UMD one away from national championship
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.—Maria Rooth had been the best player on the Mariucci Arena ice for two periods Friday night, but there was nothing on the statistical report to show for it. That changed in the third period, as Rooth scored three goals amid a five-goal flurry that carried the Bulldogs to a 6-3 victory over Harvard in the women’s NCAA hockey tournament semifinals.
The Bulldogs (27-5-4) move into Sunday’s 4 p.m. first women’s NCAA championship game against St. Lawrence, a 3-1 upset winner over top-ranked Dartmouth in the first semifinal. Harvard (23-10) will face ECAC arch-rival Dartmouth in the 1 p.m. third-place game.
The impact may not have hit the Twin Ports yet, but by winning one more hockey game, on Sunday, the second-year UMD women could bring the first Division I national championship trophy home to Duluth.
UMD’s No. 2 ranked Bulldogs and the No. 3 Crimson put on a classic display of what might be the two most individually skilled teams in the nation. Harvard had Jennifer Botterill and Tammy Shewchuk, stars of the Canadian national team, while UMD countered with Finnish national stars Tuula Puputti in goal, Hanne Sikio and Sanna Peura and defenseman Satu Kiipeli, and Swedish national stars Rooth and Erika Holst.
Both teams also have so much more, starting with team chemistry, heart and character that shows up whenever things get tough. But after it was done, and Rooth notched her three goals and one assist, UMD coach Shannon Miller had a simple declaration.
“I happen to believe Maria Rooth is the best player in women’s college hockey,” said Miller. “Bar none.”
Miller called Rooth and her linemates, Joanne Eustace and Laurie Alexander, aside before the third period and told them she was matching them up against Botterill’s line, power for power, and it was time for them to step up and prove they were better. The startling goal explosion at the start of the third period might be what Miller had in mind, but it caught the 2,099 fans by surprise.
Rooth broke in, veered to the right to elude a defender, and flung a hard backhander at the goal. Jessica Ruddock, Harvard’s outstanding freshman, blocked it, but Holst rammed in the rebound for a 2-1 UMD lead at 1:18. At 2:51, Eustace passed behind the net to Alexander, who relayed a pass out front. Eustace got a piece of it, but Rooth got the rest, wedging her 38th goal through Ruddock and it was suddenly 3-1. At 3:46, the goal-a-minute Bulldogs struck again, as Peura broke in from the left and lofted a perfect, saucer pass that landed where Sikio could one-time her 33rd goal into the net and it was 4-1, as the Bulldogs outshot the Crimson 6-0 in those opening four minutes.
At 7:52, Rooth looped into the Harvard zone and intercepted an outlet pass attempt, sweeping in alone and beating Ruddock at the right post after a shift to her backhand. But at 5-1, it wasn’t over.
Harvard’s grit went on display as Botterill followed her own blocked shot to the net and was in perfect position to score when Shewchuk picked off the blocked puck and fed it to the crease at 10:55. At 12:16, Shewchuk blocked the puck free herself and shot, then followed to the net, chopping and smacking at the puck until she knocked it in, and the seeming runaway was 5-3.
The Bulldogs regained their composure and Puputti got things back in control after that, but it stayed 5-3 until 1:02 remained, and then Rooth got her stick on another puck and finished her hat trick with a decisive clinching goal.
“Our goalie is downstairs and feels bad,” said Harvard coach Katey Stone. “But I’m so proud of her. She battled to the end.”
Based on the Bulldogs tingling last-minute 4-3 victory and a 5-2 sweep over Harvard in December, there was no reason to expect either a goaltending duel or a shootout. What should have been more unpredictable, of course, was that the teams would display both extremes, in the same game.
“We lost to a real good team,” said Harvard coach Katey Stone. “We were better than we were in December, and I think it showed in our effort and our relentless belief that we were going to come back.”
The teams dueled through a close-checking, chess-like first period, 0-0, with Puputti making 13 saves and Ruddock kicking out 11. It was more of the same in the second period, although UMD gained a 1-0 lead on the game’s first power play, when freshman Peura broke up the left side and simply blew a 35-foot slapshot past Ruddock and into the upper right corner at 2:38.
The lead lasted 15 minutes, but before the second period ended, Harvard got the game’s second power play and capitalized immediately for a 1-1 tie when Shewchuk deflected Tara Dunn’s low shot from the right point into the upper right corner past Puputti. Again the goalies were in charge, as Puputti made 12 more saves and Ruddock 9.
Ruddock finished with 31 and Puputti 28 as the Bulldogs went on a 15-5 shooting rampage to blow the tight 1-1 game to bits in the third period, but it was still a classic.
“I love to play these kinds of games,” said Botterill. “To play in this type of situation, a big game, with a lot of talented players on both teams. I would have liked a different outcome, but that doesn’t mean I love the game any less.”
As she said the words, Botterill’s voice cracked, and the tears came, but she never hesitated to complete her sentence.
ST. LAWRENCE 3
DARTMOUTH 1
The first upset in the history of the NCAA women’s hockey tournament didn’t occur until the first game of the first-ever tournament, as St. Lawrence stunned No. 1 rated Dartmouth with three first-period goals, then rode Rachel Barrie’s goaltending and a smart, poised attack to a 3-1 victory in the first semifinal, at Mariucci Arena.
St. Lawrence, which was crushed 7-1 by Harvard in last weekend’s ECAC tournament semifinals, takes a 24-7-3 into Sunday’s 4 p.m. championship game, while Dartmouth (26-4-4) will play for third place.
Suzanne Fiacco skated up the right side and sent a medium-speed flip toward the goal from the top of the right faceoff circle after 4:34 elapsed in the first period, and goaltender Amy Ferguson — the star of last weekend’s 3-1 Dartmouth playoff final victory over Harvard — missed the deceptive but unscreened shot, which caromed in off the far pipe.
A minute later, on the power play, Chera Marshall scored for a 2-0 lead. Trisha Powers chased a rebound past the net on the left, and deftly backhanded the puck to the crease for Marshall’s goal at 5:45. Correne Bredin, who had been penalized for the first power play goal, was in the box again late in the period, and Jessica Wilson circled out from behind the net to stuff a wraparound goal in at the left pipe at 18:47.
Barrie, who made 31 saves, gave up only a shorthanded goal by Carly Haggard, who skated in on a breakaway and wound up tripped and following the puck into the goal with 4:19 remaining in the third period.
“We wanted a chance to redeem ourselves after we were beaten 7-1 last weekend,” said St. Lawrence coach Paul Flanagan, whose team had tied 1-1 and lost 5-3 in regular-season games against the Big Green.
Dartmouth coach Judy Oberting said: “We never knew if we were flat, or if we were forced flat, because we ran into a team on fire. St. Lawrence did a phenomenal job.”
UMD wins national title
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.—Ten years from nowÂ…20 years from now, whenever somebody buys a program for the NCAA women’s hockey tournament and looks up the page that lists all the NCAA national champions, the first name at the top of the list will always be: University of Minnesota-Duluth.
The UMD Bulldogs spotted St. Lawrence an opening power-play goal, then responded with four unanswered goals over the next two periods to beat the Saints 4-2 and win the championship trophy of the first NCAA national women’s hockey tournament. UMD finishes 28-5-4, while St. Lawrence is 24-8-3.
While only in its second year of existence, the UMD women’s team also brought to UMD its first-ever national championship, and in a Division I sport, at that.
It was entirely fitting that Jenny Hempel, who was placed at center on the third line to give UMD a credible three-line attack, scored late in the first period to get the Bulldog offense untracked. Then UMD scoring stars Maria Rooth and Hanne Sikio made it 3-1 with goals early and late in the second period. Laurie Alexander, another unsung worker-bee in the UMD structure, scored on Rooth’s rebound early in the third period to put the game away at 4-1.
It was then, and only then, that the Bulldogs refused to do coach Shannon Miller’s bidding. She wanted them to keep skating and attacking, but the magnitude of the moment seemed to overwhelm the Bulldogs, and they backed off, retreating defensively instead of pressing the attack.
Thanks to Tuula Puputti’s brilliant goaltending, and the willing team defense to block out St. Lawrence attackers, it didn’t really matter. The only goal the cautious lapse allowed was Isabelle Chartrand’s skipping shot from the right point on a last-minute power play.
“Obviously I’m very proud of what we accomplished, as a second-year team,” said Miller, after she got doused with the water bucket while being carried around the Mariucci Arena rink by Sikio and Erika Holst. “We have some very talented individuals, but we really won this as a team.”
St. Lawrence, which had upset No. 1 ranked Dartmouth 3-1 in Friday’s semifinals, while UMD took out No. 3 Harvard 6-3, skated hard to go toe-to-toe with the Bulldogs through the first period. Midway through the period, Hempel responded to being cross-checked and drew a penalty, and on the power play, Amanda Sargeant carried in from the left boards, unchecked, and waited until Puputti went down before snapping her shot that bulged the roof of the net at 11:22.
“I was screened for a while, and I went down, but she’s a good player and made a good shot,” said Puputti, who hesitated to say that this weekend was her best goaltending. “At least it was good enough. I haven’t had my perfect game yet.”
Miller reinforced her star sophomore goalie’s status. “This was the best Tuula has played this year.”
The Saints were swarming, trying to go for a duplicate of the 3-0 first-period lead they’d established against Dartmouth, but Puputti stopped 11 shots in the first period, and UMD came back. It was the third line’s turn, with a faceoff in the left corner of the Saints zone. Hempel won the draw and broke to the net.
“I got the faceoff back to Navada Russel,” Hempel said. “I slid off my check and hustled to the net. The goalie made the save on Navada, and I shot at it, but she stopped that, too. I got another try, and it went in. It felt so good — what a relief!”
“Our third line was tremendous, going back to Friday, when we needed them most,” said Miller. “And Jenny Hempel was a warrior all weekend. She was pretty proud after she got that goal, and that line played so well I kept playing them regularly, all night.”
It was still tense in the second period, although, as usual, the Bulldogs responded to an offensive spark, this time Hempel’s. At 5:36 of the second period, Rooth — who had a hat trick Friday and was named tournament MVP with four goals and two assists in two games — swept across center ice and broke up the slot, pulling the puck to the left and stuffing her 41st goal between goalie Rachel Barrie’s legs for a 2-1 UMD lead.
Rooth, who seemed to have scoring chances every shift, said, “I hoped it would just be a matter of time.”
The Bulldog segment of the crowd of 3,079 and the lively UMD pep band celebrated, and the Bulldogs were off and running. But Barrie, a left-handed goaltender, which means she wears her catching glove on her right hand, came up with most of the chances as UMD outshot the Saints 13-2 in the middle period. It wasn’t until 16:05 that the ‘Dogs scored again, this time when freshman Sanna Peura wedged the puck out off the right boards and Sikio broke for the pass, snapping a low shot through Barrie’s pads for her 34th of the season.
Five minutes into the third period, Rooth came into the zone just in time to pick off a careless outlet pass, and she rushed in but had her shot blocked by Barrie. Alexander, however, banged the rebound in at 5:22, and the Bulldogs were in command.
“I kept telling the players to keep going, but I couldn’t get them to,” said Miller afterward. “You know that’s not my style.”
While the Bulldogs wound up outshooting St. Lawrence 35-31 for the game, they let the Saints have a 17-8 edge in the third period, which made for a strong finish with Navada Russell taking a penalty and St. Lawrence coach Paul Flanagan pulling Barrie for an extra skater with 1:30 left. Freshman Gina Kingsbury, who was the Saints most dynamic player all weekend, got the puck out to the right point and Chartrand walked in and fired a shot that skipped once through traffic and found the net.
But only 54 seconds remained and the Bulldogs weren’t about to let this historic opportunity slip away.
“I couldn’t be prouder of my team,” said St. Lawrence coach Paul Flanagan, who, like Miller, is only in his second year. “We were picked for sixth in the ECAC at the start of the season, and for us to come this far, to this game, makes quite a statement for our program. Congratulations to Duluth, they are a very worthy champion. They did a great job from start to finish, and they were very well-coached and well-prepared for us.
“We had hoped to create a forecheck, so we could use our strength, which is cycling the puck low. But they did a great job of taking that away from us.”
ROOTH, PUPUTTI, RALPH
MAKE ALL-TOURNAMENT
Maria Rooth was most valuable player and a member of the all-tournament team, where she was joined by teammates Tuula Puputti in goal and Brittny Ralph on defense. St. Lawrence forward Amanda Sargeant and defenseman Isabelle Chartrand also made the team, which was rounded out by forward Tammy Shewchuk of Harvard.
HARVARD 3,
DARTMOUTH 2
Harvard got two goals from Kalen Ingram in support of Tammy Shewchuk’s first-minute tally and the Crimson went on to defeat Dartmouth 3-2 in a lively third-place game of the NCAA women’s hockey tournament. The two Ivy League rivals shook off the disappointment of Friday’s semifinal losses and went at each other aggressively.
When it was over, Harvard, which came into the weekend ranked No. 3, dealt the second straight loss to Dartmouth, which had come in after riding the No. 1 slot virtually all season. The Crimson wind up 24-10, Dartmouth 26-5-1.
“This was a typical Harvard-Dartmouth game,” said Dartmouth coach Judy Oberting. “We have a great rivalry. The loss doesn’t hurt as much as Friday’s. Also, it’s the end for six players, which hurts a lot more than losing a game that was so hard-fought.”
Shewchuk’s goal off an Ingram pass at 1:00 was offset when Kristina Guarinolo tied it at 16:34, but Ingram scored from amid a pile of bodies at the Dartmouth goal at 17:18 to leave Harvard up 2-1 at intermission. Carly Haggard tied it for the feisty Dartmouth team on a goal-crashing rush at 6:20 of the second period, but Ingram scored with Laura McAuliffe’s 3-on-2 pass at 16:11. From there on, Harvard goalie Jessica Ruddick outshined Meaghan Cahill of Dartmouth to hold the lead through a scorelee third period.
An interesting feature of the game was that Jennifer Botterill, who Saturday night was named Patty Kazmeier Award winner as the best player in women’s college hockey, was held without a point for the first time in her college career — an 80-game streak snapped. But the junior winger did it with typical style. With Cahill pulled for a sixth Dartmouth attacker, Botterill got the puck on the right boards at center ice and five seconds remaining. She could have shot for the empty net, but instead she just kept the puck along the boards until the buzzer. Harvard didn’t need another goal, and obviously the individual streak meant nothing to Botterill.
Rooth’s hat trick in 5-goal 3rd period leads UMD past Harvard 6-3
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.—Maria Rooth had been the best player on the Mariucci Arena ice for two periods Friday night, but there was nothing on the statistical report to show for it. That changed in the third period, as Rooth scored three goals amid a five-goal flurry that carried the Bulldogs to a 6-3 victory over Harvard in the women’s NCAA hockey tournament semifinals.
The Bulldogs (27-5-4) move into Sunday’s 4 p.m. first women’s NCAA championship game against St. Lawrence, a 3-1 upset winner over top-ranked Dartmouth in the first semifinal. Harvard (23-10) will face ECAC arch-rival Dartmouth in the 1 p.m. third-place game.
The impact may not have hit the Twin Ports yet, but by winning one more hockey game, on Sunday, the second-year UMD women could bring the first Division I national championship trophy home to Duluth.
UMD’s No. 2 ranked Bulldogs and the No. 3 Crimson put on a classic display of what might be the two most individually skilled teams in the nation. Harvard had Jennifer Botterill and Tammy Shewchuk, stars of the Canadian national team, while UMD countered with Finnish national stars Tuula Puputti in goal, Hanne Sikio and Sanna Peura and defenseman Satu Kiipeli, and Swedish national stars Rooth and Erika Holst.
Both teams also have so much more, starting with team chemistry, heart and character that shows up whenever things get tough. But after it was done, and Rooth notched her three goals and one assist, UMD coach Shannon Miller had a simple declaration.
“I happen to believe Maria Rooth is the best player in women’s college hockey,” said Miller. “Bar none.”
Miller called Rooth and her linemates, Joanne Eustace and Laurie Alexander, aside before the third period and told them she was matching them up against Botterill’s line, power for power, and it was time for them to step up and prove they were better. The startling goal explosion at the start of the third period might be what Miller had in mind, but it caught the 2,099 fans by surprise.
Rooth broke in, veered to the right to elude a defender, and flung a hard backhander at the goal. Jessica Ruddock, Harvard’s outstanding freshman, blocked it, but Holst rammed in the rebound for a 2-1 UMD lead at 1:18. At 2:51, Eustace passed behind the net to Alexander, who relayed a pass out front. Eustace got a piece of it, but Rooth got the rest, wedging her 38th goal through Ruddock and it was suddenly 3-1. At 3:46, the goal-a-minute Bulldogs struck again, as Peura broke in from the left and lofted a perfect, saucer pass that landed where Sikio could one-time her 33rd goal into the net and it was 4-1, as the Bulldogs outshot the Crimson 6-0 in those opening four minutes.
At 7:52, Rooth looped into the Harvard zone and intercepted an outlet pass attempt, sweeping in alone and beating Ruddock at the right post after a shift to her backhand. But at 5-1, it wasn’t over.
Harvard’s grit went on display as Botterill followed her own blocked shot to the net and was in perfect position to score when Shewchuk picked off the blocked puck and fed it to the crease at 10:55. At 12:16, Shewchuk blocked the puck free herself and shot, then followed to the net, chopping and smacking at the puck until she knocked it in, and the seeming runaway was 5-3.
The Bulldogs regained their composure and Puputti got things back in control after that, but it stayed 5-3 until 1:02 remained, and then Rooth got her stick on another puck and finished her hat trick with a decisive clinching goal.
“Our goalie is downstairs and feels bad,” said Harvard coach Katey Stone. “But I’m so proud of her. She battled to the end.”
Based on the Bulldogs tingling last-minute 4-3 victory and a 5-2 sweep over Harvard in December, there was no reason to expect either a goaltending duel or a shootout. What should have been more unpredictable, of course, was that the teams would display both extremes, in the same game.
“We lost to a real good team,” said Harvard coach Katey Stone. “We were better than we were in December, and I think it showed in our effort and our relentless belief that we were going to come back.”
The teams dueled through a close-checking, chess-like first period, 0-0, with Puputti making 13 saves and Ruddock kicking out 11. It was more of the same in the second period, although UMD gained a 1-0 lead on the game’s first power play, when freshman Peura broke up the left side and simply blew a 35-foot slapshot past Ruddock and into the upper right corner at 2:38.
The lead lasted 15 minutes, but before the second period ended, Harvard got the game’s second power play and capitalized immediately for a 1-1 tie when Shewchuk deflected Tara Dunn’s low shot from the right point into the upper right corner past Puputti. Again the goalies were in charge, as Puputti made 12 more saves and Ruddock 9.
Ruddock finished with 31 and Puputti 28 as the Bulldogs went on a 15-5 shooting rampage to blow the tight 1-1 game to bits in the third period, but it was still a classic.
“I love to play these kinds of games,” said Botterill. “To play in this type of situation, a big game, with a lot of talented players on both teams. I would have liked a different outcome, but that doesn’t mean I love the game any less.”
As she said the words, Botterill’s voice cracked, and the tears came, but she never hesitated to complete her sentence.
ST. LAWRENCE 3
DARTMOUTH 1
The first upset in the history of the NCAA women’s hockey tournament didn’t occur until the first game of the first-ever tournament, as St. Lawrence stunned No. 1 rated Dartmouth with three first-period goals, then rode Rachel Barrie’s goaltending and a smart, poised attack to a 3-1 victory in the first semifinal, at Mariucci Arena.
St. Lawrence, which was crushed 7-1 by Harvard in last weekend’s ECAC tournament semifinals, takes a 24-7-3 into Sunday’s 4 p.m. championship game, while Dartmouth (26-4-4) will play for third place.
Suzanne Fiacco skated up the right side and sent a medium-speed flip toward the goal from the top of the right faceoff circle after 4:34 elapsed in the first period, and goaltender Amy Ferguson — the star of last weekend’s 3-1 Dartmouth playoff final victory over Harvard — missed the deceptive but unscreened shot, which caromed in off the far pipe.
A minute later, on the power play, Chera Marshall scored for a 2-0 lead. Trisha Powers chased a rebound past the net on the left, and deftly backhanded the puck to the crease for Marshall’s goal at 5:45. Correne Bredin, who had been penalized for the first power play goal, was in the box again late in the period, and Jessica Wilson circled out from behind the net to stuff a wraparound goal in at the left pipe at 18:47.
Barrie, who made 31 saves, gave up only a shorthanded goal by Carly Haggard, who skated in on a breakaway and wound up tripped and following the puck into the goal with 4:19 remaining in the third period.
“We wanted a chance to redeem ourselves after we were beaten 7-1 last weekend,” said St. Lawrence coach Paul Flanagan, whose team had tied 1-1 and lost 5-3 in regular-season games against the Big Green.
Dartmouth coach Judy Oberting said: “We never knew if we were flat, or if we were forced flat, because we ran into a team on fire. St. Lawrence did a phenomenal job.”
Rickert’s 37, poise of supporting cast, puts East in AAAA final
SAINT PAUL, MINN.—The secret is out. Rick Rickert is not only focused on basketball every waking hour, but apparently he’s also consumed by basketball even when he’s sleeping. Regardless of whether it was osmosis, supersition or gimmick, credit Duluth East’s 58-56 victory over defending Class AAAA state champion Tartan to Rickert, who scorched the Xcel Energy Center nets for 37 points Thursday to lead the Greyhounds into the state basketball tournament final.
The Greyhounds (24-5) overcame some effective full-court pressure to subdue Tartan (26-3), and moves into Saturday night’s 8:30 p.m. championship game against Osseo (28-1), which presents the opposite challenge — a high-tempo, run-and-gun outfit that scored 49 second-half points to beat Cretin-Derham Hall 88-82 in the other semifinal.
Tartan couldn’t find any way to stop Rickert, and Osseo faces the same problem, even if the Orioles know about Rickert’s secret. On the eve of the Tartan semifinal, coach Bob Kunze had no choice but to yield to his 6-foot-10 star senior center’s desire. “We had to get a basketball out of the bus because Rick wanted to sleep with it,” said Kunze.
Rickert was a bit sheepish about the disclosure. He wanted to have the ball in his hotel room, to hold, squeeze, flip, fondle and just have within the grasp of his huge hands. And since East’s state championship fortunes also are in those hands, Kunze fetched the ball the Greyhounds used in their quarterfinal victory against Irondale.
“Yes, I did sleep with it,” Rickert said. “I’ve slept with a ball beforeÂ…for quite a while, actually.”
If that’s the secret to Rickert’s success, the Greyhounds had better guard his door to make sure nobody wearing Osseo black and orange kidnaps Rickert’s “main squeeze.”
Tartan star Erik Crawford scored 20 points but also was run ragged, as he was assigned to Rickert man-to-man, with the rest of the Titan squad collapsing to help whenever Rickert got the ball. Despite the constant attention, Rickert scored East’s first 11 points in the first quarter, the first five in both the second and third quarters, and after Ben Grams opened the fourth quarter with a layup, Rickert scored his team’s next 13 points.
It took more than that to put away the Titans, but there is no question: Rick Rickert IS the Duluth East basketball team. There are those who think Rickert gets too much publicity, and too much of the spotlight, but it seems his teammates don’t want it any other way.
Ask guard Ryan Crain or forward Greg Anderson, who had pivotal roles in the victory. Anderson hit a couple of vital three-point shots to boost the ‘Hounds to leads that reached 21-11 and 24-13 in the second quarter, and wound up with 14 points in a vital supporting role. When Tartan switched to a full-court press to close the gap to 28-26 by halftime, Crain made five of the ‘Hounds repeated turnovers, but he came back to get the ball up the floor in the second half. And when Tartan threatened to overtake the Greyhounds in the final minute, closing to 54-51, Crain and Anderson who each hit two pressure free throws for East’s final four points to secure the victory.
“I’ve dreamt about the chance to play at state many times, but I really don’t like doing interviews; I don’t do them well, and Rick handles them so well,” said Anderson, a 6-foot-6 junior. “I really wasn’t nervous once we got started on the floor, though. I had to hit those threes, because Rick passed me the ball, and I wanted to get him assists. He likes assists. When we’re watching tape, if I miss a shot that costs him an assist, I’ll hear about it.
“When their defense started doubling him, when I hit those threes, they couldn’t double him as much.”
Crain, a 5-9 junior guard, persevered to counter Tartan’s press. “It didn’t look pretty, but we got through it,” he said. “Then they hit some threes. They just started jacking ’em up, and they kept making ’em.”
Crawford hit three threes among his 20, and Gameli Ahelegbe got 15 and Chris Fitch 12, as the Titans caught up at 36-36 and 38-all, and stayed within range at 42-41 and 45-44 in the fourth quarter. Rickert, who was 10-for-16 from the floor, missed the first free throw he tried but wound up 15-for-17 from the line to rebuild the lead to 52-49. It was then that Crain was fouled and he missed both shots — his first two free throws in the game — with 2 minutes left. “After I missed those first two, I got down on myself,” said Crain. “But I thought about Rick’s dad, who always said worry about the stroke, not about whether it goes in.”
Rickert came back with two free throws, and it was 54-51 when Crawford fouled Crain with 36.5 seconds left. “I told Ryan, ‘You missed those first two free throws, but it’s done. Make the next two and I won’t say anything,’ ” said Rickert.
Crain calmly drilled both free throws, boosting the lead to 56-51. Crawford, however, came right back and hit a 3-pointer to make it 56-54 with 30 seconds to go. The Titans fouled Anderson, who walked to the line with 19.6 seconds to go. He also swished both shots, and East led 58-54. After Tartan missed a couple of shots, Chris Fitch scored on a follow-up to cut it to 58-56, but only two seconds remained. A high, lob pass-in was caught by Rickert near the sideline, and it was over.
“It was a great game, back and forth, and Erik Crawford played great defense,” said Rickert. “I did what I could.”
Crawford, reclining in the training room after his teammates had dressed and left, acknowledged congratulations for trying to cope with Rickert. “I’m 6-4, and he’s 6 inches taller than I am,” said Crawford. “And that’s 6 inches plus his arms. He’s got nice hands for a big guy. We scored some threes, but that match-up zone was tough. We’d never faced anything like that before.”
Kunze praised his whole team. “We lost our composure a little in the second quarter,” he said. “But Ryan Crain came through again and got the ball downcourt. Yes, it’s accurate to say we’re a 1-man team, but other guys, like Greg Anderson, and Ben Grams, also have to do their roles for us to win. Our match-up zone defense took us a long time to work this season, but it’s effective because instead of a 2-3 or a 1-3-1, we match up exactly as the offense sets up. We’re not guarding a man or an area, but rotating to the ball.
“But, mind you, a match-up zone looks good when you’ve got a 6-10 center,” Kunze added. “Crawford is a heck of a player, and he had a great game, but there isn’t a guy in the state who’s going to guard Rick Rickert 1-on-1.”
Not only that, but the coach doesn’t have to worry about Rick breaking curfew. He might have a date on the eve of the final, but it’ll be with a basketball, in his room.
UMD faces Harvard in NCAA women’s puck tournament semis
The climb was much more difficult in Year 2 than in Year 1, but the UMD Bulldogs are officially back to try for the national collegiate women’s hockey championship, and this time it will be an official NCAA event.
The Bulldogs (26-5-4) will face Harvard (23-9) at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Mariucci Arena in the semifinals of the first NCAA women’s tournament. Top-seeded Dartmouth (26-3-1) will take on St. Lawrence (24-7-3) at 4 p.m. in the first semifinal. The third-place and championship games will be Sunday.
While awaiting word on who and when the Bulldogs would play, UMD coach Shannon Miller also had to worry about scoring star Hanne Sikio, who has been on crutches instead of skates since being cartwheeled by a bodycheck at the league tournament 10 days ago. “She hasn’t been practicing, and won’t practice until Tuesday, but our trainer is optimistic Hanne will be ready to go by Thursday,” said Miller.
Miller is a member of the NCAA selection committee, although she had to wait to find out the pairings like everybody else. “I’m not on the call today because my team’s involved,” said Miller.
UMD’s first encounter rekindles memories of what was probably the best hockey game of the season for the Bulldogs, when they fell behind 3-1 four minutes into the third period, but rallied from behind to beat Harvard 4-3 when Joanne Eustace set up Maria Rooth for a goal at 8:21, then Eustace scored the tying goal at 13:12, and the game-winner with 28 seconds remaining.
“That was probably our best game,” said Jenny Hempel, who scored UMD’s first goal that December night. “We played so well that game, and it was a great game from start to finish. We’re all excited about going to the final four, and playing Harvard again.”
The Bulldogs also swept St. Lawrence, in a surprising 7-0 first game and a more realistic 4-3 second game at the start of the season. It took two late goals, by Erika Holst with 7:46 to go and by Laurie Alexander with 3:58 left to lift the ‘Dogs to victory in the second game.
The Bulldogs also have plenty of motivation should they get to face Dartmouth, the team ranked No. 1 all this season. After UMD lost its emotional semifinal to Minnesota last year in Boston, the Bulldogs also were beaten by Dartmouth in the third-place game.
The University of Minnesota, which beat UMD in last year’s semifinal and went on to win the championship of the women’s tournament — which was not an NCAA event, and was held under the auspices of USA Hockey and the women’s coaches association — fell short in its bid to be selected on the merits of winning the Women’s WCHA, being defending national tournament champs, and being the host school for the tournament. Sputtering to an 0-3-1 finish dropped the Gophers out of contention.
Minnesota went into the last week of the regular season tied with UMD for the No. 2 computer power rank in the country, behind Dartmouth. But the Gophers tied and lost to UMD, dropping to third, then lost to both Wisconsin and Ohio State in the league tournament, while UMD beat both of those teams to repeat as league playoff champ. That left UMD a solid No. 2 rank behind Dartmouth, while the Gophers dropped to sixth, behind Harvard, St. Lawrence and Brown in computer rank.
The NCAA selection committee, however, used those computer rankings only as one element of its selection process while determining the four at-large teams. In the ECAC playoffs, Dartmouth beat Brown in two overtimes and Harvard beat St. Lawrence. But since St. Lawrence and Brown both were playing higher ranked teams, Minnesota, while going 0-3-1 in its last four games, couldn’t climb back into the top four in the computer ratings, or, more importantly, in the eyes of the committee.
“The Gophers had a good season,” said Miller. “But after they lost both games at the WCHA playoffs, they were a longshot.”
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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