Feb. 27, 2003

By JOHN GILBERT

DULUTH, MN. - It was pretty much the perfect ending to a perfect regular season for the University of Minnesota-Duluth women's hockey team. After romping to a 10-0 victory at Bemidji State, the Bulldogs returned home to almost duplicate the feat with an 11-3 Sunday matinee triumph over Bemidji at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center on Sunday afternoon.

The victories clinched the Women's WCHA title at 21-2-1 for UMD, which finished regular-season play ranked No. 2 in the country at 27-3-2. While it is normal to conduct some sort of senior day before the final home game of the regular season, UMD coach Shannon Miller chose to hold this one after the final game, knowing the pregame ceremony might bother the visitors from Bemidji State, and the possible emotion might bother the UMD players.

So, after the game, a carpet was unrolled on the DECC ice, and while the 1,443 fans stayed in place, the eight seniors were called to center ice one by one. Joanne Eustace, Jenny Hempel, Erika Holst, Navada Russell, Patricia Sautter, Hanne Sikio, Michelle McAteer, and Maria Rooth. They walked out with parents or adopted Duluth family members, and there were a lot of tears and emotion spilling after an incredible four-year run. Rooth and Holst are from Sweden, Sikio from Finland, Sautter from Switzerland, Eustace, McAteer and Russell from Canada, and Hempel from Minnesota.

As the ceremony continued, a tall figure stood over behind the glass in the corner, where the visiting team enters and leaves the rink. It was Bemidji State coach Bruce Olson.

"That's a great team," said Olson, whose team still has a weekend to go at 5-12-5 and 9-15-6. "What can you do? They've got some awesome players. All we can hope to do is land one or two kids with that kind of skill, and then maybe some others will follow.

"We know it might be difficult to get up to that level at Bemidji, but that's what we hope to do."

Olson knows that there's a gap between the top of the Women's WCHA, and teams such as UMD and Minnesota. But Wisconsin has closed the gap on them, and Bemidji State hopes to challenge Ohio State and keep moving up, while also bringing some stability to the Beavers program.

"I'm the third coach the program has had in four years," said Olson.

"But look at where we are. We got to Ohio State for the final weekend and we've got a chance to finish fourth. Ohio State is tough, but if we happen to win, we'd finish fourth, and that would be the best Bemidji State has ever done."

Regardless, the Beavers and Buckeyes are on a collision course to play this weekend in the season-ending series, and then to meet again at Englestad Arena in Grand Forks, N.D., in the Women's WCHA Final Five playoff March 6-8. The fourth and fifth teams play a one-game knockout, for the right to face UMD in the semifinals, while Minnesota finishes the regular season against Wisconsin, and then comes right back to take on the Badgers again in the WCHA semifinals.

It is likely that two teams will advance to the NCAA Frozen Four in Duluth, with UMD and Minnesota both being ranked among the nation's top three teams all season, and Wisconsin among the top seven.

Olson, who was a star player at Roseau High School and then at UMD, coached in North Dakota and returned to coach the boys high school team at Roseau before going back to North Dakota to further his degree, and while there, he coached the North Dakota club team that this year started varsity hockey. His team reflects his steady and classy approach to the game.

Olson has eight seniors on the Bemidji State team, led by Amber Fryklund of Hibbing, who leads with 12 goals and 18 assists for 30 points. Lill Raynard, another senior, plays on Fryklund's wing. Betsy Hegland, Alicia Kinsman and Kerri McEwen form an all-senior third line, and Amy Shepler in on the fourth line, while Lisa Peters leads the defense and Bre Dedrickson is one of three rotating goaltenders.

The challenge for Bemidji State was immense against UMD. The Bulldogs have so much scoring power they had overrun the Beavers 9-0 and 10-0 earlier in the season. Adding Saturday's 10-0 victory meant that UMD had outscored Bemidji State 29-0 in three victories. But the Beavers played hard in the Sunday match at the DECC.

After Caroline Ouellette staked UMD to a 1-0 lead, Raynard scored her ninth goal of the season to not only give Bemidji its first goal against UMD in four games, but to tie the game 1-1. Nora Tallus and Sikio came right back with goals 48 seconds apart for a 3-1 UMD lead, but Kinsman scored with a diving deflection of a long pass to bring Bemidji up to 3-2.

UMD was not to be denied, with Sikio and Rooth scoring 41 seconds apart in the final minute of the opening period to make it 5-2, and the Bulldogs never looked back. They outshot Bemidji State 45-16, and Jenny Potter scored three goals and four assists, Sikio added two goals and four assists, and Rooth, the captain, was named No. 1 star with three goals and one assist.

That means Potter continues to lead the nation in scoring with 32-51<83. Ouellette has 26-37<63, Holst 29-28<57, Sikio 22-26<48, and Rooth 19-29<48. Rooth now has 226 points to become UMD's all-time leading hockey scorer, breaking Dan Lempe's 24-year-old mark of 222 career points for the Bulldog men.

Olson, whose Bemidji State team tied the Gophers 2-2 early in the season, and has a victory and a tie in an early series with Ohio State, knows this year's Beavers have improved as the season has gone along. And they have more to go. But watching him watch the on-ice celebration by UMD at the DECC made you realize he has an idea for where he wants to take the Bemidji State program.

(John Gilbert has covered WCHA Women's hockey since it began. He can be reached by e-mail at: jgilbert@duluth.com)

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