UMD jolted by opening Gopher sweep
By John Gilbert
Nobody seemed to realize it until UMD coach Scott Sandelin mentioned it in the euphoria that followed UMD’s NCAA championship victory against Michigan last April, but UMD was the only WCHA team that made it all the way through last season without losing two games in a row.
It was an interesting statistic, because UMD had gone 2-4-2 down the homestretch to drop to fifth place, before saving its season so gloriously in the NCAA tournament, so what the Bulldogs had done at any time during the regular season meant nothing once the tournament started. So maybe this season, Sandelin again will get the chance to hold up a piece of tournament hardware, and nobody will recall that UMD has lost three straight games and we’re only four games into the season.
Before the season started, one of my predictions was that with top-ranked Notre Dame and a vastly improved Minnesota opening the season the first two weekends at Amsoil, the Bulldogs could play very well and be 0-4. Well, they have played very well, and they’re 1-3.
The Gopher series lived up to all the hype of being Duluth’s top sports attraction, this year or any year. The first game drew 6,751 to Amsoil, and the Gophers won 5-4 in overtime; the second game drew 6,784 — an all-time record to watch UMD play hockey in Duluth — and again the Gophers prevailed, also by 5-4.
Without question, if the Bulldogs play the same two games, at the same intensity and with the same number of scoring chances, they would sweep most series, and split the rest. But last weekend, whenever the Bulldogs got a break to go their way, the Gophers seemed to come back and get a bigger break.
Freshman Kyle Rau squeezed the puck in for one of his three goals in Minnesota's 5-4 first-game victory over UMD.
The Gophers appear to be headed for a return to WCHA prominence, and if they do, it will be because of their younger players. In the first game, sophomore Erik Haula scored twice, as did freshman Kyle Rau, who was last seen diving to the ice to bunt in the overtime game-winning goal to break Duluth hockey hearts by lifting Eden Prairie to victory over Duluth East. Meanwhile Nate Condon, another sophomore, came up with the game-winner in overtime to snuff the Bulldogs in last Friday’s series opener.
UMD freshman Caleb Herbert leaped to celebrate his goal against Minnesota.
“It means everything,†said Condon. “It’s our first conference match-up, and to come here and win especially, against Duluth, the top team.â€
At the same time, UMD’s young players also jumped into the spotlight. Trailing 2-0, freshman Caleb Herbert made a spectacular rush to cut inside defenseman Ben Marshall and put a neat backhand in past goaltender Kent Patterson an instant before leaping for glee at the crease. Senior Travis Oleksuk, old reliable, scored in both games. Late in a speedy third period, Justin Crandall, another UMD freshman, scored a huge goal to give UMD its first lead of the game, at 4-3 with 2:00 remaining. The Bulldogs had their break, and they rallied in front of goaltender Kenny Reiter, but the Gophers had a couple more breaks up their sleeve. During a scuffle in front, Haula got his stick on the puck and it glanced in off a defenseman’s skate to tie the game with 0:45 remaining in regulation. Then Condon came off the bench and raced to the net to whack Taylor Matson’s bounced pass out of the air to win the game with 56.7 seconds left in overtime.
UMD outshot Minnesota 50-44, but the Bulldog power play was a decent 1-5 while the Gopher power play connected on 3-6. The Bulldogs played well enough to win, and could well have won, but giving up the tying goal in the last minute of regulation and the winning goal in the last minute of regulation left the sting reality that last season is officially over.
The next night, UMD turned up the intensity, outshooting Minnesota 50-16, but found themselves out of breaks and apparently out of the game after seeing a 2-0 lead dissolve into a 5-2 deficit. Oleksuk and Jack Connolly, the two go-to senior guns up front, staked the Bulldogs to their early lead. But Minnesota senior Jake Hansen and Condon scored goals on the third and fourth Gopher shots of the first period, gaining a 2-2 deadlock, even though UMD outshot the Gophers 18-4.
UMD defenseman Chris Casto dived into the net, after inavertently knocking in a Gopher goal credited to Nate Condon.
Condon said his teammates heckled him after the period for having “one goal and no shots,†because his shot off the end glass bounced crazily to the crease, and UMD freshman defenseman Chris Casto inadvertently knocked it past Reiter and into the goal. Casto dived in after it, but too late.
In the second period, big Scott Bjugstad swiped the puck and scored on a breakaway to make it three straight goals on three shots, Condon scored his third goal of the weekend to make it 4-2, at a point when UMD held a 27-7 edge in shots.
Midway through the third period, Rau scored his third goal of the weekend for a 5-2 Minnesota lead. It seemed like one of those games where UMD would get all the shots but the Gophers would get all the goals. But Herbert, the former Bloomington Jefferson star who had scored to get UMD untracked Friday, came up with a huge goal with 8:22 remaining to cut the UMD deficit to 5-3. And J.T. Brown cleanly intercepted a careless Gopher outlet pass and moved in to beat goaltender Kent Patterson with 5:05 left. Plenty of time for a closing rally, and the Dogs did rally, outshooting Minnesota 20-6 in the final period, but the Bulldogs were unable to get one more break, and were unable to score again, falling 5-4. UMD was 1-6 on power plays, and Minnesota 3-3. For the game, UMD outshot Minnesota 50-16, making it 100-60 for the weekend. And 0-2.
It’s going to take a little time to get everybody up to the same rhythm, but UMD’s effort was outstanding. This weekend, the Bulldogs are off to Providence and Minnesota goes home to play Vermont, in a pair of nonconference match-ups. Then it’s back to the WCHA chase, where Minnesota isn’t the only surprise. Michigan Tech, if you didn’t notice, swept Wisconsin 2-1 and 3-2 in a pair of overtime thrillers, indicating a wild race ahead. The Bulldogs have no need to panic, just the need to get their speedy attackers into a better rhythm of working together and scoring a little on the power play.
Meanwhile, UMD’s women open WCHA play at Amsoil against No. 1 Wisconsin, which split a rousing series against Minnesota in Madison last weekend. There hasn’t yet been a game in 12 years between Wisconsin and UMD that wasn’t of playoff championship quality, and this weekend’s series could be more of the same.
UMD’s football team caught a break last weekend when Wayne State was upset, opening up a clear shot at another Northern Sun title for the once-beaten Bulldogs. But not without some hard work and consistency, which they will display against Northern State in Saturday’s 1 p.m. homecoming game.
HIGH RISK OF SPORTS
In and around the Gopher-Bulldog hockey series, it was exciting to watch Texas finish off Detroit in the American League playoffs, while St. Louis was simply the better team in beating Milwaukee, when the Brewers picked an inopportune time to come completely unglued with a comedy of errors allowing the Cardinals to beat them and waltz into the World Series. Texas and St. Louis should put on a great World Series. We’ll see.
In the NFL, the Vikings had a horrendous night, again, this time against Chicago in a devastating 39-10 setback. At 1-5, rookie Christian Ponder will replace Donovan McNabb at quarterback, and since this seems to be the year of emerging young quarterbacks in the NFL, we shouldn’t have been surprised that Ponder looked so impressive in brief duty in the fourth quarter at Chicago. Nor should we be surprised if he breathes new life into the otherwise talented Vikings this weekend. The unbeaten and apparently invincible Green Bay Packers come to the Metrodome to face the Vikings, and nobody with a sound mind would pick the stumbling Vikings to beat Aaron Rodgers and the slick Packers. But I think the timing might be perfect for the Vikings to take a spirited run at them. Sure, the Packers could destroy the Vikings by six touchdowns, but watch out for Ponder to lead the Vikings to a belated come-together game and possibly the biggest upset of the season.
As for the Gophers, I do not anticipate anything resembling an upset against Nebraska on Saturday. I’m not sure Nebraska is a super-power, but the Gophers seem to self-destruct against mediocre teams, and even if they play their best game of the season I can’t foresee them giving the Huskers anything resembling a challenge.
BIGGEST RISK OF ALL
While watching all the games last weekend, the sobering realization clicked once again that hockey teams, football teams, and baseball teams all can win and lose, but there can be nothing that puts into proper perspective how those are just games than to see the ultimate risk faced by race drivers in the high-speed world of the IRL. You must have seen the season finale at Las Vegas on Sunday, or maybe you saw downtime during the two hours while track officials tried to clear up the debris from a 15-car mass mayhem crash going into Turn 2 on the high-banked oval.
Finally, the worst news came. Race driver Dan Wheldon had died of injuries in the crash.
Every time an athlete dies, with a disproportionate number of them being race drivers, everybody talks about what a great guy he was. In Wheldon’s case, it was true. The 33-year-old Englishman with the ready smile was an outstanding driver, and his situation tells a lot about where high-buck, open-wheel racing is right now. The IRL isn’t close to Formula 1 for exotic cars and exotic places to race, but Formula 1 displays its excellence on the greatest road-race courses of the world. The IRL runs on some road courses but also runs on some ovals, with the most significant being the Indianapolis 500.
But the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a 2.5 mile oval with long straightaways and barely any banking in the four corners. The other ovals in the U.S., such as at Las Vegas, are higher banked in order to contain the popular big NASCAR stock cars. IRL cars can run at speeds up to about 225 miles per hour, and because this was the final race for the season, promoters were trying to lure as many drivers as possible.
They ended up with 34 drivers, one more than are spread out around Indy, and they would be piled together in a pack on only a 1.5-mile oval. They also would be going at incredible speeds because of the banking, which reduces the need, or the inclination, to lift off the throttle.
But here’s the harsh reality. Those promoting IRL races are desperate because crowds have fallen off in tough economic times. NASCAR writers claim that IRL fans turn to NASCAR, but I don’t believe that. There are still few similarities between the two. At any rate, as a final lure to attract media attention, promoters offered a bonus of $5 million to any IRL driver who didn’t have a regular full-season ride, if that driver would agree to start last in the field and try to win. A fan was selected who would split the prize, $2.5 million each.
Dan Wheldon won the 2005 Indianapolis 500, which is best remembered as the first Indy that Danica Patrick raced in. I was sitting near Turn 1 and watched as Patrick captured the fancy of 400,000 race fans by moving into the lead with only a few laps left, but her gamble on making it on her final drops of fuel fell short by just a couple of laps, and Wheldon sped past her to win the race.
Wheldon didn’t have the financial backing to get a full season contract this year, but he did put together a one-time deal for Indy, and won what had to be a spectacularly satisfying second 500 this past May, gaining the lead late when an inexperienced driver made a late mistake and yielded the lead.
Because he didn’t have a full-season ride, Wheldon jumped at the chance to put together a deal and try to go from last to first in the Las Vegas final. While many other drivers, and Wheldon, were outspoken in their criticism of the speeds of the cars on the smooth, high-banked, short oval track, and the inexperience of some entries. The cars were certain to bunch up, and as they reached 225 in a pack, any slight mistake would be compounded with the inability to react in such heavy traffic.
Several drivers, including Franchitti and Patrick, said they tried to race over the first few laps, then backed off and dropped to the lower part of the track, because it was too risky to try to run with the over-aggressive inexperienced drivers. But Dan Wheldon didn’t back off, because he had too much riding on his outcome. He started 34th, and wove his way up through the back-markers, passing 10 cars on the first 12 laps.
He had no way of knowing what was about to happen in the cluster of cars running just ahead. One driver seemed to get slightly out of shape, and his wing touched another car’s rear tire. When that happens, one of the cars might go out of control, but the other is likely to be vaulted upward. Several cars spun and slammed into the outer wall. Several had nowhere to go when spinning, swerving cars abruptly appeared directly in their path at over 200 mph.
Fireballs were everywhere as cars hit other cars and some hit the outer wall, with at least two of them flipping. Just about at that instant, Wheldon’s car sailed into the mess. With the entire track clogged with spinning, crashing cars, Wheldon’s No. 77 struck a spinning car and went airborne. It flipped and cartwheeled to the outside, and it appeared his car was too high to hit the padded outer wall and directly struck the catch fence above it — cockpit first.
All the other drivers were checked and all of them knew that Dan Wheldon was in the most precarious situation. All expressed the fervent hope he would be OK, as he was airlifted by helicopter to a Las Vegas hospital. Two hours later, the grim news came out. One of the most charming and engaging personalities on the circuit, and an excellent race driver, had lost his life. The drivers insisted the race be terminated, and the 19 remaining cars formed up in rows of three and drove five slow laps as a tribute to their fallen friend.
I thought it was one of the most moving things I’ve seen, and when “Amazing Grace†was played over the loudspeakers, it seemed appropriate — far more appropriate than an earlier rendition of “Danny Boy†that proved that, indeed, they were in Las Vegas, and show business was still out there.
Everyone has expressed all the grief that is felt throughout auto racing, and the usual complaints about speeds being too fast, and tracks accommodating too much speed. They are right, of course. So is the suggestion that IRL cars should race on road courses rather than short ovals.
But to me, the most unforgivable element of a tragic day in sports was the sickening, show-biz style promotion of coaxing someone to risk it all and try a virtually impossible charge from last to first for the whopping lure of $5 million. It was extra incentive that was completely unnecessary and inappropriate in a high-speed sport like Indy Car racing — which, lest anyone forget, is already at the outer limits of being too high-risk.
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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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