Badgers overcome Gophers in Final Faceoff
Kelly Nash's overtime shot got past Minnesota goalie Noora Raty and llift Wisconsin to a 5-4 victory.
By John Gilbert
After all of Wisconsin’s top guns had kept up a steady barrage of 55 shots to get the Badgers back into the WCHA Women’s Final Faceoff championship game, it was left to light-scoring senior Kelly Nash to score with shot No. 56 at 14:11 of overtime to lift the No. 1 ranked Badgers to a 5-4 victory over Minnesota Saturday night.
Minnesota scored the first three goals, but Wisconsin scored the last three. Madison Packer and Meggan Duggan scored third-period goals to tie the game in the final seven minutes, and Nash, a third-line right wing from Bonita, Calif., just back this weekend after missing several games with an injury, caught a pass from Geena Prough in the slot and quickly snapped a shot that looked as good as anything her more prolific teammates might have fired. The puck zipped past the screening body of defenseman Anne Schleper and goaltender Noora Raty to hit the right edge and bring a stunning ending to the league playoff final.
“This is incredible. It’s exciting for us,” said Duggan, whose two goals in the game boost her season tally to 37. “I couldn’t be happier that Kelly scored that goal. We were down 2-0 and it was deflating, but I knew we had it in us.”
Wisconsin outshot Minnesota 56-30 for the game, and once the Badgers started rallying in the third period, it became a question of whether Golden Gopher goaltender Raty could hold off the relentless Wisconsin shooters. She almost pulled it off.
“I didn’t see the shot,” said Raty, a sophomore from Finland. “The pass came from the corner, and our ‘D’ screened me. It happens.”
Both Wisconsin (34-2-2) and Minnesota (26-9-2) were assured of getting invited to the eight-team NCAA tournament, with Wisconsin at home against league rival Minnesota-Duluth, and Minnesota heading for Boston College for the one-game quarterfinals. Minnesota, ranked No. 4 before the weekend, slipped out of the top four while beating UMD 4-2 and losing in overtime to No. 1 Wisconsin.
“I’ve got to give our players a lot of credit,” said Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson after winning the league playoff. “There were a couple of points in the game when we could have moved on to next week. But we took some eneregy from the last 6-8 minutes of the third period and carried it over to overtime. Then to have Kelly score that goal, it’s great because her parent are here, and it gives her something to take away from this.”
The puck eluded Wisconsin goalie Alex Rigsby, but didn't go in.
For the second straight game, Minnesota was the lower seed and had to wear the visiting maroon jerseys on its home Ridder Arena ice. At the start, it appeared the Gophers should consider switching permanently, because for the second straight game they played with offensive precision to take early command of the game. Just as they had done in beating Minnesota-Duluth 4-2 in Friday’s semifinals, when they spotted UMD a 1-0 lead and then scored four consecutive goals, the Gophers were able to disrupt the usually slick-passing Badgers, and Sarah Erickson personally staked Minnesota to a 2-0 lead at the first intermission.
Wisconsin took the game’s first two penalties, and just four seconds after the second one expired, Erickson, stationed in the slot, got a clean deflection on Megan Bozek’s shot from the left point. The redirection zipped past goalie Alex Rigsby at 9:46. Five minutes later, Minnesota killed a penalty, and at 15:38, Erickson went to the net for a 2-0 lead.
“Jen Schoullis was working hard to get the puck in the corner, as usual, and she threw it at the net,” said Erickson. “I got my stick on it, and it hit the pipe and kinda went in before she [Rigsby] covered it up.”
Noora Raty stops Badger goal leader Hilary Knight.
Wisconsin needed to get its explosive offense untracked in the second period, but instead, Sarah Davis caught a pass from fellow-freshman Kelly Terry and sped up the right boards. Remarkably, she outflanked the retreating Badger defense and got all the way to the net, scoring from close range to make it 3-0 at 10:20. The game was half over, but nobody anticipated the issue was settled at 3-0.
“Obviously, up 3-0, and losing the game is not ideal,” said Erickson.
Wisconsin stormed back, finally breaking through Raty’s strong goaltending display. It took a power play to get the Badgers going, as Brianna Decker scored her 33rd of the season on a wild tangle at the crease at 14:34. “Raty is a great goaltender, and we were a little nervous,” said Decker.
Suddenly, just 38 seconds later, Badger scoring leader Duggan converted a neat set-up at the goal-mouth for her 36th goal to close it to 3-2.
“Anytime you score a goal it creates energy,” said Johnson.
But Minnesota regained its composure, and a two-goal lead, when Schoullis scored on a scramble at the crease at the other end of the rink with 1:47 left in the middle period. That was a huge goal, because at 4-2, it gave Minnesota a 2-2 standoff for the period, despite being ouotshot 16-4 by Wisconsin.
Minnesota freshman Amanda Kessel was stopped by Wisconsin freshman goalie Alex Rigsby.
However, the third period saw the Badgers increase pressure, and the Badgers outshot Minnesota 18-9 in the third period. The Gophers did an admirable job of weathering the attack for 13 minutes, but at 13:38, the Badgers kept the puck in on the left side, and Madison Packer swatted the puck out of the air to score from the right edge and trim the score to 4-3.
Barely a minute later, the determined Badgers tied the game, as Duggan scored her second of the game and 37th of the season. Fittingly, the WCHA Women’s player of the year extended the Final Faceoff championship game to overtime. With Hilary Knight’s 46 goals, Duggan’s 37 and Decker’s 33, the three have combined for 116 goals, but the final verdict came down to a senior third-liner who previously had scored only two.
UMD falls as Gophers, Badgers reach final
Amanda Kessel was stopped by UMD's Jennifer Harss, but her hat trick gave Minnesota a 4-2 victory.
By John Gilbert
Amanda Kessel isn’t all that big, and her listed 5-foot-6 might be a stretch, but she has made a huge impact on the University of Minnesota women’s hockey team by leading the Golden Gophers in scoring in her freshman season. But her biggest impact came in Friday night’s semifinals of the WCHA Women’s Final Faceoff, when she scored three goals in a 4-2 victory over instate rival Minnesota-Duluth.
Kelly Terry, another freshman, got the fourth Gopher goal, prompting coach Brad Frost to admit his early-season concerns about his team depending on freshmen scoring were, at best, premature. “I wasn’t sure if it could last all season,” Frost said. “But Amanda, Kelly and Sarah Davis have all continued to play well.”
The victory thrusts Minnesota (26-8-2) into the WCHA playoff championship game against league champion and No. 1 ranked Wisconsin (33-2-2). The Badgers had their hands full with North Dakota in the first semifinal before getting loose for three second-period goals. Senior right wing Kelly Nash, returning to her post on the third line, collaborated as the pivot with defenseman Geena Proust to set up Carolyne Prevost for the game’s first goal and Mallory Deluce on a power play to start and end the rally. Between those two, WCHA player of the year and scoring champion Meghan Duggan set up Brianna Decker with a slick, 2-on-1 pass for a short-handed goal. Freshman goaltender Alex Rigsby held firmly for a 3-0 shutout victory.
In the Minnesota-UMD game, Kessel, who has 19 goals, 29 assists for 48 points, is a freshman from Madison, Wis., and attended Shattuck-St. Mary’s Prep School in Fairbault, Minn., before coming to Minnesota. Terry, from Whitby, Ontario, has 15-23–38. Their goals against UMD allowed the Gophers to reclaim their home Ridder Arena ice, which UMD had snatched away by tying the Gophers on the final day of the regular season and gaining the No. 2 seed by having gone 2-1-1 against Minnesota. For Kessel, a little payback made the victory special, and also sets up another special opportunity in the final against her hometown Badgers.
“I got a hat trick in an exhibition game,” said Kessel, who plays left wing with junior center Jen Schoullis and junior wing Sarah Erickson on Minnesota’s top line. “But this was a lot bigger, coming in the playoffs. It was pretty unbelievable. And now, there’s no better team to be playing than Wisconsin.”
UMD had also beaten the Gophers in this tournament last year on the way to winning the NCAA title, and brought a 10-game winning streak into the Final Faceoff, while also striving for a victory that might elevate them into the top four in national rankings to gain home-ice for next week’s eight-team NCAA tournament.
The usual intensity level that is always guaranteed when the two play was advanced when UMD, as home team, got to wear the white jerseys while Minnesota wore the road maroons. When UMD properly took the ice first, UMD’s pep band began to play its school song, but the Gophers came onto the ice just a couple seconds later, and the Gopher band immediately broke into the Rouser, as social courtesy gave way to an attempt to out-decibel UMD’s song.
Minnesota freshman Kelly Terry's second-period goal put UMD down 2-1.
The Bulldogs played without Haley Irwin, who has been battling a nagging but undisclosed injury that caused her to miss several games, then knocked her out twice more since she’s returned, most recently getting three assists in the previous weekend’s 5-0 series-clinching victory over Minnesota State-Mankato. That made it mysterious, but still undisclosed, when she didn’t join the team on the trip to Minnesota. Coach Shannon Miller, who installed Laura Fridfinnson at center between top-line wingers Elin Holmlov and Pernilla Winberg, abruptly turned and walked away after the game when she was asked about Irwin’s status.
Fridfinnson, a senior, had moved back to defense when Miller decided to use the aggressive, four-attacker Torpedo system this season. The Torpedo system creates great offensive pressure, and it also yields some open chances the other way, which usually makes a wide-open and highly entertaining game. It did in this game, too, as the determined Gophers outshot UMD 43-31. Still, UMD’s strategy worked to near-perfection — with the exception of the quick and elusive Kessel.
The Bulldogs struck first, when Audrey Cournoyer circled after a right-corner faceoff, passed across the slot to Katie Wilson, then wound up knocking the puck past goalie Noora Raty from the right edge at 7:25 of the first period. Jennifer Harss came up with a series of outstanding saves when Minnesota tried to respond.
Finally, Kessel tied it at 15:54 of the first period, carrying around a defenseman and cutting across the slot. She misfired on her first shot, and as Harss reacted in anticipation, Kessel shot again and scored. “I tried getting the shot off, and when I didn’t get it, maybe that helped give me an opening,” said Kessel.
The game stood 1-1 at the first intermission, prompting Gopher coach Brad Frost to say, “Even though Duluth got the first goal, I was still happy with our first period. I thought our team was tremendous, from Noora on the back-end on out.”
It was still 1-1 midway through the second period, as both Harss, who is from Germany, and Raty, from Finland, came up with big stops in the resumption of the duel they have shared in international play. But shortly after killing a penalty, Minnesota got a break when Terry got loose, sped up the middle unmolested, and scored on Harss at the crease at 10:37. Two minutes later, Kessel moved in from the left circle and made it 3-1.
Minnesota outshot UMD 19-10 in the second period to gain the upper hand at 3-1, but the Bulldogs opened the third period with a furious attack, intensified when Terry went off for tripping. Raty withstood two or three excellent chances, and UMD misfired on a couple more, then Kessel went back the other way and scored short-handed at 8:53 to complete her hat trick and make it 4-1. The fourth unanswered Gopher goal did not convince Frost that the victory was secured, however.
“One thing that has never changed since I’ve been around this league is that whenever Duluth is down coming into the third period, they’ll throw everything at you,” said Frost. “Nothing has changed since the first time we played them this year, so we knew they’d put pressure on us, but that we’d get some 2-on-1s and breakaways, too. Amanda made some big plays, but she’s a big-time player. She was arguably the biggest recruit in the country for this year, and that line plays well. Schoullis is big and strong, and Sarah Erickson has a wonderfully quick release, but Amanda has become the catalyst for that line.”
Minnesota's Becky Kortum was penalized for crashing into Jennifer Harss, leading to UMD's late second goal.
UMD continued to attack, and the game got more intense and a little nasty as the third period went on, with considerable contact, some of which caused Miller to take issue. “I’m proud of how our team worked, for maybe 50 of the 60 minutes,” said Miller. “The only thing I was disappointed in was running our goaltender three times. Yes, they called it once, with three minutes left, but it’s supposed to be a major if you run the goalie in the crease.”
Minnesota’s Becky Kortom went off for a goaltender interference minor, which gave UMD a late power play with 2:51 remaining, just when it appeared they couldn’t get another shot past Raty. With 2:33 left, Brienna Gillanders deflected a Tara Gray shot into the net to trim the margin to 4-2, but Milnnesota regained its edge and the Bulldogs weren’t able to generate anything more.
“We lost to Duluth twice last year, and we wanted to show those guys we’re the better team,” said Raty. “We beat Wisconsin early in the season, too, and we’re much better than we were back then.”
Ford finds new Focus on global unison
Redesigned 2012 Focus has lively engine, upscale features.
By John Gilbert
For over a decade, U.S. consumers have been able to buy Ford’s Focus as its entry-level compact car that was inexpensive, pretty good, and not bad for styling and features. But it was a product of this country’s disinterest in small cars, which allowed manufacturers to eagerly make bigger-is-better vehicles for outrageous prices that led to ludicrous profits flowing into Detroit–all the way to, or near, bankruptcy.
All that while, the more knowledgeable consumers heard about the “European Focus.” Similar in size, but nothing else, the European Focus had a platform made by Ford affiliate Volvo for its smallest sedans, and it had an engine made by Ford affiliate Mazda, which meant it was potent, fuel-efficient, quick and fun to drive, while the suspension was the product of European Ford experts. U.S. buyers couldn’t figure out why we couldn’t get the European Focus, but an underlying reason was that the European demand for small cars is so intense that there actually is a varying level of small cars, and the Focus was expensive enough to make and sell that it qualified as an upper-level compact. If it was brought into the U.S., it would cost too much to be feasible in a country that has been less than demanding about its small cars.
Times, like gasoline prices, change. And the last time gas prices rose, it sounded the finishing bell for bigger-is-better vehicles, and there was an irreversible move toward downsizing, but also providing well-equipped smaller cars. Ford has been at the leading edge of the movement, striving for smaller engines that will perform better than previous bigger and less fuel-efficient engines, and bringing back the subcompact Fiesta, which is large enough for a young family–or anyone else who might think a quick and agile small car that can deliver an honest, real-world 40 miles per gallon is a good thing.
Coincidentally, Ford timed its global move well. It is time for a new Focus, and it is time to replace the long-toothed U.S. Focus. Just coming out now, as a 2012 model, there will be one global Focus, and it will be sold worldwide. There are a couple of cop-outs there, because the U.S. market is so fickle. As it did with the Fiesta, making a sleek sedan alongside the hatchback because U.S. buyers haven’t shared the zeal of Europeans for hatchbacks, Ford is offering the Focus as both a hatchback and sedan. There also are certain things for the U.S. only, and a few other things for Europe and other global locations that won’t be on the U.S.-issue Focuses. Read more
Mercedes CL550 brings luxury for all seasons
The stunning lines of the CL550 surround an interior filled with leather and real wood.
By John Gilbert
There was an old joke about an artist displaying his latest painting, which looked a lot like a blank, white canvas until he was asked about it, and explained that it was a white cow, eating marshmallows, in a snowstorm. I spent a week trying to find artistic backdrops during a Minnesota winter week’s test-drive of a Mercedes CL550 Coupe, but every time I got focused, I thought about that joke.
That’s because we were hit with a 20-inch blizzard just before the new Mercedes CL550 showed up for me to drive for a week, and the car was a spectacular pearlescent “diamond white” paint job covering its low form that was as pleasing aesthetically as aerodynamically. Wherever I parked it, there seemed to be a white car with a white background. All week long. But that was the only thing reminiscent of a problem with the car and the climate.
Every year in the Upper Midwest, the reality of wintertime collides like a 20-inch blizzard with the glamor of owning and driving an expensive luxury car. The Mercedes CL550 might provide a remedy for that dilemma.
Most luxury cars are of conventional front-engine/rear-drive layout, which is comfortable and satisfying when it’s warm and pleasant outside. That can be year-round in warmer climates, or it can be spring, summer and fall in the chillier northern areas. Mercedes always has been out there, along with BMW, stressing front-engine/rear-drive, and also stressing that its high-tech traction and stability measures can get you through the winter.
That may work is some winter areas, where the occasional snowfall hits and then goes away, but a seemingly endless winter like the 2010-11 term, running from November into and presumably through March, makes you realize that even with the right tires mounted, there can be a lot of anxious moments. In most cases, you simply park your sports or luxury car and drive the SUV or “winter” car out of the other garage bay.
Mercedes, however, also has something called 4Matic, which is a technically-advanced all-wheel-drive system, and that can definitely be the perfect solution for the uncompromising luxury car buyer who demands style and sizzle and also needs to drive through winter’s worst moments. BMW has its “X” drive, also an AWD system that can be added as an option on most sedans and SUVs. In both the cases of Mercedes and BMW, the technology of their AWD systems has finally attained the level that for decades gave Audi, with its quattro, a clearcut advantage in snowbelt states. Read more
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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