Denver comeback swipes WCHA playoff title from Sioux
MINNEAPOLIS, MN.
Shawn Kurulak, a big, senior defenseman who hadn’t scored a single goal all season, ventured into unknown territory early in the third period and shoveled a backhander from wide to the left of the net that glanced into the North Dakota goal and gave Denver a 4-3 victory in the WCHA playoff championship game.
It was quite a surprising result for the predominately Sioux crowd of 8,445 at Target Center, mainly because the winning goal capped a comeback from a 3-1 deficit, but it shouldn’t have been a surprise anyway. The Pioneers (26-12-2) have won nine straight games since being swept — rudely — at North Dakota in a 7-3, 11-4 lost weekend.
The nine straight victories is the best current streak in the nation, and it propelled the Pioneers to third place in the WCHA, and this weekend they beat second-place Colorado College 3-2 in overtime and league champ North Dakota 4-3.
“I still don’t know what Shawn Kurulak was doing down by the goal,” said Denver coach George Gwozdecky. “But I’m glad he was there. With his skill, he would have been the last player I would have predicted to score that goal.”
When told of his coach’s statement, Kurulak feigned surprise.
“It was just a matter of time until I erupted offensively,” he said.
Sioux coach Dean Blais opened with the Adam Calder-centered checking line with Brad DeFauw and Peter Armbrust on the wings against Denver’s potent Paul Comrie-centered starting line. And, as has been the trend in recent years for Blais, such strategic moves usually pay off in more dividends than he plans, and the Sioux checking unit scored two goals.
“Denver played real well,” said Blais, whose team is now 32-5-2. “We were up 3-1 and they fought their way back. But I didn’t think we had the same intensity we had against Minnesota. When we’re intense, we’re a good hockey team. But when we’re loose at the pregame meal, and nothing happens to change that before the game, something is wrong.
“We don’t accept losing easily, and it hasn’t happened much this year.”
Calder burst up the middle for a pass from defenseman Aaron Schneekloth, and when Stephen Wagner blocked his shot, he had no chance on former Edina star Armbrust’s quick work with the rebound from the right side for the game’s first goal.
North Dakota outshot Denver 8-0 in the opening minutes, but Wagner stopped David Hoogsteen’s break-in just before the first goal, and the Pioneers got over the early storm to outshoot the Sioux 12-3 the rest of the period.
Former Apple Valley ace Karl Goehring came up with all the saves except one, on Comrie, during a power play at 9:54. Comrie looped up the slot just in time to find the rebound from James Patterson’s shot.
The Sioux almost got lucky late in the period, when Hoogsteen fired a 50-footer that beat Wagner but glanced off the left pipe. But Jeff Ulmer came back to put the Sioux in front 2-1 when he redirected Brad Williamson’s shot from center point at 17:43.
The checking line connected again at 5:57 of the second period, when Armbrust’s pass sprung Calder, speeding across center-ice, and his perfect pass put DeFauw, the 6-3, 210-pound Apple Valley star, a step beyond the defense. Veering from left wing toward the net, DeFauw pulled the puck back as he crossed the goal-mouth, and tucked a backhand around the sprawling Wagner.
The 3-1 lead looked pretty secure, based on the Sioux domination of Denver. The Sioux had swept all four games last season and this against Denver, but this time the Pioneers got right back into the game.
Paul Veres, the overtime scorer in Friday night’s victory over Colorado College, got behind the defense at the far blue line to catch a 75-foot pass from Jesse Cook and break free, beating Goehring with a shot to the right edge for a power-play goal at 8:01.
Bjorn Engstrom made a key play on the equalizer, stepping in after winning a right-corner faceoff and getting off a tough shot. Goehring blocked it, but had no chance on Joe Ritson’s straight-on rebound at 14:35. That sent the game into the third period tied 3-3, but the Pioneer rally wasn’t completed yet.
Denver 1 2 1–4
North Dakota 2 1 0–3
First Period: 1. ND–Armbrust 6 (Calder, Schneekloth) 3:36. 1. DU–Comrie 18 (Patterson, Popadynetz) 9:54, Power play. 2. ND–Jeff Ulmer 16 (Williamson, Blake) 17:43.
Second Period: 3. ND–DeFauw 11 (Calder, Armbrust) 5:57. 2. DU–Veres 7 (Cook, Wagner) 8:01, PP. 3. DU–Ritson 7 (Engstrom) 14:35.
Third Period: 4. DU–Kurulak 1 (Ritson) 4:46.
Saves: Wagner, DU 9 12 12–33; Goehring, ND 11 12 5–28. Power plays: Denver 2-2, North Dakota 0-4. Referee–Schmitt; linesmen–Campion, D. Shepherd. Attendance–8,445.
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.”
Fighting Sioux storm past Gophers 6-2
MINNEAPOLIS, MN.—
After Minnesota had beaten St. Cloud State on Thursday, Gopher coach Doug Woog was asked about playing WCHA champion North Dakota in Friday night’s semifinals. He seized the opportunity for a set-up, and said North Dakota obviously was the superior team, that the Sioux should be overwhelming favorite, and that he might try to borrow a few key players from Colorado College, in hopes of making it competitive.
It was pretty good theater, from Woog, and the assembled media all laughed at the right places. Trouble was, he turned out to be right. The highly-skilled Fighting Sioux were clever and precise in moving the puck and used their amazing quickness both offensively and defensively as they sytematically whipped the Gophers 6-2 to gain tonight’s playoff championship game against Denver.
While the Sioux (32-4-2) try to add the Broadmoor Cup to their regular-season MacNaughton Cup, the Gophers (15-18-9), shorn of their first three-game winning streak of the season, and their last hope to reach .500 or the NCAA tournament, will face Colorado College in today’s 2 p.m. third-place game at Target Center.
Just in case there were any skeptics who disputed Jason Blake being named the WCHA’s player of the year, they were silenced forever when North Dakota’s sensational centerman scored a spectacular goal barely a minute into the game. That may have been bad for Minnesota, but things got worse as Blake shared the Fighting Sioux wealth of scoring.
In their spirited 5-3 victory over St. Cloud State on Thursday night, the Gophers were inspired by two things — a goal by Wyatt Smith after only nine seconds, and two goals and an assist by Dave Spehar. But in Friday’s game, it was North Dakota that got the early goal, when Blake scored at 1:06.
The 5-10 senior and Hobey Baker finalist from Moorhead caught a pass from David Hoogsteen while racing up the left side. With one defender falling back, the light-footed Blake pivoted a half-turn to the inside. Did he partially lose control? Was he looking for a potential pass-receiver? Or was he just trying to baffle the Gophers? Whatever, he actually skated sideways into the left faceoff circle, then straightened out and snapped a wrist shot into the short side on goalie Adam Hauser.
Blake’s 28th goal was followed by Jeff Panzer’s instantaneous rebound goal from the right side at 12:07, after his brother, Jay Panzer, had made a good move coming straight on to get clear for a shot that Hauser blocked. The Sioux outshot the Gophers 19-10 in the first period, although the Gophers came back to outshoot the Sioux 37-21 the rest of the way, for a 42-40 edge, but Sioux goaltender Karl Goehring was in control throughout.
Incomprehensibly, Spehar’s hot hand had time to cool off when he rarely touched the ice in the first period. The Gophers had four penalties to kill in the first session, and since Spehar was on a line with mercurial Aaron Miskovich, who doubled by killing penalties, the full line, and Spehar, played only a couple shifts. Spehar, in turn, got to play on power plays, where he set up the first Gopher goal, by Erik Wendell, and assisted on Reggie Berg’s second Gopher goal.
But those goals only served to close the deficit to 3-1 and 4-2, as the Sioux cruised to a 6-2 lead by the second intermission.
The Sioux built the lead to 3-0 when Jeff Panzer knocked in David Hoogsteen’s power-play pass to open the second period. After Spehar’s pass gave Wendell his one-timer from the crease to make it 3-1, Jason Ulmer backhanded Mike Commodore’s rebound up into the roof of the net at 5:41 to make it 4-1.
Berg’s power-play goal came at 12:05, but Brad DeFauw scored for the Sioux with Jesse Bull’s power-play set-up at 13:16. Brad Williamson ended the action-filled second period by moving in from left point to take Hoogsteen’s pass from the right boards for the third Sioux power-play goal of the period.
The 6-2 lead was sufficient, certainly. But in the scoreless third period, the Sioux showed great discipline when things got nasty, and even when Goehring was bumped into repeatedly in his crease. Still, the Sioux wound up two men short for a 1:11 stretch at one point, but seemed to seize upon that as an opportunity to show their defensive grit.
Francisco leads ‘Southern’ team to Great 8 title
At first, Jon Francisco, Jay Dardis and J.R. Bradley, Up North guys, weren’t too excited about playing with the Twin Cities players in the “Great Eight” hockey tournament for seniors. But when it was all over, and the combined team from Section 3AA and 2A had won the statewide championship, it wasn’t so bad.
Several pro and college scouts among the gathered multitude at Schwan’s SuperRink in Blaine and Columbia Arena where the final game was held, insisted that Francisco was the top performer in the three-day tournament.
In the final game, playing the team from Sections 4AA and 4A, the 3AA/2A team was behind 2-1 after two periods, but Francisco scored his second goal amid a three-goal third-period rally and the 3AA/2A team captured the championship game 4-2.
For the three games, Francisco, Hermantown’s star center, had five goals and three assists for a tournament-leading eight points.
“It was really a lot of fun,” Francisco said, after the game. “At first, I wasn’t too happy being on the southern team. But the team bonded real well.”
Co-coaches of the team, which had several players from both Hill-Murray and Roseville, were Bruce Plante of Hermantown and Bill Lechner of Hill-Murray, both of whom coached their teams to the state tournament, only to lose in first-round games. They made up for it with the statewide all-star tournament.
“I thought Jon was the best player in the tournament,” said Plante. “He got eight points, and he was only on the ice for one goal against. What he did was impressive, but he also did it at high speed. J.R. was only on for one against, too. He’s just starting to get there, and with a year of junior, I think he can play college hockey.”
Bradley, a 6-3 Hermantown defenseman, has no available offers to play junior, although some might be forthcoming off the tournament. Francisco and Dardis, who is from Proctor, both have commitments to college, Francisco to UMD and Dardis to St. Cloud State. Francisco and Dardis both expect to play a year of junior hockey.
“I’m going to play at Waterloo next year, and then go to St. Cloud,” said Dardis, who recorded only one assist in the tournament, but, he said, “I hit about seven pipes.”
Francisco was more flexible.
“I’ve signed a tender to play at Omaha,” Francisco said. “UMD’s coaches told me they’d like me to play a year or maybe two down there, but if they wanted me to come to school right now, that would be fine as well.
“There are a lot of different things to consider at this point. If I could play at UMD right away, that would be great, but Omaha is a great place to play, and if I go there, it might help me be more of an impact player as a freshman.”
Based on Francisco’s play in both the CCM Iron Range-Duluth area all-star game and the Great Eight tournament, however, indicate he might be an impact player right now, too.
UMD loses only three seniors — goaltender Tony Gasparini, defenseman Bert Gilling, and forward Curtis Bois. With several recruits already committed, the question is how many scholarships are available in the fall. The Bulldogs have a large need to find some goal-scoring punch, and Francisco’s post-season play has put his potential on display.
TOURNAMENT NOTES: The SuperRink has four Olympic-width ice sheets fanned out for a central gathering place. Four games can be conducted simultaneously…Former Greenway of Coleraine goaltender Frank Serratore, now head coach at Air Force Academy, got a commitment from Stillwater’s Andy Berg at the tournament.
The Section 7AA/7A team was loaded with talent and coached by Elk River’s Tony Sarsland and Silver Bay’s Mike Guzzo, twice lost after building 3-0 leads…The Section 8AA/8A team was co-coached by Roseau’s Bruce Olson and Warroad’s Cary Eades. “Can you believe we’re not only coaching together, but rooming together, too?” asked Eades, joking about the long-standing rivalry that is unexcelled in state high school ranks and carries far beyond hockey. The 8AA/8A team won two games and lost one.
Officials of Minnesota Hockey (formerly known as Minnesota Amateur Hockey Association, or MAHA) Ted Brill and Dave Hendrickson will choose a team from the uncommitted seniors on the eight teams to participate in a nationwide high school tournament in Chicago. The Minnesota team won the tournament last year.
UND, CC, Denver all have shots at NCAA finals
The NCAA hockey tournament field is set, and there are no surprises: The CCHA got four teams in, and the ECAC got only two. That’s no surprise, because every year, even though all four major NCAA conferences appear to be quite even, the ECAC gets shafted when it comes to the NCAA tournament.
At Madison’s Dane County Coliseum, North Dakota is No. 1 seed, and will play the winner between Northern Michigan and Boston College and Northern Michigan; Michigan State is the No. 2 seed, and will play the winner of Colorado College vs. St. Lawrence. At Worcester, New Hampshire is seeded No. 1 and faces the winner between Denver and Michigan; Clarkson is No. 2 seed and plays the winner of the Maine-Ohio State game.
Good match-ups, all. No quarrel there.
But this was a breakthrough year for the ECAC. In most seasons, the ECAC starts later and its teams usually lose early games to teams from conferences that start a couple weeks earlier. But this season, St. Lawrence and then Princeton came out West and smacked Minnesota, while Colgate came out and beat UMD 5-4 and 2-1. Clarkson, St. Lawrence, RPI, Colgate and Princeton were all capable of competing with anybody, but only Clarkson and St. Lawrence got picked.
North Dakota and Colorado College the class of the league although CC dropped off the pace when it ran into serious injury trouble, and Denver came on strong at the end to finish third. Hockey East had UNH, Maine and Boston College at the top. The CCHA had Michigan State, and then a scramble that included Northern Michigan, Ohio State and Notre Dame. But that scramble doesn’t mean the CCHA teams deserve four teams to bump the ECAC down to two. I like both Ohio State and Northern Michigan, but pick one.
The criteria are constantly adjusted to update the power ratings, but they still can be skewed toward one conference, such as the CCHA. If the information fed into the computer might indicate that its teams are stronger, for whatever reason, then all teams in that league would benefit in strength of schedule and in opponents’ strength of schedule. The fairest way would be to start out assuming all four conferences are equal, and only an extreme case should prevent three teams from each league in the tournament.
As it is, the WCHA has a good chance to get a couple teams to Anaheim for the final four. North Dakota should beat Boston College for one spot, and Colorado College could beat St. Lawrence and then have a good chance to beat defense-minded Michigan State for another. Denver, the hottest team in the country, has the tough road — having to knock out defending NCAA champ Michigan and then Hockey East champ New Hampshire. In the fourth bracket, I like Maine to beat Ohio State and have a great game against Clarkson to gain the fourth spot.
In other NCAA tournament news:
* North Dakota coach Dean Blais kept his mind on hockey last weekend, even though he also met with North Dakota benefactor Ralph Engelstad, the former Sioux player from Thief River Falls who is now a multi-millionaire in Las Vegas and recently gave his alma mater $100 million, half to build a new arena and half to the school’s other needs. They huddled after Friday night’s 6-2 Sioux victory over Minnesota in the semifinals, and while no official word was forthcoming, best estimates might be that Blais, an International Falls native, was offered a total package worth nearly $200,000 a year. Speculation is that terms of the contract are for five years, but could contain a rollover clause that renews itself to always stay at a five-year arrangement.
* The most intriguing rumor in college hockey is that people aligned with Minnesota have extended feelers to Blais and Colorado College coach Don Lucia to see if they’d be interested if Minnesota decided to dismiss coach Doug Woog. The juicy part of that rumor is that the contacts supposedly were made before athletic director Mark Dienhart was quoted in a Twin Cities newspaper saying that other schools would be scouting around for potential replacements, but that Minnesota hadn’t done that, out of respect for Woog.
* Denver won the WCHA Final Five and who can question the Pioneers merit? They are on the nation’s longest win streak, at nine, they finished third in the league, and they knocked off No. 2 CC and No. 1 North Dakota in the tournament. At that, they had to come from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Fighting Sioux 4-3 in the final.
* Beware North Dakota and CC in the NCAA, however. The Sioux played without 25-goal scorer Lee Goren, who will play this week after being given an extra week to recover from a serious skate cut. And CC’s injuries have had an extra chance to heal, which means Superior’s Darren Clark (broken arm) could be ready to go, and Jon Austin (sprained ankle) also should be 100 percent. That would leave only Toby Petersen (broken leg) out.
* The WCHA Final Five ended with a big day for Colorado teams, with Denver winning the final and Colorado College beating Minnesota in the third-place game.
* The WCHA Final Five all-tournament team had goalie and most valuable player Stephen Wagner from Denver; defensemen Erik Westrum from Minnesota and Joe Ritson of Denver; and forwards Justin Morrison of Colorado College, Jeff Panzer of North Dakota, and Paul Veres of Denver. Interestingly enough, Gopher forwards Dave Spehar of Duluth East and Reggie Berg of Anoka were left off the team, even though they led the tournament in scoring with three goals and three assists each. After Spehar got two goals and an assist in the 5-3 victory over St. Cloud State, his line got very little ice time in the 6-2 loss to Colorado College in the semifinals because linemate Aaron Miskovich was used on the frequent penalty kills, yet Spehar assisted on both goals, then added another goal in the 7-4 loss to Colorado College in the third-place game. Berg had two goals and two assists in the first game, got his 20th goal in the second, and added an assist in the third. Westrum appeared to be a token pick for the Gophers, after getting four assists, all on power plays, and three of them in the 7-4 loss. Westrum played quite well, but it’s rare to see a defenseman picked from a team that gave up 13 goals in the last two tournament games, while CC’s Scott Swanson — the best defenseman in the country — was also left off the team.
* MSC is going to carry the games from both NCAA regional sites. The Gopher-oriented cable channel had to do some fancy stepping last weekend, starting out with the announcement it would do all Gopher games, plus the championship game. When the Gophers lost in the semifinals, however, MSC pulled the plug on doing the third-place game. But with the Worcester games Friday and Saturday, and the Madison games Saturday and Sunday, college puck fans should get their fill.
* Word is that Shawn Roed, a Gopher recruit from the Twin Cities Vulcans, should be rested and ready to join the club next fall. The Vulcans had to win one of their last two games to qualify for the USHL playoffs, but they had to play the weekend without Roed, who reportedly skipped the games to go to Mexico on a family vacation.
* Best quote of the Final Five came from Denver defenseman Shawn Kurulak, who scored the winning goal for Denver in the 4-3 title game, and it was his first goal of the season. Coach George Gwozdecky said he would have been the last player he picked to score the goal. Kurulak, apprised of that, said: “It was just a matter of time till I erupted offensively.”
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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