Big Wheeler rolls Gophers into NCAA tournament
Blake Wheeler stood up against the wall in the corridor outside the University of Minnesota’s Mariucci Arena dressing rooms, and stretched his body up to its full, 6-foot-4 length. His team-dyed blond hair gave his smile a distinct beach-boy-like charm, and while he is not an
arrogant young man, he clearly was enjoying his sudden emergence as the media’s choice as team spokesman.
The Gophers were getting ready to depart for Denver, where they are No. 1 seed facing Air
Force Academy Saturday night in the NCAA’s West Regional. Wheeler was the interviewee of
choice after his sudden and unpredicted emergence as an offensive triggerman was a
primary reason that Minnesota beat a desperate Wisconsin team in the semifinals, and
cooled off sizzling North Dakota in an overtime thriller to win the WCHA Final Five. Wheeler
scored his first hat trick since Breck School when the Gophers beat Wisconsin 4-2 in the
semifinals, and, after getting numerous chances and setting up Ben Gordon’s goal during the
2-2 three-period standoff with North Dakota, Wheeler scored an incredible, diving,
one-handed goal in overtime to win it 3-2.
“We let it all hang out and played our ‘A’ game to beat North Dakota,” Wheeler said. “We just
have to replicate it again this weekend. Things hadn’t been going that well, but when you face
a little adversity, you’ve got to rectify it.”
Wait a minute. This guy expects to play in the NHL some day, and he uses “replicate” and
“rectify” in consecutive sentences?
“I’m a private school guy,” he laughed.
He also got to spend an evening with Wayne Gretzky after the Final Five, when Gretzky, now
the boss of the Phoenix NHL club that drafted Wheeler, came to Xcel Center to play the
Minnesota Wild. Obviously, Wheeler was drafted for the potential that a 6-4, 212-pound
forward with good speed and hands promises. Living up to that potential is not always easy.
Wheeler scored only 9 goals as a freshman, and he only seemed to find his scoring touch
once the regular-season ended this year.
He scored only 13 goals during the regular season, and only seven in 28 WCHA games, with
six others in nonconference action — including three in a 7-1, 5-1 sweep over Wayne State,
and another against Ferris State. Furthermore, Wheeler scored only one goal since the
calendar turned over to 2007, which includes the last 16 WCHA games, when the Gophers
sputtered along at a .500 clip. Nobody was requesting Wheeler for post-game comments in
that stretch.
But when the playoffs started, Wheeler scored once against Alaska-Anchorage, but
Minnesota then had to extend itself to escape in a third game of the WCHA series. So his
three goals against Wisconsin, and another against the Fighting Sioux give him four goals in
his last two games, and sends the Gophers off on a high to the NCAA tournament.
The mood is distinctly different than last season, when the Gophers had the wheels come off
during two losses at the Final Five, and getting deposited in the hockey equivalant of a scrap
yard when Holy Cross upset them in the West Regional first game. Three straight losses was
hardly the way a No. 1 rated power should end a season.
“Our confidence level is completely different from last year,” Wheeler said. “It feels great the
way our team came out and played last weekend. It’s easy to go out and do well when the
whole team is playing that well.”
Naturally, the WCHA speculation about the West Regional is that North Dakota could get by
Michigan while the Golden Gophers beat Air Force, which would “replicate” the classic Final
Five battle in Sunday’s game, which carries a slot in the Frozen Four as a reward.
“We’ve got to get by our first game before we can thing about North Dakota or Michigan,” said
Wheeler, who deflected any attempts to focus on his offensive heroics in favor of
team-oriented concepts.
“Maybe the blond hair brought us all together or something, but we’re playing for each other
out there,” said Wheeler. “Guys are all playing their roles.”
He meant the scorers are scoring, the playmakers are making plays, the checkers are
checking, goaltenders are stopping pucks, and all seems to have returned to the form the
Gophers enjoyed during a midseason 22-game unbeaten streak — and not the way they
struggled through a 7-7 close to the regular season that immediately followed the streak.
As a role-player, however, what exactly does Wheeler see as Wheeler’s role?
“My role is to be a leader up front,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of young guys, and I can show ’em
what it’s all about.”
Spoken like a true senior. Or junior. But Wheeler is only a sophomore, more like one of those
“young guys” himself than like a veteran. And his play has been spotty, ranging from flashes of
great potential to stretches of “did-No. 17-play-tonight?” ineffectiveness, even while centering
freshman Jay Barriball — the team scoring leader — and junior Ben Gordon on the second line.
Coach Don Lucia covered for Wheeler, saying it was tough for him to change positions, even
though the move was from wing to the freer-flowing center slot that most wingers would prefer.
But even Lucia balked when it was suggested that maybe he was satisfied that Wheeler had
become almost a checking center rather than an offensive catalyst. “Not playing between
those two guys,” Lucia said.
His play, however, is good reason for Gopher fans to be optimistic. The hat trick against
Wisconsin was dazzling, but his overall play against the Fighting Sioux was outstanding, even
before the spectacular finish. Wheeler could be seen throughout the game using his speed to
outflank defensemen, and his power to veer toward the goal, and several times Sioux
goaltender Philippe Lamoureux was left sprawling after great saves had denied Wheeler from
scoring. His other contribution came when it was 1-1 late in the second period. Captain Mike
Vannelli stood firm at right point to chip an outlet attempt back up the right boards. Wheeler
got to the puck in heavy traffic, and made a very neat little pass to Gordon, who stepped in to
score.
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The classic, and a goal that will be replayed whenever videotapes or conversations cover
great goals of this season, or through Golden Gopher history, came at 3:25 of sudden-death
overtime. Wheeler saw Barriball getting the puck on the right boards in the Gopher zone, so
he broke for the left side, toward the Sioux blue line. As the two had done before, Barriball
flung a long pass, but this time it was too far ahead of Wheeler, and it appeared to be heading
for an icing call as it slid up the left side.
Wheeler charged after it, with Sioux defenseman Brian Lee in hot pursuit. Lamoureux stepped
out a bit, just in case, and seemed to have the angle covered, but Wheeler dived straight
ahead, using his right hand to break his belly-flop fall to the ice, and chopping at the puck with
only his left hand on the stick. He got a solid piece of the puck, and sent it up and into the far
edge of the net.
“I didn’t see it go in,” Wheeler said. “I took a whack at it, and got kind of lucky.”
So Wheeler’s emergence, on a team whose scoring leaders are freshmen Barriball and Kyle
Okposo, is sort of like Exhibit A of why Minnesota has regained the rhythm and flow so
necessary to take into the NCAA tournament. His own personal lack of scoring paralleled the
Gophers struggle to win consistently. Wheeler shrugged and said, “It’s better to score now
than then, I guess.”
Wheeler also said that he didn’t see any change in his role or his responsibilities as the
team’s fortunes fluctuated.
“You can’t get too high or too low,” Wheeler said. “One minute you’re a hero, and one minute
you’re a zero.”
Then he smiled that happy-go-lucky, beach-boy type smile, and added, “It’s definitely more fun
to be a hero.”
Wheeler outdoes himself to beat Sioux in WCHA final
SAINT PAUL, MN. — Blake Wheeler, the hat-trick star of Minnesota’s semifinal
victory,
outdid himself with a spectacular, diving goal at 3:25 of sudden-death overtime
to lift the
Golden Gophers to a 3-2 victory over North Dakota in the WCHA Final Five
championship
game.
Both teams played at a feverish pace throughout the game, with the teams trading
rushes and
great plays — offensively and defensively — on into the overtime. A day
earlier, Minnesota
coach Don Lucia had said he was tired of hearing how great his young players
were, because it
overlooked the fact they were still freshmen and sophomores. Then, a freshman
fed a
sophomore for the game-winner.
Freshman Jay Barriball came up with the puck on the left boards near the Gopher
blue line,
and he spun and flung a long diagonal pass for where he knew Wheeler was
lurking, near the
North Dakota blue line. The puck zipped past, unreachable by Wheeler, who
immediately
chased after it to avoid icing. Sioux defenseman Brian Lee, himself a sophomore,
was in hot
pursuit, and goaltender Philippe Lamoureux was ready, but had good reason to
anticipate an
icing.
Wheeler had other ideas, and he dived, headlong, and swatted at the puck as he
hit the ice,
chipping a shot that went up and beat the startled Lamoureux to the far side.
“I took a whack at it, and I didn’t see it go in,” said Wheeler. “I was
surprised when the
crowd started cheering. A couple of times, Jay got the puck and I blew out of
the zone. This
time it was a little ahead of me. As I got to the puck, I saw the goalie coming
out a little, and
decided to take a whack at it. I got kinda lucky.”
The game drew a title game record 19,463 to Xcel Center, making it the largest
crowd ever to
see a WCHA game, and running the three-day, five-session total to a record
88,900. While it
seemed like it might be a hometown, if not a home-ice, venue for the Gophers,
the cheering
was louder for the Sioux. That seemed to change, however, when Wheeler
belly-flopped for
the winning goal — his fourth in two days, after scoring only three others
since January 1.
“It was a heck of a play,” said North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol. “Blake had a
great
tournament, and he made a big effort on that goal, and got some good fortune to
go with it.
It was a hard-fought game, a great college hockey game and a showcase for our
league,
before a great crowd.”
“These were two great teams, with great players, and both competed very, very
hard,” said
Gopher coach Don Lucia. “Kyle Okposo’s line had to shut down (Jonathan) Toews’s
line, and
we figured that if they could neutralize them, we hoped another line could get
some goals.
That’s what Blake and Ben Gordon did.”
The first Gopher goal, in fact, came from defenseman Erik Johnson, with
third-liners Tony
Lucia and Mike Carman assisting. Scoring first was a prime objective of both
teams, and the
pace was dazzling from the start. The teams had 10 shots apiece in a scoreless
first period,
although the Gophers had four of the five first-period power plays. The Gophers
may have
gotten their game flow back in order by having to play well to get past an
aroused Wisconsin
team 4-2 in the semifinals, while they also knew they had to play up to the pace
of the
Fighting Sioux, who overran St. Cloud State 6-2 in the semis. But as fast as the
pace was, the
period was punctuated by some crunching, high-speed bodychecks as the teams
exchanged
hits as liberally as rushes.
Midway through the second period, Johnson, Minnesota’s big freshman defenseman,
rushed
up the right side and slammed a shot from the circle that hit goaltender
Philippe Lamoureux
but had enough steam to continue through for a goal at 8:26.
The Fighting Sioux capitalized on a two-man advantage for the 1-1 equalizer.
Taylor Chorney,
a sophomore from Hastings whose dad, Marc Chorney, is a former Sioux star, got
the goal
with a blast from center-point past Gopher sophomore Jeff Frazee at 13:24.
Minnesota regained the lead at 2-1 when Mike Vannelli chipped the puck up the
boards from
the right point, and Wheeler, who had three of the goals in the 4-2 victory the
day before,
flipped a quick and clever pass off the boards to Gordon, who scored with a
quick shot at
15:36.
Duncan, who joins T. J. Oshie flanking Toews on North Dakota’s explosive first
line,
connected at 1:54 of the final period to tie the game 2-2 on a power play. But
he was far from
celebratory after the game.
“It was definitely a bitter pill to swallow when we saw them lift the Broadmoor
Cup,” said
Duncan. “Hopefully, we’ll take a positive from this and get another chance at
them.”
Minnesota captain Mike Vannelli said: “All three players on that line are
unbelievable, and you
have to be aware of them whenever they’re on the ice. We definitely did a great
job of
shutting them down, and our forwards came back to help out a lot. They’re
definitely one of
the top teams in the nation, but we proved we’ve still got it.”
The Gophers outshot North Dakota 11-5 in the third period despite giving up the
only goal, and
had a 41-25 edge for their aroused play during the whole game. But it was the
41st of those
that the fans will long remember, and which will carry Minnesota into an upbeat
run at the
NCAA tournament.
Wheeler hat trick paces Gophers past Wisconsin
SAINT PAUL, MN. — Winning was not important for the University of Minnesota
hockey team in the WCHA Final Five, because the Golden Gophers are ranked No. 1
in the Pairwise computer ratings, and are thus assured of a berth in the NCAA
tournament. But playing well — regaining their once-dominant flow — was of
utmost importance.
The Gophers managed to do both in Friday night’s second semifinal, beating
Wisconson 4-2, before a Final Five record crowd of 19,359 at Xcel Energy
Center. The loss was stunning for Wisconsin, which came to the tournament
knowing that it had no chance of climbing high enough in the ratings to make
the NCAA, and only the automatic berth based on winning the tournament could
give them a chance to defend the title the Badgers won last year.
The 4-2 loss was gained on an empty-net goal, and the closeness of the game was
evidence both of how well Wisconsin played — outshooting Minnesota 31-25 — and of how well the Gophers had to play to beat such an inspired, and desperate, foe.
Minnesota had climbed to the top with a 22-game unbeaten streak that carried
over to January, but since that streak was snapped, the Gophers had gone only
9-8 to the finish, including being extended to three games before beating
last-place Alaska-Anchorage in the first playoff round. During that sputtering
stretch, the top-line players were often displaced by third and fourth line
players who came up with the goals.
But that, too, may have been overcome. Sophomore Blake Wheeler, who had scored
only three goals since the first of the year, scored three times against the
Badgers, including the empty-net clincher. He scored at 5:52 of the first
period, when he beat star goaltender Brian Elliott to a loose puck at the left
side of the cage, and Wheeler, who was beyond the goal line, reached back out
to stuff his shot between Elliott’s pads.
Wheeler also scored the pivotal goal, with four seconds left in the second
period, to break a 2-2 tie, setting the stage for his critical empty-net
clincher.
Wisconsin was only seventh seed, but records can be tossed aside whenever
Minnesota and Wisconsin play.
Minnesota (29-9-3) moves on to face North Dakota (22-12-5) in the Saturday night
championship game. Both, along with St. Cloud State, are assured spots when the
NCAA names its 16-team field on Sunday.
For the Badgers, of course, there is one more game — a third-place game
Saturday afternoon against St. Cloud State. But they knew the urgency of going
all the way. “There were some teary eyes in the dressing room,” said Wisconsin
coach Mike Eaves. “We knew we had to win the tournament to have a chance,
because we’re ranked 20th.
“The Gophers came out with pretty good energy, but we came out of the first
period even, and could try to build on it. We outshot them in all three
periods, and I thought Brian (goaltender Brian Elliott) was solid. I’ll have to
see how he feels, to see if we can ride him one more time.”
David Drewiske tied the game at 1-1 in the last minute of the first period, when
he golfed a shot from wide to the left that was headed well wide to the right,
but it glanced off defenseman Erik Johnson’s skate and the ricochet went right
into the net past goalie Kellen Briggs at 19:16. Enlivened, the Badgers came
out and took a 2-1 lead at 1:37 of the second, when Jake Dowell skated up the
left side and scored with a wrist shot, short side, from the left circle, as
Briggs played him to pass.
But captain Mike Vannelli tied it 2-2 for Minnesota with an odd goal, shooting
from the blue line into heavy traffic in front, and scoring when the puck hit a
Wisconsin defender in the hindquarters and trickled into the right edge at 11:00
of the second period. At 2-2, the teams were trading rushes, and trading
stifling checking games in an even battle. A faceoff just inside the Badger
blue line with 8.6 seconds remaining in the middle period proved the game’s
turning point.
Wheeler, a center, was shunted over to left wing so that freshman Kyle Okposo
could take the faceoff. “They replaced me with Kyle on the faceoff — a guy who
could actually win the faceoff,” laughed Wheeler, who credited relaxing and
enjoying the moment for his first hat trick since Breck High School days.
Okposo pulled the draw back to Mike Vannelli, who zipped a pass to Alex
Goligoski for a shot from the left point. Wheeler, meanwhile, had broken free
from left wing, skating straight toward the net, and he cleanly deflected
Goligoski’s shot through Elliott.
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The tie-breaking goal, with only 4 seconds remaining in the second period, stood
up as the game-winner when Briggs and the Gophers traded rushes through the
third. Wisconsin played hard, and with proper desperation, but the Gophers, who
have been ragged and inconsistent through the past two months, flowed with
rhythm.
Afterwards, Minnesota coach Don Lucia stressed how youthful his Gophers are,
with only Briggs and Vannelli as seniors, and when asked about facing red-hot
North Dakota, Lucia said: “I know we don’t have a chance.”
Lucia was being sarcastic, about the raves coming North Dakota’s way for the hot
streak the Sioux have put together — including a 5-3, 7-3 sweep at Minnesota.
Or was he serious? The media watching the semifinals couldn’t be certain, but a
fitting final is predicted.
Suzuki SX4 turns foot-deep blizzards to joy rides
So all of us card-carrying, red-blooded Minnesotans have been whining since Thanksgiving that we hadn’t had anything more than a wimpy, pretend winter – no snow, no ice, no truly cold weather. So Mother Nature shut everybody up in the last two weeks, and when those twin storms, with their swirly, perpetually circling systems, dropped two foot-deep snowfalls within five days, it was a good time to check out your vehicle of choice, as well as your driving ability.
I got lucky. When the time came for the storms to hit, because between them, I met up with a new Suzuki SX4, delivered to me in the Twin Cities. It is a really intriguing little compact, and while I had previously driven the automatic version, I requested a manual-shifter, and it just happened to show up between the two blizzards that engulfed Minnesota and the whole Upper Midwest.
The SX4 is a Suzuki through and through, not one of those rebadged and stylish Daewoos, made in South Korea. This one is unique, a five-door hatchback, with a 2.0-liter Suzuki four-cylinder, with chain-driven dual overhead camshafts and all the high-tech goodies – plus one extra one. A little rocker switch on the console switches forward to engage front-wheel drive, click in the middle for automatic all-wheel drive, and click it back, and it locks you into 4×4, where all four wheels keep on a-churning.
Neatly styled, with a comfortable interior that offers several inches of headroom, and good rear legroom even with the front buckets slid back, the SX4 has foglights in the lower fascia, which also are very useful in snowstorms. The whole thing, with switchable four-wheel drive and all, lists for only $16,554.
I hit the highway for Duluth, two hours away, before the storm hit, which I didnÂ’t mind, having been plowed out from the previous weekendÂ’s 18-inch heap on the North Shore of Lake Superior. I was hustling to get to Duluth in time for the Section 7 Class A high school hockey final. I made it, and Hermantown beat Hibbing to gain the state tournament. So I made my way out between the snowpiles, up the North Shore a ways.
Driving up the hill to my place, I stopped at the mailbox, and noticed that a plow had left a 2-foot ridge across the entrance to my driveway. No problem, and a good test, I thought. I switched the SX4 into 4×4 lock, stuck it in first, and plunged through the snow pile. On the other side, however, instead of the well-plowed driveway I had anticipated, I landed in about a foot of pristine new snow. That driveway is like a wind tunnel, and it captures all sorts of drifts from any lake-effect stuff, so the surprise was on me. I kept on it, though, and without ever spinning, the little SX4 amazed me by churning all the way in the long driveway. I was even more surprised the next morning, when I went outside and noticed all the grooves in the snow, because it was deep enough that everything on the undercarriage of the SX4 was making an impression by plowing its own grooves.
The next day, the snowstorm hit, big time. With lightning, and with winds that streamed in off Lake Superior and battered Park Point with winds reported at 50, 52, 62, and finally 68 miles per hour. You want snowdrifts? Check out Park Point. They closed the schools, they closed the stores, they closed the restaurants, and they even closed the mall up over the hill. And then they closed the Aerial Bridge, isolating those good-natured souls on Park Point.
The young guy who probably paid for his college tuition in two weeks time, showed up and did a quick plow-job with his pickup. It didn’t have to be thorough, because we both knew he’d be coming back in about 24 hours. Sure enough, we got another 18 inches – enough to take the Duluth area from drought conditions to being buried under several feet of heavy, dense, snow.
The SX4, however, never flinched. It went everywhere we needed to go, and several places normal folks probably shouldnÂ’t have been venturing, under the circumstances. Mostly, I drove in automatic AWD, which adjusts the amount of power directed to either the front or rear axles according to slippage, most of the time. I saved 4×4 lock for those streets where an ATV or snowmobile might have been the more logical vehicle of choice. On the highway, though, once we got over the hill to return to the Twin Cities, I clicked it into front-wheel drive and never felt unstable.
My wife, Joan, shared my enthusiasm for the SX4. We do occasionally like the same things about the same vehicles, but I had made her skeptical about the SX4 by saying it was a Suzuki, but how much I liked it. She drove it several times in rush-hour congestion in the Twin Cities.
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“I was surprised how much I liked it, because I didnÂ’t like some other Suzukis weÂ’ve driven,†said Joan. “ItÂ’s firm, and it handles well, even when youÂ’re not in all-wheel drive. Actually, I could live with this car. I like the styling, where the big wheels and tires look cool, and I donÂ’t always like stick-shifts in rush-hour, but this one shifts very easily. The interior is well laid out, too.Ââ€
The 16-inch alloy wheels were shod with Bridgestone all-season tires, and they did a good job passing every test. The $16,000 price is an enduring surprise, because it includes four-wheel disc brakes, intermittent wipers, roof rails, foglights, the 143-horsepower, 136-foot-pounds of torque engine, with its zero-maintenance timing chain, plus the 5-speed stick and antilock brakes. Climate control, front, side, and front-rear side curtain airbags, cruise control, a six-CD audio system with nine speakers, including a subwoofer, 60-40 folding rear seats, and a leather-wrapped steering wheel with remote stereo and cruise switches, are all attractions that would seem better-suited to a higher sticker price.
Suzuki engineers are quick to praise the Forenza and Verona sedans the company sells, and they are good, adequate vehicles, even if my wife and I aren’t among their biggest fans. I asked them two questions, when the SX4 was introduced. First, why they continue to make world-class motorcycles but don’t seem to want to acknowledge them in connection with their cars; and second, do they feel more intense pride in a South Korean engine powering a car rebadged with the “S†or with a Suzuki-built, chain-drive dual-overhead cams?
They conceded that “our soul is in this car,†meaning the SX4. And while I thought the motorcycle connection was more a rhetorical question, I’ve seen all sorts of ads for the SX4 that shows the car casting a neat shadow – of a racing motorcycle.
Suzuki also has a seven-year, transferable, 100,000 mile powertrain warranty. The company, except for its motorcycles, is not exactly a household name for cars in the U.S. But consider that in Japan, only Toyota and Nissan outsell Toyota in new car sales. Suzukis outsell Hondas, Mazdas, Subarus and everything else.
No company makes cars or other vehicles specifically with us in the snow belt in mind. IÂ’m not saying Suzuki did that with the SX4, but it is the perfect commuter-runabout when winter unleashes its full fury. I still attained 24.7 miles per gallon in snow-churning, frigid warm-up conditions, which makes me think the EPA highway estimate of 28 should be readily attainable in nice weather.
Remember nice weather?
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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