Fighting Sioux could repeat 1997 history at Milwaukee

August 29, 2006 by · Leave a Comment
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Ah, history. They say those who donÂ’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and presumably that goes for hockey coaches as well as Presidents. North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol might both learn from, and repeat, some history as he takes the Fighting Sioux to Milwaukee for the NCAA Frozen Four.

The Fighting Sioux (29-15-1) play Boston College (25-12-3) at 2 p.m. Thursday in the first semifinal at the Bradley Center, with Wisconsin (28-10-3) facing Maine (28-11-2) in the 7 p.m. second semi. The winners meet for the national title at 6 p.m. Saturday.

Last week, the media and the Frozen Four coaches were linked by conference call. One Boston-accented television broadcaster who repeatedly criticized North Dakota for “dumb penalties” in its 4-1 NCAA championship game loss to Denver last year, said he noticed that the Sioux used power-play goals to win the West Regional, so he wondered if Hakstol would “talk about” his change in coaching philosophy, turning those dumb penalties into power plays.

Hakstol paused slightlyÂ… Hakstol always pauses slightly, before delivering astute and articulate answers, even to dumb non-questions about dumb penalties.

“I have had no change in philosophy, either in how we play, or in the attitude we always try to play with,” said Hakstol. “We want to play very aggressively, with speed, and use our natural skill. But we always want to be physical, and everything generates off that.”

Great response. Direct, to the point, and exactly the way the Fighting Sioux play. Many coaches would have seized the opportunity to lobby about not taking penalties in hopes of getting favorable treatment from officials, but not Hakstol. It is engraved on the psyche of every Fighting Sioux player that to live up to the program’s heritage, they come at you with no secrets – no mystery. Here they are, with their Native American logo proudly on their chests, and if you can’t see it too well now, pay attention, because it will be up close and personal in a second, an instant before they crunch you into the boards.

What you see is what you get, and if the Sioux play at a pace that is too rough for you, and too fast for you, wellÂ…too bad.

Youthful, and inconsistent early, nobody would call this year’s Fighting Sioux team physically intimidating, and certainly not chippy. But they play textbook in-your-face Sioux hockey, and they do it well. It could be said that Boston College and Maine are sort-of surprises at the Frozen Four, while Wisconsin is the favorite. But North Dakota is the hottest team in the country right now, because it is the hottest of the Frozen Foursome – the only college teams still playing.

Not noted during the press conference was that HakstolÂ’s first team reached the Frozen Four a year ago by taking the hard road through the WCHA playoffs. After beating UMD 8-2, 6-1 in the first round to earn a slot in the “play-in” game, the Sioux beat Wisconsin 3-2, then lost to Denver 2-1 in overtime in the semifinal. In the third-place game, North Dakota came from a 2-1 deficit to beat Minnesota 4-2. The weekend’s work lifted North Dakota to an NCAA berth, ranked 10th.

All that meant the Fighting Sioux were banished to the East Regional in Worcester, Mass. No problem. They simply whipped Boston University 4-0 and then took out No. 2 Boston College 6-3. The Sioux took their share of penalties, and then some, at the regional, but held both BU and BC to identical 0-for-9 shutouts on their power plays. Maybe penalties aren’t so “dumb” if you kill them off in the process of overrunning highly regarded opponents.

The Sioux beat Minnesota 4-2 in the NCAA semifinals before losing 4-1 to Denver in the championship game.

At this year’s Frozen Four, of course, there is a considerable new look to the Fighting Sioux. When the television cameras show close-ups on the ice,look closely and see how youthful they look. ThatÂ’s not an illusion, that so many of them look like teenagers. With a half-dozen forwards and four of six defensemen being freshmen, these Fighting Sioux are young. For examples, Jonathan Toews, a brilliant center, wonÂ’t turn 18 until the end of the month, and defenseman Brian Lee is still 18.

They may be too young to have a sense of historical perspective, because they were youngsters in fourth grade the last time the NCAA Frozen Four was in Milwaukee, in 1997. But repeating history wouldnÂ’t be a bad thing for North Dakota, because North Dakota beat Colorado College 6-2 and Boston University 6-4 to claim the national title in the 1997 tournament at Bradley Center.

That was in the second year of the Dean Blais coaching regime, and his assistants were Mark Osiecki and Scott Sandelin. Blais spent one year rebuilding, then the Sioux won the WCHA championship. It appeared that bigger and better things would be in the future for that Sioux group, but they were impatient, and everything came together as they won the WCHA Final Five, a stepping stone to the Frozen Four title. The team was led by a young sophomore dynamo named Jason Blake, but at Milwaukee, players like goaltender Aaron Schweitzer and checking-line skater Matt Henderson stepped to the team-oriented forefront to lead the way.

Sound familiar? Hakstol is in his second season, and he did his rebuilding job on the Sioux last year and part of this one. Osiecki will be at the Frozen Four too, but as assistant coach at Wisconsin, while Sandelin is now head coach at Minnesota-Duluth. Hakstol’s assistants are defensive specialist Brad Berry, and the redoubtable Cary Eades, who went off to coaching accolades at Warroad High School before returning to his alma mater as Hakstol’s assistant. No one has checked his driver’s license, but “in-your-face” might be Eades’ middle name.

Other similarities are that the Sioux are led offensively by a freshman dynamo named T.J. Oshie, who would as soon run over an opponent as score a goal, which means he ran over quite a few, because he scored 24 goals centering the first line, including a nation’s best nine game-winners. The attack that came of age winning the WCHA Final Five playoffs includes 10 freshmen and only a couple seniors – indicating the Fighting Sioux might be a year or two away from being a dominant team.
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Nobody would say this yearÂ’s Fighting Sioux had a dominant season. They started WCHA play 1-3, struggled to stay above .500 much of the year, tying Colorado College for fourth in league play, finishing 16-12 in the WCHA. However, the biggest lesson from 1997 to this year is that championship teams take advantage of opportunities when they arise, and it doesn’t work to wait for the so-called dominant team to rise to the surface, because it might not happen.

But thatÂ’s old news. The Fighting Sioux are 29-15-1 overall, and after never winning more than three games in a row all season, they now have won six straight games, having finished off Minnesota State-Mankato with two straight victories after an opening playoff surprise, then beating Wisconsin and St. Cloud State to win the Final Five, before taking out Michigan and upstart Holy Cross to win the West Regional, at home in Grand Forks.

Junior Drew Stafford missed the Final Five with an injury, but came back to notch his 24th goal of the season in the regional. That ties him with freshman Oshie in team goals, while Toews has 21, making the Sioux the only Frozen Four team with three 20-plus goals. While many scorers can boast about padding their statistics with power-play goals, StaffordÂ’s 24 include a nationÂ’s best 7 shorthanded goals.

The balanced scoring has come together, and the Sioux power play is clicking at 29.4 percent in their last 15 games. At the regional, in beating Michigan 5-1, Oshie, Stafford, Ryan Duncan, Toews and sophomore Travis Zajac each scored a goal, and in beating Holy Cross 5-2, again five different scorers connected, with Toews, Duncan, junior defenseman Matt Smaby, Zajac and freshman Matt Watkins scoring. Toews had three assists with his two goals in the two games, and was named outstanding player at the regional.

“Toews is an extremely big part of our team,” said Hakstol. “He was a pretty young man coming tour campus last fall, but he’s adjusted very well, on and off the ice. He didn’t put up the numbers he expected of himself early, and now we’re seeing the results. He’s really starting tocome on and is a dynamic force offensively.

“The play of our defensive corps is a mirror image of our whole team. With four freshmen back there, we did some great things, but also had some inconsistent play. Certainly Brad Berry has done a great job staying positive with them, and they’re not afraid to play; if they make mistakes, they’re not afraid to go right back out there. In the WCHA you’re dealing with some outstanding forwards, so it’s a pretty big learning curve for young defensemen – especially in the first half of their freshman year.”

One of the intriguing things about this particular Frozen Four is that all four teams have exceptional goaltending. Jordan Parise, who has emerged as an outstanding leader as well as perhaps the most competitive goalie in the nation, mans the nets for the Sioux, and will oppose Cory Schneider, who recorded eight shutouts for Boston College. Brian Elliott is the star goaltender for Wisconsin, and Ben Bishop has had a strong season for Maine.

Boston College coach Jerry York suggested his team has some other parallels with North Dakota. “We have four freshman defensemen too, and as the year went on, we had a better team than I had envisioned,” York said. “We had a little slide, but then we rallied to win against Vermont, and caught fire. We’re a little dangerous to play, right now.”

BC’s offense is a bit of a surprise, too, because Kevin Collins, who was a strong player and a “9-11 goal scorer for three years,” said York, suddenly found a belated scoring touch and has 31 goals, earning one of three Hobey Baker finalist slots, along with Elliott, and Denver defenseman Matt Carle.

The Sioux donÂ’t have anybody up for such lofty awards. But they have a dedicated focus on the big team plaque thatÂ’s given out Saturday night.

Goepfert, Huskies trip UMD, face No. 1 Gophers

August 29, 2006 by · Leave a Comment
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SAINT PAUL, MN. — Minnesota-Duluth was the biggest surprise entry to the WCHA Final Five, and the Bulldogs rode in on the startling success of unheralded reserve goaltender Nate Ziegelmann, who had upset Denver in two of three games last weekend. But where goaltending is concerned, St. Cloud State’s Bobby Goepfert won all the league awards as top goalie, and he gave a display of how that happened to lead the Huskies to a 5-1 victory in Thursday’s tournament opener.

There was some disagreement when Goepfert was named first team all-WCHA goaltender earlier Thursday, but the Huskies junior, a transfer from Providence, strode out onto the Xcel Energy Center ice sheet and eliminated the critics – especially any of those wearing Minnesota-Duluth jerseys – by kicking out 36 of 37 shots he faced to frustrate the Bulldogs in the “play-in” game of the WCHA Final Five tournament.

The game drew a first-game record crowd of 16,312 – perhaps a benefit of the busride range of all five entrants, where UMD, St. Cloud State and No. 1 Minnesota are all within an hour or two, and the most distant teams are Wisconsin and North Dakota. Wisconsin might have filed the most valid complaint about the identity of the league’s best goaltender, because of Brian Elliott, who will face North Dakota in Friday’s first semifinal. But few will question the choice of the lightning-quick Goepfert after his performance allowed St. Cloud State to return to Xcel Center to face the Gophers in the second semifinal.

“As a team, it’s big for us to do well here, but the personal accolades didn’t mean anything to me as far as this game went,” said Goepfert, a transfer from Providence. “Playing the Gophers, who are No. 1 in the country, will be a big test. We’re all excited for that, but you can’t look ahead at more than one game at a time, and we were focused on Duluth.”

Motzko wasn’t so sure. One of the key factors in St. Cloud’s favor when the Huskies put their 21-15-4 record out against Minnesota’s 27-6-5 ledger will be that the Huskies got past any Xcel Center awe in the UMD game. They were apparently uptight at the start of the game, and yet they jumped ahead 3-0 – an ironic twist for Motzko, who said he hoped they’d be hustling and outworking UMD, but instead they got outhustled and yet jumped into the lead.

“We got three in the first to get ahead, and I don’t know when that’s happened,” said Motzko, whose team usually has to work hard for goals. “We needed our first line to score, and they got two, and we needed our power play to come through, and it did.”

He started to add that the Huskies also needed a strong game from Goepfert, but that was a given. “We didn’t have the energy at the start, but we got it in the third period,” Motzko said. “Everyone was surprised that Duluth beat Denver last weekend, but to me the surprise was that Duluth finished ninth, because they’re the second fastest team we’ve played, after Colorado College. We’ve become a good hockey team, and Bobby gives us a good chance to win. Bobby is what you saw tonight.”

Goepfert got all he needed in the first three minutes. Just 44 seconds after the game started, Bill Hengen got the puck back after a left corner faceoff, and drilled a shot past UMD goaltender Nate Ziegelmann for a 1-0 lead. At 3:18, Nate Dey scored for a 2-0 St. Cloud lead, and UMD hadnÂ’t had a shot yet. The Bulldogs started shooting, as well as skating and moving the puck in something close to dominant fashion, but when St. Cloud got the only power play of the first period, Brook Hooten got free on the left side of the net and quickly converted a perfect pass across the goal-mouth from Joe Jensen, deep in the right corner, at 12:55.

With Goepfert in goal, the 3-0 lead must have seemed like a mountain to the Bulldogs, although Tim Stapleton came back to snap a screened shot past Goepfert at 13:56 to cut the deficit to 3-1.
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A goal of any flavor in the second period might have lifted UMD back into it, but after outshooting the Huskies 11-6 in the first period – and 11-2 after St. Cloud’s opening flurry – UMD stormed the net in the second period, outshooting the Huskies 15-3. But Goepfert allowed nothing to pass.

“It’s a great building to play in, and the whole event is great for our team to be a part of,” said Goepfert. “The three quick goals made things a little easier, but I figured after the first period that the second period would be big, so I got really focused in the dressing room. I might say a few things at the start of the intermission, but then I’m pretty much silent, and I zone out…except when coach is talking.”

Stapleton was not surprised by Goepfert’s play. “I played against him in juniors, and he’s always been that way,” said Stapleton. “He makes the first save, and he doesn’t allow rebounds. We had our chances; at one point I looked up at the scoreboard and the shots were 24-8.”

But the score never got closer. The Bulldogs, who finish 11-25-4, could have made it more dramatic with a goal to open the third period, but instead Andrew Gordon scored at 0:48 off a left corner faceoff, and it was 4-1. The Huskies started firing on all cylinders after that, and got off 17 of their game total 26 shots in the final 20 minutes. They scored the final goal when UMD coach Scott Sandelin pulled Ziegelmann for a sixth attacker with 3:36 to go, hoping to cut into the three-goal deficit. But Goepfert stayed invincible, and after missing the open net twice, Hengen fired a 125-footer into the net at 17:34.

“After the first five minutes, I thought we played pretty well for the next 35 minutes,” said Sandelin. “I was proud of the way we played after being down 3-0. Obviously, when you’ve gone 1-15, things are not looking very bright, so ending our season here, instead of at Denver, was important. We had our chances, but obviously Goepfert made some saves.”

It was a tough night for Ziegelmann, whose touch turned magic last weekend in the playoffs, when he rose from No. 3 in DuluthÂ’s goaltending scenario to win his first two college games in upsetting Denver. The victories came after the Bulldogs had won just one game in calendar 2006, and reinvigorated the Bulldogs after a drop to ninth place. The victories also cost two-time defending NCAA champion Denver a chance to return to the Final Five, and ultimately will probably prevent the Pioneers to get invited to the NCAA tournament.

The 16-team NCAA field will include the top 14 ranked teams plus two independent teams, not counting any other teams that might win their league playoff and advance, despite being unranked, by displacing ranked entries. That’s where the Huskies enter the picture. They know they only have one chance to make the NCAA field, and that would be to win the Final Five championship – which, of course, means beating Minnesota in the semifinals.

Zaugg, Vetter lead Badgers to women’s NCAA title

August 29, 2006 by · Leave a Comment
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MINNEAPOLIS, MN. — Sophomore Jinelle Zaugg scored two goals and freshman goaltender Jessie Vetter recorded her second shutout in two Frozen Four games as Wisconsin capped a spectacular breakthrough season with a 3-0 victory over Minnesota in the NCAA womenÂ’s hockey championship game Sunday.

The victory, before 4,701 fans at Mariucci Arena, gave the Badgers a 36-4-1 record and came after also winning the WCHA women’s regular season and playoff championships. Minnesota, which tied Minnesota-Duluth for second in the WCHA and lost 4-1 to Wisconsin in the WCHA playoff final, finished 29-11-1 – one game short of winning a third straight NCAA title.

Because Wisconsin had beaten the Gophers four out of five times this season coming into the game, someone asked Minnesota coach Laura Halldorson what it was that made Wisconsin so difficult for her Gophers to play against. “They have three very strong lines, very strong defense, and good goaltending,” said Halldorson. “They’re hard to play against for any team in the country.

“We were the fourth seed, and we beat No. 1 (New Hampshire), and if we’d beaten No. 2, it would have been little short of a miracle.”

Indeed, WisconsinÂ’s great teamwork and balanced skill level provided the breakthrough season. In the five previous womenÂ’s NCAA tournaments, Minnesota-Duluth won the first three and Minnesota the next two, so getting the big trophy out of the state took something special, and these Badgers had it. In their history of Division One hockey, Minnesota had beaten WisconsinÂ’s ever-improving team for a record of 23-4-2 until this season, when the Badgers won five of the six meetings.

But Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson knew history was meaningless when it came to the final game. His Badgers had barely made it to Mariucci, by beating Mercyhurst 2-1 in double overtime, and overcame a strong St. Lawrence team 1-0 in FridayÂ’s semifinals, while Minnesota was stunning top-ranked New Hampshire 5-4.

“I want to congratulate Minnesota and Laura did a nice job coaching them this year, because they were more difficult and challenging for us to play each time we played them,” said Johnson. “We had to dethrone the two-time defending champions, and we knew they weren’t going to go down without a fight.

“We told the players that what happened in the previous five games against Minnesota becomes irrelevant,” said Johnson. “We said we had to play a strong first 10 minutes. When we did that, and came out of it with a power-play goal and then Grace Hutchins tips one in, I felt a lot better. At playoff time, special teams have to be good. They have to score what I call timely goals.”

The first timely goal came at 9:56, when Wisconsin had killed a penalty and then got its first power play. Bobbi-Jo Slusar shot from the left point and the puck hit traffic in front of the net, and Zaugg, at 6-foot-1 the biggest player on either team, found the rebound and drilled it past Gopher freshman goaltender Brittony Chartier. “They gave me an open shot,” said Slusar, “so I took it, and the puck bounced around until Zaugg got hold of it.

If the goal punctured MinnesotaÂ’s opening enthusiasm, it was punctured again 30 seconds later. Nikki Burish got the puck and moved to the top of the left circle where she sent a shot skipping through the congestion in front, and Grace Hutchins deflected it into the right edge. Hutchins, a senior from Winnetka, Ill., had only scored four goals all season, and 15 in her career, and now she has a keepsake for her memory bank, and her trophy case.

Shots were 10-apiece through the first period, and the game tightened up in the second, until the Badgers got their fourth power play of the game. Sara Bauer, recipient of the Patty Kazmaier award as the nationÂ’s top female college player, had the puck in the left corner and passed across to the slot. Zaugg got her full force behind a one-timer, and Chartier had no chance, at 9:08 of the middle session.

“That third goal was a rocket,” said Johnson. “A lot of women players have a problem with the velocity of their shot as they move away from the net, but not Jinelle. Sara got her the puck, and she sent a laser.”

Minnesota outshot Wisconsin 31-19 for the game, but there was no mistaking which team was in command, even in the third period, when the Gophers threw everything they had at trying to score and had a 14-4 edge in shots. Vetter, who was in the nets for the 2-1 double-overtime victory over Mercyhurst and the 1-0 St. Lawrence game, has something under a 0.30 goals-against average for the three NCAA games. She made the final seem routine.
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“We had a three-goal lead,” said Vetter. “We’re not trying to score more goals. We’re just trying to play good defense.”

The Gophers were frustrated, but they also knew how far they had come as a team, after losing Olympic stars Krissy Wendell, Natalie Darwitz, Kelly Stephens and Lyndsay Wall, plus both their goaltenders from the team that won the last two titles.

“She (Vetter) stood on her head today and stopped everything, and their D cleared everthing,” said Minnesota captain Andrea Nichols. “But after losing all the Olympians who carried us on and off the ice, nobody expected us to get this far.”

Bobbi Ross, who scored four goals in the amazing semifinal 5-4 victory over New Hampshire, was part of the Gopher power play that got blanked, along with the rest of the offense. “Coming into this game, obviously we weren’t looking at finishing second,” Ross said. “Right now, we’re unsatisfied, but in a few days, I think we’ll be able to appreciate what we’ve done. We accomplished so much more than anyone thought we would. We replaced raw talent with strength of character and team unity, and that made this season all the more satisfying.”

Having broken through, the Badgers arenÂ’t about to let up. With only five seniors on the team, their top scorers and all six defensemen return. As does Vetter, who got the nod through all three NCAA tournament games after rotating with senior Meghan Horras and junior Christine Dufour all season.

“Jessie red-shirted last year,” said Johnson, “then she got mono and sat out the first two months of this season. The first game I stuck her in was in the third period against Bemidji, and the first shot went in. She faced a challenge because she had lost strength and conditioning, and there were two good goaltenders ahead of her.”

Johnson recalled winning an NCAA tournament as a player, playing for his dad, Badger Bob Johnson, at Wisconsin. And he won an Olympic gold medal playing for Herb Brooks in 1980. Then he had an outstanding NHL career.

“I remember in the early ‘90s, when my dad was coaching the Pittsburgh Penguins, and they were winning the Stanley Cup,” said Johnson. “I came here and watched them in Bloomington, and I got to go downstairs after they’d won it. I saw something special when he hoisted the Stanley Cup. And now, with this team, I can feel how really special it is as a coach.”

Zaugg and Vetter were teammates on a national championship club team, and with Zaugg from Eagle River and Vetter from Cottage Grove, Wis., they are two of eight homestate Wisconsin players on the Badger team. So coming to Minnesota, where the Gopher men’s team had been upset in the NCAA regional, and now the Gopher women’s team was now dethroned, the Minnesota Wild NHL slogan of Minnesota being the “State of Hockey” is in question.

“We were saying in the locker room,” said Zaugg, “that Wisconsin is the new State of Hockey.”

Huskies stop Potulny, Gophers 8-7 in OT WCHA semi

August 29, 2006 by · Leave a Comment
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SAINT PAUL, MN. — Matt Hartman, a fourth-line sophomore, flung a shot from deep in the left corner that found the Minnesota net at 9:14 of sudden-death overtime, lifting St. Cloud State to an improbable 8-7 victory Friday night, and into a berth in SaturdayÂ’s WCHA Final Five playoff championship game. The triumph came despite a heroic performance by MinnesotaÂ’s Ryan Potulny, who scored his fourth goal of the game with 15 seconds remaining to tie the game and force overtime.

In the overtime, Hartman rushed up the left boards and pulled up sharply in the corner. “Nate [Raduns] had bumped the puck ahead to me, and when I got to the corner, I saw Brocklehurst screaming down the slot there,” said Hartman.

Gopher backup goaltender Jeff Frazee also apparently saw Brocklehurst coming down the slot, and started to move off the short-side pipe, anticipating a pass. “I thought I’d throw the puck on net, and it found a way through,” said Hartman. “I saw the net fly up, but I had no idea where it went in.”

The winning shot was improbable, and so was the score, but even more improbable is that the Huskies (22-15-4) snapped Minnesota’s eight-game winning streak and find themselves one game away from a berth in the NCAA tournament’s 16-team field. The playoff winner gets an automatic berth, and that’s the only way the Huskies could reach the select field. Minnesota (27-7-5) remains the nation’s No. 1 rank and will face Wisconsin in Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. third-place game – a game which could determine the nation’s No. 1 seed overall, with Minnesota No. 1 and Wisconsin No. 2 in the Pairwise ranking. St. Cloud State will take on North Dakota at 7:30 for the championship.

Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota are already secured among the nationÂ’s top 16 teams and should make the field easily when the NCAA selection committee announces its picks Sunday. But St. Cloud State had no chance of making the NCAA on ratings.

“No question, we’re playing to get into the NCAA tournament,” said coach Bob Motzko, who is in his first year at St. Cloud after assisting at Minnesota.

After North Dakota had beaten Wisconsin 4-3 in the afternoon semifinal, the Xcel Energy Center public address announcer said: “With this victory, North Dakota now advances to the championship game against Minnesota tomorrow night…”

“We heard that, in the lobby of the hotel,” said Hartman, whose winning goal was his second of the game and 10th of the season.
Brad Hooten, who also had two goals to give him six for the season, said: “No question, we fed off it.”

With both teams stressing low goals-against, the goal-scoring binge was out of character for both. Minnesota was outshot 16-8 in the first period but outshot the Huskies 51-38 for the game. “It is draining for a coach,” said Motzko. “But when the game got going like it did, we had to keep going. We knew they were having fun getting back into it, so we told the guys they had to keep going. You get into a nutty game like this, you’ve got to go with it.”

Potulny certainly went with it, and as evidence of how strange the game became is that his spectacular night — with four goals and one assist — became overshadowed by the Huskies ability to overcome it. Potulny now has 38-25—63 to take the nationÂ’s point-scoring lead as well as expanding his goal-scoring lead.

The teams played nearly half the first period without a goal. Ben Gordon got one on a slick pass across the slot from Blake Wheeler at 9:36 to stake Minnesota to a 1-0 lead, but Matt Hartman tied it 1-1 at 10:57 when he scored with a one-timer after Matt StephensonÂ’s shot was deflected to him at the left of the carge. Minnesota sophomore defenseman Alex Goligoski regained the lead 2-1 for Minnesota at 13:33, but then went off for a penalty that opened the chance for Andrew Gordon, who scored his 20th with a screened wrist shot from center point that eluded goaltender Kellen Briggs at 15:02.

The flurry of four goals in six minutes should have been an indication of things to come, but nobody could foresee the second period antics, as the Huskies scored three straight goals to stun the Gophers. Andrew Gordon got his second of the game at 0:58, Casey Borer beat Briggs with a wrist shot from the left point at 3:50, and Grant Clafton scored at 5:54, making it the first time in 49 games the Gophers had yielded as many as five goals, and prompting Minnesota coach Don Lucia to pull Briggs for backup Jeff Frazee.

“It was one of those games where the puck was going in, but never in my wildest dreams did I think it would be 8-7,” said Lucia. “When they got ahead by three, I thought it was one of those nights for us.”
Potulny and the Gopher power play kept the game within reach, as Potulny, a left-handed shooter, drilled Phil KesselÂ’s pass from the right circle at 9:43 to cut it to 5-3. But after Potulny scored his nation-leading 35th goal, Brock Hooten scored his fifth for St. Cloud by intercepting a careless breakout attempt up the slot, walking in and firing past Frazee at 11:40 of the middle period.

Before the second period ended, Potulny smacked in Danny Irmen’s pass at 14:08, and then completed his hat trick with a power play goal when Kessel went behind the net and fed him at his favorite right circle station – with a scant 0.4 seconds remaining. It was dramatic, and it cut the deficit to 6-5, but amazingly enough, the drama was still in its preliminary stage.

“The way we played, it’s just not going to cut it,” said Potulny. “I think the team decided it was time to turn things around, and I was in the right spot at the right time.”

The Gophers had outshot St. Cloud 17-12 in the wild second period, and they stormed the Huskies goal for a 20-7 shooting edge in the third, which put ace St. Cloud goaltender Bobby Goepfert under intense pressure. Despite the score, he played well. “He let in seven, and he made some big-time saves,” Lucia said.

The Huskies were left clinging to the 6-5 lead through the first 16 minutes of the third period, then Hooten blocked the puck free and zoomed in to score on a breakaway for a 7-5 Huskies lead at 16:21.
Undeterred, the Gophers swarmed on the attack, and Irmen lifted a rebound up and over the fallen Goepfert with 2:01 to play to cut it to 7-6.

“When St. Cloud went back up by two goals, I was so mad I didn’t even want to pull the goalie,” said Lucia. “Then we scored, and I had to.”

Lucia called time, and pulled Frazee for a six-skater attack. The Gophers pressed, the Huskies defended, and as the last minute ticked away, Kessel forechecked the puck free to Irmen, who curled up the boards from the left corner and spotted Potulny at – guess where? – the right circle. Irmen’s pinpoint pass was perfect, and Potulny one-timed it for his 38th goal of the season at 19:45.

“We tie it with 15 seconds to go,” said Lucia, who could appreciate how much the fans must have enjoyed the explosive game. “For the fans – my gosh – they should’ve charged $50.”

Cadillac unveils supercharged XLR-V and STS-V

August 29, 2006 by · Leave a Comment
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — V is for Victory, and it also stands for the newest and most high-performance Cadillacs in the exclusive brandÂ’s history. The CTS-V opened some eyes on race tracks and roadways as a hot-rod Cadillac, and now the “V” designation is coming out attached to a pair of more luxurious models – the XLR-V and the STS-V.

A too-brief opportunity to drive the new Escalade – Cadillac’s overwhelming new version of its luxury-SUV segment leader – along with the XLR-V and STS-V came in waves of media at introductions on both coasts. I attended the East Coast session, which was based in Washington, D.C., and allowed us a lot of spirited driving into the rolling hills and challenging roadways of nearby Virginia. We saw freeways, and then we saw splendid old villages, including some historic wartime settings, such as the cannons still in place on the hilltop at Manassas.

But the Escalade review will have to wait, while we attend to the XLR-V and STS-V. These long-rumored, and long-awaited variations of CadillacÂ’s sports car and midsize sedan are set off by mesh grilles and a few exterior items, but primarily by whatÂ’s within, both in the interior and under the skin mechanically. Both cars were thoroughly redone to house the new power that bristles every time you touch the gas, and the cars themselves house the extra dose of power and never lose their poise and class no matter how hard you hammer the gas.

Cadillac has been the shining light of luxury at General Motors for most of a century now, and while there have never been more luxurious vehicles wearing the Cadillac wreath, Cadillac also is poised to lead the whole corporation into the high-tech future. The XLR-V and STS-V are the strongest indications yet that Cadillac can combine technology, performance and luxury into a single vehicle. Or two single vehicles.

Both cars start with the 4.6-liter Northstar V8 engine, cut back to 4.4 liters, and then reworked internally to handle a supercharger. Now, a supercharger is a device that requires some power, in this case, about 15 horsepower-worth, and it compresses and force-feeds a blast of air into the intake to suck great quantiies of gasoline with it. The result is a huge increase in power.

As a tease, consider this: The larger STS-V sedan has a different, deeper-set version of the supercharged 4.4 with 469 horsepower and 439 foot-pounds of torque, making it the most powerful Cadillac vehicle ever built, and capable of flinging the quite-heavy sedan from 0-60 in 4.8 seconds, and a top speed electronically governed at 155 miles per hour.

The XLR, which is built on the same platform as the new Corvette, and in fact had the platform first, is lighter and smaller, so its version of the engine had to be streamlined, and “only” produces 443 horsepower and 414 foot-pounds of torque. Its size and sizzle makes it a 4.6-second screamer from 0-60, and it also has a limit of 155 mph.

The old adage, promoted most prominently by General Motors, is that “there’s no substitute for cubic inches” when it comes to developing power. Cadillac now proves that there IS a substitute for massive displacement, and it is technology. But it comes at a cost.

The STS-V starts out at $77,090, very Mercedes AMG-like, or BMW M-Class like, but it comes without a single option. The only selection a customer can make is a “sunroof delete” to eliminate the power glass sunroof, but there is no discount that accompanies it.

The XLR is even more exotic, and starts with a more expensive vehicle, so the XLR-V starts at $100,000. A nice, round number, to say the least.

General Motors has earned the status of the No. 1 automaker in the world and stubbornly held fast by depending upon low-investment/high-return products that include making dated technology work in modern times, and building large and larger truck-based vehicles that command large and larger prices. More than a decade ago, Cadillac engineers got the green light to go high-tech, while the rest of the corporation continued to try to squeeze another couple of horsepower out of technology that appeared outdated alongside the rest of the industry.

While even the Corvette stayed with pushrod design and used enormous cylinder displacement to create world-class power at moderate expense, Cadillac came up with the Northstar V8, a dual-overhead-camshaft beauty that, at 4.6 liters, was able to outrev and outrun much larger pushrod engines. Next, Cadillac came up with the 3.6-liter V6, an even more advanced dual-overhead-cam engine with variable valve-timing that is capable of being tweaked to truly stand as a world-class powerplant against the best that Japan or Germany can muster.

When Cadillac redesigned its entire line, building the CTS entry-level sedan, the XLR retractable-roof sports car, the SRX crossover SUV, and changed the name of the Seville to the STS and the DeVille to the new DTS, it inserted the brilliant 3.6 V6 as the base engine in the CTS, STS and SRX, and used its own proprietary Northstar V8 as the only engine in the XLR and DTS, and the upgrade option in the STS and SRX.

The luxury class of cars tends to veer either toward comfort/luxury or performance/luxury, so having proven a hit with the sharply chiseled, edgy design of the whole new line, Cadillac decided to venture further into the performance-luxury market. The CTS, which is a very good car in basic form with the “high-feature” V6, was given the Corvette V8. While extremely powerful, the Corvette engine even in the new Corvette is a high-tech version of the aging pushrod, or fixed cam-in-block design, with 6 or even 7 liters of displacement.

With that powerful engine and a six-speed stick, the CTS-V has attracted a whole new and younger clientele to Cadillac showrooms. Compared to the garden-variety CTS, the CTS-V attracts buyers 9 years younger, 26-percent more college educated, and with $72,000 more in annual earnings.

That inspired the corporation to open some new doors for Cadillac’s engineers. Consider, in the scope of new-look engineering, that Cadillac product director John Howell said he is the most veteran member of Cadillac’s executive staff – and he has been at Cadillac only five and a half years. The youthful approach to luxury and performance/luxury has lifted Cadillac past Lincoln and Mercedes to where it currently resides, in third place behind only Lexus (302,895 vehicles sold) and BMW (266,200), with annual sales of 235,002.
“With success can come conservatism,” said Howell, “but not at Cadillac.”

Howell described Phase One of the “Cadillac Renaissance” as a five-year plan to renew styling, performance, new products and public perception. Phase Two starts now, and is aimed at established world-standard levels of performance and refinement. With that comes the V-Series, following up the CTS-V with the two newest cars. The CTS-V may have caught the automotive world by surprise, but the XLR-V and STS-V are aimed at taking on “the best from BMW, Mercedes or Audi,” said Howell.

Greg Prior, the chief engineer on the Northstar V8, is an overhead-cam guy who had to win a few internal battles before being allowed to develop the V engines. “We’re aware of our heritage, but we realize it doesn’;t mean a thing if you don’t follow up on it,” he said.
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In the STS-V, 90 percent of the torque plateaus from 2,500-6,100 RPMs, and in the XLR-V, the torque peak remains from 2,200-6,200. Prior gave a quick explanation of the upgrades required for the two new cars, and much of it was in engineer-eze. In summary, he declared the obvious, that these engines are far more than just a supercharger bolted on to an existing engine. New material and refinement were needed to strengthen pistons, heads, water-jacket, everything, to get ready for extreme dosages of revs, power, and heat. Built at a new facility in Wixom, Mich., the engines are built with one engine-builder doing the actual assembly of each engine.

The governed top speed of 155 is, obviously, still excessive, but the more boy-racer CTS-V has an ungoverned limit of 163 – faster, because it is more race track oriented. With considerable pride, however, the engineers admitted that if ungoverned, the STS-V had attained 170 mph, and the XLR-V had hit 173. Score another for technology, and don’t worry about getting to the shopping center before closing.

On the STS-V, the six-speed automatic transmission is a new device with a two-clutch arrangement for the rear-wheel-drive vehicles. Suspension components were all revised as well, with increased cornering and handling firmness, and quicker steering feel. All sorts of exotic parts are included on the STS-V, including antilock brakes, traction control and Stabilitrak. The transmission in the STS-V has a sport mode, which allows you to shift off to the side and tap it up or down to shift manually. It is computer controlled for quicker response, and it automatically matches revs on downshifts, and it inhibits unwanted downshifts when cornering.

Driving the STS-V is a treat, and it handles with a nimbleness and precision that sets it above the normal and competent STS, and up there with the best of the worldÂ’s luxury/performance cars. Right on, Cadillac. And the leather and wood interior is impressive as well.

Now we switch to the XLR-V, and there are a couple of new touches exclusive to that beast. It has nearly perfect 50-50 weight distribution on the front and rear axles, and, like the STS-V, it has been lowered and refined for the extra power. There had been some critics of the XLR steering for being too imprecise, so that has been attended to. The steering is much quicker, and the suspension has the electromagnetic shock absorbers that stiffen five times faster than conventional shocks. The exhaust has computer controls to open up at high revs, giving the car an unrestricted boost in sound as well.

A key feature in the XLR-V is the ability to drive it normally and impressively with the shifter in “D” for drive. But shift it into manual mode, and two amazing changes take place: the shifter responds much more quickly, and the suspension and steering both firm up for more aggressive driving.

My driving partner left it in D and we were both impressed. I switched it to the manual mode and was thoroughly impressed with the carÂ’s precision. As an experiment, I zoomed along in one deserted area, at a fairly high rate of speed, and shifted to the normal D setting. Immediately I noticed a less-precise feel to the steering, and before I really had time to calculate any suspension difference, I quickly switched back to manual.

Later, I told a Cadillac engineer that to fully appreciate the tighter steering and suspension, on that particular stretch of road in the normal D setting 90 mph was far too fast; but in the manual setting, 90 might not have been fast enough.

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  • About the Author

    John GilbertJohn Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.

    For those who want to keep up with John Gilbert's view of sports, mainly hockey with a Minnesota slant, click on the following:

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  • Exhaust Notes:

    PADDLING
    More and more cars are offering steering-wheel paddles to allow drivers manual control over automatic or CVT transmissions. A good idea might be to standardize them. Most allow upshifting by pulling on the right-side paddle and downshifting with the left. But a recent road-test of the new Porsche Panamera, the paddles for the slick PDK direct-sequential gearbox were counter-intuitive -- both the right or left thumb paddles could upshift or downshift, but pushing on either one would upshift, and pulling back on either paddle downshifted. I enjoy using paddles, but I spent the full week trying not to downshift when I wanted to upshift. A little simple standardization would alleviate the problem.

    SPEAKING OF PADDLES
    The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution has the best paddle system, and Infiniti has made the best mainstream copy of that system for the new Q50, and other sporty models. And why not? It's simply the best. In both, the paddles are long, slender magnesium strips, affixed to the steering column rather than the steering wheel. Pull on the right paddle and upshift, pull on the left and downshift. The beauty is that while needing to upshift in a tight curve might cause a driver to lose the steering wheel paddle for an instant, but having the paddles long, and fixed, means no matter how hard the steering wheel is cranked, reaching anywhere on the right puts the upshift paddle on your fingertips.

    TIRES MAKE CONTACT
    Even in snow-country, a few stubborn old-school drivers want to stick with rear-wheel drive, but the vast majority realize the clear superiority of front-wheel drive. Going to all-wheel drive, naturally, is the all-out best. But the majority of drivers facing icy roadways complain about traction for going, stopping and steering with all configurations. They overlook the simple but total influence of having the right tires can make. There are several companies that make good all-season or snow tires, but there are precious few that are exceptional. The Bridgestone Blizzak continues to be the best=known and most popular, but in places like Duluth, MN., where scaling 10-12 blocks of 20-30 degree hills is a daily challenge, my favorite is the Nokian WR. Made without compromising tread compound, the Nokians maintain their flexibility no matter how cold it gets, so they stick, even on icy streets, and can turn a skittish car into a winter-beater.