Bulldogs look for new hockey success
By John Gilbert
Jack Connolly has been in too much of a hurry to stop and think about what UMD has accomplished during his time with the Bulldogs. But as the 2011-12 season began, there were a couple of lasting memories that were right near the surface of his consciousness.
First, he naturally recalls UMD’s first NCAA tournament championship, won last spring at Xcel Arena in St. Paul, when the Bulldogs beat Notre Dame 4-3 in the semifinals, then also beat Michigan 4-3, in overtime, for the title. His memories of Notre Dame are particularly significant, because that’s the team that will open UMD’s season Friday and Saturday at Amsoil Arena.
“Notre Dame plays a fast-paced game, and their two best players were freshmen,†said Connolly, after the Bulldogs opened with a 5-1 victory over Lakehead University from Thunder Bay. “They were a young team, and they return a lot of players, so we know we’ll get one of our toughest games right off. Fortunately, we came out on top when we played them at the tournament, and we’ll have to be ready to play our best against them.â€
Connolly also recalls his time as a freshman, when he came out of the USHL after his days of stardom at Marshall, and had to prove himself as a 5-foot-8 hustler in college hockey.
“As a freshman, you hear it a lot,†he said. “The seniors tell you to enjoy your time in college, because it goes quick. You don’t think about it much, but they were right.â€
That’s right, Connolly is a senior, and one of his biggest duties as captain will be to make sure the Bulldogs don’t spend too much time being full of themselves for their NCAA title run last season. “We have to be leaders and get the young guys headed in the right direction,†said Connolly, who always has been a leader by example on the ice.
Last season, Connolly centered Mike Connolly and Justin Fontaine on what was the nation’s top-scoring college line. Their play at full strength and on the power play was a vital factor in UMD’s success. Fontaine was senior, and signed with the Minnesota Wild. Mike Connolly, who was a junior, signed a pro offer from Anaheim. So Jack Connolly has new linemates for this season.
To start with, at least, he will play between fellow-senior Cody Danberg and sophomore J.T. Brown. Danberg injured his knee last season and was given the chance to return as a red-shirt senior this season. Brown had an impressive freshman season, capped by being named most valuable player at the Frozen Four. Brown sat out last weekend’s exhibition game for breaking team rules in an off-ice incident after last season. The line, however, shows great promise already, as does the second forward unit with Travis Oleksuk centering Dan DeLisle and Joe Basaraba.
Against Lakehead, a team that seemed more eager to run into UMD players and make the game ragged than to try to set up any shots — Connolly scored the first goal of the season on a power play, and after Lakehead tied it 1-1, Oleksuk set up a goal by Basaraba to end the first period, then scored power-play goals himself in the second and third. Adam Krause, a 6-foot-3 freshman from Hermantown, got his first collegiate goal to cap the victory. UMD outshot the Thunderwolves 28-9, and Lakehead’s ninth shot was a length-of-the-ice clearing try that happened to go on net.
Other impressive Bulldogs last weekend included David Grun, who ran over several foes with timely offensive-zone hits. And the goaltending appears a strong point, with Kenny Reiter and Aaron Crandall splitting the Lakehead game. Connolly, Danberg, Oleksuk, Grun, defensemen Brady Lamb and Scott Kishel, and Reiter are the seven seniors on the club.
After the severe test promised by Notre Dame next, the Bulldogs will welcome what is expected to be a much improved Minnesota team next week, making four playoff-quality games to start the regular season.
BULLDOGS FIND EXPLOSIVENESS
UMD football coach Bob Nielson said before last Saturday night’s game against Minnesota State-Moorhead that he thought this year’s Bulldogs would have to be a grind-it-out team, that may lack the offensive explosiveness of the past three seasons.
Then came Saturday night, and if you ask the visiting Dragons, UMD seemed plenty explosive. In what may have been the offense’s coming out party, the Bulldogs whipped MSU-Moorhead 49-21. Junior quqrterback Chase Vogler threw touchdown passes to Kris Olson and Joe Reichert in the first quarter, then threw another to Reichert in the second for a 21-0 halftime cushion.
The big question for UMD this season, however, is the running game, and who would step in as the big gun. After the top three running backs — all seniors — departed from the 15-0 championship run of a year ago, a trio of freshmen have filled in, and suddenly blossomed. The depth chart shows Austin Sikorski as first-team running back, Brian Lucas as second-team running back, and Zach Hulce as third-team.
Vogler, a dangerous runner when he’s not passing, was 17-21 for 204 yards and three touchdowns, and also ran seven times for 46 yards. Sikorski carried 12 times for 48 yards, and Lucas, who came in from the U.S. Army military prep school, carried 12 times for 112 yards and two touchdowns. In the second half, MSU-Moorhead kept rallying to threaten, and Nielson turned the offense over to hulce, who carried seven times for a game-leading 127 yards and a TD. Zach Zweifel, another freshman, playing wide receiver, caught six passes for 99 yards to lead a balanced group of eight receivers with at least one reception.
The Bulldogs miss the warm weekend weather in Duluth and travel to Winona for a game Saturday night, but they now stand 4-1 overall, and 3-1 in the Northern Sun. The Bulldog football team doesn’t return home until October 22, and by then the UMD volleyball team will have clinched the title and be aiming for national honors, while the UMD men and women will be well into their hockey season.
UMD WOMEN FACE BC
It has become traditional for UMD’s women to challenge for the WCHA and NCAA titles, and there are five NCAA banners waving from the rafters of Amsoil Arena to show for their first 11 years. But this year will be particularly challenging for the Bulldogs, who split two warm-up games with the Whitecaps, an amateur team comprised of former college standouts, last weekend. While the UMD men face Notre Dame at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, the UMD women have a serious opening series against a swift and potent Boston College team at 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
The challenge this season is that three players from the Swedish National team who were coming to UMD have been sidetracked. Eligibility issues prevented two of them from coming, while the third, Erica Gromm, is still planning to come but was stricken with a food-borne ailment over the summer that has caused her to face a lengthy recovery and she may not come to UMD until midseason, at best.
The loss of three such promising freshmen was particularly noticeable last weekend, when star senior Haley Irwin missed the two Whitecap games, and Jessica Wong, UMD’s sparkplug defenseman, returned from an injury to play at partial speed Friday before sitting out Saturday.
Still, UMD managed to wear down and beat the experienced Whitecaps in the first game, when Audrey Cournoyer scored in the first minute of the second period to tie the game 1-1, and Pernilla Winberg came through for the overtime winner in a 2-1 battle. Winberg pounced on the puck in the crease to score after Katie Wilson’s shot from the left edge hit the far post and landed on the goal line with 45 seconds remaining in the 5-minute overtime.
“We had a lot of scoring chances, and we’ll have to learn to put them away,†said Winberg. “But we have a lot of new players, and we did OK. We’ll only get better.â€
UMD had to come back from a 1-0 deficit to win the first game, but Jenny Potter, former UMD star, Olympic standout, and mother of two, scored the first goal and Erin Cody the second, and when UMD came back for a 2-2 tie on goals by Wilson and freshman Jenna McParland, the Whitecaps responded with two goals 31 seconds apart late in the second period, and Cody, former Bemidji State star, got her second to make it 5-2 before the Bulldogs got Wilson’s second goal of the night in a 5-3 setback.
Wilson centering Cournoyer and Winberg looks like UMD’s top line, regardless of when Irwin returns. Wilson, who has spent three seasons being a strong player but in the shadows of some outstanding Swedish players, now gets the chance to step into a leadership role on the scoreboard as well as with her experience.
Goaltender Jennifer Harss, captain Kacy Ambroz, and defenseman Mariia Posa are the only seniors on the team. UMD outshot the Whitecaps 42-29 in the first game, but Sanya Sandahl, a Duluth Central grad who played at Cornell, was outstanding in goal.
Wilson said she knows the Bulldogs are in for a stiff test against Boston College. “The last time we played BC was in my freshman year,†Wilson said. “They’ve improved, and they went to the Frozen Four last year.â€
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About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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