Private schools used to have their own puck tourney
Cretin-Derham Hall ran away from Grand Rapids in a 7-0 state tournament championship final, climaxing a surprise-filled week at Saint Paul’s Xcel Energy Center. The fact that a colorful Grand Rapids team simply ran out of gas after upsetting Roseau and favored Hill-Murray in the first two rounds, was less surprising than the emergence of Cretin-Derham Hall, winning its first title in only its second state appearance.
When Hill-Murray and Holy Angels played to a 3-3 tie at midseason, they were considered co-No. 1 hockey teams. But with No. 1 Holy Angels suffering its only loss in a sectional upset by Apple Valley, Hill-Murray came into this yearÂ’s state tournament No. 1 in Class AA. Duluth Marshall reached the Xcel Center as the No. 1 ranked team in Class A.
Interesting to check through the historical tidbits of the state tournament program to see the listing of tournament appearances. The perennially powerful Pioneers never made it to the state tournament until 1975, while Marshall, a powerful little school on top of the hill in Duluth, never made it until 2001.
That is true, and it is also very misleading. The state hockey tournament program is a great source for historical tidbits such as those, but the Minnesota State High School League’s detailed accounts of state hockey history leaves what amounts to a “black hole†when it comes to the private and parochial schools.
Backers of public schools still bristle at the mention of private schools, and complain that they “recruit†from the productive youth hockey programs in public school areas. That talk subsided after the first Hill-Murray teams appeared dominant, and came back strong when Holy Angels swept to prominence in recent years. Accusations and evidence of recruiting by public schools, through open-enrollment, have pretty much drowned out the protests that private schools should be segregated into their own tournaments.
As a matter of fact, they used to do exactly that. State private school tournaments were held separately from the public school tournament in the 1960s and early 1970s, but the great teams that played in those glory years have dropped into the black hole of state puck history.
Except, of course, in the fertile memory banks of those who played on those teams, and those who played against them.
Bill Lechner, the coach at Hill-Murray for the past nine years, gave in to the demands of Hill-MurrayÂ’s alumni this year and brought out the old horizontally striped green-and-white sweater to wear at the Section 3 championship game. Facing arch-rival White Bear Lake before a doubleheader crowd that counted an over-capacity 7,425 at the state fair Coliseum, Lechner wore the sweater and Hill-Murray defeated the Bears 5-4 in the second sudden-death overtime.
“This is a gawd-awful sweater,†said Lechner, who is a bit more conservative in his game outfits. “But 2002 was the last time we made it to state, and three years tied the longest drought Hill-Murray has had without winning the section. IÂ’ve had so many phone calls from alumni, telling me about how much tradition weÂ’ve had, that I wore the sweater. Now I can put it back in the closet – at least until next yearÂ’s section final.Ââ€
Hill-MurrayÂ’s return was so stirring that nobody – from the referees, to the official scorer, to Lechner and some of the Pioneer players themselves, questioned the call that defenseman Derek McCallumÂ’s shot from the blue line had won the game. Only a few folks standing behind the Bear goal realized that Bryant Skarda deftly got his stick blade on the low shot and deflected it into the upper right corner. “I donÂ’t care if I get credit for it,†Skarda said, after acknowledging he deflected in the biggest goal of his life. “As long as we won the game.Ââ€
ThatÂ’s LechnerÂ’s one-for-all and all-for-one attitude at the Hill-Murray helm, just as it was his even-keel attitude 30-some years ago, when he was the goaltender at Cretin. Yes, Cretin-Derham Hall used to be just Cretin, just as Hill-Murray used to be just Hill, before merging with Archbishop Murray girls school, and Marshall School of Duluth used to be Duluth Cathedral, before moving up on the hill and being renamed after a significant donor.
Cretin-Derham Hall’s victory was reported as a shock because Cretin’s historic achievements in baseball and football have been so prominent they’ve overshadowed the school’s hockey past. That, and the “black hole” theory. Only people so naive about hockey are unaware that Cretin used to be a “Paradise” for hockey players, as the Paradise brothers — including NHL and hockey Hall of Fame resident Bob Paradise — led a group of skilled players to the St. Paul school.
“I graduated in 1971 from Cretin,†said Lechner. “We made it to the state independent tournament my junior year at Aldrich Arena, and my senior year at Duluth.Ââ€
If you probe the gracious and modest Lechner, whose first love was baseball, he will divulge his greatest moment in the Cretin nets. “We were playing St. Agnes in the section final to go to state,†he recalled. “Tom Younghans came in on a breakaway with a minute left in the third period. I stopped himÂ…or maybe he missed the net. Whatever, the puck didnÂ’t go in, and we son 3-2 to go to state. IÂ’d have been really scared if IÂ’d known what Tommy Younghans would become.Ââ€
Younghans went on to star at the University of Minnesota, and then with the Minnesota North Stars, where his always-hustling spirit won over the fans, and could be traced to his hockey roots.
“I played four years at St. Agnes, and we had good teams, but the only year we made it to the private school tournament was 1968, when I was a freshman,†said Younghans, who is trying to pull together a 30th anniversary reunion of his NCAA championship Gopher days. “We played Duluth Cathedral in the title game, and we lost. They had Pokey Trachsel, and Phil Hoene and Kevin Hoene. It’s funny, butnow I play senior men’s hockey with several Hoenes, and last fall we played against a Duluth team that had Pokey Trachsel on it.
“There were some great teams in the private schools back then, just as there are now, but unfortunately we werenÂ’t allowed to play in the public school tournament. Every year, back then, there were two or three teams that would have challenged for the overall state title.Ââ€
There were some outstanding teams in the Catholic and private school sectors then, and they’d prove their skill level against the top public schools throughout the regular season. Then, as the public schools started gearing up for their regional play – now called sectional – the private and Catholic teams would go into their own small domain and play each other. Wakota Arena in South St. Paul, where the first private tournaments were held until the tournament began alternating between Aldrich Arena and the Duluth Arena – now the DECC – may have lacked the size, scope and media attention of the “big tournament,†but it never lacked for emotion and passionate hockey.
Blake and Breck were the primary private schools, and both were impressive, with Jack Blatherwick coaching Breck, and Rod Anderson coaching such luminaries as Ric Schafer at Blake. St. Paul Academy, where Tommy Vannelli and Robin Larson led SPA to glory, and St. Thomas Academy came to prominence after those early years.
The private schools were good, but they were usually overmatched by Catholic schools such as St. Agnes with Younghans following Mike Mallinger, Jerry OÂ’Connor and Jim Morin, and Cretin with future pro hockey brothers Bob and Dick Paradise, faced decent teams from Rochester Lourdes, Fridley Grace, St. BernardÂ’s, Benilde, and St. Cloud Cathedral. But without question, the two major powers were Hill and Duluth Cathedral.
Duluth Cathedral, under the brilliant coaching touch of a real estate salesman named Del Genereau, wrote its own rules for practice. The team almost never practiced indoors, because Genereau believed shoveling and flooding the outdoor rink was not only good for conditioning but made the players appreciate their practice time, and facing the elements made for overload training and an easy transition to the smooth-sliding pucks of indoor games.
The 1967 Duluth Cathedral team remains encapsulated as the best team its fans will ever see in high school hockey. Phil Hoene, who later starred at UMD and with the Los Angeles Kings, centered Larry Trachsel and Dan Sivertson on the first line; Kevin Hoene, later a star and coach at Notre Dame, centered the second line, with Tom Paul, a future Harvard star, on one wing, and Tom Cartier, a prominent Duluth businessman these days, on the other. Mike Randolph, the East coach, was a ninth-grader who centered the third line. Pokey Trachsel, who still holds the UMD record for five goals in a single game, was a ninth-grader who led the defense.
“That one might have been the best, but we won the independent tournament the first five years it was held,†said Kevin Hoene, now a financial consultant in Duluth. “I played in four of those tournaments, two at Wakota and one at the Duluth Arena, and the Â’68 tournament at Aldrich. I remember Cretin had a great team, with the Paradise brothers and a lot of other good players, but St. BernardÂ’s upset them 4-3 in the semifinals when a goalie named Carl Swapinski made 51 saves to beat them at Wakota Arena. We were staying at the Golden Steer Motel, and we went out and after we beat St. BernardÂ’s 9-0 in the final, we thanked Cretin for softening them up.Ââ€
In the 1967 public school tournament, history was made because the string of three straight state championships by International Falls was snapped when Greenway of Coleraine won the title behind a sensational sophomore centerman named Mike Antonovich, and the Raiders beat a great Hibbing team, led by Bob Collyard, in the semifinals. Those two teams were probably the best two teams in the tournament. But Duluth Cathedral, which snapped the International Falls streak of 58 straight victories early in the season, beat both Greenway and Hibbing 4-1 that season, while going undefeated against all Minnesota challengers.
The game of the year in Duluth – and certainly among the greatest high school games in anybody’s history – came when Duluth Cathedral faced archrival Duluth East. The teams had tied earlier in the season, and the rematch was on a Wednesday night, at the Duluth Arena, with its 5,500 capacity. The game was on regional television, and it drew an overflow crowd of 6,122.
The tension was electrifying, and East, which had a half-dozen future Division I players in its lineup, led 4-2. Then Phil Hoene scored a goal to make it 4-3. On the ensuing faceoff, “Phantom Phil†sped in and scored again, 7 seconds later, and incredibly, he scored yet again, 20 seconds after that – a pure hat trick in 27 seconds, and Cathedral won 6-4.
“Cathedral had never beaten East until then, and East had won the state title a few years before that,†Kevin Hoene recalled. “We played six or seven teams that season that were rated No. 1 in the state when we played them, and we beat them all.
“When we moved up on the hill, into the new school, we built our own rink and it was almost Olympic width,†Hoene added. “We had a great guy named Bernie Pfeffer who kept up the ice. He build a thing with a sweeper on the front, and hot water tank at the back, and we called it a ‘Zambernie.Â’ Ââ€
Mike Randolph remembers also, of course.
“Pokey Trachsel was the only one who never picked up a shovel and never picked up a plow, but he had the keys to the Zambernie,†said Randolph. “HeÂ’d make me sit up front on the plow, then heÂ’d drive. WeÂ’d go up there and play seven days a week, on our own. Being on top of the hill, there would be some days with an unbelievable wind. At practice, weÂ’d flip to see who got to do the drills with the wind at their back.Ââ€
Randolph also remembers beating the stateÂ’s best public school teams. “We beat the public school tournament champion three of my four years,†said Randolph. “The only one we didnÂ’t beat was Edina, because we didnÂ’t play them the year they beat Warroad in the final. But that year, we went up to Warroad and beat them 3-2 – right in Warroad. IÂ’ll never forget it, because it was Pokey against Henry. We stayed overnight up there, and we couldnÂ’t believe that Henry had a key to the arena, the Warroad Gardens. He took us around and let us in there.Ââ€
Randolph has tried to transfer the Del Genereau coaching technique to his current East teams, where he has former teammate Larry Trachsel as assistant coach. “I remember one time Del came up to a kid named Mike Zeman and told him, ‘YouÂ’ll never make it as a defensemanÂ… why donÂ’t you try playing goal?Â’ †Randolph said. “He did, and we won state with him in goal.Ââ€
He also remembers some of the wry touches Genereau would use for maximum effect. Kevin HoeneÂ’s wingers were griping that their centerman wasnÂ’t moving the puck well enough. “So when Kevin went out on a line change for a faceoff, Del kept his wings on the bench,†Randolph recalled. “Kevin asked what was going on, and Del said, ‘We;;, youÂ’re not using them anyway, so I thought maybe you could play without them.Â’ Ââ€
Hoene didn’t remember that exact situation, but laughed and acknowledged it might well have happened. At any rate, as that Cathedral dynasty started to wane, Hill – and later Hill-Murray – was just emerging.
“We finally beat Cathedral at Aldrich after they had won five straight private tournament titles,†said Dick Spannbauer, a Hill defenseman and later a star for Herb Brooks with the Gophers. “We won the tournament in 1972 at Aldrich, but we had a great team the year before, in 1970 and 1971, too. We had Bob Young and Les aLarson on one defense pair, and I played with Greg Tauer on the other, with Langevin as fifth defenseman in 1970. The next year, it was Young and Larson on once set, and Langevin and me on the other.Ââ€
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Not bad defense for a college team. Young, who had a fantastic shot from the point, went to Denver University to play for Murray Armstrong, Larson went to Notre Dame and played with CathedralÂ’s Kevin Hoene, Langevin went to UMD, and later the New York Islanders, and Spannbauer was a giant defenseman who helped the Gophers win their first NCAA title ever. Langevin, of course, later was voted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, but for one season he was No. 5 on HillÂ’s defense.
“In 1971, we lost to Blake 4-2 in the tournament final in Duluth,†said Spannbauer. “We were 26-1-1 that year, and our only loss was to Blake, where Ric Schafer was their star.Ââ€
In those days, there were few if any accusations of recruiting, because there really wasnÂ’t the kind of temptations offered by the open enrollment and the high-powered neighboring programs of today.
“We were all from different little parishes, just like the Cretin guys were, or the St. Agnes or St. Bernard’s guys,†said Spannbauer. “We had Matt and Pat Conroy, Tim Whisler, Rick and Mike Belde, Joe Nelson, Fred Simon – a lot of guys who went on to play Division I college. But it was a foregone conclusion that the kids who went to the Catholic grade schools would be going to Catholic high schools. I was in the first graduyating class from Hill-Murray after they merged, and by my senior year, I think some guys might have started to trickle in to play hockey.
“But before, we were No. 1 in in some state polls, even though we were in the private tournament. We didnÂ’t have indoor ice, so our coach, Andre Beaulieu, would have us scrimmage all the time. WeÂ’d have standing room crowds for scrimmages against Edina out at Braemar.Ââ€
The Duluth Cathedral heydays also were built on respect, not recruiting. “In Duluth, you couldnÂ’t hop from one district to another,†said Hoene. “Our kids came from the different parishes. If you were Catholic, there was a good chance youÂ’d be going to Cathedral.Ââ€
Randolph said: “Cathedral was a Catholic school, and kids went there because of their familyÂ’s religious background. We knew we couldnÂ’t play in the public school hockey tournament, but we came to Cathedral for other reasons.Ââ€
The reasons have been blurred as the years passed. Mike (Lefty) Curran, star goaltender at International Falls, North Dakota, the Fighting Saints, and with the silver-medal-winning 1972 U.S. Olympic team, recalls those good old days in the 1950s and 60s.
“Cretin used to play International Falls every year,†Curran said. “Falls lost to Cretin in 1957, and came back to beat ‘em the next night, and that was a year Falls went on to win the state title (at 23-2). They had a couple of Paradises out here, and we knew how good they were. And of course, Cathedral ended the Falls streak after 58 straight wins.Ââ€
That, of course, was long before Bill Lechner played goalie for Cretin, and longer before Lechner pulled out that green and white striped sweater to help this yearÂ’s Hill-Murray make it back to state. Along with Cretin-Derham Hall, and Blake, and Marshall. Strong teams, with a heritage that now challenges the public schools, but which has roots that go far back to the days of the state independent tournament.
Badgers rip Gophers 4-1 for Women’s WCHA playoff title
MINNEAPOLIS, MN. — The University of Wisconsin womenÂ’s hockey team has been breaking down the tradition that the WCHA is a two-team league, a dominance created over the WCHAÂ’s first six seasons by Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth. The Badgers broke one barrier by winning the WCHA regular season title, and on Sunday, they broke through another one – whipping Minnesota 4-1 for the WCHA playoff championship.
“IÂ’m real excited for our players,†said WisconsinÂ’s coach-of-the-year Mark Johnson, whose Badgers lost a heartbreaker in the playoff final to Minnesota last year, after rallying for two goals in the final minute to tie the game 2-2. “Last year, we were very close, in a similar situation, but we were beaten in overtime. Any time you have the opportunity to win a championship, you go after it, and any time you do something for the first time, itÂ’s special.Ââ€
There is, of course, one further barricade up ahead. UMD won the first three NCAA women’s hockey championships, and Minnesota won the next two. All three teams – and the WCHA has at least become the “big three†by now – will enter the eight-team NCAA tournament starting this coming weekend. Wisconsin (33-4-1) will be at home against Mercyhurst on Saturday, Minnesota will be at home against Princeton on Friday, and UMD will be on the road at St. Lawrence Saturday.
The other NCAA pairing has Harvard at No. 1 ranked New Hampshire, with the four winners convening at Mariucci Arena for the NCAA WomenÂ’s Frozen Four.
Minnesota had won seven straight coming into the game, and even though the Gophers have now lost four out of five games to the Badgers, Gopher coach Laura Halldorson said she didnÂ’t think Wisconsin had a clear upper hand in the game. “Wisconsin has a very good team, and I congratulate them,†Halldorson said. “But the score was a little deceiving, because it didnÂ’t really feel like a 4-1 game. We outshot them 29-19, so we were really in the game.Ââ€
The Golden Gophers (27-10-1) had outshot UMD 39-21 while beating the Bulldogs 2-1 Saturday, and they outshot Wisconsin similarly, 21-11, on Sunday, but the Badgers handled the Ridder Arena crowd, announced as 1,012, and the shot-counter with the same poise they used to control the Gophers.
Wisconsin has a prominent offense, led by WCHA player of the year Sara Bauer, and it has a solid defense, led by Bobbi Jo Slusar, the WCHA defensive player of the year, and solid goaltending from senior Meghan Horras. Against the Gophers, the defensemen became offensive, scoring three of the four goals. The Badgers took a 2-1 lead in the first period, and resolutely added another goal in the second, and another in the third, while Bauer settled for three assists.
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Cyndy KenyonÂ’s goal at 5:14 of the first period was offset when MinnesotaÂ’s Allie Sanchez connect at 12:15. The Badgers reclaimed the lead when Slusar slid over to center-point and rifled a slap shot straight on from 55 feet past a screened Kim Hanlon. At that point, all three goals had come on power plays, and while Wisconsin was being outshot 15-5 at that moment, the Badgers led 2-1.
The pace was about even in the second period, although the Badgers killed their two penalties, and went ahead 3-1 when Emily Morris moved in deep from the blue line and smacked in a rebound even though she couldnÂ’t see the puck go in because a Minnesota defenseman was pretty well taking her out as she shot.
The Gophers needed a rally in the third period, but the Badgers held them to only five shots, and defenseman Meaghan Mikkelson strode in from the right point and scored from the top of the circle against relief goalie Brittony Chartier, who went in for the second and third periods after Hanlon twisted her ankle trying to prevent Nikki Burish from scoring at the right edge late in the first period.
While the Gophers solidified their home-ice spot in the NCAA with their victory over UMD, meaning the semifinal might have been the more important game of the weekend, but the players insisted it didn’t cause any letdown. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re playing one archrival in UMD or another in Wisconsin, mentally, when you’re playing for the championship, you go all out.
“Wisconsin moves the puck real well, and they banged a couple power-play goals in.Ââ€
Badger coach Johnson was a power-play specialist himself on NCAA championship Badger teams coached by his dad, Badger Bob Johnson, so he knows the importance of a successful power play.
“In the first period, Minnesota had more energy than we did, which didnÂ’t surprise me,†said Johnson. “TheyÂ’re in their own building, with their own fans, and they won a tough game against UMD. They had some good chances, and Meghan came up with the saves, and we came out of the first period ahead 2-1. At this time of the year, you look for your special teams to be pretty good.Ââ€
The Badgers were 3-for-6 on the power play, and held Minnesota to 1-for-4. That contributed to a huge haul the Badgers took back to Madison – coach of the year, player of the year, defensive player of the year, and a giant trophy for winning the WCHA playoff title.
Gopher women beat UMD 2-1 for more than semifinals
MINNEAPOLIS, MN. — The University of MinnesotaÂ’s semifinal victory Saturday gained far more than the right to face Wisconsin in SundayÂ’s WomensÂ’ WCHA playoff championship game. When the Golden Gophers slipped past archrival Minnesota-Duluth 2-1 in the second semifinal, the victory almost certainly clinched a home-ice berth for next weekendÂ’s NCAA quarterfinals as well.
Wisconsin, the leagueÂ’s top seed, sped past St. Cloud State 9-0, before the dramatic Gopher victory over UMD, which came when Janelle Philipczyk deflected Gigi MarvinÂ’s shot past Bulldog all-WCHA goaltender Riitta Schaublin with 3:55 left in the third period.
The goal came on a heads-up play by Philipczyk, a sophomore from Eagan High School, who was in traffic in the left circle when she saw Marvin – the WCHA freshman-of-the-year from Warroad, Minn. – about to gain possession. Philpczyk broke for the net, and surprisingly, no Bulldog skater went with her.
“When Gigi got to the puck, I yelled for her to shoot,†said Philpczyk.
Marvin, by coincidence, had been a playmaker who has been urged repeatedly to shoot more by coach Laura Halldorson. “I heard Jay (Philpczyk) yelling, ‘Shoot the puck!Â’ but my back was to the net as I got to the puck,†said Marvin. “There were a lot of people over there, so I just got the puck and shot.Ââ€
Philipczyk tipped the shot in, and coach Halldorson said, dryly, “IÂ’m glad she listened to her teammate.Ââ€
UMD had taken a 1-0 lead when Noemie Marin converted the rebound after Gopher goaltender Kim Hanlon blocked Jessica KoizumiÂ’s shot at 2:35 of the first period. The Badgers tied it on a power play at 7:56, when Ashley AlbrechtÂ’s shot was deflected in by Andrea Nichols.
That set up the playoff title matchup between the Gophers, at 27-9-1, against Wisconsin, 32-4-1.
“We havenÂ’t really thought about Wisconsin yet,†said Halldorson, right after the victory. “That was a strong UMD team we beat, and we needed great goaltending and a solid penalty-kill. WeÂ’re getting good penalty killing from players like Whitney Graft, Becky Wacker and Bobbi Ross.Ââ€
Coming into the WCHA semifinals, the Gophers and Bulldogs were virtually deadlocked for the season. A Minnesota sweep over North Dakota on the final regular-season weekend created a tie for second with UMD,, when the Bulldogs won and tied at Minnesota State-Mankato. The Gophers won the tie-breaker with one more victory to become No. 2 seed behind league champ and No. 1 seed Wisconsin.
The outcome also affected national pairwise rankings, where Wisconsin stood third, the Gophers fourth and UMD fifth, following New Hampshire and St. Lawrence at 1-2. The NCAA selection committee generally follows the pairwise to select its top eight, although match-ups attempt to not send league opponents against each other. So the chances are good that the top four teams in the pairwise will get home ice for the first round, while the next four highest-ranked teams will go on the road to oppose them in best-of-three pairings scheduled for announcement Sunday night.
The stakes for the semifinal, therefore, meant that a UMD victory would undoubtedly lift the Bulldogs ahead of the Gophers, not only into the league playoff final but into a top-four pairwise and a home-ice slot for the NCAA. The Gophers, meanwhile, needed a victory to secure that top four slot.
Wisconsin might have remained third even by losing to St. Cloud State in the first semifinal, but the Badgers took no chances, and took no prisoners by crushing St. Cloud StateÂ’s long-shot hopes for advancement with a 9-0 romp. Homestate senior Cyndy Kenyon scored four goals, and her center, Sara Bauer, had a goal and four assists.
Bauer, a junior from St. Catharines, Ontario, was named league most valuable player before the semifinals, and her 22 goals, 31 assists and 53 points have led the Badgers to a 32-4-1 record overall, after a 24-3-1 WCHA slate. St. Cloud State finished 18-18-1, after having swept UMD to ultimately cost the Bulldogs second place, and upsetting Wisconsin once in recent weeks.
The game started out scoreless, but at 13:33 of the first period Kenyon scored , and the Badgers were off and running, with freshman Jessie Vetter making 21 saves for the shutout. Junior goaltender Lauri St. Jacques, who had been St. Cloud State coach Jason LestebergÂ’s choice to play every game the last six weeks, after a seemingly successful alternating plan with sophomore Kendall Newell, was the victim of a flat performance by the Huskies, who were unable to contain the explosive Badgers. St. Jacques gave up five goals, and Newell, perhaps rusty from inactivity, yielded the last four.
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The UMD-Minnesota game was clearly the highlight of the semifinals, and Minnesota had a clearcut edge in play, outshooting the Bulldogs 39-21 – including 14-2 in the decisive third period. UMD coach Shannon Miller brushed the shot count aside, and said, “We had the puck in the offensive zone and set up good scoring opportunities for a lot of the first 10 minutes of the third period, but the shot count never moved.Ââ€
Miller said she was proud of her teamÂ’s hard work, and the difference was clearcut: “We were 0-for-5 on the power play, and they were 1-for-6. That was the difference.Ââ€
However, the Bulldogs had an amazing penchant for shooting directly into Gopher defenders time after time throughout the game, and if the Bulldog shot count was unfairly low, it seemed that the Gophers blocked far more than the eight third-period tries and 17 for the game – which meant Minnesota had nine shots blocked and 39 shots on goal, while UMD had 17 shots blocked and only 21 that got through to the net.
“I noticed that they were only given two shots in the third period,†said Minnesota freshman goaltender Kim Hanlon. “It seems like I noticed 20 times, at least, they wound up and shot. My teammates did a great job of blocking shots.Ââ€
Marin said: “TheyÂ’re good defensively, and it did seem that weÂ’d go right into them.Ââ€
Koizumi noted that she and her teammates seemed to wind up not getting to the net on their offensive attempts, despite being inspired by the televised Minnesota state high school boys hockey tournament games they had been watching. She said she didnÂ’t think the Gophers did anything better defensively in the game, compared to their regular-season games, in which Minnesota won 4-1 then lost 6-0 at Ridder Arena, and the Gophers lost 4-2 but rebounded to win 2-0 at Duluth.
“WeÂ’ve been watching a lot of high school games, and realized they seemed to shoot from anywhere and scored a lot of goals,†Koizumi said. “So we wanted to try to shoot a lot.Ââ€
Coach Miller knows that going home with a 22-8-3 record assures her Bulldogs of a spot in the NCAA pairings. “But IÂ’m sure weÂ’ll be on the road, too,†she said. “IÂ’m guessing weÂ’ll go somewhere like St. Lawrence. WeÂ’ve got another week to work on some new power-play things weÂ’ve put in. I know youÂ’ve got to work to create your own breaks, but we havenÂ’t gotten many bounces in the last few weeks.Ââ€
The bounces on Saturday were mostly off Gopher shinpads.
Hill-Murray favored in Class AA ‘Year of the Upset’
Sixty years ago, the Minnesota state high school hockey tournament was held for the first time, so naturally the eight teams in that 1946 tournament at the old Saint Paul Auditorium were “new†to the tournament. Amazingly, there has never been a year since then when at least one of the entries wasn’t a returnee from the previous year.
Until this year. All eight of last yearÂ’s Class AA section champions failed to repeat, some because of the usual ebb and flow of graduations, but many because this truly is the “Year of the Upset.Ââ€
In Class AA, upsets, ranging from mild to wild, knocked out top-ranked Holy Angels, Bloomington Jefferson, Eden Prairie, Duluth East, Cloquet-Esko-Carlton, White Bear Lake, Centennial and Elk River – all teams ranked among the top 10. Those eight, in fact, would make a fine state tournament on their own, but they’ll need tickets to see the tournament this time. All those teams are perennial powers, but Holy Angels, Jefferson, Eden Prairie, East, Elk River and Moorhead were among dethroned section champs from last year.
Hill-Murray did not win its section last year. In fact, the Pioneers had failed to reach the state for three straight years, tying the schoolÂ’s record for futility since private schools were allowed into the public tournament 31 years ago. The Pioneers, the team most of the public-school segment of the state used to love to hate, has risen above that animosity, particularly because any accusations that it could recruit players from anywhere have been washed away in recent years by a new private power at Holy Angels, and by rampant charges of recruiting via open enrollment at many public schools.
The Pioneers won a classic, double-overtime 5-4 victory over White Bear Lake for the Section 3 title, and loom as the favorite in Class AA. Two prolific scoring lines are impressive enough that many observers arenÂ’t sure which one is No. 1, and a poised defense with solid goaltending puts the Pioneers into the favoriteÂ’s role.
Actually, even if all the favorites had made it in other sections, Hill-Murray might rank as the favorite, because they enter the competition with a glittering 26-1-1 record. The tie was 3-3 against Holy Angels in a spectacular game for the No. 1 state rating, and, in the next game, the Pioneers lost to St. Thomas Academy for their only setback.
St. Thomas Academy, however, is no slouch. The Cadets, coached by former Gopher star Tom Vannelli, are 22-5-1, and one of the lower-bracket favorites in the Class A tournament, which starts Wednesday.
The same upset plague infected Class A, where top-ranked Marshall of Duluth made it, claims the immediate favoriteÂ’s role, and could, conceivably, wind up Saturday facing a neighborhood rival in Hermantown, a suburban Duluth school and also a top-rated team all season. Warroad, the annual pick to win Class A, played the Section 8 final at home, held a solid 2-0 lead over Thief River Falls in the third period, and yet the Prowlers came back to tie the game with two goals, then beat the Warriors in the fourth overtime to reach state.
St. Thomas Academy similarly looms as heavy favorite against Orono in the first night quarterfinal, which sends its winner against the northern survivor between Hermantown and Thief River Falls. Hermantown (25-3) had to take on the resident powers of Section 7, getting past perennial power Hibbing to make state. Thief River Falls, which makes its first trip to state after 50 years of reflecting on past domination. The Prowlers –perhaps the neatest nickname in high school sports – are 21-7 after upending Warroad in the Section 8 final, but one of those losses was to Hermantown. It wasn’t just a loss. It was 9-0. That type of scoring is pretty typical of the Hawks, who beat Greenway of Coleraine 11-1 and International Falls 7-1 in other Section 7 games.
Twin Cities power focused on private schools in Class A, but the crowd in Section 5 lumped them together. In Section 5, which produced five of the last seven state champs, Totino Grace upended top seeded Breck, but then lost to Blake in the final, so Blake enters the state tournament with a a 17-8-3 record to run smack into Marshall in WednesdayÂ’s quarterfinals.
At sectional time, Marshall moved to Section 2, where it had to win the final at BlaineÂ’s Fogerty Arena against Sauk Rapids to reach state at 26-1-1. Section 2 has never been a prominent state power, but Marshall gives it that glow. The Marshall-Blake winner rates as favorite to beat the first-game winner, where Little Falls, returning to the state along with Marshall and St. Thomas Academy, stands as solid favorite to beat Mankato East in the quarterfinals.
That winner is Class A upper-bracket favorite, and the Saturday final could find an all-Duluth-area championship game between Marshall and Hermantown. Marshall beat Hermantown during the season, but the Hilltoppers only loss all season was to Class AA power Cloquet, a team Hermantown shocked with a 6-2 upset.
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Picking a team from the opposite bracket to face Hill-Murray is more challenging, but two familiar names from recent years – Roseau and Grand Rapids – collide in Thursday’s final first-round game in a battle of Northern teams that could well produce the finalist. Roseau (24-4) marched into St. Cloud State’s National Hockey Center and knocked off Moorhead 4-0 in the Section 8 championship game, surprising many Twin Cities observers, but not Moorhead coach Dave Morinville, who had projected Roseau as his team’s primary challenge weeks ago.
Grand Rapids, on the other hand, came through Section 7, the Northeast Minnesota section that has produced the most legendary teams of years ago. The Thunderhawks, who used to be the Indians in their title-winning days of decades past, went from struggling in a fairly weak section brought down by dwindling enrollment, to winning a tough section rejuvenated by several new, as well as old, rivals. Elk River, a power from the Northwest suburbs of the Twin Cities, and a team most foes donÂ’t like to face, was sent off to join Section 7, where Brainerd, a Central Minnesota team, also was having its strongest year in hockey. That expanded the power structure of Section 7, where perennial powers Duluth East and Cloquet-Esko-Carlton both had strong entries.
After Cloquet defeated Brainerd, a big crowd in Duluth watched an outstanding semifinal doubleheader. It was classic, old-time Northern Minnesota hockey, as Cloquet’s 6-foot-8 senior defenseman Taylor Vichorek moved in from the right point and scored a goal 1:44 into the second period, and goaltender Reid Ellingson made it stand up for a 1-0 victory in a nail-biter against Duluth East. The Greyhounds, who, as usual, played the toughest schedule in the state, got fantastic goaltending from Ben Leis (30 saves to Ellingson’s 22), but the Lumberjacks prevented the ‘Hounds from threatening very often and settled the rivalry for the season, after they had split regular-season games.
In the second game, Elk River completely dominated Grand Rapids, taking a 2-0 lead while outshooting the Thunderhawks 15-5 in the first period. Only brilliant goaltending from Reidar Jensen – who was named after his grandfather, the legendary Reidar Lund, a former sports columnist at the Duluth News-Tribune – prevented the Elks from running up the score more than 2-0. When Grand Rapids came storming out in the second period, it seemed like only a temporary reprieve, because a goal by Jared Smith late in the period was the only Grand Rapids reward for a 24-4 edge in period shots.
It seemed inevitable that Elk River, having weathered the onslaught, would regain the momentum in the third period, but Grand Rapids surprised the Elks and never let them have it. Trevor Hicks got loose at the crease and tied the game 2-2 with a power-play goal midway through the third period, and Zach Moore broke for the right post and jammed in a perfect feed from Hicks with 3:32 remaining, and Grand Rapids had 3-2.
While many had figured East would play Elk River in the final, both were left at home when Grand Rapids found itself in a curious position in the final. Cloquet-Esko-Carlton loomed as the favorite, based on its victory over East, even though the Lumberjacks had lost twice to Grand Rapids during the season. Grand Rapids didnÂ’t figure it that way, of course, but it had to contend with elusive junior center Tyler Johnson, who scored twice in the first period to stake Cloquet to a 2-1 lead. Robert Maher had given the Thunderhawks a 1-0 lead, but Johnson scored at 6:59 and again with a power-play breakaway six seconds before the period ended.
Just as they had done against Elk River, however, the Thunderhawks showed great poise and talent as they came back for two goals in the second period. Jared Smith and Rob Roy scored 10 minutes apart to vault Grand Rapids from a 2-1 deficit to a 3-2 lead while outshooting the Lumberjacks 11-4 in the middle period. CloquetÂ’s Steve Mlodozyniec tied it 3-3 early in the third period, converting a goal-mouth pass from the ever-dangerous Johnson, but Zach Morse broke the tie at 12:10 for Grand Rapids, and Trevor Hicks notched the clinching goal at 16:08 and Rapids rode a 5-3 victory into the state tournament at 19-8.
“Roseau beat us in the last game of the season,†said Grand Rapids coach Bruce Larocque, after the Thunderhawks gained their first state trip in 15 years. But he didn’t sound worried. After what he just went through in Section 7, of course, getting there was at least half the fun.
The Class AA tournament opens with Blaine (23-4-1) featuring a high-scoiring offense that figures to be too much for Lakeville North (14-11-3). Impressive as BlaineÂ’s record is, it started out shaky, but a 21-game unbeaten surge has swept the Bengals into state.
Cretin-Derham Hall, which made its only predvious tournament trip in 1988, have a solid 24-4 record to face Eagan in the second upper-bracket game. Eagan (18-9-1) is in its first tournament, but to get there it needed to beat Apple Valley 2-1 after Apple Valley had shocked heavily favored, top-ranked, and defending section champion Holy Angels in the Section 5 tournament.
Hill-Murray overwhelmed Mounds View 6-0 and Roseville 5-1 before its double-overtime final victory over White Bear Lake, a game in which star defenseman Derek McCallum was credited with the winning goal from the point. Actually, winger Bryant Skarda skated past the congested goal-mouth and deflected the puck artfully in. “I got it with my stick blade,†Sakrda said. “It was right on the ice, and I deflected it into the upper corner. But I donÂ’t care if I didnÂ’t get credit for it, as long as we won the game.Ââ€
Minnetonka (18-9-1) ranks as a clear underdog against Hill-Murray, but the Skippers, reaching state for the first time in 12 years, had to beat a tough Chaska team 3-2, then upset Eden Prairie with a shocking 6-0 victory, and finally upset Bloomington Jefferson 3-2 to capture Section 6. Minnetonka had to play its best in all three games, but beating Hill-Murray will be its biggest hurdle yet.
In the final game, RoseauÂ’s 24-4 record stands above Grand RapidsÂ’s 19-8, but the Thunderhawks lost only one game in its last 12. That one, however, was 5-1 to Roseau to end the regular season.
Great storylines, an Xcel Energy Center wired with its own internal electricity, all in a neatly folded package. But the state tournament will unfold quickly and surprises could loom everywhere before SaturdayÂ’s champions are crowned.
Gophers claim, but don’t touch, MacNaughton Cup
From coach Don Lucia on down, the University of Minnesota hockey players frequently insisted they didn’t care about winning the WCHA regular-season championship. They had their focus set on a bigger prize – the NCAA title, of course.
If there was reason for the Gophers to give themselves the psychological benefit of a rationale for NOT winning the title, it would be because no Golden Gopher team in LuciaÂ’s first six years as coach won the league title, even though theyÂ’d previously won two WCHA playoff titles and two NCAA championships.
When it came to the WCHA regular season, the Gophers last shared the title with North Dakota in 1997, and the last time Minnesota won a WCHA title outright was in 1992 – 14 years ago. Ever since then, the Golden Gophers have had to explain why they DIDN’T win it, and that includes the 1997 finish, which was something of a bittersweet achievement. The Fighting Sioux had already clinched the WCHA title, hoisted the MacNaughton Cup, been granted the playoff top seed, and they obviously took the final weekend off and coasted through a pair of meaningless losses while looking ahead at the playoffs. Credit former Sioux coach Dean Blais for ignoring the “one game at a time†approach in his impatience to stockpile championships throughout his tenure.
This season, until a month ago it seemed that Wisconsin or Denver had a better chance to win the title, so the word around Mariucci was that the Gophers didnÂ’t really care all that much about it. Strangely enough, right about then Wisconsin lost its free-wheeling edge and struggled for much of the stretch run, and the Gophers swept Denver to knock the wheels off the Pioneer bandwagon. Minnesota, all the while, just kept on winning at a sizzling pace – losing just once in calendar 2006 — to run away with the crown.
Focus or not, when the Gophers were officially presented with the MacNaughton Cup at Mariucci Arena last Friday night, after shutting out Minnesota-Duluth for the first of two times. Instead of going properly crazy, the Golden Gophers treated the MacNaughton Cup like it might be infected with bird flu.
Captain Gino Guyer was all smiles as he accepted the Cup from WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod, but he didnÂ’t really raise the stunning and shapely silver chalice to the rafters, the way Wimbledon tennis champs, or Stanley Cup Playoff winners, do. He carried it, properly and respectfully, out to center ice, where he set it on the center faceoff spot while his teammates stood around on the circle. They stood at attention, tapped their sticks on the ice, and simultaneously raised them high, in a time-honored international salute that former coach Herb Brooks first started with the Gophers three decades earlier.
On one hand, it was a very tastefully restrained salute, and on the other, the Gophers didnÂ’t want to get within stickÂ’s reach of the thing. “We had talked it over, and the players all decided to minimize how much we touched it,†said Guyer. “I was just carrying out what the players decided to do.Ââ€
The Stanley Cup, which goes to the National Hockey LeagueÂ’s playoff champion, is undoubtedly the best-known trophy in hockey, if not all sports. Over the years, however, so many new bands have been added to incorporate all the names of all the winning teams, that Lord StanleyÂ’s once-splendid cup has grown taller and taller, and magnificent as it is, it looks a lot like a fire hydrant, or at least a silver garbage can with a big bowl on top.
By comparison, the MacNaughton Cup is a visi
on of splendor. It dates back to the WCHAÂ’s early years, when it originally was created by a Michigan Tech backer and donated to the Huskies, who later donated it to the WCHA, where it became the treasured signature of the regular season championship. It resides with great pride and circumstance in a trophy case at the winning school for the next year.
As the Gophers turn to the WCHA playoffs, and a series against 10th place Alaska-Anchorage this weekend, on the nationÂ’s longest winning streak (11-0-1), with a string of three straight shutouts, while giving up only six goals in their last six games, plus a WCHA record of 20-5-3 for 43 points, to runner-up DenverÂ’s 18-8-2 for 38 points, as well as an overall 25-6-2 mark that has earned the Gophers the No. 1 ranking in every national poll, including the pairwise projection that duplicates the NCAA selection committeeÂ’s seedings.
The series against UMD showed how far the Gophers have come this season. And maybe how far the Bulldogs have fallen. Back on Nov. 4-5, the Gophers were lucky to get a 2-2 tie at Duluth when GuyerÂ’s sprawling backhander produced the equalizer in the closing minutes. The next night, UMD handed the Gophers a 4-3 loss, and UMD looked more like the title contender than Minnesota.
Flash forward to March, and the Gophers are coming in like lions and the Bulldogs are the lambs. Minnesota is on an 18-1-1 run since being swept at home by Wisconsin on Dec. 2-3, while UMD seems powerless to stop a 1-13 skid, in which the Bulldogs have averaged barely over a half-goal a game, while giving up close to five a game.
“At the beginning of the year, I was definitely impressed at how UMD was playing,†said Guyer. “I really expected them to come out hard against us this weekend.Ââ€
Caught in what looks like a hopeless tailspin, UMD barely put up a fight against the one team that almost invariably gets their blood pumping. Minnesota won 7-0 the first game, getting two goals each from freshman Ryan Stoa and sophomore Evan Kaufmann, and one each from Mike Vannelli, Ben Gordon and Danny Irmen. Minnesota blew it open with four second-period goals, prompting UMD coach Scott Sandelin to say: “That second period really killed us.Ââ€
In reality, the first period was less than a masterpiece for UMD, which got off only one shot on goal in the 1-0 first period. That was only barely better than Alaska-Anchorage managed a week earlier in the second period against the Gophers, when the Seawolves got no shots – as in zero – which, for cynics, is believed to at least tie the all-time college hockey record for fewest shots in a period.
Goaltender Kellen Briggs got the first-game shutout for Minnesota, but he could have snoozed through most of it. Freshman Jeff Frazee, who’s been in and out of Lucia’s doghouse with “team rule violations†as much as he’s been in and out of the nets, got a 2-0 shutout in the second game. While UMD worked much harder in that one, the Bulldogs never mounted anything resembling a threatening offense, and the Gophers cruised to victory on Ryan Potulny’s first-period goal, and a late empty-netter, also by Potulny, who ended the regular season as the nation’s top goal-scorer with 31.
The only highlight for UMD was that little-used sophomore Nate Ziegelmann drew the short straw from Sandelin and tended goal in the second game, making 31 saves while allowing just one goal. Ziegelmann, who also played in a game at North Dakota during the earlier stages of UMDÂ’s no-offensive-support mode, is from Grand Forks, where he got to know Potulny up-close and personal.
“We were teammates since junior high,†said Potulny, who has emerged as a Hobey Baker Award favorite. “We also played at Lincoln in the USHL together.Ââ€
It was suggested to Potulny that in all those years playing with Ziegelmann also meant practicing against him, so Potulny must have shot 3,000 pucks past him. Potulny sidestepped that one the same way heÂ’d elude a checker, by saying: “Maybe, but heÂ’s stopped me 3,000 times, too.Ââ€
That’s probably the best ratio any goaltender has against Potulny, who is the offesnsive barometer for the Gophers. While the team defense snapped suddenly into focus after being swept by Wisconsin, Potulny’s scoring – 31 goals, 23 assists for 54 points – always signal success. Minnesota is 16-3-1 when Potulny scores a goal, and 24-3-1 when he gets either a goal or an assist.
Meanwhile, back at the MacNaughton Cup, sitting there at center ice. The best photo was of a half-dozen media photographers, who had ignored the once-fashionable idea they were taught in photo-journalism of not being obtrusive to get right up close in that circle with the Gophers – poised for the inevitable photos of the arena-circling hefting of the Cup. Instead, the players finished their stick salute and trooped off. Guyer stayed, but only to make sure some equipment guy would pick up the Cup. Then he, too, skated off the ice, leaving the photographers and television cameramen standing at center ice, alone with the MacNaughton Cup.
“DonÂ’t get me wrong, weÂ’re proud to have won it,†said Guyer. “But nobody else touched the Cup but me. WeÂ’re waiting for bigger things.Ââ€
Bigger things? If the Gophers win the NCAA title they will get a very nice, very tasteful plaque. Nothing like a big silver chalice, and certainly nothing like the MacNaughton Cup.
“I told the players to have fun with it, enjoy it,†said Lucia, with a shrug.
“We were only two games over .500 in December, and then we got going. Then we got into what looked like the top three, and then we were in the hunt. I just didnÂ’t want us to get consumed by that. We looked at a stretch of North Dakota, CC and Wisconsin right in a row in January, and I was thinking we might be doing well to go 3-3 in that stretch, but we went 5-1. That put us in good shape. But our guys were hungry to win the league at the end.Ââ€
Lucia hasn’t taken his, or his team’s focus off the NCAA prize, but he knows the importance of maintaining the momentum. “We want to win the first round, so we can play in that venue,†he said, referring to next week’s WCHA Final Five at Xcel Center.
WCHA rivals are already aware of the red-hot Gophers of course. Their added challenge is that after winning a WCHA regular-season championship they said they didn’t really care about, and virtually ignoring the magnificent MacNaughton Cup, now they enter the WCHA league playoffs – the NEXT objective the Gophers don’t care about winning. The Broadmoor Cup is another nice piece of silver the Gophers can salute, but respectfully ignore.
If there is any concern that the Gophers have “peaked too soon,†that’s a handy cliché if a team doesn’t go all the way. If they do, obviously they peaked early and maintained it. However, a month from now, if the Golden Gophers fall short in their bid for the national championship in Milwaukee, maybe they can arrange a post-season ceremony back home, where they can carry the MacNaughton Cup around Mariucci Arena. Just for themselves, their fans, and those photographers.
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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