CC ends UMD’s season 5-4 in overtime
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.
Brian Swanson, Colorado College’s scoring leader and a prime Hobey Baker candidate, broke away on an end-to-end play and scored at 6:17 of sudden-death overtime Saturday night, to give the Tigers a heart-stopping 5-4 victory over UMD before 7,089 fans at the World Arena.
The victory gave CC a sweep of the first-round WCHA playoff series in two games, and propels the Tigers into this week’s WCHA Final Five at Target Center. It also ended the season for the Bulldogs, but they refused to go down without one last, valiant fight.
When the Bulldogs trailed 4-2 with only seven minutes left, it might have seemed like a merciful end to an exasperating season. After all, UMD (7-27-4) was last in the WCHA, while CC (27-10-1) is the WCHA’s second-place team.
But the Bulldogs stubbornly refused to let their season go, and freshman Andy Reierson scored with 6:40 remaining to make it 4-2, and sophomore Jesse Fibiger scored with goaltender Brant Nicklin pulled with another shot from the blue line with only 42 seconds remaining, to send the game into overtime.
For Colorado College, the game had taken a sour turn midway through the second period, when junior star Toby Petersen — who had just recovered from a broke right ankle — got twisted up and fell heavily, and was taken from the ice by stretcher with a reported broken left leg.
The Tigers establishied their offense in the first nine minutes, benefitting from two power plays to outshoot UMD 10-1. At 10:15 of the first period, Mike Stuart threw the puck in front, and Jon Austin shot quickly. Nicklin blocked it, going down, and Justin Morrison chipped a backhander over the fallen goalie for a 1-0 lead.
At 10:58, with the injured Darren Clark watching from the stands, his freshman brother, Trent Clark, carried the puck in from the left corner. UMD’s Shawn Pogreba was all over him, but Clark, from Superior, battled the check until he got to the crease, then slid his shot just inside the left post. With the two goals in 43 seconds, it was the seventh time that CC had scored twice within a minute this season.
The Bulldogs countered at 3:01 of the second period, when Nate Anderson rushed up the left side and slid a pass to Ryan Nosan, who shot into the lower left edge to cut the deficit to 2-1.
At 7:20 of the middle period, Petersen went down with the tragic end to his season, and at 9:00 the Tigers made it 3-1 when Nicklin stopped Scott Swanson’s shot but Cam Kryway smacked in the rebound at the right edge.
That 3-1 deficit looked pretty steep for a UMD team that had settled for scoring either one goal, or less, 13 times this season. But before the period ended, the ‘Dogs made sure this wouldn’t be No. 14.
While killing a penalty, Colin Anderson knocked Brian Swanson down as he tried to score on a rebound at the UMD net, then skated up the left side. When he got within range, Anderson faked a slapshot and slid a pass to the slot, which Jeff Scissons one-timed, and sent into the lower left at 17:16.
That shorthanded goal gave the Bulldogs hope for the third period, but an interference penalty on Nosan with 13 seconds to go in the second period left the Tigers on a power play to open the third, and Scott Swanson scored from center point at 0:58 with a screened shot into the lower left corner.
The Bulldogs survived a later CC power play, and got one of their own that paid off at 13:20, when Andy Reierson scored with a screened shot from the right point that caught the lower left corner.
That again brought the ‘Dogs back within one goal, but a penalty on Mark Gunderson with 2:09 left seemed to doom the ‘Dogs. However, referee Tom Goddard bounced back with a tripping call on CC’s Mark Cullen with 46 seconds left, and UMD took time out. Coach Mike Sertich diagramed what might have been the last chance, and the play took only four seconds, with Scissons pulling a right-corner draw straight back and Fibiger whistling his screened shot past Sanger.
And the Bulldogs, stubborn to relinquish their chance to play, got to overtime.
Spartans swipe final four berth from CC, 4-3
MADISON, WIS.—
Michigan State scored a controversial power-play goal with 1:40 remaining Sunday afternoon, then scored again 32 seconds later to beat Colorado College 4-3 in the first West Regional quarterfinal at Dane County Coliseum, to snatch a berth in the NCAA hockey final four.
Michigan State (29-5-7) will face New Hampshire in Thursday’s semifinals, a reward that seemed only justified for Colorado College to achieve, after a season of catastrophic injuries such as broken legs, broken arms, broken tailbones, and assorted major surgeries.
But after surviving all the adversity, the Tigers (29-12-1) were ultimately brought down by a few simple toots on a whistle. Referee Tim Benedetto didn’t beat the Tigers singlehandedly, although his whistle-tooting could have passed for an audition with Michigan State’s lively pep band. The selective nature of his calls, however, took the best drama of the day out of the hands of the players.
Andrew Hutchinson tied the game 3-3 with a power-play goal from the right point at 18:20. And Adam Hall broke in on the left side and fired a shot that goaltender Jeff Sanger blocked with his glove, only to have the puck pop up high and land behind him, where it trickled in at the right edge at 18:52.
The crucial power-play goal occured when Benedetto, a motorcyle policemen from Everett, Mass., called the fifth interference penalty of the game on the Tigers, sending Paul Johnson to the box at 16:59. For the game, CC was penalized nine times to Michigan State’s seven, which isn’t a big difference. But the fact that the Tigers, a small, swift-skating, finesse team, would get five interference penalties to none for a Michigan State team that is skilled but committed numerous acts of what looked like interference — including on the game-tying goal — was at best curious, even if purely coincidental.
On a corner faceoff during that power play, the Spartans got the puck back to the right point where Hutchinson wound up to shoot, as a BC forward shoved CC defenseman Dan Peters into his own crease in front of Sanger, who never saw the screened shot that went in.
“I got pushed into the crease, and I know Jeff couldn’t see it to save it,” said Peters, a junior from Cottage Grove.
That, of course, would also qualify as interference, but the Spartans seemed to be immune to that call, even though Benedetto, at the urging of his linesmen, called to have the goal verified on video replay. They could only look for any MSU players in the crease, however, not for MSU players pushing CC players in.
“As much as refs don’t like to call penalties late in the game, he did it today, and we were fortunate enough to get a power-play goal on it,” said Michigan State coach Ron Mason. “Then he gave them a chance with a later call.”
True, after Hall’s tie-breaking goal, and with Sanger on the bench for a last-minute attack, Benedetto called a meaningless call on Michigan State with 28 seconds left.
The distasteful finish ended a fiercely fought game. The rested Spartans, who had the No. 2 bye in the West, jumped ahead 1-0 on Joe Goodenow’s goal at 1:56 of the first period. Spartan star Mike York was penalized for a heavy check from behind when K.J. Voorhees tied it on the rebound of Jesse Heerema’s shot off the crossbar at 14:43.
Cam Kryway scored on an alert play in the second period after goalie Joe Blackburn dived to poke-check the puck against Heerema but couldn’t recover to guard the open net, and the Tigers held the 2-1 lead into the third period. Another disputed penalty to the Tigers helped Adam Hall backhand in a rebound for a Spartan power-play goal at 9:14, but the Tigers immediately responded to the lost lead by reclaiming it at 3-2, as Trent Clark, a freshman from Superior, broke up the right side and blasted a 40-footer that slid through after Blackburn partially blocked it.
That set up the final, cruel twists. When it was over, CC coach Don Lucia made sure his players held their frustration inside. “I’m really proud of out players to go through what we’ve had to go through to get here,” said Lucia, taking the high road and refusing to comment about the officiating.
Scott Swanson, a senior all-WCHA defenseman from Cottage Grove, said: “There were some other factors involved. We’ve had injuries, and we haven’t gotten key bounces or calls all year. Today, we feel we deserved a little better than what we got.”
Cruel ending typified UMD’s hockey season
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.
Four seconds, no more. In the span of four seconds, all the high hopes, moderate hopes and teeny little hopes that the UMD hockey team had conjured this season were manifested into a final, cruel ending.
Maybe the season of hard work and torment couldn’t have ended any other way. The Bulldogs lost a 3-1, open-net first game of the WCHA playoff series, then rallied for goals by Andy Reierson with 6:40 to play and by Jesse Fibiger with 42 seconds left to gain an improbable 4-4 tie. But the last-place Bulldogs fell 5-4 on Scott Swanson’s overtime goal in Saturday night’s second game.
The celebration was tempered for the Tigers, who had lost star junior Toby Petersen with two broken bones in his left leg, both the tibia and fibula, in a second-period incident where he was caught between two players. His skate edge apparently was set, and the bones snapped, just above the skate boot. The incredible part is that Petersen had missed 17 games with a broken ankle on the other leg earlier this season.
That is a serious jolt to the Tigers hopes of an NCAA title, or even a WCHA Final Five crown this week, but at least the Tigers will be going on. CC coach Don Lucia and several of his players insisted they can’t believe UMD finished last in the WCHA (4-20-4) and won only seven games all season (7-26-4), because the ‘Dogs played so ferociously and skillfully in four straight games the past 10 days against CC, losing 4-3, 3-2, 3-1 and 5-4.
“We got our best effort out of everyone,” said UMD coach Mike Sertich. “They gave me everything they had; they emptied the tank. The way it ended just seemed to fit the whole season.”
The end came after about six minutes of overtime had elapsed.. Most of the 7,089 fans were brought to the edges of the palatial World Arena’s new seats when, after killing an amazingly questionable interference penalty, 75 feet behind the play, earlier in the overtime, UMD’s Ryan Homstol rushed up the right side, made a great move to beat a defender, then cut to the slot, with the puck on his forehand, all alone, to face CC’s freshman goaltender Jeff Sanger.
Homstol ripped a shot, and Sanger came up with his best save of the game, while sprawling to the ice. But a moment later, he made an even bigger one, blocking the rebound try of Jeff Scissons, who earlier had boosted his team-leading tally with his 18th goal, shorthanded.
“Before the overtime, I imagined that we were going to win, and I even thought I’d score the winner,” said Scissons, the top-scoring junior in the WCHA. “And then it happened, just the way it was supposed to, and I got the chance, with nobody even touching me. I’ve got to score that goal.”
But Sanger not only stopped Scissons’ try for his 31st save of the game, but he fed the puck straight out to freshman winger Jesse Heerema, which became the goalie’s fourth assist of the season — all on game-winners.
Brian Swanson, CC’s star senior and a prime Hobey Baker candidate, saw it all happen.
“I was coming back down the middle when Homstol made his move and went in alone,” said Swanson. “I thought, ‘It’s over,’ and thought about having to play a third game. Then I saw Sangie laying out after the save, and he got Jeff’s rebound, too. When he kicked the second one out, I was going to keep coming back, but I saw Jesse was going to get to it, so I took off up the middle.
“Jesse hit me with a pass, tape to tape.”
Four seconds. It wasn’t any more than that, and UMD’s near-certain victory had been swapped for the image of Brian Swanson, CC’s best scorer, flying across the blueline all alone, his bright yellow jersey fluttering in the wake of his speed. From 25 feet, maybe, he cut loose. He didn’t know why, he just did. And he got it all, sending a blur of a missile just over the glove of Brant Nicklin and into the top of the net at 6:17 of overtime.
“Usually I deke,” said Swanson. “In fact, I always deke. I don’t even know why I shot, but I’m glad I did.”
Nicklin, like Scissons, is never one to alibi, or even to accept any excuses made for him. Instead, he demands responsibility. “Yeah, it was a great shot,” he allowed. “But I saw our chances at the other end, and I saw the breakaway coming all the way. I just didn’t stop it.”
Nicklin did, however, stop 44 other CC shots for the night, giving him 81 saves for the two games. He held the Bulldogs in the game even when Justin Morrison and Superior’s Trent Clark scored for a 2-0 CC lead in the first period. After Ryan Nosan got one back with his first goal of the season for the Bulldogs, Cam Kryway scored on a rebound for a 3-1 lead.
The Scissons shorthanded goal cut it to 3-2, but Scott Swanson made it 4-2 on a screened power-play shot in the first minute of the third period. Maybe logic would have dictated that the Bulldogs just go quietly into summer vacation, but this UMD team has never quit, all season.
The goal by Reierson, from the right point, made it 4-3, and in the final minute, UMD coach Mike Sertich called timeout with 46 seconds remaining. He drew up a play for the right-corner faceoff, pulled Nicklin, and sent his troops back out. The faceoff was Scissons against Brian Swanson. And nothing went according to form.
“I was supposed to get the puck into the corner, and let Curtis Bois go in and muck it up,” said Scissons. “But when we lined up, I could see they were going to make it hard for Curtis to get to the corner.”
So Scissons crossed up the plan and instead beat Swanson cleanly on the draw, pulling it all the way back to the right point, where Fibiger immediately scored with a low slapshot, and 41.9 seconds showing on the clock.
“I’ve done fairly well on big draws, and that was the biggest,” said Swanson. “I was pretty upset at myself in the dressing room before the overtime.”
Lucia, breathing a big sigh of relief and still wondering how he can patch up enough players to take a run at the WCHA Final Five this weekend, was able to smile about that tying goal. “Brian just figured that since it was his last game ever at the World Arena,” Lucia said, “he’d make it a little more dramatic with an overtime goal.”
Boston College ends North Dakota season, 2-1
MADISON, WIS.—
Michigan State scored a controversial power-play goal with 1:40 remaining Sunday afternoon, then scored again 32 seconds later to beat Colorado College 4-3 in the first West Regional quarterfinal at Dane County Coliseum, to snatch a berth in the NCAA hockey final four.
Michigan State (29-5-7) will face New Hampshire in Thursday’s semifinals, a reward that seemed only justified for Colorado College to achieve, after a season of catastrophic injuries such as broken legs, broken arms, broken tailbones, and assorted major surgeries.
But after surviving all the adversity, the Tigers (29-12-1) were ultimately brought down by a few simple toots on a whistle. Referee Tim Benedetto didn’t beat the Tigers singlehandedly, although his whistle-tooting could have passed for an audition with Michigan State’s lively pep band. The selective nature of his calls, however, took the best drama of the day out of the hands of the players.
Andrew Hutchinson tied the game 3-3 with a power-play goal from the right point at 18:20. And Adam Hall broke in on the left side and fired a shot that goaltender Jeff Sanger blocked with his glove, only to have the puck pop up high and land behind him, where it trickled in at the right edge at 18:52.
The crucial power-play goal occured when Benedetto, a motorcyle policemen from Everett, Mass., called the fifth interference penalty of the game on the Tigers, sending Paul Johnson to the box at 16:59. For the game, CC was penalized nine times to Michigan State’s seven, which isn’t a big difference. But the fact that the Tigers, a small, swift-skating, finesse team, would get five interference penalties to none for a Michigan State team that is skilled but committed numerous acts of what looked like interference — including on the game-tying goal — was at best curious, even if purely coincidental.
On a corner faceoff during that power play, the Spartans got the puck back to the right point where Hutchinson wound up to shoot, as a BC forward shoved CC defenseman Dan Peters into his own crease in front of Sanger, who never saw the screened shot that went in.
“I got pushed into the crease, and I know Jeff couldn’t see it to save it,” said Peters, a junior from Cottage Grove.
That, of course, would also qualify as interference, but the Spartans seemed to be immune to that call, even though Benedetto, at the urging of his linesmen, called to have the goal verified on video replay. They could only look for any MSU players in the crease, however, not for MSU players pushing CC players in.
“As much as refs don’t like to call penalties late in the game, he did it today, and we were fortunate enough to get a power-play goal on it,” said Michigan State coach Ron Mason. “Then he gave them a chance with a later call.”
True, after Hall’s tie-breaking goal, and with Sanger on the bench for a last-minute attack, Benedetto called a meaningless call on Michigan State with 28 seconds left.
The distasteful finish ended a fiercely fought game. The rested Spartans, who had the No. 2 bye in the West, jumped ahead 1-0 on Joe Goodenow’s goal at 1:56 of the first period. Spartan star Mike York was penalized for a heavy check from behind when K.J. Voorhees tied it on the rebound of Jesse Heerema’s shot off the crossbar at 14:43.
Cam Kryway scored on an alert play in the second period after goalie Joe Blackburn dived to poke-check the puck against Heerema but couldn’t recover to guard the open net, and the Tigers held the 2-1 lead into the third period. Another disputed penalty to the Tigers helped Adam Hall backhand in a rebound for a Spartan power-play goal at 9:14, but the Tigers immediately responded to the lost lead by reclaiming it at 3-2, as Trent Clark, a freshman from Superior, broke up the right side and blasted a 40-footer that slid through after Blackburn partially blocked it.
That set up the final, cruel twists. When it was over, CC coach Don Lucia made sure his players held their frustration inside. “I’m really proud of out players to go through what we’ve had to go through to get here,” said Lucia, taking the high road and refusing to comment about the officiating.
Scott Swanson, a senior all-WCHA defenseman from Cottage Grove, said: “There were some other factors involved. We’ve had injuries, and we haven’t gotten key bounces or calls all year. Today, we feel we deserved a little better than what we got.”
Gophers-Huskies kick off wide-open WCHA Final Five
MINNEAPOLIS, MN.
There is no question that the University of North Dakota is the No. 1 college hockey team in the WCHA, because the Fighting Sioux also are No. 1 in the nation. However, that hardly guarantees success in the WCHA Final Five tournament, which runs Thursday through Saturday at Target Center.
UMD didn’t make it to this year’s Final Five, but there will still be a strong Up North flavor to the event.
In fact, because the Fighting Sioux, coached by International Falls native Dean Blais, are a cinch to make it to the NCAA’s 12-team tournament, which will be announced on Sunday, they might fall into the same trap as numerous previous league champs, who haven’t won the Broadmoor Cup as WCHA playoff champs because they lack the all-out incentive of some other teams. It almost struck the Sioux last weekend, when they were upset 3-2 in overtime by Minnesota State-Mankato, then rebounded to win 3-2 and romp 10-0 in the deciding game on Sunday.
The No. 2 favorite is Colorado College, which has never won the trophy named for its Broadmoor heritage, even though the Tigers were league champs three straight years right before North Dakota won its three straight titles. The Tigers would be a likely favorite, but they are without star junior Toby Petersen, who broke his left leg in Saturday’s 5-4 victory that ended UMD’s season.
Petersen, from Bloomington Jefferson, had missed 17 games earlier this season with a broken right ankle, and he apparently caught a skate which being bumped in an inconsequential-looking sandwich between two Bulldogs in the second period Saturday, and when he twisted, he broke both the tibia (large bone) and fibula (small bone) in his left leg. He had surgery Sunday morning, during which a rod was installed to stabilize the tibia, and a plate was fastened onto the fibula.
“These new skates are so rigid, they’re like ski boots,” said CC coach Don Lucia, a Grand Rapids native. “They give you great support, but when you’re hit or get twisted, something has to give, and it won’t be the skate.”
That puts Petersen out of the lineup, where he joins Darren Clark from Superior, the first-line winger he replaced after his previous injury. Clark was to have further x-rays on his broken arm this week. “I hope I can play by regionals,” he said.
Colorado College also is certain to be invited to the NCAA party, being ranked among the top half-dozen teams all season, and as high as second in the country. But the Tigers, after surviving UMD’s spirited challenge for 3-1 empty-net and 5-4 overtime victories, must play archrival Denver in Friday’s 2:05 p.m. semifinal, and CC split four regular-season games with DU, which reached the Final Five with 2-1 and 4-2 victories over Michigan Tech last weekend.
The toughest challenge at the Final Five will fall to Minnesota and St. Cloud State, which face off Thursday at 7:05 p.m. in the unique first game, between the teams seeded 4-5. Their winner must come right back and play rested and ready North Dakota in Friday’s 7:05 p.m. second semifinal.
Minnesota is trying to make up for a second straight sub-.500 season with an unusual twist. Amid continuing rumors that coach Doug Woog would be replaced, that issue has been put in the background by the current explosion from last week’s St. Paul Pioneer Press’s well-researched blockbuster story disclosing the scandal of as many as 20 basketball players having from 200-400 class papers written for them.
The focus on that has relieved some pressure on Woog, who had reportedly been informed that he needed to bring the Gophers in with a .500 record, get home ice for the playoffs, and make the Final Five. Ironically, with a number of players and their parents privately upset at their treatment by the coach, the players met on their own and created some unity of playing for themselves, and they now could save Woog’s job. Latest speculation is that Minnesota will give Woog one more year, which will be announced prior to next season as a sort of farewell tour.
The Gophers defeated Alaska-Anchorage 4-0 and 1-0 last weekend to reach the Final Five with a 14-17-9 overall record.
“We’re looking at it as though our year doesn’t start till now, anyhow,” said former Duluth East star Dave Spehar, a junior winger for the Gophers. “St. Cloud will be tough, they’ve got a good club, but of course it will be tough to win three games in three nights. But maybe that will be good for us.”
St. Cloud State will be stronger for the game than at any time since Jan. 3. The Huskies split two games with the Gophers, each winning on the other’s rink, then the two teams tied both games of their late-season set. Since then, however, the Huskies have gotten healthy, and went to Wisconsin as the WCHA’s sixth-place team to sweep 5-2 and 3-2 games from the fourth-place Badgers.
“We were able to dress four full lines for the first time since Jan. 3,” said St. Cloud coach Craig Dahl. “We got Jason Goulet, Matt Bailey and Ryan Frisch all back from injuries. Frisch had a sprained knee, Bailey and Goulet both had serious medial-collateral knee ligament injuries, and we lost Peter Torsen for the season with a knee injury. We also lost John Cullen for the season with shoulder surgery.
“So we had to play 14 games with only nine or 10 forwards. We went 4-2-4 with only three lines and five defensemen, until we ran into Denver and North Dakota, so we were 4-6-4 that way. But it was great to have four lines again, and we were fired up to go to Wisconsin. Our line of George Awada, Al Noga and Goulet scored five goals and got 11 points out of the eight goals in the two games. And this is our fourth straight trip to the Final Five.”
UMD fans will remember the heart-wrenching Final Five preliminary last year, when goalie Brant Nicklin was injured after the Bulldogs had beaten Minnesota to make it, and St. Cloud State ruined a heroic effort by Tony Gasparini with a tying goal in the closing seconds and a victory in overtime.
The Final Five schedule at Target Center:
THURSDAY: Minnesota (14-17-9) vs. St. Cloud State (16-17-5), 7:05 p.m.
FRIDAY: Semifinals — Colorado College (27-10-1) vs. Denver (24-12-2), 2:05 p.m.; North Dakota (31-4-2) vs. Minnesota-St. Cloud winner.
SATURDAY: Third-place game, 2:05 p.m.; Championship game, 7:05 p.m.
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
For those who want to keep up with John Gilbert's view of sports, mainly hockey with a Minnesota slant, click on the following:
Click here for sports