Gasparini night ruined by Colgate
Gasparini gets to share in UMD futility
By John Gilbert
Up North Newspaper Network
It should be getting familiar by now. The UMD Bulldogs haven’t won at home yet in this hockey season, and the scene inside the dressing room has always been subdued, with quiet, thoughtful comments from various players about how frustrating it’s getting.
But Saturday night was different. As accommodating as the Bulldogs players have been, after losing 2-1 to Colgate Saturday night, the dressing room was silent. Completely silent.
“It was almost eerie,” said coach Mike Sertich, who noticed it too. “Before the third period, I had said I thought we had been outworked through the first two, and I thought we worked a lot harder in the third period.
“But it’s tough. Everybody knows that everything that can be said has been said.”
Colgate is 9-3 with its best start in years, and has won eight of its last nine games. UMD (3-11-2 overall) established a home-ice record for futility by failing to win for the seventh straight start at the DECC.
This is getting pretty strange. Here were the Bulldogs, having shaken their WCHA winless start and their scoring slump with a 5-2, 6-2 sweep at Michigan Tech a week earlier, were returning home to face nonconference Colgate with a chance to show their newly awakened offense to the home fans, and finally win a game at the DECC.
So what happens? Brant Nicklin, the star junior goaltender of almost legendary proportions, who has held the Bulldogs in almost every game all season, was off his game a bit on Friday. The Bulldogs scored four goals — a team high on home ice — but they lost 5-4 in the first game, despite outshooting the Red Raiders 49-25.
“I got a piece of the first three goals,” said Nicklin, which is his way of saying he should have made saves on those three shots, and of demanding to take the blame.
In the second game, Tony Gasparini got to start in place of Nicklin. It wasn’t a punishment pull for Nicklin; he had been told before the series that Gasparini — a faithful senior whose only previous start in four years was last year in the WCHA Final Five when Nicklin was injured — would get a well-deserved second career start Saturday.
Zap! The Bulldogs lapsed back to their previous streak of scoring only one goal, as they had in their first five home losses, and fell 2-1.
Nicklin had sat out his first game as a freshman, then started 92 straight games, not counting that St. Cloud State overtime loss in the playoffs.
“I thought Tony Gasparini played very, very well,” said Sertich. “It certainly wasn’t his fault.”
Gasparini left the ice after the first period, slamming his big goal stick against the boards and bellowing his frustration as he hastened to the dressing room. UMD trailed 2-0 at the time, and a quick little junior centerman named Andy MacDonald had scored both goals. One was on a break-in, when he darted through the whole UMD team before beating Gasparini from the left circle with a shot low to the far side. Two minutes later, he put a backhander just inside the left pipe, again right on the ice.
Gasparini thought they were weak goals, but they were the kind of goals you might think were lucky until you watch MacDonald’s skill level. Then you must assume he put them precisely where he had to. Turns out, MacDonald’s nine-game point-scoring streak had been snapped Friday night, when he was content to harness UMD’s star center Jeff Scissons. He did it again Saturday, proving to be perhaps the only center who defused Scissons all season.
“I was trying to shake Scissons loose, because I realized he was having trouble against MacDonald,” said Sertich. “So I made a juggle, and it cost us. He and Jeff played against each other all weekend — except when he scored those goals.”
That’s the way things go when you’re struggling, and the Bulldogs proved that they got over their struggles at Tech, but they returned at the DECC. Even the lone UMD goal was a testimony to their frustration.
Jesse Fibiger, who is playing outstanding defense for UMD right now and was WCHA defensive player of the week after the Tech series, had scored the first UMD goal Friday, and was trying to kill a penalty in the second period Saturday. In desperation, he lifted a high, zone-clearing flip from his own end. Scissons, figuring a Colgate player might be behind him, lunged high to glove the puck, keeping it from getting out of the zone.
“I was mad,” said Fibiger. “I was working my butt off to get it out of the zone, and finally I got it high enough, and Scissons keeps it in. Luckily, it came right back to me.”
So Fibiger, supercharged with adrenaline, sped up the left side. With nowhere to go, he wound up and put everything into a slapshot from the left circle. It hit goalie Shep Harder, but slithered through his pads. “We got outworked pretty bad in our own zone,” Fibiger said. “They did a good job, and they were quick, but we got outworked, and we have only ourselves to blame.” The shorthanded goal cut the deficit to 2-1, and the Bulldogs put increasing pressure on Colgate through the third period. But it turned out only to be another exercise in futility.
And the dressing room’s eerie silence said it all.
It was a huge night for Tony Gasparini, who, after four years of being a patient team-guy backup goaltender, got his first regular-season start Saturday. The only problem was that Colgate’s Andy MacDonald had no feeling for the storybook nature of the night at the DECC.
MacDonald’s two first-period goals stood up as the Red Raiders survived UMD’s increasing pressure and escaped from the DECC with a 2-1 victory and a sweep of their nonconference series.
“Tony played very, very well,” said coach Mike Sertich, who rested ace Brant Nicklin for the first time in 92 consecutive games. Nicklin missed one start because of injury, last year in the WCHA Final Five, when Gasparini got his only other start and suffered a heartbreaking 4-3 overtime loss to St. Cloud State.
Sophomore defenseman Jesse Fibiger got UMD’s only goal, with a shorthanded rush late in the second period, but he took no pleasure from the accomplishment.
MacDonald, a junior who had a nine-game point-scoring streak snapped Friday night, started a new one and ruined Gasparini’s otherwise flawless first period with goals at 12:06 and 14:36. The Bulldogs had failed to click on two power plays, and Colgate’s Red Raiders were attacking with characteristic quickness. MacDonald, quickest of them all, suddenly burst up the middle, splitting the Bulldog defense, and zooming in alone.
Gasparini was set, but MacDonald beat him from the left side with a perfect shot, low to the right. “He got through and the puck was out in front of him, so I though he’d try to carry it,” said Gasparini. “But he chipped it right away and caught me by surprise.”
The Red Raiders had the puck in deep on the first line’s next shift, too, and MacDonald gained possession deep along the left boards. He veered out toward the slot and put a hard, low backhander into the left side, just inside the pipe.
“That one, I think, went through someone’s legs,” said Gasparini.
For quite a while, the 2-0 lead looked insurmountable. Gasparini, in fact, had tdo come up with a big save on former Blake star Sam Sturgis early in the second period, then pulled a magic trick when Kevin Johns sailed in on a breakaway and fired. Gasparini blocked it, and when the rebound popped up, he reached back and snatched it out of the air. It appeared as thought the actual catch came, shall we say, dangerously close to being across the goal line.
The Bulldogs finally punctured the shutout bid of Shep Harder, another former Blake star, and the architect of Friday night’s 5-4 Colgate victory. The breakthrough came, typically, when least expected.
Fibiger was trying to clear the UMD zone while killing a penalty, but when he launched a high backhanded flip, teammate Jeff Scissons tried to glove it, knocking it down, but still in the Bulldog end. When the puck squirted loose along the left boards, Fibiger stepped up alertly to regain possession, and found himself rushing up the boards, shorthanded.
When he got to the left circle, Fibiger cut loose with a big slapshot, and though Harder got a piece of it, the puck trickled through with 3:46 left in the middle period.
The Bulldogs outshot Colgate 9-5 in the third period, and had several moments of heavy pressure, while the Red Raider defense threw themselves in front of 10 other shots that never got to Harder. With 30 seconds to go, Gasparini came out for an extra skater, but the intensity of the finishing flurry came too late, and the buzzer sounded with the puck in the slot, as Harder prevailed.
Ratings race heats up
Hockey ratings races warming up
By John Gilbert
Up North Newspaper Network
A week of big games, and big surprises, has caused some turmoil in the Up North hockey ratings. That, of course, is the name of the game in high school hockey.
Two games of note found Hibbing invading Cloquet and winning 4-2 last Thursday, while Greenway of Coleraine survived its annual battle in Grand Rapids with a 5-4 overtime victory Friday night. Hibbing’s victory boosted the Bluejackets to No. 10 statewide and No. 4 regionally, while Greenway is No. 8 in Minnesota and protected its No. 3 regional ranking behind Duluth East and Eveleth-Gilbert-Buhl. Cloquet slips to No. 5 in the region.
Hibbing’s high-speed attack was successfully repelled for a scoreless period despite outshooting Cloquet 13-5, but brothers Rico and Mike Fatticci led the ‘Jackets. Defenseman Rico Fatticci converted a John Bottoms pass at 0:21 of the second period, and after Nate Cary tied it on a Cloquet power play, both Fatticcis assisted Steve Suihkonen for a power-play goal and a 2-1 edge.
Despite being outshot 34-14 for the game, Cloquet gained a 2-2 standoff on Eric Laine’s power-play goal with 4:54 remaining in the third period. But the ‘Jackets beat the ‘Jacks when Mike Fatticci intercepted a clearing pass and scored short-handed with 3:04 left, and Rico Fatticci scored his second of the game to clinch it with 52 seconds to go.
Rico Fatticci and Suihkonen are both defensemen, but they bolster the offense so well that coach Mark DeCenzo rotates three lines and insists he doesn’t consider them 1-2-3, but balanced.
“All three lines are capable,” DeCenzo said. “And we’re playing defense with a lot more confidence. Rico and Suihkonen really jump up quick to help the offense — even though they also can give the coach a heart attack sometimes.”
When Greenway and Grand Rapids play, it’s always a focal point of regional hockey, and the fact both of them are strong this season only amplifies the rivalry. It looked like Greenway wouldn’t be needing the eventual overtime to win when the Raiders jumped ahead 4-0 Friday night in Grand Rapids, getting two goals on a major checking-from-behind penalty and making it 3-0 with a short-handed goal before the first period ended. Freshman Geno Guyer scored two of those first three goals, and it got to 4-0 in the second period before Rapids came back with four consecutive goals for the 4-4 standoff.
The most sour note of the night for Greenway is that 6-foot-6 defenseman Adam Johnson will miss some action with a separated shoulder in the checking-from-behind incident.
In recent years, Duluth East has proved its statewide dominance with a rugged schedule that takes the Greyhounds all over the state. This year, the travel is still there but the ‘Hounds lost for the second time to two state powers when Hill-Murray smacked them 5-1 last Saturday.
“Hill-Murray is good, at least as good as Elk River,” said East coach Mike Randolph, whose Greyhounds slipped to fourth in the state ratings but still held the Up North Regional No. 1 spot. At 2-2, East’s losses were to No. 1 Elk River and No. 2 Hill-Murray, both on the road.
“We had Hill-Murray on the ropes for a while,” Randolph added. “It was 1-1 and Mike Marshall went in alone. But he missed, and Hill-Murray came back and scored two goals
in the next minute.”
East had trouble containing Matt Koalska, who had two goals and two assists. After his first goal, Ross Carlson tied it before the first period ended. But after Marshall was foiled, the Pioneers scored twice 15 seconds apart to take command.
Greenway and Hibbing will be in the spotlight for the next week. This weekend, No. 3 rated Roseau and Warroad play at Greenway and Hibbing, respectively, on Friday, then flip-flop Saturday. Next week, Hibbing faces Grand Rapids on Tuesday, then Hibbing and Greenway collide Saturday, and Hibbing finishes one of the roughest six-game stretches imaginable by playing Eveleth on Tuesday the 22nd.
Other interesting games across the state last week included top-ranked Elk River beating Edina 3-0, and Hastings having to battle to slip past Anoka 3-2 in overtime. Regionally, Marshall gave Duluth East a tussle, trailing 3-2 with 10 minutes left before falling 6-3, but the ‘Toppers bounced back to beat Breck 2-1 Saturday. Marshall has a tough week, with a Tuesday date at Silver Bay followed by a Thursday game against a rapidly improving Denfeld team. The Hunters ambushed Central last week.
UP NORTH HOCKEY RATINGS
STATE
1. Elk River (3-0)
2. Hill-Murray (1-0)
3. Roseau
4. Duluth East (2-2)
5. Eagan (3-0)
6. Hastings (3-1)
7. Eveleth-Gilbert-Buhl (4-0)
8. Greenway of Coleraine (2-0)
9. Roseville (2-0)
10. Hibbing (2-0)
REGIONAL
1. Duluth East
2. Eveleth-Gilbert-Buhl
3. Greenway of Coleraine
4. Hibbing
5. Cloquet
6. Silver Bay
7. Hermantown
8. Proctor
9. Grand Rapids
10. Marshall
The Duluth Dynamite kept rolling in girls hockey, improving their record to 6-2 last week to maintain the sixth slot in state ratings, but Hibbing dropped out of the top 10 after two losses on a tough trip to the Twin Cities. Hibbing lost 8-1 at No. 1 Roseville last Friday, then played much better but lost 4-2 at No. 4 Bloomington Jefferson on Saturday. Roseville, incidentally, whipped Hill-Murray 7-0 last Thursday.
The No. 2 Eagan Wildcats made something of a goodwill tour to the borderland. The ‘Cats won 6-0 at Bemidji on Thursday, then beat a strong Winnipeg girls midget select team 4-2 on Saturday in Warroad. Eagan coach Merlin Ravndalen is from Warroad, and he wanted to bring his powerful team up there to put premier girls hockey on display in hopes that the Warroad-Roseau area might start girls hockey.
GIRLS STATE
1. Roseville
2. Eagan
3. Park Center
4. Bloomington Jefferson
5. South St. Paul
6. Duluth Dynamite
7. Rosemount
8. Forest Lake
9. Edina
10. Anoka
Colgate beats UMD 2-1
Colgate star ruins Gasparini night
By John Gilbert
Up North Newspaper Network
It was a huge night for Tony Gasparini, who, after four years of being a patient team-guy backup goaltender, got his first regular-season start Saturday. The only problem was that Colgate’s Andy MacDonald had no feeling for the storybook nature of the night at the DECC.
MacDonald’s two first-period goals stood up as the Red Raiders survived UMD’s increasing pressure and escaped from the DECC with a 2-1 victory and a sweep of their nonconference series.
“Tony played very, very well,” said coach Mike Sertich, who rested ace Brant Nicklin for the first time in 92 consecutive games. Nicklin missed one start because of injury, last year in the WCHA Final Five, when Gasparini got his only other start and suffered a heartbreaking 4-3 overtime loss to St. Cloud State.
Colgate (9-3) won eight of its last night games, while UMD (3-11-2 overall) established a home-ice record for futility by failing to win in seven starts at the DECC.
Sophomore defenseman Jesse Fibiger got UMD’s only goal, with a shorthanded rush late in the second period, but he took no pleasure from the accomplishment. “We got outworked pretty bad in our own zone,” Fibiger said. “They did a good job, and they were quick, but we got outworked, and we have only ourselves to blame.”
MacDonald ruined Gasparini’s otherwise flawless first period with goals at 12:06 and 14:36. The Bulldogs had failed to click on two power plays, and Colgate’s Red Raiders were attacking with characteristic quickness. MacDonald, quickest of them all, suddenly burst up the middle, splitting the Bulldog defense, and zooming in alone.
Gasparini was set, but MacDonald beat him from the left side with a perfect shot, low to the right. “He got through and the puck was out in front of him, so I though he’d try to carry it,” said Gasparini. “But he chipped it right away and caught me by surprise.”
The Red Raiders had the puck in deep on the first line’s next shift, too, and MacDonald gained possession deep along the left boards. He veered out toward the slot and put a hard, low backhander into the left side, just inside the pipe.
“That one, I think, went through someone’s legs,” said Gasparini.
For quite a while, the 2-0 lead looked insurmountable. Gasparini, in fact, had tdo come up with a big save on former Blake star Sam Sturgis early in the second period, then pulled a magic trick when Kevin Johns sailed in on a breakaway and fired. Gasparini blocked it, and when the rebound popped up, he reached back and snatched it out of the air. It appeared as thought the actual catch came, shall we say, dangerously close to being across the goal line.
The Bulldogs finally punctured the shutout bid of Shep Harder, another former Blake star, and the architect of Friday night’s 5-4 Colgate victory. The breakthrough came, typically, when least expected.
Fibiger was trying to clear the UMD zone while killing a penalty, but when he launched a high backhanded flip, teammate Jeff Scissons tried to glove it, knocking it down, but still in the Bulldog end. When the puck squirted loose along the left boards, Fibiger stepped up alertly to regain possession, and found himself rushing up the boards, shorthanded.
When he got to the left circle, Fibiger cut loose with a big slapshot, and though Harder got a piece of it, the puck trickled through with 3:46 left in the middle period.
The Bulldogs outshot Colgate 9-5 in the third period, and had several moments of heavy pressure, while the Red Raider defense threw themselves in front of 10 other shots that never got to Harder. With 30 seconds to go, Gasparini came out for an extra skater, but the intensity of the finishing flurry came too late, and the buzzer sounded with the puck in the slot, as Harder prevailed.
Grand Prix road-race set at Indy in 2000
[Gilbert Up North Viewpoint…12-18-98.]
Indy Grand Prix
brings excitement,
thrills, hypocrisy
There is no bigger news in motorsports than the announcement that the Formula 1 Grand Prix will be coming back to the United States in the year 2000, which will make it the first time since 1991 that there has been a United States Grand Prix. It has been incomprehensible that right during the era when auto racing skyrocketed to major league status on all different fronts, there was no U.S. Grand Prix.
There is no questions that Formula 1 racing is the absolute elite level of motorsports. Incredibly expensive cars, with incredibly well-paid drivers, competing for incredibly large crowds, who pay incredibly high ticket prices. They race all over the world, and don’t have the provincial nature of sports we in the U.S. think are so worldly. Baseball, football and basketball are positively local to the U.S., by comparison.
The most remarkable thing about the return of the U.S. Grand Prix is that it will run at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The 2.5-mile oval will be revised, with an infield road course cutting to the inside off the north end of the main straightaway, where it will zig and zag until it rejoins the oval on the back straightaway, which will allow the cars to then run clockwise — backwards — through Turn 2, the south chute, Turn 1, and back up the main straightaway, before veering off onto the infield portion. The full distance will, reportedly, be 2.3 miles.
Motorsports fans, and even casual sports fans, should be impressed with Tony George and the Indy folks for putting this all together for the summer after next. The Formula 1 circus will come to the States and bring all the exotic cars with their mre-exotic engines to Indy, along with all the top drivers, such as Michael Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen, Jacques Villeneuve, Alex Zanardi…Wait a minute! Alex Zanardi? Yes, that’s right. Our man Zanardi, who dominated CART Champ Car racing for three years, is going to Formula 1 next season, where he’ll get a full season under his belt before getting his first opportunity to race at Indy.
Zanardi didn’t get to race at Indy yet, because of the war between CART and the Indy Racing League. The IRL, you’ll recall, was a rebellious splinter operation formed by Tony George, three full seasons ago.
Tony George has often said and reiterated that the reason for the IRL is because of middle-America values that want the Indianapolis 500 to be given back to American race drivers, in less-expensive American cars, with less-expensive American engines, who like to race on simple American-based oval tracks, instead of road-racing. Those snooty foreign drivers with their foreign names and foreign cars can take their money and go elsewhere to road-race.
The suspicion, of course, was that Tony George thought that CART’s powerful influence in all its venues was somehow cutting into the Indy 500’s supreme command of U.S. racing, and he wanted to regain control.
For three years, the IRL has languished as clearly a minor-league version of CART’s highly sophisticated racing. The IRL cars, it turned out, were built by foreign companies who do it better, but that was overlooked. The IRL has the Indy 500, however, which, while elevating the IRL to some degree of credibility, has served more to diminish the Indy 500 to a point where it is now secondary to the NASCAR Brickyard 400.
Cynics, as well as those among us who are somewhat impartial and extremely dismayed about the CART-IRL hassle, had to chuckle at the irony when Kenny Brack won the IRL series championship this past season. Kenny Brack, who drives for A.J. Foyt — good-ol’ Super Tex – is from Sweden! One of them ‘durn furriners,’ and a road-racer to boot!
Meanwhile, while the IRL struggles to find some name drivers, the hottest new star of the IRL, Tony Stewart, is leaving the IRL to go stock car racing. And the best-known veteran IRL name, Arie Luyendyk, recently announced he is retiring from the IRL except to race at the Indy 500 next season.
So now that he has banished CART for having too many foreign road-racers, and cars that are too costly, he is bringing in a Formula 1 race, which has all foreign drivers, all of them road-racers, all driving foreign-built racers, all powered by exotic, foreign-built engines, and all at a degree of costliness far beyond CART. And he’s even building a road-course, just for them.
So celebrate the fact that there will be a U.S. Grand Prix again, and that it will be on an intriguing new road-course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. But excuse us if we pause in our celebration of Tony George’s wonderfulness to also point out his blatant hypocrisy.
Still, maybe there’s hope. As soon as Tony George also invites CART to show up and run a race on that road course, all will be forgiven.
Denfeld rises as surprise challenger
Erik Modeen and the Denfeld hockey team are a perfect match.
Modeen is not Denfeld’s top player, in fact he was a part-time hoping hoping to get more ice time going into the week. And Denfeld is not the best hockey team in the Up North region, in fact, if the Hunters believed in themselves at the start of the season, they were the only believers.
Last Tuesday, Modeen scored two goals and assisted on another as the Hunters thrashed International Falls 5-1 at the DECC. That left the Hunters 3-1-1 as the surprise team in the Up North region, going into Thursday’s game against Superior, and what has surprisingly turned into a major showdown Monday night against Greenway of Coleraine at the DECC.
As for surprises, even the Hunters were surprised when a reporter asked to talk to Erik Modeen after the game.
Modeen, a lanky forward, is only a sophomore, and he has been back and forth between the varsity and junior varsity. In high school, a player can play four periods, maximum, in a day, so he would play three periods on JV and one on varsity, or maybe two periods each.
But last Tuesday, senior first-line defenseman John Rodberg had a conflict for a Solid Gold singing group engagement, and when coach Dean Herold excused him from the game, he had to do some juggling.
“I moved Jayme Utt back from center to defense, and moved Erik up to varsity for the full game, and he got two big goals,” said Herold, who was an assistant last year and took over when Dan Stauber moved from Denfeld’s head coaching job to become an assistant at Wisconsin-Superior.
International Falls, hurting with some key players injured, had battled the surprising Hunters 0-0 through the first period. At 1:31 of the second period, Rashaad Allison shot from the point and Modeen deflected the shot up and in to break the scoreless tie. Thirty-one seconds later, Jayme Utt, normally a center who had been shifted to defense for the game, fired another point shot, and again Modeen tipped it in for a 2-0 lead.
“On the first one, I saw the puck go out to the ‘D’ so I went in front and tipped it up off the blade on my backhand,” said Modeen. “The second one, it went out to the ‘D’ and I went in front and got it with my forehand.”
If it sounds as though they were just another couple of routine goals for Modeen, they were the first and second of his high school career. “But I scored 40-some goals last year for the Denfeld Bantams,” he said.
Those goals ignited the Denfeld offense. Jim Durfee, a junior who played on Modeen’s line, scored before the period ended for a 3-0 lead, and Derric Berger played Modeen’s rebound into a wraparound goal when it was 3-1 in the third period.
Adjacent to their dressing room at the DECC, the Hunters coaches have a Budgeteer News clipping, with a familiar by-line, prominently displayed on the middle of the bulletin board. It was the preseason story, ticking off how many area teams were looking ahead to strong seasons. There is no mention of Denfeld in the story, and, frankly, an assortment of other coaches and observers had specifically said Denfeld wouldn’t be among the better teams.
“I admit, I’ve used that as incentive,” said coach Herold, smiling.
Anything to help, coach.
“There’s no question, nobody gave us much respect at the start,” Herold added. “Our success is because of the kids. They were determined to show what they could do. We’re playing with a lot of confidence right now, so my job has gone from convincing them that they could be better than people expected, to making sure they realize that we can’t be cocky.”
Part of the coaching staff’s effort has been to balance their lines and stick with stressing that balance.
“I don’t know who are top scorer is,” said Herold. “We’ve played our top nine forwards regularly, and we use a lot of JV players to make up a fourth line. Jayme Utt (2 goals-8 assists–10 points) is probably our top scorer overall, and I moved him back to defense for the Falls game.”
Aaron Haupert and Jeremy Carter both have 3-4–7, and Scott Spehar 4-2–6 as the top goal-scorer. But spreading out the offense has made the three top lines all capable of challenging foes.
It didn’t help when Jim Rodberg, a sophomore defenseman who has a promising amount of potential and the younger brother of the musical senior John Rodberg, suffered a broken wrist in the season-opening 6-1 loss to Cloquet. Even then, it was only 1-0 after one period, and a still-competitive 3-0 after two periods.
The Hunters had a wild, 6-6 tie against Marshall, another Up North team looking up after a few bleak years. Otherwise, victories over Duluth Central, Virginia and International Falls have given the Hunters their confidence, particularly the Central game, when Denfeld bounced back from the Cloquet loss for a stunning 9-2 victory.
Modeen, whose personal success has paralleled the team’s surge to Up North prominence, observed the team’s determination before he had a chance to lend a hand — or at least a stick blade — to the cause.
“Our captain kept telling us in practice that nobody thought we’d be any good,” said Modeen. “Everybody else thought we wouldn’t do anything; everybody else but us.”
Herold, meanwhile, knows there is a long season to go and there might be some rocky times. One of them could be Monday, when Greenway brings in a team that currently ranks No. 2 in the Up North region and No. 5 statewide in combined ratings.
“We’ve shown what we can do already,” Herold said. “But if we don’t all work hard, we won’t win. On the other hand, if we work, we can run with anyone.”
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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