryway and Heerema made it 6-3 at the second intermission.
Aaron Miskovich, from Grand Rapids, flew up the left side and scored with a beautiful goal-mouth pass from Erik Westrum on a 2-on-1 power-play rush at 9:30 of the third period.
But Robbie LaRue kept the Tigers from running up any more goals. LaRue, the 6-4 freshman football and baseball player from Wayzata, who volunteered to try out in midseason and back up freshman Adam Hauser in goal, made 20 saves in the second-half relief job for Hauser.
“One, he needed to get some measurement for himself,” said Woog. “Two, he needed to be thanked for the job he’s done for us. And three, he just needed to play. I don’t know of any player who filled a more positive role for us than Robbie.”
Woog said he was encouraged by seeing some of his younger players, like Pohl and Miskovich, step up to show they could become offensive leaders in the future. “I thought Miskovich showed some real progress,” said Woog. “And David Spehar played pretty damn well. We need more than 12 goals from him, because we’ve got to replace the 43 goals Wyatt Smith and Reggie Berg scored for us as seniors.”
Someone asked Woog if, after all the turmoil in Minnesota’s athletic department, he expected to be back next season, and Woog paused before answering: “How do I say this…Yes.”
GOPHERS LOSS TO
SIOUX ENDED HOPE
In North Dakota’s late-Friday semifinal victory over Minnesota, the Sioux showed why they are the No. 1 ranked team in the nation. The Sioux were quicker, executed better and used their speed offensively and defensively to stifle the Gophers, who saw their last hopes of an NCAA bid, at reaching .500, and at extending a 3-game win streak all extinguished.
The Sioux gunners were all impressive in that semifinal Friday night: Jason Blake got his 28th goal after only 1:06 of the first period, Jeff Panzer scored twice, and Jason Ulmer, Brad DeFauw and Brad Williamson added one each. The Gophers got power-play goals from Erik Wendell and Reggie Berg.
The Gophers outshot the Sioux 42-40, but the disappointing crowd of only 11,311 at Target Center knew from the outset that the Sioux were dictating the tempo. Gopher coach Doug Woog said he didn’t think the first goal meant that much, “because there still was so much game to play,” but North Dakota coach Dean Blais, from International Falls, said he thought the early goal was the biggest factor in sending the game North Dakota’s way.
“When we won the NCAA tournament two years ago, I had a checking line that we used against the other team’s top lines, and in seven playoff games that line scored eight goals and gave up none,” said Blais. “We’re trying to do that again this year. I put our third line, of DeFauw, Adam Calder and Peter Armbrust on Minnesota’s line of Wyatt Smith, Reggie Berg and Mike Anderson. We stopped them, and that left our first and second lines playing against their second and third lines all night.”
As it turned out, all four Sioux lines scored in the game. Equally important was that former Duluth East star Spehar had just broken through for his first two equal-strength goals and an assist in Thursday’s victory over St. Cloud State, and he was on a line with Aaron Miskovich and Rico Pagel. But when the Gophers took four penalties in the first period, Miskovich was used as a primary penalty-killer, and Spehar got out on only one normal shift in the first period. Spehar assisted on both Gopher goals during power plays.
“We had a hard time finding anybody who played their ‘A’ game tonight,” said Woog. “It was very disappointing, but we took some dumb penalties and didn’t give ourselves a chance to win.”
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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