New-look Wildcats with hometown flavor run over UMD 7-1
DULUTH, MINN. — When UMD and Northern Michigan meet on a hockey rink, you could say they’d battle like cats and dogs. But in Friday night’s case, score one for the cats. Northern Michigan’s program has changed dramatically in the last two years, and the new-look Wildcats buried the Bulldogs 7-1 with a five-goal third period.
It was a painful step in the restructuring process by new UMD coach Scott Sandelin, whose team was competitive for two and a half periods before a 2-1 game blew up in front of a home crowd announced at 3,635 at the DECC.
“We strive for the third period to be our best,” said Chris Gobert, a 5-foot-9, 164-pound sophomore from Marquette who scored both first-period goals for Northern and completed his hat trick to get the Wildcat rally started in the third period. He may have set some kind of team record by scoring two of his three goals shorthanded.
“We were thinking that they were a good-skating team and we knew they would come out hard in the third period, just as they had in the second,” Gobert added. “With a 2-1 lead, we figured if we could weather the storm, we could be in good position.”
Five straight goals is a pretty effective way to show you’ve weathered the storm. Nobody better embodies the change in design of the Northern Michigan program than Gobert, who was last year’s rookie of the year in the CCHA with 18 goals and 18 assists, but hadn’t scored in five games this season, until Friday.
Under Coach Rick Comley, Northern Michigan had a rich tradition of big, not quick teams that scored so effectively that teams were less than anxious to make the trip to the Upper Peninsula, where Northern was practically unbeatable at Lakeview Arena, a cozy rink which had fast-rounded corners and seemed smaller than its regulation dimensions. Now the Wildcats are in the CCHA, and last year they moved into a new arena, with larger, 200-by-85 foot Olympic rink dimensions. And the team is different, too.
Instead of being populated by large, not-necessarily-fast Canadian players, the current Wildcats are not that big, but they are extremely quick. Comley still recruits top Canadian players, but also hits the USHL and the North American junior leagues in the U.S. He has two Minnesotans — Ambrose Tappe from Maple Grove and Dan Donnette from Anoka — but the big change is that seven Wildcats are from Michigan, including four hometowners from Marquette who grew up watching the Wildcats.
“That’s pretty good from a small town the size of Marquette,” Comley said. “And we have another one coming in next year in Alan Swanson, who is one of three Marquette kids playing for Green Bay in the USHL.”
Gobert is a prize cultivated from that crop. “I was a rink-rat wen I was younger,” he said. “When I was about 9, I’d got to the Wildcat games and wait outside the locker room. It’s unreal to get to play with the kids you grow up with, then get to play with some of them again and get the opportunity to go through this experience with coach Comley.”
Gobert is left wing on the first line, and spent the game buzzing around in UMD’s zone as if he had proprietory rights on the puck. The Wildcats were penalized in the first minute of the game, but Gobert zoomed in shorthanded, only to have his shot thwarted by freshman UMD goaltender Ryan Coole. “I was in too close,” said Gobert.
Three minutes later, Northern was penalized again, and amazingly, Gobert got loose again against the UMD power play. This time Gobert beat Coole, with a deke to his backhand and a shot from the left edge at 4:10.
Northern held command of all the loose pucks, to say nothing of the flow of the game, for the rest of the first period and made it 2-0 when Gobert struck again at 11:38, after the Wildcats pelted Coole with shots on a flurry until the little sophomore put it away. “I was just in the right place at the right time, and I shot it off the post and it went in,” Gobert said.
UMD came out with some fire to open the second period, and cut the deficit to 2-1 at 0:33 when Jesse Fibiger shot from the point and freshman Nick Anderson plunked the rebound. And that, as they say, was about the end of the highlights for the home side. The ‘Dogs stayed at 2-1 until the second intermission, and through the first 10 minutes of the third. But thenÂ…it was as if the DECC roof caved in.
“It was 2-1 after two, and they’re in a fragile situation,” Comley said. “If they came out and got that second goal, it might have been completely different.”
Anything different would have been welcome by the sparse crowd, who saw the Bulldogs outshot 45-25 for the game. At the 10-minute mark of the third period, UMD defenseman Mark Carlson carried deep into the right corner on a power play and flung a wide-angle shot that Northern goaltender Craig Kowalski had no trouble stopping. It was the last shot on goal that any Bulldog managed in the game.
Before that UMD power play expired, Gobert was sprung by a Jimmy Jackson pass for yet another breakaway at 10:33, racing in solo to score again — completing a hat trick for a 3-1 lead with his second shorthanded goal. “I didn’t have any shorthanded last year,” he said.
It was difficult to tell whether UMD suffered a complete collapse at that point or whether Northern just got fired up. Probably it was a combination of both. At 12:04, Colin Young banked a pass ahead off the right side boards and threaded it perfectly to Chad Theuer, who carried to the right circle and fired a shot right through Coole to make it 4-1. At 13:09, the Wildcats scored almost an instant-replay goal, as Ambrose Tappe carried up the right side and shot from the circle, beating Coole for a 5-1 cushion.
When the ‘Cats got a power play in the closing minutes, Sean Connolly passed crisply from the point to the right circle, where Dave Bonk promptly relayed it across the slot, and Brent Robertson one-timed his shot for a 6-1 lead at 17:55. At 18:34, Mike Stutzel steered in a Connolly shot to complete the romp.
While it’s characteristic for the coaches to exchange pleasantries after a two-game series, Comley made a point to walk directly to Sandelin on the ice when the game ended. “I told him to hang in there,” said Comley. “They’ll get the job done, but it’ll take time.”
Bulldogs blown out 9-2 by free-wheeling Gophers for sweep
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. — As Saturday night’s WCHA game continued, UMD’s objectives became simpler. First, it was to try to gain a split of their opening series. Then it was to try to get back in the game from an early deficit. And finally, it was an attempt to win the third period, just to have something to take home from Mariucci Arena.
But when the Bulldogs climbed on their bus for the post-game ride Up North, they were empty-handed. Minnesota supported its early lead with a four-goal second period frolicked to a 9-2 victory before 9,731 fans at Mariucci Arena.
“I knew there’d be some ups and downs,” said Scott Sandelin, who just watched his new team play its first series with him as head coach. “This was a ‘down.’ We got beat by a helluva team. They came to play tonight and they beat us in every phase of the game — skating, beating us to loose pucks. Our goal in the third period was just to win the period.”
Minnesota outshot UMD 43-29, and when the Bulldogs pulled themselves together to try to at least win the third period, and, despite goals by Andy Reierson and Nick Anderson, they fell 3-2 at that modest task as well.
The Bulldogs, who played well enough to win Friday’s game before losing 3-1 on two power-play goals and an open-netter, weren’t in the rematch until the Gophers had six goals on the board. In WCHA hockey, too little-too late is the recipe for disaster. For the Gophers, it was the ninth straight victory over UMD, dating back to the Bulldogs’ 2-of-3 playoff series triumph in 1998, and it meant the Bulldog seniors have never won a game at Mariucci Arena.
“They really played hard last night,” said Gopher coach Don Lucia, about his just-vanquished foe. “They had to be a little spent from that, and once we got going, we had nine different guys score goals.”
The first goal, just 2:05 into the game, was questionable. UMD goaltender Rob Anderson blocked Jeff Taffe’s shot and Troy Riddle’s rebound try, but when he went down to smother the puck, Riddle stabbed his stickblade under Anderson and poked the puck in before it was blown dead. But there wasn’t much question about the other Gopher tallies.
A Gopher rush seemed to be defused when a pass bounced over a stick in the slot, but Ben Tharp moved in from left point and drilled a screened shot into the upper right corner of the net at 8:15 for the 2-0 first period, in which the Gophers outshot UMD 15-6.
The ‘Dogs were still in position to get back in the game, and appeared to do just that when Beau Geisler ripped a slapshot that caught the net on a power play two minutes into the second period. But referee Don Adam blew his whistle and called UMD for a man in the crease, presumably when Judd Medak had a skate in the right edge of the designated area. That would have made it 2-1, and maybe it could have rejuventated UMD. Instead, the Gophers swarmed the net.
At 9:37, former Duluth East defenseman Nick Angell bombed a low slapshot in from the left point with each team a man short. The Bulldogs were killing a Medak penalty when Adam signalled a delayed second call on Ryan Homstol, and Matt Koalska made it 3-0 on the delay. That meant Medak got to leave the penalty box, but Homstol took his spot, and on THAT power play, it became 5-0 as Johnny Pohl spun away from the defenders in front and deposited the puck in the net at 15:20.
Two minutes later, Anderson went down making a save, and two teammates went down in front of him, hoping to block any rebound tries, but Gopher defenseman Jordan Leopold backed out of the congestion and lifted his shot in over the menagerie for the 6-0 count.
Sandelin pulled the beleaguered Anderson — “It wasn’t his fault,” the coach said — and sent in freshman goalie Adam Coole to start the third period. Reierson got the zero off UMD’s side of the scoreboard with a goal at 1:42, moving in from the point to score on Mark Gunderson’s pass out from behind the net. But even then, the Gophers wouldn’t let up.
Mike Miskovich was penalized for roughing at 2:07, and had to watch his brother, Gopher senior Aaron Miskovich, score another power-play goal, this time from the right side of the net on a carom-shot off Coole at 2:44.
“The goalie had his stick in the way,” said Aaron. “I was lucky to hit it and the puck bounced in, but I saw the stick there. It all evens out. I had a slapshot that he never saw, and the puck hit the knob of his stick.”
The Bulldogs got a power play of their own next, and Nick Anderson deflected Geisler’s point shot into the left edge at 4:33.
Again, however, the Gophers roared back, with Matt Leimbeck moving in near the top of the left circle for a shot that hit Coole but trickled through his legs for an 8-2 count at 6:51.
Erik Wendell finished the rout with Minnesota’s fourth power-play goal of the game and sixth of the weekend.
“I came in here to find out about our team,” said Sandelin. “Some guys were great, and some need to find it.”
Bulldogs blown out 9-2 by free-wheeling Gophers for sweep
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. — As Saturday night’s WCHA game continued, UMD’s objectives became simpler. First, it was to try to gain a split of their opening series. Then it was to try to get back in the game from an early deficit. And finally, it was an attempt to win the third period, just to have something to take home from Mariucci Arena.
But when the Bulldogs climbed on their bus for the post-game ride Up North, they were empty-handed. Minnesota supported its early lead with a four-goal second period frolicked to a 9-2 victory before 9,731 fans at Mariucci Arena.
“I knew there’d be some ups and downs,” said Scott Sandelin, who just watched his new team play its first series with him as head coach. “This was a ‘down.’ We got beat by a helluva team. They came to play tonight and they beat us in every phase of the game — skating, beating us to loose pucks. Our goal in the third period was just to win the period.”
Minnesota outshot UMD 43-29, and when the Bulldogs pulled themselves together to try to at least win the third period, and, despite goals by Andy Reierson and Nick Anderson, they fell 3-2 at that modest task as well.
The Bulldogs, who played well enough to win Friday’s game before losing 3-1 on two power-play goals and an open-netter, weren’t in the rematch until the Gophers had six goals on the board. In WCHA hockey, too little-too late is the recipe for disaster. For the Gophers, it was the ninth straight victory over UMD, dating back to the Bulldogs’ 2-of-3 playoff series triumph in 1998, and it meant the Bulldog seniors have never won a game at Mariucci Arena.
“They really played hard last night,” said Gopher coach Don Lucia, about his just-vanquished foe. “They had to be a little spent from that, and once we got going, we had nine different guys score goals.”
The first goal, just 2:05 into the game, was questionable. UMD goaltender Rob Anderson blocked Jeff Taffe’s shot and Troy Riddle’s rebound try, but when he went down to smother the puck, Riddle stabbed his stickblade under Anderson and poked the puck in before it was blown dead. But there wasn’t much question about the other Gopher tallies.
A Gopher rush seemed to be defused when a pass bounced over a stick in the slot, but Ben Tharp moved in from left point and drilled a screened shot into the upper right corner of the net at 8:15 for the 2-0 first period, in which the Gophers outshot UMD 15-6.
The ‘Dogs were still in position to get back in the game, and appeared to do just that when Beau Geisler ripped a slapshot that caught the net on a power play two minutes into the second period. But referee Don Adam blew his whistle and called UMD for a man in the crease, presumably when Judd Medak had a skate in the right edge of the designated area. That would have made it 2-1, and maybe it could have rejuventated UMD. Instead, the Gophers swarmed the net.
At 9:37, former Duluth East defenseman Nick Angell bombed a low slapshot in from the left point with each team a man short. The Bulldogs were killing a Medak penalty when Adam signalled a delayed second call on Ryan Homstol, and Matt Koalska made it 3-0 on the delay. That meant Medak got to leave the penalty box, but Homstol took his spot, and on THAT power play, it became 5-0 as Johnny Pohl spun away from the defenders in front and deposited the puck in the net at 15:20.
Two minutes later, Anderson went down making a save, and two teammates went down in front of him, hoping to block any rebound tries, but Gopher defenseman Jordan Leopold backed out of the congestion and lifted his shot in over the menagerie for the 6-0 count.
Sandelin pulled the beleaguered Anderson — “It wasn’t his fault,” the coach said — and sent in freshman goalie Adam Coole to start the third period. Reierson got the zero off UMD’s side of the scoreboard with a goal at 1:42, moving in from the point to score on Mark Gunderson’s pass out from behind the net. But even then, the Gophers wouldn’t let up.
Mike Miskovich was penalized for roughing at 2:07, and had to watch his brother, Gopher senior Aaron Miskovich, score another power-play goal, this time from the right side of the net on a carom-shot off Coole at 2:44.
“The goalie had his stick in the way,” said Aaron. “I was lucky to hit it and the puck bounced in, but I saw the stick there. It all evens out. I had a slapshot that he never saw, and the puck hit the knob of his stick.”
The Bulldogs got a power play of their own next, and Nick Anderson deflected Geisler’s point shot into the left edge at 4:33.
Again, however, the Gophers roared back, with Matt Leimbeck moving in near the top of the left circle for a shot that hit Coole but trickled through his legs for an 8-2 count at 6:51.
Erik Wendell finished the rout with Minnesota’s fourth power-play goal of the game and sixth of the weekend.
“I came in here to find out about our team,” said Sandelin. “Some guys were great, and some need to find it.”
Bulldogs caught short in tight, tough 3-1 opening loss to Gophers
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. — UMD’s hockey team was full of surprises Friday night, but new coach Scott Sandelin got a close-up and personal look at the kind of cruel twists that can ruin a big night, and the Bulldogs fell 3-1 in their WCHA opener against arch-rival Minnesota.
The Bulldogs had taken on the highly regarded Gophers and their announced capacity crowd of 9,749 fans — although there were probably at least 1,000 empty seats at Mariucci Arena — and they battled them to a 1-1 standoff through what appeared to be a remarkably one-sided selection of penalty calls by Don Adam.
It wasn’t bad enough that the Bulldogs were absorbing as many hits as they dished out, but were whistled for five of the first seven penalties in the first two periods. The back-breaker came to open the third period, when Adam called rookie defenseman Jay Hardwick for high-sticking at 7:28, then, after one moderate chop to the stick by Jesse Fibiger while killing the penalty, Adam banished Fibiger for slashing at 7:52.
That gave the Gophers a 2-man power play for 1:36, and while the Bulldogs did a near-heroic job of blocking shots and preventing close-in threats, Jeff Taffe played a carom off the end boards and flicked a quick shot in at the right edge of the net at 8:37.
That broke the 1-1 tie, although the Bulldogs kept battling to the end, when Erik Westrum blocked the puck free from Derek Derow and skated in alone to score his second goal of the game into an empty-net for the clincher with 47 seconds left.
“We did a great job of killing penalties, and we even killed most of that 5-on-3, but it killed us,” said Sandelin, who diplomatically said he had not encouraged the officials to help his young Bulldogs practice penalty-killing.
Gopher coach Don Lucia, a Grand Rapids native, said he noticed some changes in the UMD style under Sandelin’s staff. “No question, there’s a lot more influence of shot-blocking, probably from Mark Strobel,” said Lucia. “They tried to play well defensively, and they didn’t have to play aggressively on offense, with their goaltender playing great.”
The goaltender was the first surprise. Sandelin reversed directions on his starting goaltender and went with freshman Adam Coole, after planning, right up until pre-game meal time, to go with sophomore Rob Anderson. “I just went with a gut feeling on the goaltender, and he played tremendously,” said Sandelin.
The next surprise was a stunning one. At 1:44 of the first period, there was a whistle for offside. UMD freshman center Jim Murphy, who had scored two goals against Regina in Sunday’s 9-1 exhibition game, was on a collision course with Gopher Taffe. Murphy pulled his arm up to avoid the impact, but when Taffe hit him, after the whistle, Murphy crumpled to the ice, his left arm broken. Adam gave a penalty on the play — but to UMD’s Tom Nelson, for an inadvertent high stick.
On that power play, no surprise. Westrum circled out to the slot and whistled a screened shot into the upper left corner of the net from 30 feet.
“That got me into the game in a hurry,” said Coole, a former Duluth East netminder. “I got caught looking the wrong way on the screen and never saw the shot. But basically, I said, ‘OK, now I know what it feels like to get scored on.’ It took me a couple more saves, and into the second period, to feel like I belonged here. They had a lot of shots, but a lot of perimeter shots. The guys played really great in front of me, especially the defense.”
The Bulldogs battled back, and the two wingers who sat out Sunday’s game, captain Derek Derow and sophomore Drew Otten, both had a hand in getting the ‘Dogs barking. Derow threw two or three solid bodychecks on his first shift, right after Westrum’s goal, and at 7:50 of the opening period Derow tied the game 1-1 after a stylish rush from UMD’s zone.
Tom Nelson, a junior from Superior, broke out of the UMD end and passed to Nate Anderson, who rushed up the left side. Both Gopher defensemen Ben Tharp and Duluth East grad Nick Angell were back, but Derow came from the bench after changing on the fly. When Tharp and Angell both converged to nail Anderson, he flipped a neat little pass across to Derow, who zoomed in alone and scored on one-time Greenway of Coleraine goaltender Adam Hauser.
“I was kinda late getting into the zone, coming off the bench,” said Derow, who was seeing his first action since missing all of training camp recovering from minor knee surgery. “Nellie had thrown it to Nate and he threw it to me. I brought the puck to my forehand and shot between the goalie’s legs.
“It was tough. They scored twice on the power play, and we didn’t, but 5-on-5, we beat ’em.”
The Gophers outshot UMD in every period, 33-13 for the game, but the Bulldogs were playing their role perfectly, setting up a defensive fortress to guard Coole from having to make any second stops to hold the 1-1 game into the third period. Plus, they were killing all those penalties. UMD wound up with only an 8-6 edge in penalties when three of the last four went against the Gophers.
The UMD coaching staff was mostly perturbed about the last noncall, and they held a very orderly session with Adam about reviewing it on videotape for possible notification of the league office.
Westrum, who has gotten the reputation as a cheapshot operator for three years, and who reportedly has seen the light as Gopher captain, pursued Fibiger to the UMD end boards on an icing call with five minutes left. The whistle blew for the automatic icing, Fibiger pulled up, and Westrum delivered a quick cross-check to send the UMD senior flying awkwardly into the end boards. No penalty was assessed, even though similar checks from behind have been given major and disqualifications in recent years.
That inflamed the Bulldogs more because they had just seen a 1-1 game change because of questionable calls against them.
“Games are decided in the third period, and you’ve got to win the third period,” said Lucia. “All along, I thought we were getting most of the shots, but when it was 1-1, if the puck popped free, that’s all it would take.”
UMD women third in national college hockey ratings
North Dakota retained the No. 1 men’s hockey rating in the country despite having tied its first three games before winning last Saturday for a 1-0-1 weekend at Maine. Wisconsin is second in the country, while Minnesota is seventh and St. Cloud 10th, giving the WCHA four of the top 10 teams in the U.S. College Hockey Online poll.
Minnesota is second to Dartmouth with UMD third in the USCHO women’s national ratings, with Wisconsin — this weekend’s UMD foe — rated 10th.
Here are the ratings, prior to this weekend:
USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll
Team (First Place Votes) Record Pts Last
1 North Dakota (22) 1-0-3 564 1
2 Wisconsin (12) 4-0-0 546 3
3 Boston College (3) 2-0-0 506 4
4 Michigan (3) 2-0-2 504 2
5 New Hampshire 2-0-1 429 9
6 Michigan State 1-0-1 377 5
7 Minnesota 2-0-0 295 11
8 Maine 0-1-1 281 8
9 Boston University 0-1-0 200 7
10 St. Cloud 1-0-1 153 12
11 Rensselaer 1-0-0 151 19
12 Lake Superior 3-0-0 150 14
13 Colorado College 2-0-0 144 15
14 St. Lawrence 0-1-0 142 6
15 Cornell 0-0-0 137 10
Others receiving votes: Colgate 104, Nebraska-Omaha 50,
Northeastern 31, Harvard 16, Miami 6, Denver 5,
Northern Michigan 22, Niagara 2, Western Michigan 2,
Air Force 1
USCHO.com Division I Women’s Preseason Poll
October 16, 2000
Team (First Place) Record Pts Last
1 Dartmouth (3) 0-0-0 93 4
2 Minnesota (5) 2-0-0 92 3
3 Minnesota-Duluth (2) 2-0-0 84 2
4 Brown 0-0-0 65 1
5 Harvard 0-0-0 60 5
6 St Lawrence 0-2-0 39 –
7 Northeastern 0-0-0 34 6
8 New Hampshire 0-0-0 30 7
9 Niagara 0-0-0 18 –
10 Wisconsin 2-0-0 13 –
Others receiving votes: Providence 11, Ohio State 6,
Princeton 4, Cornell 1
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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