Feb. 15, 2007

Andrea Nichols picked a good time to have a three-point game - her final regular-season home game for the University of Minnesota - and the Golden Gophers needed her goal and two assists to hold off Bemidji State 5-3 and gain a split of their weekend series. The victory, and the split, set up high drama for the final weekend of league play, when Minnesota travels up Interstate 35 to take on arch-rival Minnesota Duluth.

With the Gophers trailing UMD by two points, second place in the WCHA is hanging on the series outcome. If Minnesota should win Saturday's first game, the two would be exactly tied in points and second place would come down to Sunday afternoon in the women's WCHA final regular-season game.

There are other WCHA questions yet to be answered. For example, Ohio State (11-11-4) and Minnesota State, Mankato (12-12-2) are dead even for fourth and fifth places, and they collide in a final series at Columbus this weekend. Their battle will determine the fourth and final home-ice spot for the playoffs, which, of course, start with team five at team four in a best-of-three, so this weekend's outcome will decide where they'll collide again.

Of course, the Minnesota-UMD outcome this weekend also carries an "I-got-you-last" psychological edge for the upcoming playoffs. The rivalry was just as big as it was five years ago, when Nichols was a pint-sized but irrepressible scoring machine at Hibbing High School, and both Minnesota and UMD sought her services in exchange for a signed tender. She chose Minnesota, and the next four years have proven that you can take the girl out of the North Country, but you can't take the North Country out of the young woman. She knows Duluth is closer to home, and she is well aware of how UMD won the first three NCAA national championships, then, when Nichols showed up at Minnesota, the Gophers accounted for the next two, before they lost to Wisconsin in last year's title game.

"Four years have gone by fast, but in my three years here, we're 3-for-3 making the Frozen Four," Nichols said. "We have two firsts and one second. That's not bad. But it would be great to make it all four years."

To say Nichols has been a solid and steady contributor takes on extra significance because Nichols has played more college hockey games than any other current player in the WCHA. Her 144 games in a Gopher uniform are one more than Wisconsin's Sara Bauer - so when Nichols talks about the UMD-Minnesota rivalry's place in women's hockey history, she has personal ownership in a lot of the details.

"Not only are we playing for second place, but for national rankings," said Nichols, after her goal and two assists helped subdue Bemidji State last Saturday. "Going into the weekend, we were ranked ninth and they were eighth, so wherever we are ranked, these games will affect it."

For her career, Nichols has 41-37--78 over 144 games, including 13-8--21 this season, as an always-hustling left winger on the third line. Bigger scorers on the top two lines see a lot more duty on power plays, but her 13 goals rank Nichols third on the team behind only Gigi Marvin, a sophomore on the first line who has 17 goals, and Bobbi Ross, a junior who centers the second line and has 15 goals. At that, Nichols shares the team lead in even-strength goals with Ross at 11, because 9 of Marvin's 17 goals have come on the power-play.

Nichols grew up in Mountain Iron, and enrolled at Hibbing while in junior high because she was ready to play high school hockey before anyone other than Hibbing had established itself in girls hockey. Her team concept made her captain last year as a junior, and this year she and Ross are co-captains. That only intensifies her curiosity about the inconsistency that has afflicted the Gophers in the last six weeks.

Bristling with talent, and capable of displaying great firepower from three lines, Minnesota was flying high after a 10-game winning streak through the end of December, including eight straight victories in a WCHA run - which started, incidentally, with a 5-3, 1-0 sweep against UMD at Ridder Arena. But when the second semester started in January, that streak was snapped by five losses in the next six games, starting with a home ice sweep at the hands of league champion Wisconsin, by 4-1, 3-0 scores. More startling, Minnesota next went to Ohio State and got drubbed 7-1. The Gophers bounced back for a 3-1 victory in the rematch, but the following weekend, the Gophers went to Mankato and were swept 3-2 and 4-3 by Minnesota State-Mankato, allowing UMD to catch and pass the Gophers for second place,

All seemed back in place when Minnesota swept North Dakota and St. Cloud State - scoring 19 goals and allowing just five in the four games. That four-game mini-streak left the Gophers tied with UMD for second, so both the Gophers and Badgers had reason to look ahead to their season-ending clashes. Sure enough, Bemidji State threw a wrench into the picture by coming into Ridder Arena and stinging Minnesota 2-0. It was only the second time in 33 games, over seven years, that Bemidji had managed to beat Minnesota. But the 28-1-3 Gopher edge meant little against the shutout goaltending of Emily Brookshaw.

"It's hard to pinpoint exactly where the problem has been," said Nichols. "The competition all around the league is much better, for one thing. Along with Bemidji, Ohio State is tough, and Mankato is good too; they've got some flashy forwards. For a lot of that stretch when we weren't winning we played well, we just couldn't find a way to put the puck in the net. It seemed like the harder we tried, the worse things were getting. But in the first game against Bemidj, they outplayed and outworked us."

In the second game, Nichols set up Whitney Graft's first of two goals after just 1:11 of the first period, but Both of Graft's first-period goals were offset by goals from Tara Hiscock of Bemidji. Nichols scored unassisted midway through the second period, and Marvin's goal made it 4-2 after two. While outshooting Bemidji 43-25 for the game, the 4-2 lead looked imposing, but Bemidji's Kelly Hart intercepted the puck and scored on a short-handed breakaway sprint with 1:48 remaining to close the gap to 4-3. It took a power-play goal :34 seconds later by Jenelle Philipczyk to clinch the 5-3 outcome, as Brookshaw made 38 saves.

"I felt confident in my play and how things were going," said Nichols, after being named No. 1 star for her goal and two assists.

The split dropped Minnesota two points back of the Bulldogs for second, although it hardly relieves the drama. As usual, the Gophers and Bulldogs will start out with an extra twist. The DECC has a rental commitment, so the series will be Saturday and Sunday afternoons at Mars-Lakeview Arena, atop Skyline Drive at Marshall High School. It is the newest arena in Duluth, and while limited in seating, the cozy setting should be perfect because it will only take 1,000 fans to create an exciting atmosphere.

Because of its earlier sweep, Minnesota holds the tie-breaker edge over UMD should they tie, but the bigger drama would come if Minnesota happens to win the first game Saturday, because that would leave Minnesota at 18-8-1 for 37 points, and UMD 17-6-3 for an identical 37 points - a deadlock that would be decided Sunday afternoon in the second game. Needless to say, all the winner of second place really gains is home-ice attributes should they meet in the WCHA playoffs. If the top seeds all advance through the first round of playoffs, the semifinals at Ridder would see the Gophers face - guess who? - UMD for a one-game shot that gives the winner a chance at the WCHA playoff title and, presumably, a higher see for the upcoming NCAA tournament.

Nichols and the Gophers - as well as the Bulldogs - are aware that all of the inconsistencies and flat spots of the season can be overcome with a strong finish. And having the renewal of their rivalry simply means that both teams will get a chance to shift into playoff mode a week early.

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