Golden Gopher's Top Line is Top Story Line
UM's High-Scoring Krissy Wendell (left) and Natalie Darwitz (right). |
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Feb. 16, 2005
by John Gilbert
Because of their similar goal-scoring and point totals, and their hockey-playing histories, it's easy to draw parallels between Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell, the University of Minnesota's top-line tandem of former state high school phenoms, 2002 U.S. Olympic teammates, and Patty Kazmaier Award finalists. Their collaboration as linemates has created spectacular scoring totals, but hyperbole notwithstanding, their styles are strikingly different.
Darwitz is the shorter of the two, and she skates with quick, darting strides, combining great quickness with speed as she dekes around and through defenders while constantly looking for and creating offensive scenarios with alert puck-moving abilities. Wendell is bigger, with a more powerful skating stride that can boost her past defenders, although she also can go right over them is the situation demands it. Wendell also can pass, but her prime asset is her ability to keep the puck while blowing through traffic.
Where Darwitz tends to make a pass as soon as a teammate gets open, or even spots a pass to help spring a teammate, Wendell is more likely to beat a defender or two and pass after she starts running out of puck-carrying room. Darwitz leads the WCHA in scoring with 24 goals, 43 assists and 67 points, and with 31-57<88, she leads the nation in overall assists (57) and points (88). Wendell (35-47,82) is second in the national scoring column (82 points) and leads the country in goals (35).
An undefeated Women's WCHA championship makes for a good story line. Minnesota has those two achievements virtually in hand with two weekends to go, but for the Golden Gophers, the story IS the line the prolific scoring line of Darwitz, Wendell and Kelly Stephens.
A strong two-way player, Stephens would be a star senior on her own, but has enjoyed playing wing with her more-heralded linemates. Her 27-31,58 season statistics include 22-21,33 in WCHA games.
"They're good to me," said Stephens, meaning her points reflect her linemates' unselfishness. "Each of them brings their own aspects to the game. It's easy to get used to what they can both do, and I think we complement each other well."
One of the line's biggest accomplishments is that it has been able to flourish using only one puck. Wendell and Darwitz might be the two best centers in women's hockey, but unless coach Laura Halldorson invents a new technique, there's only space for one center on each line, and that's Wendell, although Darwitz takes a number of faceoffs in certain situations.
The Gophers are 22-0-2 in WCHA play going into this weekend's home series against Minnesota State-Mankato, and a sweep would clinch the Women's WCHA title. That might take off some of the glitter but it wouldn't affect the usual intensity for the season-ending series at Duluth. Minnesota Duluth (21-3-2) is idle this weekend, standing second to Minnesota in the WCHA, and also in the national rankings. And like the Gophers, UMD depends on a big line for its offense.
"In my opinion, Minnesota's line is the top line in the country, and Duluth's line is the second-best line in the country, with Dartmouth's big line the third best," said North Dakota coach Shantel Rivard, not surprised that her ranking of the top three lines in the country matches the 1-2-3 team rankings. Rilvard's perspective came because after losing 5-1, 4-1 at home to UMD, the Fighting Sioux went to Ridder Arena last weekend for 7-0 and 4-2 setbacks administered by the powerful Gophers.
Darwitz was a star in Minnesota's fledgling girls high school hockey from seventh grade, and she scored an amazing 85 goals as an eighth-grader at Eagan. Wendell, meanwhile, played on boys teams up through her sophomore year at Park Center, then switched to the girls team, where she was pretty much a one-person wrecking crew, scoring 109 goals as a junior and 110 as a senior. The year after she graduated, Wendell skated with the U.S. National team, and so did Darwitz, who bypassed her chance for potential record-breaking junior and senior high school terms. They played on the same line for the 2002 U.S. team, and after Wendell led the team in scoring throughout the preliminary games, Darwitz led Team USA in the silver medal winning scoring column.
Both are now juniors, having skated together on the same line on Team USA and since starting at Minnesota. Stephens, who is from Shoreline, Wash., and played women's amateur hockey in Vancouver, has become the perfect complement to Darwitz and Wendell.
They're not above heckling each other a little now and then, either. In last Saturday's 7-0 win over North Dakota, Stephens scored a power-play goal to get the Gophers started. At 16:49 of the first period, after constant pressure at the North Dakota goal, Wendell banged in a rebound to make it 2-0 with Stephens and Darwitz assisting. On their next shift, Wendell caught a pass from Stephens and went end-to-end, plunging through the defense as she cut across in front and jammed in her second goal of the period. Early in the second period, Wendell drilled a long rebound from the right circle, making it 4-0 with a pure hat trick.
"My brother always said I had 'puck luck,'" said Wendell. "Some days you work so hard and get nothing, and today everything that came to me went in."
Darwitz, who had assisted on Wendell's third goal, fed Stephens to make it 5-0 later in the second period for her third assist of the night. Midway through the third period, Wendell took off again, flying up the left side and beating two opponents on an end-to-end dash. This time, at the last moment, she passed across the slot and Darwitz quickly converted. It almost looked as though Wendell figured she had enough goals for the day and would give one to Darwitz.
"That's the cool thing about our line, we always assist each other," said Wendell. "I never thought about shooting that last time, I definitely was going to pass to her all the way."
"Oh yeah?" joked Darwitz. "Well then why didn't she give it to me sooner. I was wide open the whole way."
The next day, Darwitz got her 31^st goal and an assist, while Wendell notched three assists, and Stephens got "only" one assist, but it was a classic, as she carried up the left side and feathered a pass across to Darwitz, streaking in on the right side for a shot that snared the upper right extremity of the net.
In hockey style, some coaches like to have a strong, physically dominating center who holds the puck, while others might prefer a quicker playmaking puck-mover. So if some observers and even some opposing coaches, think that Darwitz might be the best center in the country, why doesn't she play center?
"Because Krissy does," said assistant coach Charlie Burggraf.
Good answer.
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