March 26, 2003

by John Gilbert

Colorado College was the No. 1 team in the country, the WCHA regular-season champion, and focused on winning the Broadmoor Trophy for the first time in the WCHA playoff Final Five last weekend at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul.

The University of Minnesota, however, stood in the way of all CC's desires, and rose up to beat the Tigers 4-2 before 16,668 fans in the championship game.

As it turned out, even the Tigers saw a distinct silver lining in the outcome, which created the best scenario for both CC and Minnesota ­ the WCHA's top-two ranked teams ­ to advance to the NCAA Frozen Four.

The WCHA can celebrate having five entries in the first 16-team NCAA field, with Minnesota State-Mankato, North Dakota and St. Cloud State all getting at-large invitations as the field expands from 12 teams. That means that instead of two regional sites playing down to two winners each, the Frozen Four will be comprised of the winners of four separate regional tournaments.

If Colorado College had won the WCHA final, the Tigers would be the No. 1 seed at the Minneapolis NCAA regional, and the Gophers would be there as the host school and No. 2 seed. But the Gophers, by winning, moved ahead of Boston University for fourth place in the national rankings, behind CC, Cornell and New Hampshire. Those four are the NCAA's four No. 1 seeds, meaning each must be at a different regional.

Minnesota (24-8-9) stays in Minneapolis as host, and CC (29-6-5) is off to Ann Arbor, but at least the Tigers and Gophers don't have to beat each other up for one Frozen Four berth, and both have a chance to make the Frozen Four April 10-12 in Buffalo, N.Y.

For the first time, the Twin Cities is a host for one of the NCAA hockey regionals. At Mariucci Arena, CCHA league champ Ferris State (30-9-1) takes on North Dakota (26-11-5), while Minnesota faces Mercyhurst (22-12-2) on Friday, with the winners coming back Saturday for the title.

In other regionals, Colorado College takes on Wayne State (21-16-2) on Saturday, while Maine (24-9-5) tackles Michigan (28-9-3). Those winners meet Sunday, March 30, at 2 p.m. Central time, in the Ann Arbor regional. In the Northeast regional at Worcester, Mass., St. Cloud State (17-15-5) meets top-seeded New Hampshire (25-7-6) after Boston University (24-13-3) plays Harvard (22-9-2) in the first game. That leaves the East Regional at Providence, where top-seeded Cornell (28-4-1) plays Minnesota State-Mankato (20-10-10), with Boston College (23-10-4) facing Ohio State (25-12-5) in the second game.

"Minnesota is a very good hockey team, playing its best right now," said CC coach Scott Owens. "Minnesota is a top-three team in the country right now, and I had a feeling all along we might be in Yost [Arena]. As a team, we're fine. I'm proud of the way we fought back after being down 3-0. I'm not worried about us playing on the smaller, NHL-size rink. We're 6-1-4 on the NHL sheets. If I had a preference, it would be to play on an Olympic sheet ­ without Minnesota."

In the Final Five, surprising Minnesota-Duluth beat North Dakota 2-1 in a sizzling game that saw the league's fifth-place Bulldogs knock off the Fighting Sioux, who had edged the OEDogs by one point for fourth place. UMD then battled league champ Colorado College through overtime before falling 4-3. In the other semifinal, Minnesota nipped Minnesota State-Mankato 3-2. That put UMD into the third-place game against Mankato, and the upstart Bulldogs jumped to a 4-1 lead and cruised to a 6-4 victory, outshooting Mankato 40-27.

The vaguaries of the computer-measured strength of schedule prevailed, which left onrushing Minnesota-Duluth out in the cold, even though the Bulldogs eliminated St. Cloud in a best-of-three decisively finished by a 7-3 rout, before also beating North Dakota in the Final Five play-in game, falling in overtime to league champ Colorado College, then bouncing back convincingly to beat Mankato 6-4, despite it being UMD's third game within a three-day span.

"I can't say enough about the way Duluth played. I think Duluth has a very strong argument that they should be in the NCAA tournament," said Mankato coach Troy Jutting. "If you don't finish in the top half of the league, and you don't win the first round of playoffs, I question if you should be in the national tournament. A team that did finish in the top half, did win its first round series, and did well here, should be given more consideration than I think it will be."

Jutting's eloquent plea for logic on behalf of UMD was, of course, ignored by the hard computer facts that gave more credit to St. Cloud's more-difficult schedule despite its record and its finish below UMD.

There were no similar questions about the final.

The Gophers, who got hot last year at this time and won the NCAA championship after losing to Denver in the Final Five title game, led to the NCAA final. CC threw 38 shots at Minnesota, but Justin Johnson ­ seizing the chance when Travis Weber went out with a mild knee problem ­ stopped 36 Tiger tries, while Minnesota got off only 25 shots, but struck suddenly against CC's star goaltender, Curtis McElhinney.

Playoff ace Grant Potulny scored at 1:29, after a brilliant set-up by Barry Tallackson. "He basically outmuscled two guys and one-handed it to me," said Potulny.

Freshman Gino Guyer, centering Tallackson and Potulny on a late-blooming line, scored 20 seconds later, with assists from both. Barely three minutes later, Potulny scored again, on a power play rebound, and it was 3-0 just 5:25 into the game. Freshman Brett Sterling got one back for CC in the second, but Jon Waibel made it 4-1 in the third by skating up the left and one-timing a pass from Garrett Smaagaard.

"The fourth goal was a nice goal ­ a great goal, actually ­ and it took some of the wind out of our sails," said Owens.

It was left to CC scoring champion and WCHA MVP Peter Sejna to score a spectacular power-play goal at 6:41 of the final period. Sejna, coming in from the right corner, snapped an amazing shot into the upper short-side corner on Justin Johnson ­ his 35th goal of the season and the kind of goals only pure goal-scorers can score.

"That area is usually open," said Sejna, the WCHA's best hope for the Hobey Baker Award. "I kind of looked [to pass], and shot. You just have to get lucky on a shot like that."

Goaltender Johnson said: "You've got to be prepared for him to shoot at any moment. He proved it. That was a big-league shot."

Minnesota coach Don Lucia credited Johnson with making some big saves, particularly when CC started to dominate play midway through the game. As for the Sejna goal, the coach had no criticism for his goalie. "I tell our guys not to take that shot, because you can only hit that spot once in a thousand tries. But Sejna can probably score on it once every five tries."

Lucia also noted that this Gopher team is completely unlike last year's club, which finished third in the league but rushed through a stirring finish to win the NCAA title, led by seniors Jordan Leopold and centers Johnny Pohl and Jeff Taffe.

"We only have one senior [Matt DeMarchi] in our lineup," said Lucia. "We don't have two centers with 60 goals between them. We have no Leopold, Taffe or Pohl, but our guys find a way."

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