Long Jefferson game not long enough for slow-starting Greyhounds
EDINA, MINN.- Playing 20-minute periods can make the games at the Edina Holiday Classic high school hockey tournament changes a lot about the games. For Duluth East, Tuesday night’s first-round battle seemed too long in the first period, but not long enough at the finish.
No. 2 ranked Bloomington Jefferson grabbed a 3-0 lead as Matt Duncan set up a goal and scored twice in the startling first period before rallying furiously the rest of the game to close the gap to 3-2, only to fall 4-2 on Mike Bernhagen’s 150-foot empty-net goal in the final 31 seconds at Braemar Arena.
“It sure would have been nice to see overtime,” said East coach Mike Randolph, whose team slipped to a 6-3 record, while Jefferson rose to 8-1 for the season.
East’s rugged independent schedule, unanimously acclaimed as the toughest in the state, is made even tougher by preseason scrimmages against the state’s elite teams, and that may have helped Jefferson in the game. “They beat us four or five to nothing in a scrimmage,” said Jefferson assistant Mike Thomas.
Memory of that encounter sent the Jaguars flying into the first period. At 2:43, Duncan broke free in his own end and raced up the right side 2-on-1, making a perfect goal-mouth pass to Jim Humbert at the left pipe, and Humbert left goalie Dan Hoehne no chance for a 1-0 lead.
At 6:03, Nick Coffman passed out of the left corner to Duncan, in the slot, and Duncan picked the upper left corner before cutting loose with a deadly wrist shot. East came back strong for the rest of the first period, but at 19:19, Coffman, Humbert and Duncan forechecked hard in the left corner, and Duncan circled out to the slot and again drilled a shot inside the left pipe.
East outshot Jefferson 37-29, rallying after being outshot 10-9 in the first period to volley 28 shots to 19 for the Jaguars the rest of the way. East got untracked in the second period after Jefferson had iced the puck. Bryan Olds got the right corner faceoff to Nick Licari, whose shot was blocked by a defender, before Licari recovered the puck and shot past goaltender Jeremy Earl at 5:17.
But East couldn’t close the 3-1 gap as Jefferson’s penalty killing survived one test in the second period and three more in the third. Finally, at 16:19 of the final period, Seth Amadio scored with a low, screened shot from the point to make it 3-2.
East applied tremendous closing pressure, with Hoehne pulled for the last 1:32. Weston Tardy’s point shot was stopped, and in the following flurry it appeared the puck crossed the goal line, but Jefferson’s Kory Stark grabbed the puck and threw it off the glass at the end boards. He was penalized for delay of game, giving East a 6-on-4 advantage, but Bernhagen got the puck near the boards and zipped a shot 150 feet into the open net.
East lost junior defenseman Mike Stellmaker with a shoulder injury, and he’ll miss the rest of the round-robin tournament, which includes games against Edina (Wednesday) and Hill-Murray (Thursday). Edina beat Hill-Murray 5-2 in Tuesday’s opener.
Long Jefferson game not long enough for slow-starting Greyhounds
EDINA, MINN.- Playing 20-minute periods can make the games at the Edina Holiday Classic high school hockey tournament changes a lot about the games. For Duluth East, Tuesday night’s first-round battle seemed too long in the first period, but not long enough at the finish.
No. 2 ranked Bloomington Jefferson grabbed a 3-0 lead as Matt Duncan set up a goal and scored twice in the startling first period before rallying furiously the rest of the game to close the gap to 3-2, only to fall 4-2 on Mike Bernhagen’s 150-foot empty-net goal in the final 31 seconds at Braemar Arena.
“It sure would have been nice to see overtime,” said East coach Mike Randolph, whose team slipped to a 6-3 record, while Jefferson rose to 8-1 for the season.
East’s rugged independent schedule, unanimously acclaimed as the toughest in the state, is made even tougher by preseason scrimmages against the state’s elite teams, and that may have helped Jefferson in the game. “They beat us four or five to nothing in a scrimmage,” said Jefferson assistant Mike Thomas.
Memory of that encounter sent the Jaguars flying into the first period. At 2:43, Duncan broke free in his own end and raced up the right side 2-on-1, making a perfect goal-mouth pass to Jim Humbert at the left pipe, and Humbert left goalie Dan Hoehne no chance for a 1-0 lead.
At 6:03, Nick Coffman passed out of the left corner to Duncan, in the slot, and Duncan picked the upper left corner before cutting loose with a deadly wrist shot. East came back strong for the rest of the first period, but at 19:19, Coffman, Humbert and Duncan forechecked hard in the left corner, and Duncan circled out to the slot and again drilled a shot inside the left pipe.
East outshot Jefferson 37-29, rallying after being outshot 10-9 in the first period to volley 28 shots to 19 for the Jaguars the rest of the way. East got untracked in the second period after Jefferson had iced the puck. Bryan Olds got the right corner faceoff to Nick Licari, whose shot was blocked by a defender, before Licari recovered the puck and shot past goaltender Jeremy Earl at 5:17.
But East couldn’t close the 3-1 gap as Jefferson’s penalty killing survived one test in the second period and three more in the third. Finally, at 16:19 of the final period, Seth Amadio scored with a low, screened shot from the point to make it 3-2.
East applied tremendous closing pressure, with Hoehne pulled for the last 1:32. Weston Tardy’s point shot was stopped, and in the following flurry it appeared the puck crossed the goal line, but Jefferson’s Kory Stark grabbed the puck and threw it off the glass at the end boards. He was penalized for delay of game, giving East a 6-on-4 advantage, but Bernhagen got the puck near the boards and zipped a shot 150 feet into the open net.
East lost junior defenseman Mike Stellmaker with a shoulder injury, and he’ll miss the rest of the round-robin tournament, which includes games against Edina (Wednesday) and Hill-Murray (Thursday). Edina beat Hill-Murray 5-2 in Tuesday’s opener.
State high school hockey rankings
BOYS STATE
1. Eden Prairie
2. Bloomington Jefferson
3. Duluth East
4. Elk River
5. Greenway of Coleraine
6. Rochester Mayo
7. Moorhead
8. Armstrong
9. White Bear Lake
10. Cloquet-Esko-Carlton
BOYS UP NORTH
1. Duluth East
2. Greenway of Coleraine
3. Cloquet-Esko-Carlton
4. Hibbing
5. Grand Rapids
6. Hermantown
7. Marshall
8. Ely
9. Denfeld
10. Superior
GIRLS STATE
1. Blaine
2. Roseville
3. South St. Paul
4. Edina
5. Hibbing
6. Henry Sibley
7. Wayzata
8. Forest Lake
9. Bemidji
10. Bloomington Jefferson
Bulldogs hit halfway break last in WCHA, but 1 goal from 2nd place
Eighteen down, 18 to go. The UMD men’s hockey team reached the midpoint of its season with Saturday’s tough 2-1 loss to Denver, which followed a tough 1-1 tie against the Pioneers. Those two games portrayed quite accurately where the Bulldogs are — artistically and figuratively, if not actually — as they follow up an exhausting grind by doingÂ…nothing.
The Bulldogs are off, from now until Christmas. “A few players might have a final exam to finish early in the week, but when they’re done with finals, they’re home,” said coach Scott Sandelin. “They don’t have to be back until the 26th.”
UMD plays Merrimack from Hockey East and Colgate from the ECAC on Dec. 28 and 29, with Western Michigan also participating, in the Silverado Shootout at the DECC. That will give the Bulldogs a chance to get their game back in order for 16 WCHA games on consecutive weekends. “Some guys are playing their best, some guys need a break, but we’ve talked about it, and I hope all the players realize and believe how much we’ve improved and how close we are,” said Sandelin.
Exactly how close the Bulldogs are can best be described by the Denver series, after which the case could be made that the Bulldogs are one goal away from second place. The Pioneers came into the DECC as the league’s hottest team, and the ‘Dogs played the Pioneers virtually even all weekend. When it was over, Denver’s 7-0-2 unbeaten streak puts the Pioneers at 8-5-1 in the WCHA (9-7-2 overall), as Saturday’s victory vaulted them past Minnesota, Wisconsin and Colorado College to claim undisputed second place in the WCHA.
UMD, in last place at 1-10-1 (4-13-1 overall), is 0-9-1 against the top five teams — 1-1 against Michigan Tech, the only team the ‘Dogs have played that was not among the top five contenders. The tough schedule also means that in the second half of the season, UMD’s toughest foes — St. Cloud State, Colorado College, North Dakota and Minnesota — all must come to the DECC to play.
Denver coach George Gwozdecky said before the series how dangerous UMD is, and he was proven correct. The Pioneers rose from a start to the season similar to UMD’s by learning how to win. Saturday’s victory gives Denver 17 points in the WCHA, four behind North Dakota, but ahead of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Colorado College and St. Cloud State. But even the Denver players left the weekend impressed with the Bulldogs.
“There are about six teams in the race, and for us to come back home in second place is a big boost,” said Denver goaltender Dubielewicz. “But I look at Duluth right now, and they’re not far from it. They’re a great team, and they outworked us for a lot of the time.”
Dubielewicz led his team’s turnaround after a bleak 1-7 start. By allowing just one goal each game, Dubielewicz reinforced his WCHA-leading goals-against average, dropping it to 1.80, and he took over the top save percentage at .933. “I’ve had a few games where I was pretty solid, but our defense and penalty killing have been great. Our defense blocks more shots than I do,” said the sophomore from Chilliwack, British Columbia. He, in turn, praised Rob Anderson’s weekend in the UMD goal, which matched Dubielewicz for brilliance both nights.
Friday night’s 1-1 tie was inspiring to UMD because Tommy Nelson’s ninth goal of the season, with 5:26 to go in the third period, rewarded determined pursuit of the Pioneers from the 1:36 mark of the first period, when a Lukas Dora goal had staked Denver to the lead. The second game was far more entertaining and fast-paced, but contained a cruel ending and another in a long series of hard lessons for the Bulldogs.
After the first half of the game was scoreless, Derek Derow found the puck when Andy Reierson’s point shot was blocked by a defenseman, and Derow’s quick release found the upper right corner for a 1-0 UMD lead, even while Denver was outshooting UMD 15-8 in the middle session. The Pioneers struck for two sudden goals early in the third period. Kelly Popadynetz tied the game at 1:32, after J.J. Hartman had retrieved his own close-range rebound from behind the net and fed out front. At 4:26, David Neale barged to the net and got just free enough to find another blocked shot and score with a backhander at the right edge.
The Bulldogs threw everything they could muster at Dubielewicz, including a six-skater attack for the final 1:53, but they were left with the sting of a 2-1 loss, but, Sandelin stressed, he hoped the Bulldogs realized that this wasn’t just another loss, but hopefully the last in a series of tough lessons.
“I’m not happy losing, and I don’t want to accept it,” said Sandelin, who was particularly frustrated by the way the Bulldogs opened the third period Saturday night. “It’s a mystery to me how you can have a 1-0 lead in the third period, on a Saturday night, and instead of going out and going after it, we let them come at us. Our mistakes are getting fewer, but they’re still costing us. The lesson we learned was that we beat ourselves. We had two 5-minute lapses for the weekend against Denver, and they might have prevented us from getting four points out of the series.”
If that sounded a bit Grinch-like, the hard lesson the coaching staff has learned is that the kind of killer instinct that burns so intensely within the entire coaching staff, remains to be developed in a team that has not yet learned how to win. That remains for the second half.
Otherwise, the ‘Dogs have learned everything Sandelin, Steve Rohlik and Mark Strobel have installed. Anderson’s goaltending, the scoring of Nate Anderson (10 goals) and Nelson (9 goals), the emergence of the line of Nelson-Mark Carlson-Judd Medak, the leadership of defenseman Andy Reierson, and the overall team work-ethic, all are strong points that emerged during the first half.
The coaches themselves have learned to be patient, no matter how impatient they might be to coax, urge, push and demand getting over the last hurdle, and winning.
“I just hope the players spend the break realizing how far we’ve come, and how close we are,” said Sandelin, who has driven the Bulldogs hard for three months, but for their sake, and not for his own ego. Personally, Sandelin’s holiday spirit is a lot closer to Santa Claus than the Grinch.
UMD women beat Harvard 5-2, sweep No. 2 women’s puck power
It doesn’t matter where they’re rated, the UMD women’s hockey Bulldogs staked a claim to being one of the best teams in the country by jumping to an early 3-0 lead and cruising to a stunning 5-2 victory over Harvard on Sunday afternoon, for a sweep of the nation’s No. 2 rated Crimson.
When UMD beat New Hampshire 3-0 and 8-1 last weekend, the Wildcats undoubtedly were the best team ever to come to the DECC to face UMD in a women’s game, but that was only true until Harvard showed up. With a nucleus from what was probably the best team in the country a year ago, Harvard’s top two scorers also are stars for Canada’s national team.
In the Four Nations Cup a month ago, Canada beat the U.S. for the gold medal with Harvard’s Jennifer Botterill and Tammy Shewchuk among its top players; Finland won the bronze with UMD’s Tuula Puputti in goal, Hanne Sikio and injured Sanna Peura at forward, and Satu Kiipeli on defense; and Sweden was fourth with UMD’s Maria Rooth and Erika Holst among its top players. So this was the first time UMD and Harvard had met in women’s hockey, and also was the first time UMD’s “Team International” players had ever beaten Botterill and Shewchuk after over a dozen setbacks to them in international play.
Canadian pride also won points, because UMD coach Shannon Miller, the former Canada Olympic coach, came up with a perfect pregame psychological ploy. And defenseman Navada Russell, from Calgary, played possibly her best game at UMD, including two slapshots from the point for goals, one for herself and one for Rooth on a shorthanded deflection.
The weekend belonged to UMD (12-4-1) over Harvard (8-5), but there were international undertones. Award the end of the game to Finland, because Puputti concluded her fourth straight game of brilliant goaltending by stopping all 15 Harvard shots. Harvard had the only four power plays in the third period and eight power plays to UMD’s two for the game, but a 40-32 edge in shots was defused because Puputti had 38 saves.
The start of the game qualified as detente, proving that international rivals Sweden and Finland can work together effectively: Rooth opened the scoring by taking Kiipeli’s bank-pass off the right boards in for a goal at 4:44; Sikio got the puck from Holst’s right corner draw before circling to the net for a shot and jamming in her own rebound at 6:58; then Sikio returned the favor by delivering a slick pass from behind the net for Holst to put away at 9:05.
Duluthian Alison Kuusisto in the Harvard nets was the victim of the surprising fast start, and coach Katey Stone replaced Kuusisto with Jessica Ruddock at that point. Harvard later came back to close the deficit to 4-2, but Rooth scored on the shorthanded deflection of Russell’s shot to end the second period. Rooth has 18 goals for the season to Sikio’s 17, although both shook their heads about any intramural competition for the team goal-scoring lead. Such individual achievements are alien to the Swedish and Finnish sports cultures.
For Canadians, there is a little more of an edge to competitiveness, such as with Shewchuk, an always-hustling senior from St. Laurent, Quebec, who grew up playing AAA Midget hockey with boys in Montreal, and suggested that UMD was very physical and used high sticks quite liberally. Referee Jerry Krieger seemed to agree in principle, because the game didn’t seem overly physical but he called nine penalties on UMD to three for Harvard, including the last seven consecutive penalties on the Bulldogs.
“I’m sure they celebrated beating us,” said Shewchuk. “Whenever you pull on a Canadian jersey, everybody wants to beat you, and whenever you pull on a Harvard jersey, everybody wants to beat you. They have a very good goalie, and I remember playing against her. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her beaten on a first shot, but she definitely leaves a lot of rebounds. We just had a hard time capitalizing.”
There were no sour grapes from Botterill, who simply said: “They’ve got a great team.”
Puputti said she and her teammates are well aware of Botterill, who had 11 shots Sunday after getting 8 Saturday, and is probably the most impressive individual player UMD has faced in its two years. Shewchuk had 8 shots Sunday and 3 Saturday. “We didn’t talk about beating those two before the series, but we knew they were there and that they would be good offensive threats,” said Puputti. “After we won the first game, we talked about it. And today, somebody said, ‘Is there anything better than beating Harvard?’ The answer is, ‘Yes; beating Harvard twice.’ ”
After Rooth, Sikio and Holst gave UMD a strong 3-0 start, Kalen Ingram knocked one past Puputti amid a scramble at the crease to end the first period 3-1. The only other goal Harvard got came after Russell’s screened slapshot from the left point had made it 4-1, only 45 seconds into the second period. Jamie Hagerman scored on a screened power-play shot from the blue line after Botterill’s corner draw at 15:22, but Russell came back to turn a penalty-kill into an advantage with seven seconds left in the middle period with a blast from the point tipped into an open net by Rooth.
“I’ve been concentrating on hitting the net more, and I’m not sure that second one would have been in, but Maria deflected it, and that made it a sure thing,” said Russell. “I’ve played with Botterill a couple of times, back home in Calgary. She is an amazing skater, and a totally heads-up player. She and Shewchuk are fast and work together well, and Harvard is a really good team. They brought out the best in us, and sweeping them is exactly the best message to send back to the East Coast.”
UMD coach Miller was concerned about lackadaisical starts, which had contributed to some problems for the skilled Bulldogs this season. In Saturday’s opener, they had to rally from a 3-1 deficit to claim a pulsating 4-3 victory as Joanne Eustace set up Maria Rooth and then scored twice herself, the last one coming with 28 seconds left. So she was preparing for a hard-core session of coaching lecture, until inspiration prevented her from over-coaching.
“I watched the tape of the first game over and over,” said Miller. “I was going to put together a tape of everything I wanted them to do, but then I changed my mind. Instead, I made a video clip of all the funny things we’ve done, and I showed it to the players right before the game. They got a good laugh out of it. Then I told them, ‘Look, you know what you have to do, now I want you to recognize all the fun you’ve had, and all the hard work you’ve done, and just go out there and release it all.’ ”
With that, the Bulldogs hit the DECC ice, scored three goals on seven shots in the first nine minutes, and never looked back.
“It wasn’t Kuusisto’s fault, though,” said Miller. “In the first game, Harvard had the puck for the first 10 minutes; today, we had the puck for the first 10 minutes and scored three goals.”
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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