Playoff Gophers Overrun UMD 7-4
March 20, 2004
SAINT PAUL, MN. --- It's all in the timing. Minnesota met arch-rival Minnesota-Duluth four times during the WCHA season, and for the first time since UMD joined the WCHA, the Bulldogs won all four times. But that was against the "Regular Season" Gophers. Friday, the "Playoff Gophers" showed up at Xcel Energy Center and whipped the Bulldogs 7-4 in the second semifinal of the WCHA Final Five playoffs.
Just like that, the sting of being swept twice by the Bulldogs was left in the rear-view mirror. The Gophers, who seemed to be in neutral all season in the afterglow of two straight NCAA national championships, advanced to Saturday night's playoff final with a 25-13-3 record to face No. 1 ranked North Dakota. UMD, meanwhile, must pick up the pieces of a disheartening loss and take a 25-12-4 record into the third-place game against Alaska-Anchorage.
By those records, UMD seems to have an edge on the Gophers, by the slimmest of margins. By league standing, the Bulldogs had a clear edge, finishing second to Minnesota's tie for fourth and No. 5 seed in the league playoffs. But the timing of the victory boosts the Gophers ahead of UMD and into fourth place in the country in the strange computerized world of NCAA ranking criteria.
That means that regardless of what happens on the final day of the league playoffs, top-rated North Dakota and Minnesota both will be among the nation's four top seeds, each assigned to a different regional, along with Maine and Boston College. The loss means UMD will become a No. 2 seed, to be assigned wherever the NCAA selection committee chooses to send them on Sunday.
All of those things were riding on Friday's game, which drew a WCHA record crowd of 19,208 to Xcel Energy Center. More disturbing than even the loss was how it came about, in a complete unraveling that has to leave coach Scott Sandelin wondering what happened.
The Bulldogs opened in complete command, outshooting the Gophers 19-8 in a dominating first period, which produced a 3-1 lead. Luke Stauffacher slammed in a goal at 2:08, Evan Schwabe got his first of two when he cruised in from the right side and shot high, glancing his shot into the short side off the arm goalie Kellen Briggs at 9:06.
Minnesota countered when Troy Riddle scored his 22nd goal on a power play at 14:03, but that barely slowed down the speeding Bulldogs, who went up 3-1 just 18 seconds later when Schwabe skated up the left side, faked a shot then stepped to his left to score beyond Briggs, who had dropped to the ice.
That's the way the Bulldogs had done it all year, countering quickly to put down opposing rallies. But in the final minute of the period, the Bulldogs turned the puck over when a careless pass in the neutral zone left a clear chance for Gino Guyer, who rushed up the left side but shot off the left base of the net. Guyer, however, got to the end boards first and threw the puck back out front, where Danny Irman cashed in against goalie Isaac Reichmuth, just 35 seconds before intermission.
The Gophers still trailed 3-2, but the goal was pivotal. "The goal at the end of the first period was big," said Minnesota coach Don Lucia. "That typifies Danny Irman, too. We've got some guys who don't want to get their noses dirty, but at this time of year, guys who are willing to get their noses dirty seem to score the goals.
"We thought this game was very important, but we came out in the first period and we weren't playing at the level we needed against a great team like Duluth. And they are a great team as good as any we've played. Up front, I thought only Riddle and Irman were competing for us in the first period. After the period, there were a few blankety-blanks said, and I thought we played much better the last two periods. We were able to put some pressure on their OeD.' "
It didn't seem like pressure, so much as the entire UMD team seemed to become infected with a strange tendency to throw the puck away. A team that had played virtually flawless hockey to beat Minnesota 4-3 in overtime and 4-2 at Mariucci Arena in October, and 6-1 and 4-1 in Duluth five weeks ago, embarked on a series of defensive lapses that became contagious.
Irman broke loose while killing a penalty, gathered in Keith Ballard's long pass, and sailed in to score on a crease-crossing move at 4:51 of the middle period, and the shorthanded goal lifted the Gophers to a 3-3 tie. Ten minutes later, the Bulldogs had the puck in complete possession in their own corner, but a mishandled pass squirted out to the slot, resembling a perfect feed to Gopher Ryan Potulny, who immediately drilled his sixth goal in only four games since coming back from a season-long injury.
"We had a good first period, then they got that goal at the end of the first," said Schwabe. "That was a downer, and from then on, we lost the game at both blue lines. We got outskated, outhit, out-everythinged."
After outshooting Minnesota 19-8 in the first period, UMD was outshot 32-13 thereafter, for a 41-31 Gopher edge for the game.
Trailing only 4-3 when the third period started, the Bulldogs got renewed life when Justin Williams scored at 0:41 to tie it 4-4. But the occasional UMD offensive rushes were overwhelmed by the Bulldogs' inability to clear their zone. They failed to get the puck out of the zone at 3:45, and a couple of passes later, Minnesota took advantage when Thomas Vanek scored his 23rd goal to break the 4-4 tie.
The Gophers got a huge goal at 14:41 when Jon Waibel fired a pass from deep on the right that found Andy Sertich alone at the left edge of the crease, and he shoveled it in before the beleaguered Reichmuth could respond to make it 6-4. The Bulldogs struggled to get back in the game over the last five minutes, but by then they could scarcely complete a coherent pass, and the Gophers who outshot UMD 20-6 in the final period finished the victory with Barry Tallackson's empty-net goal with 36 seconds remaining.
For a team that had played so consistently through the entire season, such a
collapse seemed out of character. Coach Scott Sandelin was asked if he had
ever seen such a turnabout this season. "Yeah," he said. "Last Sunday. We
were up 5-0 on Mankato in the first 11 minutes, and we were lucky to win
6-5. That's two games now where we didn't play very well defensively. That's
the most disappointing thing for me. You're not going to win playing
defensively like that."
|
|
 |
