Surprising Nebraska-Omaha surprised

Senior Matt Ambroz from New Prague, MN., is UNO scoring leader.

By John Gilbert

There was some debate about changing the name of the expanded WCHA playoffs before it was decided to stick with Final Five. Otherwise, the league could have changed to “Expect the Unexpected.”

Just ask Dean Blais, coach at Nebraska-Omaha, which upset the whole league all season, then became the victim of the biggest upset in the best-of-three first round of playoffs. One of two new entries that expanded the WCHA from 10 to 12 teams, the Mavericks were the surprise team in the league by staying in title contention all season before settling into third place on the final weekend, one point behind Denver.

But heavily favored No. 3 seed Nebraska-Omaha was upset in a two-game sweep by No. 10 seed Bemidji State. The Mavericks weren’t alone, as No. 8 Alaska-Anchorage went to Mariucci Arena and took out No. 5 Minnesota in two games to eliminate the “home” Golden Gophers from the Final Five in Saint Paul’s Xcel Energy Center.

“I can’t believe it,” said Blais. “We outshot Bemidji 91-37 for the two games and lost them both. Dan Bakala, their goaltender, played out of his mind, and he kept it close enough both nights for them to find a way to win.”

The Mavericks are still practicing, however, because they could still get an invitation to the NCAA tournament. “We’re 13th on the Pairwise, so we’re hoping that the top teams win in all the leagues, because then we should still make the NCAA. We’re pulling for North Dakota, Denver or UMD to win, and for Michigan, Boston College, New Hampshire and Yale in other playoffs.”

In past years, the top five league finishers often advanced to the Final Five, but this year required juggling an unusual gathering of reseeded entries at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul. Previously No. 4 and now No. 3 seed Minnesota-Duluth takes on Bemidji State, reseeded as No. 6, at 3:37 p.m. on Thursday, while new No. 5 Alaska-Anchorage followed by playing new No. 4 Colorado College at 7:07 p.m. Those winners advance to Friday’s semifinals, where No. 2 Denver meets the first-game winner  at 2:07 p.m., and league champion and No. 1 seed North Dakota takes on the second-game winner at 7:07 p.m.

When the WCHA expanded to 12 teams for the 2010-2011 season, the league’s prestigious Final Five playoff also had to be expanded from five first-round survivors to six. In the changed format the third-place game has been eliminated, so the fifth game and hence the namesake of the Final Five will be the championship on Saturday at 7:07 p.m. with the Broadmoor Cup and an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament’s 16-team field on the line.

For Blais, the NCAA hope eases the frustration of the Bemidji State match-up. The Beavers played a patient, grinding game against the high-speed, up-tempo Mavericks. After a scoreless first period in Game 1, Jordan George and Ian Lowe scored goals for a 2-0 Bemidji lead. Ryan Walter scored a power-play goal late in the second for UNO, and Terry Broadhurst’s goal early in the third tied it 2-2. But Bakala stopped 46 shots as Nebraska-Omaha outshot the Beavers 48-17, and Jamie MacQueen scored with 1:53 left in the third period to break the tie. Just 21 seconds later Matt Read supplied the insurance goal for the 4-2 result.

“In the second game, we came out and dominated,” said Blais. “When we scored [Rick Purslow, at 9:32], I looked up and we were outshooting them 9-0. Then they got a power-play goal [by Matt Read]. I looked up again when we were outshooting them 18-2, and it was 1-1.”

Jamie MacQueen got credit for the only goal of the second period, “off a skate,” said Blais, and Bemidji had a 2-1 lead.

In the third period, Matt Read’s goal gave Bemidji State a 3-1 lead. The Mavericks resumed their dominant attack, but Bakala, diving across the crease for saves, held the 2-goal lead. Finally Ryan Walters scored to cut it to 3-2–but only eight seconds remained in the game, and it ended that way.

“We outshot ’em 43-20, and lost 3-2,” mused Blais, whose team has been anchored all season by sophomore goaltender John Faulkner, who played the most minutes and made the most saves (897) while recording a 2.55 goals-against average and .908 save percentage.

Sophomore John Faulkner recorded WCHA-most 897 saves for the Mavericks.

A pair of seniors lead the way offensively, as Matt Ambroz has 17-17–34 and Joey Martin 11-23–34, with Rich Purslow adding 12-20–32. Ambroz, from New Prague, MN., has a younger sister, Kacy, playing for Minnesota-Duluth, while their younger brother, Seth, is playing for Omaha in the USHL and will play at Minnesota next season.

North Dakota won the league title at 21-6-1 for 43 points, but hadn’t clinched it outright until a final sweep at Michigan Tech. Nebraska-Omaha could have finished second by sweeping at UMD on the final league weekend, but they split, finishing 17-9-2 for 36 points to Denver’s 17-8-3 and 37 points. UMD, which also could have gained second with a sweep, was 15-8-5 for 35 points.

The top six earned home-ice advantage for the best-of-three first round of league playoffs. That was the good news. The bad news for UNO was that they drew the No. 10 seed, which was Bemidji State, the other league newcomer.

More good news there was that one of the two new teams was assured of reaching this week’s Final Five. The bad news for Nebraska-Omaha was that after beating every other team in the league, and holding either a decisive upper hand or splitting with all of them, they could never beat the pesky Beavers. Bemidji State won three of the four games between the two, and they tied the other.

“We split four games with North Dakota, and by beating them 8-4 in Grand Forks, we had the tie-breaker against them,” said Blais. “We split with Denver, UMD, Anchorage, and at CC, and we swept Minnesota, Wisconsin, and MSU-Mankato, and we were 1-0-1 against St. Cloud. But we were 0-3-1 against Bemidji.

“We were really ready for the playoffs, too. We lost a 6-5 game to North Dakota before 14,000 fans, and people said it was the best game they had ever seen. They didn’t even seem to mind that we lost. Then we beat Wisconsin and drew 15,000. We’re fourth in the country in attendance, behind North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.”

Going into the best-of-three playoff series all that mattered to Blais was that his Mavericks played their game. Sure enough, they did. But sure enough, Bemidji State continued its peculiar hold on Nebraska-Omaha, winning the first game 4-2 with two goals in the last two minutes, then beating the Mavericks again, 3-2, extending their season’s mastery to 5-0-1.

The unpredictability of the playoffs also saw UMD need three overtimes to subdue St. Cloud State in the second game of their series. And Denver, heavily favored against No. 11 MSU-Mankato, trailed 2-0 after two periods before rallying for four goals in the third period, then trailed in the second game 1-0 after two before rallying again to win 2-1. The series that figured to be the closest saw No. 7 Wisconsin go to No. 6 Colorado College and win the first game, and CC came back to win two narrow victories and capture the only series that needed all three games to determine.

Such surprises certainly was the theme of this year’s regular season, which should have made it predictable that the playoffs would contain more surprises. What else could you expect when the top four went down to the final weekend, and down to the final game before second, third and fourth places were finalized, as well as sorting out sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth, places, while even 10th and 11th finished one point apart?

The team that edged MSU-Mankato by one for 10th place was, of course, Bemidji State. Both made their playoff presence known, Mankato by the scares it threw into Denver, and Bemidji State by knocking off their favorite new rival in Omaha.

More good news for fans of those teams that made it, especially driving-distance schools like UMD, North Dakota and Bemidji State, is that tickets should be readily available, despite a good advance sale, because of the absence of Minnesota, Wisconsin, St. Cloud State, and Minnesota State-Mankato, all of whom have strong fan support in Saint Paul.

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• 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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• Exhaust Notes:

  PADDLING
  More and more cars are offering steering-wheel paddles to allow drivers manual control over automatic or CVT transmissions. A good idea might be to standardize them. Most allow upshifting by pulling on the right-side paddle and downshifting with the left. But a recent road-test of the new Porsche Panamera, the paddles for the slick PDK direct-sequential gearbox were counter-intuitive -- both the right or left thumb paddles could upshift or downshift, but pushing on either one would upshift, and pulling back on either paddle downshifted. I enjoy using paddles, but I spent the full week trying not to downshift when I wanted to upshift. A little simple standardization would alleviate the problem.
  
  

  SPEAKING OF PADDLES
  The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution has the best paddle system, and Infiniti has made the best mainstream copy of that system for the new Q50, and other sporty models. And why not? It's simply the best. In both, the paddles are long, slender magnesium strips, affixed to the steering column rather than the steering wheel. Pull on the right paddle and upshift, pull on the left and downshift. The beauty is that while needing to upshift in a tight curve might cause a driver to lose the steering wheel paddle for an instant, but having the paddles long, and fixed, means no matter how hard the steering wheel is cranked, reaching anywhere on the right puts the upshift paddle on your fingertips.
  
  

  TIRES MAKE CONTACT
  Even in snow-country, a few stubborn old-school drivers want to stick with rear-wheel drive, but the vast majority realize the clear superiority of front-wheel drive. Going to all-wheel drive, naturally, is the all-out best. But the majority of drivers facing icy roadways complain about traction for going, stopping and steering with all configurations. They overlook the simple but total influence of having the right tires can make. There are several companies that make good all-season or snow tires, but there are precious few that are exceptional. The Bridgestone Blizzak continues to be the best=known and most popular, but in places like Duluth, MN., where scaling 10-12 blocks of 20-30 degree hills is a daily challenge, my favorite is the Nokian WR. Made without compromising tread compound, the Nokians maintain their flexibility no matter how cold it gets, so they stick, even on icy streets, and can turn a skittish car into a winter-beater.