Oct. 22, 2009

by John Gilbert, WCHA.com

Goaltending is not a shortcoming for the University of Minnesota women's hockey team in this Olympic-depleted WCHA season, with returning sophomore Alyssa Grogan and junior Jenny Lura back and ready to go. So when coach Brad Frost decided to go with freshman Noora Räty in the Gophers' big intrastate series against Minnesota Duluth last weekend, it seemed curious at the outset.

It didn't seem curious for long, as Räty allowed only one goal in a 3-1, 3-0 sweep over the Bulldogs at Ridder Arena - a key element if the Gophers are to ultimately win the WCHA championship this season. Frost's decision to go overseas to recruit for the first time, plus Finland's decision to not centralize its 2010 Olympic team may prove vital to the cause.

Räty earned WCHA Defensive Player of the Week honors for her play against UMD, and, coincidentally, Minnesota State, Mankato sophomore Emmi Leinonen was WCHA Offensive Player of the Week with three goals and an assist last weekend, and freshman Minttu Tuominen of Ohio State was WCHA Rookie of the Week. So while Team USA took a well-deserved week off, virtually half of Team Finland's players were leading their WCHA teams.

Incidentally, Gopher sports information specialist Michelle Traen may deserve all-WCHA status this season, because after dutifully putting out pronunciation guides in recent years for such names as Wendell, Darwitz, Curtin, Brodt, and Marvin, she now must convince the media that Noora is "NEW-rah," but Räty is actually pronounced "RAH-too."

The Bulldogs don't need a pronunciation guide to remember Räty. The image of her, positioned low, with her glove held high, and the puck ensnared within, should be indelibly burned into their memories, at least until the rematch in early February in Duluth.

Räty gloved all of the toughest UMD shots, and got her pads in the way of almost all the rest, making 22 saves in the first game and blocking all 29 in the second. She was beaten only when UMD senior Emmanuelle Blais knocked in a loose puck during a scramble in the first game, with 10 minutes left, and only after Minnesota already had three goals on the board, and wound up with 51 saves on 52 shots against the team most consider the Gophers top challenger.

Minnesota dominated the first two periods of the first game, but after rallying in the third period, UMD played the Gophers evenly through two periods in the second game.

"I didn't think we played that well in the first period, and I knew we could play better in the second," said Frost. "They started the way they finished the first game...and so did we. Fortunately, when we were at our worst, Noora was at her best."

Tuominen, UMD's smart, hard-working center, is also the captain of Finland's national team, and she was victimized by her future teammate on two first-game bullets high into Räty's glove.

"I know Saara very well because she is captain of our national team," said Räty, after the first game. "I'm enjoying playing college hockey, because I love playing when there is pressure. They started getting some shots in the last 10 minutes. Saara always tries to score on me in national team practice, and usually she tries to beat me high to the glove side. So I was anticipating that she'd shoot there."

She couldn't have anticipated that almost all the Bulldogs, while playing much for forcefully in the second game to trail only 1-0 after two periods, all seemed stubbornly determined to also shoot high to the glove side. UMD coach Miller knew all about Räty's glove, and specifically provided video-enhanced evidence before the second game to indicate why the Bulldogs shouldn't shoot high on Räty's glove side. It didn't work.

"The Gophers have the best talent in the league, and they're much bigger and stronger than our players," said Miller. "After the (second) game, our team was exhausted, but I told our players I was proud of how hard they played, and I thought we were the better team for the first two periods. But I also asked how many had followed the plan to shoot low, and only one player said, `I did, once.' "

In past years, the scenario of Minnesota Duluth's success against the Gophers, and the propulsion for the Bulldogs' unsurpassed four NCAA championships, has been the ability of Miller to recruit sensational goaltenders from Finland (Tuula Puputti), Switzerland (Patricia Sautter), and Sweden (Kim Martin) - each of whom led UMD to national championships while also starring for their homeland national teams. This season, with Martin gone to the standing Swedish team, Miller landed Harss, a very skilled goaltender from Germany, who played well enough against 75 shots for the two games at Minnesota, if it hadn't been outdone by Räty.

The Gopher attack was alive in the first game. Anne Schleper's first-period goal, Terra Rasmussen's in the second, and a power-play goal by Sarah Erickson in the third - which gave her a nation-leading six goals at the time - was a minimal reward for Minnesota's dominance.

In the second game, the Bulldogs played much more assertively, but were done in by their inability to get past Räty, and also by their own power-play. Emily West scored the game's first goal on a shorthanded breakaway midway through the second period, and after Kelli Blankenship found a rare opening in goal-mouth congestion to score early in the third, Chelsey Jones scored on another shorthanded breakaway to seal the 3-0 verdict.

Frost tried to brush aside any talk of his Gophers zooming into the favorite's role, with Wisconsin having lost early games to both North Dakota and Bemidji State, and now UMD harnessed with two losses too, while the Gophers stand 4-0 atop the league.

"It's still early," Frost said. "The thing I love about us is that we're a great TEAM. We have players like Sarah Erickson, who have been put into a role she didn't need to play before, and has scored so well. But we expect everyone to contribute, and we're going with three lines and six defensemen, and letting the game dictate.

"Our goaltending situation is interesting, and we'll continue to evaluate it. Grogan played early, and Noora looked good, and then Noora played so well in practice, I decided to start her against UMD. I'm really happy for her to get a shutout. Not because a shutout was so important to her, but she doesn't like to get scored on."