Remarkable autumn for Minnesota-Duluth sports teams
By John Gilbert
The sports teams and their followers at the University of Minnesota-Duluth are neither cocky nor arrogant. They make no assumptions of success, simply because UMD hasn’t had consistent enough doses of winning in various sports to assume anything of the sort. Nonetheless, UMD’s highest-profile teams are compiling an amazing and unprecedented run of good fortune to escorted this rapidly passing autumn of 2010 at the westernmost tip of Lake Superior.
If you combine UMD’s football team with men’s and women’s hockey — UMD’s two Division I teams — I’d have to see the records to prove there has ever been a more successful start to their seasons. Consider that the football team is soaring at 9-0, while the men’s hockey team has gotten off to a 6-0-2 start, meaning those two teams have gone undefeated with a combined 15-0-2 record. If you add in the UMD women’s hockey team, which stands 7-1, the three have an aggregate 22-1-2 ledger.
The achievements have been duly noted. UMD ranked No. 2 in NCAA Division II in the country, before beating St. Cloud State 40-17, while No. 1 Grand Valley State lost 20-17 to Michigan Tech. Both the UMD men and women ranked No. 3 in hockey, before the Bulldogs swept the archrival Minnesota Gophers 3-2, and 4-2 with an empty-net goal, and before the men went to Bemidji State and won 3-2 in overtime before playing a tough, 1-1 deadlock.
In addition, UMD’s volleyball team was ranked No. 1 before losing last weekend to three-time Division II champion Concordia of St. Paul, and they now have “only” a 23-2 record. If you want to add that team in, those four UMD teams went into Halloween with a composite 34-3-2 record.
Can you think of any other colleges or universities in Minnesota, or elsewhere, that would give anything for such a record? Still, there is room for improvement, and nobody is assuming greatness, because each weekend gets more pivotal than the last, and maybe nobody in the Northland wants to risk jinxing a good thing while it’s happening.
The Bulldogs have two games remaining to claim the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference football championship. They had their closest scare of the season in a 27-7 victory at Northern State in Aberdeen the previous week, the lowest point total they’ve compiled all season. It wasn’t just because the Bulldogs are learning to play without injured All-American running back Isaac Odim, because Brad Foss gained 165 yards rushing to fill Odim’s considerable void. The game was played in miserable, rainy conditions that rendered ball-handling impossible. The teams fumbled five times each, and UMD lost four of its five to keep the game from being a runaway. Still, it was UMD’s 27th straight Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference victory, and 19th straight on the road, even if their nation-leading point average dropped from 49.5.
By contrast, the St. Cloud State game was the highlight of the season — so far — as UMD scored 20 unanswered third-quarter points to burst from a tight 13-10 halftime lead. When it was over, UMD’s five touchdowns were scored by five different players — Collin Stinogel, D.J. Winfield, Brad Foss, Rob Huberty, and Chase Vogler, while David Nadeau was the day’s top scorer with 10 points, on two field goals and four extra point kicks. Vogler’s passes accounted for the Stinogel and Winfield touchdowns.
The men’s hockey team had a tough weekend series at Bemidji State, which just opened its new arena. More importantly, the Beavers, who have moved into the WCHA this season, also inflicted two losses on UMD last season, when the Bulldogs were riding high. But not this high. UMD swept Alaska Anchorage the previous weekend, with a tough 3-2 overtime victory, followed by a startling 6-0 romp. The Seawolves have shown signs of rising in the standings, and they’ve always been tough on the Bulldogs, sweeping them late last season at the DECC. The first game lived up to its advance billing, with Alaska Anchorage using its size to make the undersized DECC ice sheet seem smaller than usual. Mike Connolly’s two goals gave UMD its 2-2 tie, but it was up to super-freshman J.T. Brown to come through with a huge goal less than a minute into overtime to win it. The next night, Travis Oleksuk and Dan DeLisle scored twice each, and goaltender Aaron Crandall sparkled with his first shutout. For DeLisle, a big, strapping sophomore winger, the goals were his first two, and the second was on a classic wraparound when he outmuscled a defenseman behind the net and came out to jam the puck in at the right pipe. Crandall gives UMD a solid 1-2 punch in goal with Kenny Reiter, who won the first game.
The magic continued at Bemidji,with Crandall holding off the Beavers in goal while Travis Oleksuk scored the winner in the final minute of overtime, then Reiter was sharp, allowing only a goal in the closing two minutes of the 1-1 tie.
While the men were gone from Duluth, the women decidedly were not. The Bulldogs dominated the first period of the Friday game, but got only a 1-1 tie at that point. Minnesota took a 2-1 lead in the second, but the big Haley Irwin-Pernilla Winberg-Elin Holmlov “Olympic Line” took charge in the third, with Holmlov scoring a dramatic goal in the first minute of the final period, then Holmlov taking a pass up ice from goaltender Jennifer Harss and sending a perfect feed between the defensemen to Winberg, who scored on the breakaway at 13:55 for the game-winner.
In the Saturday game, Kim Martin was in goal for the Bulldogs, who got a superb performance from Irwin. The powerful former gold medalist with Team Canada scored a power-play goal in the first period, then set up Winberg for a goal before scoring again herself for a 3-0 lead in the second. The Gophers came back when Sam Downey, a Silver Bay native who played for Marshall-Hermantown-Proctor in high school, scored from inside the left point late in the second period, and Kelly Terry scored on a breakaway at 0:20 of the third. With the score 3-2, the teams battled until the final second — literally. With Noora Raty pulled for an extra skater, the Gophers peppered Martin until Irwin — who else? — got the puck and zipped a 100-footer into the open net for a 4-2 clincher. Irwin’s line accounted for five of the six goals UMD scored in the series, and in the 4-2 Saturday game, Irwin had three goals and an assist.
It was the final time the two WCHA rivals will meet in the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center, because UMD’s hockey teams are moving into the new Amsoil Arena next door on Dec. 30.
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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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