Cup play is distant, Willie O’Ree comes up close
John Gilbert
When you think about it, this has been the year of the upset throughout hockey. Just think back to the state hockey tournament, when the coaches and league officials got together and seeded the top four teams, then drew their opponents — sure enough, the top four seeds all were upset by the other guys.
Pretty much under the general public radar, the Women’s World Tournament came just after the NCAAs and the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and was held in Burlington, Vermont. The women remain locked in a U.S. vs Canada mode, because those teams continue to meet in every gold medal game of every tournament, and as they continue to strive to improve at the top, they seem oblivious to the fact that their future may only depend on the other nation’s improving to make it more than a two-team race.
This time, when the first round got going, the U.S. shocked Canada 9-2. It was the most lopsided loss anyone can remember in Canadian women’s hockey history. At that point, I said to my family, “Payback can be hell.”
Both the U.S. and Canada kept winning after that, and, sure enough, they met in the final for the umpteenth time — all but one, actually, when Sweden, behind future UMD goaltender Kim Martin, upset the U.S. in the semifinals before losing to Canada in the final. The gold medal game was no 9-2 romp, and if you remember Caroline Ouellette, one of the greatest UMD stars ever, you won’t be surprised that she scored the overtime winner to lift Canada to a 5-4 triumph. Ouellette’s goal was her second of the game; her first staked Canada to a 3-1 lead before the U.S. rallied to go ahead 4-3 when former Badger Brianna Decker scored a goal and former Gopher Gigi Marvin scored two goals. Ouellette assisted on Megan Agosta’s tying goal with 2:38 left, but in overtime, Canada got the only three shots in the 2:57 of action that was ended by Ouellette’s second goal.
You could go to the USA Hockey website and look it up, but if you do, don’t be surprised when the gold medal game story features the fact that the U.S. won the silver medal, and names all the U.S. scorers, but snubs Canada by never naming a single Canadian goal scorer or player, even though all the Canadian players were former U.S. college standouts. Is it arrogance or just a lack of class, to say nothing of sportsmanship, that prevents USA Hockey from respecting their opponents enough to broaden the world of women’s hockey, rather than trying to make it appear there is only one team participating?
Fast forward to what I call the most evenly matched NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs in my lifetime. Every single first-round match was a virtual toss-up, and they have played out that way.
In the East, where the last three first-round matches were the last to be completed, No. 8 Ottawa had taken No. 1 New York Rangers to a deciding seventh game, and No. 7 Washington was in position to finish off No. 2 Boston in the seventh game. New Jersey and Florida were also still battling, but that was one that we knew would be close also. The first East series to end was when Philadelphia — my pick to win the East — hustled the amazingly chippy and distracted Pittsburgh Penguins in five games. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin being healthy made the Penguins the choice of many to win the Cup, but Claude Giroux outplayed both of them.
In the West, the No. 8 Los Angeles Kings snuffed the No. 1 overall seed Vancouver Canucks in five games with great hustle, teamwork, and the goaltending of Jonathan Quick. Two old-guard favorites, the Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Blackhawks, also fell victim to the NHL’s emerging new breed, as Phoenix knocked out Chicago and Nashville thumped the Red Wings, both in six-game match-ups.
But St. Louis was the most impressive of all the Western teams, and they remain my pick to win the incredibly balanced West. The Blues beat a very strong San Jose outfit in five games, behind former Badger Brian Elliott’s superb goaltending and an offense ignited by Minnesota natives T.J. Oshie and David Backes. If the Blues are going to win the West and reach the Cup final, they next will have to overcome the Kings, who are playing the best hockey in the franchise history. Should be a great second-round match-up, because neither one got entangled in the vicious, suspension-laden garbage of some other first-round tangles. If you like goaltending, Elliott against Quick will be a treat to watch.
ECONOMIC DISCRIMINATION
J.T. Brown had two sensational seasons for UMD, being named most valuable player of the Bulldogs NCAA title run as a freshman, and helping the Bulldogs reach the Northeast Region final before losing to eventual champion Boston College. Brown left college to sign an NHL contract with Tampa Bay as a prize free agent, and even got into a few games at the end of the season.
Always a Bulldog: J.T Brown, who signed with Tampa Bay after the season, signed autographs at Heritage Center.
Brown came back to Duluth last week, and before leaving to prepare to play for the U.S. in the men’s World Championships in Sweden and Finland, he spent Friday and Saturday at Heritage Center, signing autographs and skating with area youngsters as part of the “Pucks Against Poverty” fund-raising weekend to aid kids from families that might be unable to afford to get started playing hockey.
One of Brown’s main objectives was to meet and talk to Willie O’Ree, who appeared both days as the primary attraction for the fund-raiser. O’Ree, 76, was the first black man to play in the National Hockey League, playing briefly in parts of two seasons in the late 1950s. J.T. Brown said he can only imagine what O’Ree went through to make the trail far easier for black players, such as Brown, to go into the NHL in the 21st Century. Brown made his break at home, where he dad, former Vikings running back Ted Brown, caused everyone to figure J.T. would play football.
“I played football through ninth grade, and it was fun, but I didn’t like it as much as hockey,” said J.T. “My dad wasn’t really into hockey, but he enjoys it a lot now.
“It’s great to be able to come out here with all the kids, and to meet Willie. Obviously, he’s done so much for hockey.”
O’Ree, always personable, was a big hit with all the families and kids who came to the event at Heritage. He said he has worked for the NHL for 14 years as director of its diversity program, which raises money to make it easier for kids to get into hockey and overcome the huge obstacle of expensive equipment.
He said he never experienced any racial discrimination growing up in Fredricton, New Brunswick, a town just north of the border with Maine, although he had a jolt when he first was drafted by the Milwaukee Braves of the National League, just before the franchise moved to Atlanta.
Willie O'Ree posed for endless souvenir photos as the prime attraction at the Pucks Against Poverty fund-raiser.
“After I got drafted, they brought me down to their training camp in Georgia,” O’Ree recalled. “The first thing I saw in Atlanta were rest rooms marked ‘white,’ and ‘colored.’ They took us by bus to Waycross, Ga., for spring training, and we had to ride in the back of the bus. They put us in a dorm with seven other ‘players of color.’ It was the same at drinking fountains, where we couldn’t drink from the ‘white’ fountains. I played shortstop and second base, and I didn’t make it, but after two weeks of experiencing what segregation was like down there, I was happy to be cut.”
Back home, O’Ree pursued his other love, hockey. He played junior in Quebec City and then Kitchener, Ontario. After his chance with the Bruins, O’Ree played mostly in the Western League, and he still lives in San Diego.
Willie said he was impressed to meet J.T. Brown, and wished him well as he starts on his NHL career. I suggested to Willie that there really is no racial discrimination in hockey these days — the real discrimination is money. Willie thought I meant the huge salaries players get nowadays, but I meant going back down to the grassroots level. Hockey equipment is so expensive that many kids from families struggling more than ever in the current economy can’t afford skates, that can run well over $100 or $200 or $300, and all the other necessary equipment is costly as well.
In the Twin Cities, part of John Mariucci’s legacy is an inner-city program to help kids get equipment enough to start playing. O’Ree said he’s aware of that, and has visited the Twin Cities as he expands his effort to get the NHL more involved in similar funding.
“It’s important to make the game affordable for kids,” said O’Ree. “We used to have four programs, and now we’re up to 34, mostly in NHL cities. We’ve opened up opportunities for a lot of kids who never had the opportunity to play.”
O’Ree met with Clark Coole, the longtime director of the Duluth Amateur Hockey Association, who arranged for O’Ree to talk to other hockey officials in the Duluth area.
“They might be able to help get us some funding to help out kids in low-income families,” Coole said. “If we can get equipment for those kids, we know they’ll love the game. We have a plan in place now for street-hockey equipment, and kids can play boot hockey in the second Heritage Center rink area in the summertime.”
It was an honor to meet a true hockey pioneer in Willie O’Ree, and it’s gratifying to see that he is still trying to break down barriers to help kids get acquainted with hockey.
NHL Playoffs open with good, bad, and lots of ugly
By John Gilbert
If I had to pick right now, my first-round hunch says that sometime in June, when the final horn sounds to end the final playoff game, National Hockey League president Gary Bettman will hand the Stanley Cup to…the Philadelphia Flyers. While we’re at it, how about a Flyers-Blues final?
Who would have thought that any red-blooded hockey fan would live long enough to see the day when the Philadelphia Flyers would outplay the Pittsburgh Penguins, while the Penguins, at the same time, tried to goon the Flyers?
That’s exactly what is happening. As of this writing, the series is not over yet, but the Flyers, led by the exceptional play and playmaking of Claude Giroux, went into Pittsburgh and won the first two games from Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and the rest of the Penguins — right when many were saying that with Crosby back, the Penguins were favored to rise from their low seed to win it all. When the series shifted to Philadelphia, the Flyers won Game 3 to take a 3-0 lead, and Game 4 will be over by the time you read this.
If the Flyers do win it, my hunch is that they will have to beat the St. Louis Blues in the finals. The Blues are really a fun team to watch, because they are loaded up with guys we’ve watched star in college hockey. T.J. Oshie, from Warroad, starred at North Dakota about when David Backus was starring at MSU-Mankato, and they are the most effective forwards for the Blues, and goaltender Brian Elliott, who led Wisconsin to an NCAA championship, has emerged with the Blues where he alternated in the nets, but played enough to lead the NHL in both goals-against average and save percentage. The Blues have to finish off a tough San Jose team, but they are equipped to do just that.
With NBC in its new, expanded spinoff satellite/cable outlets, showing all or most of every game, it’s the perfect time of the year to sit down in front of the big-screen and realize how many great players and great teams have developed and emerged while we weren’t paying close attention. But while this year’s playoffs are the best of times, they also are the worst of times. The 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs will go down as the most competitive, ever, where you could make a case for all 16 teams starting the playoffs to go all the way, but they are embarrassing the NHL with a shroud of cheapshots, cross-checks, penalties and suspensions that have taxed the referees’ ability to keep up, let alone get the calls right.
Never before have the playoffs opened with every series being a toss-up. The top teams in the regular season aren’t all top teams, because some outstanding teams, such as Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Chicago, finished well off the pace because of injuries and other problems. That has given rise to some new teams, rising to jump to the top as if to establish a new order of supremacy.
Examples are everywhere. Vancouver was the top team in the entire league for the regular season, for the second year in a row. That gave the Canucks home ice advantage all through the playoffs, something they rode all the way to the finals last year, before the plan fell apart against Boston. This year, Vancouver again won the points race, and opened against the Los Angles Kings, the No. 8 West seed. I saw the Kings play a home game in November, and, frankly, they looked awful. But they’ve gotten it together, behind captain Dustin Brown and goaltender Jonathan Quick. They had to play hard to the finish to make the playoffs, and they’ve kept on that pace when they went into Vancouver and won the first two games. They went home to L.A., and also won Game 3, with Game 4 next up. That left it squarely up to the ability of the Canucks to start a counter-surge, but these Canucks have proven they play a much more faint-hearted game on the road. Losing in the first round would be no disgrace; getting swept in the first round as the No. 1 seed against the No. 8 seed would be a stunning humiliation.
The Detroit Red Wings may be on the verge of falling in the first round to Nashville, an aroused and aggressive band of Predators who have shown no respect for the classy talent of the Red Wings, and have been impressive in outplaying the Wings to take a 3-1 lead in games.The teams were 1-1 in Nashville, then went to Detroit, where the Red Wings hadn’t lost two games in a row all season — until the Predators beat them both games, to go up 3-1. Game 4 is back in Nashville, with the Wings teetering on the brink of elimination.
Yet that series set a bad scenario for the playoffs. Detroit is led by the superlative trio of Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, and defenseman Niklas Lidstrom. In Game 1, Zetterberg came in swiftly to forecheck, and Nashville defenseman Shea Weber took exception. He spun around and shoved Zetterberg up against the glass. That wasn’t enough for him, however. Weber grabbed the back of Zetterberg’s head, and smashed him, face-first, into the glass. He only partially got him with the first try, so he did it again, much more forcibly. There was no question Weber, who is Nashville’s top star and one of the NHL’s best defensemen, would be suspended.
The only question was in the mind of Brendan Shanahan, the man who decides on discipline for the NHL. Shanahan examined the evidence, and decided to fine Weber $2,500. In modern sports, that is pocket change. Shanahan had a long and sparkling career with the Red Wings, which makes me think he might have subconsciously been trying to prove that he wouldn’t favor his old team. He said he contacted the Red Wings and they said Zetterberg would play in Game 2, and that helped in the decision to not suspend Weber. In other words, a clearcut and dangerous assault with intent to injure was not worth a suspension unless the victim was tragically injured. There are a lot of incidental contact hits, and inadvertent injury hits, but when you grab a star player by the back of his head, and slam it into the glass hard enough to break his helmet, you are either hallucinating about trying to crack open a coconut on a desert island, or you are providing textbook evidence of intent to injure.
If the Predators eliminate the Red Wings, Shea Weber will be possibly the biggest reason, which means that if he had been suspended, the Red Wings might instead have a stranglehold on that series.
By contrast, Chicago, which is trailing Phoenix in their series, lost Andrew Shaw for a suspension for clipping Coyotes goaltender Mike Smith in the head in Game 2. In that incident, Smith was behind the net, playing the puck. Shaw, forechecking, saw the chance to block Smith’s clearing attempt, and came in at high speed. Smith started to flip the puck toward the right corner, and as Shaw swung behind the net and failed to block it, he continued on, leaning hard to his right to squeeze between Smith and the boards. But Smith used up all the space, and even though he tried to duck past him, Shaw clipped Smith, who went down and needed aid. At least we think he needed aid, and maybe it was just coincidence that as soon as it was announced that Shaw had gotten a major penalty, Smith got up, put his helmet back on, and stayed in the game. He said later that he never saw Shaw coming, which makes me wonder how dim a player can be to fling a pass to his right without even a glance to see if a teammate — or a forechecking foe — is there.
The New York Rangers were heavy favorites against No. 8 seed Ottawa, but the Senators have displayed a brilliant young defenseman named Erik Karlsson. The Rangers may well win that series, behind Brian Boyle, a big, impressive forward. But Boyle has a long way to go to be a true star, in my book. Boyle grabbed Karlsson in Game 1, and punched him repeatedly in the face. They weren’t hard punches, but more light taps that were clearly intended to humiliate Karlsson more than hurt him. Must have been a big laugh for the Rangers and their fans. I thought the lack of class deserved retaliation, and sure enough, in Game 2, Ottawa defenseman Matt Carkner went after Boyle, hammering and challenging him. But Boyle, the tough guy so eager to embarrass Karlsson, was too gutless to even stand up for himself, and Carkner pounded him into the ice. He went too far, and deserved the injection and suspension that was to come, but I’ll pull for Marian Gaborik, and Erik Karlsson, and you can have Brian Boyle.
Pittsburgh, which was supposed to feature Sidney Crosby’s playmaking wizardry, instead has featured Crosby alternately whining to officials and cheapshotting Flyers to instigate trouble, then somehow avoiding officials’ scrutiny. Pittsburgh went into Game 4 without three players, however, because while they were mugging everybody in orange, James Neal, Arron Asham and Craig Adams were all suspended. Asham got four games because he skated up to Philadelphia’s Brayden Schenn and cross-checked him in the face, and when he dropped to the ice, stunned, Asham jumped on his back to punch him.
The games have been fast and tough and had some great plays, but the outrageous rough stuff and intimidation attempts, coupled with questionable penalties and missed penalties, and then compounded with suspensions here and non-suspensions there, have tarnished the whole playoffs. Some eye-opening play was featured when New Jersey surged to a 3-0 lead in the first period, but somehow Florida rallied for three straight goals against Martin Brodeur, and eventually beat the Devils 4-3 to take a 2-1 lead in that series.
But there may not be a more spectacular play than the rush by T.J. Oshie for the Blues. Oshie rushed up the right boards, ducked past a bodycheck and kept going, then button-hooked around a defender in the right corner with a deft move, before cutting toward the slot, beating one defenseman and attracting the other, only to pass across the slot for a one-timer goal. It was the best goal of the playoffs, and it was almost good enough to overcome all the ugliness that has escorted the excitement through the first round.
Wild need just another year of patience
By John Gilbert
The NHL season has ended, and the REAL season is just beginning. It’s a Canadian Fact that all NHL fans are vitally interested in the regular season, but when the last puck is dropped, all Canadians and nearly all U.S. hockey fans consider the Stanley Cup Playoff champions as the best team in the NHL.
The Minnesota Wild will not be in the playoffs this year, for the fourth straight time. They have accumulated almost daily scorn from the basketball-baseball-football mouthpieces who fill all the talk-radio slots in the Twin Cities — some of whom spill over onto Duluth airwaves. They berated the Wild for falling from the top spot in the league in mid-December, and then they ridiculed the Wild for not playing to lose through the last two weeks to get a better draft pick. Instead, the Wild played very well and actually won three straight and went 5-5 in their last 10.
“Now you know why I don’t listen to them,” said first-year coach Mike Yeo, who pushed his players to the end, and said he learned a lot about them through their successful finishing stretch. “The biggest thing you learn about the individuals in a group is how they respond to adversity. We kept pushing, because it was important to establish a culture, where our players learn that it’s never OK to bring anything but their best.”
General Manager Chuck Fletcher and Yeo conducted a season-ending meeting with interested media on Monday. Naturally, the worst critics didn’t appear. Fletcher stuffed conversation that a big-scoring free agent could solve everything in a hurry. He said: “I think we’re not that far away, and that we can win with what we’ve got, with just a few breaks. One or two new players can make a difference. But we have a very good coaching staff, very good veteran leadership, and very good goaltending. We’ll try to improve our depth, and we see a lot of progress from both Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Guillaume Latendresse in recovering from concussion symptoms. They are both young men, and we believe they will be able to get healthy and return.”
The key loss for the Wild was when Mikko Koivu went out with an injury that cost him 27 games. Unlike baseball, or football, or in most cases basketball, which lose an individual’s talent when he is injured, in hockey, losing a player of Koivu’s value is devastating. Koivu is captain and centers the first line, so when he went out, the Wild’s fragile scoring became too scarce to win. Dany Heatley, a scorer who needed Koivu’s set-up ability, scored 24-29–53 to lead the team, but Koivu’s absence probably cost him another dozen goals. Yeo stressed the importance of Koivu, but also praised Heatley, who often has been criticized for not being a two-way player.
“I would say Dany Heatley was our most valuable player,” said Yeo. “His goal production was not where he’d want it to be, but when we lost guys who might get him the puck, he never complained. You see a lot of top scorers who try to take shortcuts, but Dany never did. Heater is a hockey player, who showed up and competed offensively and defensively every day.
“We had a lot of other guys, like Matt Cullen, who battled day in and day out, too. But a key thing this season is that when we had everybody, we played with the top teams in the league. Losing Mikko Koivu, and all that he brings lto this team, was too much for us to overcome. But when Mikko came back at the end of the season, we were able to return to that level again, which gives us a great feeling for next season.”
Fletcher has done his job, and will keep doing it. Yeo, who was a first-year coach at Houston with the Wild’s top farm club last season, just finished what was only his second season as head coach — first in the NHL. He did an outstanding job, and he learned a lot, which means he will do a significantly better job next season. But what Yeo did with the Wild to urge them to their strong finish proved that there is one thing he already has achieved — to coach his team to his utmost ability to uphold the integrity of the game.
Injuries, by the way, have afflicted many NHL teams. That’s why this might be the most balanced Stanley Cup Playoffs in history. In the West, for example, nobody can dispute the fantastic job Vancouver and St. Louis have done to earn the 1-2 seeds. But Chicago has had to survive with Jonathan Toews out, recovering from concussion syndrome, and Detroit had to come through a tough stretch when Pavel Datsyuk was hurt. Datsyuk is back, and Toews is coming back, which is why I predict Detroit will surprise favored Nashville, and Chicago will ambush favored Phoenix in the first round. In the East, of course Sidney Crosby was out more than half the year with concussion problems, but he’s going now — except the Penguins, to me, are only even money against Philadelphia in the first round.
“I’m anxious to watch the games,” said Yeo. “And I want our players to watch as much as they can. They need to see the pace and the intensity that builds as the playoffs go on. That’s where we need to be.”
CONNOLLY PERFECT HOBEY
There were a lot of very good candidates for this year’s Hobey Baker Memorial Award, but they couldn’t have picked a better winner than UMD’s Jack Connolly. Everyone who was in Tampa for the ceremony came away filled with admiration for what a classy young man Connolly is. Of course, in Duluth, we all knew that. He was almost too good to be true.
I have two specific memories that will remain indelibly inscribed whenever I think about Connolly’s fantastic four years, and they go beyond the fact that he never missed a game, playing 166 straight over his four years, and that he helped lift the Bulldogs to elite status nationally, including UMD’s first NCAA title last season, and another shot at it this year, all the while insisting credit should go to his teammates. That brings us back to my two memories.
The first came early in the season. UMD was just getting going on a school record 17-game unbeaten streak, which was enveloped in Connolly’s school record 22-game point-scoring streak. At Denver, the Bulldogs trailed 2-0 when coach Scott Sandelin decided to juggle lines. Connolly had been centering Travis Oleksuk and J.T. Brown on what was, by far, UMD’s top line, but Sandelin shifted Oleksuk to center a second line, and UMD came roaring back to win the game. Next, Sandelin moved Brown to Oleksuk’s wing, which seemed odd treatment for Connolly, who was on his way to becoming an All-America for the third straight year.
“I was playing with T.O. and Brownie, and it was really fun playing with those guys,” said Connolly, after UMD came home to sweep Alaska-Anchorage, winning the finale 3-1 on Connolly’s glance-in goal off the goaltender. “Then I was with J.T. and Caleb Herbert. Now I’m with Joe Basaraba and Mike Seidel.” I hesitated, because I thought Connolly might be frustrated to be placed between unproven scorers instead of two top guns, but he wasn’t. “I like playing with these guys,” said Connolly. “We’ve got so many great guys on this team, I can play with whoever they put me with and enjoy it.”
Pretty special, that guy. If you put every other team’s top scorer on a couch and extracted their true feeling about being pulled away from the two top-scoring wingers, you would hear some pretty hearty grumbling, off the record or not.
The other recollection of Connolly for me came after Nebraska-Omaha ended UMD’s record unbeaten streak, then the Bulldogs came home and Michigan Tech not only ended Connolly’s scoring streak, but blanked the Bulldogs the second night. Then, North Dakota came to AMSOIL Arena, and beat UMD 3-1. Connolly passed to Brown for a power-play goal. Afterward, I suggested Jack’s play indicated he might be out of gas — drained from the long grind. “I thought I played pretty well,” Connolly shot back. “We almost scored some more goals…”
I dropped my line of questioning. The next night, Connolly assisted on Brown’s opening goal, but North Dakota came back to score twice and gain the lead. Oleksuk scored on a power play, with Connolly assisting, to tie it 2-2. Seidel scored a neat goal after a feed from Connolly, then Connolly scored to end the wild first period, and Connolly scored again to open the second, and after UMD held on to a 5-4 victory, I caught up with Connolly downstairs. “I was a little worried when you said you’d played pretty well in the first game,” I said, “and now that you won 5-4 and you got two goals and three assists in this game — NOW how do you think you played last night?” Connolly smiled. “I see what you mean,” he said.
That was Jack Connolly. He said he played well the night before as a way to make a positive statement about a 3-1 loss, that he and the team had played well but fell short. However, he also turned up the pressure on himself for the next night, when he came through with a 5-point game against a red-hot rival for a 5-4 victory. That’s what you do when you don’t care which teammates you play with, and you’re the best college hockey player in the nation.
FROZEN FOUR
Boston College, which whipped Minnesota 6-1 while Ferris State was beating Union 3-1, setting up BC’s title game victory over a very strong Ferris State outfit, completed the season with a 19-game winning streak. Everyone is remarking about how superior the Eagles were, but at midseason they were struggling. And for the season, UMD was ranked No. 1 more weeks than all four Frozen Four teams.
The NCAA tournament also proved an interesting view of the four major conferences. Remember, the WCHA next season will play its final term in the current arrangement, then the Big Ten goes one way, the National Conference goes another, and wnat is left of the WCHA and CCHA will remain as the WCHA. With that in mind, Ferris State struck a huge blow for the “remainders” after the other leagues pull out of the WCHA.
But take a look at how all four conferences did in the NCAA tournament. Hockey East had the best record, at 5-3, because Boston College went 4-0, primarily. The WCHA went 4-4, with Minnesota winning two games and UMD and North Dakota one apiece, while all four entries — Minnesota, UMD, North Dakota and Denver — each lost once. The CCHA somehow got five teams into the 16-team field, and they had a composite 3-5 record, with Ferris State winning all three. Yes, Michigan, Western Michigan, Michigan State, and Miami of Ohio all went one and done, going home with 0-1 records. If the NCAA’s computer evaluation meant the CCHA was superior, well, so much for the computer ratings.
But wait! The ECAC, the poor, downtrodden Eastern College Athletic Conference, with its lack of scholarships and focus on education, and always squelched by getting fewer entries than all the other major conferences, was allowed only two entries this time, Union and Cornell. Union beat Michigan State and Mass-Lowell to claim the East Region, and lost only to Ferris State in the semifinals, while Cornell upset Michigan before falling to Ferris State. That means they went a combined 3-2 — better than either the WCHA or CCHA.
UMD BASEBALL ‘WAYNES’
Maybe the UMD baseball team can get untracked, but Easter Weekend’s chilly, rainy weather didn’t help the home-opening games at Bulldog Park. Nor did the appearance, in the visiting dugout, of Wayne State. The lads from Nebraska made the long busride a success by sweeping four games from UMD, winning 1-0 and 11-6 on Friday, then adding a 4-3, 4-2 sweep on Saturday afternoon.
Mike Bisenius, a giant right-fielder, seemed to be a one-man wrecking crew, and was built for it. In the second game, right after the Bulldogs had battled back to make it close, Bisenius hit a monster home run over the center-field fence to secure the 4-2 victory. But here’s the weird thing: UMD has had a fair amount of Northern Sun baseball success, but Wayne State is more than just a thorn in UMD coach Bob Rients’s side. Rients, who graduated from UMD in 2000, is in his seventh season, and his UMD teams stand 1-12 against Wayne State after last weekend. Going back before Rients took over to the present, Wayne State has a 23-8 headlock on the Bulldogs.
Sacchetti slim link with Gopher Range heritage
Sacchetti gives Gophers a Northern flair
By John Gilbert
Nico Sacchetti was unaware that the University of Minnesota’s NCAA hockey championship heritage has always featured Northern Minnesota players in key roles. In one weekend, Sacchetti, a senior from Virginia, MN., will go from learning Golden Gopher history to living it. He is the only Northern Minnesota player on the team, when Minnesota participates in this year’s NCAA Frozen Four.
Go back through history: When Herb Brooks coached the Golden Gophers, their first-ever NCAA title came in Boston, when Mike Polich of Hibbing intercepted a pass and scored a short-handed goal that defeated Boston University in a heated semifinal, before Minnesota beat Michigan Tech 4-2 in the final. Polich also had an assist in the final, on a goal by fellow-Hibbing native John Perpich. Joe Micheletti, also of Hibbing, Cal Cossalter from Eveleth (and more recently mayor of Eveleth), Buzzy Schneider — the “Babbitt Rabbit” — and brothers John and Robby Harris of Roseau, and back-up goaltender Bill Moen of Proctor also were on that 1974 title team.
In 1976, when the Gophers again won the NCAA championship, Joe Micheletti was still on the team and was joined by fellow Iron Rangers Bill Baker and Don Madson of Grand Rapids, plus Duluth East grad Phil Verchota, and Bob Fish of Warroad, and Tony Dorn of Thief River Falls.
In 1979, Brooks won his third NCAA crown, with pivotal performances by Verchota, Bill Baker, Don Micheletti of Hibbing, goaltender Jim Jetland of Grand Rapids, Brian Zins of Aurora-Hoyt Lakes, and a freshman center named Neal Broten, of Roseau.
It took 23 years of ever-increasing expectations and crashing frustrations before the Golden Gophers won another NCAA title. By then, Don Lucia had taken over as coach, and the tradition of key Northern Minnesota players continued with goaltender Adam Hauser from Greenway of Coleraine, Nick Angel and Chad Roberg of Duluth, Travis Weber of Hibbing, Keith Ballard and Jon Waibel of Baudette. Ballard had the first goal, and Angell assisted on two tallies as Minnesota beat Maine 4-3 in an overtime thriller at Xcel Center for the 2002 title. One year later, the Gophers stunned the hockey world by repeating as 2003 national champs, with Weber, Roberg, Ballard and Waibel joined by Gino Guyer and Andy Sertich of Greenway.
When the Golden Gophers took off Tuesday in their chartered jet for Tampa, Fla., to participate in this year’s NCAA Frozen Four, Nico Sacchetti had been informed of the distinct imprint made by between six and eight Northern Minnesota players on all five past Minnesota NCAA champions. Yet he stands alone as the only Northern Minnesota skater on this team, as it tackles No. 1 ranked Boston College in the Thursday night semifinal of the Frozen Four.
“I hope you don’t jinx me,” he said, after learning of the heritage. I told him the opposite was true, that he may be the required good-luck charm if the Gophers are going to get anywhere at the Frozen Four. His only recollections of Gopher NCAA success came by long distance, as a kid on the Iron Range, watching Minnesota win the 2002 title. “I remember when the Gophers beat Maine,” said Sacchetti. “I was watching the game with a friend of mine in his basement, a couple blocks away from my house in Virginia. I still remember running around the room when the Gophers won in overtime.”
Sacchetti went from Virginia High School to the Omaha Lancers of the USHL, and was drafted on the second round of the NHL amateur draft by the Dallas Stars. When he was a freshman, NHL scouts questioned why he wasn’t playing regularly for the Gophers. At 6-feet and 199 pounds, he showed good speed and considerable hockey skills, but he appeared to be a victim of the Gophers’ ability to recruit so many top-flight players that finding slots for them to play regularly is the biggest chore for coach Don Lucia.
After scoring 4-3–7 in 36 games as a freshman, things didn’t change much through the years. He recorded 4-11–15 in 38 games as a sophomore, and 3-4–7 in 30 games as a junior. “I never say anything,” he said. “I just try to stay positive, go as hard as I can in practice, and make sure I’m in good condition and ready whenever I get a chance.”
Sacchetti acknowledged this has been a frustrating year, because he had counted on a more prominent role as a senior than being out of the lineup nearly half the season, and fourth-line center when he did dress, getting only rare shifts game after game. But he is not a whiner, and never has complained.
“I was raised believing that as a player, you trust the coach’s decisions,” Sacchetti said, recalling his days playing for Keith Hendrickson at Virginia High School, where he was a teammate of Matt Niskanen, who is now playing defense in the National Hockey League. “I talk to the coaches, and I’ve got good, open communication with the coaches, but I’ve never gone in asking why I’m not playing more.”
Somehow, Sacchetti has kept his confidence level up. “I make sure I have good practices,” he said. “And scoring a goal against Kent Patterson in practice keeps me going, because he’s as good as they get.”
Going back to the West Regional at Xcel Center, Minnesota had broken a 2-2 tie to go ahead 4-2 against Boston University, a major step in erasing the haunting memory of blowing a 3-0 lead and losing the Final Five title game 6-3 when North Dakota scored five unanswered goals in the third period. In their very next game, the Gophers looked good at 4-2, but early in the third period, BU scored to cut it to 3-2, and the icy chill of memory returned quickly. Another goal by BU might have let all the air out of the Gopher balloon.
But Nick Sacchetti, getting a rare shift, suddenly sped up the right boards after pouncing on a loose puck, turned the corner on the Terriers defense, and cut across the front of the net, getting goaltender Kieran Millan to commit to his deke before deftly pulling the puck to his backhand and scoring at 8:08. The Xcel Center crowd roared to its feet, many of them perhaps wondering who this No. 13 guy was, and after the Gophers scored two empty-net goals, the game ended 7-3.
Jake Hansen, who had scored the fourth Gopher goal on a power play and the sixth into an empty net, was invited to the post-game press conference. “We played hard from our first line to our fourth line…and our top-end guys have done a great job all year,” said Hansen, “but when Nico scored that breakaway goal, that was huge.”
Coach Lucia said: “I didn’t play that ‘blue’ line a lot tonight, but Nico’s goal was huge. You can’t always rely on your top players; you’ve got to have others step up.”
Sacchetti is the opposite of that. He’s always tried to step up, but after becoming the forgotten man on this roster, Sacchetti proved that when called upon, the Golden Gophers could more than just rely on him. He was ready to uphold the pride of Northern Minnesota, and could do it again, on any Gopher success at the Frozen Four.
GO, SIOUX CITY
When we last heard from Brett Larson, the former UMD assistant coach had started his head-coaching career in the USHL by bringing his Sioux City Musketeers to Duluth for a couple of exhibition games. The season, however, was a bit rocky. “Maybe I was too confident, coming off our championship at UMD, but we had a tough start and we were one of the worst teams in the league,” said Larson. “We were 10-20 at one point.”
A few trades, and as much learning by Larson as by his players, Sioux City scratched and clawed its way into contention. The regular season ended last weekend, and Sioux City went to Des Moines and won 4-1, then came home to beat Fargo 3-0 Saturday, and finished by beating Des Moines 3-2 in a shootout Sunday — a game that put Sioux City into the league playoffs, which start a week from Monday.
PREP ALL-STARS
After the fantastic season Duluth East and Hermantown had, it was gratifying to note that some of their top players did very well in post-season all-star games. But conspicuous by his absence, as they say in sports, was Jake Randolph. When East lost its excruciating 3-2 game to Lakeville South’s ambush in the state Class AA tournament quarterfinals, the Hounds played hard and were totally frustrated by becoming one of the four first-round favorites to be upset.
East’s players gave it everything, and it was obvious how they all played to exhaustion. East came back to beat Edina and Eagan to win the most-loaded consolation bracket in state history, but it wasn’t until the Hounds returned home that we learned the added twist to the end of the season. Jake Randolph was feeling particularly spent, so his dad and mom, coach Mike Randolph and Ginny, took him in for a physical. He was diagnosed with mononucleosis. While that’s a disease that can sap all your strength, it obviously had affected Jake for at least a week before being caught — which meant that when he gave everything he had at the state tournament, his level of “everything” was reduced by mono.
That knocked him out of the Great Eight all-star tournament, while several of his teammates and other area top stars played. Randolph was a finalist for Mr. Hockey, but didn’t win it. We can, however, congratulate the Associated Press, St. Paul Pioneer Press, and Fox Sports North for naming Randolph the state’s player of the year, and we also can note the Duluth News-Tribune’s intrepid Rick Weegman did his research and named Randolph the Northeastern Minnesota player of the year as well.
FROZEN FOUR?
The NCAA Frozen Four has been a showcase for the superiority of the WCHA over the years, but this year, the 2012 NCAA Frozen Four appears to be a showcase for the parity in college hockey. After all the turmoil and upsets in league and regional playoffs, the four major conferences each are contributing one team — their regular-season champions — to the Frozen Four.
Union (26-7-7), the surprise winner of the ECAC, will face Ferris State (25-11-5), the bigger surprise champion of the CCHA, in Thursday’s first semifinal. After those two Cinderella’s meet, the two heavyweights collide when Minnesota (28-13-1), the WCHA champ, takes on Boston College (31-10-1), winner of Hockey East’s season and playoff titles. Boston College is the clearcut favorite, but we have an intriguing semifinal on Thursday between the two Cinderellas, and then the two Goliaths.
The extinguished hopes of Minnesota-Duluth, North Dakota and Denver at three of the four regionals leaves only the Golden Gophers as WCHA hope, and Golden Gopher coach Don Lucia says his team is ready.
“I watched BC against UMD, and against Air Force, and I’d seen them play BU in the Beanpot earlier,” said Lucia. “They’re fun to watch. They have a lot of skill and they’re big, which is a tough combination. They have 20-goal scorers on every line, and nobody else in college hockey can make that claim. BC has scored first a lot and we’ve scored first a lot, so that should make it interesting. We’ve got to win the puck battles. The outcome may come down to who takes care of the puck better. I’ve had conversations with Scott Sandelin and Frank Serratore, but they didn’t have much success against BC.”
Boston College beat Air Force Academy 2-0, then blanked UMD 4-0 in the Northeast Regional, so presumably UMD coach Sandelin and Air Force coach Serratore couldn’t give Lucia many tips on any perceived goaltending weaknesses.
The Gophers have a late-season upsurge because their third and fourth lines have come alive to contribute key goals, just about the time that the top scorers seemed to be running dry. “Everyone’s chipping in,” said Nick Bjugstad, who scored his 25th goal into an empty net against Boston University in the West Regional. “It’s important for the scorers to score, but everyone is pitching in. They’re the No. 1 team right now. I think we’re equal in talent, and both have great goaltenders. It depends on who comes to play.”
True enough, Minnesota’s 11 goals in the two regional victories came from 10 different players. In the 5-2 victory over North Dakota, the three members of the Golden Gophers third line all scored consecutively to turn a tight 2-1 game into a 5-1 Minnesota lead.
New CR-V seeks old CR-V’s top spot
New CR-V's all-new all-wheel-drive system easily handled a late Lake Superior snowstorm.
By John Gilbert
Honda got quite comfortable when its CR-V became the largest-selling sport-utility vehicle in the industry in 2007 and held that position until 2011. Only production losses caused by the tragic earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan dropped the CR-V behind the Ford Escape as the top-selling SUV, but just over a year later, Honda is back up to speed and projecting the new fourth generation CR-V will return the compact SUV to its position of prominence.
The new CR-V takes a new styling direction, replacing the third-generation’s symmetric-arc silhouette with a more sophisticated sleekness, and displaying Honda’s amazing packaging skills that offer more interior room and a more spacious feel even while the new vehicle is almost an inch shorter than its predecessor.
If anything, the new CR-V mostly resembles the new-generation Ford Escape, which is also just being introduced and should put both vehicles into an interesting position to continue their duel at the top. It used to be that their competition would be for only the compact crossover (CUV) segment, but with economic and fuel-efficiency issues becoming top priority, and dropping large and even midsize SUVs in popularity, the CUVs are rising fast enough to become the hottest sellers in the industry.
Honda doesn’t hesitate to claim its young-family oriented compact crossover is aimed to appeal to women, who make over half of the decisions on vehicle purchases. Evidence includes a dashboard that is extended on both sides for a more spacious look; making the center console large enough to conceal a purse; offering ambient lighting around the instruments that changes from white to a subtle green as you drive more economically.
Much sleeker roofline loses the previous CR-V's symmetric-arc shape.
Connectivity is another improvement for the new CR-V, which accommodates whatever electronic gadgetry you might have — except for iPhones, curiously, while Blackberrys are no problem. You can use voice commands to text while driving, because when you receive a text message, the i-MID (intelligent multi-information display) will read it aloud to you, and your brief response will be relayed back. The i-MID screen can even be set to display favorite photos for further personalization.
Functionally, the CR-V rides atop an all-new all-wheel drive system, doing away with the separate rear hub that used to send power to the rear whenever the front wheels spun. The new system uses an electronic control to more quickly transfer torque from front to rear axles, and provide a portion of power to the rear for climbing hills and for start-up traction, because a natural rearward weight transfer in both circumstances require more power from the rear. When cruising, the rear power disengages, but up to 100-percent of torque could go to the rear when the front slips. 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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