Late goals by Mathias, Lessard vault UMD past Yale 3-2
Yale hockey coach Tim Taylor remembered bringing his team to Duluth before this weekend’s Silverado Shootout tournament. “It was 1978,” he said Friday. “We came here to play UMD and Mark Pavelich beat us in overtime. So, not only has Yale been to Duluth before, but I was coaching ’em.”
That cruel memory was relived Friday night, when Yale struggled throughout their game against the University of Minnesota-Duluth to finally gain a 2-1 lead, only to have UMD win the Battle of Bulldogs 3-2 on two stunning goals in the last three minutes.
Yale’s Bulldogs had come from a 1-0 deficit with goals by Mike Klema and Luke Earl in the span of 1:35 midway through the third period. But as quickly as Earl’s goal, at the start of a major-penalty power play, put Yale within sight of the victory, UMD struck back for a shorthanded goal by Matt Mathias with 2:51 remaining. Mathias grabbed a blocked point shot and scurried up the right boards, cutting to the net and shooting just under goaltender Dan Lombard for the tying goal.
As the third period ticked down to its final 10 seconds, the game seemed destined for overtime. But UMD’s Tommy Nelson gained possession on the right boards and barged toward the net, backhanding a pass to the slot. Sophomore Junior Lessard barely reached the pass, then fired it quickly, through traffic from 25 feet, and past the screened Lombard. The clock showed 4.6 seconds remaining, and Minnesota-Duluth had snatched a heart-stopping 3-2 victory.
All four teams in the tournament could use the handy excuse that they’d been off the ice for two weeks, except that all four had been off equally. The result was sometimes ragged, and the first game was lopsided, with Boston College beating Miami of Ohio 5-1 after scoring the first five goals. Ned Havern, who had one goal coming into the weekend, scored a hat trick for the Eagles.
But the Yale-UMD game was tight-checking and a close struggle from start to finish.
The two groups of Bulldogs battled through a scoreless first period, with Duluth outshooting Yale 8-3, thanks to having the only two power plays of the session. Michael Grobe got the second penalty, a worthy hook that upset Jon Francisco from a breakaway chance, but Dan Lombard’s goaltending kept it scoreless.
In the second period, the teams traded power plays with no reward, then UMD put on a flurry with a big shift by its third line. Freshman Luke Stauffacher beat Lombard with a 30-footer from the slot, but the puck clanked harmlessly off the left pipe and caromed straight back out. Drew Otten followed up, circling to the slot for a hard shot, but Lombard snatched it with a quick thrust of his catching glove.
Yale’s Nathan Murphy was called for slashing with 2:19 to go in the second period, and UMD’s Bulldogs connected on the power play. Francisco won the left-corner faceoff, pulled the puck back to the left point, and defenseman Andy Reierson fired a quick slapshot that filtered through a maze of legs and caught the lower right corner of the net on the screened netminder at 18:39.
That goal loomed large until midway through the third period. Mike Klema, a Yale sophomore from the tiny Northern Minnesota town of Roseau, fired the tying goal past UMD goalie Rob Anderson at 12:30, with an assist from another Minnesotan, C.J. Nibbe, a freshman from Minnetonka who was suited up for the first time.
Yale then got a big opportunity, when UMD freshman Tyler Brosz was called for a 5-minute major penalty for cross-checking at 13:47. Luke Earl took Jeff Dwyer’s pass in from the blue line and cut loose with a slapshot from the top of the right circle, beating Anderson at 14:05. That put Yale ahead 2-1, and left the Elis with over four and a half minutes of power play as well.
It was then that Mathias came through with his biggest play at UMD. The junior from Duluth East, who transferred two years ago from Alaska-Anchorage, notched his first goal of the season and only his fifth in 47 games with 2:51 remaining for the 2-2 equalizer.
The game seemed headed for a certain overtime as Yale threatened on the continuation of the extended power play, but once UMD had killed it off, it was the Duluth Bulldogs who came up with the final goal on Lessard’s heroics.
Late goals by Mathias, Lessard vault UMD past Yale 3-2
Yale hockey coach Tim Taylor remembered bringing his team to Duluth before this weekend’s Silverado Shootout tournament. “It was 1978,” he said Friday. “We came here to play UMD and Mark Pavelich beat us in overtime. So, not only has Yale been to Duluth before, but I was coaching ’em.”
That cruel memory was relived Friday night, when Yale struggled throughout their game against the University of Minnesota-Duluth to finally gain a 2-1 lead, only to have UMD win the Battle of Bulldogs 3-2 on two stunning goals in the last three minutes.
Yale’s Bulldogs had come from a 1-0 deficit with goals by Mike Klema and Luke Earl in the span of 1:35 midway through the third period. But as quickly as Earl’s goal, at the start of a major-penalty power play, put Yale within sight of the victory, UMD struck back for a shorthanded goal by Matt Mathias with 2:51 remaining. Mathias grabbed a blocked point shot and scurried up the right boards, cutting to the net and shooting just under goaltender Dan Lombard for the tying goal.
As the third period ticked down to its final 10 seconds, the game seemed destined for overtime. But UMD’s Tommy Nelson gained possession on the right boards and barged toward the net, backhanding a pass to the slot. Sophomore Junior Lessard barely reached the pass, then fired it quickly, through traffic from 25 feet, and past the screened Lombard. The clock showed 4.6 seconds remaining, and Minnesota-Duluth had snatched a heart-stopping 3-2 victory.
All four teams in the tournament could use the handy excuse that they’d been off the ice for two weeks, except that all four had been off equally. The result was sometimes ragged, and the first game was lopsided, with Boston College beating Miami of Ohio 5-1 after scoring the first five goals. Ned Havern, who had one goal coming into the weekend, scored a hat trick for the Eagles.
But the Yale-UMD game was tight-checking and a close struggle from start to finish.
The two groups of Bulldogs battled through a scoreless first period, with Duluth outshooting Yale 8-3, thanks to having the only two power plays of the session. Michael Grobe got the second penalty, a worthy hook that upset Jon Francisco from a breakaway chance, but Dan Lombard’s goaltending kept it scoreless.
In the second period, the teams traded power plays with no reward, then UMD put on a flurry with a big shift by its third line. Freshman Luke Stauffacher beat Lombard with a 30-footer from the slot, but the puck clanked harmlessly off the left pipe and caromed straight back out. Drew Otten followed up, circling to the slot for a hard shot, but Lombard snatched it with a quick thrust of his catching glove.
Yale’s Nathan Murphy was called for slashing with 2:19 to go in the second period, and UMD’s Bulldogs connected on the power play. Francisco won the left-corner faceoff, pulled the puck back to the left point, and defenseman Andy Reierson fired a quick slapshot that filtered through a maze of legs and caught the lower right corner of the net on the screened netminder at 18:39.
That goal loomed large until midway through the third period. Mike Klema, a Yale sophomore from the tiny Northern Minnesota town of Roseau, fired the tying goal past UMD goalie Rob Anderson at 12:30, with an assist from another Minnesotan, C.J. Nibbe, a freshman from Minnetonka who was suited up for the first time.
Yale then got a big opportunity, when UMD freshman Tyler Brosz was called for a 5-minute major penalty for cross-checking at 13:47. Luke Earl took Jeff Dwyer’s pass in from the blue line and cut loose with a slapshot from the top of the right circle, beating Anderson at 14:05. That put Yale ahead 2-1, and left the Elis with over four and a half minutes of power play as well.
It was then that Mathias came through with his biggest play at UMD. The junior from Duluth East, who transferred two years ago from Alaska-Anchorage, notched his first goal of the season and only his fifth in 47 games with 2:51 remaining for the 2-2 equalizer.
The game seemed headed for a certain overtime as Yale threatened on the continuation of the extended power play, but once UMD had killed it off, it was the Duluth Bulldogs who came up with the final goal on Lessard’s heroics.
Tommy Nelson learns that hockey, real-life drama can coexist
Christmas break is always a welcome bit of free time in the midst of a hectic UMD hockey schedule, but this may well be a Christmas that Tommy Nelson will appreciate more than any other he’s experienced.
Nelson, a senior from Superior, has spent the past two weeks reflecting on his two-game, five-goal outburst against Bemidji State, and he says he knows he can keep up the scoring, which is what his coaches and the Bulldog fans expect. He spent three years proving himself to be among the elite players in the WCHA, then this season started, and Nelson couldn’t seem to get into any sort of rhythm.
Nelson shared coach Scott Sandelin’s enthusiasm for what he as an individual and the ‘Dogs as a team could hope to do this season. He had worked to get ready, and he thought he was playing as hard as he could, but nothing clicked. He was so discouraged he went from planning on taking a shot at pro hockey after this season to considering quitting hockey.
“I’ve got three older sisters, and two brothers, one older one younger,” said Nelson. “We’ve got a real close family. We all got together last Fourth of July, and my dad complained about feeling sick, and we couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him. That was the worst feeling; nobody could figure out what was wrong with him.
“On Aug. 24, he got the word — he has lung cancer. They said it was Stage 4, which is the worst, and they gave him six months to live, possibly 12. Then they said the cancer had spread to his liver and his lymphatic system.”
Timothy Nelson is an upbeat sort, and even the cancer didn’t eliminate his sense of humor. He and his wife, Nanbeth, have tried to stress the positive. “My dad just finished six chemotherapy treatments, so he’s lost all his hair, but he also got a better prognosis,” Nelson said. “They gave him an extension, to a year, maybe two.”
Meanwhile, Tom Nelson is closing in on his last semester studying Management Information Systems, which is a computer planning major. But his personal, private life has undergone another significant change. Tom and his girlfriend had a baby boy last year, and while there was no question they were going to get married, they had decided to wait until he was through with college.
“Ivette has been my girlfriend for three years, and we were going to wait,” Nelson said. “But with all this happening, we decided to move the wedding up. We were going to get married Sept. 12 in Las Vegas, but when Sept. 11 happened, all the planes were grounded. It was all kinda hard, hitting us at the same time, but we decided to go ahead with it as soon as possible, so we went out to Las Vegas on Sept. 15, and we had our whole family — 14 of us — out there.”
Along came the start of his senior year at UMD, and the start of workouts and practice for the WCHA hockey season. The coaching staff, the media and the fans all knew that Nelson would be the logical player to lead them out of the WCHA doldrums. “The first couple of weekends were hard,” said Nelson. “My dad was pretty much always on my mind.”
“I remember when I was a freshman, the seniors would say, ‘Cherish the time,’ because it will be over soon. Now I’m a senior, and I know they were right. The season is going by fast. It seems like yesterday when we went to Omaha and played so well against Nebraska-Omaha and Michigan. Then we came back and couldn’t beat Mankato.
“I kinda feel like I’ve let coach down,” added Nelson. “He thinks a lot of me, and expects so much from me. I only played well in four or five games, and I feel like I’ve let coach down.”
Coach Sandelin has often repeated that Nelson has the talent to be an elite player, and he seems to be as frustrated as Nelson when things don’t go well. After playing through his below-par start, Nelson hurt his knee. It was a strained medial-collateral ligament, and it provided Nelson with an excuse for not scoring, if he needed it. But finally, the decision was made to let Nelson rest, and he was left at home when UMD went to the Upper Peninsula to play Northern Michigan.
“Coach said I should take some time off to heal, and doing nothing really was the best thing for my knee,” said Nelson. “I stayed off skates for eight or nine days.”
That also allowed Nelson to spend some time at home, where he and Ivette, and little Tyler, who is now 15 months old, live in his parents’ second house. “After practice, the guys go out some place, and I go home and maybe put my kid to bed,” Nelson said. “It’s great to stay home and play with my son. I think the time off really helped. I felt a lot better in the Denver series. I think I played better, my speed and quickness seem like they’re coming back, and it seemed like we might be finally heading the right direction.”
But the changes in Nelson’s life were indelible, and they seemed to be conspiring to rob him of what should be an outstanding senior season.
“My dad has lost all his hair from the chemotherapy, but he and my mom are both retired now, so my dad takes care of Tyler a lot during the day. He’s 15 months old, and he runs around and gets in a lot of trouble.” Asked if he could tell whether Tyler was left or right handed, Nelson said: “He has two of those little souvenir hockey sticks, and he waves them around, one in each hand. He can say ‘puck,’ and ‘ball.’ ”
The Bulldogs will regroup on Dec. 26 to prepare in two days for the Silverado Shootout, when UMD will be joined by Boston College, Miami of Ohio and Yale, for games Dec. 28-29.
For Nelson, it will be the chance to prove that he has hit stride. He only scored two goals, both at Alaska-Anchorage, until the last UMD series, against Bemidji State. He scored a hat trick in the first Bemidji game, and two more goals in the second game. If he starts the second semester in the same groove, the Bulldogs might be headed for a real scoring surge during the second half of the season. And that is far better than not playing, which was a realistic option to the discouraged Nelson at the start of the season.
“My dad likes to see me play, though, and he said I should stick with it,” said Nelson. “At the DECC, my parents always sit up high in Section 20. I’ll look up there every once in a while, and my dad will wave to me, and. I don’t think anybody ever noticed it, but I’ll give him a little wave back.”
Nelson, Lessard get goals, Anderson stops them as UMD sweeps
UMD’s hockey fans, players and coaching staff had been wondering when Tommy Nelson would score, and it had been for so long they almost were coming to grips with the possibility he might not. Junior Lessard is only a sophomore, and while he was supposed to be a goal-scorer, he hadn’t proven it the way Nelson had last year, so the expectations were still on hold for him.
Through the first 16 games of this season, Lessard had scored five goals and Nelson two, and both of them were among prime contributors to UMD’s nine-game losing streak, and 10-game winless stretch. Then suddenly, just in time for Christmas break, the Bulldogs got everything to fall into focus. Nelson, the No. 1 example of the slumbering offense, scored his first collegiate hat trick on Friday, when UMD whipped Bemidji State 5-1, and he added two more goals in Saturday night’s 7-2 follow-up over the Beavers.
Lessard, a big, red-headed winger from St. Joseph deBeauce, Quebec, said he thought Nelson’s first hat trick was a good idea, so he came back and scored HIS first hat trick Saturday night.
“I’ve been struggling a little lately, but I finally tried to be relaxed,” said Lessard, who scored only four goals last season as a freshman. “It’s been frustrating, because we’ve been trying too hard. It’s important to show that we’ve got a couple more guys who can score. Tommy inspired me, and I needed one to get me going.
“I got one on my first shift of the game. Judd Medak, Nate Anderson and I were really moving tonight, and on that first one, three guys went to Judd and nobody covered me. On my third one, Judd got it on net and the rebound came out in the slot, and I was able to bury it. My second one? I can’t even remember itÂ…”
That’s what happens when you score so many, apparently. All season long, the UMD men’s hockey team has been plagued by a lack of consistent scoring, but also a troubling lack of consistent intensity, and a lack of consistent goaltending. All three of those things vanished against Bemidji, giving the Bulldogs something to take into their 18-day layoff before the Silverado Shootout.
Until Lessard’s three goals, it was a Superior weekend, with Nelson and goaltender Rob Anderson leading the way. Anderson rose up to play well both games in goal, and to crown it off, the Bulldogs turned their intensity up to high. On Friday, they scored two goals in the first 7 minutes and never let up, and they scored twice in six minutes to open Saturday, and built a 3-0 lead in the first 10:30. The Bulldogs didn’t exactly sag in the second period, but Bemidji State turned its game up to high and scored the only two goals of the second period to make it a 3-2 game. Then the ‘Dogs came back hard, as Lessard completed his hat trick, Nelson got his second of the night, then Drew Otten got his first of the season and freshman Tim Hambly got his first college goal ever.
“Five periods of good intensity out of six,” said coach Scott Sandelin. “That’s four games in a row we got the first goal, but this weekend we built on them.
“Junior Lessard has struggled, so it was nice to see him get some nice goals. And Tommy Nelson got five goals for the weekend, a reward, finally. It’s important we get those two guys going, because no question, we’re going to need both of them going in the second half.
“And in goal, all we’ve been asking for is consistency, and Rob has given us that in the last few games. He played well enough to give us a chance against Denver, then he was seven seconds away from his first shutout in the first game this weekend, and he played well again tonight.”
The series was halfway through Game 1 when Nelson connected. “It felt like it was just an average game, but the puck went my way,” he said.
While he may have felt that way, it seemed that when Nelson got his first goal, at 9:35 of the second period Friday, his pace quickened and his confidence came back with a surge. He scored again at 0:19 of the third, on a deflection, then he scored again midway through the final period to complete a four-point game.
Next up for the Bulldogs is Yale on Dec. 28, while defending NCAA champion Boston College takes on Miami of Ohio in the other first-round game of the Silverado Shootout, with losers and winners meeting Dec. 29. Now 6-11-1, UMD remains 0-9-1 at the bottom of the WCHA, but they can’t do anything about that until after the first of the year. But if the goaltending and defense stay solid, and the Bulldogs keep the Bemidji weekend’s intensity and goal-scoring forcefulness clearly in mind, upcoming challenges look a lot more reasonable.
Nelson’s first hat trick breaks 10-game winless streak
Tom Nelson has been bent, folded and mutilated mentally through the first 13 games of UMD’s hockey season. He started off with high regard and even higher expectations, but things didn’t go right. He worked, he tried, he misfired, and whatever he did, the puck didn’t seem to want to go in for him.
He said he felt as though he did nothing different on Friday night, but it was Friday night when destiny seemed to finally smile in his direction. And the entire Bulldog team benefitted.
Nelson, a senior center from Superior, scored his first collegiate hat trick and assisted on another goal to lead UMD to a 5-1 victory over Bemidji State, and there were 3,102 witnesses at the DECC who can attest that along with Nelson’s luckless streak, also ended were UMD’s 10-game winless streak (0-9-1) and nine-game losing streak.
“I felt like it was just an average game,” said Nelson, whose three-goal output in Game 14 was more than the two goals he had totalled in the first 13 games. “But for once, the puck just went my way.”
Maybe Bemidji State was a notch off its intensity at the outset, because at 4:42, Jon Francisco let fly a 50-foot shot and it zipped through the pads of Bemidji goaltender Grady Hunt. Francisco said he did not have a telescopic sight to hit the 5-hole from that range, but he did get assists from Nelson and Andy Reierson on the goal. Less than two minutes later, Nick Anderson converted a perfect Brett Hammond feed on a 2-on-1, and the ‘Dogs led 2-0.
UMD pelted Hunt with some more meaningful shots in the period, but the Beavers came back and played solidly through most of the second period. The game turned into something of a penalty parade, with each team contributing 14 minors to referee Randy Schmidt’s tally. Midway through the second period, UMD wound up with a 2-man advantage, and it was in that situation Nelson broke through to score with a Francisco pass across the crease, making it 3-0.
“I thought our guys played well,” said UMD coach Scott Sandelin. “We got some power play goals, and we just changed the power play to go with four forwards, so maybe it worked better. But Hunt is a good goalie. We had some good chances. It was great to see Tommy Nelson get going, finally.”
Nelson seemed to immediately acquire a bounce to his step after his goal, even though he insists he didn’t notice it, and Sandelin said he thought Nelson played well throughout the game. Whatever, the fact his luck had turned needed no further evidence than at 0:19 of the third period when the ‘Dogs were again on the power play. Andy Reierson whistled a slapshot from the left point, Junior Lessard deflected it, and the tipped shot then ticked Nelson before going past Hunt for a 4-0 bulge.
“Andy shot, and Junior got a piece of it, then it hit the tip of my stick,” said Nelson. He had to chuckle about how he had been trying so hard to score with no result, and on that play he didn’t even see the puck coming and wound up with a goal.
But he wasn’t done yet. UMD was on another power play — each team had eight in the game — midway through the final period when Nelson scored by pulling the puck across the crease and tucking it in behind Hunt for a 5-0 lead.
“Junior made a nice play on that one, too,” said Nelson. “Reirson shot and Junior got it. I yelled, and he chipped the puck over to me.”
After three games when he scored twice during his UMD career, that was the first time he scored three goals, and all that was left to make it a big night in Superior was for goaltender Rob Anderson to finish off with a shutout. Anderson had played well, blocking 24 Beaver shots to keep the green-clad visitors off the scoreboard, and he was definitely concentrating on the zero in the final minute, when Bemidji State had its final power play.{IMG2}
With eight seconds left, a screened shot from the point was deflected into the lower right corner by Wade Chiodo, breaking the shutout. Anderson threw his arms up in disbelief, then shattered his big goalie stick and went to the bench in disgust. The clock showed 7.1 seconds remaining, and because the UMD equipment crew had already hauled all the sticks to the now-nearby dressing room, he went back in the nets without a stick for those closing seconds until someone brought him a stick to use.
“I never saw the puck on that last shot until it was right there,” said Anderson, pointing back beside and behind himself — meaning it was too late to react. “Did it get tipped? About six times, I think.”
Nelson, meanwhile, wasn’t gloating, and wasn’t celebrating, but more just pondering how fate had been playing games with him before finally relenting. “It would have been nice, though, to see Robby get the shutout,” Nelson said.
Sandelin noted that UMD came close, but is still without a shutout in his year-and-a-half. Relax, coach, you can’t break all the tough-luck streaks at once.
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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