Bulldog scoring touch vanishes as Badgers sweep pair in DECC
It’s far to early in the season to assume UMD can’t get its men’s hockey act together. It just happens to be bad timing for the Bulldogs to have their offense vanish.
It was bad timing to score just one goal a game over the weekend, because it meant carbon-copy losses of 5-1 and 4-1 against Wisconsin at the DECC.
And it’s even worse timing because the Bulldogs now are a bleak 0-5-1 in the WCHA, and if Wisconsin wasn’t challenge enough, now they get to go after bigger game: the Gophers, this weekend in Minneapolis. The Gophers defeated Minnesota-Mankato twice, including a 4-2 victory on Saturday that required a comeback from a 2-0 deficit. The Gophers are 8-0-1 overall and 3-0-1 in WCHA play.
On paper, it looked as though the Bulldogs may have outplayed Wisconsin, but there was a peculiar lack of seriousness to the impressive shot total, which meant that the Badgers Scott Kabotoff looked like a hall-of-famer instead of a comparatively inexperienced goaltender who was still trying to prove himself.
Kabotoff stopped 43 of 44 UMD shots on Friday, and 39 of 40 on Saturday, giving him an impressive weekend with 82 saves out of 84 shots. His need for spectacular or acrobatic saves, however, was minimal. Judd Medak got the only UMD goal in the chippy first game, while Junior Lessard connected in the second game, in the first minute of the third period. By then, Wisconsin already had a 3-0 lead.
The first night, John Eichelberger deflected in an opening goal for the Badgers but Medak tied it. The game turned when Duluth East’s Andy Wheeler skated past two defensemen and beat goaltender Rob Anderson with a great goal in the final second of the first period. It stayed 2-1 until the third, when Rene Bourque, Andy Wozniewski and Matt Hussey added goals, Bourque on a nice rush, Wozniewski on a point shot of a power play, and Hussey on a long shot into an empty net for a shorthanded tally.
After Anderson made 31 saves on 36 Wisconsin shots, Adam Coole played goalie on Saturday, and made 37 saves. The Bulldogs came out snarling, outshooting Wisconsin 19-9 in the first period without scoring, and the ‘Dogs sagged in the second period, being outshot 20-8.
Alex Leavitt scored in the first period for Wisconsin, then Brad Winchester and Hussey scored in the second. Lessard’s goal at 0:40 of the third put UMD back in the game at 3-1, but Hussey clinched it with a goal with 5:16 left.
The Bulldogs have now lost 10 straight games to Wisconsin at the DECC, although Wisconsin coach Jeff Sauer simply refered back to the mid-1980s, when UMD won two straight titles and ran up a healthy winning streak against the Badgers. Those were the years of Tom Kurvers, Bill Watson, Brett Hull and Rick Kosti, and the goals poured into opposing goals at a withering pace.
It seems so long ago after the Badger weekend. UMD remains undefeated at 4-0 against ranked nonconference foes, and winless (0-3-1) against unranked WCHA teams.
The Bulldog offense was so uninspired Friday that the highlight of the game came when UMD’s Steve Rodberg and Wisconsin’s Erik Jensen threw off their gloves and helmets and fought toe-to-toe.
The two punched each other until they tired, then were tossed and will miss tonight’s rematch.
“Been a long time since I saw two guys drop their stuff, square off and go,” said UMD coach Scott Sandelin. “It was a great fight, and I don’t see anything wrong with it, as long as nobody got hurt. I think our guys were fired up by itÂ…I know I was.”
However, it didn’t pay off with any goals, a common occurrence for the Bulldogs, even though it’s still early in the season.
Denfeld whips Rapids to gain 7AAAA final
There is no way to calculate all the different elements that have gone into Denfeld’s football team this season, but coach Dave Mooers clearly has extracted great team character out of his collection of characters.
The Hunters trampled Grand Rapids 44-14 Saturday afternoon at Public Schools Stadium to earn the right to take their 9-1 record into Friday night’s Section 7AAAA football championship game against unbeaten St. Michael-Albertville. In the process, they got two touchdowns from Steve Muellner and one each from Matt Lien, Denis Jacobson, Matt Mobley and Sam Dull, and big Matt Smith connected on a 30-yard field goal and five extra points.
The characters were in their prime after the game, but they started to surface before the game even ended. In the fourth quarter, with the victory secured, running back Denis Jacobson was struggling with an awkward problem near the Denfeld bench. He hadn’t played much because of an aggravated hamstring pull, and he was trying to stuff an icepack down the back of his tight-fitting football pants to get to the injured spot.
He couldn’t reach it, so teammate Joel Waters tried to lend a hand. Literally. The problem was, there was Waters reaching delicately down inside the back of Jacobson’s pants, while the Denfeld cheering section was sitting right behind them, in clear view. They seemed oblivious to their fellow students laughing uproariously at the scene.
Embarrassed? Hardly. When asked about it, Jacobson deadpanned: “We’re really close on this team.”
Quarterback John Borich, a linebacker last year who emerged from third string quarterback to direct the Hunters on both sides of the ball, excused Jacobson for dropping the second-half kickoff by heckling: “He can’t hang onto anything in practice, either.”
But Jacobson’s comparatively brief play because of the hamstring was compensated for when he picked up the fumbled ball — he said he just dribbled it once to get ready for basketball season — and sprinted untouched up the left sideline for a game-breaking touchdown. That was a major turning point, or actually the second half of a 1-2 turnabout sequence.
The Thunderhawks, who lost 29-26 to Denfeld with 1:02 remaining in one of the Hunters trademark comeback victories, had spotted Denfeld a 3-0 lead on Smith’s booming 30-yard field goal. Rapids struck back for a 6-3 lead when Richie Cueller scored from 13 yards out, his first of two touchdown runs.
It stayed that way until near halftime, when Borich lobbed a perfect pass to sophomore Matt Lien for a touchdown, but a motion penalty negated it. “It was disappointing,” said Lien, “because our offense was having some trouble, and we finally got one into the end zone, then they took it away from us. But at least we got third down over.”
Indeed. On third and 11 from the 19, Borich handed off to Sam Dull, who started to sweep to the right, then pulled up and lobbed a perfect halfback option pass. Again Lien went up for it, again he caught it — this time catching it over two defenders — and this time it counted.
“That was kinda big, I guess,” said Lien. “Sam and I work on that play all the time in practice, and when they called it, Sam and I smiled at each other in the huddle, because we knew we could make it work.”
It was big because it vaulted Denfeld back ahead, 10-6 at halftime. And Jacobson’s kickoff return TD to open the second half made it 17-6.
“That was the turning point,” said Grand Rapids coach Tim Botsford. “That option pass at the end of the first half was a big play, and when they got that kickoff return touchdown, the momentum of the game just jumped to their side.”
Steve Muellner scored back-to-back touchdowns for the Hunters later in the third quarter, and Borich connected with Matt Mobley for an 8-yard scoring pass and a 37-6 lead. Grand Rapids quarterback Sam Heiken hooked up with Ben Moore for a 7-yard Rapids touchdown in the fourth quarter, and the Thunderhawks added a 2-point conversion on Heiken’s run, but that only made it 37-14. And the Hunters had an answer for it, anyway.
Botsford chose to try an onside kick, but Denfeld recovered. Immediately, Dull took off, 48 yards for another touchdown.
In dissecting the victory, Mooers used a herd of runners. Muellner had 18 carries for 91 yards, Dull 6 carries for 76 yards, Borich 4 carries for 60 yards, Tom Kalkbrenner 5 tries for 26 yards, and Jacobson, obviously the focal point for the Thunderhawk defense, had only 10 yards on 6 carries.
Dull, pronounced “Dahl,” moved to Duluth from LeSueur, Minn., before this year, and while he had a big game against Grand Rapids, he had pretty much been kept under wraps this season while Jacobson ran wild for touchdowns.
So effectively did Denfeld run the ball that Borich only passed 6 times, completing 4 of them for 65 yards and one touchdown. And Dull, of course, threw that halfback option pass for a TD, something that Borich knew well from last season.
“I was a halfback last year, and I threw passes on that same play twice, completing both of them for touchdowns,” said Borich.
That depth is another asset the Hunters have, along with great balance, and great coaching, which leads to their excellent execution. And then there’s that weird wit.
Someone noted that Dull had a big day, and asked Borich and Jacobson rhetorically: “Where did he come from?”
“LeSueur,” said Jacobson, never missing a beat.
John Gilbert is a writer for Murphy McGinnis Newspapers.
UMD women get good warmup with lopsided Manitoba sweep
So, what exactly can a team like UMD’s No. 1 ranked women’s hockey team get out of playing a nonconference — noncounting — international game against a team like the University of Manitoba? Simple. They got ready for being shorthanded by a few elite players next weekend, when they must go to Wisconsin and play a Badger team that is sure to challenge them with more intensity than ever.
Beyond the obvious weekend sweep of games, as the Bulldogs followed up Saturday’s 14-1 romp with a more reasonable 5-0 victory Sunday afternoon at the DECC, Maghan Grahn, a freshman from Roseau who had played four saves-worth in one game, got a shutout in her first collegiate start with 12 saves.
Grahn got her chance for two reasons. One, star Tuula Puputti departed early Sunday morning to go home to Finland, where she will tend goal for Team Finland in the “Three Nations Cup” international tournament. Two, Puputti will be missing next weekend also, just as she will for the month of February and the Winter Olympic Games, so Grahn may be the required starter.
Also, Erika Holst and Maria Rooth scored a goal each in Saturday’s game, and they will depart Wednesday for Finland, where they will play for Team Sweden in the same tournament — which is actually the Four Nations Cup, except that Team USA withdrew, citing fears of making such a trip following the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on New York and Washington. That leaves three teams, Canada, Finland and Sweden, playing in the most prestigious international tournament leading up to the Winter Olympics.
But the most important thing was that some of the UMD skaters who have been content to watch the elite Swedish and Finnish players score the majority of goals will have to come through in their absence, and they picked the weekend exhibition games at the DECC as a coming-out party.
Shannon Mikel scored the first UMD goal Sunday, on a diving shot off Tricia Guest’s goal-mouth pass with 43 seconds left in the first period. Holst then scored with 24 seconds to go for a 2-0 lead, after goaltender Allison Nantais had stopped 19 UMD shots. Jessi Flink also scored, at 0:09 of the second period.
That was the quickest goal at the start of any period of any game for any UMD women’s team, compared to the school record of 15 seconds, shared by Michelle McAteer and Jenny Schmidgall. And it also could be called the fastest three goals ever scored by a UMD women’s team, because the first three goals came in the final 43 seconds of the first period and the first 9 seconds of the second, which totals 52 seconds, and the school record is 1:13, against Bemidji State.
While those are better than the UMD record, they also are unofficial, because Manitoba is not a U.S. NCAA team, so all statistics are for personal reward only.
The goal by Flink was a rude welcome for Cherylann Koop, who relieved Nanatais in goal and played the second and third periods. After that goal, however, Koop was strong, stopping 16 second period shots and 14 more in the third, when UMD broke through only for goals by Rooth and Laurie Alexander, at 13:05 and 16:12 of the third period. For the game, UMD outshot Manitoba 54-12.
In Saturday’s game, Guest scored three goals, while McAteer, Alexander, Sikio and Holst got two each, and Kristina Petrovskaia, Leah Kasper and Flink added one apiece.
“We wanted everyone to play, and maybe get a little confidence booster for next week, when we’ll be gone,” said Rooth. “Some of those players who hadn’t played much not only played well, but they scored this weekend. That was awesome.”
The Bulldogs skated, passed and shot well enough, but they didn’t charge the net with their usual hunger for finishing in Sunday’s game, undoubtedly the effect of Saturday’s game, when they led 7-1 after only one period. But Nantais was outstanding in the Manitoba nets in the first period, which helped stall the UMD attack, and Koop did the same the rest of the way.
Point mixup frees Carlson to score UMD’s 4-3 overtime winner
Defensemen Mark Carlson and Andy Reierson man the points on UMD’s power-play unit, with Carlson on the left and Reierson on the right, but when Friday night’s game against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute wound up in overtime, and the Bulldogs wound up with a power play, Carlson and Reierson wound up on opposite sides.
They passed back and forth, and back and forth again, being on mirror opposites of the way they’ve made those puck exchanges hundreds of times in practice, and it almost seemed both wanted the other to shoot. Finally Carlson cranked up from the right side and fired a slapshot low, past a dozen legs, and into the lower left corner of the goal at 2:30 of the 5-minute overtime, giving the Bulldogs a 4-3 victory over RPI in Friday night’s nonconference series opener before 3,433 fans at the DECC.
“I saw it all the way, but I don’t think their goalie did,” said Carlson, who was moved up front last season, but is back on defense this term.
His opportunity for the game-winner came shortly after a rush by Captain Judd Medak, who already had scored twice, and Tyler Brosz. They didn’t score, but in trying to prevent a goal, RPI defenseman Danny Eberle was called for hooking Medak at 2:13.
All four of UMD’s goals came with the teams at something other than full strength, as Jon Francisco and Medak scored 50 seconds apart in the first period with both teams shorthanded, and Medak notched the game-tying goal with 4:14 remaining on another UMD power play. Referee Jon Campion made the call in overtime, although it’s rare for a team to get an overtime power play on anything other than mayhem.
“It’s about time we got a couple breaks,” said UMD coach Scott Sandelin, whose team is now now 3-2 for the season, and faces RPI in the rematch tonight at 7. “You’ve still got to execute. I like how we played the overtime. We looked a little afraid to lose in the third period, but they were really good, and they came after us.”
Early in the season as this is, RPI had already established a pattern of dominant third-periods. The Engineers had lost to Boston University 6-5 in their opener, but BU had led 6-1 with 10 minutes to go. In their second game, the Engineers broke a 3-3 tie against New Hampshire in the third and won 6-4.
So the Bulldogs had no reason to be complacent when they got a 2-1 lead in the first period, and they had reason to be alarmed when it was 2-2 after two. “Not many teams are better conditioned than we are,” said Medak. “I think it might be true that when it was 2-2 in the third period, we were worried more about giving up a goal than getting one ourselves.”
Sandelin had altered his goaltending rotation, starting sophomore Adam Coole in the series opener. Coole was victimized at 2:51 of the first period when Matt Murley, a hometown senior from Troy, N.Y., broke into the UMD zone 1-on-3, and proceeded to stickhandle straight up the slot, deking around one defender and then through the last two to emerge all alone and at full speed at the crease. Murley threw a deke at Coole and shifted to his backhand to stuff the puck in for a power-play goal.
“That 19 [Murley] is great,” said Coole. “I found myself watching him.”
UMD came back with some fire when both teams were short a man. Francisco, who had two goals last Saturday against Mankato, notched his third of the season by hustling to the net and deflecting a Tim Hambly shot out of the air and in at 11:52 to gain a 1-1 tie.
Just 10 seconds after the ensuing faceoff, the Bulldogs charged the net again, and goaltender Nathan Marsters wound up on his hind quarters in the net, with Medak and the puck and assorted other bystanders in there as well for a sudden 2-1 UMD lead. “I went to the net and Junior Lessard passed it,” said Medak. “When everything goes into the net like that, usually the puck does too.”
Marsters stopped all 16 UMD shots in the second period, and the Engineers came back to tie it 2-2 when Chris Migliore scored from the crease at 13:40. Migliore, a senior better known for his wit and his hustle than his goal scoring broke for the net as Jim Henkel shot from long range on the left. Migliore deflected it past Coole, then turned with upraised palms as if to question his own scoring touch. A senior from Hamden, Conn., Migliore’s goal means he now has one goal for each of the four years he’s played for RPI.
Marsters, however, came up with a big save on big Steve Rodberg, a UMD defenseman lending muscle to left wing at present, and Medak nearly broke the tie late in the middle period when he broke in on the left side but saw his stuff attempt stopped by the goaltender an instant before Medak draped himself over the left edge of the goal.
RPI regained the lead midway through the third period when Mark Cavosie and Ryan Shields broke in 2-on-1. After a near offside, Cavosie fed a late pass left to right, and Shields, a left-handed shooter playing the right side, shoveled a backhander past Coole at 10:19.
It looked like the third straight setback for the Bulldogs on home ice until they got a power play with five minutes to go. On the power play, Francisco got the puck in deep and Medak rammed it in with 4:14 remaining to send the game into overtime.
Denfeld overruns Grand Rapids 44-14 in 7AAAA grid semifinal
DULUTH, MINN. — Duluth Denfeld waited until the final minute to edge Grand Rapids 29-26 during the regular season, but the Hunters were more impatient than that Saturday afternoon, when they rolled to a 44-14 victory over the Thunderhawks in a Section 7AAAA semifinal at Public Schools Stadium.
The Hunters acknowledged that the close first game made them well aware of Grand Rapids’ capabilities, and the Thunderhawks backed it up with a strong first half, even leading 6-3 early in the second quarter. But the Hunters (9-1) turned the game around with two huge plays to end the first half and start the second.
Denfeld, which will play unbeaten St. Michael-Albertville Friday at PSS for the 7AAAA crown, got touchdowns from five different players to overrun Rapids with offensive balance, but the Hunters could only muster a first-quarter field goal by Matt Smith for a 3-0 lead. Grand Rapids countered with a drive culminated with a Richie Cueller touchdown run from 13 yards out for a 6-3 lead.
It stayed that way until Denfeld drove to the Thunderhawk 14 with time running out in the second quarter. On third and 6, quarterback John Borich lobbed a perfect pass into the right edge of the end zone, and sophomore Matt Lien made a sparkling catch for the apparent touchdown. But it was nullified by a penalty.
“It was disappointing,” said Lien, “because our offense was having some trouble, and we finally got one into the end zone, then they took it away from us. But at least we got third down over.”
Indeed. On third and 11 from the 19, Borich handed off to Sam Dull, who started to sweep to the right, then pulled up and lobbed a perfect halfback option pass. Again Lien went up for it, again he caught it — this time catching it over two defenders — and this time it counted.
“That was kinda big, I guess,” said Lien. “Sam and I work on that play all the time in practice, and when they called it, Sam and I smiled at each other in the huddle, because we knew we could make it work.”
It was big because it vaulted Denfeld back ahead, 10-6 at halftime. And it got bigger because the Thunderhawks spent halftime trying to figure out how to get back ahead, and on the second half kickoff, the project became more difficult.
Denis Jacobson, Denfeld’s star running back who was hampered all game with a hamstring injury from the previous Denfeld game against Monticello, waited for the kickoff, then dropped it. He joked about dribbling once to get ready for basketball, but whatever, he picked it up and took off. The Rapids coverage may have reacted to the apparent fumble, but Jacobson reacted by sprinting to his left, turning the corner and going untouched for a 90-yard touchdown.
“That was the turning point,” said Grand Rapids coach Tim Botsford. “That option pass at the end of the first half was a big play, and when they got that kickoff return touchdown, the momentum of the game just jumped to their side.”
That touchdown, and the second of five Smith extra points, boosted Denfeld to a 17-6 lead. And the Hunters seemed to be running downhill the rest of the way.
The Hunters defense stopped Grand Rapids quarterback Sam Heiken and running back Cueller from staying close enough to threaten a comeback.
Steve Muellner scored back-to-back touchdowns for the Hunters later in the third quarter, and Borich connected with Matt Mobley for an 8-yard scoring pass and a 37-6 lead.
Heiken hooked up with Ben Moore for a 7-yard Rapids touchdown in the fourth quarter, and the Thunderhawks added a 2-point conversion on Heiken’s run, but that only made it 37-14. And the Hunters had an answer for it, anyway.
Botsford chose to try an onside kick, but Denfeld recovered. Immediately, Dull took off, 48 yards for another touchdown.
Grand Rapids ends 4-6, after a spirited second half to the season. “We heard Denfeld was behind Monticello 20-0 in their last game,” said Botsford. “We were kinda hoping Monticello might win that one, because they’d have been at our place today, instead of us down here.”
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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