In the Spotlight
Feb. 20, 2001
By P.J. Slinger
Minnesota-Duluth's Maria Rooth is just now starting to figure out how good of a hockey player she is.
But she won't let on.
A look at her statistics are certainly enough to let others know how good she is. As of Feb. 19, Rooth (prounounced "roth") was second in scoring in the nation (and the Western Collegiate Hockey Association) with 58 points, behind only Wisconsin's Megan Hunter, who had 64. Rooth's 2.32 points per game leads the nation.
"I always knew I had something in me, but I hadn't really seen any girls play," said Rooth, who is a native of Sweden. "The first time was in '94 when I played with the (Swedish) national team at a camp. That's when I realized there's a lot of good girls and I'd have to fight my way up. But I never knew how good I was. I would just play for fun."
Growing up, Rooth was an all-around athlete and had to make a conscious decision to stick with hockey.
"It was a lot of sports for me. I played tennis, soccer, golf, floorball -- it's a European thing," she said. "I eventually had to choose between soccer and hockey, but I just liked hockey more. I had more fun. I've always liked hockey more. So I said, 'What the heck, I'll go for this,' even if it wasn't as big in Sweden like soccer. I just love to skate. You have more freedom to do what you want with hockey. You can be more creative with the puck."
In 1997, Rooth found out she was good enough to play for the Swedish Olympic team in 1998.
"I've always dreamed about playing in the Olympics and unfortunately we didn't play too well, so the experience would have been better if we had played better," she said.
Rooth said she hopes to make the 2002 Swedish Olympic team, too.
But still, despite being one of the elite Swedish players, Rooth wasn't sure how that compared with other players from around the world.
"U.S. was kind of the only place I always wanted to go," she said "I wanted to play U.S. college hockey."
Rooth said the problem with women's hockey is Sweden is the lack of competitiveness.
"Sweden just had two good women's hockey teams and the rest weren't very good," she said. "It was usually high scores against those teams." When she was younger, she had to play with the boys teams because there were no organized women's programs.
"At the time I had an advantage of a girl playing with boys because I was a bit taller than the other guys, up until 11-12 when the guys started to grow." she said. "I have a little hockey in me, so I was one of the better skaters when I was younger."
So after high school, Rooth moved to the Boston area to check out the U.S. college hockey situation.
"After I graduated I just wanted to continue playing good hockey. But I didn't play (college hockey) right away because I wanted to come here (to the U.S.) and see what it was all about first."
So she played for a year for a club team in Boston (Assabet Valley), where she led her team in scoring. Still, she wasn't sure how good she was because it wasn't the collegiate level.
"Here I love to play because it's a lot better competition," she said. "But I didn't want to commit myself to a college right away. I wanted to go on some official visits and then decide after that."
Rooth said UMD coach Shannon Miller contacted her about playing for the Bulldogs.
"I didn't know her, she just called me," Rooth said. "I didn't want to a big school where I would have to worry about getting lost and not finding my next class. I wanted something smaller, kind of like home. Duluth was perfect for me, both with coaching and the size. I grew up in town of about 30,000. I like that environment, and I like snow, so that wasn't a problem."
So Rooth went from Sweden to Boston to Duluth.
"My parents have always supported me in whatever I do and they thought this would be a huge chance for me because they know I love hockey that much," Rooth said. "Of course they miss me a lot and they want to come see me over here, but they were OK with it. The problem was I didn't know anyone here. The beginning was little hard and I missed home a lot, but then you just learn to deal with begin away from home. You don't think about it too much. At least here the coaches are really nice to us and help us out to see if we need help. You just learn to deal with it."
The "us" Rooth was referring to are the other European players on the Bulldogs' roster. Rooth is one of seven players from Europe on the team (four from Finland, two from Sweden, one from Newfoundland).
"Swedish hockey is more team-oriented, but it's hard to describe," she said. "On the ice you try to pass the puck as many times as possible and often play down in the corners, circle and then go in for the shot. Here it's more go to the net, shoot, shoot, shoot, go to the net every time. It's more intense here. I think I still play more European, and I wish I did go to the net more often. I just that I've always played that going down into the corners. But we can help each other because we have so many Europeans, it's a good mix."
It certainly didn't take long for Rooth to fit in to the American style of hockey at UMD, where last year the team won the WCHA title and finished fourth in the national tournament. That year, as a freshman, Rooth scored 68 points (37 goals, 31 assists), was named WCHA Rookie of the Year and finished fifth in the nation in scoring.
Now a sophomore, Rooth has been nominated for the second time in as many years for the Patty Kazmeier award, given to the top player in women's college hockey.
She finally realized how good she really is.
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