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.
Lucia takes over as new Gopher puck coach
Vowing to make it fun again for the players to come to the rink every day, Don Lucia took over as University of Minnesota hockey coach Friday afternoon in a press conference at Mariucci Arena, after an amazingly speedy three-day rush to replace Doug Woog, who resigned Tuesday afternoon after a 14-year run.
Lucia cleverly dodged the question about whether he would continue to recruit only Minnesota players, bowed to the rich tradition of Gopher hockey, paid tribute to his predecessor, spent more than two hours conducting individual interviews with various radio and television crews after the conference, while his wife, Joyce, waited patiently, and generally charmed the horde of media.
“This is a real honor and privilege,” said Lucia, 40, a native of Grand Rapids, who got a six-year agreement that is estimated at around $125,000 a year. “First, I’d like to congratulate Doug Woog and his staff for 14 excellent years. I hope that 14 years from now I can still be coaching here and have as good a record. When I went to Colorado College six years ago, there were only a few places that I could think of that I’d ever consider moving to. Minnesota is one of them.
“For me, it was a dream come true when I had that phone call from Mark Dienhart. To me, this is the best job in college hockey. You get one shot in life, and this is mine. Hockey is king in Minnesota, and coaching hockey at Minnesota is like coaching football at Notre Dame. I’m going to be very proud to be part of the Minnesota tradition.
“Growing up, I was like any other kid. I wanted to play hockey at Minnesota. I remember driving with my dad down from Grand Rapids to watch the Gophers play football in the afternoon at old Memorial Stadium, and then play hockey at night in the old Mariucci Arena. I remember sitting at home listening to the broadcast when Herb Brooks’ team played that epic playoff game at Michigan State in the mid-70s, and Donnie Madson scored the goal that won the game and put Minnesota into the final four.”
Dienhart, the athletic director, accepted Woog’s decision at 3 p.m. Tuesday, then hustled off with assistants Pat Forciea and Jeff Schemmel to catch a plane to Denver and meet with Lucia, who stayed overnight in Denver so he could meet the trio again Wednesday morning. When they returned to the Twin Cities, a search committee was put together and interviewed only Lucia and current assistant coach Mike Guentzel on Thursday before reaching their decision.
Since the usual protocol demands that such job openings be posted for two weeks, with another two weeks for all interested applicants to respond, Dienhart was asked about the haste in this case.
“It goes fast when the best guy out there says he’s interested,” said Dienhart. “The guy sitting beside me has been my No. 1 choice from the time Doug told me he wouldn’t be back.”
Woog, whose teams had faltered to sub-.500 records the past two seasons, amid complaints of unhappy players and parents, agreed to become a fund-raiser for the same $98,000 salary for the next three years and relinquished the coaching reins. Lucia, while praising Woog’s record, said he anticipated having some of the same objectives as when he went from Alaska-Fairbanks to Colorado College six years ago.
When Lucia went to CC, it was to replace Brad Buetow, after the Tigers had finished dead last and faced some NCAA question marks. It was too late to do any recruiting, and CC was the unanimous choice of the WCHA coaches to finish last again, but Lucia led that team to the WCHA title, and went on to win it the next two seasons as well, becoming the first coach ever to win three consecutive WCHA titles.
“My first year at CC, my objective was to try to get the players to have fun again,” said Lucia. “If you would have said we could finish .500, I would have taken it. I never imagined we could win the title.
“I enjoy what I do, and what I love most about coaching is Monday through Thursday, where you can teach, work with players, and try to make them better. Most people may judge success by wins and losses, but I judge it more by how close you come to reaching your potential.
“I don’t think you can play the game uptight, afraid to make a mistake. If you can put a smile on every kid’s face every day, so they’ll want to come to practice every day, I think we can accomplish a lot.”
While some think the Gophers have enough talent to bounce back immediately under the positive and progressive style of Lucia, some critics blame the recent Gopher demise on a lack of talent because of the history of recruiting strictly Minnesota players. Lucia, who has recruited well from Minnesota and also from Canada and the USHL while at CC, was ready.
“I’m a great believer in the all-Minnesota philosophy,” he said. “Most of our team will be from the state of Minnesota. But if a Paul Kariya calls me and says ‘I want to come to Minnesota,’ I probably would welcome him. It would have to be a special player, a special person. I don’t know if there’ll be many, I don’t know if there’ll be any, but I’m not going to say we’ll recruit only Minnesotans.”
Lucia said his teams will be similar to what he had at Colorado College, where five of his six teams made it to the NCAA tournament, and the sixth was overlooked, drawing enough criticism to cause the NCAA committee to alter its procedure from choosing teams.
“We’ll recruit speed and skill and incorporate a style that will go well on the big rink,” said Lucia. “I like the big rink, and this was my favorite place to bring a team and play. I like a puck-possession style, which you might call a creative, European style.
“The transition will probably be bigger for me than the players. How good will we be next year? I don’t know, but the main objective is to make it so the university, the community, and the whole state can be proud of the team. We want to try to create an environment where this is the place kids will want to come to play college hockey.
“It’s going to take a while for me to develop a good feel for the players. I met with the players, and I told them that I wasn’t going to watch any video tapes. I want them to start fresh, just like I am. It’s a new start, and they can be any player they want to be.”
Spehar, Mills reflect awe at Lucia’s arrival
The weight room at Mariucci Arena was loaded with hockey players, which is surprising, considering it’s April, and next season won’t start until October. Included among those who was working out was Duluth East grad Dave Spehar, which is even more surprising.
“I’ve never seen Spee work out in the spring,” said defenseman Dylan Mills, another former Greyhound, whose presence in the weightroom is much less surprising. “He usually doesn’t do anything hockey-related until August.”
That’s the immediate impact of Don Lucia being hired on Friday to replace Doug Woog as hockey coach at the University of Minnesota. Before attending his own press conference, where he said all the right things about honoring the tradition of the past and building for the future, Lucia met with the returning players for a little meeting.
Spehar, a junior winger who just came off a season that ranged somewhere between frustration and exasperation, was asked for his first impression when Lucia first addressed the players.
“Wow!” said Spehar. “Everyone was in absolute awe of him. He came across as a very classy individual, and it was evident when he walked into the locker room. We all knew immediately we were dealing with a class act.”
Spehar, considered by some to be the best pure goal-scorer in Minnesota high school history, had a good freshman season at Minnesota, a fair sophomore year, and never scored an even-strength goal through his junior year until the WCHA Final Five playoffs, when he scored two goals and one assist in a 5-3 victory over St. Cloud State. The Gophers were then thrashed 6-2 by North Dakota, but Spehar assisted on both goals. They lost 7-4 to Colorado College in the third-place game, and Spehar scored his 13th goal, meaning he led the tournament in scoring with three goals and three assists for six points.
But that strong finish was not the springboard for Spehar’s sudden interest in getting in top shape for his senior season. It was Lucia.
“I don’t know him,” Spehar said. “But I know Toby Petersen and Dan Peters, who played for him at CC, and they all loved him. He has, like, an aura about him. When we played CC, he never would yell, but you knew his players all knew what he expected.”
Mills, who just completed his sophomore season on defense, was equally impressed.
“I was very, very impressed,” Mills said. “He set down some rules right away, about how nobody could miss any classes for any reasons. That’s quite a change. But he gave everyone a clean slate.”
Lucia said he told the players he would not watch videotapes of their play this past season, nor would he ask people for their impressions of other players on the team. He said he didn’t want to be influenced by the past.
“I told them they can be any player they want to be, they’d all start with a clean slate,” said Lucia.
John Mayasich, the legendary Gopher superstar who is in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame and who recently retired from KSTP, was on the selection committee, which interviewed two candidates — Lucia and current Gopher assistant Mike Guentzel — for a position that, technically, was never posted in accordance with the usual equal opportunities guidelines.
“When the interview with Donny got done, I told [athletic director] Mark Dienhart that I really didn’t have to be there,” said Mayasich. “What I heard in the interview reflected what I’ve seen on the ice the last few years.”
Lucia was a star defenseman at Grand Rapids, then at the University of Notre Dame. He decided to go into coaching, and assisted at both Alaska-Fairbanks and Alaska-Anchorage before getting his first head coaching job at Fairbanks. When he got the chance to take over the faltering Colorado College team after Brad Buetow was fired, Lucia inherited a team that had finished last, at a time that was too late to recruit, and CC was unanimously picked by the coaches to finish last again. Instead, Lucia led CC to the first of three straight WCHA titles, a feat that had never before been accomplished.
When asked how he did it, Lucia said that the main thing he tried to do was to “put a smile on every kid’s face every day, so they’d want to come to practice every day.”
He said he intends to do the same thing with the Gophers. And even though the first day of practice is still over five months away, if you talk to players like Spehar and Mills, he’s already put a smile on their face and the weightroom on their minds.
“I want to be in the best shape I’ve ever been in, and have the best year I can have,” said Spehar. “I cannot wait to play for him.”
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