John Gilbert

UMD goalie Kenny Reiter deflected a penalty shot by Bemidji's Jamie MacQueen just wide.

By John Gilbert
For long-suffering UMD hockey fans, the regional pairings look pretty good, just because the Bulldogs are among the 16 teams invited to the four regional NCAA tournaments.  Otherwise, the NCAA didn’t do the WCHA any favors.

UMD plays out in the East Regional, at Bridgeport, Conn., against Union, followed by the game in which Yale faces Air Force Academy. By tradition, UMD looks like the heavyweight with three lightweights. Don’t be fooled. Most fans may not have heard of Union, but at 26-9-4, Union won the ECAC conference title and ranks higher than UMD. Yale (26-9-4), the runner-up to Union in the ECAC, is not only No. 1 in the group, but No. 1 in the nation. Air Force is No. 16. The regional rank is: 1. Yale, 2. Union, 3. UMD and 4. Air Force.

UMD will wear its road maroons and had better be ready to go flat out against Union, otherwise it will be one and done. Meanwhile, we can pull for Coleraine native Frank Serratore, coach at Air Force, to upset Yale. It would be fun to have UMD play Air Force for the East championship.

In the Northeast Region at Manchester, N.H., the rank is: 1. Miami of Ohio, 2. Merrimack, 3. Notre Dame, and 4. New Hampshire.  Miami of Ohio faces New Hampshire in the first game on Saturday, with Merrimack facing Notre Dame in the second. In the West Region, the rank is: 1. BC, 2. Michigan, 3. Nebraska-Omaha, and 4. Colorado College. Michigan takes on Nebraska-Omaha in the first game Friday, and defending NCAA champ Boston College plays Colorado College in the second game.

Denver's Anthony Maiani scored against North Dakota goalie Aaron Dell in the Final Five title game.

Then there’s the Midwest Region, at Green Bay, Wis., where the rank is: 1. North Dakota, 2. Denver, 3. Western Michigan, and 4. RPI. WCHA season and playoff champ North Dakota plays Rensselaer in the 12:30 p.m. first game on Saturday, followed by Denver against Western Michigan.

For UMD’s chances, the Bulldogs must feel as though they can play their best and beat a couple of Eastern schools, including, perhaps, Yale’s Bulldogs. Based on the national ratings, and on the just concluded Final Five, however, it seems unfair to put Denver and North Dakota in the same Midwest Region. They just played a long, tough season, with North Dakota winning and Denver second, and they just played a fantastic league playoff final, with North Dakota winning in two overtimes over Denver. One week later, if they win their first games Saturday, they would meet again Sunday for the chance to go on to the Frozen Four. In my mind, UMD should be in Green Bay, for the sake of bringing fans and in spite of having to possibly face North Dakota, and Denver should be in the East. The Pioneers don’t bring many fans, anywhere, and they have to fly, wherever they go. Plus, as the No. 2 season and playoff team in the WCHA, Denver should at least have the chance of reaching the Frozen Four before having to face the Fighting Sioux again.

It should be a great tournament, nonetheless. The presence of both North Dakota and Denver in the Midwest makes that look like the toughest region, to WCHA fans. In reality, the West Region at St. Louis is the toughest. Nebraska-Omaha and CC are both very good teams, playing very well right now, but they have to play two of the nation’s major heavyweights in Michigan and Boston College. It would be fun to see UNO and CC win, but the rest of the country won’t be surprised if BC and Michigan are playing in that Saturday final.

Comparatively, I like Miami in the Northeast Region, but I believe that either North Dakota or Denver, for example, would be the favorite in the Northeast. So would BC, and any of the other three teams in St. Louis might be happy to be playing in the Northeast.

My picks are North Dakota in the Midwest, Boston College in the West, Miami in the Northeast…and then there’s the East. Yale is the favorite, and Union the top challenger, but UMD is the variable. When the Bulldogs lost 3-2 in overtime to Bemidji State at the Final Five, they were quick to say they had to put it behind them and look ahead to the NCAA. Maybe it was distracting to be assured of making the 16-team field, or maybe it was rationalization for not playing their best, but that convenient excuse was right on the tip of their tongues. There are no rationalizations left. The Bulldogs need great goaltending, they need their defensemen to be clicking as they move the puck up ice, and they need all their forward lines to be firing on all cylinders. Their top line, of Jack Connolly, Mike Connolly and Justin Fontaine, needs to score goals. As in the plural of goal. If they do, UMD can win the regional.

However you shake it out, the Frozen Four at Xcel Energy Center in two weeks will be fantastic. The smart picks would be North Dakota, BC, Miami and Yale. That would be a nice, convenient group, with one team from each of the major conferences. But when has college hockey followed the form chart?

BIG TEN TO BRANCH OFF IN HOCKEY

In the aftermath of the Final Five, word came that the Big Ten is going to start its own hockey conference in 2013-14. The plan is for Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and the new start-up program at Penn State will form a six-team league. The winner will get an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. The news is bittersweet.

The Big Ten was once the most formidible and prestigious college athletic conference in the U.S. When it was dominant in football, with Michigan and Ohio State the perennial powers, and in basketball, with Indiana and virtually everybody else taking a turn, Big Ten standings were kept in hockey, while all the teams played in the WCHA. Michigan was an early power, with Denver, North Dakota and Michigan Tech. Minnesota came on, and Michigan State, then Wisconsin got into the act. Michigan led the way, and virtually forced Michigan State to come along, to start the CCHA, before Ohio State even started hockey. That departure was a severe rupture to the WCHA, but it stabilized, then expanded, and it remains the best and most competitive hockey conference in the country. If you look at the current NCAA 16-team tournament, five WCHA teams made the field, while Michigan is the only Big Ten team that made it.

The Big Ten is vastly overrated in football right now, and we’ll have to wait and see if Ohio State can keep winning in basketball. Wisconsin’s hopes remain alive, if the Badgers can get past tournament darling Butler Thursday night. In hockey, Minnesota is in a downswing of epic proportions right now, and Wisconsin finished below the Gophers but in a rebuilding season after being NCAA runner-up to Boston College last season. Michigan State misfired this season, and Michigan wasn’t as strong as in recent years. Michigan has stayed a distant rival for Minnesota, but nothing like it was in the 1960s and ’70s, and nowhere near the rival Wisconsin is for the Gophers now. Wisconsin may no longer be as intense a WCHA rival for the Gophers as North Dakota, UMD, or St. Cloud State.

Minnesota is assuming it will still be able to schedule its “traditional” WCHA rivals for nonconference games, but for the WCHA’s sake, the concern should be for the non-traditional rivals. Maybe the WCHA will have to say that it will wish Minnesota and Wisconsin well, but will NOT schedule them for a couple of years, just to solidify their new 10-team conference. Besides, if things remain as they are now, the WCHA would only be contributing to strengthen the Pairwise rankings of Minnesota and Wisconsin if they schedule them.

Perhaps, also, the WCHA will continue to play its league tournament at Xcel Center, where the tournament drew 57,773 fans for three days last week — without the major draws of Minnesota, Wisconsin, St. Cloud State or Minnesota State-Mankato. It is still centrally located for the teams in Minnesota, Michigan Tech, North Dakota, CC and Denver, and Alaska-Anchorage. Minnesota might find out that Xcel Energy Center is no longer centrally located for league playoffs when it is on the extremity of the Big Ten, and the Big Ten tournament might wind up in Detroit.

When it’s all over and done, the WCHA will remain the best and most competitive conference in college hockey. The Big Ten will be an interesting gathering of huge, once-prestigious universities, but its teams will have to be outstanding to earn more than one automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.

FABULOUS FINAL FIVE

A quick look back at a highly entertaining Final Five:

*  Jack Connolly and Mike Connolly scored first-period goals, and all seemed well with the Bulldogs, but Bemidji State prevented them or any other UMD players from scoring any more, and won a 3-2 overtime game when Shea Walters scored at 6:12 of sudden-death overtime. Bemidji coach Tom Serratore is a fiery sort, and I believe he was trying to punish his first power-play unit on the winning goal. Mike Connolly’s goal was shorthanded, on a dazzling effort with Fontaine. When Brady Lamb was penalized for a weak high-sticking call at 5:53 of overtime, Frank’s little brother was asked if he didn’t use his first power-play unit because they were just coming off the ice. Tom Serratore said, “Yes they were just coming off, and they had given up a short-handed goal already.” There was no good reason to zing them for being the victims of a brilliant first-period steal by UMD, but the Dogs hadn’t been penalized since. Bemidji State had scored 24 power play goals all season to that point, and its first power-play unit had scored 21 of them. So Serratore sent out a unit that had only scored three goals all season, and he got lucky when Shea Walters, a junior third-line center who used to be a big scorer at Hibbing, played the point and scored his first goal of the season to win the game. When you’re meant to win, even doing the wrong thing can turn out right.

*  Bemidji State discarded their cautious, defensive style in the semifinals and hooked up with a wide-open attack against Denver. It worked for two periods, when it was 2-2, and Bemidji State had outshot the Pioneers 28-17, but playing the second tough game in two nights, against a foe that was not only good, but rested, meant the bubble burst and Denver scored four straight goals in the third period to win 6-2.

*  North Dakota beat Colorado College 4-3 in a fantastic game in the second semifinal. The Sioux hammered CC all over the ice, but the Tigers were resilient and kept hanging in there. Falling behind 1-0, then tying it 1-1, and going ahead 2-1 before the Sioux tied it 2-2. North Dakota went up 3-2 on Brad Malone’s short-handed goal, but Rylen Schwartz got his second goal of the game to tie it midway through the third period. Then Matt Frattin won it on a great pass from Evan Trupp. It was Trupp who dazzled the 15,008 fans by scooping up the puck on the flat of his stickblade in his own zone, then carrying it, waist-high, all the way into CC’s zone before firing a lacrosse-style shot on goal.

*  In the Final Five final, North Dakota and Denver hooked up in another game for a time capsule. Denver led 1-0 after one period, North Dakota went up 2-1 in the second, and it stayed that way until Anthony Maiani scored for Denver with 2:13 remaining. Then it was overtime, and a second overtime. Finally, Trupp again carried the puck in, fed back to captain Chay Genoway, whose right point shot was blocked, and rebounded to the left of the net, where Frattin knocked in his 35th goal of the season to win it 3-2.

*   If you get on ESPN’s website and check out the upcoming NCAA tournament pairings, everything is there and in order. But we know ESPN doesn’t even bother with college hockey scores all season, and only comes on board to make a buck by broadcasting the NCAA tournament. With that in mind, I found it interesting that ESPN said that the CCHA had five teams in the 16-team field and the WCHA four. News travels slowly to ESPN, where they must not have heard that Nebraska-Omaha has switched from the CCHA to the WCHA. It is the WCHA with five teams in the field, and the CCHA with four.

By John Gilbert

It was 50 years ago, and time has flown by. Several of us drove from Duluth to Minneapolis back then, on Highway 61, because there was to Interstate 35, E or W. We scrounged around University Avenue, over in the Midway district, which is in Saint Paul, but right close to the Minneapolis border, which made it close in proximity to Williams Arena at the University of Minnesota.

That was the center of the universe for that weekend in March, because it was the site of the state high school basketball tournament. It’s easy to be provincial about any state high school tournament, in fact it’s mandatory. We were college freshmen at UMD, but our allegiance was to Duluth Central, which had gone to state with a fantastic team.

Terry Kunze and Roger Hanson were the guards, and both were deadly outside shooters and outstanding ball-handlers. There was a big freshman named Chet Anderson at forward, and for a guy who was big enough to later play football at Minnesota, he had an amazingly soft touch. Dan Howard played center, although it might have been only because he was pretty tall. He, too, went to Minnesota, but for baseball, which made sense, because as a vertical jumper, he was a good pitcher with a live fastball. But Howard could rebound, and he could get off to one side and throw pinpoint, no-look passes.

There was good depth on the team, but coach Jim Hastings was the maestro who turned these peculiar and uncoordinated parts into sweet music. He got all the parts assembled, got them to play off each other, to play hustling, tough defense, and to score from anywhere and everywhere. We wondered why Hastings wouldn’t let the Trojans score 100 points every game, because surely they could have.

The key to the Trojans was in their guard play. Kunze was about 6-foot-3, lanky and angular and had this odd, knock-kneed manner. He could shoot from outside, or he could drive and twist and fling reverse layups, and even though he was a guard who could dribble behind his back and through his legs when Bob Cousy of the Celtics was the only guy we’d seen do that, Kunze loved to shoot hook shots. When he went up for a jump shot, it seemed like his body rose in sections, a hand here, an arm there, then the other arm, and the torso following, then the legs. Finally, he’d cock the ball and shoot it. It seemed he required all those mechanical parts to work sequentially before he finally let his shot go, but it almost always found its mark. If he’d been black, he might have become the youngest player on the Harlem Globetrotters because of his unusual skills. He later also went to Minnesota and played guard for the Gophers, setting a team record at one point for consecutive field goals.

Hanson, on the other hand, was about 6-1, and was more conventional but no less skilled. He also could drive and make smart passes, but he had a satin-smooth jump shot that was worth the price of admission. It tended to rise in a high arc, and drop into the center of the basket with such pinpoint perfection that sometimes the bottom of the net would blip with only a tiny, synchronized twitch. He went on to play, and star, at UMD.

Not bad, when you think about it, to have four starters go on to play college sports, and play well. Central was undefeated all season, and as we sat up high in the rafters at Williams Arena, we were pretty sure that the guys could beat the best from all around the state as easily as they had beaten Denfeld or East or Morgan Park or Two Harbors. This had to be the greatest basketball team that ever played in Minnesota, we agreed. And they were by far the most fun to watch.

In the championship game, they faced Bemidji, which was a good, quick team, but not tall enough or skilled enough to beat Central. We thought. What we didn’t know at that time was that Bemidji coach Bun Fortier was already a legend, and the primary reason Bemidji never had as good hockey as it should have. He got all the top athletes to play basketball, and he got them to start school late. He may have invented red-shirting, because his seniors were older than anybody else’s.

They gave Central a fantastic battle, those older, wiser, college-aged Lumberjacks. In fact, they buzzed and bothered Central’s offense so much, things looked bleak for a while. But in the fourth quarter, Hastings made a move. He put Kunze under the basket, and turned him loose. All those hours of practicing and shooting all kinds of shots would now be encouraged, and necessary.

Kunze drove, he pulled up and shot, he tossed some hook-shots, and, at the end, Central won the game by one point. It was something like 52-51. You could look it up. The victory concluded a perfect unbeaten season for Central. It was awesome to watch. It remains indelibly in memory as evidence that when the state basketball tournament was all in one class, and only eight teams made it to state, it was a superb spectacle and it had the entire state riveted to their grainy black-and-white TV sets.
We can wish all the teams in all the classes a well-played and thrilling time at this weekend’s state basketball tournament. But it’s not the same. I can’t remember how many classes there are, and I scramble to keep up on how many Northland teams there are down in the Cities. It’s still fun, although the state hockey tournament has rocketed past it in financial and artistic qualities. Nobody knows now if the Class AAA winner could beat the Class AAAA champ or not. In 1961, we knew all eight teams. And we knew who would win.

Was that Duluth Central team the best basketball team in Minnesota history? I don’t know. I do know it was among ‘em. And by far, the Trojans were the most fun team to watch — especially if you were just out of high school, sitting in  the dusty, musty rows of the upper deck of Williams Arena, and totally lacking in anything resembling objectivity. But who can say we were wrong?

Kyle Rau, Eden Prairie's Mr.Hockey, lost his helmet in the pile after he scored the overtime game-winner against Duluth East.

By John Gilbert

Duluth almost pulled off an impossible dream at the Minnesota state high school hockey tournament. If Hermantown had managed to get past St. Thomas Academy in the Class A final, and Duluth East bad beaten Eden Prairie in the Class AA title game, Duluth would have had the unique situation of providing both champions. It may never happen, but it also may never come closer than the 2011 tournament.

Hermantown and Hibbing represented the Northeast corner of the state in Class A, while Duluth East was the solid entry from 7AA. Hermantown and East came oh-so-close to winning both titles.  Here’s a guided tour through the four-day odyssey at St. Paul’s Excel Energy Center:

WEDNESDAY

Class A quarterfinals fill the day, starting at 11 a.m., when No. 2 ranked Hermantown took on Alexandria. The Hawks outshot Alex 56-14, but the game was scoreless until the second period. And then Jordan Domine took the second-period faceoff and somehow managed to score at 0:05 for Alexandria. Nobody said that was an all-time record, but it’s virtually impossible to score in less elapsed time, unless the time-keeper is slow on the switch. That gave Alex a 1-0 lead, but it also provided the ignition Hermantown needed. In a 13-minute span, the Hawks, who outshot the Cardinals 22-3 in the second period, pumped in goals by Garrett Skrbich, Jaren Thomas, Travis Koepke, Jesse Dyson, and Chris Benson, and the 5-1 final was inscribed, after a mellow third period. Someone mentioned to coach Bruce Plante that he’s a media favorite, to which he, in is inimitable style, said: “That’s because I’m old, and I don’t give a shit like everybody else.” He added,”I’ve had teams where the other teams used to run it up, and it pissed me off. We never have run it up, and never will.”

Unranked Hilbbing, my upset pick against No. 3 ranked Rochester Lourdes, hit the ice next and with goaltender Nathan Tromp continuing his hot streak, the Bluejackets rolled to a 4-0 victory. Adam Johnson, a smooth, slick super-sophomore who played defense last season, scored his 39th goal of the season in the first period, converting a feed from Nick DeCenzo, the senior son of coach Mark DeCenzo. Mike Pechvnik scored in the second period, and Jake Doherty and DeCenzo scored in the third. DeCenzo’s goal was his 24th, and his two assists in the game boosted him to 55, and while he and Johnson and Joe Anderson make a formidible line, the soft-spoken Tromp recorded the shutout. That was his fourth playoff game, with a 9-0 shutout against Silver Bay, a 5-1 decision over Duluth Central, then shutouts of 5-0 against Virginia and now 4-0 over Lourdes.  One goal against in four playoff games prompted me to ask how the one goal was scored. Coach Mark DeCenzo cut in: “It was on a 5-on-3 power play.” Walking out with Tromp, I asked him where he planned to go to college next year. “Michigan Tech,” he said. I asked him if he had gotten a full scholarship to Tech, and he said: “No, I haven’t talked to anyone about hockey. I want to be an engineer.” We need to make sure Tech coach Jamie Russell knows he might be getting the best goaltending/engineering student in the country.

St. Thomas Academy, ranked No. 1, surprised nobody by crushing New Ulm 13-2, but Thief River Falls surprised the Twin Cities folks, to say nothing of Breck, by scoring five goals in the third period to eliminate defending champion Breck 7-5. The Prowlers served notice with a 2-1 lead in the first 5:28, on goals by Riley Soderstrom and Brady Meunier. But Breck appeared to take over in the second period with three unanswered goals for a 4-2 lead. Thief River Falls stormed back in the third period, as Ryan Crosson scored at 1:08. then tied the game 4-all with a shorthanded goal at 3:50. Derek Kayser put the Prowlers ahead 5-4, and Micah Ranum scored after a great set-up by Chris Forney with 2:14 left for a stunning 6-4 lead. Breck got one back shorthanded with 1:37 left, but the Prowlers finished it with an empty-netter. The 5-goal rally meant that the Thief River Falls players would curl to the boards to celebrate five times, and that spot happened to be right in front of the white-clad Breck students. “It was fun to give their students a jab, looking ‘em in the eye,” said Crosson. Coach Tim Bergland, a former Gopher and former NHL player, always looked calm and cool on the bench. But Ranum said: “He can really blow a gasket. After two periods, when we were down 4-2, he said, ‘Next goal wins.’ Then we went out and got five in the third period.”

THURSDAY

The Class A teams take a day off before Semifinal Friday to let the big schools of Class AA take over. And what a day it was! No. 2 seed Edina trailed 2-1 after one but came back to beat Blaine 3-2. Then it was Duluth East’s team to take center-stage, against White Bear Lake. Now, the Bears had won their Section 4AA semifinal 1-0 in overtime over Stillwater, then eliminated arch-rival and No. 1 rated Hill-Murray 5-4 in two overtimes in the final. So they were battle-tested for the Greyhounds, who, after a scoreless first period, took a 2-0 lead in the second on goals by Hunter Bergerson and a classic by the big line, when Trevor Olson fed Jake Randolph going in on the right side, and when Dom Toninato yelled, Randolph threw a no-look backhand pass across the slot that Toninato put away. But Brandon Wahlin got one back later in the second and tied it 2-2 in the third. Olson put East back in front 3-2, but Mitch Morrisette tied it with 4:23 left, and goaltender JoJo Jeanetta came through to the finish. Then it was time for overtime. Then a second overtime, and senior Zac Schendel came up with his biggest play in three years, when the puck popped loose on the end boards. Schendel kicked it ahead to his stick as he came off the boards toward the left circle, then he spun and shot. The puck went through a defenseman and between the knees of goaltender Jared Schletty for a 4-3 victory. “As soon as I got the puck I knew I was going to put it on net,” said Schendel. “I didn’t realize I had scored until my linemates told me. It’s definitely a relief to get past the first game, because the last two years…we choked.”

In the lower bracket, powerful and No. 1 ranked Eden Prairie beat game but outmatched Lakeville North 5-0 behind Kyle Rau’s two goals. Then Eagan frustrated Moorhead to win 4-0, expanding a tight1-0 lead with a goal with 4:18 left, then two more into an empty net.

SEMIFINAL FRIDAY

Pick the best day at every state tournament, and the semifinals are the surest bet. The Class A semis were first, and Hibbing threw a great challenge at Hermantown. Nick DeCenzo scored the only goal of the first period, but Hermantown turned aggressive in the second period, hammering the Bluejackets all over the ice. The officials let the forceful play go, and the Hawks came to life. Garrett Skrbich scored his 41st goal of a splendid senior season to tie it 1-1 in the first minute of the second period. Jessy Dyson put the Hawks ahead, and Skrbich notched No. 42 off Andrew Mattson’s pass for a three-goal splurge in the first 3:45. Travis Koepke made it 4-1 at 8:20, and Hibbing’s lighter, smaller, and thinner Bluejackets looked like they were finished.

But then it was time for sophomore Adam Johnson to take over the game. He scored on a power play, flicking a 25-foot backhander in from the right circle with 55 seconds left in the second period, then he skated in on the left side and filtered through a defenseman before pulling the puck to the slot and rifling a wrist shot in off the left pipe with 31 seconds remaining, closing the gap at the second intermission to 4-3. He wasn’t finished, either, as he completed his pure hat trick on a power play at 2:34 of the third period, tying the game 4-4 with his 42nd goal of the season. A wild and wide-open stretch followed, as Hibbing gave it a shot, and Hermantown countered every time. At 10:50, Andrew Mattson scored with the rebound after Skrbich’s shot was stopped by Tromp’s mask. Johnson had one more rush, but when goalie Connor Lucas stopped him, Skrbich was called for an ill-timed cross check at the crease with 1:32 left in the game. The Bluejackets moved the puck, and it came to Johnson, playing center point. He tried a slick play, flipping a soft feed ahead toward the goal, but Jarek Kolquist intercepted it. Being shorthanded, he didn’t have to worry about icing the puck, so he flipped a high shot straight ahead at the open net. Johnson, like a lanky basketball player going for a rebound, jumped high and got his gloved fingertip on the puck. It slowed the trajectory, but the puck was slithering toward the open goal. Johnson turned and chased after it, desperately, as it slid slower and slower. Finally, Johnson dived, but he couldn’t touch it until it had crossed the goal line–barely–for an empty-netter and a 6-4 Hermantown victory.

Afterward, Bruce Plante was asked if the physical pounding was part of the game plan. “I don’t think it was the game plan, just how the kids play,” said Plante. “Besides, these kids never do what you tell ‘em, anyway.” As for the remarkable comeback, spearheaded by the three straight goals by Johnson, whose dad, Dave Johnson, is a former Hibbing and UMD star, Plante said: “He should be playing for UMD right now. Christ is he good! He’s an unbelievable player, with great hands and good vision. You give him room and he’ll eat you up. He’s as good as any player we’ve seen.”

Then it was time to prepare his No. 2 Hawks for No. 1 St. Thomas Academy, as the Cadets ended the hopes of Thief River Falls 5-0 behind two goals by Zach Schroeder in the second semifinal.

On Friday night, the scene shifted to Class AA, and Duluth East took on Edina in a classic. It was scoreless through one, as open ice and scoring chances were at a premium. East fired four of the first five shots in the second, but Steven Fogarty dashed in and beat JoJo Jeanetta’s glove at 9:22 for a 1-0 Edina lead. In the final minute of the period, Jake Randolph found himself out near the left point, although Hunter Bergerson had that spot covered and fired the puck back up the boards. It went to Trevor Olson, who let it go on through to Dom Toninato on the end boards. Toninato spotted Randolph, kating toward the left circle and slid a pass oout to him. Randolph swung full force and drilled his shot past the goalie’s glove and into the lower right corner of the net, for a 1-1 tie.

In the third period, the teams skated back and forth on the Xcel Center ice, but nobody could score. Overtime again, and it was properly tight and tense until 3:54 had passed, then Schendel backhanded a pass up the right boards. Alex Toscano, one of three impressive East sophomore forwards, gathered it in and rushed up the right side. When he got to the top of the right circle, with one Edina defenseman in his path, Toscano pulled the puck just enough to set up the defenseman’s screen, then snapped a hard wrist shot that caught the far, left edge of the net. East had beaten Edina 2-1 in overtime to reach the championship game.

“I told the guys that if there are 19,000 here, 17,000 of them are going to be for the Hounds. Even the people who hate the Hounds will be cheering for us against Edina. This is special–a special time for them, and for me.” Randolph’s son, Jake, said: “I knew we could make it because this is a great group of guys. We all love each other in that room. When we got to overtime, we had so much fire. Everybody was smiling on the bench, and I knew we could do it.”

A couple other media types said they thought Eagan, which beat Eden Prairie during the season, would win again when the two met in the second semifinal. I disagreed, and said I wouldn’t be surprised if Eden Prairie won by something like 5-1 or 5-2. turned out to be 5-1. Two goals in the first, then two by the redoubtable Kyle Rau in the second, and two more in the third. Kyle Rau had two assists to go with his two goals, and the Eagles were in the final, to face the Greyhounds.

CHAMPIONSHIP SATURDAY

The Class A final at High Noon was a classic, as well. Hermantown came out and set an astonishing tempo. St. Thomas Academy had a lot of shots, but Connor Lucas handled them, while Jared Thomas scored with a backhanded rebound at 3:57. Thirty-nine seconds later, Andrew Mattson carried in on a 2-on-1and rifled a wrist shot over the glove of goaltender David Zevnik. Couple minutes later, the Hawks first line clicked when Mattson broke in, passed left to Skrbich, who was open to shoot but instead passed to the right edge, where Thomas had a tap-in. Only 7:08 had been played, but Hermantown led 3-0.

The stunned Cadets came back, however, when Andrew Commers scored on a shorthanded breakaway before th efirst period ended, and Peter Krieger scored to open the second. Hermantown gained a 4-2 lead when Mattson scored on a loose puck at the crease, but then the Cadets got what they call “puck luck.” A.J. Reid carried in deep on the right of a 3-on-2, and as he went past the net on the right side he threw a pass out to the slot. The puck hit a Hawks defender in front and the ricochet went in, cutting Hermantown’s lead to 4-3. By that point in the second period, the pace of the game belonged to St. Thomas Academy. It continued in the third, the momentum led to an Andrew Commers goal at 4:43 to tie the game. Then, remarkably, the Hawks seemed to rejuvenate, and regained the upper hand in the flow of the game. But nobody could score, and the third period ended.

Once again, it was overtime. The Hawks had a chance on a power play, but couldn’t generate a goal. Then, at 6:34, Zach Schoreder pulled a right corner faceoff back to Tony Bretzman, who passed to Taylor Fleming at center point. Taylor cut loose, and his shot zipped past a couple of bodies and grazed the right post to catch the net and bring a crushing end to Hermantown’s title hopes. Long after the trophy presentation, Reid said: “I’m so excited, I don;’t even want to take my jersey off.”

Then there was Bruce Plante. “Pretty big task, for us to play that team,” said the coach. “I was never confident, even with a three goal lead. We were a little tired in the second, but at the end, we played tired better than they played tired. We had to replace 14 players from last year, and we have a lot of young kids, but these kids came up and did what they were told. We have a saying in Hermantown, ‘Seniors lead, juniors follow, and sophomores keep your mouths shut.’ We never knew how good we were until we got down here, but the pressure never got to them.”

All of that hockey seems exhausting, in retrospect. But the best was still to come. The Class AA final, with Duluth East taking on Eden Prairie. The first period was scoreless, like a chess match, with a few good chances, but careful play. In the second period, East got a power play, and it couldn’t have been better executed, dazzling the crowd of 15,018–East played before 17,625 the first day, and 18,074 in the semifinals. There were about three passes before Meirs Moore fed a perfect pass to Jake Randolph on the outside of the right circle, and Randolph relayed another perfect pass across the slot to the left circle, where Trevor Olson one-timed his shot to put it in behind goalie Andrew Ford. The only goal of the second period seemed substantial, but in the third period, the 1-0 edge vanished.

Mark Rath scored at 1:43 after Luc Gerdes was checked off the puck for a 1-1 tie. East, however, came back at 9:31 to regain the lead at 2-1. Again the big line connected, this time on a rush, with Trevor Olson carrying up the right and ripping a shot that hit a defenseman and then Ford and popped up and over the goalie. The puck seemed to float, slowly, before finally tumbling into the goal, as two Eden Prairie defenders dived for it.  Again, East was in position to win that state title, but at 14:04, Eden Prairie’s Nick Seeler shot from the left point. Jeanetta blocked it, but David Rath put in the rebound, and it was 2-2.

Then, as they say, the fun began.  The teams raced up and down the ice through the eight-minute overtime, and East looked spent. But after the first overtime, they made ice, and then played 17 minutes. East, revived by the break, had several good chances. The highlight for the Hounds, however, was sophomore defenseman Andrew Kerr, who leveled Kyle Rau with a crunching bodycheck along the boards. It was one of four times Kerr caught the speedy Rau, and the Xcel crowd “oohed” and “oohed” again when they showed the hit repeatedly on the big screen. But the 2-2 score remained, and the game boiled into the third overtime, making it the longest championship game in state tournament history. It ended on a strange play, and an ironic one, at 4:43 of the third overtime. Curt Rau, Kyle’s twin brother, shot from the right point. Jeanetta blocked it, but the puck trickled through, behind him, and came to rest in the crease. He didn’t find it right away, but Kerr spotted it, and, fighting exhaustion, tried to sweep it clear. But he only got a piece of it, and it was still in the left edge of the crease when Kyle Rau came on the run, and made a headlong dive, stabbing at the puck. It took slow-motion replay to tell the whole story. Rau’s poke went off the left pipe, then pinballed off somethking, either Kerr’s skate or the sliding stick of the sprawling Rau, and it wound up in the net, sending the Eagles into ecstasy. For the Hounds, it was a drop into the sheer disappointment that only those who come up short in such a masterpiece can comprehend.

“It’s tough,” said coach Randolph. “Not on me personally, but it’s tough to watch the kids lay it on the line. We played a complete game. Everybody played well. Hunter Bergerson, our only senior defenseman, went down with an injury, and I put Kyle Campion back there. He’s a forward and had never played back there, but he did a great job. I couldn’t ask more from a team. We got beat on a great play from Mr. Hockey, who could have gone away to play, but decided to stay in school. He got rewarded tonight.”

When he was deliberating his move, Kyle Rau talked things over with his twin brother, Curt,  last fall. The Gopher recruit had the chance to go to the USHL for a season of junior hockey instead of playing his senior year. “He told me he was going to go,” recalled Curt, “and I told him I’d support whatever he decided to do. But then he decided to come back.”  Kyle Rau was a standout as a sophomore on Eden Prairie’s state championship team two years earlier, but he said: “This is an incredible experience. This is why I came back.”

TOURNAMENT NOTES

Duluth East got it’s money’s worth of ice time, playing overtime games all three days, and six altogether. But White Bear Lake, which had played overtime in the Section semifinal and final before losing in two overtimes to East, went to consolation and beat Blaine, in overtime, of course. Then in the consolation final, White Bear Lake lost 4-3 to Lakeville North in three more overtimes.

While Kyle Rau returning to Eden Prairie is a huge plus for high school hockey, which has lost a lot of players to junior and U.S. Development programs, there were other tremendous positives coming out of the tournament. East, for example, had two returning players from last season leave the team, but goaltender JoJo Jeanetta said that when he was 15, he was cut from the Bantam tryouts. There is a Bantam A team, and a Bantam B1, and Bantam B2 for players who are cut. “I was cut to Bantam B2,” said Jeanetta. “I remember being in my room and crying abou tit. I was going to quit hockey. Then I got furious about it. And I decided I was going to get better. And I’ve got to say, that if I hadn’t been cut to Bantam B2, I wouldn’t be playing here now.”

Interesting. Some kids have the chance to go elsewhere and stay, and others who figure they have no future at Bantam age wind up a star on their high school team. Both paths led them to the state finals, and you have to wonder about the kids who left. They missed the chance of a lifetime.

Wisconsin's Jordy Murray reached over goalie Kent Patterson to flick in a goal for a 2-2 tie in the second game at Minnesota, which wound up 3-3.

By John Gilbert

If you’re a dedicated puckhead, and you needed a total fix on the first weekend in November, you had a feast of unprecedented proportions in Minneapolis. It was “Border Battle” time, with Wisconsin invading to play Minnesota in a WCHA series. But not just “a” WCHA series. The Wisconsin women’s team,  undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the nation, to play Friday-Saturday against the Gophers, at Ridder Arena, which is about 20 paces, just across a wide sidewalk, from Mariucci Arena, where the Badger men were taking on the Gophers as well.

The only problem was that Friday, the women’s game started at 6 p.m., with the men’s game at 7. Still, it was worth the exercise to try to see as much of both games as possible.

The Gopher women were ready. Coming in 2-4, they were the best 2-4 team the WCHA women’s league had ever seen. They were upset twice at home by North Dakota, then they swept St. Cloud State, before going to Duluth and losing a pair of 3-2 games to the very impressive and then-undefeated UMD Bulldogs. The second game wound up 4-2, but only by an empty-net goal.  In those games, the young Gophers sorely missed senior winger Emily West, both for stability and scoring, and freshmen Amanda Kessel and Kelly Terry had been the team’s surprising goal-leaders.

West made her return after missing seven games and the Gophers ambushed Wisconsin for a 3-1 first-period lead. Kessel’s fifth goal tied it 1-1, and West’s first of two put them ahead to stay, while another freshman, Kelly Terry, scored her fifth for the 3-1 count. I was getting anxious, because the men’s game was about to start, so I waited one shift into the second period. Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson pulled freshman Alex Rigsby from the nets and sent in sophomore Becca Ruegsegger. They dropped the puck, and West bolted in for a shot, then whacked in her own rebound at 0:07. That made it 4-1, and I hustled over to see the start of the men’s game, figuring the women’s game was pretty well settled.

The first period at Mariucci Arena was hard-fought and speedy, although Minnesota’s zeal cost them the game’s first three penalties. The Gophers had gotten healthy by sweeping at Colorado College 4-1 and 9-4 to even their WCHA record at 3-3, while Wisconsin was 2-1-1, with freshmen filling five of the 12 forward slots and two of six on defense. One of those freshmen, Michael Mersch of Park Ridge, Ill., scored for a 1-0 Wisconsin lead in the first, trying a wraparound at the right post that Alex Kangas blocked, then amazingly flicking the rebound into the right edge as he landed on his hind quarters at 19:17.

Hilary Knight scored her first of two goals as Wisconsin came back from its first loss of the season to beat Minnesota 5-0 in the second game.

The news had hit the men’s press box from one of the unfortunately few others who were interested in the women’s game that after two periods next door, a game that had reached 5-2 Minnesota stood at 6-5 Gophers. Off I went, figuring I might see the third period of the women’s game and still get back with most of the men’s second period to go.

It worked. I had missed six second-period goals, but in a fast-paced and intense third, Sarah Erickson got her second of the game — and the year — to secure a 7-5 victory for Minnesota.  By then, Kessel had left the game with a shoulder injury that would leave her in a sling during Saturday’s game. Noora Raty, Minnesota’s sophomore goaltender, was outstanding despite the goal total. Wisconsin outshot Minnesota 41-22 in their furious comeback attempt to avoid its first loss of the season, so Raty made 36 saves — and also fed the puck for assists on Terry’s goal and the first of Erickson’s goals.

Then it was back to Mariucci. Wisconsin sophomore Derek Lee boosted the Badger men to a 2-0 lead at 1:50 of the second period, then Jordy Murray reached behind the sprawled goalie Alex Kangas and flicked in another for a 3-0 leat at 8:20. Mersch got his second, coaxing a shot to trickle past the diving Kangas at 12:12, and the Badgers led 4-0. The 9,689 fans were silent, and didn’t get any loudere when Mark Zengerle, a freshman who had assisted on two goals, scored on a rebound to make it 5-0 with the only poer-play goal of the night. Kangas came back to make a great save on a penalty shot by Craig Smith, the sophomore from Madison who is Wisconsin’s top-line center, but Tyler Barnes, yet another freshman, scored on a wraparound at the left pipe at 13:55, and Wisconsin — outshooting the Gophers 38-24 — skated off with a 6-0 drubbing of the Gophers. Senior Scott Gudmandson got the shutout.

Gopher coach Don Lucia, when asked if it stung more to get shut out at home one game after the Gophers had scored nine at CC, said, “I’m more concerned with our goals-against.” OK, Donnie, but when you get shut out, the other team needs to only score one to beat you.

On Saturday, everybody went at it again. This time the women’s game started at 4 p.m., with the men at 7, so there was ample time to see both games in their entirety.

So much hockey blends together after a while, so it required focus to realize that the Badger women had started slowly in the first game. Strangely, though, the Badgers started Game 2 with all the momentum from the intensity of their comeback attempt in Game 1, while the Gophers seemingly got nothing left over from their victory.

Stephanie McKeough broke the 0-0 game midway through the first period when her shot from the right point hit Raty and trickled through. Three minutes later, Hilary Knight scored with a screened shot from the left circle and it was 2-0, as the Badgers outshot Minnesota 17-7 in the opening period. Knight scored again with a shot that glanced in off Raty at 3:12 of the second, and if the Gophers were flat, they were flatter after Meghan Duggan scored short-handed at 7:15, and Carolyne Prevost scored at 11:54, just seconds after a power play expired. That made it 5-0 after two, and that’s the way it ended, with freshman Alex Rigsby going the distance to get the shutout.

If both teams came away with positives from the women’s series split, the men’s series worked out the same way — figuratively, at least.

The Gophers men, properly embarrassed by their ineptitude in Game 1, hit the ice flying and jumped to a 1-0 lead on Taylor Matson’s fifth goal of the season, at 4:18, then they made it 2-0 when Jacob Cepis scored his fourth on a power play at 11:41. While most of Friday’s crowd fled Mariucci Arena before the finish, the 9,913 on hand Saturday roared their approval for the turnabout.

Wisconsin, however, got an enormous goal when Justin Schultz scored a power-play goal, walking in from the pont to score from the slot with 2:01 left in the first period. That buoyed the Badgers, and Jordy Murray notched his seventh of the season on a poewr play at 3:39 for a 2-2 tie. Jay Barriball, Minnesota’s captain, was as effective in Game 2 as he had been unnoticeable in Game 1, countered with a power-play blast from center point at 18:42, and the Gophers took a 3-2 lead into the third period.

That score stood until 2:54 remained, when Jordy Murray tried to jam a shot in at the left post, and when Kent Patterson blocked it, Murray tried again. This time Patterson got his glove down on the puck, but Murray stabbed at it, and it went in before any whistle blew for a 3-3 tie. The officials, however, spent about 10 minutes reviewing the goal, while a herd of WCHA officials that included commissioner Bruce McLeod, associate commissioner Sara Martin, referee supervisor Greg Shepherd, and official observer Jeff Sauer all watched from the press box.

The goal stood, the teams were tied 3-3, and they battled evenly through a 5-minute overtime before settling for the 3-3 tie. It wasn’t a victory, but Lucia said returning to play at the competitive level necessary for WCHA success was more important. The Badgers hit the bus for I-94 and the return to Madison with three of the four points, however. “Coming into this building and taking three of four points, and having to rally back twice…we’ll take it. This was a battle of wills.”

And for someone who can’t get enough hockey to satisfy a lifelong passion, the “Border Battle” weekend had new and extended meaning with four games crammed into two days in adjoining arenas.

Election week has come and gone, and the whole scenario was pretty startling. As an independent, it seems remarkable that the Bush administration spent eight years turning the bountiful Clinton-era economic high into the worst recession since before any of us were born, but the voters who tolerated or even defended that disastrous eight years have now decided that President Obama gets only two years to turn it all around — even while the righties declare and then carry out a plan to dig in their heels and prevent anything he tries from succeeding. If you like analogies, imagine a sleepy pilot  losing control of a jetliner, sending it nosediving in a freefall toward a disastrous ending, while he vacates the pilot seat. A guy in the back says he’ll try to land the plane safely, and the passengers urge him to go for it. He runs up and grabs the controls, trying various things to get the plane to start to level off before it can crash to earth. Almost immediately, however, doomsayers who supported the sleepy cowboy who had previously been in control, stir up such fear among the passengers that they take a vote, deciding to remove the new guy’s ability to control the plane — even blaming him for the freefall he’s trying to rescue.

Ah, but this isn’t about politics. It’s just that Election Day 2010 is the perfect time for sports fans enjoying a bright, brisk autumn in Northern Minnesota to cast their vote for their favorite sports story of the first week in November. Talk about close competition.

The beauty of this vote is that it is valid simply on the basis of personal enjoyment. It is not motivated by questionable prejudices, it is completely free of trans-fats, artificial sweeteners, polyunsaturated oil, as well as outrageous half-truth advertisements, and phone-it-in attempts by outsiders to influence otherwise intelligent people of the Great White North with phony endorsements and rigged debates.

Just the facts, folks. Take your pick and cast your vote:

• The University of Minnesota-Duluth football team, which lost All-America running back Isaac Odim to a practice knee injury three weeks ago, broke from a 13-10 halftime struggle for 20 unanswered points in the third quarter and whipped St. Cloud State 40-17 — handing the Huskies their first Northern Sun loss, snapping their seven-game winning streak, while boosting UMD to 9-0. To replace Odim, who undoubtedly would have run for four of those touchdowns, coach Bob Nielsen sent a more varied attack on the field, using a few direct-snap “wildcat” formations, and got touchdowns from five different players: Collin Stinogel (on a 40-yard pass from Chase Vogler), D.J. Winfield (on a 28-yard pass from Vogler), Brad Foss, Rob Huberty (scooping up a fumble jarred loose when St. Cloud was on its 29 yard line and running it in), and Vogler. David Nadeau connected on two field goals and four extra points for the other 10 points. All of that virtually secured the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference championship for the Bulldogs, although they must still win at Minnesota-Crookston on the first Saturday after the election, and at Minnesota State-Mankato the following Saturday. It also thrust UMD to the No. 1 rank among all Division II teams in the U.S., because previous No. 1 Grand Valley State was upset at Michigan Tech.

• UMD’s women’s hockey team claimed an enormous sweep against Minnesota at the DECC, the fifth and sixth consecutive victories for the Bulldogs against the arch-rival Gophers. The 3-2/4-2 victories prove again that UMD’s “Olympic Line” is the best in the country, providing the offense as UMD climbed to a 7-0-1 record, 5-0-1 in the WCHA, while the losses leave the Gophers looking up at a 2-4 WCHA record. Next up, the Gophers are back home to face No. 1 and undefeated Wisconsin, needing to win to hold any hope to be a contender. UMD’s sweep featured defenseman Jessica Wong, who fired a torpedo — literally — when she moved in as fourth attacker in coach Shannon Miller’s torpedo system and rifled in the first goal Friday. The Gophers responded to take a 2-1 lead after two games, before UMD’s Olympic Line struck. Haley Irwin kept the puck in at the blue line, and Elin Holmlov carried it in, and when her first shot was blocked by a defender, Holmlov regained the puck, rushed deep on the right, then pulled the puck back and tucked it past Noora Raty, Minnesota’s brilliant goaltender for a 2-2 tie. With 6:05 left, UMD goalie Jennifer Harss fed the puck to Holmlov, who spotted Pernilla Winberg breaking hard at center ice. Holmlov threaded a pass between retreating defensemen to Winberg, who beat Raty on a breakaway for the game-winner. On Saturday, Irwin — arguably the best player in women’s college hockey — dominated the game. She came out of the penalty box at 4:38 of the first period and caught a breakaway pass from Brienna Gillande to score at 4:44 for a 1-0 lead. Irwin, on a rush, fed Winberg on her left and broke to the far pipe, commanding enough of Raty’s attention for Winberg to score on the short side to make it 2-0. Irwin scored again on a one-timer, with Winberg and Holmlov assisting to make it 3-0. The Gophers made a spirited rally to cut it to 3-2, when former Proctor-Hermantown-Marshall star Sam Downey scored from the point late in the second period, and Amanda Kessel’s 100-foot pass sent Kelly Terry in for a breakaway goal early in the third. Goalie Kim Martin withstood a furious closing rally, then Irwin grabbed the puck and casually slid it 100 feet into the empty net as the final second ticked away for the 4-2 final. UMD outshot the Gophers 32-29 in the second game, and Irwin got seven of the shots. Her hat trick and one assist in the 4-2 game meant she had five points out of the seven goals the Bulldogs scored against the Gophers.
• The UMD men played two nail-biters at Bemidji State, winning 3-2 on Travis Oleksuk’s goal in the last minute of overtime, with freshman Aaron Crandall in goal, then getting superb goaltending again from Kenny Reiter but saw a 1-0 lead slip away in the last two minutes for a 1-1 tie in the second game. Nonetheless, the Bulldogs lead the WCHA with a 3-0-1 record, and are undefeated at 6-0-2 overall — their best start to a season in 21 years! — as they head off to Grand Forks for an early-season showdown against preseason WCHA favorite North Dakota, which earlier swept two games at Bemidji and last weekend split against Denver.
• If you sat home in front of the television, you had other captivating entertainment. The San Francisco Giants won the World Series in only five games, unfortunately preventing us from enjoying more fall baseball. We could pause to ponder that if the Twins had reached the World Series, they would have been playing on a glorious fall day in the new Target Field — in 38 degree weather. Anyhow, Game 5 was a splendid pitching duel between Texas lefty Cliff Lee and San Francisco’s apparent oddball Tim Lincecom, until Edgar Rentaria smacked a 3-run home run off Lee to win the final game 3-1. Incredibly, Rentaria was named the World Series Most Valuable Player. I am a firm believer that pitchers, like quarterbacks, get too much credit for baseball victories, but my vote would have been for Lincecum. His slim, 165-pound frame and thin face framed by shoulder-length straight hair, belied the fact that his somewhat jerky windup unleashed mid-90s speed and a down-darting slider. Lincecum could easily have gone the distance, but he had thrown 101 pitches and yielded only three hits. It took four victories to win the Series, as usual, and Lincecum beat Cliff Lee for two of the four the Giants needed. The way Cliff Lee had pitched to beat the New York Yankees, the national acclaim was that Lee might be the best pitcher in baseball, so Lincecum’s ability to beat him was more than just another day on the mound.
• Then there is the ongoing soap opera that is known as the Minnesota Vikings. The media circus that has ridiculed Brett Favre for the Vikings faltering start, with some suggesting coach Brad Childress should be fired if he so much as started Favre at New England, was somewhat stifled by the fact that Favre was outstanding in leading the Vikings at New England. Favre stepped up smartly to zip passes around the field, despite a broken ankle, but he was KO’d by a fierce pass rush that resulted in a lead-with-your-helmet blow that caught him on the jaw, when he had the Vikings in position for a late touchdown. That is precisely the kind of blow the NFL spent the previous week declaring would lead to a suspension and fine by the league, although the league was strangely silent after Favre was knocked out of the game. Anyhow, after the game Randy Moss, who had joined the Vikings after becoming ineffective with the Patriots, declared how much he thought of the Patriots, and his comments obviously didn’t sit well with coach Childress. Neither did the fact that he simply gave up running pass routes when he was covered. On the Monday after the game, Childress cut Moss. Waived him. He’s done, as a Viking, and was picked up by Tennessee. All sorts of reaction has followed, ranging from good riddance to a surly character with great skills, to  sorrow that Moss was gone, and the peripheral hassle has rained more insults on Favre and Childress. If you go back to Moss on the field, his method of play always has been to run his route, and use his fantastic reach and hands to pluck approaching passes. It didn’t work much with the Vikings, because Moss drew heavy coverage, and whenever he finds that his route leads to double coverage, Moss always stops, and gives up. The attention Moss drew helped open up routes for other Vikings receivers, but if Moss simply kept running long when covered, other receivers would have had wide-open fields. Favre, of course, loves it when receivers react to having their route covered by breaking off and free-lancing to get open, because he’ll get the ball to them. One of the reasons Favre did so well with the injured Sidney Rice last season, and big Vianthe Sciancoe, and sometimes Percy Harvin, is that they were great at getting themselves free of coverage. Since Moss never did that, he rarely got free for Favre’s missiles. Recall the end of the Green Bay game, when Favre was scrambling for his life, and Moss got into the left side of the end zone — and stopped. Sure, Favre threw the ball and it sailed over the end line, out of reach and out of bounds. It looked like a bad pass, but had Moss run to the far end of the end zone, we’ll never know if he might have made one of his trademark leaping grabs, helping Favre swipe another victory, and righting the listing Vikings ship. Instead, the cumulative effect of Moss being unable to get into the Vikings game plan, being quite eager to give up on plays rather than even fulfilling a team-oriented role as a decoy on some plays, plus his general surliness and oblique criticism of everything from Childress and the Vikings to the lavish buffet spread laid out by a leading Twin Cities restaurant, added up to only one conclusion — which Childress made. Forget all the tripe you’ll hear and read about dissent between Childress and his players, especially Favre. My guess is Favre will be outstanding and the Vikings will play a great game against Arizona, and all will suddenly seem smooth again.