Rob Anderson’s 40-save heroics help UMD stun CC Tigers 2-1
Sophomore goaltender Rob Anderson bounced around in the crease like a ping-pong ball Friday night, singlehandedly keeping UMD in the game against Colorado College for large stretches of play.
“It’s about damn time I did, too,” said Anderson. “I’ve been wanting to play well enough to win one for this team all year. This could be the turning point in the season for us.”
Strong words, but not without validity. Anderson’s stout netminding was the key in a 2-1 victory over Colorado College, before 3,251 fans at the DECC.
It was a welcome change for the Bulldogs, who have had some leads this season, but they were only 1-12-1 in the WCHA until Friday night, and the CC Tigers were one point out of first place, having gone 9-1-1 in their most recent 11 games. Colorado College fairly flew at hyperspeed through the first period, outshooting UMD 12-3, but Anderson kept it scoreless. For the game, CC outshot UMD 41-19, but Anderson made 40 saves — right down to the controversial final millisecond.
“Hopefully,” said Judd Medak, “we learned how to win tonight.”
Medak scored the game’s first goal, on a great individual effort at 3:31 of the second period, when he came off the bench on a line change just as a clearing attempt bounced high in the air. Medak reached up and gloved the puck down to the ice, carried in deep on the right side, circled the net, and came out on the left.
“I just kept going around the net, and shot into the far side,” said Medak, whose sixth goal of the season was hardly sufficient reward for consistent hard work, but it was vital in this game.
Drew Otten made it 2-0 at 11:53 of the middle period, with a power-play deflection of Nate Anderson’s shot from the left boards.
“I saw Nate at the half-wall, and he took a couple of strides in and shot it about six inches off the ice,” said Otten. “I got my stickblade on it and it went up and over the goalie’s shoulder.”
The goalie, Colin Zulianello, came in leading the league with a 1.85 goals-against average and a .936 save percentage. Just last week, Scott Meyer of St. Cloud State came to the DECC leading the league and the Bulldogs got seven goals against him in two games. But they lost both of them.
This time, thanks to Anderson’s brilliant play, the only goal given up was Chris Hartsburg’s power-play goal from the right circle with 1:43 left in the second period, and the ‘Dogs doubled their victory total to 2-12-2 in the league and 5-16-2 overall, while CC is 10-5 in WCHA play and 15-5-1 overall. But it was close.
At the start, the Bulldogs couldn’t contain the Tigers speed. At the 9-minute mark, Reid Goolsby gloved a high pass, knocked the puck to the ice, and swung at it. The puck went in, but referee Robin Anderson waved it off, ruling it had been batted in by hand. “I was right behind him,” said Otten. “He knocked the puck down, but I think it went across the line before he swung his stick at it.”
Beau Geisler fed Medak for UMD’s first shot, at 9:48 of the first period, by which time CC already had nine shots at Anderson, plus the one that didn’t count. In that first period, CC’s sophomore Tom Preissing, a can’t-miss NHL defenseman from Rosemount, Minn., twice stickhandled end-to-end through a slow-motion UMD defense, but Anderson thwarted his shots.
“I know Preissing really well, and I was so pumped when I stopped him,” said Anderson.
Which time?
“Both of them,” said Anderson.
After having been thoroughly outplayed through the first period, UMD’s chances looked bleak at the intermission.
“We stood around and watched them for most of the first period,” said UMD coach Scott Sandelin. “We were good spectators. But we recovered from that. We bumped them a little, and played much better in the second period.”
As impressive as CC was in the first period, and in the game for that matter, Tiger coach Scott Owens wasn’t impressed. “I didn’t think we played that well,” he said. “Not compared to the last four weeks. We didn’t play nearly as well as we did against North Dakota, Harvard or Denver.
“We came out flying, but Anderson was good. We’re a very skilled team, but Duluth played a very intelligent, smart game. We gave a team lacking in confidence a lot of confidence tonight, and they deserved to win.”
Because the memory of excruciating last-minute turnabouts against Wisconsin, for example, when a 2-1 lead turned into a 3-2 overtime loss, the final seconds of this one were excruciating. With Zulianello pulled for a sixth attacker, and CC throwing everything at Anderson, referee Robin Anderson blew his whistle and called a penalty. The clock showed 0.01 seconds remaining — one-hundredth of a second.
Medak skated up to Rob Anderson in goal. “He said, ‘If they score with 0.01 left, I’ll shoot myself,’ ” Anderson said. “Then we both looked up and saw that they had put 1.5 seconds back up on the clock. We both went, ‘Oh, no!’ ”
That’s because the Bulldogs had already found that if something can go wrong, it very well might. But that was earlier in the season. Before the Bulldogs learned how to win.
Rob Anderson’s 40-save heroics help UMD stun CC Tigers 2-1
Sophomore goaltender Rob Anderson bounced around in the crease like a ping-pong ball Friday night, singlehandedly keeping UMD in the game against Colorado College for large stretches of play.
“It’s about damn time I did, too,” said Anderson. “I’ve been wanting to play well enough to win one for this team all year. This could be the turning point in the season for us.”
Strong words, but not without validity. Anderson’s stout netminding was the key in a 2-1 victory over Colorado College, before 3,251 fans at the DECC.
It was a welcome change for the Bulldogs, who have had some leads this season, but they were only 1-12-1 in the WCHA until Friday night, and the CC Tigers were one point out of first place, having gone 9-1-1 in their most recent 11 games. Colorado College fairly flew at hyperspeed through the first period, outshooting UMD 12-3, but Anderson kept it scoreless. For the game, CC outshot UMD 41-19, but Anderson made 40 saves — right down to the controversial final millisecond.
“Hopefully,” said Judd Medak, “we learned how to win tonight.”
Medak scored the game’s first goal, on a great individual effort at 3:31 of the second period, when he came off the bench on a line change just as a clearing attempt bounced high in the air. Medak reached up and gloved the puck down to the ice, carried in deep on the right side, circled the net, and came out on the left.
“I just kept going around the net, and shot into the far side,” said Medak, whose sixth goal of the season was hardly sufficient reward for consistent hard work, but it was vital in this game.
Drew Otten made it 2-0 at 11:53 of the middle period, with a power-play deflection of Nate Anderson’s shot from the left boards.
“I saw Nate at the half-wall, and he took a couple of strides in and shot it about six inches off the ice,” said Otten. “I got my stickblade on it and it went up and over the goalie’s shoulder.”
The goalie, Colin Zulianello, came in leading the league with a 1.85 goals-against average and a .936 save percentage. Just last week, Scott Meyer of St. Cloud State came to the DECC leading the league and the Bulldogs got seven goals against him in two games. But they lost both of them.
This time, thanks to Anderson’s brilliant play, the only goal given up was Chris Hartsburg’s power-play goal from the right circle with 1:43 left in the second period, and the ‘Dogs doubled their victory total to 2-12-2 in the league and 5-16-2 overall, while CC is 10-5 in WCHA play and 15-5-1 overall. But it was close.
At the start, the Bulldogs couldn’t contain the Tigers speed. At the 9-minute mark, Reid Goolsby gloved a high pass, knocked the puck to the ice, and swung at it. The puck went in, but referee Robin Anderson waved it off, ruling it had been batted in by hand. “I was right behind him,” said Otten. “He knocked the puck down, but I think it went across the line before he swung his stick at it.”
Beau Geisler fed Medak for UMD’s first shot, at 9:48 of the first period, by which time CC already had nine shots at Anderson, plus the one that didn’t count. In that first period, CC’s sophomore Tom Preissing, a can’t-miss NHL defenseman from Rosemount, Minn., twice stickhandled end-to-end through a slow-motion UMD defense, but Anderson thwarted his shots.
“I know Preissing really well, and I was so pumped when I stopped him,” said Anderson.
Which time?
“Both of them,” said Anderson.
After having been thoroughly outplayed through the first period, UMD’s chances looked bleak at the intermission.
“We stood around and watched them for most of the first period,” said UMD coach Scott Sandelin. “We were good spectators. But we recovered from that. We bumped them a little, and played much better in the second period.”
As impressive as CC was in the first period, and in the game for that matter, Tiger coach Scott Owens wasn’t impressed. “I didn’t think we played that well,” he said. “Not compared to the last four weeks. We didn’t play nearly as well as we did against North Dakota, Harvard or Denver.
“We came out flying, but Anderson was good. We’re a very skilled team, but Duluth played a very intelligent, smart game. We gave a team lacking in confidence a lot of confidence tonight, and they deserved to win.”
Because the memory of excruciating last-minute turnabouts against Wisconsin, for example, when a 2-1 lead turned into a 3-2 overtime loss, the final seconds of this one were excruciating. With Zulianello pulled for a sixth attacker, and CC throwing everything at Anderson, referee Robin Anderson blew his whistle and called a penalty. The clock showed 0.01 seconds remaining — one-hundredth of a second.
Medak skated up to Rob Anderson in goal. “He said, ‘If they score with 0.01 left, I’ll shoot myself,’ ” Anderson said. “Then we both looked up and saw that they had put 1.5 seconds back up on the clock. We both went, ‘Oh, no!’ ”
That’s because the Bulldogs had already found that if something can go wrong, it very well might. But that was earlier in the season. Before the Bulldogs learned how to win.
Top 10 Hockey Rankings
BOYS STATE
1. Elk River
2. Armstrong
3. Holy Angels
4. Duluth East
5. White Bear Lake
6. Bloomington Jefferson
7. Roseville
8. Greenway of Coleraine
9. Eden Prairie
10. (tie) Cloquet-Esko-Carlton
Rochester Mayo
BOYS UP NORTH
1. Duluth East
2. Greenway of Coleraine
3. Cloquet-Esko-Carlton
4. Hibbing
5. Ely
6. Grand Rapids
7. Mesabi East
8. Duluth Denfeld
9. Hermantown
10. Duluth Central
GIRLS STATE
1. Roseville
2. Blaine
3. Hibbing
4. Edina
5. Bloomington Jefferson
6. South St. Paul
7. Rosemount
8. Henry Sibley
9. Moorhead
10. Forest Lake
Rooth, Holst get hat tricks as UMD women blitz Northeastern 11-0
If UMD’s tight, tense 3-2 victory over Northeastern on Sunday night was the chance to get back on track from vacation, then the Bulldogs were like a runaway train in Monday night’s 11-0 blowout over the Huskies.
The game completed a six-game sweep for the Bulldogs over Eastern powers New Hampshire, Harvard and — after a three-week break for Christmas — Northeastern. Strangely enough, the Bulldogs now take another week off before heading into the intense schedule of the second half of the Women’s-WCHA race with a series at Minnesota State-Mankato. If the ‘Dogs can simply keep going where they let off against the Huskies, they’ll be in position to make a run at repeating as league champs.
Maria Rooth and Erika Holst scored three goals apiece for the relentless Bulldogs, in their most prolific offensive show of the season. Rooth also had four assists and Holst two, to go with their hat tricks. Brittny Ralph and Laurie Alexander each had a goal and four assists, with Alexander assisting on the game’s first three goals as the Bulldogs sailed ahead 4-0 by the first intermission.
Joanne Eustace, Sanna Peura and Sheena Podovinnikoff also added a goal each, with Eustace also assisting on two.
The No. 2 rated Bulldogs started the weekend celebrating the birth of teammate Jenny Schmidgall’s baby daughter, Madison, on Friday night, and outshot Northeastern 39-19 in Sunday’s nail-biter, but got everything to click from start to finish in the rematch, when the ‘Dogs outshot the Huskies 56-18, making it 95-37 in shots for the weekend. UMD is now 15-4-1.
Northeastern is 11-4 after learning earlier Monday they had vaulted from No. 8 to No. 3 in national ratings. The Huskies beat No. 1 Dartmouth 4-0 on Friday, causing the ratings jump, which came despite losing the 3-2 game Sunday. Monday’s game was not calculated, which was about the only thing that brought a smile to the face of Joy Woog, Northeastern’s interim coach.
“The second period was unbearable,” said Woog. “It was like the longest period I’ve ever seen.”
The Bulldogs whistled six goals into the Northeastern goal in that second period, although that wasn’t all that much worse than the first.
Because Northeastern had gotten progressively better throughout the series opener, and UMD goaltender Tuula Puputti needed to be at her sharpest to allow the Bulldogs to hang on, it seemed that the rematch would be tough from the outset. “We thought so,” said Rooth, whose comment may have indicated the reason for the romp — the Bulldogs anticipated a tough challenge.
Instead, UMD scored four times and outshot Northeastern 22-5 in the first period. Rooth notched her 19th and 20th goals at 4:05 and 5:33, getting the ‘Dogs rolling. “I was behind the net on the first one, and we had two players in front, but the goalie moved out toward them, so I shot for the back of her legs,” said Rooth. “It was mostly luck.”
The goalie was Erika Silva, a senior who had a sterling 1.50 goals-against and a .948 save percentage coming into the game. The puck hit the back of her pad and caromed in. It was luck, but it was calculated luck. A minute and a half later, Rooth broke long up the left side and scored with a low shot to the far side. At 9:11, Eustace came off the left boards with a teammate in front. Again Silva anticipated a pass, and Eustace fired a lot shot right through her for the 3-0 count.
At that point, Woog said, she turned to her assistant to discuss how pulling Silva might affect her, and to her surprise, she turned and saw Silva skate to the bench and pull herself. Chanda Gunn scrambled to find her helmet and facemask and went in, but about one shift later, Silva went back out, putting herself back in the game, too. Woog, who is still trying to get to know her players since stepping in just before the start of the season, was amused about learning something about her ace goalie in the heat of battle.
As if they needed help, UMD got a two-skater power play late in the period and Rooth circled the net for a shot that left a rebound for Holst to convert for the 4-0 lead.
In the six-goal second period, during which UMD outshot the Huskies 18-10, Peura — who made her return from six weeks off for a concussion with a goal on Sunday night — got her second of the weekend on a second rebound. Ralph also scored on a power-play rebound, and this time Woog beat Silva to the change-in-the-fly goaltending by dispatching Gunn from the bench for relief duty.
Silva’s statistics will take a hit from yielding six goals on 27 shots, but Gunn fared no better. Holst scored on yet another power-play rebound, then came the two most impressive goals of the night. Shannon Mikel, who hadn’t scored all season, cranked up from the left boards and ripped a slapshot through a maze of bodies and right past Gunn into the far-side upper corner, a startling goal that made it 8-0 at 11:04 of the middle period.
At 17:56, Eustace rushed up the left side, 1-on-2, and spotted Alexander breaking off right wing. Eustace, whose play seems to improve every game, sent a picture-perfect pass through the skates of a defender, across the slot in perfect position for Alexander to drill with a one-timer at 17:56. Thirty-four seconds later, Rooth completed her hat trick on a rebound, and it was 10-0.
Podovinnikoff deflected Jessica Smith’s shot for the 11th goal to open te third period, then coach Shannon Miller sent Rianna Burke in to relieve Puputti, and Burke faced only one shot through the final 10 minutes.
While the Bulldogs don’t need another break right now, the Huskies don’t get one. They go back to Boston and face ECAC rivals Harvard and Brown this weekend. “That’s probably good,” said Woog. “I told the players all we can do is forget this, and all this can do is help us. As they say, that which doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.”
UMD rallies (again) but comes up short (again), as Huskies sweep
St. Cloud State goaltender Scott Meyer sat motionless in the crease with his back up against the right post and his helmet and facemask removed. He resembled a shipwreck survivor who had been desperately swimming until he found a tiny island, a reasonable parallel to how vigorously he had to work Saturday night’s game at the DECC.
In fact, the entire UMD men’s hockey season was put on display in microscopic detail during the final minute and a half of that 5-4 loss to St. Cloud State. The Huskies 6-3, 5-4 sweep catapulted them to within one point of WCHA leader North Dakota, while UMD was left with a 1-12-1 WCHA record, 4-16-2 overall. The monotony of another explanation about how the team worked like ‘Dogs, and was so close-but-not-quite to winning, was unnecessary because it was all laid bare, for 4,324 fans at the DECC and a rare, regional television audience.
“That was the most determined barrage I’ve faced all year,” said Meyer, the league’s best goaltender with a 1.88 goals-against mark and over 93 percent saves.
Tommy Nelson, a junior center from Superior, had opened the game by holding off defenseman Duvie Westcott with one arm while rushing to the net and scooping a one-handed shot into the far side, scored another flashy goal with 3:40 remaining to lift UMD to within striking distance at 5-4.
With 1:30 showing, Westcott was called for holding, which was not unlike an expired-parking-meter ticket being issued during a civil war, based on the tough, physical intensity of the series. UMD coach Scott Sandelin called time out right then and pulled freshman goaltender Adam Coole, who had battled without much luck as the Huskies rallied from 2-0 and 3-1 deficits with four straight goals.
That gave UMD a 6-on-4 advantage, while the Huskies had Meyer. The Bulldogs threw everything at the net in their most intense closing rally of the season, as Nelson, Judd Medak, Nate Anderson, Mark Carlson, Junior Lessard, and defenseman Andy Reierson stormed the net.
“Carlie, Judd, Junior — we all had shots at it,” said Nelson, whose two goals give him 11 for the season.
Meyer dived, sprawled, scrambled, and engaged in some hand-to-hand combat while making six or eight stops of the elusive puck, which ping-ponged through amazing congestion at the crease. When Meyer finally covered it long enough for a whistle, he paused to do his shipwreck routine, then survived the final seconds.
“I was just praying we could get a handle on the puck,” said Meyer, a little-used back-up from White Bear Lake his first two years, who thrived once pressed into duty last season and has risen to the WCHA’s elite status as a senior. “We really didn’t have much chance to clear the puck, but if we’d ever cleared it, it would have eliminated a lot of stress. Here’s the last-place team in the league, and they come within one goal of us, after playing us tough in the first game, too. It shows you how tough this league is.”
The Huskies rose to 10-4, while the Bulldogs had to settle for a fantastic effort to make up for a couple lapses, and another unwelcome moral victory.
“It’s been that kind of year,” said Adam Coole. “But we WILL come out of it. There’s way too much pride in this dressing room for us not to come out of it.”
The ‘Dogs overcame the habit of falling behind habitually, scoring first in both games. On Saturday, they led 2-0 after one period on Nelson’s goal and Reierson’s two-man power-play blast, and Drew Otten rammed in Craig Pierce’s rebound in the second period to give the Bulldogs a 3-2 lead. St. Cloud’s Westcott and Ryan Malone both scored second-period goals, and Mark Hartigan, Tyler Arnason and Brandon Sampair scored consecutively for the Huskies in the third period against the luckless Coole. UMD outshot the Huskies 33-29 — one shot shy of being the most shots Meyer had faced all season.
But if the weekend had a furious finish, it had a weird start. The record shows Mark Gunderson’s opening goal in Friday’s game being answered by unanswered goals by the Huskies Brian Gaffaney, Malone, Hartigan and Mike Walsh. UMD rallied for third-period goals by Lessard and Jon Francisco, amid two more St. Cloud goals by Arnason and Jon Cullen, and a strong performance by goalie Rob Anderson was undone by some weird bounces off blocked shots. UMD was outshot only 38-36 and both teams had three power-play goals.
However, the weird part was that UMD might also have taken a 2-0 lead in the Friday game, but an apparent goal by Medak was disallowed for the net being dislodged by referee Bill Mason. The WCHA goal judge hadn’t shown up, so Glen Andresen — a UMD student who helps with statistics in the press box — was dispatched to the goal-judge’s booth at the start of the game. Almost immediately, Craig Smith, a more experienced goal judge, was asked to go down and replace Andresen, but while Smith was on his way, the questionable goal was scored at 4:00 of the first period.
“I shot the puck in and it hit the back base of the net and came right back out,” said Medak. But Mason collaborated with Andresen between plexiglass panes at the Zamboni entrance, and as he turned and signaled for a faceoff in the corner, Smith walked up and tapped Andresen on the shoulder and relieved him. The 3,712 fans witnessed the WCHA’s first change-on-the-fly of goal judges, prompting Sandelin to smile and shake his head.
“We can’t even get a ‘homer’ call from a UMD student,” he joked.
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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