Feb. 21, 2006

By John Gilbert

Women's and girls' hockey across the United States was understandably shaken when Sweden upset Team USA, 3-2, in a semifinal shootout at the Winter Olympics, but for anyone who has watched the Women's WCHA - and the University of Minnesota Duluth, in particular - could be excused for checking their rampant patriotism in the closet and be totally enthralled with the whole tournament.

Canada and the U.S. had been granted berths in the gold medal final of the women's tournament, because neither of the international powers had ever lost a single game to any team other than each other. Canada was a prohibitive favorite for the gold this year, but both Canada and the U.S. figured to dispatch Sweden and Finland in the semifinals, and leave those two Scandinavian rivals to fight for the bronze. Sweden's upset was the first evidence that women's hockey might be on a faster track than anticipated to attain some sort of healthy parity.

Back in the "real world" of the WCHA, UMD's current Bulldogs have been struggling against the same sort of new-found parity the Women's Olympics showed. No question the Bulldogs are missing a couple good players who are off at the Olympics, and while the Olympics have been going on, Wisconsin clinched its first WCHA title, and stands 22-3-1. UMD, contending all season, had dropped back to second place, and last weekend, when Minnesota swept St. Cloud State, the Gophers climbed to within a point of the Bulldogs - UMD at 17-7-2 for 36 points, and Minnesota 17-8-1 for 35 points.

So as UMD prepares to return from a week off, to journey to Mankato for a series against Minnesota State, the Bulldogs can ill-afford to slip, or risk blowing second place. But UMD hockey fans can find immense satisfaction from Bulldog participation in the women's Winter Olympics.

From the start of the women's games from Turin, Italy, network and cable broadcasts heaped praise and publicity on the University of Minnesota Duluth's program, and from the way the current and former Bulldogs played, it was more than just well-deserved publicity, and could stand as an example of the UMD program's international flavor.

The Duluth News-Tribune ran a story, and a follow-up editorial-page column, proclaiming the presence of such former and current UMD players in the women's Olympic hockey as: Jenny Potter of the U.S.; Maria Rooth and Erika Holst of Sweden; Caroline Ouellette of Canada; and Nora Tallus, Satu Kiipeli, Mari Pehkonen, and Anna-Kaisa Piironen of Finland.

However, they overlooked current Bulldog freshman sensation Michaela Lanzl of Germany, former UMD goaltender Patricia Ellsworth-Sautter, and Russia's Katrina Petroskaia, who played three years ago at UMD.

"I am not looking forward to leaving, because I love it here at UMD," said Lanzl, just before departing for the Olympics. "But I am looking forward to playing in the Olympics. It will be very good to play for Germany."

Granted, there were a lot of standouts from U.S. women's college teams, players such as University of Minnesota's Krissy Wendell, Natalie Darwitz, Kelly Stephens, Lyndsay Wall and Courtney Kennedy on Team USA, and Wisconsin's brilliant defenseman Carla MacLeod playing for Canada's gold medalists. But consider the contributions of UMD's representatives.

In the opening Team USA game, a 6-0 victory over outmanned Switzerland may seem impressive, but it was only 1-0 midway through the game, and 2-0 after two periods before the Swiss skaters ran out of gas. The Swiss goaltender, known as Patricia Sautter when she backstopped UMD to the 2003 NCAA championship, never faltered. She made 50 saves against the perpetual U.S. attack and was one of the stars of the first day's games.

Potter might have been the most effective Team USA player, as coach Ben Smith curiously had his lines jumbled just as the tournament began. Instead of playing the all-Gopher line of Darwitz, Wendell and Stephens together, he had put Stephens on a different unit, where she played well, but never enjoyed the productivity that would have been certain had she been with Darwitz and Wendell. Potter played with Darwitz and Wendell much of the second half of the exhibition season - which meant, in some opinions, the best three centers on Team USA were on that one line. As the tournament progressed, Potter played with various combinations, but always was strong and effective. The most curious thing was after the tougher-than-it-sounds victory over Switzerland, Potter on national tv said "Their goalie really played well." Could it be that Jenny was so focused she forgot that she and Sautter were teammates on an NCAA championship team at UMD?

Another star was Ouellette, who finished her UMD career last season and will undoubtedly be the second player to have her jersey, No. 5, retired by the UMD women. Powerful as Canada has been in winning silver in 1998 and gold in 2002, no Canadian women's player ever had scored more than one goal in a period. Ouellette scored twice on her first shift. Her versatility is such that Canada's coaching staff uses her both up front and on defense, and after her two goals, she went back to defense, and promptly whistled in her third goal before the first period ended. Ouellette would prefer to let others get the glory, just as she did at UMD, and many other Canadians stepped forward to score dozens of goals. But Ouellette was as good a player as Canada had on the roster.

Meanwhile, Germany was overmatched, but Lanzl continued to draw praise with her great, quick dashes through opposing defenses. She scored a goal and set up another when Germany beat Switzerland 2-1, but her most memorable rush might have come shortly after NBC ran a huge between-periods feature on how former Harvard star and Patty Kazmaier winner Angie Ruggiero might be the best defenseman in all of women's hockey, and shortly thereafter Lanzl raced through and past Ruggiero on a dazzling rush.

Finland opened with the familiar names of Tallus and Kiipeli and Piironen in the forefront, but Finland's most effective player might have been current Bulldog Mari Pehkonen, who scored her team's first goal in Finland's first two games. Russia, meanwhile, battled gamely, and No. 14 - Petroskaia - was one of Russia's best players.

Sweden, however, was the headline team of the tournament. In 2002, when Rooth and Holst were still at UMD, they were uncertain if they would be leaving to play in the Salt Lake City games because Sweden's federation was debating whether to even bother sending the team because they might not have been competitive enough. They went, they were competitive enough, and Rooth and Holst were their best players.

Now, in 2006, Rooth's No. 27 hangs from the rafter at the DECC in Duluth as the only women's number retired. She is an emotional ambassador for how beneficial it was to attend and play for UMD and coach Shannon Miller. And she and Holst, Sweden's captain, were singled out as Sweden's top scoring threats by Cammi Granato, whose presence added class to the NBC analysis, but who might better have been used on the ice by Team USA. She was cut, and we are only to assume that it is mere coincidence that Team USA has a pronounced overload of Eastern players, while the last cuts included Granato, and Minnesotans Winny Brodt and goalie Sheri Vogt.

At any rate, Holst was her usual strong, stable and always-smart and threatening self, and Rooth was simply the most impressive individual in the whole tournament.

Given no chance against Team USA, Rooth scored both goals when the teams battled to a 2-2 tie, and then, when Sweden scored a goal in the five-player shootout, Rooth skated in and scored her third goal of the day to clinch the shootout 2-0 with only one turn left. Potter, Wendell and Darwitz - the only three Minnesota-raised players on the U.S. team, were probably the best three players on the team as well, but none could score in the shootout.

Team USA recovered from the shock to beat Finland 4-0 in the bronze-medal game. In the gold medal final, Rooth gave it all she had, but Canada was too much for Sweden in a 4-1 victory, with Ouellette scoring a picture goal. Ouellette against Rooth was a fitting conclusion for the tournament, and a wonderful spectacle for UMD and WCHA hockey fans everywhere.

If UMD is hanging on at the end of the regular women's WCHA season, the return of Lanzl and Pehkonen should help rejuvenate them for the playoffs. Pehkonen may be back in time for this weekend. Lanzl, who was expected to return home for a week to Germany, where her father recently died, will be back in time for the playoffs. They might make the difference between struggling and finding new glory at the college level.

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