ST. PAUL, Minn. — Look up “nemesis” in a dictionary and you learn that it’s “an opponent or rival whom a person cannot best.” Look up “nemesis” in a future Wisconsin hockey media guide and you may see a photo of the Denver Pioneers.

In five games this season, the Pioneers had their way with the Badgers, winning all five and on Friday, likely knocking Wisconsin out of contention for an NCAA Tournament invite. But other than the same team winning all five, there were few discernible patterns to be had. The Pioneers won shootouts and shutouts. They won at altitude and on the Isthmus. And on Friday, they won quite decisively, as Marc Cheverie frustrated Wisconsin throughout the 3-0 win, giving the Pioneers a chance to defend the Broadmoor Trophy they won in St. Paul last year.

“They’ve matched up well against us this entire season,” said Badgers goaltender Shane Connelly, who finished with 26 saves. “The games have been close and could’ve gone either way any time we’ve played them. They just made more key plays this season.”

And it seemed like time and again, the one making the plays against the Badgers was the one Mike Eaves saw slip away over the summer. Pioneers rookie defenseman Patrick Wiercioch had a power-play goal on Friday, giving him four goals and six assists in his first five career games versus Wisconsin — the team he originally committed to play for. When David Carle’s medical condition ended his hockey career over the summer, it made for an immediate opening on the Pioneer blue line, and Wiercioch decided rather than play another year of juniors before heading to Madison, he’d head to Denver right away.

“I was definitely excited about it when I committed to Wisconsin, but it wasn’t in the cards,” Wiercioch said. “I had to make a decision that was in my best interest and it’s worked out well so far.

Offense had been the key for the Badgers in the playoffs up until Friday, as they scored 11 goals in their two games with Minnesota State. But the coach sensed something was different in the semifinals.

“In many ways it felt like we were swimming upstream,” Eaves said afterward. “The way we’ve been playing recently, that wasn’t us. We’ve won more battles than we’ve lost. Our legs seemed to be not as we’ve had them recently.”

A decades-old streak came to an end Friday as, prior to the semifinals, the Badgers were 11-0 all-time versus Denver in the playoffs. On the flip side, the Pioneers extended their unbeaten run at the Final Five to nine games. Their last loss in this tournament was in the 1997 play-in game against Colorado College.

Stalock Sees Familiarity in Eidsness Miscue

Minnesota Duluth’s big break, and the eventual game-winner in their 3-0 triumph over North Dakota, came early and hurt the Fighting Sioux.

On North Dakota’s first power play, rookie Sioux goalie Brad Eidsness went out to play a Bulldog dump-in behind the net. He left the puck for, he thought, a teammate, only to have Bulldog sniper MacGregor Sharp grab the puck and slip it over the goal line before the goalie could get back into position.

Bulldogs goalie Alex Stalock is widely known for wanting to handle every puck that comes near him, but has gotten burned — especially early in his college career — by getting caught out of position or by mis-handled pucks. So when his counterpart’s mistake gave his team a lead, there was a familiar ring to it.

“That was my early days of playing the puck,” said Stalock to a chorus of laughs in the media room. He said his familiarity with the Xcel Energy Center (he played there in high school and in college) may have given him an advantage over the first-year player for the Sioux. “It’s tough for a young guy in his first time at the Final Five, but I thought overall he played well.”

Stalock’s 31 saves — 24 of them in the final 40 minutes — gave him four shutouts this season and lifted the Bulldogs into the NCAA Tournament in all likelihood. It also gave his team a 2-0-1 record versus North Dakota this season. At the other end of the ice, Eidsness was sharp, but the early mistake proved to be more costly than fans might have expected.

“They played a very solid team game for 60 minutes, and we weren’t able to change that,” said Sioux coach Dave Hakstol. “We needed a bounce around Alex Stalock and didn’t get it. I thought (Eidsness) did an excellent job for us. We got ourselves in a little bit of a hole, but he gave us a chance to dig ourselves out.”

This League Doesn’t Go To 11

WCHA Commissioner Bruce McLeod will have a membership application from Bemidji State in hand by next week, and has begun the process of scheduling site visits to the campus and the community. He said other schools have expressed interest, but he has not seen applications from anyone else.

The big issue for Bemidji State, if they are to have a chance at WCHA admission, is finding a partner. McLeod and his staff have tried to devise a 28-game schedule for an 11-team league, and are finding it to be a non-starter.

“It’s very, very difficult, and from my point of view, it’s a step backwards from a scheduling standpoint,” McLeod said. “I wish somebody could come and show me how to do an 11-team conference schedule that works, that’s fair, with a balanced rotation and an evenness to it over some length of time.”

Currently, the league’s 10-team schedule evens out over a four-year rotation and McLeod said they have explored a 12-team schedule that would work on a five-year time frame.

“I have yet to find an 11 that works. Somebody’s got to help me on that one,” he said. “I’ve talked to the NHL offices and a lot of different people. The USHL actually operated with 11 teams for about four years and Gino (Gasparini, the former USHL commissioner) told me they never did get it worked out, so it’s very difficult.”

Seen and Heard at the X

Kick save (and a beauty): UMD's Alex Stalock uses his leg pad to deny a scoring bid by North Dakota's Jason Gregoire.

• Tim Oshie, the father of former Sioux forward T.J. Oshie, was in St. Paul Friday helping to introduce some old friends to the world of big-time college hockey. Before moving with his son to northern Minnesota a decade ago, Oshie lived in the Seattle area for many years coaching sports there, and has roots in Washington. He welcomed the Northwest Admirals, a U-16 team from Seattle, to the rink Friday, and said he was happy to give the kids from a WHL-dominated area of the county a taste of the WCHA.

• Folks who spark the “goofy playoff hair” trends have apparently run out of new ideas. Several players from both Denver and Minnesota Duluth are sporting mohawks for the Final Five.

• Former American Idol finalist LaToya London, who is currently starring in “The Color Purple” at the Ordway Theater in St. Paul, delivered a stunning rendition of the Star Spangled Banner before game two, reminiscent of Whitney Houston’s performance at the 1991 Super Bowl. Two small issues worth noting: 1) The idiots yelling “Go Sioux!” and “Go Bulldogs!” during song need to pipe down, and 2) as we’ve noted before, the 80-second version of that song is much better than the three-minute version.

• On Thursday, it was the Sioux fans cheering for UMD to beat Minnesota. On Friday, with the Gophers out, the Minnesota fans who showed up cheered for the Bulldogs to beat the Sioux. “That was great,” said Sandelin. “We’ll see which side they choose tomorrow, if there’s anybody here.”

Plusses and Minuses

When referee Jon Campion reviewed, then disallowed, an apparent Wisconsin goal in the final minute of the first semifinal, he didn’t need to skate all the way across the ice to explain it. Instead, he just popped next door to the Wisconsin penalty box and gave his story to Badger captain Blake Geoffrion, who was serving an elbowing infraction.

Having been inside much of the day, we were a bit perplexed by the in-arena folks’ decision to play Sting’s “After The Rain” over the p.a. before the second game. Upon learning that it had been raining outside much of the afternoon, it made so much more sense.

The gigantic Rice Krispie bars they serve in the arena pressbox. They will be the main cause of our impending divorce with Wii Fit.

We used to be iffy on the idea of the Michigan Tech band being a part of the Final Five even when their hockey team is not, but we’ve come around, and like an extra band, especially when Denver and Minnesota Duluth are band free. But the Techsters were playing in the concourse during the first game’s national anthem, and that we can’t condone.

In-arena video host Rusty Kath interviewed a fan wearing a very new-looking UMD sweater before the second game and asked how long the gentleman had been a Bulldog fan. “Um, since last night,” was the answer. We’ve got no time for bandwagoners. Take a lesson from the guy wearing a 1950s era Sioux sweater over a Chewbacca costume, and make more of an effort.

To whoever decided to set the building’s thermostat at about 38 degrees. It was a tad chilly. Of course, maybe they just wanted the North Dakotans and Duluthians to feel at home.

INCH’s Three Stars of the Night

3. Marc Cheverie, Goalie, Denver: Wisconsin has fired more than 150 shots on goal in the playoffs. On Friday the Denver goalie turned aside all 42 that he faced for his second consecutive blanking of the Badgers.

2. Patrick Wiercioch, Defenseman, Denver: Once a future Badger, now a Badger-killer.

1. Alex Stalock, Goalie, Minnesota Duluth: What’s fun about the Bulldogs’ top player is not just that he stops the puck, but that he plays the position with a flair and a confidence not seen since Sinuhe Wallinheimo was manning the crease for Denver

What’s Next

In the third-place game, Wisconsin probably can’t save themselves, but the Badgers can knock Minnesota out of the NCAA playoffs with a win. North Dakota is in, and is just looking to get back to the type of play that got them the MacNaughton Cup.

“Looking at tonight’s game, there are a lot of things we need to work on,” said Sioux forward Ryan Duncan on Friday. “So [the third-place] game is important in a lot of ways.”

In the title tilt, Denver will try to win its league-record 16th WCHA playoff crown, its fourth of the decade, and second in a row. The Bulldogs, playing in the Final Five title game for the first time, will also be trying to become the first team to win three games in three nights in St. Paul. Their coach is not sure they’re at a disadvantage.

“It’s only a disadvantage if you talk about it,” Sandelin said. “We came here knowing we wanted to play three games and win three games, and we’re two-thirds of the way there.”