Conner’s 4 touchdowns help UMD celebrate Senior Day 45-13
Erik Conner scored four touchdowns on one side of the ball Saturday, while UMD linebackers Justin Hipple, Jimmy Malo and Chris Markas each nabbed an interception on the other, as the UMD Bulldogs celebrated Senior Day in the best possible fashion — by drubbing Wayne State 45-13 to thrust themselves into next weekend’s Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference championship finale.
Coach Bob Nielson drilled the Bulldogs all week on the importance of making no slips against Wayne State, knowing that if the importance of next Saturday’s 1:30 p.m. game at Winona State intruded enough to disrupt attention on the Wildcats, they were dangerous enough to knock off UMD and render the Winona game meaningless. The Bulldogs went into the high-noon game entangled in an amazing logjam. Winona State was 5-1 atop the NSIC, while UMD, Bemidji State, Concordia of St. Paul, Crookston and Northern State were in an improbable five-way tie at 4-2.
“Our focus all week was to go out and play a no-nonsense game, and take care of business against Wayne State,” said Nielson. “The only disappointing thing is that we gave up some big plays, and we hadn’t been doing that. But on the other side, we generated some turnovers, and we certainly played with consistency, running the football and controlling the clock. There were a couple of critical stretches, like that goal-line stand just before halftime. We held, then we came out and scored on our first possession of the second half, and after that we were able to stretch the lead out.”
The 12 seniors were introduced before the final game of the season at Griggs Field in the annual tribute to those who have been laboring for four years on the club. It was so clearly the seniors’ day that sophomore quarterback Ricky Fritz, a passing record-setter this year, could pretty much take the day off, completing just two of six passes for 15 yards, thanks to Nielson’s long-developed strategy.
“I’ve always believed that if they can’t stop you running the ball, why pass?” said Nielson. “If you throw incomplete, it can get you off your schedule.”
The coach may not have had Senior Day on his mind, but it worked out that way. Conner, the only senior starter on offense, was a one-man show, gaining 177 yards on 22 carries, and his four touchdowns give him 13 for the season — seven in the three straight victories that followed UMD’s two NSIC losses in succession, to Concordia and at Northern State. There are six starting seniors on defense, including right tackle Mike Tuisee, right end Dan Schilling and left cornerback Nathan Daigle, so it was fitting that Hipple, Malo and Markas — the three senior starting linebackers — each came up with an interception.
“It was our last home game, and our offense is clicking right now,” said Connor. “I can’t say more about our front five. This was a day where we made the plays, and if we make our plays, nobody in the league can stop us.”
Conner, who scored on a 1-yard run to cap UMD’s game-opening drive, added a 12-yard scoring run to lift UMD to a 14-7 lead, and his scoring runs of 22 and 5 yards in the third quarter boosted the lead to 38-7. Conner smiled widely when asked about the coach’s preference for running the ball: “Coming from a running back, I can’t complain,” he said. Asked if he would have rather kept playing instead of coming out, along with Fritz and other starters, with more than a quarter remaining, Conner smiled again and said: “I can’t be stingy.”
The only anxious moment came after that opening drive of 69 yards in 14 plays, which consumed over 6 minutes. Conner rammed into the end zone, but Chad Gerlach’s extra point kick was wide, leaving an opening at 6-0. Wildcat quarterback Justin Burhoop, chased back to his own 8 on Wayne State’s first two offensive plays, lofted a pass to Damon Ruffin up the right sideline, and Ruffin sprinted 89 yards before he was caught from behind, only momentarily preventing the touchdown that Bryce Teager got from the 2. Nate Hale — Nathan Hale? — made the point-after kick for a 7-6 lead for the visitors.
Teager made the most of his opportunity for the day, after coach Scott Hoffman benched starting running backs Elroy Brown and Dion Gaston for the game, allegedly for partying beyond disciplinary bounds. Teager, a slippery little (5-7, 170) freshman from South Sioux City, Neb., slithered through the UMD defense 25 times for 102 of Wayne State’s 105 total rushing yards. Burhoop also passed for 235 yards on a 12-25 day, while receivers Ruffin caught three for 104 yards and Tavaris Johnson caught five for 82 yards.
But the Bulldog offensive line led another march, this one using nine plays to cover the 64 yards in 4:45, with Conner sweeping left end for the final 12 and the touchdown. Fritz sprinted around left end for the 2-point conversion, making it 14-7. The Bulldogs did all the heavy work on their next drive before the first quarter ended, although they waited until the start of the second quarter for the first of two 1-yard touchdown runs by junior Nick Boland. Gerlach kicked the extra point and also connected on a 27-yard field goal to lift UMD to a 24-7 halftime lead.
It was about then that the sun came out, after a grey and blustery first half, and the Bulldogs, and their revived title hopes, warmed up too. Conner’s two third-quarter touchdowns, and Boland’s second, after an 11-play, 58-yard, drive took 6:35 off the clock to open the fourth, made it a 45-7 cushion. Burhoop’s 25-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Kuester for the Wildcats came on the final play of the game and did little to tarnish the bright finish to the afternoon.
“Everyone wanted to win this one for the seniors,” said junior safety Kevin Westbrock. “When we lost those two games, it made us forget about everything else and go one game at a time. Now Winona is going to be the biggest game of the season.”
Conner said: “We’ve got a lot of momentum now. We know Winona has a great team, but we also knew that Wayne State never dies, and if we didn’t take care of business today, next week would mean nothing.”
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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