Why choose one, when hockey and football beckon?
Nearly 4,000 UMD fans braved subzero windchill to urge victory.
By John Gilbert
Football or hockey, what is your preference? And what if very important games are being held in both sports, and in conflict with each other, 150 miles apart? Obviously, you’d have to choose which one to watch. Or, is it possible to have your cake and eat it too?
When the University of Minnesota-Duluth hockey team plays Minnesota, it’s always a huge series, and this year, with UMD recently rated No. 1, it was bigger than ever when they faced the Gophers Friday and Saturday nights, in the final series of the first half of the WCHA race. On Saturday night in Duluth, however, the UMD football Bulldogs — undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the country in Division II — would be at home for a 5 p.m. national semifinal against Northwest Missouri State.
As your intrepid correspondent, I felt a duty to be at both events, to say nothing of a personally strong, emotional pull. For someone who splits time between Duluth and the Twin Cities, logistics helped make my plan. I would be in San Diego test-driving the all-new Nissan Quest, and the all-new Ford Explorer, and I wouldn’t arrive back in Minneapolis until Thursday. Flying into the Twin Cities Thursday, it made good sense to stay over and attend the hockey series Friday night and Saturday night. If UMD’s football team was playing at noon, I’d have driven up for the game, then hustled back to Minneapolis for the second hockey game. My hope was that I could find the obscure channel that would broadcast the football game, which I had named the Hypothermia Bowl, and watch it late Saturday afternoon from Mariucci Arena’s hockey press box.
To complicate matters, a huge blizzard was moving into Minnesota late Friday night, and it would be followed by a cold snap. As yet another complication, my recently published book, “Herb Brooks: The Inside Story of a Hockey Mastermind,” is just coming out in paperback. I could pick up my first batch, and possibly sell them at the Gopher-UMD series as the perfect Christmas gift for any hockey fan. Another good reason to stay in the Twin Cities. However, the well-planned weekend started to come apart when a University of Minnesota official said he didn’t have time to contact the right person to get me permission to sell the book Saturday at Mariucci Arena, and no, although there also was a chance the game wouldn’t be played, because if the impending snowstorm caused a traveler’s advisory, the university would shut down, and no events could be held Saturday.
There have been many times over the years when the Golden Gophers were nationally prominent in hockey, and WCHA contenders, and UMD would come in with a giant-killer attitude and ruin their record. This time, the roles were reversed. The Gophers have struggled to put two games together, to attain a .500 record, and their underachieving has aggravated the most ardent followers among their fans. But Nick Larson deflected in a Seth Helgeson shot early, and a second Gopher goal was disallowed for being tipped with a high stick before Jack Connolly blasted in a power-play goal from the slot off Justin Faulk’s neat pass from the left boards, 14 seconds before the first period ended.
UMD goalie Kenny Reiter kicked to stop Erik Haula's first-game shot.
Nico Sachetti regained the lead 2-1 for Minnesota, and Jay Barriball got credit for a tipped shot that pinballed in off a leg to beat Kenny Reiter for a 3-1 lead. Faulk got UMD within 3-2 with a power-play bullet with five minutes left, but a six-skater attack to the finish left UMD on the short end of a 3-2 score, despite a 39-32 shot advantage. Minnesota goaltender Kent Patterson made two amazing saves on Justin Fontaine late in the game, one on a power-play one-timer, and later when he dived across the crease, leaving his stick behind, to get his glove on Fontaine’s shot. Minnesota coach Don Lucia grinned when asked about those saves and said: “I’m a lot smarter coach when he makes a save like that.”
At that point, 10:30 p.m., the fast-closing snowstorm hadn’t hit. But as I walked outside Mariucci Arena, I looked at the sky, felt the sting of the wind, and called an audible. I drove swiftly to our apartment hideout, grabbed a satchel-full of all the stuff I needed, and dashed back outside. There was an inch of snow on the test-drive Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback, but I set off for Duluth. The thought had consumed me that if the storm closed the university, postponing the second hockey game, I would feel totally frustrated at also missing the football game. Driving north, the snow was getting harder, but just as the weather maps had shown, the storm was sweeping in a diagonal line across the Twin Cities and heading on into Northern Wisconsin. Sure enough, by Forest Lake it was less hard, and by North Branch, there was no snow. Not a trace, the rest of the way, the last hundred miles to Duluth. I got there at about 2 a.m., got up early to do radio shows I do on cars on WCCO in the Twin Cities, and on hockey on the KFAN affiliate in Fargo.
Listening intently to Twin Cities radio, I learned that, sure enough, with a foot of snow already on the ground and another 8 inches coming, the university was shut down and postponing the second hockey game until 4 p.m. Sunday. No more snow in Duluth, however, so with plunging temperature, it was time for the Hypothermia Bowl.
Northwest Missouri State beat Central Missouri 37-20 in their quarterfinals, Northwest Missouri State had won the championship last year, and had lost to UMD’s huge upset in the final two years ago. The Bearcats lost their opener this season, 16-7 to Texas A&M-Kingsville, then rattled off 12 straight victories, earning the trip to Duluth. While the weather outside was frightful, the press box at Malosky Stadium was cozy enough that all they were missing was chestnuts roasting on an open fire.
But I didn’t go through all that to miss walking the sideline and shooting pictures. My best leather boots with Gore-Tex lining, and a fleece pullover over a turtleneck, wrapped in a new goose-down Eddie Bauer parka, and heavy enough gloves, and I was ready to face the dark, and the 25 mile per hour wind whistling out of the northwest. Remarkably, 3,627 fans seemed to be in an ultra-festive mode, thanks to some firepots and under-the-grandstand heaters.
Trailing 13-3, UMD's Brian Hanson crashes in for a 3rd quarter TD.
Northwest Missouri State was impressive, taking a 6-0 lead with a 13-play, 64-yard drive in the second quarter, on a 14-yard pass from Blake Bolles to Jordan Simmons. It was significant that the extra point kick failed. UMD countered immediately, and when the drive bogged down fourth and 7 at the 10, with 29 seconds to go to halftime, David Nadeau’s 27-yard field goal cut it to 6-3. It looked grim for UMD when the Bearcats took the second-half kickoff and drove 66 yards in 12 plays to take a 13-3 lead. UMD could once again take great heart from its defense, which yielded the touchdown to Simmons, but only on the Bearcats fourth try from the UMD 1.
It was time for a big play, and Brad Foss made it, scrambling to recover a bobbled kickoff, grabbing it on the run and racing 32 yards on the return. Twelve plays later, UMD had marched in for the countering touchdown. Foss got 16 yards on six tries, and Brian Hanson got 17 yards on four other carries — including the final four yards around left end on a hurtling charge that cut the score to 13-10. On the drive, sophomore quarterback Chase Vogler went off with an injury, and fellow-sophomore Jon Lynch came in and the offense never missed a beat. The key was that UMD came up with its best drive immediately after Northwest Missouri’s opening drive in the third quarter.
UMD quarterback Chase Vogler went 34 yards on 4th down for the game-winning touchdown.
Strong safety Cody Eich intercepted his second Bolles pass of the game to stop the next Bearcat drive, and after an exchange of punts carried the game into the fourth quarter, a touchback gave UMD the ball on its own 20. By then, the temperature was down to 5 degrees, with a windchill of 15 below, and the Bulldogs were looking down the barrel of that 13-10 deficit, and into that 25-mph wind. Vogler had recovered by then, which was convenient because Lynch was injured as the drive started. “My right knee had tightened up,” said Vogler. “It got better, and then Jon got beat up.” I suggested to Vogler that maybe recuperating by the hot-air blower on the sideline meant he was the only player whose body was still functioning.
On third and 6, Vogler threw a 10-yard pass to Harrison Andrews at the 34; on third and 5, Brian Hanson slashed through the line for 7 yards to the 46; on third and 1, Foss ganed 4 to the Bearcats 41. Those three third-down conversions spoke volumes about the heart and character of UMD’s offense. But the best was yet to come. Northwest Missouri stopped UMD at the 34, where it was fourth down and 3. A field goal would tie the game, but even David Nadeau’s magic toe couldn’t have reached the goalposts through that wind. So Vogler rolled to his left, cut in, and took off. At fourth and 3, he turned the left corner and sprinted up the sideline — 34 yards for a touchdown to set off a wild celebration in the windswept grandstand. “I rolled out,” said Vogler, “and one guy missed me. I just hoped I didn’t get caught, because they had the best defense in the country.”
“Vogler is a great competitor. He makes plays when he has to,” said Bearcats coach Mel Tjeerdsma. “Duluth is so different — we haven’t seen teams run the football like this.”
Nadeau’s extra point was one for the highlight film, incidentally, as it sailed between the uprights, then turned abruptly to the left in the wind. The extra point kick was good, even though the ball landed 30 yards to the left of the goalposts.
While that drive was a classic gut-check for the offense, consuming 7:21 to leave only four minutes, the defense has never needed such validation. But some was provided, nonetheless. Eich, after his two interceptions, said, “Our focus is always to get three turnovers a game.”
Cameron Harper got UMD's third interception to halt Northwest Missouri State's last major threat.
The third one came when Cameron Harper picked one off at the UMD 23, and ran it back 21 yards with barely 3 minutes left. “I saw the quarterback’s eyes on the guy I was covering, so I stepped up and got it,” said Harper. “We knew they liked to pass, but they were going to have to run more than usual. Was this the coldest I’ve ever been? Most definitely.”
Time was dwindling, but the Bearcats had one more chance, with 2:44 left. After one first down, the Bulldogs stiffened and on fourth and 4 at the 41, Bolles passed to Jake Soy for what appeared to be a first down. But having television on hand meant the officials could use video review for ball placement, and when they did, the ball was repositioned — one yard short! UMD, with a 17-13 lead, took over on downs, and the game was over.
“Duluth is going to be the national champion, as far as I’m concerned,” said Tjeerdsma.
That chance comes at 10 a.m. Saturday, in the championship game, on ESPN2, where the Bulldogs (14-0) play Delta State (12-2) in Florence, Ala.
When the press conferences ended, I hurried down to the DECC, where the UMD women’s hockey team was playing the real final UMD game at the DECC against North Dakota. But the final buzzer had sounded just as I walked in, and UMD had lost, in a surprising 4-3 upset. UMD takes the rest of the month off.
Next morning, Sunday, it was time to head for Minneapolis again, to find what 20-plus inches of snow could do to the residential streets around the university campus. I parked over near Dinkytown and walked six blocks in the invigorating cold — parka still in place — and watched UMD play the Gophers to a 2-2 tie. This time the Bulldogs outshot Minnesota 43-36, and had a 2-1 lead when Jack Connolly’s late first-period goal offset Jake Hanson’s deflection goal for Minnesota. Mike Seidel gave UMD a 2-1 lead midway through the second period when he rushed from his own zone, carried up to the right circle, then rifled a 30 footer high into the short side on Patterson. It was Seidel’s fourth goal of the season, and it was such a great shot I checked my program to make sure Justin Fontaine hadn’t switched jerseys.
“I was going to pass,” said Seidel, “but then I saw Kent cheating a little bit, so I shot. I played two years of junior with Kent, who was our No. 1 goalie at Cedar Rapids. I’ll say I had his number from practice, even though it isn’t really true.”
Jacob Cepis (17) got free to put a backhand under Aaron Crandall and give Minnesota a 2-2 tie with UMD in the delayed second game.
A split would have been huge for UMD’s WCHA title hopes, but five minutes into the third period, Condon relayed a pass ahead to Jacob Cepis, next to the UMD goal, and Cepis darted across in front to beat Aaron Crandall with a backhand. Both power plays had their chances in the last 11 minutes, first when UMD was two skaters short, but the Bulldogs survived, and then when Max Gardiner checked Jack Connolly from behind into the boards and got a 5-minute disqualification penalty, but the Gophers weathered UMD’s power play.
“The way the series went, probably both games should have been ties,” said UMD coach Scott Sandelin. But color the Gophers as spoilers, with what was their best weekend consistency of a 9-7-2 season, 5-6-2 in the WCHA . UMD is now 12-3-3, and 9-2-2 in WCHA play, but winning only one of their last four going into Christmas break was not exactly the perfect medicine for the Bulldogs, who are now idle until they dedicate Amsoil Arena on Thursday, Dec. 30, with an exhibition game against North Dakota. Be great, wouldn’t it, if UMD could gather a team of former players and play someone lile a bunch of former Gophers in a run-through at Amsoil Arena this Friday night?
But nothing can match last weekend’s excitement. As long as you weren’t too rigid with your plans. It was still a treat to face the chill of walking the sidelines in the Hypothermia Bowl in Duluth, where they were playing football in Arctic conditions, while down in Minneapolis, they postponed the hockey game, indoors, in cozy Mariucci Arena.
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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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