While balance is clearly a good thing, being
a one-line team isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially
when two of the three Hobey finalists are on that line.
Nevertheless, Colorado College coach Scott Owens saw something
to work on in his team’s lack of offensive diversity
last season, when linemates Marty Sertich and Brett Sterling
combined for 61 of the team’s 160 goals en route to
the team winning a share of the MacNaughton Cup and making
it to the Frozen Four.
“That was one of our Achilles heels
last year, and one of our points of emphasis this year,”
said Owens, after his team’s dozen-goal sweep at Minnesota
State, Mankato last weekend vaulted the Tigers to the top
of the INCH Power Rankings. “We had our power play
clicking pretty good, and were able to get some other people
scoring, which was important.”
A glance at this year’s team statistics
shows the usual suspects (Sterling and Sertich) again leading
the way offensively, with Sterling the reigning WCHA Offensive
Player of the Week. But last weekend was a breakout of sorts
for the likes of freshman forward Chad Rau, who put up a
goal and three assists at the Midwest Wireless Civic Center
and was named the league’s Rookie of the Week. Top
defenseman Brian Salcido complimented the team’s solid
play throughout with his first two goals of the season.
He anchors a defensive unit that is quickly overcoming the
early departures of Mark Stuart and Brady Greco, and the
graduation of Richard Petiot.
“It’s coming together,”
says Owens of his defense. “We’ve had several
different combinations out there. We lost three pretty big
guys and we’re still adjusting to that, so it’s
definitely still a work in progress.”
The Tigers and their newfound fame as the
nation’s top-ranked team return home to face a St.
Cloud State team that has upsets of Minnesota and Northern
Michigan on its resume already.
“They’re a dangerous team because
their team defense and goaltending will keep them in every
game they play,” Owens said. “There’s
also a freshness to their game right now that they haven’t
had in a few years.”
SEEN
AND HEARD IN THE WCHA
Title town –
The two-time defending national champs will raise another
banner this weekend while hosting Michigan Tech, which has
been at or near the bottom of the league standings for roughly
a decade. But anyone expecting two Pioneer blowouts in Denver
this weekend needs to turn the clock back 11 months and
recall what the Huskies did on their visit to Magness Arena
in January.
Tech had a miserable first half of the 2004-05
season, winning just one game before a 3-0 upset of the
Pioneers on Jan. 7 (sparked by 35 Cam Ellsworth saves) launched
the Huskies on a respectable second half. Jamie Russell’s
crew was 7-8-2 in the remainder of the regular season, and
met Denver again in the WCHA playoffs, only to see their
campaign end via to a hard-fought 1-0 loss to the Pioneers
on March 12.
Much has changed from last season to this
one, but the Huskies again travel to Denver with just one
win, seeking a spark to jump-start a resurgence. With the
hype surrounding the banner-raising ceremony and the school’s
homecoming weekend (with no football team, the hockey games
are clearly the sports focus of homecoming at DU), the Pioneers’
coaches know that guarding their team against distractions
and focusing on the on-ice tasks ahead is important.
Great Weekend Getaway
Minnesota
at Minnesota Duluth (Fri.-Sat.) It might not sound like much of an on-ice
battle is to be had when two teams that have combined
for just four wins take to the rink. And if you take
away the history and bragging rights at stake when
Minnesota visits Minnesota Duluth this weekend, that’s
just what you’ve got. But it’s seemingly
always an emotional battle when the Gophers come to
the home of the Bulldogs and the cozy DECC is invaded
by throngs of boisterous Twin Citians. The nationally-ranked
Gophers would appear to have the clear edge over the
1-4-1 Bulldogs this weekend, but UMD has won six of
its last eight meetings versus Minnesota. That’s
enough to have the UMD Penalty Box in full throat
when Don, Phil, Blake, Kellen, Gino and friends come
to call.
While You’re There: Bulldog
and Gopher fans will have reason to celebrate early
stars of their respective hockey programs on
Saturday afternoon when the U.S.
Hockey Hall of Fame holds its 2005
induction luncheon at the DECC. Gopher legend Murray
Williamson (who later coached Team USA to a silver
medal at the 1972 Winter Olympics) and Bulldog legend
Keith “Huffer” Christiansen (whose #9
sweater is the only number ever retired by the UMD
hockey program) are being inducted into the Hall.
Rounding out the class of 2005 are the late Maurice
“Moe” Roberts, a star goaltender in the
1930s and ‘40s, and 1989 Hobey recipient Lane
McDonald, who led Harvard to its only NCAA title that
year. For luncheon ticket information, call the Hall
at 800-443-7825.
Stick
Salute
After guiding
his team to its biggest win of his short time behind
the bench, St. Cloud State coach Bob Motzko
wasn’t above a little bit of ribbing
directed at his doubters. With a handful of reporters
gathered in the Huskies player lounge shortly after
the 3-2 upset of Minnesota last Friday, Motzko opened
his comments by saying that the win was important,
“to prove we’re not as bad as Inside College
Hockey thinks we are.” After a pause, he grinned
and winked at the INCH reporter in the room. Nice
to know that the WCHA’s newest coach is an INCH
reader, and that he’s determined to make us
look foolish for picking his team 10th in the WCHA.
Bench
Minor
More than
300,000 Minnesotans have purchased deer hunting licenses
and will take to the state’s woods and fields
on Saturday morning, the deer season opener, seeking
the elusive whitetail. Undoubtedly, thousands of those
men and women are college hockey fans who might be
interested to attend a showcase series like Minnesota-UMD,
if not for their once-a-year hunting trip. Why the
WCHA schedule-makers fail to take this factor
into account, and have Minnesota’s four teams
play on the road during the opening weekend of November,
is beyond us.
“Knowing full well how good they are,
and what they did to us last year, we respect the heck out
of them,” Gwozdecky said. “We all saw how well
they played in the second half last season, and having played
them, I know.”
Without the services of departed Hobey finalist
Colin Murphy, Tech is still searching for scorers to complement
senior star Chris Conner. After a breakout offensive year
last season, defenseman Lars Helminen has no goals and just
three assists in Tech’s 1-6-1 start, but Russell says
the real focus should be on what the junior has done defensively.
“A lot of what Lars did defensively
last season was overshadowed by his offensive numbers,”
Russell said. “I know for him there’s some degree
of frustration this year because things haven’t clicked
offensively yet.”
On Friday, another Pioneers team of national
champs will be honored when the 2005 NCAA skiing champions
are recognized after the first intermission. The school
has 18 NCAA skiing titles all-time, which look nice next
to the Pioneers’ seven NCAA hockey titles. The hockey
banner raising will take place prior to Saturday night’s
game.
FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG
• After bouncing around between sites in
St. Paul, Milwaukee and Minneapolis for its first dozen
years, the WCHA Final Five has now found a home for more
than a decade. The league and officials from the Xcel Energy
Center and Minnesota Wild recently announced an extension
of the contract to host the tournament through 2011.
“We’re very excited about continuing
our relationship with one of the premier college hockey
conferences in the nation,” said Jack Larson, vice
president & general manager of the building. “The
WCHA Final Five is a marquee event for the Xcel Energy Center
and the Twin Cities area.”
Since 2002, the five-game tournament has drawn
better than 72,000 each year, including an impressive audience
of more than 16,000 for last year’s title game between
Denver and Colorado College. Frozen pizza maker Red Baron
will continue to be the event’s title sponsor.
• This weekend’s home series
versus Minnesota State, Mankato will be a first on a few
different levels for first-year Seawolves coach Dave Shyiak.
Not only does the two-game set mark the first WCHA home
series since he took over the UAA program, it will be the
first time he has faced the Mavericks either as a coach
or a player. Shyiak played in the WCHA for Northern Michigan
during the days when the Wildcats were one of the league’s
powers, and the Mavericks were playing D-III hockey. When
NMU left the league for the CCHA, it opened up a spot eventually
filled by the Mavericks.
• Another coach looking for a
first this weekend is Wisconsin’s Mike Eaves. His
team visits North Dakota, where Eaves will seek his first
victory at the home of the Sioux. He may be striking when
the iron is hot after the Badgers scored 11 goals last weekend
in their home set with Alaska Anchorage. “I’ve
learned from the football guys here that defenses usually
have the advantage early in the season, so offensively it’s
nice to have some rhythm and flow going, especially heading
into this series,” Eaves said.
Despite going 0-3-1 at the Ralph in
his three previous seasons running the Wisconsin program,
Eaves says he likes visiting the palace on the prairie.
“It’s an exciting place to play,” he said.
“If you want to take your team to a fun place to play
hockey, Engelstad is the place to go.”
• One friend of INCH quoted another
this week, when Anchorage Daily News scribe Doyle Woody
related a quip told to him by former Wisconsin radio voice
Bill Brophy. As the pair was having a Saturday evening beverage
and recounting the Seawolves two lopsided losses to the
Badgers in Madison last weekend, Brophy assessed the young
UAA team’s struggles, telling Woody, “Doyle,
I don’t think you’re going to be writing about
a lot of unbeaten streaks this season.”
• One lesson Denver’s coaches
took from the aftermath of Brock Trotter’s season-ending
injury last weekend in Grand Forks is to not put too much
stock in early information. Trotter, who crumpled to the
ice behind the net early in Friday’s game after a
hard check from Matt Smaby, was taken off the ice by stretcher.
At the time, an arena medical staffer told Gwozdecky that
Trotter had a cut that would be sewn up and that the player
would likely return to the ice in a week or two.
“That was obviously extremely
erroneous, and I gave that information to the team and to
the listening audience during our radio post-game show,”
Gwozdecky said. “I should know better. The diagnosis
on the scene is usually pretty vague.”
It was only after North Dakota’s
3-1 victory that Gwozdecky and the team learned Trotter
was in surgery at Altru Hospital in Grand Forks. Doctors
repaired a four-inch cut that had severed the Achilles tendon
and two major muscle groups in the freshman forward’s
right leg. The school is expected to apply for a medical
redshirt for Trotter, who had three goals and two assists
in his first five collegiate games.
A variety of sources were utilized
in the compilation of this report.
