Cloquet ousts East 4-1 to gain 7AA final against Greenway
After Greenway of Coleraine whipped Hibbing 7-1 in the first of two Section 7AA semifinal games at the DECC, a young reporter tried to change Greenway coach Pat Guyer’s focus to next Thursday’s final.
“How do you think your team matches up with Duluth East?” he asked.
Guyer took one incisive look at him and said: “Duluth East isn’t there yet. They still have a game to play.”
Two hours later, Guyer’s words seemed even more profound, because Cloquet-Esko-Carlton shocked Duluth East 4-1, eliminating the defending champion and perennial section heavyweight.
It wasn’t really a 4-1 game, because East outshot the Lumberjacks 29-15, had a clear territorial advantage, and were in position throughout the game — even trailing 3-1 — to launch one of those patented comebacks to pull out yet another dramatic sectional playoff game.
But Cloquet played it smart defensively to defuse the potent ‘Hounds, and the Lumberjacks got the customary fantastic goaltending from Josh Johnson, plus a magical game out of senior Casey Alaspa, who seemed to inspire a couple of favorable bounces while recording the first two goals and assisting on the third ‘Jack tally. Then Clay Wilson silenced the East crowd by stepping up and hitting an empty net from 100 feet away with 20 seconds remaining.
So it will be the third-seeded Cloquet Lumberjacks (21-6) facing the top-seeded Greenway of Coleraine Raiders (21-6) next Thursday night in Hibbing for the Section 7AA berth in the state tournament.
The East contingent — including some parents who were too loud in expressing their futility at losing the game — shouldn’t have been surprised at Cloquet’s capabilities. East and Greenway had been the Up North No. 1 team in Murphy McGinnis Newspaper ratings all season, until last week, when the Lumberjacks wrenched away the No. 1 rank by beating East 1-0 at the DECC to split their season matches, and that came about 10 days after the Jacks had beaten Greenway for the second time this season, right in Coleraine.
Top-line center Travis Denzel, considered Cloquet’s top forward, left the game after five minutes with a concussion, so somebody had to step up, and it turned out to be Alaspa, who said he wasn’t sure if he had 10 or 12 goals, or if it was 10 before the East game and 12 now. At 5:44 of the first period, Alaspa caught a pass from Clay Wilson and broke in, only to be hooked down before he could shoot. He slid hard into goalie Dan Hoehne, and Alaspa, Hoehne and the puck all wound up across the goal line.
Outshot 8-4, Cloquet led 1-0 at the first intermission. Alaspa scored again at 1:12 of the second, and after Tommy Kolar scored after a brilliant rush at 8:28, Cloquet countered for a 3-1 lead. Alaspa — who else? — tried to pass to the goal-mouth, and the blocked puck bounced 10 feet up in the air. As it came down, sophomore Matt Brenner batted it out of the air and past Hoehne. “We couldn’t buy a bounce,” said Hoehne, who finished a glowing three-year career in which he won 60 games at East.
The ‘Jacks couldn’t prevent East star Nick Licari from getting chances, but they limited his good chances. “We took away the seams and long bombs,” said first-year coach Dave Esse. “But tonight, our goalie stole the game. When we lost Denzel five minutes into the game, I was very, very concerned. But Alaspa, who has been hurt, is healthy now, and he played the best game of his career.”
East coach Mike Randolph said: “I thought our kids executed well, and we got all kinds of chances. We broke out better, forechecked better, and Tommy Kolar, Andy LeTourneau, and Nick Nelson had great chances.”
But the Lumberjacks, who have now won nine straight, juggled lines, played their usual high-speed, totally unified team defense, and won a game that they don’t really think was an upset.
GREENWAY ROMPS
With the overnight snowfall causing postponement of the Section 7A semifinals in Cloquet and Hibbing, as well as most everything else Saturday, a crowd of about 5,000 made its way to the DECC for the 7AA doubleheader, starting at high noon. The fans didn’t mind being snowed in at the DECC, but they didn’t anticipate seeing Hibbing snowed under in the first game.
The Bluejackets, who own a victory over Cloquet, also had avenged an early loss by beating Greenway 3-2 two weeks ago, but the Raiders were ready this time, and took command 2-0 in the first period, on goals by Joe Nielsen and Andy Sertich, then turned the game lopsided during a major penalty against Hibbing late in the second period.
Gino Guyer, who centers Sertich and Mike Forconi on a line that is considered the best in Minnesota, left no doubt with a masterful performance, scoring a goal after assisting on four Raider tallies. His wingers each had a goal and an assist.
“Everybody on our team played at 120 percent,” said Gino Guyer. “I’m so proud of everybody. We were going hard to the net, and we used our speed to make things happen.”
After Nielsen scored with a slick pass from Jamie Guyer at 8:34, cousin Gino went to work. He fed Sertich, who maneuvered in close to score from the right post at 13:06.
The Bluejackets played their best hockey early in the second period, attacking furiously, only to be turned away by sophomore Tom Sobtzak in the Greenway nets. Things got a little rough later in the middle period, however, and the ‘Jackets seemed to start focusing more on hits than hitting the net. At 12:26, Greenway defenseman Mike Dagel nailed Ian Ross with a heavy, and high, bodycheck.
The Hibbing side thought it should have been elbowing, the Greenway side thought it was a great hit. The officials called nothing. Ross jumped to his feet and went after the first thing wearing white, which happened to be Gino Guyer, speeding toward the net with the puck. Ross chopped him down with a vicious two-hander somewhere between the ankle and knee, and earned a 5-minute major penalty.
Before he came out of the box, Dagel had scored a slick goal from the left post by slam-dunking a Gino Guyer pass across the crease at 12:40, Jim Gibeau hurtled into the crease to beat goaltender Josh Antikainen to a loose puck and score at 14:36, and, with the team’s 4-on-4, Forconi swept a blocked puck in at 1:47, and it was suddenly 5-0. Eric Grzysbowski finally broke Sobtczak’s shutout bid by pounding in a second rebound at 5:55 for Hibbing, but Guyer got his goal on a stunning pass across the crease from Forconi for a power-play goal at 9:19, and Dan Mell smacked in an Aaron Mikulich feed 39 seconds later.
“The major was the game,” said a bitterly disappointed Mark DeCenzo afterward. “Up till the major, we had some chances to score, in fact the chances were about even, but they put theirs in.”
That’s been the story of Greenway’s success all season. But all of that, and the No. 1 seed in the section, means nothing. “I’s been a dogfight all year,” said Pat Guyer. “It doesn’t matter who we play.”
In aftermath of ugly rematch, Bulldogs take pride in Gopher split
In the aftermath of Saturday night’s ugly, penalty-filled game at the DECC, the frustration and futility was displayed clearly by the faces and the comments in the UMD dressing room. It was up to coach Scott Sandelin to put the 4-0 loss to Minnesota into perspective.
“Wasn’t that awful?” Sandelin said. “OhhhhÂ…that was BAD game. It wasn’t even a hockey game. It kinda wrecked what could have been a weekend of good hockey. I liked the way we started the game, but then they got some momentum on a couple of power plays.
“But you know, they can say whatever they want about tonight’s game. I don’t care what they say, all I know is they didn’t win the game they had to win.”
That reflected back to Friday night, when the Bulldogs stunned the high-flying Gophers 5-4 on Nate Anderson’s overtime goal. That was an outstanding game, not just because UMD won, and not just because the Bulldogs played their best, most complete game of the season, but because the lowly, last-place, light-scoring Bulldogs traded end-to-end rushes from start to finish with the high-scoring Gophers, who had come to town on a nine-game winning streak, and with a 16-2 record as the hottest team in the country since the WCHA came back from Christmas break.
The Bulldogs have spent the season striving to satisfy their own quest for respectability, and they earned it with that Friday night victory, outshooting the Gophers 39-32 before 5,378 fans. They got extra satisfaction out of spoiling Minnesota’s plan to overtake North Dakota and win the WCHA title. The Gophers came into the weekend trailing first-place North Dakota by three points, and had two games — four points — in hand because they play St. Cloud State in this weekend’s finale, while North Dakota is finished with league games.
While the Fighting Sioux were shocked themselves in a 2-2 tie at Michigan Tech Friday, before bouncing back to win 3-1 Saturday, the Gopher loss to UMD drops them four points back of the Sioux. And while a sweep over St. Cloud can gain the Gophers a tie for the title, the Sioux have a 2-1-1 head-to-head record against Minnesota this season and would thus be the No. 1 seed for the WCHA playoffs at Xcel Center.
The Bulldogs, meanwhile, finish at Denver with scant chance to catch Alaska-Anchorage for ninth place, which means their success against the Gophers would determine whether they’d have to go to North Dakota or to Minnesota to open the playoffs in the WCHA’s version of “pick your poison.”
UMD came out to start the Saturday game as if intending to duplicate Friday’s victory. But Matt Koalska scored on a power-play rebound, which turned out to be the only power-play goal for the vaunted Gophers in 10 opportunities for the night. But late in the first peruiod, Jordan Leopold held the puck in at the right point and dashed to the net, where Rob Anderson blocked his shot but couldn’t stop Leopold’s quick reaction for a high-speed rebound as he sailed behind the net, and the Gophers led 2-0.
The Gophers, who outshot UMD 13-10 in the first period, had a whopping 22-8 edge in shots in the second period, and it grew worse, to 49-23 for the game. The Bulldogs got involved in a lot of rough stuff in what became a cheap, penalty fest. UMD had 21 penalties for 50 minutes, and the Gophers had 19 penalties for 46 minutes.
Without question, the Bulldogs got away from their focus of Friday night, and seemed out to exact some payback to Erik Westrum, Minnesota’s top-scoring, first-line center, who is reviled throughout the WCHA as the league’s worst cheapshot artist. On Friday night, Westrum, who is very skilled, stuck pretty much to hockey, and scored the first Gopher goal to offset Nate Anderson’s opening tally. Tommy Nelson — who had a goal and three assists and was the best forward on the rink — and Mark Carlson scored second-period goals for UMD, while Aaron Miskovich got one for the Gophers, and Pat O’Leary and Paul Martin scored third-period goals to lift Minnesota to a 4-3 lead.
In a dramatic finish, Matt Mathias converted a perfect feed from Beau Geisler — his third assist of the game — to tie the game 4-4 with 2:37 remaining. In overtime, Nelson scuffed the faceoff toward the slot. Westrum failed to cover Nate Anderson, who wound up alone in front and slid the puck under Adam Hauser for the winner. As Anderson celebrated, Westrum skated up behind him and kicked his skates out from under him, dropping him violently on the ice. Nobody in a striped shirt noticed, and so sly was Westrum’s move, even Anderson thought a Gopher defenseman had committed the foul deed.
Flash forward to 3:49 of the second period Saturday, with Grant Potulny stationed in front of the UMD goal as Rob Anderson dropped to his knees for a save. In the next moment, Anderson was knocked flat. It took video replays to clearly show Westrum skated past the crease, and drilled the kneeling goaltender with a nasty elbow flipper to the side of the head. Goddard didn’t soothe the Bulldogs’ outrage when he penalized Potulny for the misdeed, while Westrum — Minnesota’s captain — skated away free.
Several minutes later, Westrum took what appeared to be a dive to draw a penalty behind the play, and as luck would have it, the Gophers got possession and flipped the puck ahead to Westrum, who jumped to his feet at the UMD blueline — suddenly revived — and skated in alone to score on the breakaway for a 3-0 Gopher lead.
Three minutes later, Nelson, who is UMD’s best player, took Westrum into the end boards and the two had a brief fight with Nelson winning first with an exchange of punches, then by pinning Westrum to the ice. Nelson won so clearly that Westrum was nonexistent in the third period, and Matt DeMarchi, the only Gopher with more penalties than Westrum, charged Nelson into the end boards from behind, but got only a minor for cross-checking.
The game unraveled from there, with Jeff Taffe’s fourth goal late in the second period, and Hauser’s school-record-tying seventh shutout obscured by the ugliness. Anderson made 31 saves before Adam Coole relieved him for the third period, and made 14 more. Hauser needed only 23 saves for the shutout.
“I’ve had a lot of games where I’ve had a shutout for the first and second periods, but gave it away in the third,” said Hauser.
As for the game, and the split that cost the Gophers a chance to win the title outright, Hauser added: “We wanted to redeem ourselves. We might be disappointed for a second of two, but like coach [Don] Lucia said, if somebody had told us at the start of the season we’d be playing for the chance to tie for the title on the last weekend, we’d have taken it.”
Similarly, if anybody had suggested that UMD would split the series with the Gophers and pull the rug on their championship, the Bulldogs would have taken it. And did.
Mathias, Anderson goals vault Bulldogs past Gophers 5-4 in OT
It was a UMD hockey game like so many UMD hockey games this season — good start, strong effort to gain a slim lead, then give up a couple goals and blow that slim lead in the third period. But not this time, not Friday night, with the season’s biggest crowd of 5,378 watching them play Minnesota.
This time the Bulldogs scored the big goal they needed, when Matt Mathias came sprinting off the bench to tie the game 4-4 with 2:37 left in the third period. And then the Bulldogs scored the even-bigger goal they needed, when Nate Anderson scored at 1:54 of sudden-death overtime to give UMD a 5-4 victory in the WCHA series opener.
The victory snapped a nine-game UMD winless streak (0-7-2), and snapped a head-to-head 0-9-1 streak against the Gophers. And while it doesn’t do the Bulldogs (3-19-3) much good in their season-long last place futility, the outcome could be extremely costly to the Gophers (17-6-2), who breezed into town with a nine-game winning streak, and, with two games in hand on first-place North Dakota, they could have won the WCHA title outright by sweeping this weekend and against St. Cloud State next weekend.
As it turned out, the Gophers got a break because North Dakota tied Michigan Tech 2-2 Friday night, so the Sioux inched four points ahead, but proved no team can be taken for granted by the league leaders — a fact the Gophers also learned.
“What made it so disappointing,” said Gopher senior Dylan Mills, “is that we had the lead, and we gave the game away.”
There was more taking than giving away, however, in a game filled with exciting, wide-open plays, as the light-scoring Bulldogs matched haymakers with the explosive Gophers. But when the ‘Dogs fell behind 4-3 to a pair of Gopher goals in the third period, it looked like another one of those good effort/bad result nights at the DECC.
But with such former Duluth East luminaries as Dylan Mills and Nick Angell playing for the Gophers, and senior Ryan Coole on defense for the Bulldogs, it was Mathias, a sophomore who transferred home from Alaska-Anchorage and sat out last year, who came up with the pivotal goal that turned the game around.
“I jumped off the bench for Jon Francisco, and I saw we had a 4-on-2,” said Mathias. “I saw Tommy Nelson leave the drop pass for Beau Geisler and I just went hard for the net. I yelled to Beau, and he passed it across to me. I shot it, saw it hit the net, and I was ecstatic.”
The goal, at 17:23, tied the game 4-4 and was Mathias’s second of what he acknowledged has been a long season.
In overtime, Nelson battled for a faceoff in the left corner circle in the Gopher end. After some scuffing for possession, the puck suddenly popped loose to the slot, where Nate Anderson was all alone — except for Gopher goaltender Adam Hauser.
“Nellie tried to walk it from the faceoff,” said Anderson. “Franny whacked at it too, and the puck came loose to me. Hauser kind of came at me, and I just shot it low, and it went in.”
Nate Anderson had staked UMD to a 1-0 lead midway through the first period, when he found himself wide open at the left of the crease while Geisler bunted a soft pass from the right edge of the net back out to Nelson in the right circle, and he relayed a soft feed across the crease where Anderson had a tap-in. “Boy, did that feel good,” Anderson grinned.
ErikWestrum tied it when he circled from the right boards across the slot and picked the upper right corner with a 25-foot missile from the left slot, but the Bulldogs regained a 2-1 lead in the second period when Tommy Nelson scored a remarkable shorthanded goal at 8:41. Nelson and Geisler exchanged passes on a penalty-killing sortie, and Nelson played Geisler’s shot off the end boards and tried to jam his shot in at the right post. As Nelson tumbled behind the net, the puck bounced straight up off goaltender Adam Hauser, and as he tried to find the elusive disc, it came down gently, bounced off the goalkeeper’s back, and settled into the goal.
Aaron Miskovich tied it 2-2 less than a minute later, as the former Grand Rapids star sped across the slot and zipped a backhander past Rob Anderson while the Gopher power play was still in effect. But again the Bulldogs clicked, as freshman Chad Kolar from Hibbing proved he deserved his promotion to second-line center with Mark Carlson and Mathias, checking Jordan Leopold off the puck on the left boards, and sending an outlet pass to Mathias, who rushed up the right side, then passed across the goal-mouth where Carlson jammed it in at 14:17.
That put the ‘Dogs in that old familiar position, leading 3-2 at the second intermission. They had failed to hold such leads against North Dakota, Wisconsin, Denver, Colgate, St. Cloud State (twice), and Colorado College. And this one seemed no different, as Pat O’Leary scored when he found a blocked shot and an open net from the left side at 8:18 of the third period, tying the game 3-3.
Freshman Gopher Paul Martin carried up the right side at 12:49, and shot over the screen of a falling defenseman to beat Rob Anderson from 50 feet and give the Gophers a 5-4 lead. It was only the second goal of the season for last year’s Mr. Hockey, from Elk River.
“It crossed my mind, what had happened before,” said UMD coach Scott Sandelin. “But I had a great feeling. We had some guys step up, and we played a pretty smart, intelligent game. We got away from it for a little while, and we paid for it. But we got back to it.”
The Bulldogs outshot the Gophers 39-32, and goaltender Rob Anderson, who has held the ‘Dogs in so many games, made some spectacular stops, particularly when he did a glove-high, falling-down snatch of a shot by Johnny Pohl, who had been left all alone with several seconds to make a selection of dekes and then pick his target, and a couple of other larcenies against Westrum. “I had a couple saves where I did it instinctively, and then said to myself, ‘Wow, I did that?’ ” said Anderson. “But tonight, I played barely good enough to get the win. This was the best game our team has played, by far.”
Bulldogs fall into ‘mouse trap’ of Huskies’ 6-5 overtime upset
ST. CLOUD, MINN.—The teams are nicknamed Bulldogs and Huskies, but Saturday afternoon’s women’s hockey game became a cat-and-mouse battle, with UMD playing the role of the fat cat, batting the poor little mouse all over the National Hockey Center, and St. Cloud State portraying the cute little pest that kept battling, no matter how hopeless the situation appeared.
Score one for the mouse.
Roxie Stang, a freshman from nearby Princeton who once was recruited strongly by UMD coach Shannon Miller, scored her fourth goal of the game on a breakaway at 1:59 of sudden-death overtime, giving the Huskies a stunning 6-5 victory over UMD — a victory that may ultimately cost the Bulldogs their chance to repeat as WCHA champion.
Ricki-Lee Doyle, another freshman, blocked the puck inside the Huskies blue line, and looked up. Sure enough, there was Stang, breaking behind a UMD defense that was either unable or unwilling to retreat enough to stay behind St. Cloud State’s long-bomb threats, despite countless breakaways that Tuula Puputti was left to face. Doyle fed the puck ahead, Stang reached to gather in the pass, and sailed in to score the winning goal.
The shot difference was 64-22 through three periods, so it didn’t seem to matter when UMD’s final assault in the final minutes of regulation; the inevitable victory would come in overtime, which would make a dramatic finish that would keep UMD tied with Minnesota for first place in the WCHA.
It was certain to be a silent busride home for UMD (22-6-3 overall, 14-6-3 WCHA), but silence might have been preferable to the only logical topic — defensive coverage. St. Cloud State (15-13-2; 10-8-2) had beaten Minnesota 7-6 last Saturday to help put the Bulldogs in position to rise to first. Now the Huskies may have taken away that opportunity.
The Bulldogs will focus on defense frequently enough for the next week. “TWO weeks,” corrected coach Miller. True, the Bulldogs have a week off, but they may have trouble clearing the recurring image of a steady stream of breakaways that left Tuula Puputti defenseless. Actually, it wasn’t a steady stream, because UMD had the puck almost the whole game, outshooting the Huskies 66-24.
But Laura Gieselman, a sophomore goaltender from Annandale, survived flurry after flurry, yielding goals only stubbornly, while every time the Huskies got the puck, it seemed they were able to spring breakaways. The UMD defense could be commended for challenging on the strong side, but showed an amazing unwillingness to fall back on the weak side, meaning any chipped puck or pass made the ‘Dogs vulnerable to breakaways.
“I will never take credit for all the goals we score,” said Miller. “But I do take responsibility for the goals we give up. Our defensive coverage was horrible. I was pleased with how we played the majority of the game, except for a 10-minute span where we took a lot of penalties, and when we were in our own zone, which wasn’t very much.
“People were very selfish, and took some bad penalties. We had Jenny Hempel, Brittny Ralph, Navada Russel and Newfie took penalties that really hurt us.”
Newfie is Joanne Eustace, who is from Newfoundland, and who was WCHA player of the week last week for scoring four goals, including the winner, in the 7-6 overtime victory over Ohio State, and she assisted on four goals Friday in the 7-3 victory over St. Cloud State. But when she took an “obstruction tripping” penalty while skating with a St. Cloud adversary away from the puck at the 15-minute mark of the second period, Miller wouldn’t let her back on the bench and instead sent her to the dressing room to an early shower.
“I had to send a message,” said Miller. “I think it bothered the players a lot when I sent Newfie off, but I had to do something to get the message across.”
The need for the message was that St. Cloud State coach Kerry Brodt Wethington’s most recent recruiting venture has produced Stang, who now has 25 goals, Doyle, who has 23-33–66, and defenseman Kobi Kawamoto (16-21–37) — three freshmen who shoot the puck with enough force to make the Huskies power play come alive, and to capitalize on careless defensive coverage.
The first four St. Cloud State goals were on power plays, the fifth came shorthanded, and the only 5-on-5 goal the Huskies managed all day was the game-winner.
“I was out with an injury when we played them the first time,” said Stang, meaning UMD’s 7-3 victory and the 3-3 tie the teams played in Duluth. “So I didn’t know what to expect.”
She figured it out pretty promptly this weekend, having scored only 22 seconds into Friday’s game, although the Bulldogs prevailed 7-3 in that one. She had things totally solved in the rematch.
UMD gained an early lead when Hanne Sikio scored her 27th of the season on a Huskies turnover at 7:58. But with nine seconds to go in the opening period, Doyle was in the corner and found Stang alone in the slot for a quick pass and quicker shot for a 1-1 tie. UMD took apparent command in the second period, however, when Shannon Mikel raced up the left side and scored at 2:51, and Maria Rooth scored her 29th on a neat set up from Michelle McAteer at 10:00 for a 3-1 margin.
But in the last seven minutes of the second period, Stang assisted on a power-play goal by Abby Cooper at 13:16, then scored herself at 16:05 and 19:01. Both goals told a lot about the game. Eustace was in the box when Kawamoto sent a long pass to Stang at the UMD blue line, even though she was covered by defenseman Jenni Venho. Stang simply veered in toward the net, battling Venho all the way, and managed to shoot and score before sprawling to the left of the goal. “I didn’t know it was in because I was falling on the ice,” she said.
Three minutes later, Stang was at the right side of the net when Fiona McLeod’s shot was blocked in front as Puputti came out to challenge. The puck landed right on Stang’s stick, and she had only an empty net to shoot at to put the Huskies in front 4-3.
When UMD’s Sanna Peura tied it 4-4 to open the third period, it seemed all was in order for the Bulldogs to nail down another victory and stay tied for first. But Amanda Mathison blocked a UMD power-play shot, and Jennifer Swanson took off on a shorthanded breakaway at 5:32 that reclaimed the lead at 5-4 for the Huskies.
Brodt Wethington said she thought the goal by Swanson, a sophomore from Rosemount, was pivotal. “Jenny is only about 115 pounds, but she’s quick, and you need to have quickness against such a big team like UMD,” said Brodt Wethington. “I think we caught ’em off-guard with that shorthanded goal. That was the turning point.”
Among others. Once again, UMD battled back furiously, with Erika Holst tying it 5-5 with 5:30 remaining. And even though the closing pressure failed to connect, it seemed inevitable that the Bulldogs would prevail in overtime. But Roxie Stang had one trick left beyond her hat trick.
UMD women whip St. Cloud 7-3 to tie Gophers for WCHA lead
ST. CLOUD, MINN.—It’s risky business, playing down the homestretch and hoping some other teams in your league will offer a helping hand, but that’s the way the UMD women’s hockey team is forced to do it, and, after a shaky start, everything worked to perfection for the Bulldogs Friday night.
First, taking care of their own business, the Bulldogs survived a weird start and overran St. Cloud State 7-3 at the National Hockey Center, as Maria Rooth — sporting a new “Beyond Blond” hairdo — scored twice and assisted on two others, and Joanne Eustace had four assists. The victory extended UMD’s unbeaten streak to 15 games (13-0-2), but more importantly, it thrust the Bulldogs into a tie for first place with Minnesota — thanks to Ohio State’s 1-0 victory over the Gophers Friday in Columbus, Ohio.
“I didn’t hear them announce the score,” said UMD coach Shannon Miller. “I didn’t hear about it until after the game.”
The Bulldogs, who outshot the Huskies 55-28, are now 22-4-3, with a 14-4-3 record in the WCHA, which is worth 31 points. That’s the same number the Gophers (15-3-1) have, although Minnesota has two games in hand, facing Wisconsin next weekend while UMD is idle, before the two meet at the DECC in two weeks. But Friday’s Minnesota loss means that the regular season title could well be on the line for that final series.
Goaltender Tuula Puputti, who was shaky last weekend in 7-6 overtime and 7-5 victories over Ohio State, got off to a startlingly shaky start against St. Cloud, when Roxanne Stang, a hustling freshman from Princeton, Minn., dashed up the left side on the game’s first shift, slid the puck through Navada Russell’s feet and darted inside to beat her, regain control, and zoom in alone to score with a shot into the lower left at 0:22.
“We expected a good game from Tuula, especially after last weekend,” said Miller. “But it was actually good for us to start that way. For a long time, I’ve been telling our team I wanted them to go D-to-D with the puck, get to the red line and put it in deep into their end after the opening faceoff. So what happens? They decide not to listen. They went D-to-D but then they lost it, and they came in and scored.
“It gave me the chance to tell them how important it is to do what we planned, and I started a different defensive pair after that.”
It took six minutes before the Bulldogs got untracked, but when they did, they rolled. Hanne Sikio, who narrowly missed an early chance, scored by deflecting Satu Kiipeli’s point shot past goaltender Laura Gieselman at 6:21. Two minutes later, Michelle McAteer carried up the right side, cut to the slot, and fired a 45-footer past Gieselman for a 2-1 lead, and the Bulldogs were in front to stay.
Jenny Hempel scored a power-play goal from the right edge at 13:29, and when the Huskies drew another penalty, Brittny Ralph crossed the blue line and cut loose with a 50-foot slapshot at 14:28, and UMD led 4-1.
Still, there were still more lessons to be given. The UMD defense disappeared and left
Fiona McLeod, a transfer from UWS, all alone on the right side. She made a move, deked to her backhand, and scored at the right post at 15:48, drawing St. Cloud State closer at 4-2.
That was a lot of scoring for the first period, but the teams were scoreless in the second, although Erika Holst hit a post, and the Bulldogs forced Gieselman to make 20 saves in the middle session.
The third period was taken over by Maria Rooth, who scored two goals and assisted on one by Sanna Peura between them, before Amanda Mathison’s power play goal at 16:46 gave St. Cloud too little, too late.
Rooth and Holst, both from Sweden, showed up with their hair bleached stark white — Beyond Blonde — in a move that might wind up becoming a team trademark for this stretch run.
“We did it just for fun, but to show a commitment to hockey and to school,” said Rooth.
“We needed something new after the Ohio games,” said Holst. “I told Maria we had to do it right now. So we did it Tuesday. Everybody says Swedes are blond, so now we’ve proved it.”
Everybody also says Swedes are smooth with the puck, and Rooth put it on display. She had given the puck to McAteer on her first-period goal, but in the third period, Rooth carried up the middle, veered to the slot, and flipped a deadly accurate backhander from 35 feet that caught the upper left corner of the net at 3:39. On the next faceoff, Rooth came in and shot one off the right pipe. Rooth and Eustace collaborated to set up Peura’s goal at 9:01, making it 6-2, and 11 seconds later, Rooth went in deep, curled behind the net and scored on a wraparound.
It was Rooth’s 30th goal of the season, and she also has 27 assists for a team-leading 57 points. Hanna Sikio, who had only one goal and one assist, has 27-26–53. Sikio is from Finland, but she acknowledged that Finns, too, can bleach and spike their hair, if that’s what it takes.
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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