St. Cloud blows 3-goal lead, but top Sioux for playoff title in OT
SAINT PAUL, MINN.— St. Cloud State is sizzling right now, the hottest team in the country. How hot? One night after extinguishing Minnesota 3-0, the Huskies took on North Dakota — which was wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day in Saint Paul, no less — then they further tempted fate by blowing a 5-2 lead in the final 5:35, and then they still came back to beat the regular-season champion Fighting Sioux 6-5 in sudden-death overtime before 17,562 fans.
Derek Eastman scored a controversial goal at 11:33 of sudden-death overtime to carry the Huskies to their first WCHA playoff championship. While the puck was going out to the right point, St. Cloud’s Ritchie Larson was trying to position himself in front of the net, and Sioux defenseman Travis Roche tried to move him out, but pushed him into goaltender Andy Kollar. As Kollar was knocked out of the line of fire, Eastman cut loose from the right point, and Larson did a little hop-step to let the missile sail between his legs and into the open net.
“I was wondering why there was no goalie, as I shot,” said Eastman.
The Huskies swarmed into a celebratory pile, and none was happier than goaltender Scott Meyer, whose previous impenetrable play was suddenly solved by all sorts of goals in the final period. The celebration was stalled when it was announced the goal was being reviewed. But when officials ruled DiCasmirro was not in the crease when the puck went in, the goal stood, the Huskies celebrated anew.
For two and a half periods, it appeared that Tyler Arnason’s hat trick and Meyer’s goaltending would turn the game into a lopsided shocker. But just as 17,562 fans at Xcel Energy Center were writing off the Fighting Sioux, the comeback happened. Jeff Panzer scored with a wicked shot from the top of the right circle, Wes Dorey was credited with a fluke goal the Huskies inflicted on themselves, and Travis Roche connected from the left point with a screened shot with only 11 seconds to go in regulation, and the Sioux had counter-stunned the Huskies for a 5-5 deadlock, forcing overtime.
“At the end of the third period, I thought, ‘Why me?’ ” said St. Cloud coach Craig Dahl. “There were a lot of funny bounces, and I know North Dakota was never going to quit. The biggest thing about winning? Well, it means they can’t say I can’t win the big one anymore.”
The championship gives the Huskies an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament, and undoubtedly gives them a bye in next week’s regional play. It was St. Cloud State’s ninth straight victory and avenges two blown-lead, 4-3 losses at North Dakota when the teams met during the season.
Both St. Cloud State (31-8-1) and North Dakota (27-7-9) are expected to get byes in the NCAA tournament’s 12-team selection, which will be announced today. St. Cloud State probably One scenario would have North Dakota named No. 2 West, behind Michigan State, with St. Cloud State being tabbed No. 2 East, behind Boston College.
Colorado College, which beat Minnesota 5-4 in a spirited third-place game earlier Saturday, bypassed the Gophers in the computerized power ratings although both will advance, CC probably as the West No. 4 seed and Minnesota probably as the East No. 4 team. And Wisconsin appears assured to make it as a fifth WCHA entry, as No. 6 East.
Arnason’s heroics appeared to give St. Cloud State a stranglehold on the game, because his first goal made it 1-0 in the first period, his second climaxed a three-goal run to a 4-1 lead in the second period, and his third, which was his 28th of the season, made it 5-2 with 7:36 in the third period. Appearances, however, can be deceiving, and the Fighting Sioux can never be taken for granted.
Instead of going down gracefully, the Sioux stormed back, with Jeff Panzer — the WCHA’s scoring champion and player of the year — scoring his second of the game and 26th of the season at 14:25 to cut it to a less-surmountable 5-3.
The Sioux then got an incredible break when the Huskies battled for possession behind their own net. Defenseman Chris Purslow saw an opening to clear the puck straight up the middle, but when he tried to shoot the puck out past his own net, it hit the startled Meyer in the back of the leg and the ricochet went into the goal with 1:02 remaining. Wes Dorey was credited with the goal, by being somewhere in the vicinity as the last Sioux player to touch the puck.
Still, Meyer was there and only a minute remained, and it wasn’t until 17 seconds were left that coach Dean Blais could pull his goaltender, Andy Kollar. A few seconds later, there was a faceoff in the left corner of the Huskies zone. Bryan Lundbohm pulled the draw cleanly back to the point, and defenseman Travis Roche moved up a stride and cut loose, with his slapshot appearing to deflect down and into the left edge for a 5-5 tie with 11 seconds showing.
In the two 4-3 victories over St. Cloud in Grand Forks, the Sioux had come back from a 3-1 deficit to win one and from 3-2 to win the other. But not this time.
COLORADO COLLEGE 5,
MINNESOTA 4
Weariness was not an issue to Colorado College, which rose up from a 3-2 deficit midway through the second period to beat Minnesota 5-4 on Justin Morrison’s goal with 3:05 remaining in a hard-fought third-place game of the WCHA Final Five tournament Saturday afternoon, before 11,299 at Xcel Energy Center.
The third-place game was one both coaches said they’d rather not play, but, as Colorado College coach Scott Owens said later, “As soon as the puck dropped, we were right back into a tough game. And as it went on, the blood was flowing, because it was Minnesota, so it was intense.”
The Tigers, playing their third game in less than three full days, got an early lead when Mark Cullen scored shorthanded at 6:01 of the first period, but Erik Westrum scored his first of two goals on a power play, Troy Riddle scored for a 2-1 Gopher lead at 10:35, and Westrum staked Minnesota to a 3-1 lead with a goal at 8:44 of the second period.
But Gopher defenseman Matt DeMarchi crashed Mark Cullen into the end boards at 11:58 of the second period, breaking his nose and leaving him sprawled, stunned, on blood-spattered ice. It was worth a 5-minute major penalty and game misconduct for DeMarchi for checking from behind, and the Tigers, who appeared ready to just finish off the game, got renewed life.
Joe Cullen and Mike Stuart both whistled power-play goals past Gopher backup goaltender Pete Samargia on that major, and when Mark Cullen came back in the third period, he rushed across the blue line and left a perfect drop pass that Peter Sejna fired past Samargia for a 4-3 CC lead at 14:29.
Johnny Pohl tied it for Minnesota by cashing in Jordan Leopold’s power-play rebound at 15:18.
But Morrison swiped the puck in the left circle, carried in wide on the left and drilled a shot through Samargia’s pads for the winning goal.
Plude leads Elk River’s 8-1 blowout for Class AA puck title
ST. PAUL, MINN.—Kelly Plude stood on the Xcel Energy Center ice as if in a daze. He was still in his uniform, unable to fight his way off the ice through the media anywhere near as easily as he had bent, folded and mutilated Moorhead’s defense for the two preceding hours, leading the Elks to a whopping 8-1 romp in the championship game. Plude had the gold medal hanging from a royal blue ribbon around the neck of his Elk River jersey. And he was clutching the boys Class AA state hockey tournament championship tightly.
“It hasn’t hit me yet,” said Plude, one of the main reasons Elk River finished 29-1-1. “To play in such a beautiful building, and to be the first to win a tournament here — I don’t think anybody on the team could hope for anything better. I don’t even believe that I could look up and see that 8-1 on the scoreboard.”
Plude, a pint-sized winger with a great touch with the puck, scored three goals, while Eric McFee added two, and linemates Trevor Stewart and Joel Hanson each added one, with sophomore Matt Jackson finishing off the romp before 16,459 fans — running the Class AA total to 97,982 for the three days. It was the biggest championship game blowout in the big tournament since International Falls thumped Bloomington 7-0 in 1965, meaning this one and that one are tied for the biggest margin in a big-school or one-school championship game.
It also was the second year in succession the championship Class AA game was a shocking departure for the thousands of fans who anticipate the finale to the high school season being filled with drama and excitement. Last year, Blaine whomped Duluth East 6-0, and that was a huge upset. Elk River had been ranked No. 1 most of the year, including the last few weeks and into the playoffs.
“The No. 1 ranking meant everyone was gunning for us,” said Plude. “But we didn’t rank ourselves there, somebody else did.”
Plude acknowledged that Friday night, after the Elks had beaten Hastings 4-3, coach Tony Sarsland had verbally ripped into the team. “We knew we didn’t play up to our potential,” Plude said. “We hadn’t played our best in the first two games, so maybe we were lucky to get here. But we took control from the get-go tonight.”
Moorhead (22-7) had ridden a surprising wave to get to the finals, having upset White Bear Lake and Greenway of Coleraine, both by 3-2 and both in overtime. The Spuds had hustled and worked and hammered both those foes with some solid hits, and they may have figured that all they needed was to keep the roll going.
“We did not have an attitude tonight,” said Moorhead coach Dave Morinville. “We needed to have something good happen, and it finally did, when we scored to cut it to 2-1 in the second period. But they came right back down and scored. After that, the puck had eyes for them. Everything they shot went in.
“Our whole game is to play ‘in-your-face,’ and I really feel bad for our kids. To come this far, you don’t expect to have a game like this, at this point. We knew what they were going to do, and maybe our kids thought they just had to keep on going. But I didn’t even want to look at the scoreboard after while.”
One factor that might have figured into Elk River’s incentive was that historically, Moorhead was the team that prevented previous Elk powerhouses from a chance to win the state title. In 1994, when Elk River was put into Section 8AA, Moorhead beat the Elks in an exhausting four-overtime marathon in the final at St. Cloud State. And in 1995, another great Elk River team lost to Moorhead in three overtimes in the final.
“I remember going to that four-overtime game,” said Trevor Stewart, the center on the first line. “I was probably about 11 or 12. A lot of good teams Elk River had in the past didn’t make it here.”
That includes last season, when a top-ranked Elk team was upset by Osseo in the Section 4AA semifinals.
“But we played our best game tonight, and it was a good time to do it,” added Stewart, who had four assists along with his goal. Joel Hanson, the other winger with Plude on Stewart’s line, had a goal and two assists.
“Kelly had the scoring touch tonight,” said Stewart. “We trade off every night.”
Elk River outshot Moorhead 15-2 in the first period, but couldn’t score until halfway through the period, when Plude carried out from the left corner and beat goaltender Chad Beiswenger. Forty seconds later, McFee scored with a perfect pass from Nate Droogsma.
But with each team a man short, Kevin Smith scored from in close on goaltender Brent Solei, and Moorhead had the lift it needed. The lift, however, became a letdown when Plude — who else? — caught a rinkwide pass from Stewart and broke in on the left side to score a power-play goal as he sped past the left post at 3:25.
Again, McFee followed up, this time with his second goal, only 14 seconds later, and it was 4-1.
Before the second period ended, Plude had the puck deep on the left side on another power play and he flung one toward the net that glanced off a defender and went in. That goal came right in front of Elk River’s raucus student section, and a hundred hats, caps and other headwear sailed onto the ice from the stands to celebrate Plude’s hat trick. Hanson also scored, with a perfect feed from Stewart, for a 6-1 bulge at intermission.
Stewart’s breakaway goal at 8:22 of the third period and Jackson’s final tally, at 9:55, gave the long-suffering Elks their final objective. And after the game, and the interviews, it was appropriate that Kelly Plude’s fine hands were the ones entrusted with the trophy.
Mell’s OT goal gives Greenway emotional 3rd-place victory
ST. PAUL, MINN.—The heavy emotion of Friday night’s neear-midnight overtime loss to Moorhead in the Class AA boys state hockey tournament semifinals could have left Greenway of Coleraine’s players totally deflated, demoralized and disinterested.
Could have, but didn’t.
Dan Mell’s wide-angle rebound flip at 1:33 of sudden-death overtime lifted Greenway to a 4-3 victory over Hastings in Saturday’s third-place game at the Xcel Energy Center, giving the Raiders a great degree of satisfaction for a 24-7 season.
“It was really emotional in here before the game,” said Gino Guyer, in the dressing room after the game. “I think the guys wanted it, for each other.”
Gino Guyer, who had the first Greenway goal to offset John Majeski’s tally for Hastings at 1:50, wound up with three goals and three assists in the three tournament games. His dad, coach Pat Guyer, also talked about the emotion of the night.
“It was so emotional before the game I had a tough time giving my pregame speech,” said Pat Guyer. “There’s true love among the coaches and players and everybody around this team. We played hard, we have 11 seniors, and great leaders, and we never backed off.
“We had a lot to go through this year, and we had to show character, effort, blood, and everybody sacrificed their bodies for each other. Every kid has great courage on this team, and they’d give up themselves for each other.”
Hastings coach Russ Welch and Pat Guyer talked before the game, briefly. “Well, we’re playing a little earlier than we had hoped,” said Welch, who had pulled for Greenway because of a kinship for the smaller Class AA schools.
The Greenway players had reason to be physically exhausted, but they seemed to summon up new bursts whenever necessary, breaking the 1-1 tie when Jim Gibeau’s screened shot from the right point found the net at 5:13 of the second. The Raiders went up 3-1 when Mike Forconi scored on Andy Sertich’s rebound at 9:19.
That seemed sufficient, but Hastings also had a lot of character, and battled back in the third period. Nick Harris plunked the rebound of a Travis Kieffer shot at 0:35 of the third, and it stayed 3-2 until coach Russ Welch pulled goaltender Peter Hoffman for a sixth attacker in the last minute. Casey Welch flipped the puck in and Kieffer scored with only 18 seconds to go to tie it 3-3.
That set the stage for a possible cruel ending for Greenway, similar to their semifinal loss to Moorhead. But this time Greenway attacked, and when Hoffman made a save, Mell scored from deep on the right side.
“I was about parallel with the goal line,” said Mell. “The goalie was on his stomach, and I hit it up and saw it go in, and I just went nuts. I saw the puck go in from behind the pipe.”
Mell, a senior who drives 33 miles from his home to play hockey at Greenway — he stars in football and baseball at Nashwauk-Keewatin, which doesn’t have hockey — was understandably emotional about the winning goal. The whole team was emotional, but that started before the game.
Moorhead ends Greenway’s dream on Harstad’s overtime goal
ST. PAUL, MINN.—There was nothing left to say. Greenway of Coleraine played a strong, determined hockey game Friday night under the bright lights of the Xcel Energy Center in the second semifinal game of the 2001 Minnesota state boys Class AA high school hockey tournament. They rallied from behind to take the lead, they outshot Moorhead 30-15 through three periods, and they got exceptional play from players throughout their lineup.
But it will be Moorhead, and not Greenway, that will take on No. 1 Elk River in tonight’s 7 o’clock state Class AA championship game. The Spuds got the only two shots of sudden-death overtime, both by senior wing Wade Harstad, who fired from 30 feet while rushing up the right side, and then followed his shot to the net to jam his own rebound past Greenway’s sophomore goaltender Tom Sobtzak at 0:42 of the 8-minute extra session and give Moorhead a 3-2 victory that left 17,495 fans at Xcel Center almost as drained as the players.
Both teams needed overtime to get through Thursday’s quarrterfinals, Moorhead upsetting No. 2 White Bear Lake, also by a 3-2 count, while Greenway subdued Eden Prairie in a 5-4 classic finale that ended at midnight.
Both sides left their exhaustion behind and went at it in an all-Northern semifinal, and Moorhead (22-6) now will face Elk River (28-1-1) — a 4-2 victor over Hastings in the first semifinal — in a title game that assures the state of a first-time champion.
Greenway had the territorial edge and the slicker plays all night, but Moorhead wouldn’t go away, and defused the Raiders as much as possible.
While outshot 8-5 in the first period, the Spuds got the only goal of the session when Matt Hayek surprised everybody in green for a goal at 3:55. The play looked harmless, as a 2-on-2 dissipated near the Greenway blueline on the left side. The puck popped free behind the Greenway defenders, but suddenly Hayek, a lanky junior, was busting in off the right wing, behind the defense, and he both gained possession and shot a backhander through Sobtzak in one motion.
Goaltender Chad Beiswenger held the fort against the Raiders, but he couldn’t keep it up all night. Aaron Mikulich, who moves up to left wing with Gino Guyer while Andy Sertich drops back to the point for power plays, connected to open the second period on an overlapping power play. Guyer won a left-corner faceoff, tied up the Moorhead center, and Mikulich sped across from the left boards and shot into the left edge of the net at 0:26 for a 1-1 tie.
At 3:44, Sertich connected with Guyer on one of those radar-controlled plays that Up North hockey fans have come to expect from the two. Think of Daunte Culpepper throwing to Randy Moss, doing a toe-dance to stay inside the end zone’s end line, and you’ve got the picture of this pass play. Guyer, in his own zone, spotted Sertich, curling behind the defense at the far blue line. Guyer zipped the pass, and Sertich, with one skate still onside by an eyelash, caught the hard pass on his backhand and swung goalward. He sailed in at full speed, and Beiswenger never had a chance.
The 2-1 lead lasted as Harstad got a great chance that Sobtzak stopped late in the second period. But early in the third, James Marcy made a big play to keep the puck in at the blue line. Marcy, a junior defenseman, stepped up from the left point and fired the puck at the net. Somehow, the missile found an opening and ended up in the short side of the net at 2:40.
The teams battled the rest of the ways, with Beiswenger and Sobtzak exchanging saves, only Beiswenger had the tougher ones, and more of them, as Greenway outshot the Spuds 8-5 in the first period, 14-7 in the second, and 8-3 in the third for a 30-15 difference. But Moorhead got the only two of the overtime, both by Harstad, who simply shot until he scored.
Marshall’s valiant bid at upsetting Benilde falls short by 3-1
ST. PAUL, MINN.—Grif Kilby had it in his mind what it would be like to skate out onto the Xcel Energy Center ice Wednesday night in the Class A state hockey tournament. And he wasn’t disappointed. The thrill will remain, in fact, long after the pain of falling 3-1 to tournament favorite Benilde-St. Margaret’s has ebbed away.
“I can’t describe the feeling,” said an exhausted Kilby after the game. “This was the first time I’d seen the place. I had an idea what it would be like, and it met up to all my expectations. It’s really got a high ceiling, but down here, the ice is just a hockey rink. No difference there. That’s what it all came down to.”
What it came down to was Marshall’s hearts were willing, but the legs just wouldn’t keep going, as the battered Hilltoppers fell to the swift and deep Red Knights, who proved to a second-session crowd of 4,476 why they are favored to win the tournament.
Benilde (20-9) used its depth well to wear down the Hilltoppers, but it still seemed like the Hopkins brothers — senior Ryan and junior Ricky — were on the ice all the time. Ricky Hopkins scored to give the Red Knights a 2-0 lead in the first period, and Ryan Hopkins clinched things on a two-man power play in the third after the ‘Toppers had closed the gap to 2-1. Both assisted on their brothers’ goals.
Marshall (16-13) spent every ounce of energy, their gold jerseys dark with perspiration by the third period’s exhaustion in the warm Xcel Energy Center. The Hilltoppers move over to Mariucci Arena today to play a 12:30 p.m. consolation game against Mound-Westonka, which lost to Fergus Falls in last night’s late game.
With only 17 players on the roster, instead of the allowed 20, Marshall had junior defenseman Josh Peterson braced up and trying to play with two separated shoulders. Peter Spreitzer was back from a skate cut on the back of his leg suffered in the 7A final against Silver Bay. And Swanson, the junior who is the top scorer on the team, was fighting a bad case of the flu for the 24 hours leading up to the game.
“I’m very proud of our kids,” said Marshall coach Brendan Flaherty. “Instead of going in the tank when we were down 2-0, we battled back. No question, toward the last five minutes, we didn’t have any gas left.”
There was no energy shortage in the first period. Both teams launched seven shots in an evenly fought session, which opened with Marshall’s Adam Balach getting a backhanded swat that goalie Jake Schuman stopped on the opening shift, and then the Red Knights struck at 0:41. Denny Charleston rushed up the right side, pulled up, and passed to the slot where junior defenseman John Paulson was moving in, and ripped a shot past Josh Rudolph.
The teams traded excellent rushes and scoring threats, but goalies Rudolph and Schuman prevailed, until the 12:13 point, when a faceoff popped loose at center ice, and Ricky Hopkins sped past the defense and zoomed in to score on the breakaway at 12:13.
Marshall needed some inspiration, and Kilby produced it, scoring at 0:20 of the second period. Scoring leader Darrin Swanson broke up the slot, and when Schuman came about 15 feet straight out to confront him, Swanson sent a perfect pass to the left edge where Kilby had a slam-dunk.
The ‘Toppers had some great chances to tie it up, but Schuman fouled a Balach-to-Swanson play at the crease. A curious twist came at the end of the period, however. Ricky Hopkins was being called for a delayed holding penalty, and on the delay, Ryan Hopkins ran over a Marshall player in clear view. Only the one penalty was called, with 32 seconds left in the period, and after the buzzer, the Benilde coaches held a conference with the referees.
When the third period opened, Balach was penalized at 0:16, and Ben Paul was banished at 0:40 for a questionable interference call, leaving the Hilltoppers two men short after the overlapping Benilde penalty expired. On the two-man power play, Ryan Hopkins deflected a Chris Wickersham blast past Rudolph at 1:47.
“We were in the game until what I really think was a suspect call to put us down 5-on-3 in the third period,” said Flaherty. “But that’s the way it goes. They popped one in.”
The Hilltoppers sagged a bit from the extra load of the two-man deficit, but they battled gamely to the finish.
“Being down 5-on-3 against a team like that can break your back,” said Kilby. “But we didn’t give up.”
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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