UMD takes final bow at AMSOIL Arena
UMD goaltender Kenny Reiter watched a video of...Kenny Reiter.
By John Gilbert
Before UMD embarked on its fanciful flight to the NCAA hockey championship, my suggestion to Bulldog fans was to savor every second of it, because no matter how good your team is, there are no guarantees, and the chances to win an NCAA title can be — as the late Waylon Jennings would put it — “far and few between.”
The celebration for the team, a week ago now, at Amsoil Arena, was heartfelt and brief, for a crowd estimated at between 3,000 and 3,500. It was less brief for the players, who were honored on a set of bleachers down on the arena floor, with fitting tributes from Mayor Don Ness, new chancellor Lendley C. Black, coach Scott Sandelin, assistant coach Brett Larson, and captain Mike Montgomery.
Then the players went up to the concourse and signed autographs, from about 7 p.m. until after 11 p.m.
Somebody said that they expected more fans than what showed up, but realistically, waiting four days for the official celebration undoubtedly allowed some of the fans to cool off a bit, and there might have been others still at home, swooning.
“Is this starting to settle in with anybody? It’s still a surreal experience for me,” said Montgomery, one of four seniors who played against Michigan in the 3-2 overtime victory.
Captain Mike Montgomery, final pep-talk.
He went on to thank the university for “letting us play hockey and pursue an education at the same time. We got to say goodbye to the DECC and christen this new building. And hopefully, now that we’ve broken the seal, this can be the first of many championships.”
That’s the key. The Bulldogs were winning their first NCAA men’s Division 1 championship in hockey, or in any sport, for that matter. Michigan, on the other hand, was going for its 10th, and has the record for NCAA and Frozen Four appearances. But if you look it up, most of those were in the old days, when the East designated two teams and the West — which later became the WCHA — designated two teams. They’d go somewhere and play each other, semifinals and final. Coach Red Berenson has been running the Wolverines program for 27 years, and he has won only two NCAA championships, despite getting there almost every season.
Michigan’s two titles came in 1996 and 1998, and if you ask Berenson, the 1997 team was his best — the one that had seven 20-goal scorers. But they got beat. The lesson is, you jump at the chance when it comes around, and you don’t waste time thinking that you might have a better chance next season. Consider North Dakota. The Fighting Sioux were the best team in the country down the stretch, right up until losing 2-0 to Michigan in the semifinals. The Sioux players now will tell you that the season was not a success, despite winning the WCHA, the playoffs, the Midwest Regional — because they didn’t win the NCAA championship. Dave Hakstol is one of the best coaches around, and he has taken numerous outstanding Sioux teams to the tournament. But the Sioux have yet to win the NCAA under Hakstol, which seems an aberration.
The Bulldogs won it under coach Scott Sandelin, and they will raise their banner high next season, when, on paper, they could be even stronger.
But as soon as the celebration ended, word came that junior Mike Connolly had signed a pro contract with San Jose, passing up his senior year. The next day, freshman defenseman Justin Faulk signed with Carolina, as expected, and will pass up his final three seasons. Now Sandelin himself is heading off to Penn State to talk to the Nittany Lions about moving there and starting a new program.
If we’ve learned anything from all those years of not winning before winning by surprise this year, we aren’t going to hold our breath until next season. We’ll just wait and see. Meanwhile, we can savor the moments of victory at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, and we can include that celebration at Amsoil Arena.
Duluth Mayor Don Ness and UMD fan Roy Niemi.
Mayor Don Ness spoke first, and talked about how proud the City of Duluth is, and how Governor Mark Dayton had proclaimed that very day, Wednesday, as UMD Bulldog Hockey Day in Minnesota. “As mayor, I get to make a proclamation, too,” Ness said. “I hereby proclaim that on behalf of hockey fans in Duluth, every player on this team with remaining eligibility returns next year and wins another championship.”
Sounded good at the moment, although Ness had heard that Connolly and Faulk were gone to big-money pro contracts.
Chancellor Black, who just took over and must think all is well after his new university won the Division II football title and now the Division I hockey championship, pulled out a sun visor, to which a blond wig had been attached, as he took the podium. He put it on, so that he would show unity with the players on the team, almost all of whom had dyed their hair blond for the playoffs. Black talked about the comments and messages he has received congratulating UMD for the accomplishment, and Bulldog fans for their demeanor.
New chancellor Lendley C. Black fllipped his wig.
“Our last three opponents,” Black continued, “were Michigan, Notre Dame, and Yale. Those are all three outstanding institutions academically as well as athletically. That’s good company to be in…It’s an opportunity for UMD men’s hockey to join and remain among the elite teams of college hockey.”
Brett Larson, former player and now assistant coach, who shaves his head to keep up with a once-receding hairline, took the podium next. “I don’t care what anybody says,” Larson said to chancellor Black. “I think your hair looks great. I’d take it.”
Larson, who recalled the recent pain as assistant coach when UMD lost to Miami of Ohio two yeas ago, also talked about how being part of UMD’s hockey alumni, which is as much a family as the Bulldogs team was this past year. “And I’d like to welcome our seniors into our family,” Larson said.
After Larson and Montgomery talked, Sandelin got his turn. “Brett has been with me for three years,” Sandelin said. “And he hasn’t lost his hair from the job — he started that way.”
Sandelin added how proud he was of his 26-man roster. “This group, some who have been playing since we lost to Miami, last year didn’t get into the tournament,” Sandelin said. “We talked about where the tournament was this year — Saint Paul — and what we’d have to do to get there. They have to deal with me on a daily basis, so give them tremendous credit.
“Some said we were in a slump at the end of the season, but when you’ve never lost two games in a row all season, I don’t know if it could be called a slump.”
That’s us bozos in the media, Scott, I confess. You fooled us by not losing two in a row, but going winless in three straight, with a loss, a tie, and a loss, during a 2-4-2 stretch over the final eight games of the regular season. For a team that had a chance to win the league title, 2-4-2 is a slump, baby.
UMD coach Scott Sandelin was the center of attention.
“I knew this would be big in Duluth, if we could do it,” Sandelin added. “I’ve always believed you could win in Duluth. And this is just a start.”
Then they played highlight videos on Amsoil’s big screen of the NCAA tournament victories, over Union, Yale, Notre Dame, and Michigan. Getting hot at the right time is what matters, once you’ve qualified for the NCAA. North Dakota came to the Frozen Four on a 15-game unbeaten streak, and was shut out in the semifinals. UMD? Well, Scott, we’ll forget that 2-4-2 homestretch, and swap it gladly for a four-game NCAA tournament winning streak.
HIGH SECURITY
Another passing of the torch came Tuesday of this week. On the day the Bulldogs won the NCAA title at Xcel Center, I suggested to the fellow sitting next to me that the Minnesota Wild should sign Justin Fontaine, who was just completing his senior season, and put him to work the next day, Sunday, in their last game of the NHL season against Detroit. Let’s see now,
After ceremony, UMD athletic director Bob Nielsen shook hands with every player.
Fontaine is a skilled and creative puck-mover and goal scorer, and the Wild desperately needs to find a playmaker and goal-scorer…So on Tuesday, their season done, the Wild announced they have signed Fontaine. That makes Fontaine, Mike Connelly, and Faulk — three NCAA champion Bulld0gs heading for, hopefully, the NHL.
Another NHL image came into focus as I was moving through the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International airport security line later Tuesday. I was heading toward a flight to New York for the New York Auto Show, and as we emptied our pockets into the trays for security check, I noticed a very large, dark-skinned, broad-shouldered young man right ahead of me, wrestling to put all the proper items in the trays. I recognized him right away. It was Dustin Byfuglien, the former Roseau kid who burst onto the North American hockey scene last season when he played a vital role as a tough winger or defenseman who also had great hands and could score, helping the Chicago Blackhawks rush through the NHL to win the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
I introduced myself to him as someone who has long been a follower of all things Roseau in hockey, and how at the start of the season, I wrote that the Blackhawks would miss Byfuglien much more than Byfuglien would miss the Blackhawks, after Chicago made its choices of who to protect and who to let go through free agency, and Byfuglien was odd man out. He ended up in Atlanta, where he had a strong season on a team that missed the playoffs. The Blackhawks, meanwhile, only made the playoffs as the West’s No.8 seed on the final day of the season, and only because the Minnesota Wild beat Dallas to let Chicago sneak by.
Not coincidentally, as I was driving from Duluth to Minneapolis last Sunday, I found the Chicago broadcast of the Blackhawks game at Vancouver on satellite radio. The Canucks, who had the best record in all of hockey, had beaten Chicago in Game 1, and they broke from a 2-2 tie with two goals in the third period to take Game 2 4-2. In the closing minutes, Troy Murray, the Hawks color analyst, mentioned that 6-foot-8 John Scott was being sent out to play a key role and give Chicago some much-needed muscle. “He’s trying to fill the role Dustin Byfuglien played last year,” said Murray. “But John Scott is no Dustin Byfuglien.”
Barely one day later, I encountered Byfuglien in the Twin Cities airport, after he spent time trying to find a home for the summer. Byfuglien said he enjoyed playing in Chicago, but he likes Atlanta, too. However, while Atlanta is nice, it isn’t so nice in sweltering summertime. Meanwhile, the Hawks have come from being down 3-0 in games against Vancouver to winning back-to-back blowouts to regain hope against the suddenly shaky Canucks.
Speaking of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, did you catch the Detroit game the other day, when the Red Wings won 4-3 against Phoenix? Pavel Datsyuk scored a goal and set up three others, which is about all the points you can get out of four goals. Interesting that with Sidney Crosby still sidelined by post-concussion problems, the golden boy who has been the only player the NHL has promoted for two years leaves only Alexander Ovechkin of Washington as the East’s best draw. Maybe Ovechkin is the best player even if Crosby and Malkin are back. But in the West, along with Vancouver’s Sedin twins, there are a number of great players. None might be better than Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg of Detroit. Trouble is, Zetterberg missed the whole stretch drive with a knee injury, so that left Datsyuk as possibly the beste individual player in the West. He upheld that theory in the first playoff round, when the Red Wings didn’t have to rush Zetterberg back because they had Phoenix covered in four straight games. Reunited, the two might put on quite a show in the next round.
Regardless, the series I most want to see in the entire playoffs would be Detroit against Vancouver, as long as the Canucks regain their form and get past Chicago. If that happens, Zetterberg rejoins Datsyuk to lead the highly skilled, but aging, Red Wings against the NHL’s newest superpower in Vancouver. Winner take all, and I don’t mean just in that series.
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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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