Hyundai Genesis Coupe is pure performance bargain
Hyundai struck gold when its new Genesis sedan won the North American Car of the Year award in January, and now the South Korean company is mining another vein, boldly taking on the world’s most fun-to-drive sporty vehicles with the Genesis Coupe.
The unrelated-except-by-name Genesis Sedan and Coupe are seriously altering Hyundai’s reputation, which has always been for simple and inexpensive vehicles with great warranties. The new wave of Hyundais has taken a decided step up the technology and quality ladders – while retaining the amazing low-price and high-warranty features that have vaulted Hyundai to the upper echelon of all the satisfied-customer ratings.
The new Coupe is not embarking on its journey meekly, but instead is stating flat-out that its targets are sporty coupes that include the Infiniti G37, and the BMW 3-Series coupe – both among my personal favorites, if you choose to buy your sporty coupe with winter-risk rear-wheel drive. As far as that challenge goes, the Genesis Coupe is lighter than the Infiniti G37, and its chassis is 24 percent stiffer in bending rigidity than the M3, BMW’s ultra-stiff performance 3-Series model.
It goes without saying that the Genesis Coupe also will welcome comparisons with Ford Mustang, the Dodge Challenger, the yet-to-be-released Chevrolet Camaro, and the Mitsubishi Eclipse.
The Genesis Coupe has a nicely chiseled nose, flaring up from the grille, and from the side, the front has its own wedgy angle outlined by a firm contour, while a second groove runs from the rear and comes in above the first, complementing the sloping roofline, which kicks back for the rear window opening. The rear is nicely designed too, with an optional spoiler atop the hatch, and a blacked-out lower valence that outlines the dual exhaust tubes. With a low side sill and a thin line of windows, the Coupe is attractive and distinctive from every angle.
Hyundai is preying on the word “Genesis†much more than building a coupe off the sedan. Genesis, insiders say, is code for front-engine/rear-drive performance, which is a departure for the company. Until Genesis, all Hyundais – from the luxury Azera, down through the midsize Sonata to the compact Elantra and the subcompact Accent, with sidetrips through the SUVs such as Veracruz, Santa Fe and Tucson – have been front-wheel drive or front-drive with all-wheel drive variations.
Obviously, in Minnesota, front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive remains a very important asset, and it does seem that the Genesis Sedan might add an AWD model. But there are those who like the performance feel of front-engine/rear-drive, and they insist that because hard acceleration makes a natural transition of power to the rear, and traditional sports cars and German luxury cars have featured rear-drive, it should be the norm. It is those traditional performance drivers Hyundai is aiming at with the Genesis siblings, more than Minnesota winter drivers.
The Genesis Sedan is large and luxurious, measuring 195.9 inches in length, and 4,000 pounds, while the Genesis Coupe is low and slinky at 182.3 inches in length and 3,300 pounds. The Genesis sedan has a potent and extremely high-tech 4.6-liter V8 and a well-refined 3.8 V6 for power; the Genesis Coupe instead uses that revised 3.8 V6 as its optional upgrade, to go along with its basic 2.0-liter 4-cylinder.
Before scoffing at the smaller engine, however, know that it has dual overhead camshafts with dual variable valve-timing on both intake and exhaust valves, which are whipped to a proper frenzy of action by an intercooled Mitsubishi turbocharger, so it makes 210 horsepower at 6,000 RPMs, and 223 foot-pounds of torque at only 2,000 RPMs.
The 3.8-liter V6 also has dual overhead cams and variable valve timing and delivers a potent 306 horsepower at 6,300 RPMs, and 266 foot-pounds of torque at 4,700 RPMs. Enough to vault the Coupe from 0-60 in down around 5 seconds, but the 4 won’t be far behind, as the turbo spools up and zips the Coupe right along. The V6 model has an electronic cutoff at 149 miles per hour, and the 2.0 Turbo at 137 mph.
Another surprise is that both engines are tuned to run on regular gas – an enormous benefit, when you see some gas stations charging 20 cents or more higher for premium.
Maybe the power, performance, tightness and crisp handling were all pleasant surprises, compared to Hyundais past, but the biggest and most-pleasant surprise to me was that the Genesis Coupe with the 4-cylinder and a 6-speed manual transmission starts at only $23,750. That’s a good price for a decent midsize sedan, and an absolute steal for a sleek, attractive sports coupe.
The V6-powered upgrade can be had for $25,000. Both versions come in basic form, with the 2.0 Turbo moving up to a Premium level, and then a top Track level. The 3.8 moves up to a Grand Touring middle-range model, then a top level 3.8 Track. with option-gusts up to $35,000. The Track version of both get firmer suspension settings, the 6-speed sticks, and enlarged Brembo brakes.
Those prices are bargains by any comparaison, especially when you examine features, and hold that 10-year/100,000 mile warranty in reserve.
The introduction of the Coupe was held in Las Vegas, and we got to go out to Spring Mountain Motorsports Park, a road-racing track out in the desert, to put the Coupes through all paces. Included were repeated laps around half of the road-course, plus a fairly tight and fast autocross. There also was a separate circular area set apart for “drifting,†which is the recent sport that has found popularity with younger enthusiasts. In drifting, you spin the rear tires until the smoke, then you zoom around a circle out of shaps but without losing control while your rear tires send off plumes of blue smoke.
I apologize here, but I’ve bought too many tires to engage in the drifting, even though Bridgestone officials were standing by, smiling enthusiastically as thousands of miles of treadlife went up in smoke. Watching it was so unappealing that it made me slightly ill. There are a lot of ways to have fun in a car without such blatant waste.
{IMG2}
Driving to the track in the turbo-4 and driving back to the Red Rock Resort in the V6 model proved both were impressive, although my partner was more bothered than I at the vibration of the 4. I don’t mind a little buzziness from my 4s. But he had a point, and Hyundai engineers acknowledged that they considered it but decided against installing counter-balance shafts because the engine already has a dual-mass flywheel, plus the compromise in cost and weight.
At the road-racing course, both versions of the Coupe were fun to drive, and to push to their limits. The V6 pulled hard in every gear, either with 6-speed stick, or the slick Z-F (say “Zed-FÂâ€) 6-speed automatic and the easily shifted manual paddles reachable from the steering wheel. The turbo 4 ran out of steam on a couple of the turns, where I found I was either out of torque or out of revs. That was more due to the spacing of the gears, perhaps, because I liked the idea that the gears were spaced for optimum highway fuel economy, rather than drag-racing-type close ratios.
On the multi-turn and zig-zagging autocross course I was most impressed, because it was there that I worked to get my best time down to the 23-second bracket with the V6 stick. When I switched to the V6 automatic, I was surprised that I matched my best stick-shift time, and I found that if you paddle it to first, it upshifted by itself once at the first turn when you got to red-line – and idiot-proof assurance against over-revving – and then second gear was perfect for the rest of the run.
I was even more impressed when I took the 4-cylinder stick out on the same track, and found that I was able to again match the V6’s best under-24-second times with the 4. That’s real-world performance, and proves that you could save a lot of money, particularly on fuel economy, where the 4 can reach 30 miles per gallon.
Handling is precise and stable, with a dual-link MacPherson strut suspension up front and a five-link independent rear suspension arrangement, complete with standard electronic stability control and traction control, and available Torsen limited slip governing the rear axle.
Inside, the driving position is very good, with firmly bolstered seats and all the controls laid out with ergonomic efficiency.
There can be no denying Hyundai’s rapid emergence within the industry. Hyundai only started building cars 22 years ago, licensed to recreate the Mitsubishi subcompact as the Excel. It sold so well that Mitsubishi bought some back to sell as its own entry-level Precis. At any rate, Hyundai started building its own engines, which were pretty conservative for a few years.
But consider that Honda, Toyota and Nissan, for example, have been making cars for over 50 years, and their first cars were nothing to write out a check about. They improved dramatically through the years, which made more vehicles and more challengers out there for Hyundai to strive to meet.
In 2001, market research showed that 12 percent of all auto buyers said they would consider a Hyundai; now that figure is 26 percent. Honda and Toyota stand at over 50 percent, though, and that’s where Hyundai wants to get.
All auto makers are struggling against the faltering economy right now, although there have been months where Hyundai was one of very few to show an improvement over the same month a year ago. Overall, sales are down for every company, but Hyundai’s overall loss of sales in the past year has been small enough that it actually gained market share. Its market share is only at 4.1 percent, but that represents an increase of 70 percent.
And that’s without a full year of the Genesis Sedan, and before anybody has driven away in a Genesis Coupe.
Bulldogs blank Denver for Final Five championship
SAINT PAUL, MN. — Never in the 17-year history of the WCHA Final Five playoff format had any team survived the “play-in†game then also won the semifinal and final to claim the championship. Until Saturday, when the University of Minnesota-Duluth continued one of the most stirring playoff runs in league history by not only beating but blanking Denver 4-0 to capture the Broadmoor Trophy.
Not only did the Bulldogs win, they stifled the powerful Pioneers by allowing just one shot at star goaltender Alex Stalock in the third period, when they made Denver look like the fatigued team, rather than themselves.
MacGregor Sharp scored a hat trick, and freshman Mike Connolly assisted on all three, while Jack Connolly, another freshman and a hometown Duluthian who is not related to Mike, scored the third UMD goal. Stalock, Sharp, Connolly and defenseman Josh Meyers all made the all-tournament team, and Stalock was most valuable player.
“That was definitely one of the toughest games we’ve had all year,†said Denver winger Rhett Rakhshani. “All around the rink, on the boards, in the neutral zone, behind the net – everywhere, we were always physically confronted by them. Do I think we played our best? No, but even when we were putting forward our best play, they weathered it.Ââ€
UMD (21-12-8), which hadn’t won a league playoff since 1985, had finished the regular season in a winless five-game skid that dropped it to seventh in the WCHA, rose up to become the only road-winner to win in the first round of league playoffs, beating Colorado College 4-1, 3-1. Still, the Bulldogs were distinct underdogs at the Xcel Energy Center, before beating Minnesota 2-1 Thursday, then stunning league champion North Dakota 3-0 Friday, and finishing the job with the 4-0 job on Denver (23-11-5).
Consistent in that playoff run is that goaltender Alex Stalock went from being close to unbeatable to totally unbeatable against North Dakota and Denver – the WCHA’s top two seeds, and two teams secured in their NCAA tournament berths. Stalock, after giving up only three goals in five playoff games – a goals-against mark of 0.60 and a save percentage of .981 – has guided the upstart Bulldogs into a third secure slot in the NCAA pairings.
UMD will return to the Twin Cities as the West Regional No. 2 seed against Princeton Friday night at Mariucci Arena. Denver is the No. 1 seed, and faces Miami in the afternoon game. The only other WCHA team to make it was league champ North Dakota, which was sent to Manchester, N.H., to face host New Hampshire, with Boston University facing Ohio State in the other semifinal.
In the first two Final Five victories, senior MacGregor Sharp scored the first goal and Stalock was superb, causing Scott Sandelin to stress that it was a good formula. Sharp did it again Saturday night, dazzling 16,749 fans by scoring a power-play goal midway through the first period, finishing off a spectacular goal-mouth play for another goal midway through the second period, then hitting an empty net with 2:32 remaining in the third to clinch it.
The hat trick boosts Sharp to 26 goals for the season, after he scored seven last season.It was suggested he must have lost confidence in his goalie to score more than the first one.
“The way Alex has been playing, one should do the trick,†laughed Sharp. “But I thought I should get a couple more tonight.Ââ€
Denver coach George Gwozdecky admired UMD’s amazing run. “We were hoping to get that first one to see how they’d react,†said Gwozdecky, “but we couldn’t. They took away pretty much everything we had.
“The more I watched them tonight, the more I thought about some teams we’ve had – a big, strong, physical team, physically and mentally strong. Alex Stalock is playing as good as any goaltender can. I was very impressed with Duluth, and they get full credit for doing what was thought to be impossible, and what nobody has ever done before by winning three games in three days.
“If they keep playing the way they are now, they could go a long way in the national tournament.Ââ€
{IMG2}
The Bulldogs, who spent much of the season scratching and clawing for goals, scored some outstanding goals against Denver. On Sharp’s first goal, freshman Mike Connolly fed him rushing into the zone and Sharp passed hard to Justin Fontaine in the right circle. Fontaine had a good opening for a shot, but instead passed back across the slot, and Sharp one-timed it past goaltender Marc Cheverie.
In the second period, Mike Connolly burst up the right side as Sharp went hard for the net on the left. Connolly sent a hard pass across the goal-mouth. “All I had to do was get my stick down, and it went right off the tape,†said Sharp.
Less than three minutes later, UMD killed a penalty to Jack Connolly when Rhett Rakhshani was penalized for Denver. When Connolly came out of the box, he hustled into the offensive zone and wound up with the puck in the left corner. He considered feeding the point, but saw a lane open up and darted for the goal, throwing a deke at Cheverie and then hoisting his shot up and in on the short side for a 3-0 lead.
Highlight film stuff, these goals. And the big crowd was clearly behind the Cinderella Bulldogs. But through the third period, the Denver response was awaited, and then seemingly ignored by the Bulldogs, who played with an ever-increasing confidence. When Gwozdecky pulled Cheverie for an extra skater with plenty of time left, the Bulldogs struck almost immediately.
Mike Connolly, who had a huge weekend, fed Sharp in the neutral zone, and Sharp carried to near the blue line before rifling his shot into the empty net.
“I’m extremely proud of our team and happy for our seniors,†said UMD coach Scott Sandelin. “They were here as freshmen, and since then we’ve endured some hardships. But we had good composure, and stayed focused. To hold that team to one shot in the third period…
“This ranks right at the top,†said Sandelin, among his coaching highlights.
Stalock, UMD stun Sioux 3-0 to reach 1st final
SAINT PAUL, MN. — Minnesota-Duluth was impressive in taking out Minnesota 2-1 in Thursday’s play-in game, but the Bulldogs were even more impressive Friday night, when Alex Stalock stopped all 31 shots and his team beat top-seeded North Dakota 3-0 before 17,729 fans at Xcel Energy Center to reach the Saturday night championship game.
It seems like a simple formula that Minnesota-Duluth is using in the WCHA Final Five: Get the first goal for an early lead, and let the other guys shoot. It worked Thursday, because MacGregor Sharp scored early and Stalock stopped 39 Gopher shots. And it worked again Friday because Sharp scored another stunning goal in the opening minutes, then Stalock simply stopped all 31 Fighting Sioux shots.
“It was no surprise, really,†said Sioux captain Ryan Duncan. “He’s been a great goalie through his college career. He’s a big-game goalie, and it’s a credit to him. They’ve got a hard-working team with a lot of intensity, and obviously, they’ve got a lot to play for.Ââ€
UMD (20-12-8) has now risen to a solid position within the criteria for making the NCAA tournament’s 16-team field, and North Dakota (24-13-4) already was solidly in. The Bulldogs will try to become the first team to ever capture the WCHA’s Final Five by winning three straight games. No team has ever gone all the way from the play-in game, but UMD will take on Denver for the title, after North Dakota plays Wisconsin for third place.
The interesting scenarios leading to the NCAA selections were everywhere in this tournament’s first two days, and nobody noticed it more than UMD coach Scott Sandelin. When the Bulldogs beat Minnesota, all the North Dakota fans were cheering them on, more of an anti-Gopher thing than favoring UMD. Friday night, those fans might have been dismayed they got what they wished for, but in the 3-0 victory over the Sioux, all the idled Gopher fans were cheering for the Bulldogs.
“One advantage we had is that we played last night,†said Sandelin. “We knew we had to have a better 60-minute game tonight, and we got it. We got a nice break with Sharpie’s goal, and we played a much, much better game start to end. Our penalty-kill was tremendous, and, of course, the goalie is a big part of that.Ââ€
Stalock has been so solid, giving up two goals in a 4-1, 3-1 upset sweep at Colorado College last weekend, then yielding only one goal in the two enormous victories at Xcel, that any game-plan seems workable. In this case, while the sizzling Sioux were repeatedly turned back by Stalock, Sharp’s goal at 5:16 of the first, and a 4-on-4 tally by Mike Montgomery barely two minutes later gave the brilliant junior netminder all the cushion he’d need.
The final score was padded when Mike Connolly hit an open net with 1:53 to play, although even that goal required explanation.
“Hats off to Duluth,†said North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol. “They played an outstanding game, betting the early lead and then playing a very solid team game for 60 minutes. We needed to get a bounce around Alex Stalock. He was tremendous, but his team also played very well.Ââ€
Stalock used to be criticized for roaming too far from the goal to play the puck, and occasionally misplaying it. Friday night, it was North Dakota’s freshman Brad Eidsness who made an apparent goof, although he was more a victim of MacGregor Sharp’s high-intensity play.
Killing a penalty, the Bulldogs threw the puck in deep, and Eidsness routinely went behind the net to tee up the puck for the first available defenseman. As Eidsness started around the right side on his return to the crease, however, Sharp zoomed in on the left of the net, grabbed the puck, yanked it just inches out front and tucked it inside the post, an instant before Eidsness could slide across.
The Sioux might have been stunned, and the crowd was, for certain. Stalock, the reformed roamer, came to his defense: “He’s a good goalie, and I don’t know what happened exactly on that one, but this is a tough place for a freshman to play.Ââ€
Montgomery, a defenseman who found himself in deep on a 4-on-4 situation, spotted the rebound when Josh Meyers blasted a shot from center-point at 7:41. With Sioux defenders all around him, Montgomery spun far enough to get an awkward angle shot off – and it went in, possibly before Eidsness knew it was coming.
{IMG2}
The Sioux, outshot 11-7 by the hustling Bulldogs in the first period, came back for a 14-6 edge themselves in the second period, and 10-7 in the third, for a 31-24 shot advantage. But Stalock stopped everything, including a 5-minute power play when Brady Lamb went off five minutes for kneeing.
Down by two with the final minutes ticking away, Hakstol pulled Eidsness for a sixth attacker. That gave Mike Connolly the chance to again make a key smart play. In Thursday’s game, he was a one-man dynamo in killing off much of the final minutes with alert steals, rushes and even a diving sweep check. Friday, he got the puck from Sharp and skated across his blue line, carrying the puck until he got to the center red line – to make sure he eliminated any chance of icing – and then he rifled a shot 90 feet into the open net.
Sandelin said it might have been an advantage to have played the night before, but he added that he doesn’t think it will be a problem to play the third straight night.
“It’s only a disadvantage if you talk about it,†he said, talking about it. “We came in wanting to win three games, and we’re two-thirds of the way there. Denver is a very, very good team, and it will be a major challenge.Ââ€
Porsche 911 makes it spectacular to go shiftless
It must be with some level of professional amusement that Porsche officials and engineers observed the recent trend of high-performance manufacturers to offer clutchless manual transmissions instead of normal automatic transmissions, because Porsche has used that sort of device on its race cars since the early 1980s.
That is in no way to diminish the effectiveness of those competitors. My favorites are the Audi DSG (direct sequential gearbox), which has been around for several years, and the sensational new Mitsubishi unit that works so well in the specialty Lancer Evolution.
But Porsche has decided it’s time to bring out the street-level “PDKÂ‖ which stands for Porsche Doppelkupplungetrieb – we were informed. The device is on Porsche’s newest 911 Carerra, and it is a superb alternative that will replace the legendary Tiptronic in the car from here forward.
The PDK is 10 kilos lighter than the Tiptronic, and it’s sure to pick off a lot of previous stick-shift zealots. The PDK is, you see, more a clutchless manual than an automatic. It has two separate gearboxes, separate wet clutches continuously lubricated, and two separate driveshafts, which overlap. When one geat is engaged, one driveshaft drives the car, and when it upshifts or downshifts, the other takes over. Instantaneously.
While I’m tempted to suggest that no “normal†street driver needs all that the PDK can do, it is a marvel to operate. True, it is costly. We’re guessing about $85,000, and $93,000 for the Carerra 4 all-wheel drive model. For most of us, that’s pure fantasy, but if you’ve got the money, the car performs at a level to make even such a large investment seem sound. You can do a full-throttle upshift, and the device changes gears with no lag, and no interruption of traction. You can downshift, and the thing blips the throttle to match revs, then will go from, say, fourth to third in .25 seconds, or 250 milliseconds. It will go from sixth to second in .4 seconds.
The beast also has something called “launch control,†which means you stay planted until you decide to make a high-rev launch with perfect traction and optimum thrust.
Most of the education required driving on the race track, which had been prearranged, of course. When the automotive media groups gathered in Salt Lake City to be introduced to the new car, it was, however, a bittersweet time.
Bob Carlson, Porsche’s universally appreciated public relations director, was not there. I’d known Bob for 30-some years, back when he did motorsports PR, and because he also was an intense hockey fan, we became close friends. At previous introductions, he and co-worker Gary Fong would coax me to stay late in the hospitality room and recall old Minnesota Fighting Saints stories for them.
But this time, Carlson was back home in Atlanta, getting what was to become his final treatments in his battle against cancer. Everybody in the auto business was pulling for Bob, but this was a battle Carlson ultimately lost, at Christmastime. Nonetheless, his name and his always-pleasant demeanor seemed everywhere during the new car launch. He would have loved to be there, and I’ll always remember that introduction as a fitting 60th birthday for him.
Porsche had gathered some of its top race drivers to guide the journalists around the long and sometimes surprising Miller Park road racing track, and we had a half-dozen 911s for use on the track. We got a preliminary trial on a lengthy drive our of the Hotel Park City, in the mountains east of Salt Lake City, where the 2002 Olympic downhill skiing and other events were located. The track is on the west side of the city, so we pretty well worked out the car’s capabilities on the highway, but it was nothing like on the race track.
The 911, which was introduced at the Frankfurt Auto Show in September of 1963, is in its sixth generation, and it was 25 years ago since the clutchless automatic made its racing debut in the car. For 2009, more than “just†the new transmission is featured. The 911 has an entirely new engine, which is far more than merely expanded from 3.6 to 3.8 liters.
The bore and stroke are different, and so is the fuel intake. Porsche has gone to direct injection, which is a method of metering a perfectly concocted dose of precisely pressurized and temperature controlled fuel into each cylinder. That doesn’t sound especially significant, perhaps, but it meets its air mixture in the combustion chamber, where the resulting combustion is more efficient and more complete. All that leads to more complete burning, which is good for both power and fuel economy. The 3.8 engine has 385 horsepower, up 30, and 310 foot-pounds of torque, up 15.
The power produced by a rear-engine/rear-drive 911 always has been more than anyone anticipated, enough so Porsche’s would roll out of Stuttgart and defeat exotic sports cars with twice as much engine displacement, ranging from Corvettes to Ferraris, on the world’s race tracks.
The new one is mind-blowing, for power, for fuel-injection, and for handling, but mainly because of the PDK transmission. Among the 911s we all drove were six-speed stick-shift cars, as well as the new PDK. Some were all-wheel drive, some just rear drive. But here’s the impressive – and perhaps disturbing – part of the puzzle: The PDK doing all the shifting for you is quicker around the race track than shifting by steering-wheel paddles, or with the six-speed stick.
Driving hard with the stick, I was only in the wrong gear in one turn around the 4.5-mile road course. Shifting another car with the paddles, it shifted smoothly and all was slick, but occasionally I would be off by a gear.
{IMG2}
Amazingly, when I drove one of the Porsches with the PDK,and left it in “D,†the car miraculously knew when to upshift and when to downshift, sometimes blipping its own throttle and downshifting two gears, from fifth to third. It was NEVER was in the wrong gear.
My driving instructor was Kees Nierop, who is Dutch, and who won at Sebring in 1983. He told me he owed his driving career with Porsche to Bob Carlson. We blasted down the straightaway to prove the car’s capability of going 0-60 in 4 seconds, and 0-100 in about 7 seconds.
Later on, I drove back to the hotel with driver David Donohue in the passenger seat, and we had a great conversation. He is the son of Mark Donohue, and we decided he probably was a little kid when I wrote about his late father, racing Can-Am Porsches at Brainerd international Raceway. Donohue, who used to co-drive with Duluth’s Tommy Archer on a LeMans Dodge Viper team, also said that growing up in Pennsylvania, he played hockey until he went off to college.
As impressive as driving the Porsches with the PDK proved to be, a small part of me remained skeptical. Some of us in the media are very good drivers, even on race tracks, but we can’t measure up to former Daytona, LeMans, Sebring champions. So I cornered Hurley Haywood and asked him a hypothetical question.
“If were second by a few tenths of a second to the pole-winner in qualifying, and you had just enough time to go out for one more hot lap, would you want the stick shift, the paddle-shifter, or the PDK?†I asked him.
Haywood, who never would be one to downplay the driver input in racing success, paused, but just for an instant: “The PDK,†he said.
So I went back out for one last turn. I planned to leave the PDK in “D†until the last three turns, then use the paddles to manually shift. But when I got to the last three turns, I left it in “D†and realized one more factor. As you keep your two hands firmly on the wheel, and your brain focused only on steering and driving, without any regard for what gear you’re in, because the PDK assures you of being in precisely the right gear at all times, you should be your fastest and smoothest around a race track. Imagine how good a driver you could be on normal roads.
Everything was in place. The only thing missing was, sadly, my friend Bob Carlson.
Lamoureux twins ignite late Gopher romp in semis
Lamoureux twins ignite Gophers late romp in semis
By John Gilbert
Last Updated: Sunday, March 08th, 2009 10:22:16 AM
MINNEAPOLIS, MN. — The top-seeded University of Minnesota cracked open a tight game with four unanswered goals in the third period Saturday afternoon to eliminate Minnesota State-Mankato 7-2 in the first semifinal of the Women’s WCHA Final Faceoff tournament at Ridder Arena.
The Mavericks (12-19-5) who had upset St. Cloud State in a three-game series to ride the No. 5 seed into the semifinals, gave the Gophers all they wanted for two periods, trailing 2-1 at the first intermission and 3-2 at the second. But in the third, the powerful Golden Gophers got two goals from freshman Monique Lamoureux, the second goal of the day for her twin sister, Jocelyn Lamoureux, and one from Terra Rasmussen in the third period to remove any doubt.
Minnesota (31-3-3), the No. 1 ranked team in the nation, will face No. 2 ranked Wisconsin in Sunday’s 1 p.m. league playoff final. Wisconsin (30-2-5) outlasted Minnesota-Duluth 3-1 in the second semifinal Saturday.
“I’m very happy with the win, and our ultimate goal was to get into position to play for a championship,†said Minnesota coach Brad Frost. “We started quite slowly, and credit that to Minnesota State-Mankato. They did what they had to do, but I’m proude of the way our players responded. Getting the fourth goal was huge.Ââ€
The Golden Gophers opened the scoring when captain Gigi Marvin scored her 26th goal, a shorthanded effort at 5:29 of the first period. Brittany Francis made it 2-0 on a power play at 13:26 of the opening period, and the Gophers appeared on their way. But Abby Williams got one back for the Mavericks before the period ended.
Monique Lamoureux’s power-play goal regained the two-goal edge at 3-1 at 7:19 of the second period, but the Mavericks kept pace, and converted on a two-man power play of their own at 16:44, closing the game to 3-2.
But in the third, Monique Lamoureux scored from the left edge just after a two-man power play had expired to make it 4-2, but even then the Mavericks wouldn’t quit. The crushing goal was one that required a lengthy review, at 11:43. Kelly Blankenship rushed the Maverick goal for a shot, and crashed into goaltender Paige Thunder. As Blankenship and Thunder tumbled into the goal, the puck stayed out in the crease, but Terra Rasmussen, trailing the play, skated in and flipped the puck up and over the tangle in the nets.
A delayed penalty had been signalled on Mankato, causing Blankenship to lose her balance and crash into the net, apparently, which negated any goaltender interference, and, since the puck preceded her into the crease, caused the officials to allow the goal. At 5-2, the task was too steep for the Mavericks.
{IMG2}
Monique Lamoureux scored against two minutes later, her 38th goal of a league-scoring-championship freshman season, and sister Jocelyn Lamoureux notched her 28th less than a minute after that.
MSU-Mankato co-coaches Paul Willett and Mandy Krause-Rideout, who assumed the dual role at midseason, brought their Mavericks a long way through the second half of the season. “Mandy and I couldn’t be prouder of our hockey team, especially the way we played one of the top teams in the country. We just came out a little short.Ââ€
Krause-Rideout said: “We really battled through two periods. We knew any space we gave them would put us in trouble, but we had a lot of great chances, even when it was 4-2.Ââ€
Williams, whose goal lifted the Mavericks hopes, said: “It gave us a boost. Our goal all year was to beat them, and even at 4-2, we still believed we could do it. We rallied together, and our coaches helped us so much.Ââ€
The Gophers, meanwhile, could actually enjoy watching the later UMD-Wisconsin game.
Asked if he had any feeling which team he’d rather face in the final, Frodst said: “Nope. We’ve played about even with both of them, and it will just be exciting to watch their game as a fan.Ââ€
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