SPORTS Archive

Philemon Kemboi about to make 3rd-to-1st burst to win Grandma's.

The question “Which Kenyan will win this year?” was far more than just cynical rhetoric at the 34th annual Grandma’s Marathon, but while Duluth’s biggest sports event followed a familiar theme, the 2010 Grandma’s will always be remembered with sadness.

Not because of the marathon itself, where the three top runners — all from Kenya, and all making their first visits to Duluth — turned the race into their own personal duel. By the time the trio reached the cobblestone area of downtown Superior Street, Chris Kipyego and David Rutoh were shoulder to shoulder, sizing each other up while planning their own finishing strategy. But as the course enters its final mile, turning left down Fifth Avenue West toward the harbor, Philemon Kemboi caught his countrymen by surprise, passing them both, and winning his first-ever marathon.

Kemboi simply outran his foes after his third-to-first burst, and broke the Canal Park finish line banner in 2 hours, 15 minutes, 44 seconds for the 26.2 miles, for Kenya’s 10th victory in the last 15 Grandma’s Marathons. Kenya runners swept the top five places and nine of the top 10. Kemboi’s winning time of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 44 seconds beat Kipyego by 16 seconds, with Rutoh three seconds back in third. Kenyans Kipyegon Kirui and Kennedy Kemei were fourth and fifth. Sixth was Christopher Raabe, the Minnesota native who was a surprise winner last year, and following Raabe, who now lives in Washington, D.C., were four more Kenyans, as the prolific runners from the East African nation were the class of over 5,620 finishers.

Philemon Kemboi after winning his first marathon.

It was the 10th time in the last 15 years that a Kenyan had won Grandma’s, a race that has become a popular method to improve the standard of living for the families of those East African nation’s elite runners. “It was the biggest race I’ve ever won,” said Kemboi, who earned $10,900 for his first-ever marathon victory. “I will go home…and I will go to the bank. I feel good about being able to help my family’s life to improve.”

Starting at the same Two Harbors location and 7:30 a.m. time, the women’s segment was won easily by Buzunesh Deba from Ethiopia, who simply sped away from the start, disappeared over the horizon from the rest of her female competitors, and recorded a 2:31:36 time to beat fellow-Ethiopian Yeshimebet Bifa by almost four full minutes.

Buzunesh Deba easily won the women's race.

Deba moved from Ethiopia to New York four years ago, and said watching the New York Marathon in 2008 caused her to decide to become a distance runner. After competing in shorter 5K and 10K races, she started in marathons only last fall. “The first marathon I entered I won,” she said. Her winning time in the California International Marathon was 2:32:17, and after running seventh in the New York Marathon, she sped into 2010 by winning the National Marathon to Fight Breast Cancer in Florida with a time of 2:33:08. So her 2:31:36 in Grandma’s was her personal best.

“My plan was to start fast and try to get ahead,” she said, laughing herself at such obvious strategy — which she made work. She was alone by the 5-mile mark, and nobody else ever got within view of her. Mary Akor, who had won the last three Grandma’s, finished fourth, behind the top two Ethiopians, and Everlyne Lagat. Akor, 33, has suffered with recent illness that is scheduled for surgery in the near future, had to yield to the youthful Deba, who is 22, and Bifa, 21.

The 20th Annual Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon started at 6:30 a.m., an hour before the full-marathon, and was won by Stephen Muange of Kenya, who won a close men’s segment with a 1:04:24, three seconds ahead of Bado Worku, an Ethiopian, who was closely followed by countrymen Derese Deniboba Rashaw and Worku Beyl. Ethiopians also finished 1-2 among women, as Caroline Rotich ran a 1:12:40, nearly two minutes ahead of Alemtsehay Misganaw.

That half-marathon will always be denoted by tragedy, however, as the first fatality in the long history of Grandma’s was recorded. Norman Ruth, 64, a novice runner from Hermantown, suffered an apparent heart attack while finishing the half-marathon. He was treated at the medical tent near the finish, and hospitalized, but didn’t recover. Dr. Ben Nelson, serving his first race as medical director, said he met with race officials and it was decided to release only an early-evening statement on race day that a half-marathon runner had died. In sympathy for the family, Dr. Nelson said, no other information would be released, so the victim’s identity, place of residence, and even gender were not disclosed until the following day.

It was a shocking irony on a day with temperatures in the mid-60s, about 20 degrees cooler than the year before, when many runners were affected by the heat and high humidity. Dr. Nelson said in this year’s full and half marathons combined, only 230 runners required some medical attention, and only four from the finish-line tent and three others from out on the course were sent to hospitals for treatment.

Whether by design or not, failing to disclose the information on race-day left the full focus solely on the full-marathon and its accompanying festivities. Participants and observers had no idea of the tragedy until they heard about it on the 10 p.m. news.

Kenyans had won nine of 13 Grandma’s full-marathons before Raabe won last year. Raabe, who now lives in Washington, D.C., ran among the leaders this year, too, and his sixth place was the only intrusion amid Kenya’s top nine finishers.

The three front-runners made their move to pull away came after 23 miles, and by the time they glided off London Road and onto Superior Street, they were alone. But there was still room for the final surprise. Kipyego had run against Rutoh before, but didn’t know Kemboi. Kipyego said he had turned to Rutoh and said, “I told this guy, ‘Let’s push, let’s push.’ I told him it was time to break away. I was expecting him, if anyone, to be the one to go for the lead. I didn’t know who this other guy was. When he went by us, I tried hard to close the gap, but he was very strong for me. I started thinking, ‘Is HE going to win the race?’ ”

Chris Kipyego, left, and David Rutoh led eventual winner Philemon Kemboi along Superior Street.

Kemboi, 36, whose best previous marathon time of 2:10:58 was good for only a fifth-place finish in France last year, was loping along behind Kipyego, 36, and Rutoh, 24. Kemboi is taller than most other Kenyans, at 5-foot-8 and 120 pounds, and when he made his move turning down Fifth Avenue West, he stretched out his long legs to outrun Kipyego by 16 seconds, with Rutoh three more seconds back in third.

Despite his comparative inexperience, he said, “I thought I could win it.” His top rivals were less convinced. Kemboi, speaking only his native Swahili via an interpreter, said he went along with Kipyego and Rutoh, his two countrymen, when they moved away from the pack. “It wasn’t a bad pace,” Kemboi said. “But when they decided to push forward, I was in agreement that we needed to pick up the pace.”

Despite the cooler conditions, the full marathon didn’t threaten any records. Kemboi’s winning time was far off the record established by Minnesotan Dick Beardsley in 1981 — a 2:09:37 in the fifth year of the event. In fact, Kemboi’s 2:15:44 was a half-minute off last year’s winning pace, when Raabe won at 2:15:13. But the victory was a breakthrough for Kemboi.

A late starter in competitive running, Kemboi had grown up on a family farm near Kapsabet, about seven hours drive from Nairobi. His family never had a car, he said, and when he realized he could help his family by earning money in distance running, he started seriously training in 2004. Calf injuries hindered him for a couple of years, so he had only entered three previous marathons.

Kipyego said Grandma’s is unlike other major marathons, which he suspects limit the number of Kenya runners invited. There were 27 at Grandma’s. “I saw the list, with so many Kenyans, and I thought, ‘This will be fun,’ ” said Kipyego, He said his sister, Sally, became a top NCAA runner at Texas Tech after growing up running to keep up with her big brother.

In Minnesota, as in the rest of the U.S., many youngsters are driven six blocks to playgrounds or other facilities, a fact Kipyego found amusing. In Kenya, a far different lifestyle makes their running ability natural, because of their far-different lifestyle from childhood. “We had no cars, no buses, and there were no roads,” said Kipyego, who is from Eldoret. “School was five kilometers away, and there was no school bus. We’d run to school in the morning, run home for lunch, then run back to school, and then run home, every day.”

That is a common thread among the Kenyan runners. Kemboi said he, too, ran from the family farm to school, but it was only one kilometer. Hardly proper training for an elite marathon runner. But if 36 makes him a late-bloomer, his victory can be a springboard to more marathon invitations.

By John Gilbert

With so much focus on the Minnesota Twins and the wonders of outdoor baseball in their new Target Field, one additional feature is worth mentioning: The unmatched “crack” that occurs and resonates when a hardwood bat strikes a horsehide-wrapped baseball.  Until this season, the only sounds high school or college or youth baseball fans could hear outside for three decades was the “tink” of an aluminum alloy bat as it struck the same horsehide sphere.

We’ve been blessed with a gentle March and April this year, and the “tink” of aluminum bats striking baseballs has been common once again throughout the state at high school and college games. Maybe the sound is even more dramatic if you head up I-35 to Duluth, where such a mild spring is flat out astonishing.

A  lot of pitched baseballs have become blurs as they zipped off those alloy bats when St. Scholastica filled Wade Stadium with the pings and tinks of solid hits. The same thing happened up at UMD, where the Bulldogs battled through Northern Sun games, plinking shots all over the field.

Thanks to Target Field, the sound of Major Leaguers like A.J. Pierzinski hitting with a wood bat has returned to Minnesota's outdoor scene.

Softball has used aluminum bats for a few decades now, and even though softballs are misnamed, because they are so hard that it’s amazing more people don’t get bruised from playing infield with such short bases. Softball got metal bat-makers to launch baseball into a netherworld of technology that has made a serious impact on all levels short of the pros.

St.  Scholastica has gone on to win its 14th straight UMAC title, spraying line drives off those ultra-high tech alloy bats. We might pause, however, and wonder how long that will continue.  Consider amateur baseball. Alloy bats also had taken over in senior men’s baseball, wher,  in the Twin Cities area, there are four different leagues for 35-and-over players of real-baseball, who refuse to give up the fun of baseball at any age.

Participating in those leagues makes the technical advances easier to trace. I can still remember as a kid, the sting caused by hitting an inside pitch on one of those frigid, early-spring days declared as the high school baseball season in Duluth. Those usually comfortable Louisville Slugger orAdirondack wood bats could sting your hands pretty good at 40 degrees. You could break a bat, and replace it for about $10, which was nice, but when metal bats came in,  the savings were impressive. The sound was annoying at first, but it grew to have a distinct resonance, even if it couldn’t possibly match that “crack” of wood bats. Still, they’d never break, which made up for the lack of feel, and that lack of feel also meant the lack of sting when it was cold.

In the Over-35 leagues, there young pups who had never used wood bats, because metal bats have been there since they were kids. Along the way, bat companies such as Easton, Louisville, Worth, and others, pretty much refined their product almost by the year, and raised their prices accordingly. They reached a perfect balance, I thought, at the level numbered “C-405,” I thought. They felt good, the balls came off them a little quicker than wood, but never dangerously heightened in velocity.

Then, however, the companies realized they could make more money by making better bats out of higher-tech alloys, which they had been doing for years in softball. Various baseball leagues around the country didn’t notice at first, but those of us playing did. As the code numbers of alloys rose, and the prices skyrocketed, bats that were made of what I call “unobtainium” became the norm. On my team in the Twin Cities, good, solid ballplayers asked me if I’d place them anywhere but third base, because balls were whizzing at them too fast to react to. I ended up playing third myself, sometimes by default, when my shortstop range seemed to go away faster than my reaction times.

At league meetings, I entered a motion to consider limiting the alloy’s pop by seeking a restriction at that C-405 level — bats that every team already had, costing about $100 apiece, and which lasted forever. Those bats didn’t scare fielders away with concern over velocity, which became significant the way pitches zapped off the high-grade, aircraft-quality alloy. I was shouted down by a vocal minority, guys who had invested $400 in their trick bats, and wanted to keep using them.

My reasoning was based on safety as well as fairness. If a pitch will ricochet off a bat with increasing velocity depending on how exotic the metal is, we would all be better off with a safe and inexpensive alternative, and nobody should be able to purchase a personal advantage simply by spending more for the latest and most sophisticated bat. Sticking with the C-405 alloy would, as they say, level the playing field.

Perfectly balanced, high-tech alloys reach the possibly dangerous level of 'unobtainium.'

A pretty good controversy followed, leading to a split in one league by nearly half the teams, when the main part of the league decided to switch to wood bats. The rebels wanted to keep using metal bats, and the issue came up again when my team went with them, and I pursued my motion to try to outlaw the costliest unobtainium weapons in the newly formed league. One other manager suggested that if I was afraid to play third base, I should get out of the game. That’s what happens when the 35-year-olds seem to get younger every year. I replied that I was making the motion to lessen the potency of the bats — as well as the cost — before someone got seriously injured. I went so far as to claim that as soon as we had a serious injury, we would see things more reasonably but it would be too late.  I lost, however, so we played on.

That season, a team managed by an adamant supporter of the highest-tech bats  was playing when an opponent armed with one of those unobtainium weapons hit a rocket down the first base line. The first baseman tried to throw his glove up, but the ball deflected off the top of his web and hit him flush in the eye. He was rushed to a hospital and, after lengthy hospitalization for repeated surgeries, his vision has never recovered fully. The manager was transformed overnight, suddenly leading the charge to switch to wood bats immediately.

Interestingly, a good wood bat now costs from $30 to $90. There are a couple of companies that make them in Minnesota. Max Bats are proliferating even up to the major league level. Lambrecht Bats are another company, made by a fellow who used to play in the Over-35 league, and now makes bats that hang in the converted garage at his farmland south of Jordan. He makes bats of varying styles and sizes, out of ash, the staple of baseball bats for a century, or out of stronger maple. He has some made of birch, which has odd grain, but is also stronger than ash. To me, each one is a work of art, and I’ve gone to his place several times just to heft and grip and swing a variety of his wares before selecting some.

It can get expensive, using wood bats. One player who joined our team in midseason, borrowed and broke bats with his first three swings. Players used to aluminum have to learn to hit the ball on the barrel, if possible, and to hold the trademark in a position so the ball hits properly on the grain. But over the past two seasons, the teams have adapted well. In fact, it’s a more enjoyable game when every hit is less than a rocket. Balls are hit for less distance, and put much more of a premium on pitching and defense. Plus, we are back to realizing how fantastic that “crack” of the bat sound is.

St. Scholastica's Chad Peterson sent the sound of alloy-on-horsehide resonating around Wade Stadium with a base hit during the Saints UMAC tournament.

College and high school ball games are highly enjoyable, although the “ping” or “tink” of the super-trick aluminum bats sounds more unusual now that so many amateur leagues have switched to wood. There are quite a few home runs socked by teams such as UMD and St. Scholastica, which bolsters enthusiasm, and we can continue to hope that nobody on any team will get hit by one of those missiles.

The entire subject came to me anew when I spent a couple of days test-driving the new Ford Fiesta in the hills near San Francisco a few weeks ago. The San Francisco Chronicle carried a sports story that caught my eye. It said the North Coast Section high school baseball managers were meeting to determine whether to outlaw metal bats for the upcoming playoffs.

The reason for the movement is that on March 11, Marin Catholic-Kentfield pitcher Gunnar Sandberg, a sophomore, was critically injured after being hit in the head with a line drive. He was kept in a medically-induced coma for three weeks, and only recently got up and is walking, with assistance, in a San Francisco hospital. The Marin County Athletic League, where Marin Catholic plays, immediately banned metal bats for the rest of the season. The Bay Counties League West, which also plays in the North Coast Section, followed up and did the same. The Diamond Sports National Classic in Orange County — one of the largest spring tournaments in the nation — also banned metal bats.

The San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A’s donated more than 200 wood bats to Marin Catholic after Sandberg’s injury, and while wood bats might be hard to find in the area, the safety of high school athletes is foremost. Something like 76 teams could suddenly need a supply of wood bats is league officials agree to such a ruling. It would be for this spring’s tournament only, although legislation by the National Federation of State High School Associations would be closely monitoring it. It is more than just possible that a three-year ban will follow, leading to permanent bans on non-wood bats.

I’m sure there also have been some serious injuries in Minnesota as well, I just haven’t seen them chronicled. I would welcome anyone who knows of any to send me an email notification ( jg7@jwgilbert.com). If there haven’t been any — good. But we’re dealing with what appears to be an inevitability.

Enjoyable as it’s been, watching teams in college or high school swing hard and, with a resounding “tink,” rifle those blurred laser hits so impressively, I will try to store the sound of those sophisticated metal bats in my memory bank. Because wood bats are going to come back to high school and college baseball — in California first, maybe, but around the country, and here in due time. And we’ll all be better off when those $400 unobtainium bats are, well…unobtainable.

By John Gilbert

UMD's players joyfully hoisted their trophy for winning the 2010 NCAA women's hockey championship.

Something called the “USA Hockey/USA Today” weekly rating of women’s college hockey teams came out on the week of March 22 with the bold proclamation that it had named the University of Minnesota-Duluth No. 1 — by unanimous vote of all its voters. Nice try, folks. A little late, but nice of you to notice.

UMD (31-8-2) outlasted Cornell (21-9-6) in a championship game worthy of a time capsule, skating through almost two full games before freshman Jessica Wong’s deflection goal gave the Bulldogs a 3-2 victory in the final minute of the third overtime period.  Coach Shannon Miller’s amazing Bulldogs captured their fifth NCAA championship, after outshooting Cornell 64-51 in the extremely close, up-and-down duel.

It extended WCHA mastery over all 10 NCAA tournaments, because along with UMD’s five, Wisconsin has won three and Minnesota two national titles. But Miller said this one stands above all the others, which were won by exceptional teams that often overran foes with great talent. This team was a youthful underdog from the start.

“I told the players this was the most special team I’ve ever coached,” said Miller, who also predicted to a staff member between overtimes that she figured Wong would score the winner. “I thought getting into the top eight in the country, and staying there, would be a great goal. And if we could make the NCAA field, we’re really good in one game. We’ve upset good teams all season.

“I know Cornell had never been to ‘the dance’ before, but we’re the Cinderella story this year. With five Olympians gone from our team, we’re playing with 13 scholarship players against teams that have 18.”

A week ago, Mercyhurst was No. 1, for the 22nd consecutive week, and while UMD was second, Minnesota third and Cornell fourth — coincidentally, the four teams that made the Frozen Four.  Mercyhurst was the unanimous No. 1 on the ballots of all 19 voters. Two weeks earlier, Cornell had been ranked No. 8, but after the Big Red won enough upsets to reach the Frozen Four, the voters seek to avoid embarrassment by ranking the four finalists the top four spots. So Cornell was fourth, behind Mercyhurst, UMD and Minnesota.

Once the Frozen Four opened in Ridder Arena in Minneapolis, Cornell upset Mercyhurst 3-2 in the semifinals. Then UMD defeated host Minnesota, also by 3-2.

That created a UMD-Cornell final, and UMD defeated the Big Red 3-2 in a triple-overtime classic. Not “just” a women’s hockey game, to be ignored by all those macho men’s hockey fans who turn up their noses at the women’s game, but a fantasy game come to life in the NCAA Women’s final. As for the ratings folks, politics reigns supreme. Before the season started, Wisconsin was No. 1, only because the Badgers had won last year’s NCAA title. But one week into the season, Bemidji State beat Wisconsin and Mercyhurst rose to No. 1 and stayed there. The voters proceeded to ignore the fact that the WCHA is far tougher, from top to bottom, than any other conference, so it overlooked the stretch of several weeks when Minnesota was the best team in the country.

When UMD put together an incredible run that measured only one loss in its last 21 games dating back to the first weekend in December, and won its final nine consecutively, including two late-season victories over Minnesota, and another triumph over the Gophers in the WCHA playoff final, the voters acquiesced to put the Bulldogs up into second.

If the USA Hockey/USA Today types had any class, they would not insult our intelligence by coming out with a post-tournament “final” rating that assumes relevance for duplicating the finishing order of the Frozen Four. The voters should put the ratings plan aside until next fall, rather than display their own prejudices by having to rank the finalists 1-2 after not giving them any top-rank credit throughout the season.

But enough of that. The final game should be free of such petty politics while being put away in a time capsule.

UMD's freshman goaltender Jennifer Harss withstood a Cornell attack through the equivalent of two full games.

Cornell, a team that had never ventured so far into NCAA tournament time, went up against a UMD team that had 10 freshmen on the roster, seven skaters and all three goaltenders. Two Cinderellas, for very different reasons. The Bulldogs won the championship, but it wasn’t just another national championship game, or another 3-2 game. It was the longest game in NCAA Frozen Four history, and it was evidence of how scintillating high-stakes women’s collegiate hockey has become. It ended only when Wong deflected a right-point shot by Tara Gray past Cornell goaltender Amanda Mazzotta, who was trying for her 62nd save on the play, at 19:26 of the third 20-minute overtime. UMD won the 3-2 victory exactly 33.6 seconds short of what would have equalled two complete games.

UMD’s fifth national championship continues one of the more amazing stories in sports. Since starting the UMD program 11 years ago, a year before  the NCAA decided to sanction a women’s hockey tournament 10 years ago, coach Miller guided UMD teams to the first three NCAA titles, added a fourth in 2008, and now has won five of the 10 NCAA Women’s hockey championships that have been held. The first four UMD title teams shared a similarity — they were powerhouse outfits that had their sights on the NCAA’s big trophy all through those seasons. Superstars such as Jenny Potter and Maria Rooth and Caroline Ouellette led those talent-filled teams to those titles, and all three of them remain among the very best players on their U.S., Sweden, and Canada Olympic teams, respectively.

This season was markedly different for UMD, even though eight players from that 2008 title team were back. Five other returning veterans took a year off to skate with the Swedish and Canadian Olympic teams all season. Miller brought 10 freshmen aboard for this term, and she notified them from the start that they’d have to “play like juniors” to fill the void left by those centralized Olympians, who will return next season.

Miller might have established herself as, without a doubt, the craftiest coach in women’s hockey because she had something she might never have again — a  genuine underdog at the start of the season. An eternal optimist, Miller went at her task aggressively but with reasonably modest objectives.  They started 6-5, then 12-7, to get into December, deservedly behind those top-ranked teams up ahead, even though they split at Mercyhurst early.

It helped Miller that the four senior regulars — Saara Tuominen, Emmanuelle Blais, and defensemen Jaime Rasmussen and Sarah Murray — all turned into perfect role models for the freshmen. Kristi Hakala transfered back from Wisconsin-Superior for her senior year and helped, too, in a spare defenseman post. It helped further that the freshmen came of age rapidly, improving by enormous leaps all season.

UMD lost a game at Wisconsin on Friday,  December 4, to create that 12-7 plateau for the season, which was both mediocre and expected, by Miller.  The Bulldogs came back to tie Wisconsin on Sunday, December 6, in Madison, and won a shootout. Nobody, not even Miller, could envision what would unfold after that. The Bulldogs lost only one of their remaining 21 games, with the lone loss in that 19-1-1 stretch coming against an onrushing Ohio State team. By then, it only served as a rallying cry, as UMD regrouped to win its final nine games.

The Bulldogs had to conquer Minnesota 3-2 to win the WCHA playoff final, and beat the Golden Gophers for the fourth straight time in the NCAA semifinals, while Cornell eliminated Mercyhurst. In the finale, Cornell played its best, with Melanie Jue scoring both goals, and Mazzotta making 61 saves. Cornell proved to be a mighty foe, and held a 1-0 lead, but Miller herself came through to bring it all together.

She juggled lines during the game, she shortened the bench to two lines, and when it became evident that it would turn into an endurance contest, she went back to spotting her youthful third line, making sure that her most veteran defensemen, Rasmussen and Jocelyne Larocque, was out with that line at crucial times.

Defenseman Jaime Rasmussen moved up to convert a pass from Saara Tuominen for UMD's first goal.

Her seniors came through in the third period. Faced with the 1-0 deficit, Blais scored her third goal of the weekend, and her 32nd goal of a brilliant senior season, assisted by fellow-seniors Tuominen and Rasmussen. Then Rasmussen came through, moving up from the point the way Miller has always allowed her to do, and blasting in a pass across the slot from Tuominen for a 2-1 UMD lead. When victory seemed certain, Cornell came back for Jue’s second goal, with 3:30 remaining, and tied it 2-2.

When overtime started, UMD freshman goalie Jennifer Harss held the 2-2 tie, and nobody knew they would go on to play  three more 20-minute periods. Miller, always one step ahead of the fluctuating waves of game action, went to work with her favorite visual imaging bits — psycho cybernetics, some call it.

“After the first overtime, I told the players to imagine scoring the winning goal,” Miller said. “Imagine throwing your gloves and stick in the air and jumping into a pile of players. After the second overtime, I asked them to imagine carrying the trophy around the rink after winning, and ‘you’ll find strength you never knew you had.’ ”

I asked her, as the final minute of the third overtime ticked away, if she had anything cooked up for the intermission after the third overtime. “I was running out of things to say,” she laughed.

Wong, who scored her 13th goal of the season when UMD beat Minnesota 3-2 for the league playoff title, and scored her 14th goal of the season as the game-winner in the 2-1 NCAA quarterfinal victory over New Hampshire at the DECC a week earlier, saved her 15th goal for the moment when the Ridder Arena clock was ticking down, and Tara Gray was winding up at the point, with Blais and Wong both in front. “We had a double screen,” said Wong, “and I was saying to myself, ‘Tara, shoot the puck!’ I saw it coming all the way, and I got a piece of it with my stick blade.”

The puck glanced down and through Mazzotta’s pads, and UMD’s bench erupted. Exhausted or not, the Bulldogs had eclipsed the previous record for the longest women’s Frozen Four game ever, previously set by UMD beating Harvard 4-3 at 4:19 of the second sudden-death overtime at the DECC in Duluth in the 2003 title game. But this one, before 1,473 fans at Ridder Arena, may be a difficult record to better, being only 33.6 seconds short of being two complete games.

Jessica Wong (49) was engulfed after deflecting the puck into the Cornell goal in the final minute of the third overtime for UMD's 3-2 victory.

Cornell had three freshmen playing compared to UMD’s eight, but the Bulldog freshmen gave UMD enough depth to skate a third line, and Miller’s judicious use of that third unit wore down the Big Red, which relied almost completely on two forward lines. “It was a great game, and I want to congratulate Shannon and Minnesota-Duluth,” said Cornell coach Doug Derraugh, whose team broke a scoreless tie on Jue’s first goal, a power-play marker 13:44 into the second period. “I’m also very plesed with my team. We’ve had a blast here, and I played 14 yearrs of pro hockey, but I’ve never been prouder of a team or seen a team with more heart.”

Blais rushed from the left for a shot that was blocked, but she followed up with another shot for a power-play equalizer at 0:18 of the third. The goal gave Blais an astounding finish, with six goals and six assists in her last five games, and 32-33—64 for the season. She earned most valuable player awards for both the NCAA Frozen Four and the WCHA Final Faceoff tournament, and was first-team All-America. The only slight was another tradition for UMD — Blais was among the final 10 candidates for USA Hockey’s Patty Kazmaier award, but, joining such liminaries as Potter, Rooth and Ouellette, Blais not only didn’t win, she didn’t make the final three. It was won by Melanie Benduis of Mercyhurst.

For Blais, who transformed herself from a spectacularly skilled but individually focused player to a consummate team player this season, such an award would have been perfect justification. Instead, her own dedicated play through the playoff stretch was her Olympics, and her own Kazmaier.

“When we won the WCHA playoffs and I got the MVP, I obviously was happy, and now this,” said Blais. “But I am focused so much on my team. This has been the best year of my life.”

Before the game, it was interesting to watch the pregame introductions, and notice Tuominen, looking carefully up into the stands at the rafters, at the fans, at Cornell’s players, at her teammates. She appeared to be taking in all the sensory things that would fit into her memory bank about her last collegiate game. She would later talke about the special year she had, departing to help Finland win the Olympic bronze medal in Vancouver, and then coming back to assist on both regulation UMD goals in the championship game.

Cornell traded rushes with the speedy Bulldogs throughout the game, and had a 30-28 edge in shots when the third period ended. UMD had a slight edge, at 12-11, through the first overtime, then outshot the Big Red 10-4 in the second overtime, and 14-6 in the third. A pivotal difference was when Miller went from matching two lines against Cornell’s two lines, using Tuominen between Blais and Laura Fridfinnson, and an all-freshman unit with Katie Wilson centering Audrey Cournoyer and Wong. As the game went to overtime, and it was clear both teams were slowing down as exhaustion sapped their strength, Miller started inserting the third line of Gina Dodge between fellow-freshman Vanessa Thibault and hustling sophomore Kacy Ambroz.

“I gave them a clear job, to be good defensively on a very short shift, get the puck over the red line and get it in deep,” said Miller. “Then I told them, ‘OK, that was perfect,’ and I gave them longer shifts.”

Her players appreciated it. “I always want more ice time, but I was ready to be done,” said Blais, who had scored two goals and set up Laura Fridfinnson for the third in Friday’s 3-2 semifinal victory over Minnesota. “Thibault, Dodge and Ambroz gave us a tremendous lift, and I think that was a key in the game.”

Still, nothing was decided as the game went through the first, then the second, and deep into the third overtime. Lauriane Rougeau prevented a goal when she took down Fridfinnson to halt a breakaway, but she was penalized at 17:20. She came out of the penalty box and skated across the ice to the bench when UMD’s Mariia Posa, another freshman, worked the puck to Gray at the right point — 10 feet from the Cornell bench. “I saw her coming across the ice trying to get a change, and she got her stick under [Gray's] stick as she shot,” said Derraugh. As Rougeau fell, she nearly smothered the puck, but she got the shot away. And Wong deflected it into NCAA women’s hockey history.

“Even though we were freshmen, the seniors picked us up so much,” said Wong. “Every practice, I learned somethng new. Coach is amazing, and we improved so much.”

As for the visualization tactics, Blais said she was able to experience it, and she undoubtedly will remember the finish, after Gray’s shot zipped past her, and was then deflected by Wong. Then came the throwing of the sticks and gloves, and the pileup, just as they had visualized.

“All I remember is that there were a lot of people on me,” said Blais. “And my legs were really, really hurting.”

That pain will subside, and the sweet memories will remain forever. It’s a good thing the new DECC arena is being finished in time to open midway through next season. The UMD women’s Bulldogs need more room to expand the area where they can hang more banners — this time, the unexpected hat trick for WCHA season champions, WCHA playoff champions, and 2010 NCAA champions.

Jared Thompson scored on Mahtomedi goaltender Brad Wohlers at 1:12 of sudden-death overtime to lift Hermantown to a 7-6 victory in the Class A semifinals.

When the 2010 Minnesota state high school hockey tournament was over,  Edina was a very deserving Class AA champion, and Breck was a deserving winner in Class A. To get the most accurate slice of the big tournament’s greatest dramas, however, go back to the semifinal round in both classes at St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center, when the title game losers both won the best games of the tournament.

To start the day, the best game of the entire tournament sent Hermantown against Mahtomedi in the first Class A semifinal for smaller schools. Hermantown had gotten past a hustling Virginia-Mountain Iron-Buhl team in the first round, by a narrow 2-1 score when Adam Krause, who had sed up Cody Christopherson for the game’s first goal, scored the winner. Krause, who is already committed to go to UMD on a hockey scholarship, rushed the puck after an outlet pass from Garrett Skrbich early in the third period, and rifled a 45-foot shot that beat goalie Casey Myhre high to the left corner. “I was at the end of a shift and I was tired,” said Krause. “I knew I couldn’t beat the defenseman, so I just tried to put it on net.”

Mahtomedi, led by a mercurial junior defenseman named Ben Marshall, had dispatched Alexandria 6-1 in the first round, and matched up well with Hermantown. We had no idea how well. Marshall opened the game with a rink-length dash for a 1-0 Mahtomedi lead, and when Chad Bannor tied it 1-1, Charlie Adams regained the Mahtomedi lead, only to have Jared Kolquist counter for a 2-2 standoff.  Adams, who was a scoring machine for the Zephyrs, made it 3-2 before Kolquist’s second goal made it 3-3 after two. The fun was just beginning. Mahtomedi’s Brandon Zurn ignited a crazy third period with a goal for the Zephyrs at 5:50, and Mike Rose made it 5-3 at 7:23. Charlie Comnick got one back for Hermantown at 8:14, cutting it to 5-4, but Zurn scored on another set-up by Marshall at 8:49, and, after three goals in 1:26, and four goals in one second less than three minutes, Mahtomedi had apparent control at 6-4.

Charlie Comnick's first of three goals were Hermantown's fourth, fifth and sixth to force an overtime at 6-6.

Comnick, however, took matters into his own hands when he scored on the rebound of a Thomas shot at 10:27, then positioned himself to deflect Jeff Paczynski’s power-play point shot down and in for a 6-6 tie at 11:18.

The teams stormed back and forth, trying to break the deadlock, and in a game that seemed to be decided by whoever had the puck last, the closing seconds belonged to Mahtomedi’s Marshall.  He raced up ice as the final seconds ticked down, cut to his right, and sent a neat pass to the slot. Adams, the master sniper, one-timed his shot. Hermantown goalie Tyler Ampe flicked his right arm up, and the puck glanced off his arm but continued its path high into the upper left corner of the net. The red light came on, but so did the horn sound. The clock said 0:00.0.

The Zephyrs, who have never reached a championship game, poured off the bench and mobbed each other in a special pile-up of players, while the Hawks stood around, pretty dejected. The officials, dutifully, went over to check with the upstairs video review official. It took a while, but the overhead view showed the  puck coming into the crease, sailing through the crease, and hitting the net. When they slowed it way down, and superimposed the digital clock, however, it also showed the clock hitting 0:00.02, then 0:00.01, and then 0:00.00 — with the puck still a few inches short of reaching the goal line. No goal. The Zephyrs were devastated, while the Hawks were flying again.

Hermantown goalie Tyler Ampe reacted as puck bounced back out of net after Charlie Rose Mahtomedi goal was disallowed at the buzzer.

“We didn’t know what to do, it hit us like a brick,” said Marshall. who led the charge in overtime, on what might have been the decisive rush. But the puck came adrift, and Commick, who already had a hat trick and one assist, dashed back the other way, up the right boards, for Hermantown. He threw a perfect, pinpoint pass to Thomas, breaking wide on the left. Thomas got past the defense and rushed at goalie Brad Wohlers, deking as though cutting to his right, then coming back to score with a forehand at the left edge. At 1:12 of overtime, Hermantown had won 7-6.

Jared Thomas hurtled into end boards crashed into end boards after his goal won 7-6 for Hermantown in overtime.

“Marshall carried it into our zone, but one of our ‘D’ poked the puck away,” said Thomas. “I curled, and saw Chuck [Charlie Comnick]. We made eye-contact and he gave me a perfect pass. Going in, I realized that Garrett Skrbich had gone to his backhand on an earlier breakaway and got stopped. So I went the other way.” And Hermantown went to the championship game.

The rest of semifinal Friday seemed dull by comparison. Breck overcame a 1-0 Warroad lead, fashioned on Brock Nelson’s remarkable first-period goal. Nelson, grandson of Warroad legend Billy Christian, who was in the building, was lurking on the right side of the net when Brett Hebel came at the net from the left. Hebel’s backhander hit goaltender Jon Russell and popped up in the air, heading for the right corner. Ah, but Nelson was waiting like Joe Mauer for a knee-high change-up, and he picked the puck out of the air,  lacing a line drive into the net. Breck, however, retaliated with three goals in the second period, two by Mike Morin, and made it 4-1 before Warroad got a late goal, to fall 4-2 to the defending champion Mustangs.

Then it was time for Class AA’s semifinals, and Edina polished off a stubborn Apple Valley outfit 2-0, but while the Hornets outshot Apple Valley 37-18, the game was devoid of any of the electricity of Hermantown’s opener. When top-ranked Minnetonka faced Hill-Murray in the second AA semifinal, the general topics of conversation were how interesting it was that the Class A teams seemed to have outstanding individuals leading the way, while the Class AA teams were much deeper and more balanced, but really lacked the star power of Class A. The other prime topic was how nothing could match the day’s first game and its wrenching last-second twist.

Connor Ryan scored on Hill-Murray goalie Tim Shaughnessy in the second overtime, but the Minnetonka goal had been directed in by Ryan's skate.

Hill-Murray, a very balanced and well-coached outfit, had knocked out Duluth East 5-3 in a first-round game. East jumped ahead 2-0 in the first period, then suffered a defensive-zone meltdown that lasted exactly two minutes — giving up two goals 9 seconds apart in the last minute of the first period, and two more goals 38 seconds apart in the first minute of the second period. The Greyhounds never got it back together, although they regrouped to beat Lakeville-North in the consolation round, and defeated Roseau 3-1 in the consolation final. Virginia, by the way, almost gave the Northland two consolation crowns, reboundng from its opening loss to Hermantown to beat New Ulm, before falling 2-0 to Rochester Lourdes in the consolation final.

Back at semifinal Friday, it was not a surprise that Hill-Murray harnessed the Greyhounds, especially after they did the same to Minnetonka’s explosive offense. The Skippers — seeking to ride the No. 1 rating and a one-loss season to their first-ever state title — got the first goal, when Andrew Prochno made a great move and scored form the right circle at 12:09. But Chris Casto smacked in a rebound at the other end four minutes later and the first period ended 1-1. The second period also ended 1-1, and so did the third period — and the first, second and third overtimes!

Minnetonka's Eric Baskin, top, after 4th OT goal beats Hill-Murray.

Most amazing is that Hill-Murray stifled Minnetonka with only 9 shots through three periods. I would have bet that the Minnesota Wild couldn’t have held the Skippers to 9 shots in three periods. It appeared that Connor Ryan had won the game for Minnetonka in the second overtime when he converted Tommy Lundquist’s hard pass from the right side. But the video review proved Ryan had turned his left skate to block the speeding puck and the ricochet zipped into the net. No goal. Kicked in. By the third overtime, they were alternating between 8-minute and 17-minute sessions, and it remained 1-1. They made ice again, and the fourth overtime began, at about 12:15 Saturday morning. At 2:31 of the session, Erik Baskin, coming from the left side, chased down the puck behind the Hill-Murray goal, and circled out on the right side with a sudden move, stuffing a shot that went in off goalie Tim Shaughnessy’s pads as he slid across. The goal gave Minnetonka a 2-1 victory and a berth in the AA championship game. True to its historic roots, semifinal Friday was the day of tournament classics.

On Saturday, Hermantown gave it a good run, but Breck got a lucky bounce off a shinpad to win the Class A title 2-1. Then Edina took out a talented but tired Minnetonka outfit, 4-2, for the AA championship. But if you had to pick a day for the archives as evidence for what makes Minnesota high school hockey the state’s best attraction, year in and year out, choose Friday.

Duluth East's circle salute to DECC fans after 5-1 7A victory over Elk River.

Duluth East’s hockey team came up with its finest hour at the 11th hour, jumping off to a 5-0 lead through two periods en route to a 5-1 victory over Elk River in the Section 7AA championship game at the DECC, which secured a slot in the state tournament. Once at St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center, the Greyhounds will find some northern company, as Hermantown and Virginia-Mountain Iron-Buhl will join them, playing in the companion Class A tournament.

All three are solid state tournament candidates. Duluth East will face Hill-Murray in the 9 p.m. Thursday finale to the first day of Class AA tournament action, while in the A tournament, Hermantown faces Virginia-Mountain Iron-Buhl in Wednesday’s first round. Obviously, they both can’t advance, but on the other hand, one is assured of reaching Friday afternoon’s semifinals, and could be a threat to claim the Class A trophy.

The three championships were determined on consecutive nights, starting with the 7A final at the DECC on Wednesday night.

Garrett Hendrickson eludes Hibbing's Chase Anderson.

Hibbing was hopeful, but Virginia’s Blue Devils were strong, and they were ready. Casey Myhre was both good and lucky thrashing around in goal to gain the shutout, and Jordan Krebsbach’s first-period goal stood tall. Garrett Hendrickson, son of coach Keith Hendrickson, skated up the right and scored midway through the second period to make it 2-0, and Trey Carlson converted a neat pass for the 3-0 lead before the second intermission.

You had to enjoy the student cheering sections, which exchanged heckles that managed to be creative, lively and in good (enough) taste to be more amusing than insulting. Most teams, on through college, are supported by fans who think if they yell the opposing goalie, or power play, “sucks,” then they’ve been clever. They could learn from these kids. The Hibbing students were all sitting on one side, near the corner, and they were mostly wearing jackets. Whether it was for Bluejackets or not, I can’t say. The Virginia gang was at the end of the arena, and they were all wearing white T-shirts. At one point, the Virginia kids chanted “You need jackets…you need jackets…” After a very short organizational pause, the Hibbing kids chanted back: “We’ve GOT jackets…we’ve GOT jackets…”

On Thursday night at the DECC, East faced No.1 seed Elk River. The Elks had beaten East during the season, 3-2 in overtime, which probably determined the top seed, ultimately. East has been a challenge for coach Mike Randolph all season. He wants them to pass, stressed passing throughout practices, and it never seemed to catch on. But after a season of being the most reluctant-to-pass East team in memory, on this night, East came up with a near-perfect game.

On the first shift, junior Zac Schendel raced in and delivered a puck-producing bodycheck, and East dominated from the outset, outshooting Elk River 13-7 and gaining a 1-0 lead when on Kevin Brazerol caught a neat pass from Dom Toninato and lifted a quick shot in from the right side. Second period, East was even better.

Phil Johnson celebrates East goal.

Andy Wellenski scored from the right point, and then, in the span of 2:01, Kyle Lutzka knocked in the rebound of a Schendel slap shot, Nolan Meyer scored by swiping a no-look end boards reverse pass, and Toninato scored on a 3-on-2 rush. The Greyhounds outshot Elk River 13-3 in the period, and it was a stunning 5-0 at the second intermission. Granted, East backed off and played carelessly in the third, but still won 5-1 in what might have been their best game — and certainly best teamwork game — of the season. How can anyone figure that it would take the whole season before the players, and maybe the parents, bought into what coach Randolph was trying to do.

“From Christmas on,” said Randolph, “I’ve been preparing for this game. I told the players that practiced might have gotten tiresome from the repitition, but the only way we’re going to get anywhere is to win the section, and the only way we’re going to do that is to play as a team.”

On Friday night, the scene shifted to Cloquet, for the Section 5A final between Hermantown’s top-seeded Hawks, and Denfeld’s gritty underdog Hunters. Whether it was a neighborhood battle or a family feud, these two teams came to fight it out for the 5A championship. The game would have been perfect at the DECC, and might have drawn 4,000 fans. Instead, it was played at Cloquet’s great arena, and was stuffed to overflow with about 2,500. Hermantown, one of the state’s best, played its game, but the constantly hustling Hunters threw their hearts and emotion into every shift.

Midway through the first period, Brendan Johnson came out from behind the net to score and give Denfeld a 1-0 lead. Adam Krause, Hermantown’s big standout center, tied it 1-1 in the second when his shot appeared to go in — or did it? There was the clank of metal, and the puck ended up over on the left sideboards. But the officials ruled it was a goal, and it was 1-1. When Charlie Comnick scored to open the third period, Hermantown’s 2-1 lead looked solid.

Kevin Danielson (13) had to get down to get Hermantown's 3-2 winner against Duluth Denfeld.

But Denfeld came back and Tyler Kaspari poked in Levi Talarico’s rebound to tie the game at 7:51. Kevin Danielson put an end to the scoring, but not the drama, when he got the Hawks back on top 3-2, with 3:46 to play. Denfeld pressed to the end, but couldn’t come up with the equalizer. Though outshot 48-20, Denfeld spent every ounce of effort and energy, and certainly, by no measure, could be called losers in the game. Denfeld freshman Zach Thompson made 45 saves. But it will be the high-flying Hawks who try to win a trophy at state.

Alaska-Anchorage's Bryce Christianson dived to block a chance by Minnesota's Jay Barriball.

By John Gilbert

The Western Collegiate Hockey Association got off to a tangled and competitive start for 2009-2010, but observers were wondering if the University of Minnesota was going to join in the fun. An 0-3-1 start had started Tweeters and Twitterers on an early-season buzz: “What’s wrong with the Gophers?”

The specific part of the 0-3-1 problem was North Dakota and Denver, the teams rated the top two in the WCHA this season, and the teams Minnesota just happened to open against. An opening loss and a tie at Grand Forks wasn’t too bad, but when the Gophers came home to Mariucci Arena, Denver’s potent Pioneers posted a pair of stinging 3-0 shutouts by Marc Cheverie, meaning all three losses in that 0-3-1 record were by shutouts.

The record caused even stalwart Gopher boosters to overlook the power of those first two opponents, although that perspective might have become obvious when Alaska-Anchorage came to Mariucci Arena. The Seawolves played well enough, but the Gophers swept the series. Those victories are more impressive considering that Anchorage surprised both North Dakota and Denver with second-game victories to let the rest of the league stay in a close-order battle.

However, even when there was good news against the Seawolves in the 5-1 Friday victory, it wasn’t all good news. Minnesota freshman Nick Leddy, a No. 1 draft choice of the Minnesota Wild, was caught with a stiff bodycheck after shooting from center ice, and the shoulder-to-chin contact point broke Leddy’s jaw. He won’t be back until mid-December.

The Gophers kept it together for a 3-1 Sunday victory and the much-needed sweep, but again the good news was offset by bad news. At practice on Tuesday after that series, Gopher senior winger Jay Barriball collided during a drill and suffered a knee injury that required surgery on Friday — the day the Gophers took the Kohl Center ice in Madison to face Wisconsin. Bariball, who scored his 100th career point against Anchorage, will yield his first-line positon and miss the rest of the season. He has been granted a medical red-shirt and could return to play next year.

Alex Kangas stopped the Seawolves always-dangerous Kevin Clark.

Lucia has seen it all before, and knows that suffering over the past can’t help preparing for the future, and preparing to face the Badgers in Madison is always a compelling task.

“We have a lot of good players, and we have to have some of them step forward,” said Lucia. “I think we will. We opened 0-3-1, but look who we played. We have some nonconference commitments to play on Thanksgiving weekend and at Christmas time, so we couldn’t schedule any nonconference opponent before we went up to North Dakota. We didn’t play well in the first game up there, but we came back and got a tie the next night.

“Against Denver, our scoring chances against them were pretty even, but Denver played really well and Cheverie was very good. Our problem was that we didn’t score on the power play, and in this league, when teams average 2 or fewer even-strength goals a game, you have to get goals on your power play to win.

“The biggest thing is that we’ve made progress each week, but it hadn’t transferred to the games.”

Although they have impressive manpower throughout the lineup, there have been a couple of focal points for the Gophers this season. One is junior goaltender Alex Kangas, while the scoring wuld have to come from Jordan Schroeder, a sophomore who became the team’s go-to gunner as a freshman last season, and Barriball, who is by far the top scorer in the Gopher program. After reaching 100 points on 38 goals and 62 assists, Barriball stands far ahead of the No. 2 career scorer on the roster, captain and coach’s son Tony Lucia, who has 26-33–59.

With Barriball out, the focus more clearly is on Schroeder, who was the preseason choice to be player of the year, but who started off slowly, much like his team. Last year, Schroeder centered Ryan Stoa and scored 13-32–45 for his rookie year.

Tony Lucia (right) got the Gophers a goal after officials didn't call David Fischer's shot in.

“Let’s not lose sight of the fact that Jordan Schroeder just turned 19,” said Don Lucia. “Ryan Stoa was a heck of a complement for him last year, and we know Jordan is the kind of player who likes to pass. We just have to find people to put with him who can score goals. Jordan got four assists last weekend, so we think he’s ready to go.”

In goal, Kangas was solid last season, but maybe a cut short of the exceptional level he had shown a year earlier, as a

Alex Kangas anchored a 3-1 Gopher run after their 0-3-1 start.

freshman. Despite the shaky 2-3-1 record, the coach says the goalie has played well, even when he alternated with sophomore Kent Patterson a couple weekends.

“Kangas has been terrific so far,” said Lucia, saying he played well enough Friday to earn the Sunday start as well against the Seawolves, then he verified his coach’s confidence at Wisconsin. His 28 saves couldn’t prevent a 4-2 defeat in the first game, but Kangas came back to make 45 stops and the Gophers averted a sweep with a 5-2 victory despite being outshot 47-28, and 79-46 for the weekend.

Does three victories in four games mean the Gophers can move up to challenge the league leaders?

“All I know now is we lead the league in knee injuries,” Lucia said.

The quick glove of freshman goaltender Noora Raty stopped UMD 3-1 en route to a women's sweep.

By John Gilbert

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 Raty in the Gophers big intrastate series against Minnesota-Duluth, it seemed curious at the outset.

It didn’t seem curious for long, as Raty allowed only one goal in a 3-1, 3-0 sweep over the Bulldogs at Ridder Arena — a sesries that might prove pivotal if the Gophers are to ultimately win the WCHA championship this season. Raty’s instant stardom at Minnesota emerged from two factors: Frost’s decision to go overseas to recruit for the first time, plus Finland’s decision to not centralize its 2010 Olympic team.

Minnesota, UMD, and perennial contender Wisconsin all lost key players to the standing national teams of the U.S., Canada, and Sweden, when the hockey federations from those three nations decided to gather their players for season-long training. Interestingly, the only previous time any women’s team was centralized was when the U.S. won the first-ever Olympic competition in 1998 at Nagano, Japan, and the U.S. cloistered its players at Lake Placid. After a long season that glowed with victory after victory, including repeated triumphs over Canada’s occasionally-assembled team, the U.S. brought its undefeated team to Mariucci Arena for the 1999 World Championships, where it lost to Canada in the gold medal game. So Team USA won every game it played, except the one it played the whole season to win.

This, then, is only the second time Team USA chose to spend the whole season together, and Canada and Sweden decided to do the same. Finland, however, chose to not centralize its players. After upsetting Sweden to win the bronze behind the traditional 1-2 of the U.S. and Canada last spring, Finnish officials realized that at this stage of women’s hockey, any national team would be hard-pressed to find regular competition that could match the intensity of WCHA games week after week.

Finland hockey officials were eager to have Raty and defenseman Mira Jalosuo come to Minnesota as freshmen, and Mariia Posa, another freshman defenseman, joined junior captain Saara Tuominen at UMD. They are not alone. Raty earned WCHA defensive player of the week honors for her play against UMD, and MSU-Mankato sophomore Emmi Leinonen was offensive player of the week with three goals and an assist last weekend, while freshman Minttu Tuominen of Ohio State was rookie of the week. So while Team USA took a well-deserved week off, three of Team Finland’s players were sweeping the weekly WCHA awards with exceptional performances.

UMD freshman goalie Jennifer Harss focused on the bouncing puck as it sailed toward her.

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

Until this season, the pronunciation challenge has mostly gone to UMD, because of coach Shannon Miller’s decade-long skill at recruiting elite European players to Duluth. This is Minnesota’s first venture “across the pond.” Along with Posa from Finland, Miller brought in Jennifer Harss, a skilled German freshman goaltender, and she also knew all about Raty, having tried to recruit her before Raty chose Minnesota over UMD and Ohio State.

The Bulldogs don’t need a pronunciation guide to remember Raty. 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 their rematch series in early February in Duluth.

Chelsey Jones cut left to beat UMD"s Jennifer Harss on a Gopher breakaway.

Raty 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, and that came with only 0 minutes left, and with Minnesota having three goals on the board. Raty wound up with 51 saves on 52 shots against the team most consider the Gophers top challenger this season.

Minnesota dominated the first two periods of the first game, but after rallying in the third period the first night, UMD played the Gophers evenly through two periods in the second game. “They started the way they finished the first game…and so did we,” said Frost. “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 Raty’s glove.

Noora Raty got help from Sarah Erickson to retrieve her stick.

“I know Saara very well because she is captain of our national team,” said Raty, 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 Raty’s glove, and specifically provided video-enhanced evidence before the second game to indicate why the Bulldogs shouldn’t shoot high on Raty’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 UMD’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 across the Atlantic. The UMD goalie record book shows students from Finland (Tuula Puputti), Switzerland (Patricia Sautter and school victory and save record-holder Riitta Schaublin), 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 gathered Swedish team, Miller landed Harss, a very skilled goaltender from Germany, who played well while being thoroughly challenged by 75 shots for the two games at Minnesota, and it might have been worthy of a weekly award if Raty hadn’t completely shut down the Bulldogs offense.

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 6 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 Raty, 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.”

Rick Larsen's pitching lifted Hawks to long-awaited victory.

While spending most of my life writing about sports, it’s also been very gratifying to play a little baseball along the way. For 28 years, I’ve played in the grand-daddy of Over-35 men’s baseball leagues. People who don’t know better say, “Oh, you’re playing softball?”

No, I respond dryly. “Baseball — real baseball.”

Our Shoreview SeaFoam Hawks team, which bounced from the Minnesota Senior Men’s Amateur Baseball Association to help start a splinter North Star League, returned to the MSMABA this year, although it didn’t help our struggle of recent years. Most managers at this level have a great camaraderie of mutual respect, because fortunes vary from year to year, but a few of them would cut your throat by stealing a top player or two if they get the chance. When we lost our top two pitchers, we faded. Then we got worse.

We’d play hard, sometimes outplaying foes, but we seemed to lose more than we won. Then we lost almost all our games, and last year, we didn’t win a single game. My players kept telling me not to worry, that they were enjoying it and having fun. I thanked them, but told them that having fun and winning once in a while didn’t have to be mutually exclusive. Last year, after losing every game, we made a stirring rally against the best team in the tournament, rallying from a big deficit to force extra innings. But we lost, nonetheless. I can try hard and play with flate-out competitiveness, and still leave it on the field. But when you’re running the team, you feel sympathy for all your players, more than sorry for yourself.

This year, back in the ol’ MSMABA, we came in with half our team new. We’re much better, really, but two guys we counted on to pitch decided not to play at the last moment. At this level, teams have former pitchers who can still pitch, or they have good ballplayers who are willing to give pitching a try. There’s a difference. Our guys are the latter, and we came close many times, sometimes outhitting our opponents, but we still kept losing.

Then, we went down to Jordan for a midweek night game. We scored four in the top of the first, and we made some big plays in the field to hold the 4-0 lead. The Jordan guys threatened, then they scored two runs on a wild pitch that bounced away from our catcher’s grasp, as well as his view. But we came right back and got two in the top half of the next inning, and we won 6-2.

It was a long time coming. Some of our new guys thought it was, too, and they had no idea how long we’d struggled to win a game. Any game.  Everything came together. Our pitcher was outstanding, getting out of trouble several innings. And we made big plays behind him. I went in to play third base for the last three innings, and as luck would have it, I came up with a couple good plays, and threw across the diamond with the zip I used to have, but seemed to have misplaced with advancing years. As you get older in baseball, you might get smarter, but your arm doesn’t get any livelier.

We lost our next game, and our next one. Got 10-runned in one of them. Now we’re ready for our state tournament. My hope was that we’d gather it all together and hit some sort of peak about tournament time. I think we’re there.We’ve got a lot of guys who know how to play, and some who were playing on youth teams I coached, including my older son, Jack. Sometimes we play like we’ve never seen a baseball, but most of the time we play pretty well, or real well, for most of the game. Now it’s time to prove it. Great thing about baseball: You’re only as good as your next game, your next at-bat.

I think I’ll ask the public address guy out at Jordan if he can play my iPod through the speaker system. Got a song on there by an odd-named guy, Conor Oberst, called “Cape Canaveral.” It’s not about rockets, so much as relationships. And he has a great line that becomes a refrain in the song: “…Victory’s sweet, even deep in the cheap seats.” …If he only knew how right that is.

Not only was it a tumultuous final game for the Minnesota Wild when they fell just short of reaching the playoffs, but it was the end for coach Jacques Lemaire, general manager Doug Risebrough, and superstar Marian Gaborik.

The Wild will head a new direction for the 2009-2010 season, with Chuck Fletcher as the new general manager, and Todd Richards as the new coach. We know nothing about Fletcher, who has worked for a couple of decades in front offices of several NHL teams, most recently the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins this past season. I became good friends with his dad, Cliff Fletcher, who moved up from St. Louis Blues public relations director to the status of NHL general manager. We do know about Todd Richards, who was a solid, steady, heavy contributor to University of Minnesota hockey teams in the 1980s, when he served as captain before heading off on a consistent, if unremarkable, pro career.

We can celebrate the arrival of Richards to a state that loves its hockey, and has spent too much time being beaten down by former NHL players who have seemed resistant — if not prejudiced — about letting homestate players play for the Wild. That will change now, for sure. By the end of the upcoming season, it will no longer be true that the Wild has the fewest Minnesotans, and Americans, in the NHL. We hope.

However, several things about the regime change must be pointed out:

• The fans were starting to grumble and show restlessness for the Wild not making the playoffs. FALSE! No such indications were there, except among sports commentators and columnists and writers who either were growing restless themselves, or didn’t know any better. Some columnists, who only rarely made it to Xcel Center, chastised fans for being so loyal in supporting the Wild. They don’t understand that hockey fans love hockey, and will show up to watch it.
• Marian Gaborik was expendable. After all, he hadn’t done anything for the team in the playoffs, and he’s hurt all the time. WRONG! Gaborik is one of the few, true superstars in the NHL. Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Eugeny Malkin — and that’s about it, if you wanted to name players with more individual impact on the game than Gaborik. The trouble is, Gaborik’s agent didn’t get along with Doug Risebrough, so the contract ran out, and if Gaborik was great for the Wild, it might also be true that the Wild was the ideal place for Gaborik to shine. There is no other NHL team on which Gaborik’s presence makes the difference between being a title contender and scrapping for the last playoff spot.
• Martin Havlett, newly signed free agent from Chicago, can replace Gaborik. WRONG! We can hope, for his sake, that Gaborik handles Manhattan and stays healthy with the New York Rangers, but Havlett — humorously called “Marty” Havlett by Mark Rosen, on his Sunday night Channel 4 show — is a good player who can score goals. Because I love watching former North Dakota star Jonathan Toews, who played at Shattuck, and who became captain of the Black Hawks in his second season, I watched Chicago closely. I marveled at Toews, and I noticed Patrick Kane, the former No. 1 draft pick, as the Hawks second-best. Every once in a while, I noticed Havlett, and remarked that he’s good, and he gives Chicago a third scoring threat. Trust me, had Gaborik been healthy and been playing in the Black Hawk lineup, you would have noticed him every shift.
• Richards will take the Wild in a new, much more offensive direction. And, as Star Tribune NHL writer John Russo wrote, Wild fans will no longer be bored with the “neutral zone trap” and slow-it-down style of Jacques Lemaire. NOT TRUE! Lemaire deployed a system that required total dedication to defensive hockey when the other team had the puck, but his offense changed markedly when Gaborik was in the lineup. Whenever the Wild had two men forechecking, that was not the “neutral zone trap,” despite what superficial critics would have you believe. Gaborik was injured most of the year, so the Wild played it much more cautious, and still nearly made the playoffs. Guess what? If Ovechkin was hurt, Washington would play a lot more cautious, too. And if Richards decides to go all-out offense, the Wild’s goals-against will rise dramatically. Todd is a smart hockey man, and he works to get to know the potential of his players. He will try to institute a more offensive style, but he was a defenseman; he knows that defense takes hard work, and that floaters and loafers would prefer to have the fun of playing offense. And that type of player, and team, never wins the Stanley Cup.
• Lemaire’s style is passe, and the game has passed him by. And Risebrough’s management style wore out with the Wild. WRONG, and WRONG AGAIN! You want to make an early pick for a Stanley Cup contender next season? Pick the New Jersey Devils. Jacques Lemaire is now back as Devils head coach, and look for Minnesotans like Zach Parise, Jamie Langenbrunner, and Paul Martin, to have sensational seasons and praise Lemaire’s coaching as the primary reason for success in Jersey. As for Risebrough, he told me he enjoyed getting to know the players better last season, and he dealt more with them one-on-one than ever before. He said he didn’t deal much with agents, but that he got along well with all of them — except Ron Salcer, the agent for Gaborik and Brent Burns. About the only criticism Risebrough got was through the Star Tribune, where Russo seemed to have a great rapport with Salcer, who would lambast the treatment Gaborik and Burns got, implying, if not flat out stating, that Risebrough was the problem. That might have been a factor in Risebrough’s firing. He’ll be back in the game. He’s smart, thoughtful, and he cares.