November
25, 2003
Bazin
Crash Has Other Travelers Thinking Safety
By
Jess Myers
Colorado College
assistant coach Norm Bazin remains hospitalized in Spokane, Wash.,
after a car accident on Friday, Nov. 21, has left him fighting
for his life.
Bazin, who
is in his fourth season with the Tigers, left Spokane in a rented
car Friday afternoon and was heading north on U.S. Highway 395
en route to scout players in British Columbia. His trip came to
an abrupt halt when his car collided head-on with a SUV. There
were reports of freezing rain and snow in the area.
 |
Norm
Bazin |
After undergoing
a number of emergency surgeries, Bazin remains in critical condition
in a Spokane hospital. His wife, Michelle, who is pregnant and
expecting their first child in January, has joined him in Spokane.
While the
college hockey family prays for his recovery, the accident has
some fellow WCHA coaches in a reflective mood, considering how
common it is to travel in less-than-idea conditions while doing
their jobs.
When he was
an assistant coach, Minnesota State, Mankato’s Troy Jutting
did plenty of driving in bad weather, in the dark, down the slippery,
winding roads in B.C. and Washington. He said he’s relieved
that accidents like this aren’t more common.
“(Bemidji
State coach) Tom Serratore and I talked this week and we said
we’re surprised that in all of the bad weather, night time
driving we’ve done, somebody hasn’t been more seriously
hurt,” Jutting said. “A lot of the time, you realize
that you probably shouldn’t be driving, but you need to
get to a game to see a kid, and it’s a lot of money to get
there. To travel all that way and then not see the game isn’t
really acceptable. So you go.”
Jutting noted
that as coaches get older, they seem to travel less because of
the job perks and the wisdom that come with seniority.
“That’s
another reason why coaching is really a young man’s game,”
he said. “As you get older, you start to understand the
dangers a little bit better. But there’s really nothing
you can do. Dangerous roads and late night driving are part of
the game. Over-the-road truckers do it 10 or 12 hours a day.”
Cards and
other wishes for a speedy recovery can be sent to Michelle Bazin
at: Double Tree Inn, 322 N. Spokane Falls Court, Spokane, WA 99201,
Fax: 509-456-6285.
SEEN
AND HEARD IN THE WCHA
A
Decade Later, it's Still a Showcase – About a dozen
years ago, Ron Mason (then the head coach at Michigan State) and
Doug Woog (then the head coach at Minnesota) envisioned a yearly
tournament between the Big Ten’s four traditional hockey
powers. In 1993, Woog and Mason’s teams, along with Michigan
and Wisconsin, met at the Palace of Auburn Hills outside of Detroit
for the first College Hockey Showcase. This weekend, in Ann Arbor
and East Lansing, those four teams will meet again in what has
become one of the better early-season traditions in the college
game.
While watching
his granddaughter take skating lessons at an arena in Inver Grove
Heights, Minn., this week, Woog talked about a decade of the Showcase,
and why they wanted to do it in the first place.
“We
really wanted to keep the rivalries that had been started in the
WCHA and in the Big Ten together,” said Woog. “And
there are different athletic rules in the Big Ten, so every now
and then it’s fun to match up against a team that you know
is playing by the same rules, with the same compliance issues
as you.”
The first
four tournaments were held at neutral sites, with the Palace,
the St. Paul Civic Center, Milwaukee’s Bradley Center and
Joe Louis Arena in Detroit playing host. Since then, the series
has rotated between campus sites, with Minneapolis and Madison
hosting games every other year. While some saw the move to campus
as a step backwards, Woog notes that the home arenas at Minnesota
and Wisconsin hold 10,000 and 14,000 fans, respectively, so there’s
not real attendance gap.
“This
format is much better for the fans,” said Woog, who will
call Minnesota’s Showcase games for Fox Sports North this
weekend. “You’re back home every other year, instead
of being gone for three years. And our fans love the Big Ten rivalries.”
Most important,
he says, is the fact that with between two and four of these teams
making the NCAAs seemingly every year, the on-ice results are
interesting and important.
“These
usually turn out to be really significant in the NCAA seedings
and in the power rankings,” he said. “And they’re
kind of ‘measure games.’ It’s fun to see where
you are against these teams a third of the way through the season.”
|
Great Weekend Getaway |
 |
| Minnesota
State, Mankato at Minnesota Duluth (Fri.-Sat.)
Neither
team is currently in the national rankings. MSU has only
made the NCAAs once in school history, while UMD hasn’t
been there in a decade. Both teams are 2-3-1 in their last
six. So what makes this a great matchup? Desperation. If
the Mavericks or Bulldogs (or both) are going to get home
ice this March, making a statement (and getting four points)
a series like this one could go a long way in determining
the league’s hierarchy come spring. A sweep, and somebody
heads into December having won two of their last eight.
MSU scored a season-high six in its last game, while UMD
put seven on the board last Saturday at Union. And if desperate
times really do call for desperate measures, this should
be an entertaining series.
While
You’re There: After the Saturday night game, head
to Old Chicago in Canal Park (on Lake Avenue, in one of
the neighborhood’s cool renovated warehouses) for
big beers, great pizza and seemingly every Bulldog player
dining with their families and girlfriends. On Sunday morning,
after three aspirins and several large glasses of water,
have the brunch at Top of the Harbor (the revolving restaurant
atop the Radisson Duluth). The food is fine, and the price
is reasonable, but the view is stunning. Make sure you linger
over coffee, so you get to see the entire 360-degree panorama
of downtown Duluth, the Central Hillside, the Harbor and
Lake Superior. |
| Stick
Salute |
| To
the North Dakota Fighting Sioux. Any questions
about their validity as the top team in the nation and their
ability to play on the road were answered pretty clearly
last weekend in Denver. Rumor has it that the rink manager
at Magness Arena still can’t get the red light turned
off after North Dakota pumped in 14 goals versus a Pioneers
team that had been considered one of the league’s
better defensive crews. The Sioux now have two light weekends
(with a bye weekend and a game versus the USA U-18 Team)
before hosting Minnesota Duluth Dec. 12-13. Enjoy the time
off, fellas. The WCHA’s opposing goalies will. |
| Bench
Minor |
| To
the St. Cloud State Huskies. Just when
we’re ready to believe that you’re for real,
the Huskies much-publicized team bus hits a pretty big speed
bump somewhere in Troy, N.Y. Yes, we know that RPI is pretty
good, and yes, we know that not even Craig Dahl expects
this team to score a lot. But when you manage to win a game
at Ralph Engelstad Arena just a few weeks ago, we should
expect at least one win in Houston Fieldhouse, right? Now
the Huskies get Alaska Anchorage, which is the hotter team.
The Seawolves are 1-1-1 in their last three, while St. Cloud
State is on a 0-3-0 run. |
PUCKS
TO PICK UP AFTER PRACTICE
• If
the WCHA is short of men in stripes at any point this season,
don’t expect to see the league’s Supervisor of Officials,
Greg Shepherd, filling in on the ice anytime soon. A long-time
league referee himself, Shepherd is undergoing surgery for a torn
Achilles tendon in his right foot this week and will be in a cast
for up to three months. Shepherd hurt the foot after falling in
a hole while working for Xcel Energy. It’s the latest event
in a terrible year for the Shepherd family. In June, Greg’s
mother Shirley, 79, was found beaten to death in a suburban St.
Paul park. A 20-year-old former co-worker and two others have
been charged with second-degree murder in the woman’s death
and are awaiting trial.
• The
Gopher hockey team showed that it’s up
on current events last Friday, when “Billie Jean”
and other cuts off Michael Jackson’s classic 1982 album
“Thriller” were heard blaring from the stereo in their
locker room after a 6-2 win over Michigan Tech.
Asked if they always play the recently-arrested King of Pop’s
tunes after wins, defenseman Keith Ballard said that the music
was a quite recent addition to the Gopher songbook. “Tyler
Hirsch just went out and bought the CD earlier today,” said
Ballard. “I’m pretty sure he got it on sale.”
• When
the first College Hockey Showcase was played a decade ago at the
Palace, it was hoped by some that the tournament would be a way
for college hockey to show off four of its big-time programs to
the sports world. Well, in the 10 years that Minnesota,
Wisconsin, Michigan and Michigan State have gotten
together, it’s been anything but a showcase of the power
of Badger hockey. In 20 Showcase games, Wisconsin is 2-17-1. And
that’s after a 1-1 start. The Badgers beat Michigan in Auburn
Hills that first season, and are 0-8-1 versus the Wolverines since
then. Their only Showcase win versus Michigan State came in 1999,
en route to Bucky’s most recent MacNaughton Cup.
• After
years of being mysterious about his unconventional choice of sweater
numbers, Michigan Tech junior goalie Cam Ellsworth
finally explained why he wears number 17 recently. When he was
a bantam, playing in his hometown in Ontario, the team’s
coach said any player could wear any number. “I didn’t
like either 1 or 30, so I asked for 17, just for something different,”
Ellsworth said. “A bunch of guys wanted 17, so we started
flipping a coin to see who’d get it. I think I won about
12 coin flips, and I’ve worn it ever since.” Ellsworth
said that the biggest problem is that you don’t usually
see 17 on the larger jerseys that are built to accommodate goalie
pads. He said that the Huskies equipment manager, Roy Britz, special
orders bigger sweaters with 17 on them to comfortably cover his
extra padding.
• Here’s
a bad sign for hockey fans in Houghton-Hancock: While the Huskies
keep playing sound defensive hockey (Ellsworth stopped 27 of 28
shots in the first period alone versus Minnesota
last Saturday) the once-renowned forward line of Colin Murphy,
Taggart Desmet and Chris Conner has now managed just one goal
in the team’s last four games. Speaking of that line, INCH
suggested to Michigan Tech assistant athletic director Dave Fischer
(who handles all of the school’s marketing, promotions and
sports information) that the trio needs a snappy nickname (like
the Red Wings’ famed Production Line or the Soviets’
nearly unstoppable K-L-M Line). With the names Desmet, Murphy
and Conner skating together, this reporter suggested “Run
DMC” for a handle. Fischer is, reportedly, mulling it over.
• Gophers
coach Don Lucia was nowhere to be found after Friday’s win
versus Michigan Tech. As soon as the final horn
sounded, Lucia bolted to the locker room, grabbed his coat, and
was in his car before the on-ice fracas between his team and the
Huskies had been sorted out. Lucia rushed to St. Paul and managed
to catch the end of the NCAA Division II regional volleyball game
between Augustana (S.D.) College and Concordia University. Concordia,
as you may recall from last
week’s notebook, features a talented freshman named
Jessica Lucia. With her parents watching, Jessica helped the Golden
Bears rally to win. One night later, Jessica led the way with
six kills and three aces as Concordia beat North Dakota State
to advance to the NCAA Elite Eight. The tournament will be played
in San Bernadino, Calif., Dec. 4-6. Unfortunately for Don, the
Gophers have a trip to Alaska Anchorage that weekend, so he’ll
be unable to attend.
• Those
14 goals allowed by Denver last weekend as they
were swept by North Dakota was the highest two-game
total scored by a DU opponent in more than a decade. In February
1992, when the Pioneers were headed for a ninth-place finish and
Northern Michigan was the defending national champion, the Wildcats
scored 20 in a two-game set versus Denver in Marquette. The sweep
included a 14-2 win by Northern Michigan in the Friday night game.
So take heart Pioneer fans. Surrendering 14 in a weekend is a
step up from surrendering 14 in a game.
