WCHA playoff tradition faces reality of upsets
This is the week that tradition runs into reality. Tradition says the top five teams in the WCHA should end the seasons of the bottom five, but reality says an upset is more than merely possible in the first round of league playoffs.
North Dakota won the MacNaughton Cup for the fifth time in the eight years coach Dean Blais has been at the helm, and heÂ’s taught his assistants well. Scott Sandelin, a former North Dakota assistant, brought Minnesota-Duluth home second. Brandon Bochenski, a North Dakota junior, scored 16 goals with 23 assists for 39 points in strictly WCHA play, while Junior Lessard, a UMD senior, tied him for the league scoring title with a league-high 19 goals and 20 assists for his 39 points.
ItÂ’s been that kind of season in the WCHA. We can go back to last October, before the season began, when the annual Grand Forks Herald coachesÂ’ poll was announced. Tradition says the coachesÂ’ choice almost never wins the WCHA title. Reality says the coaches set new standards for missing the mark this time around.
Consider that not one single team finished where it was predicted to finish by the coaches. There is one close call. Denver was projected to finish fifth, and the Pioneers tied Minnesota for fourth, which means they also tied for fifth. But Denver holds the tie-breaker edge on Minnesota, having beaten the Gophers three out of four games, so the Pioneers technically are fourth.
League champion North Dakota had been projected as second, while second-place Minnesota-Duluth was seen in a tie for third with Colorado College. Third-place Wisconsin was picked seventh by the coaches, making the Badgers the biggest positive surprise in the WCHA. Tied with Denver for fourth, but getting fifth in seeding, is Minnesota, which was the unanimous pick to win the WCHA title.
In sixth place, St. Cloud State was picked for eighth; seventh-place Colorado College was picked in that tie for third, making the Tigers co-holders of the biggest disappointment with Minnesota; eighth-place Alaska-Anchorage was picked to repeat in 10th; ninth-place Minnesota State-Mankato was picked for sixth; and 10th-place Michigan Tech had been projected ninth.
All of that means the coaches are far better at coaching than predicting, but it also shows what a tangle the WCHA has proven to be this season. Which brings us back to this weekendÂ’s first round of playoffs, best-of-three affairs that will determine the Final Five entries at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul next week.
In an amazing finish, every single position in the standings went down to the final weekend, and three of the season-ending match-ups will be duplicated as first-round playoff pairings. Michigan Tech, which could have finished eighth, was swept at North Dakota, dropping the Huskies to 10th and securing the fifth MacNaughton Cup in coach Dean BlaisÂ’s eight years at the Sioux helm. That finish also sends Tech right back from Houghton to Grand Forks this week.
Colorado College, which went into the final regular-season weekend just three points behind Denver and Minnesota, and could have finished as high as fourth, was swept at Denver last weekend to stay in seventh and be destined to return to Denver Friday, to face a team that could have dropped to seventh but finished fourth. The Pioneers, however, will be without speedster Connor James, a senior who has 12 goals, 23 assists for 35 points. James suffered a broken right fibula in FridayÂ’s concluding game against Colorado College.
St. Cloud State, needing a split to stay ahead of Minnesota and claim home-ice, instead lost twice at Minnesota and drops to sixth. Adam Coole returned to the St. Cloud nets in the second game, a 4-2 setback, but he appears to have won the playoff starting slot after a strong showing in the face of repeated Gopher breakaways held the Huskies close. The Huskies chose to return home up I94 after both games at Minnesota, so the route will be more than just familiar after this weekend, especially if their series against the Gophers goes three games, and they wind up doing shuttle service to Mariucci Arena.
The only two playoff pairings that avoided rematches find eighth-place Alaska-Anchorage traveling to Wisconsin, while ninth-place Minnesota State-Mankato goes to Minnesota-Duluth.
“ItÂ’s OK with our guys to come right back and play Minnesota again,†said St. Cloud coach Craig Dahl. “We like to play at Mariucci, and itÂ’ll be familiar to our guys who are used to playing best-of-five playoffs in junior hockey.Ââ€
The advantage to St. Cloud, Colorado College and Michigan Tech, by that logic, is that they are facing foes in “best-of-five†settings where the opponents’ first two victories don’t count any more.
An intriguing edge to the WCHA playoff picture is that in the Pairwise computer ratings, which replicate the NCAA selection committee criteria for picking teams for the national tournament, five WCHA teams rank among the top eight. North Dakota is first, UMD fourth, Minnesota fifth, Denver sixth, and Wisconsin eighth.
So, in reality, all five rank highly enough that if any of them lose this weekend, and fail to advance to the Final Five, they might still rank highly enough to be assured of a berth in the 16-team NCAA field. That may make the five home teams a bit complacent this weekend, but it certainly will add extra incentive to the five visitors, who know they must win the league playoff to assure themselves a possible NCAA slot.
For good measure, St. Cloud State is 15th and Colorado College 16th in the Pairwise. With Colorado College host to one of four NCAA regionals, the Tigers are in jeopardy of missing the playoffs, unless they can make a dramatic playoff run to strengthen their rating.
It seems unlikely that any league could get as many as five teams into the NCAA, but if all goes according to form in the playoffs, the WCHA may well end up with five.
With Bochenski and Lessard sharing the scoring title, Bernd Bruckler of Wisconsin has the edge in goaltending statistics, leading the league in minutes played, and in goals-against at 2.11, as well as in save percentage at .928. Right behind Bruckler in goals-against come North DakotaÂ’s duo of Josh Parise at 2.14 and teammate Jake Brandt at 2.18. Trailing Bruckler in save percentage come UMDÂ’s Isaac Reichmuth, Brandt, and Chris King of Alaska-Anchorage in a three-way tie at .913.
While goaltending is of primary importance at playoff time, BrandtÂ’s strong finish gave him the leagueÂ’s top winning percentage, with a 12-2 record. Second was Reichmuth, with a league-high 17 victories to go with three losses and two ties. Next comes Parise 8-3-3 and then Bruckler, at 14-6-7.
If the top five regular-season finishers win their opening round playoff series, the spotlight on Xcel Energy Center will shine on Minnesota facing Denver to break their regular-season tie next Thursday night. The Gophers, who play across town in Minneapolis, are contractually bound to play the Friday night game, for attendance draw purposes, so the good news for crowd-size is that the Gophers will have to play all three nights in order to win the league playoff. The bad news for the Gophers – and Pioneers, for that matter – is that no team has been able to win three straight games from the play-in game to the title.
Under those circumstances, the Minnesota-Denver winner would face North Dakota in one semifinal next Friday, while Minnesota-Duluth and Wisconsin would tangle in a match of premier goaltenders in the other semifinal. The semifinal losers, who would meet in a third-place game Saturday afternoon, might need a victory about then to improve an NCAA tournament seeding. The championship will be Saturday night.
Who might win the playoff title is anybodyÂ’s guess. But, based on their preseason picks, donÂ’t ask the coaches.
Potter, Ouellette keep UMD’s NCAA hopes alive
Four incredible seasons, including championship runs in the only three NCAA womenÂ’s hockey tournaments ever conducted, have brought the University of Minnesota-Duluth to an enormous pressure point this weekend at the WCHA Final Five tournament. Winning the tournament is foremost on the minds of all five contenders, but for the Bulldogs, itÂ’s win the tournament or forget about defending their three NCAA titles.
However far the Bulldogs go, it also will end the amazing collegiate career of Jenny Potter, formerly Jenny Schmidgall, as well as for her UMD senior teammates, Tricia Guest and defenseman Satu Kiipeli. Guest and Kiipeli have been a part of all three NCAA championship teams, while Potter missed a couple of years – one to play for the U.S. Olympic team in the 2002 Winter Olympics and another while having a baby.
The post-season run by Potter also will signal the end to an unusual alliance between Potter and Caroline Ouellette, who have been linemates and fellow finalists for the Patti Kazmaier award. Ouellette, a star on the Canadian Olympic team that beat Potter and Team USA 3-2 for the gold medal at Salt Lake City, have become such sensational coconspirators of UMDÂ’s attack that it would seem natural for one of them to defect so they could continue to play together.
After the two went nose-to-nose at Salt Lake City, Potter returned to UMD last year as a junior and found Ouellette there as a new recruit. The two not only were teammates, but coach Shannon Miller found they were extremely compatible as linemates. With the heavy hit of graduation depleting UMDÂ’s roster from the strength of its third straight NCAA crown, the offense fell squarely in the hands of Potter and Ouellette.
They couldnÂ’t have done much more. They went into the final regular-season series 1-2 for the national scoring lead. They faced Minnesota State-Mankato goaltender Sheri Vogt, another Kazmaier Award finalist, who hadnÂ’t given up more than four goals in any game this season. Vogt also had beaten and tied Minnesota, and anchored a pair of season-opening one-goal victories over UMD.
In the first game, UMD blitzed Vogt and the Mavericks 9-0, with Potter scoring three goals, and Ouellette notching two goals and four assists. That tied the two for the national scoring lead at 72 points. Vogt was positively brilliant in the rematch, when UMD outshot the Mavs 56-14 but had to battle throughout to win 3-0. Ouellette scored two first-period goals, and Tricia Guest scored the third-period clincher.
That leaves Ouellette with 29-45—74 as the national scoring leader, and Potter with 35-37—72 as a close second, going into the WCHA tournament. In WCHA games, Potter won the scoring title with 28-29—57, while Ouellette was second at 21-34—55.
Despite their close scoring proximity, there is no competition between Potter and Ouellette. In fact, after scoring two first-period goals Saturday night to pull ahead of Potter for the national scoring lead, Ouellette had a breakaway chance for a hat trick in the third period, but instead of shooting, she tried to force a pass to Potter and the play misfired.
“Caroline wants Jenny to win the scoring title and the Kazmaier Award so bad that sheÂ’ll do anything to help her,†said coach Miller. “And that includes trying to pass when she should be shooting in the third period. ItÂ’s been a great year for both of them. Jenny has really emerged as a team leader for us this season.Ââ€
It’s been a strange year for UMD. First, Miller lost two prime recruits. Evalina Samuelsson, a standout for the Swedish national team and teammate of former UMD stars Maria Rooth and Erika Holst, was set to come in last fall, but she suffered a serious back injury – “it was while playing lacrosse, or soccer, or some off-season sport,†said Miller. Then Laura Stosky, a star defenseman for Canada’s under-22 team, decided to stay home with her father when her mother died last summer. Jen Lipman, another promising player from Phoenix, also was a no-show.
“On top of that, Amelia Hradsky quit school, and then, just when it looked like we were getting going, Bethany Petersen dropped out of school at Christmas,†said Miller. “So we went through the whole season four scholarships short. Then we lost Larissa Luther for two months at the start of the season and for two weeks later, and Jessica Koizumi was out for three weeks with two different injuries. And Tricia Guest was out over a month with mono.Ââ€
Despite the short bench, the Bulldogs snapped MinnesotaÂ’s attempt at an unbeaten season, tied and lost to Harvard, stunned Dartmouth 6-2 before losing the rematch at Dartmouth, lost 3-2 to St. Lawrence despite a huge shot advantage, then whipped St. Lawrence 5-0 in a decisive rematch. Minnesota, Harvard, Dartmouth and St. Lawrence just happen to stand 1-4 in the current Pairwise computer ratings, the guide for the NCAA selection committee to use in picking tournament entrants.
Wisconsin is fifth, and UMD split an early series with the Badgers, then lost two close games at Madison to stand 1-2-1 for the season against Wisconsin. Those results are pivotal to No. 6 UMD going into the WCHA Final Five, because the Bulldogs face Wisconsin at 1 p.m. Saturday in the first WCHA semifinal. A loss to the Badgers would undoubtedly leave UMD without much chance of reaching the four-team NCAA field. A victory by UMD would probably propel the Bulldogs past the Badgers in the rankings, making the teams 2-2-1 against each other, and with UMDÂ’s schedule decidedly tougher. Wisconsin, for example, hasnÂ’t played Harvard, Dartmouth or St. Lawrence, while those three teams all must compete against each other in the ECAC playoffs, where two of the three must lose somewhere along the way.
The Bulldogs, of course, also are aiming at beating league champion Minnesota for the league playoff title, because that, too, would positively influence the ranking and just might elevate the Bulldogs to the Final Four. Surely the NCAA would be better served by having two East and two West teams in the Frozen Four, and it would seem beneficial to also have the winner of all three NCAA titles in the field, rather than eliminated by arbitrary committee decision.
Whatever, the scoring of Potter and Ouellette will be pivotal for the Bulldogs. Miller entrusts so much of the teamÂ’s offense to the pair that she let Potter design the first power-play strategy, with an assist from Ouellette, naturally.
One of Miller’s strengths as an exceptional coach – beyond her obvious tactical ideas – is that she is receptive to ideas from wherever they may come. She even listens to observers from the stands, including Rob Potter, Jenny’s husband, and Duane Schmidgall, Jenny’s dad. In fact, after the 3-0 victory over Mankato, and the 56-shot barrage at Sheri Vogt, Duane Schmidgall approached Miller and suggested a few ideas on how the power play might be improved. Miller showed amazing restraint by taking it all in – without telling Jenny’s dad that the power play he was questioning had been designed by Jenny.
Thin as the roster is, the Bulldogs have gotten Guest, Koizumi and Luther back in the lineup from their assorted broken bones, injuries and illnesses.
“WeÂ’re happy and as healthy as possible,†said Miller. “All we can do is beat Wisconsin and try to win our playoffs, and then if St. Lawrence drops a game in their playoff, maybe we can make it back to the NCAA.Ââ€
It would seem abnormal if they didnÂ’t.
Volvo’s humanitarianism goes beyond cars
When the Volvo XC-90 won the 2003 International Truck of the Year award, Volvo’s first venture into the realm of sport-utility vehicles was heralded worldwide for being one of the safest – if not the safest – of the world’s vehicles.
Having the opportunity recently to road-test both the XC-90 and the lower-slung, more conventional Volvo XC-70 Cross Country station wagon, the similarities and differences of the two vehicles makes them worthy alternatives for those seeking people-haulers and/or utility vehicles. The XC-70 is low and lean and agile, while the XC-90 is taller, roomier, if less-lean and less-sleek.
However, the overriding theme when driving either of them, or any Volvo, for that matter, is how the Swedish company has continued to follow its own path of seeming to genuinely care about people – far beyond the simple matter of profit-making and exploitation that can usually be associated with automakers. Call it comprehensive conscientiousness.
Volvo insists that its cars will always care about people and families and their safety first and foremost, and the incredible safety characteristics such as: the strength of steel used to surround the passenger compartment; the purposeful seats that are both the most comfortable and supportive in the industry and the safest when put to the stress of accident tests; the safety testing that goes far beyond frontal, front corner and side impact to also include rollover survivability; the emergence of vehicles that are not only the safest in a rollover but the least likely to roll over.
But Volvo has now gone well beyond the call of duty, or commerce. The cars are fantastic, but the humanitarian reach of Volvo is truly remarkable. A fellow named Soren Johansson, one of a number of public relations people at Volvo who go beyond the call of being friendly, helpful, courteous and all those other things that sound a lot like the Boy Scout creed, came up with something called Volvo for Life Awards. It was an idea that would identify otherwise unidentifiable “hometown heroes,†who committed various acts of kindness simply for the sake of helping people.
Johansson suggested it to Volvo executives, and they told him to go for it. So Johansson veered away from the promotion and marketing of the latest and most impressive fleet of Volvo cars to develop a concept that would allow people to nominate everyday people, living normal, everyday lives, but who happen to have made outstanding and unselfish attempts to help their fellow-humans. ItÂ’s a national event, and anyone can nominate anyone for the award. The winner wonÂ’t get rich, but gets a charitable donation from funds raised by Volvo and other major corporations to the foundation of his or her choice.
The program was launched in 2001, timed with the 75th anniversary of Volvo as an automotive company, and over 5,000 of such true-to-life heroes have been identified so far. The only thing that connects Volvo cars to the plan is that there had to be some reasonable way to gather the nominations and evaluate them. Anyone can get on the website volvoforlifeawards.com.
But Johansson wasnÂ’t satisfied. He also thought it would make sense to regionalize the awards, and Matt Malfitano, Volvo of AmericaÂ’s vice president, volunteered to take it on, and selected Minnesota as the site for a first attempt at a state award. Then he took the handoff from Johansson and bolted for the end zone. The football analogy works, because Johansson, since coming to the U.S. from Sweden, has become a diehard Green Bay Packer fanatic, stopping just short of wearing a cheddar wedge on his thoughtful brow.
To nominate a state hero, Minnesotans could get on their own website, www.mn-volvoforlifeawards.com.
As a cynic who has come by cynicism honestly, over 35 years of closely scrutinizing the automotive world – as well as the wide world of sports – I must say that I listened to the idea, and I nodded in agreement that yes, it sounds great. It sounded like a good promotion, maybe better than anything I’d heard from any auto company, but a sales promotion, nonetheless, where a guy with a sales form might be lurking nearby.
On Wednesday night, however, my cynicism was washed away. Fred Haberman, who owns a small, Minneapolis-based public relations firm that does some work with Volvo, worked with Johansson, Malfitano and obviously numerous others and pulled together a fantastic dinner at the Le Meridien hotel in Minneapolis, newly built across First Avenue from Target Center. They brought in the top 10 candidates for Hometown Heroes of Minnesota, and then they named the final three from a surprisingly large list of nominees. “We expected maybe a few dozen, and we got nearly 200,†said Johansson.
The nominees for the Minnesota Volvo for life Awards are automatically included in the national program, which has 2,768 candidates nationwide. A national winner will be chosen at Times Square Studios in New York on April 7.
The three finalists selected all were impressive, and all were women. There was Sy Vang Mouacheupau of St. Paul, a Hmong refugee who had defied Hmong tradition to start Asian Women United House of Peace, a shelter for Asian women suffering from domestic violence and other problems. She was presented with an award for a $10,000 donation. “All my life, IÂ’ve been told Japanese cars are the best,†Sy Vang said. “But now I know Volvos must be up there, too.Ââ€
Linda Jemison, also from St. Paul, was once a homeless person living from shelter to shelter, and once she got her life together, she started the Ethel Gordon Community Care Center, named after her late mother, and aimed at helping women straighten out their lives, a place, she said, “not where you come to live, but a place you come to change.†She was first runner-up, and received a $15,000 charitable award.
The winner was Margaret Yeboah, 48, whose story cries out for someone to turn into a screenplay. She came to Minneapolis from a small village in Ghana, where she grew up without schools, running water, toilets, or any conveniences of the modern world. An elementary physical education teacher at Lucy Craft Laney at Cleveland Park Community School in Minneapolis, Yeboah has been known to buy clothes and shoes for her students, and offer them financial incentives to help them go on to college. She is the single mother of two, now grown, and she has adopted three more. A Minnesotan for 22 years, Yeboah started several years ago sending money home to Amponsakrom, Ghana, an African village near her hometown of Swedru.
Yeboah has refinanced her home three times, taken out loans and sought donations, and the her donations have led to the building of 20 classrooms, three school buses, a medical clinic and a vocational school, as well as the acquisition of books, uniforms, six generators, a well to replace the disease-ridden surface water the village had been using, as well as money for school lunches. She also had helped in the purchase of over 200 acres of land, on which people can learn to farm and become self-sufficient. That doesnÂ’t count the purchase of 1,000 pairs of reading glasses, clothes and medicine.
In her spare time, Yeboah writes gymnastic routines, dances and plays for her Minneapolis students, and she has taken them to sing, dance and perform at nursing homes.
“My mother used to tell me that when you cook something good and eat it, people might say, ‘That was good,Â’ †said Yeboah. “And you feel like a fool if they didnÂ’t have anything to eat. But if you share what you have, and then they say, ‘That was good,Â’ then it means something. If there is any way to help people, I will spend my last penny. I had faith that someone, somewhere, would help with this project. I just didnÂ’t know when. This is America.Ââ€
When she realized she had won a $25,000 donation, Yeboah said: “This is shocking. What Volvo is doing is like seed planting. You put the seed in, it gets bigger, and everyone can eat. Just like Johnny Appletree. God bless Volvo.Ââ€
So here we have a Swedish car company finding and giving credit to an amazing and heroic Minnesota woman who is almost singlehandedly changing the lives of hundreds of people in her native Ghana. When you read the next story about corporate greed, or a sports figure getting millions of dollars a year to hit a ball or pass a football or shoot a puck or basketball, pause a moment and put things in perspective. There is more to life when it comes to selecting a hero.
Gophers turn Golden as playoffs arrive
ItÂ’s not what youÂ’ve done, itÂ’s what you have done lately that counts when it comes to WCHA playoff time. For the University of Minnesota, it seems that a season of sputtering stops and starts and a fifth-place finish has long since passed, because the tournament-savvy Gophers are on what has become an annual post-season ascent.
A record of 15-12-1 left the Gophers only the fifth seed in the WCHA playoff picture, and in need of a season-ending sweep of St. Cloud State to hang onto that final home-ice berth behind North Dakota, Minnesota-Duluth, Wisconsin and Denver.
Typically, Minnesota got past St. Cloud State in a first-round playoff series, erupting for a dominant two-game triumph. It seemed the Gophers were primed and ready for a new challenge. After all, two years ago Denver was the WCHA champion, but when the Pioneers faltered in the NCAA playoffs, the Gophers went on to win the NCAA title for the first time in 23 years. And last year, after Colorado College won the WCHA title, the Tigers, also, faltered in the NCAA regionals, and again the Gophers stormed on to win their second straight NCAA title.
This year, the challenge would be that the Gophers – already set on an NCAA berth because of a strong nonconference showing – would have to advance through the WCHA Final Five by winning the dreaded play-in game between fourth and fifth, then beating league champ North Dakota, and then the winner between second and third seeds UMD and Wisconsin.
But wait! The Playoff Gods have smiled early on the Gophers this time around. Denver, fresh from sweeping a season-ending pair from Colorado College, lost two straight to CC in the opening playoff round and will stay home from this weekÂ’s Final Five. And Wisconsin, at home in spacious Kohl Center, were beaten by eighth-place Alaska-Anchorage two out of three times and also will be at home when the five survivors convene at Saint PaulÂ’s Xcel Energy Center.
Those results knock out third-seed Wisconsin and fourth-seed Denver, and because the WCHA recalibrates the five survivors, Minnesota moves up from fifth to third – avoiding the play-in game, which now will be between Colorado College and Alaska-Anchorage on Thursday night. That winner will advance to play North Dakota Friday afternoon, while Minnesota faces UMD in the Friday night semifinal.
Facing the runner-up Bulldogs is no treat for Minnesota, because the Bulldogs won all four games against Minnesota during the season, including 6-1 and 4-1 romps a month ago in Duluth. Ah, but those were the “regular-season†Gophers, who bear little resemblance to the Gophers in playoff mode.
One of the keys for Minnesota is a pivotal decision made by the Potulny family, which produced Grant Potulny – the captain, the game-winning overtime goal-scorer to give Minnesota its NCAA title victory against Maine two years ago, and the team’s unequivocal leader. The same family also contributed Ryan Potulny, last year’s USHL junior league scoring champion, as a Minnesota freshman this season.
Ryan Potulny was injured in the eighth game of the season, and while that was part of one game beyond the point where medical redshirt years are granted, it was a cinch he could get the redshirt year on appeal. Going into the last weekend of the regular season, however, coach Don Lucia surprised everybody by announcing the rehabilitated Ryan Potulny would rejoin the lineup for the remainder of the season, however far the Gophers go.
Lucia isnÂ’t foolish enough to exchange a full season for a handful of games, no matter how important, and regardless of the fact that the Gophers finished with a listless four losses in six games stretch. But he discussed it with the Potulny family, because RyanÂ’s skill level is such that heÂ’s more likely to be lured by a pro contract before four years are up than he is to stay through four full years and a fifth, redshirt season.
“It was their call,†said Lucia. “The only question was whether the family thought that Ryan would be here for a fifth year. If heÂ’s not planning to be here for a fifth year, then why redshirt and waste the rest of this season. He adds a lot.Ââ€
After Minnesota beat St. Cloud 7-4 in the season-ending series, Ryan Potulny stepped in and scored a goal at 3:34 of the second period. He followed a rush by Thomas Vanek, and when goaltender Ryan Coole poke-checked the puck away from Vanek, the younger Potulny put it in. Minnesota finished the sweep with a 4-2 victory, and Ryan PotulnyÂ’s goal was the game-winner.
Assistant coach Bob Motzko, who manned the bench while Lucia sat up in the press box with a padded collar easing the aftermath of some surgery on his upper vertebra, wasnÂ’t surprised by the impressive return. “ItÂ’s going to take Ryan a while to get everything back together, but heÂ’s something special. WeÂ’ve just got to extend our season a few weeks to give him time.Ââ€
Was there any doubt? The Gophers whipped the faltering Huskies 6-1 and 7-3, and Ryan Potulny scored four more goals in the sweep, giving him five goals in three games.
As if they needed any more incentive against UMD, the Gophers have their hot hand going against a Bulldog outfit that narrowly escaped Minnesota State-Mankato. UMD lost 4-3 in overtime in a Friday shocker at the DECC, then came back to win 6-2 on Saturday. In SundayÂ’s deciding game, UMD flew off to an insurmountable lead with five goals in the in the opening minutes, then found out the lead was surmountable, after all, and had to hang on for a 6-5 escape.
For UMD, a strong post-season will wash away all sorts of post-season blues. Last year, the Bulldogs were the hottest team in the WCHA at the end of the season, and finished third in the Final Five with an impressive run, but their lack of nonconference success killed their pairwise computer rating and left them out of the 12-team NCAA field.
This year, their strong pairwise assures the Bulldogs of a slot in the expanded 16-team NCAA, but the close call against ninth-place Mankato, coupled with MinnesotaÂ’s sudden resurgence, reduces the effect UMDÂ’s regular-season four-games-to-none record may have had against the Gophers.
After all, UMD is breaking new ground this year by coming into the Final Five as a semifinalist. For Minnesota, it’s same-old ground, revisited. At least this year, UMD can share in Minnesota’s “home-ice†advantage, where the Xcel Center’s contract calls for the Gophers to play the night game in the tournament to assure a big crowd. Last year, UMD won the play-in game, then lost a close battle to top-seeded Colorado College, before coming back to win the third-place game.
This year, the Dogs knew theyÂ’d be in the semifinals, and they anticipated facing a Wisconsin team they had just beaten in a season-ending sweep in Madison. Instead, they get the Gophers, who suddenly look like theyÂ’re on a mission. Again.
Compact X3 proves less can be more in BMW World
As the automobile business expands to overflow every possible niche in the marketplace, there are hundreds of impressive vehicles out there. But it seems that the more there are, the more evident it becomes that weÂ’re living in a “BMW World.Ââ€
Any time any company wants to build an all-new vehicle, it selects certain vehicles to use as benchmarks. Invariably, competitors go to the BMW 3-Series for near-perfect handling, or to the sportier M3 if seeking all-out performance handling. If itÂ’s a larger sedan, then competitors might choose the larger BMW 5-Series, and for roomy luxury, the benchmark becomes the BMW 7-Series. It even spills over to sport-utility vehicles, where so many worthy vehicles already live, but the BMW X5 is held in the highest regard for style and performance.
So how does BMW compete with itself? Good question. And a question that crossed my mind when I heard BMW was coming out with a new X3 – a more compact SUV than the X5. I was unable to attend the introduction of the X3, and since that time I’ve read several reviews and criticisms of the X3. But I recently got my hands on one for a week-long test drive, and I fail to see what the critics found to criticize.
From my viewpoint, BMW has expanded its empire again, and anyone designing or redesigning a compact SUV has a new benchmark.
This “Baby Beemer†is built on the 3-Series sedan platform, making it a crossover by the strictest definition of the term – a truck-like vehicle built on a lower, car-based chassis. It is ludicrous to call the X3 a truck, but it does cross over from being a sedan-like vehicle built higher to afford more ground clearance and taller for more interior headroom. Or, think of it as a rugged off-road vehicle refined enough to bring you back in from the Baja in late afternoon, where you could hose it off and draw raves when you pull up that night at a country club function.
You can probably get the base 2.5 X3 for close to $30,000, although the test vehicle was the 3.0 version, which means it came armed with the fantastic BMW 3.0-liter in-line six. Nothing wrong with the 2.5, but the 3.0 is a fabulous engine, smooth as silk with power available at any rev-level, through BMWÂ’s Double-VANOS variable valve timing. The horsepower peak is 225 with a torque-peak of 214 foot-pounds, up from 184 and 175 with the smaller engine. The base price of the X3 with the 3.0 is $36,300, and the test vehicle had enough options to boost it to $42,170. Some of the options could be deleted, but donÂ’t ask me to pick one that doesnÂ’t enhance the driving experience. And, as usual, there are two truisms about BMW products: 1. They are expensive; and 2. They are worth every penny.
The test vehicle also was equipped with BMWÂ’s smooth six-speed manual transmission, which was cheating, really, because it made the X3 come to life with a fun-to-drive quotient that rivals the top 3-Series sedans. You sit high enough to never forget youÂ’re in an SUV, but an SUV that performs like a completely stable sports sedan.
If there is a compromise, it is that the suspension is definitely firm, which I like, and which amplifies the assets of the very supportive bucket seats. Some may find it too firm, bordering on harshness on potholed roads, but itÂ’s a compromise I accept for the flat and stable cornering attitude.
IÂ’ve always admired the X5 design, with a grille that looks just like the sedans used to, but I think the X3 might be even neater, with a more individualized, if more compact, look. The rear also has a sleeker, more refined look, I think, and the way the roofline tapers down at the rear while the lower body line under the side windows kicks up at the rear, gives the X3 a nicely packaged appearance.
Other features of that stellar drivetrain include BMW’s new “xDrive†all-wheel drive system, which divides power with a 60-percent bias toward the rear, but slippage can be countered by the system’s shift of anything up to 100 percent torque to either the front or rear. The system is so sophisticated that it doesn’t just read tire slippage, but also evaluates steering wheel force, gear selection, gas pedal and road conditions before providing the percentage of power most beneficial to getting you around a corner or through a blizzard.
Four-wheel disc brakes, Dynamic Stability Control keeps you going straight and Hill Descent Control can allow the X3 to creep down a steep grade with engine-control stealth while you don’t even touch a pedal. Adaptive brakelights, which come on at the touch of the pedal, but come on with extra intensity in a panic stop – to offer welcome warning to trailing vehicles – are other safety touches. Airbag systems front, rear and side also are standard, as are rain-sensing windshield wipers. Foglights and brushed aluminum finish to interior trim also are standard.
The option list was tilted by the Premium Package, which includes a panorama glass moonroof, which is so long that it serves both the front buckets and the second-row seat, plus leather upholstery, an automatic-dim rearview mirror, upgraded interior touches, and improved lumbar support control – which the BMW sticker price sheet calls “lumber support,†presumably having more to do with the translation from German to English than to the vehicle’s capability of hauling boards. A navigation system, privacy glass and the titanium silver metallic paint are other options.
The interesting thing about the X3 is that I never thought the X5 was too big, because it certainly lacks the bulk and heft of larger SUVs. The X3 measures 600 pounds less than the X5, and about four inches shorter, which isnÂ’t a huge difference, but it pretty well equates with the difference between the exceptional 5-Series sedan and the exceptional 3-Series sedan.
Like hot-fudge sundaes and filet mignon steaks, there is no such thing as a bad BMW. The X3 just means weÂ’ve discovered a new continent in BMWÂ’s World.
(John Gilbert writes weekly auto columns and can be contacted at cars@jwgilbert.com.)
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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