Chrysler 300 AWD, Passat 4-Motion challenge blizzard
Ah, wintertime. Having previously reviewed the Chrysler 300 in various forms, and the Volkswagen Passat, I found both of them smooth and satisfying sedans with large-car comfort and room, and current high-tech road handling manners.
Since the 300 can be obtained with a Hemi V8 and a fire-breathing SRT8 high-performance version, it also comes standard with rear-wheel drive. The Passat, on the other hand, starts out with a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine – one-third the displacement size of the Hemi V8 – the difference is significantly made up with the Passat’s turbocharger, and all-season traction gains considerably from the Passat’s standard front-wheel drive.
Still, I was hoping to get the chance to drive the all-wheel-drive versions of both cars in good-olÂ’ Minnesota winter. And not JUST Minnesota winter, because the Minneapolis-St. Paul area has been no more snow-struck than Chicago this winter. But Northern Minnesota, up around Duluth and northward, has been a true winter wonderland. Because I spend part of each week up on the North Shore bluff overlooking Lake Superior from the North Shore, my timing couldnÂ’t have been better.
On the same mid-February week, I got two test-drive cars – a Chrysler 300 AWD, and a Volkswagen Passat 3.6 4-Motion.
Ideally, since I had already road-tested both cars in their other forms (you could look them up at www.jwgilbert.com), this time I could focus specifically on how they worked in the Great White North. But a lot of Upper Midwest locations havenÂ’t gotten a lot of snow this winter, and generally donÂ’t get a lot of the heavy stuff, but even when a driver faces even rare storms that can make driving treacherous, the heart-in-the-throat/white-knuckle moments make the security of good winter-drive cars priceless in their security.
Otherwise, there is always the old reliable technique of having your tires siped, an inexpensive process at many reliable tire shops of cutting tiny slits across the face of otherwise poor-traction tires and improving them measurably.
Since I’m always seeking new information for my memory bank. Checking out the patches of green – OK, brown – grass in the Twin Cities, we knew that the Duluth region had been hit with a couple of 6-inch snowfalls, so my wife, Joan, and I headed north. Admittedly I was a lot more enthusiastic about the weekend than Joan. We each drove one of the vehicles the 150 miles to the North Shore, so I got to drive both of them while we were up there, then we swapped for the return trip.
We couldnÂ’t have scripted it more perfectly, because on our first night, it started to snow. And it kept snowing, throughout the next day. Our neighbor, who is our local hero, showed up with his Polaris All-Terrain Vehicle and its sturdy plow, and did a quick job of shoving the snow aside. I asked him if I should move the cars, and he said not to bother, because, as he glanced upward into the fast-falling feathery flakes, he bypassed alliteration to say: “IÂ’ll be coming back later.Ââ€
Sure enough, it kept on snowing. Downtown Duluth got 11 inches, we got 14.5, and for parts of the day, it fell at a rate faster than 2 inches per hour. When I went out to try the cars, the snow was already back up to bumper-height in the driveway, and on our road. The cars both looked surreal, with snow piled on every flat surface, completely encasing everything, including the grilles, and the headlights, which had an eerie glow through their own personal shrouds. This was the kind of snowstorm where sane people stay home and listen to the event closings on the radio, and in which borderline sane auto-reviewers go charging out to see how the car works.
Checking out the Chrysler 300, I noted that the tires mounted were enormous, on 18-inch wheels. They were Continental tires with an “M+S†notation on the sidewalls. That means mud and snow, and it means the tires are designed for the next-best thing to severe-weather, on a scale that goes from performance, to all-season, to M+S, to severe-weather, to all-out snow tires.
So I was confident as I backed the Chrysler 300 out the long driveway, although it slithered a little through the heavy snow, before it burst through the snowplowed ridge to reach our main road. After checking to make sure nobody was coming either way, the 300 spun a little as I backed onto the road. I drove on down the road, letting the accumulated snow fly off the roof and rear deck to form a whiteout trailing the car for a hundred feet or so – a beautiful sight, through the rear-view mirror.
The steering felt OK, but a little light considering that there was a slippery base under several inches of snow on the roadway. But the car handled pretty well, and in my mind, the security of all-wheel drive gave me some confidence. More confidence than I should have had, perhaps. Going up some of DuluthÂ’s steep hills was OK, but on the snow-covered ones, the car wanted to grope for grip.
At one point on our snow-covered road, I stopped to return to the house. I backed carefully into a plowed driveway, and when I was crosswise in the road, trying to finish my turnaround, the car spun and slithered considerably before I got it around. I got back underway gingerly, but effectively, and made it up our final hill without any undue hassle.
Next it was the Passat 4-MotionÂ’s turn. I had backed it out first, so it had no advantage of previously broken trail, and parked it on the road while I had retrieved the Chrysler. The Passat stuck very well, churning through the deeper snow and the plowed pile, without spinning.
As I headed down the road, with the snow blowing off behind in similar fashion, the 4-Motion all-wheel drive elicited the same sort of confidence, but it also drove with a more secure road-holding feel as I drove to the same location, turning around at the same driveway. This time, there was no hesitation, no slipping or slithering, as I got perpendicular in the roadway and finished my turn over the crown of the roadway.
Later driving, I tried some unplowed side streets as well as slippery hills, and the Passat scaled them with ease. When I checked, I was frankly surprised to see that the car was shod with Michelin Pilot tires – but they were the new all-season Pilots, with about six letters of designation following, and they had all-season designation on 17-inch wheels. The Michelin Pilot Sport high-performance tires are basically dangerous to drive on ice and snow, but this year’s new all-season version has a stickier compound that worked very well.
{IMG2}
Breaking down the cars further, the 300 had ChryslerÂ’s 3.5-liter V6 instead of a Hemi V8, and has 250 horsepower and 250 foot-pounds of torque running through all four wheels. The car weighs 4,300 pounds, and it has the blunt-design exterior which has been a huge success for DaimlerChrysler. Inside, luxury touches to the leather seats, the white-backlit instruments, and the added fifth gear to the automatic transmission make it a smooth and luxurious highway cruiser. Its price is an estimated $35,000 as tested, as 300s start at $24,200 and crest at $42,695 if you load up all the top goodies, including the SRT8 power.
The Passat 4-Motion, meanwhile, is similarly luxurious inside, and has VolkswagenÂ’s new-look redesigned body, which is sleek and stylish in the manner of a new Jetta stretched at both ends. Interior room is good, and the safety characteristics are excellent. The base price of $31,900 went up to a listed $35,280 with a luxury package that includes wood trim and leather, with heated windshield and headlight washers and manual sunshades on the rear and rear-side windows. That includes the 3.6-liter direct-injection V6, meaning itÂ’s just about the same size as the Chrysler engine, but it has 280 horsepower and 265 foot-pounds of torque because of the direct-injection dosages of more controlled fuel input to each cylinder.
But thereÂ’s one aside to the Passat. I got 20 miles per gallon on one tankful, and 24 miles per gallon on a more freeway-oriented second tankful. The 20 was about the same as the Chrysler 300. However, for my personal taste, the previously tested Passat 2.0, with the exceptional 2.0-liter turbocharged direct-injection four-cylinder, had more than enough power in front-wheel-drive mode, and I have been able to get over 30 miles per gallon with that engine in the Passat and its cousin, the Audi A4. Not only that, but the Passat with the 2.0 has a base price of $23,900 and a loaded-up price tag of $31,565.
However, in this test, we return to the 300 and Passat all-wheel-drivers, and the Passat was a clear winner in secure, non-slithering traction. But the difference was clearly in the tires – which is something manufacturers don’t seem to think much about, and which consumers must think more about.
It is obvious that a tire manufacturer can put “all-season,†or “M+S†on the sidewall without stringent requirements – or at least without requirements that stress ice and snow driving. There are some exceptional tires on the market now. Pure winter tires from many tire-makers are good, led by the Bridgestone Blizzaks, which are outstanding on pure ice and heavy snow, although they also wear quickly when driven on pavement – as most days are, even in winter.
Personally, I rank the Nokian WR all-season tires as the best, because their price is not prohibitive, they stick very well in all winter conditions, and they will run 65,000 or more as well as all but the highest high-performance tires if you leave them on year-round.
It is unfair, but understandable, that consumers consider whether their cars are good-handling or poor-handling in ice and snow, often disregarding that tires can make the difference between the two. If tires, even M+S or all-season tires, don’t grip on ice and snow, there is always the old reliable siping technique, an inexpensive process at many reliable tire shops with siping machines that cut tiny slits across the face of hard-compound and otherwise poor-traction tires to improve them measurably.
As for the test cars, it would be very interesting to see how the Chrysler 300 AWD would go through snow with Nokian WRs mounted, or at least with its tires siped. The Passat 4-Motion might also be improved with more dedicated winter tires, but at least it worked capably, and clearly better with its Michelin Pilot all-season tires than the Chrysler did with its Continental M+S tires.
In most situations, drivers may not give much thought to the fact that the only thing between their cars – and their families – is that little foot-long patch where each of the four tires meets the road. But when it’s the harshest storm of winter, with ice or hard-packed snow under a foot of fluffy stuff, and you have to get somewhere, making sure your tires work is cheap security against heart-in-the-throat, white-knuckling.
Hill-Murray favored in Class AA ‘Year of the Upset’
Sixty years ago, the Minnesota state high school hockey tournament was held for the first time, so naturally the eight teams in that 1946 tournament at the old Saint Paul Auditorium were “new†to the tournament. Amazingly, there has never been a year since then when at least one of the entries wasn’t a returnee from the previous year.
Until this year. All eight of last yearÂ’s Class AA section champions failed to repeat, some because of the usual ebb and flow of graduations, but many because this truly is the “Year of the Upset.Ââ€
In Class AA, upsets, ranging from mild to wild, knocked out top-ranked Holy Angels, Bloomington Jefferson, Eden Prairie, Duluth East, Cloquet-Esko-Carlton, White Bear Lake, Centennial and Elk River – all teams ranked among the top 10. Those eight, in fact, would make a fine state tournament on their own, but they’ll need tickets to see the tournament this time. All those teams are perennial powers, but Holy Angels, Jefferson, Eden Prairie, East, Elk River and Moorhead were among dethroned section champs from last year.
Hill-Murray did not win its section last year. In fact, the Pioneers had failed to reach the state for three straight years, tying the schoolÂ’s record for futility since private schools were allowed into the public tournament 31 years ago. The Pioneers, the team most of the public-school segment of the state used to love to hate, has risen above that animosity, particularly because any accusations that it could recruit players from anywhere have been washed away in recent years by a new private power at Holy Angels, and by rampant charges of recruiting via open enrollment at many public schools.
The Pioneers won a classic, double-overtime 5-4 victory over White Bear Lake for the Section 3 title, and loom as the favorite in Class AA. Two prolific scoring lines are impressive enough that many observers arenÂ’t sure which one is No. 1, and a poised defense with solid goaltending puts the Pioneers into the favoriteÂ’s role.
Actually, even if all the favorites had made it in other sections, Hill-Murray might rank as the favorite, because they enter the competition with a glittering 26-1-1 record. The tie was 3-3 against Holy Angels in a spectacular game for the No. 1 state rating, and, in the next game, the Pioneers lost to St. Thomas Academy for their only setback.
St. Thomas Academy, however, is no slouch. The Cadets, coached by former Gopher star Tom Vannelli, are 22-5-1, and one of the lower-bracket favorites in the Class A tournament, which starts Wednesday.
The same upset plague infected Class A, where top-ranked Marshall of Duluth made it, claims the immediate favoriteÂ’s role, and could, conceivably, wind up Saturday facing a neighborhood rival in Hermantown, a suburban Duluth school and also a top-rated team all season. Warroad, the annual pick to win Class A, played the Section 8 final at home, held a solid 2-0 lead over Thief River Falls in the third period, and yet the Prowlers came back to tie the game with two goals, then beat the Warriors in the fourth overtime to reach state.
St. Thomas Academy similarly looms as heavy favorite against Orono in the first night quarterfinal, which sends its winner against the northern survivor between Hermantown and Thief River Falls. Hermantown (25-3) had to take on the resident powers of Section 7, getting past perennial power Hibbing to make state. Thief River Falls, which makes its first trip to state after 50 years of reflecting on past domination. The Prowlers –perhaps the neatest nickname in high school sports – are 21-7 after upending Warroad in the Section 8 final, but one of those losses was to Hermantown. It wasn’t just a loss. It was 9-0. That type of scoring is pretty typical of the Hawks, who beat Greenway of Coleraine 11-1 and International Falls 7-1 in other Section 7 games.
Twin Cities power focused on private schools in Class A, but the crowd in Section 5 lumped them together. In Section 5, which produced five of the last seven state champs, Totino Grace upended top seeded Breck, but then lost to Blake in the final, so Blake enters the state tournament with a a 17-8-3 record to run smack into Marshall in WednesdayÂ’s quarterfinals.
At sectional time, Marshall moved to Section 2, where it had to win the final at BlaineÂ’s Fogerty Arena against Sauk Rapids to reach state at 26-1-1. Section 2 has never been a prominent state power, but Marshall gives it that glow. The Marshall-Blake winner rates as favorite to beat the first-game winner, where Little Falls, returning to the state along with Marshall and St. Thomas Academy, stands as solid favorite to beat Mankato East in the quarterfinals.
That winner is Class A upper-bracket favorite, and the Saturday final could find an all-Duluth-area championship game between Marshall and Hermantown. Marshall beat Hermantown during the season, but the Hilltoppers only loss all season was to Class AA power Cloquet, a team Hermantown shocked with a 6-2 upset.
{IMG2}
Picking a team from the opposite bracket to face Hill-Murray is more challenging, but two familiar names from recent years – Roseau and Grand Rapids – collide in Thursday’s final first-round game in a battle of Northern teams that could well produce the finalist. Roseau (24-4) marched into St. Cloud State’s National Hockey Center and knocked off Moorhead 4-0 in the Section 8 championship game, surprising many Twin Cities observers, but not Moorhead coach Dave Morinville, who had projected Roseau as his team’s primary challenge weeks ago.
Grand Rapids, on the other hand, came through Section 7, the Northeast Minnesota section that has produced the most legendary teams of years ago. The Thunderhawks, who used to be the Indians in their title-winning days of decades past, went from struggling in a fairly weak section brought down by dwindling enrollment, to winning a tough section rejuvenated by several new, as well as old, rivals. Elk River, a power from the Northwest suburbs of the Twin Cities, and a team most foes donÂ’t like to face, was sent off to join Section 7, where Brainerd, a Central Minnesota team, also was having its strongest year in hockey. That expanded the power structure of Section 7, where perennial powers Duluth East and Cloquet-Esko-Carlton both had strong entries.
After Cloquet defeated Brainerd, a big crowd in Duluth watched an outstanding semifinal doubleheader. It was classic, old-time Northern Minnesota hockey, as Cloquet’s 6-foot-8 senior defenseman Taylor Vichorek moved in from the right point and scored a goal 1:44 into the second period, and goaltender Reid Ellingson made it stand up for a 1-0 victory in a nail-biter against Duluth East. The Greyhounds, who, as usual, played the toughest schedule in the state, got fantastic goaltending from Ben Leis (30 saves to Ellingson’s 22), but the Lumberjacks prevented the ‘Hounds from threatening very often and settled the rivalry for the season, after they had split regular-season games.
In the second game, Elk River completely dominated Grand Rapids, taking a 2-0 lead while outshooting the Thunderhawks 15-5 in the first period. Only brilliant goaltending from Reidar Jensen – who was named after his grandfather, the legendary Reidar Lund, a former sports columnist at the Duluth News-Tribune – prevented the Elks from running up the score more than 2-0. When Grand Rapids came storming out in the second period, it seemed like only a temporary reprieve, because a goal by Jared Smith late in the period was the only Grand Rapids reward for a 24-4 edge in period shots.
It seemed inevitable that Elk River, having weathered the onslaught, would regain the momentum in the third period, but Grand Rapids surprised the Elks and never let them have it. Trevor Hicks got loose at the crease and tied the game 2-2 with a power-play goal midway through the third period, and Zach Moore broke for the right post and jammed in a perfect feed from Hicks with 3:32 remaining, and Grand Rapids had 3-2.
While many had figured East would play Elk River in the final, both were left at home when Grand Rapids found itself in a curious position in the final. Cloquet-Esko-Carlton loomed as the favorite, based on its victory over East, even though the Lumberjacks had lost twice to Grand Rapids during the season. Grand Rapids didnÂ’t figure it that way, of course, but it had to contend with elusive junior center Tyler Johnson, who scored twice in the first period to stake Cloquet to a 2-1 lead. Robert Maher had given the Thunderhawks a 1-0 lead, but Johnson scored at 6:59 and again with a power-play breakaway six seconds before the period ended.
Just as they had done against Elk River, however, the Thunderhawks showed great poise and talent as they came back for two goals in the second period. Jared Smith and Rob Roy scored 10 minutes apart to vault Grand Rapids from a 2-1 deficit to a 3-2 lead while outshooting the Lumberjacks 11-4 in the middle period. CloquetÂ’s Steve Mlodozyniec tied it 3-3 early in the third period, converting a goal-mouth pass from the ever-dangerous Johnson, but Zach Morse broke the tie at 12:10 for Grand Rapids, and Trevor Hicks notched the clinching goal at 16:08 and Rapids rode a 5-3 victory into the state tournament at 19-8.
“Roseau beat us in the last game of the season,†said Grand Rapids coach Bruce Larocque, after the Thunderhawks gained their first state trip in 15 years. But he didn’t sound worried. After what he just went through in Section 7, of course, getting there was at least half the fun.
The Class AA tournament opens with Blaine (23-4-1) featuring a high-scoiring offense that figures to be too much for Lakeville North (14-11-3). Impressive as BlaineÂ’s record is, it started out shaky, but a 21-game unbeaten surge has swept the Bengals into state.
Cretin-Derham Hall, which made its only predvious tournament trip in 1988, have a solid 24-4 record to face Eagan in the second upper-bracket game. Eagan (18-9-1) is in its first tournament, but to get there it needed to beat Apple Valley 2-1 after Apple Valley had shocked heavily favored, top-ranked, and defending section champion Holy Angels in the Section 5 tournament.
Hill-Murray overwhelmed Mounds View 6-0 and Roseville 5-1 before its double-overtime final victory over White Bear Lake, a game in which star defenseman Derek McCallum was credited with the winning goal from the point. Actually, winger Bryant Skarda skated past the congested goal-mouth and deflected the puck artfully in. “I got it with my stick blade,†Sakrda said. “It was right on the ice, and I deflected it into the upper corner. But I donÂ’t care if I didnÂ’t get credit for it, as long as we won the game.Ââ€
Minnetonka (18-9-1) ranks as a clear underdog against Hill-Murray, but the Skippers, reaching state for the first time in 12 years, had to beat a tough Chaska team 3-2, then upset Eden Prairie with a shocking 6-0 victory, and finally upset Bloomington Jefferson 3-2 to capture Section 6. Minnetonka had to play its best in all three games, but beating Hill-Murray will be its biggest hurdle yet.
In the final game, RoseauÂ’s 24-4 record stands above Grand RapidsÂ’s 19-8, but the Thunderhawks lost only one game in its last 12. That one, however, was 5-1 to Roseau to end the regular season.
Great storylines, an Xcel Energy Center wired with its own internal electricity, all in a neatly folded package. But the state tournament will unfold quickly and surprises could loom everywhere before SaturdayÂ’s champions are crowned.
Gophers claim, but don’t touch, MacNaughton Cup
From coach Don Lucia on down, the University of Minnesota hockey players frequently insisted they didn’t care about winning the WCHA regular-season championship. They had their focus set on a bigger prize – the NCAA title, of course.
If there was reason for the Gophers to give themselves the psychological benefit of a rationale for NOT winning the title, it would be because no Golden Gopher team in LuciaÂ’s first six years as coach won the league title, even though theyÂ’d previously won two WCHA playoff titles and two NCAA championships.
When it came to the WCHA regular season, the Gophers last shared the title with North Dakota in 1997, and the last time Minnesota won a WCHA title outright was in 1992 – 14 years ago. Ever since then, the Golden Gophers have had to explain why they DIDN’T win it, and that includes the 1997 finish, which was something of a bittersweet achievement. The Fighting Sioux had already clinched the WCHA title, hoisted the MacNaughton Cup, been granted the playoff top seed, and they obviously took the final weekend off and coasted through a pair of meaningless losses while looking ahead at the playoffs. Credit former Sioux coach Dean Blais for ignoring the “one game at a time†approach in his impatience to stockpile championships throughout his tenure.
This season, until a month ago it seemed that Wisconsin or Denver had a better chance to win the title, so the word around Mariucci was that the Gophers didnÂ’t really care all that much about it. Strangely enough, right about then Wisconsin lost its free-wheeling edge and struggled for much of the stretch run, and the Gophers swept Denver to knock the wheels off the Pioneer bandwagon. Minnesota, all the while, just kept on winning at a sizzling pace – losing just once in calendar 2006 — to run away with the crown.
Focus or not, when the Gophers were officially presented with the MacNaughton Cup at Mariucci Arena last Friday night, after shutting out Minnesota-Duluth for the first of two times. Instead of going properly crazy, the Golden Gophers treated the MacNaughton Cup like it might be infected with bird flu.
Captain Gino Guyer was all smiles as he accepted the Cup from WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod, but he didnÂ’t really raise the stunning and shapely silver chalice to the rafters, the way Wimbledon tennis champs, or Stanley Cup Playoff winners, do. He carried it, properly and respectfully, out to center ice, where he set it on the center faceoff spot while his teammates stood around on the circle. They stood at attention, tapped their sticks on the ice, and simultaneously raised them high, in a time-honored international salute that former coach Herb Brooks first started with the Gophers three decades earlier.
On one hand, it was a very tastefully restrained salute, and on the other, the Gophers didnÂ’t want to get within stickÂ’s reach of the thing. “We had talked it over, and the players all decided to minimize how much we touched it,†said Guyer. “I was just carrying out what the players decided to do.Ââ€
The Stanley Cup, which goes to the National Hockey LeagueÂ’s playoff champion, is undoubtedly the best-known trophy in hockey, if not all sports. Over the years, however, so many new bands have been added to incorporate all the names of all the winning teams, that Lord StanleyÂ’s once-splendid cup has grown taller and taller, and magnificent as it is, it looks a lot like a fire hydrant, or at least a silver garbage can with a big bowl on top.
By comparison, the MacNaughton Cup is a visi
on of splendor. It dates back to the WCHAÂ’s early years, when it originally was created by a Michigan Tech backer and donated to the Huskies, who later donated it to the WCHA, where it became the treasured signature of the regular season championship. It resides with great pride and circumstance in a trophy case at the winning school for the next year.
As the Gophers turn to the WCHA playoffs, and a series against 10th place Alaska-Anchorage this weekend, on the nationÂ’s longest winning streak (11-0-1), with a string of three straight shutouts, while giving up only six goals in their last six games, plus a WCHA record of 20-5-3 for 43 points, to runner-up DenverÂ’s 18-8-2 for 38 points, as well as an overall 25-6-2 mark that has earned the Gophers the No. 1 ranking in every national poll, including the pairwise projection that duplicates the NCAA selection committeeÂ’s seedings.
The series against UMD showed how far the Gophers have come this season. And maybe how far the Bulldogs have fallen. Back on Nov. 4-5, the Gophers were lucky to get a 2-2 tie at Duluth when GuyerÂ’s sprawling backhander produced the equalizer in the closing minutes. The next night, UMD handed the Gophers a 4-3 loss, and UMD looked more like the title contender than Minnesota.
Flash forward to March, and the Gophers are coming in like lions and the Bulldogs are the lambs. Minnesota is on an 18-1-1 run since being swept at home by Wisconsin on Dec. 2-3, while UMD seems powerless to stop a 1-13 skid, in which the Bulldogs have averaged barely over a half-goal a game, while giving up close to five a game.
“At the beginning of the year, I was definitely impressed at how UMD was playing,†said Guyer. “I really expected them to come out hard against us this weekend.Ââ€
Caught in what looks like a hopeless tailspin, UMD barely put up a fight against the one team that almost invariably gets their blood pumping. Minnesota won 7-0 the first game, getting two goals each from freshman Ryan Stoa and sophomore Evan Kaufmann, and one each from Mike Vannelli, Ben Gordon and Danny Irmen. Minnesota blew it open with four second-period goals, prompting UMD coach Scott Sandelin to say: “That second period really killed us.Ââ€
In reality, the first period was less than a masterpiece for UMD, which got off only one shot on goal in the 1-0 first period. That was only barely better than Alaska-Anchorage managed a week earlier in the second period against the Gophers, when the Seawolves got no shots – as in zero – which, for cynics, is believed to at least tie the all-time college hockey record for fewest shots in a period.
Goaltender Kellen Briggs got the first-game shutout for Minnesota, but he could have snoozed through most of it. Freshman Jeff Frazee, who’s been in and out of Lucia’s doghouse with “team rule violations†as much as he’s been in and out of the nets, got a 2-0 shutout in the second game. While UMD worked much harder in that one, the Bulldogs never mounted anything resembling a threatening offense, and the Gophers cruised to victory on Ryan Potulny’s first-period goal, and a late empty-netter, also by Potulny, who ended the regular season as the nation’s top goal-scorer with 31.
The only highlight for UMD was that little-used sophomore Nate Ziegelmann drew the short straw from Sandelin and tended goal in the second game, making 31 saves while allowing just one goal. Ziegelmann, who also played in a game at North Dakota during the earlier stages of UMDÂ’s no-offensive-support mode, is from Grand Forks, where he got to know Potulny up-close and personal.
“We were teammates since junior high,†said Potulny, who has emerged as a Hobey Baker Award favorite. “We also played at Lincoln in the USHL together.Ââ€
It was suggested to Potulny that in all those years playing with Ziegelmann also meant practicing against him, so Potulny must have shot 3,000 pucks past him. Potulny sidestepped that one the same way heÂ’d elude a checker, by saying: “Maybe, but heÂ’s stopped me 3,000 times, too.Ââ€
That’s probably the best ratio any goaltender has against Potulny, who is the offesnsive barometer for the Gophers. While the team defense snapped suddenly into focus after being swept by Wisconsin, Potulny’s scoring – 31 goals, 23 assists for 54 points – always signal success. Minnesota is 16-3-1 when Potulny scores a goal, and 24-3-1 when he gets either a goal or an assist.
Meanwhile, back at the MacNaughton Cup, sitting there at center ice. The best photo was of a half-dozen media photographers, who had ignored the once-fashionable idea they were taught in photo-journalism of not being obtrusive to get right up close in that circle with the Gophers – poised for the inevitable photos of the arena-circling hefting of the Cup. Instead, the players finished their stick salute and trooped off. Guyer stayed, but only to make sure some equipment guy would pick up the Cup. Then he, too, skated off the ice, leaving the photographers and television cameramen standing at center ice, alone with the MacNaughton Cup.
“DonÂ’t get me wrong, weÂ’re proud to have won it,†said Guyer. “But nobody else touched the Cup but me. WeÂ’re waiting for bigger things.Ââ€
Bigger things? If the Gophers win the NCAA title they will get a very nice, very tasteful plaque. Nothing like a big silver chalice, and certainly nothing like the MacNaughton Cup.
“I told the players to have fun with it, enjoy it,†said Lucia, with a shrug.
“We were only two games over .500 in December, and then we got going. Then we got into what looked like the top three, and then we were in the hunt. I just didnÂ’t want us to get consumed by that. We looked at a stretch of North Dakota, CC and Wisconsin right in a row in January, and I was thinking we might be doing well to go 3-3 in that stretch, but we went 5-1. That put us in good shape. But our guys were hungry to win the league at the end.Ââ€
Lucia hasn’t taken his, or his team’s focus off the NCAA prize, but he knows the importance of maintaining the momentum. “We want to win the first round, so we can play in that venue,†he said, referring to next week’s WCHA Final Five at Xcel Center.
WCHA rivals are already aware of the red-hot Gophers of course. Their added challenge is that after winning a WCHA regular-season championship they said they didn’t really care about, and virtually ignoring the magnificent MacNaughton Cup, now they enter the WCHA league playoffs – the NEXT objective the Gophers don’t care about winning. The Broadmoor Cup is another nice piece of silver the Gophers can salute, but respectfully ignore.
If there is any concern that the Gophers have “peaked too soon,†that’s a handy cliché if a team doesn’t go all the way. If they do, obviously they peaked early and maintained it. However, a month from now, if the Golden Gophers fall short in their bid for the national championship in Milwaukee, maybe they can arrange a post-season ceremony back home, where they can carry the MacNaughton Cup around Mariucci Arena. Just for themselves, their fans, and those photographers.
Gopher women beat UMD 2-1 for more than semifinals
MINNEAPOLIS, MN. — The University of MinnesotaÂ’s semifinal victory Saturday gained far more than the right to face Wisconsin in SundayÂ’s WomensÂ’ WCHA playoff championship game. When the Golden Gophers slipped past archrival Minnesota-Duluth 2-1 in the second semifinal, the victory almost certainly clinched a home-ice berth for next weekendÂ’s NCAA quarterfinals as well.
Wisconsin, the leagueÂ’s top seed, sped past St. Cloud State 9-0, before the dramatic Gopher victory over UMD, which came when Janelle Philipczyk deflected Gigi MarvinÂ’s shot past Bulldog all-WCHA goaltender Riitta Schaublin with 3:55 left in the third period.
The goal came on a heads-up play by Philipczyk, a sophomore from Eagan High School, who was in traffic in the left circle when she saw Marvin – the WCHA freshman-of-the-year from Warroad, Minn. – about to gain possession. Philpczyk broke for the net, and surprisingly, no Bulldog skater went with her.
“When Gigi got to the puck, I yelled for her to shoot,†said Philpczyk.
Marvin, by coincidence, had been a playmaker who has been urged repeatedly to shoot more by coach Laura Halldorson. “I heard Jay (Philpczyk) yelling, ‘Shoot the puck!Â’ but my back was to the net as I got to the puck,†said Marvin. “There were a lot of people over there, so I just got the puck and shot.Ââ€
Philipczyk tipped the shot in, and coach Halldorson said, dryly, “IÂ’m glad she listened to her teammate.Ââ€
UMD had taken a 1-0 lead when Noemie Marin converted the rebound after Gopher goaltender Kim Hanlon blocked Jessica KoizumiÂ’s shot at 2:35 of the first period. The Badgers tied it on a power play at 7:56, when Ashley AlbrechtÂ’s shot was deflected in by Andrea Nichols.
That set up the playoff title matchup between the Gophers, at 27-9-1, against Wisconsin, 32-4-1.
“We havenÂ’t really thought about Wisconsin yet,†said Halldorson, right after the victory. “That was a strong UMD team we beat, and we needed great goaltending and a solid penalty-kill. WeÂ’re getting good penalty killing from players like Whitney Graft, Becky Wacker and Bobbi Ross.Ââ€
Coming into the WCHA semifinals, the Gophers and Bulldogs were virtually deadlocked for the season. A Minnesota sweep over North Dakota on the final regular-season weekend created a tie for second with UMD,, when the Bulldogs won and tied at Minnesota State-Mankato. The Gophers won the tie-breaker with one more victory to become No. 2 seed behind league champ and No. 1 seed Wisconsin.
The outcome also affected national pairwise rankings, where Wisconsin stood third, the Gophers fourth and UMD fifth, following New Hampshire and St. Lawrence at 1-2. The NCAA selection committee generally follows the pairwise to select its top eight, although match-ups attempt to not send league opponents against each other. So the chances are good that the top four teams in the pairwise will get home ice for the first round, while the next four highest-ranked teams will go on the road to oppose them in best-of-three pairings scheduled for announcement Sunday night.
The stakes for the semifinal, therefore, meant that a UMD victory would undoubtedly lift the Bulldogs ahead of the Gophers, not only into the league playoff final but into a top-four pairwise and a home-ice slot for the NCAA. The Gophers, meanwhile, needed a victory to secure that top four slot.
Wisconsin might have remained third even by losing to St. Cloud State in the first semifinal, but the Badgers took no chances, and took no prisoners by crushing St. Cloud StateÂ’s long-shot hopes for advancement with a 9-0 romp. Homestate senior Cyndy Kenyon scored four goals, and her center, Sara Bauer, had a goal and four assists.
Bauer, a junior from St. Catharines, Ontario, was named league most valuable player before the semifinals, and her 22 goals, 31 assists and 53 points have led the Badgers to a 32-4-1 record overall, after a 24-3-1 WCHA slate. St. Cloud State finished 18-18-1, after having swept UMD to ultimately cost the Bulldogs second place, and upsetting Wisconsin once in recent weeks.
The game started out scoreless, but at 13:33 of the first period Kenyon scored , and the Badgers were off and running, with freshman Jessie Vetter making 21 saves for the shutout. Junior goaltender Lauri St. Jacques, who had been St. Cloud State coach Jason LestebergÂ’s choice to play every game the last six weeks, after a seemingly successful alternating plan with sophomore Kendall Newell, was the victim of a flat performance by the Huskies, who were unable to contain the explosive Badgers. St. Jacques gave up five goals, and Newell, perhaps rusty from inactivity, yielded the last four.
{IMG2}
The UMD-Minnesota game was clearly the highlight of the semifinals, and Minnesota had a clearcut edge in play, outshooting the Bulldogs 39-21 – including 14-2 in the decisive third period. UMD coach Shannon Miller brushed the shot count aside, and said, “We had the puck in the offensive zone and set up good scoring opportunities for a lot of the first 10 minutes of the third period, but the shot count never moved.Ââ€
Miller said she was proud of her teamÂ’s hard work, and the difference was clearcut: “We were 0-for-5 on the power play, and they were 1-for-6. That was the difference.Ââ€
However, the Bulldogs had an amazing penchant for shooting directly into Gopher defenders time after time throughout the game, and if the Bulldog shot count was unfairly low, it seemed that the Gophers blocked far more than the eight third-period tries and 17 for the game – which meant Minnesota had nine shots blocked and 39 shots on goal, while UMD had 17 shots blocked and only 21 that got through to the net.
“I noticed that they were only given two shots in the third period,†said Minnesota freshman goaltender Kim Hanlon. “It seems like I noticed 20 times, at least, they wound up and shot. My teammates did a great job of blocking shots.Ââ€
Marin said: “TheyÂ’re good defensively, and it did seem that weÂ’d go right into them.Ââ€
Koizumi noted that she and her teammates seemed to wind up not getting to the net on their offensive attempts, despite being inspired by the televised Minnesota state high school boys hockey tournament games they had been watching. She said she didnÂ’t think the Gophers did anything better defensively in the game, compared to their regular-season games, in which Minnesota won 4-1 then lost 6-0 at Ridder Arena, and the Gophers lost 4-2 but rebounded to win 2-0 at Duluth.
“WeÂ’ve been watching a lot of high school games, and realized they seemed to shoot from anywhere and scored a lot of goals,†Koizumi said. “So we wanted to try to shoot a lot.Ââ€
Coach Miller knows that going home with a 22-8-3 record assures her Bulldogs of a spot in the NCAA pairings. “But IÂ’m sure weÂ’ll be on the road, too,†she said. “IÂ’m guessing weÂ’ll go somewhere like St. Lawrence. WeÂ’ve got another week to work on some new power-play things weÂ’ve put in. I know youÂ’ve got to work to create your own breaks, but we havenÂ’t gotten many bounces in the last few weeks.Ââ€
The bounces on Saturday were mostly off Gopher shinpads.
Badgers rip Gophers 4-1 for Women’s WCHA playoff title
MINNEAPOLIS, MN. — The University of Wisconsin womenÂ’s hockey team has been breaking down the tradition that the WCHA is a two-team league, a dominance created over the WCHAÂ’s first six seasons by Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth. The Badgers broke one barrier by winning the WCHA regular season title, and on Sunday, they broke through another one – whipping Minnesota 4-1 for the WCHA playoff championship.
“IÂ’m real excited for our players,†said WisconsinÂ’s coach-of-the-year Mark Johnson, whose Badgers lost a heartbreaker in the playoff final to Minnesota last year, after rallying for two goals in the final minute to tie the game 2-2. “Last year, we were very close, in a similar situation, but we were beaten in overtime. Any time you have the opportunity to win a championship, you go after it, and any time you do something for the first time, itÂ’s special.Ââ€
There is, of course, one further barricade up ahead. UMD won the first three NCAA women’s hockey championships, and Minnesota won the next two. All three teams – and the WCHA has at least become the “big three†by now – will enter the eight-team NCAA tournament starting this coming weekend. Wisconsin (33-4-1) will be at home against Mercyhurst on Saturday, Minnesota will be at home against Princeton on Friday, and UMD will be on the road at St. Lawrence Saturday.
The other NCAA pairing has Harvard at No. 1 ranked New Hampshire, with the four winners convening at Mariucci Arena for the NCAA WomenÂ’s Frozen Four.
Minnesota had won seven straight coming into the game, and even though the Gophers have now lost four out of five games to the Badgers, Gopher coach Laura Halldorson said she didnÂ’t think Wisconsin had a clear upper hand in the game. “Wisconsin has a very good team, and I congratulate them,†Halldorson said. “But the score was a little deceiving, because it didnÂ’t really feel like a 4-1 game. We outshot them 29-19, so we were really in the game.Ââ€
The Golden Gophers (27-10-1) had outshot UMD 39-21 while beating the Bulldogs 2-1 Saturday, and they outshot Wisconsin similarly, 21-11, on Sunday, but the Badgers handled the Ridder Arena crowd, announced as 1,012, and the shot-counter with the same poise they used to control the Gophers.
Wisconsin has a prominent offense, led by WCHA player of the year Sara Bauer, and it has a solid defense, led by Bobbi Jo Slusar, the WCHA defensive player of the year, and solid goaltending from senior Meghan Horras. Against the Gophers, the defensemen became offensive, scoring three of the four goals. The Badgers took a 2-1 lead in the first period, and resolutely added another goal in the second, and another in the third, while Bauer settled for three assists.
{IMG2}
Cyndy KenyonÂ’s goal at 5:14 of the first period was offset when MinnesotaÂ’s Allie Sanchez connect at 12:15. The Badgers reclaimed the lead when Slusar slid over to center-point and rifled a slap shot straight on from 55 feet past a screened Kim Hanlon. At that point, all three goals had come on power plays, and while Wisconsin was being outshot 15-5 at that moment, the Badgers led 2-1.
The pace was about even in the second period, although the Badgers killed their two penalties, and went ahead 3-1 when Emily Morris moved in deep from the blue line and smacked in a rebound even though she couldnÂ’t see the puck go in because a Minnesota defenseman was pretty well taking her out as she shot.
The Gophers needed a rally in the third period, but the Badgers held them to only five shots, and defenseman Meaghan Mikkelson strode in from the right point and scored from the top of the circle against relief goalie Brittony Chartier, who went in for the second and third periods after Hanlon twisted her ankle trying to prevent Nikki Burish from scoring at the right edge late in the first period.
While the Gophers solidified their home-ice spot in the NCAA with their victory over UMD, meaning the semifinal might have been the more important game of the weekend, but the players insisted it didn’t cause any letdown. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re playing one archrival in UMD or another in Wisconsin, mentally, when you’re playing for the championship, you go all out.
“Wisconsin moves the puck real well, and they banged a couple power-play goals in.Ââ€
Badger coach Johnson was a power-play specialist himself on NCAA championship Badger teams coached by his dad, Badger Bob Johnson, so he knows the importance of a successful power play.
“In the first period, Minnesota had more energy than we did, which didnÂ’t surprise me,†said Johnson. “TheyÂ’re in their own building, with their own fans, and they won a tough game against UMD. They had some good chances, and Meghan came up with the saves, and we came out of the first period ahead 2-1. At this time of the year, you look for your special teams to be pretty good.Ââ€
The Badgers were 3-for-6 on the power play, and held Minnesota to 1-for-4. That contributed to a huge haul the Badgers took back to Madison – coach of the year, player of the year, defensive player of the year, and a giant trophy for winning the WCHA playoff title.
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