Monthly Archives: March 2008

Wisconsin’s Turris Gone

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    OK, Wisconsin scoring leader Kyle Turris, a freshman, has moved on. This information from Todd Milewski of the Capital Times of Madison on Monday night:
     Center Kyle Turris of New Westminster, British Columbia, signed a contract with the
Phoenix Coyotes today, one day after ending his freshman season
with Wisconsin as the team’s leading scorer. He had 11 goals and 24 assists for 35 points in 36 games.
     The Coyotes have three games remaining in
their season and are out of the race for a playoff spot, but
general manager Don Maloney said on the team’s Web site that they
wanted to get him into Phoenix to start getting used to the pro
atmosphere before what will be an important summer in terms of the
18-year-old’s physical conditioning.
     In an interview earlier this month, Maloney
said physical strength was the only thing keeping Turris from being
in the NHL. Obviously, the team is convinced that Turris can make
the necessary gains over the summer.

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Harrington Leaves St. John’s

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This press release from the St. John’s University sports information office Monday on the resignation of former Minnesota Duluth forward and 1980 U.S. Olympian John Harrington as coach of the Johnnies after 15 seasons to take a coaching position in Switzerland:

COLLEGEVILLE,
Minn. – St. John’s coach
John Harrington resigned Monday following 15 seasons with the
Johnnies. Harrington has accepted a head coaching position with Hockey Club
Ambri-Piotta, a professional team in the National A League of Switzerland. Harrington
will continue serving as head coach at St. John’s until his contract expires June 30,
and the search process for his replacement will begin immediately.

A member of the 1980 and 1984 U.S. Olympic hockey teams, Harrington guided the
Johnnies to a 241-142-31 (.620) record, including five MIAC regular season
titles, 13 MIAC playoff appearances and five NCAA tournament appearances.
Harrington’s 15 years at SJU is the longest tenure of any hockey coach in
school history.

 "I
have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to work and coach at Saint
John’s University," Harrington said. "As many have said before, it is a special
place. The administration and staff at Saint John’s, along with the tremendous
assistant coaches I have had, allowed our hockey program to be successful.
Without the talented student-athletes that have played for me, nothing would
have been possible. They made me a better coach."

The
winningest hockey coach in school history, Harrington coached 17 All-America
selections, including one Sid Watson Memorial Trophy recipient as Outstanding
NCAA Division III Hockey Player (2006, Adam Hanna); 50 All-MIAC first-team
selections; two MIAC Player of the Year recipients; five Academic All-America
selections and eight Academic All-Region selections.

A
four-time MIAC Coach of the Year, Harrington directed St. John’s to its first MIAC
regular season title since 1950, its second trip to the MIAC playoff finals and
its first bid to the NCAA Division III tournament during the 1995-96 season. In
1996-97, the Johnnies repeated as MIAC regular season and playoff champions and
entered the NCAA Division III tournament as the No. 1 seed in the west region.
The Johnnies proceeded to advance to the NCAA Division III hockey final four
and brought home the third-place trophy.

A 1979 graduate of the University of Minnesota Duluth, Harrington was an
assistant hockey coach at St. Cloud State from 1990-93. Before his
move to St. Cloud, Harrington worked as an assistant coach at Denver from 1984 to 1990.

As
a player, Harrington was a standout prep athlete at Virginia High
School and starred with UMD from 1975-79. He gained fame as a
member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team that captured the gold medal at the
Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York.

Harrington
played hockey in Lugano, Switzerland, which is in the same league as
Ambri-Piotta, for the 1980-81 season before returning home as a member of the
U.S. National Hockey Team in the 1981, 1982, and 1983 World Hockey
Championships. He completed his international playing career as a member of the
1984 U.S. Olympic Hockey team that competed in Sarajevo.

A
member of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, Harrington received the Lester Patrick
Award in 1980 for outstanding service to hockey in the U.S. He is a charter
member of the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, a 1990 inductee into the Minnesota
Olympic Hall of Fame and a 2001 inductee into the UMD Athletic
Hall of Fame.

Everbody Out of the Pool

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     Did you enter an NCAA Tournament pool…..Division I men’s hockey? I did, at the Duluth News Tribune.
      Jimmy Bellamy, page designer, writer, Webcast play-by-play man, videographer and soccer aficionado runs the pool. It costs $5. My $5 was thrown away.
       After watching lots of WCHA hockey the past five months, and despite the lack of scoring and not many teams over .500, I took the WCHA route to the Frozen Four.
      Denver was one of the best teams Minnesota Duluth saw in the first half of the season and Colorado College was the best team in the second half.
      In the News Tribune pool I had Colorado College beating Denver in the NCAA title game.
      My $5 is long gone.
      Who to pick among North Dakota, Boston College, Notre Dame and Michigan? Ask Jimmy.
       Who has been there most often? Four straight years for North Dakota and coach Dave Hakstol. Senior goalie Jean-Philippe Lamoureaux was named MVP of the Midwest Regional after stopping 79 of 82 shots in two games, including an overtime victory against homestanding Wisconsin on Sunday.
     North Dakota was down 2-0 before rallying in the third.
     "It’s a position we’ve been in before," Lamoureaux told the Grand Forks Herald. "Our big-time leaders stepped up and made big plays. We have a quiet confidence in our drerssing room. We’re comfortable in these situations and the bottom line is that you have to go out and execute plays."
      "We really just relaxed and started playing and having fun," said Noth Dakota’s T.J. Oshie.
     Goals 47 seconds apart in the third period, from Rylan Kaip and Ryan Duncan (his fourth goal in two games), tied it and Andrew Kozek won it 107 seconds into overtime.
     Boston College has defeated North Dakota the last two years in the Frozen Four semifinals (6-4 in 2007 and 6-5 in 2006). They play again April 10 in Denver, while Michigan and Notre Dame of the CCHA meet in the other semifinal.
    

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Huskies Update

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    This from the blog of St. Cloud Times writer Kevin Allenspach following Friday’s 2-1 St. Cloud State loss to Clarkson:

     After taking care of the Times’ print
responsibilities, it’s time to update the NCAA game blog for the final
time. The Huskies’ performance on Friday was doubtless disappointing to
a lot of SCSU fans. It sure was to the coaches and players. For the
most part, this was the school’s best tournament appearance, though.
Jase Weslosky was pretty good and, with two more years of eligibility,
it’s safe to say the goaltending will be in good hands for awhile. The
team had a lead later than ever before (until 14:15 of the second
period) and kept it tied later than ever, too (until 4:58 of the
third). But when Clarkson blocked Garrett Raboin’s shot out of the zone
in the waning seconds, with Weslosky off for an extra attacker, this
trip wound up like all the others: In defeat.
     "They played a
great game tactically, and took away the middle of the ice," Huskies
coach Bob Motzko said of the Golden Knights. "We just couldn’t get on
track and get anything going at all. Then our power play struggled
0-for-6, and that’s what we’ve been living on, and we made a couple
mistakes there in the second where we had the one-goal lead and we had
chances to extend it and we couldn’t do it. There was a brief moment in
the second period where we started to come a little bit and we took two
penalties in a row and that stopped it."
     One was a hooking call
on Tony Mosey. The other was a tripping penalty by Chris Anderson.
Where some players had good days (Weslosky, Raboin), Mosey and Anderson
were among those who didn’t.

North Dakota Wins 5-1

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      The WCHA is now 1-2 in the NCAA tournament as North Dakota beat Princeton 5-1 in Saturday’s Midwest Regional semifinal in Madison, including two empty-net goals. Princeton scored with 32 seconds to play. Scoring details from Grand Forks Herald writer Brad Elliott Schlossman:

First period

UND 1, Princeton 0
– Andrew Kozek (Jake Marto, Chay Genoway) 13:39 (pp). UND keeps the
puck in the zone with the second unit for almost the entire power play.
Marto, at the left point, feeds Kozek in the right circle. Kozek’s
wrist shot beat Kalemba on the far side.

Second period

UND 2, Princeton 0
– Ryan Duncan (T.J. Oshie, Matt Watkins) 16:18. Right as a power play
expires, Oshie gets the puck at the bottom of the left circle. Oshie
feeds it across the slot to Duncan at the bottom of the right circle.
Kalemba goes down right away and Duncan hits his spot.

Note: Princeton is outshooting UND 25-12 after two.

Third period

UND 5, Princeton 1
– Ryan Duncan (Ryan Martens, Chay Genoway) 8:13 (pp). The setup was
similar to the second goal. Martens, at the bottom of the left circle,
finds Duncan in the right circle. This time, Duncan goes far side and
his shot hits Kalemba’s blocker and goes in. That gives the reigning
Hobey Baker winner two goals against Hobey’s alma mater. Duncan then adds an empty-netter for a hat trick and Chay Genoway follows into an empty net.  Princeton scores with 32 seconds to play.

Colorado College Out

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    WCHA regular-season champion Colorado College didn’t get much of a boost being at home for Friday’s West Regional. The Tigers became the second WCHA team of the day to exit the NCAA tournament and David Ramsey of the Colorado Springs Gazette opined on the Tigers quick departure and just what did happen:

By DAVID RAMSEY

March 29, 2008 – 12:12AM

     It was unbelievable. It was surreal.
     It was – if you were unfortunate enough to be a Colorado College player, coach or fan – devastating.
     Michigan State players were congratulating each other. Spartans fans were happily dancing as CC fans stumbled toward the exits.
     The game wasn’t even over. All these Michigan State good times came
at the end of the second period. The Spartans rolled to a 3-1 victory
over CC in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
     Michigan State sprinted to today’s regional final against Notre Dame, which will most likely feature a half-full World Arena.
     The Spartans leave the Tigers with a brutally tough question:
     How did this collapse for the ages happen?
     On March 8, the Tigers were celebrating at World Arena. They had
just pulverized the University of Denver, and they held the MacNaughton
Cup high above their heads. They were champions of the Western
Collegiate Hockey Association.
     The Tigers seemed a lock – or at least a favorite – for the short journey to Denver and the Frozen Four.
     Coach Scott Owens spoke slowly about a great season that went bad.
     "We worked all year to get ourselves in position for this," he said.
     It was right there, a perfect scenario.
     And CC threw it all away. The Tigers finish this once-great season
with three straight losses, dropping two games at the Final Five along
with Friday’s surrender.
     Senior Jimmy Kilpatrick slumped inside his locker in a still CC
locker room. He was shaking his head. He can’t believe, or explain,
what happened.
      "We were riding high and then…"
      His voice tailed off.
     "You’d think guys would be more hungry for the playoffs. Maybe we
were thinking that we’re better than we are. You can’t put a finger on
it," he said.
     The Spartans played with the violent confidence of a champion, which
they are. The defending national champs quickly silenced the crowd and
then picked apart the helpless Tigers.
     Michigan State is blessed with Jeff Lerg, a giant of a goalkeeper
despite his 5-foot-6, 155-pound frame. Over and over, he snuffed Tigers
shots.
     In the tournament, goaltenders reign supreme. A hot goaltender can
carry a team to a title. On this night, CC freshman Richard Bachman was
merely mediocre.
      For 52 minutes, Lerg was virtually perfect. He slapped and kicked away shots, allowed few rebounds and served as a human wall.
     But the Tigers did most of their firing from long range. They lacked
the physical, nasty aggression required to thrive inside Michigan
State’s swarming defense. They lacked the fire required to win an
impassioned NCAA Tournament game.
     This loss could provide lessons for next season.
     Everything was in place for this edition of the Tigers. Next season
will offer a more rugged ride. Maybe the Tigers will conquer the
adversity.
     The Spartans sure did.
     The Spartans shrugged off a long trip to an unfamiliar arena and trashed the Tigers. The Spartans played with focus and belief.
     The Spartans let Lerg take them on a sweet ride on a strange, quiet night at World Arena.

St. Cloud State Out

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    Here are some details from the Clarkson University sports information office following a 2-1 East Regional semifinal win over St. Cloud State on Friday in Albany, N.Y. The scoring summary courtesy of  Kevin Allenspach of the St. Cloud Times. The Huskies, outshot 41-25, remain winless in NCAA tournament play:

     Senior goaltender David Leggio (Williamsville, NY) backed a stingy defensive effort and senior David Cayer (Lonqueuil, QUE) and junior Shea Guthrie (Carleton Place, ONT) provided timely goals as the Clarkson University Hockey team recorded its first win in NCAA Tournament play in 11 years by defeating St. Cloud State 2-1 n the first round of the East Regional on Friday evening.

     The Golden Knights, who snapped a five-game losing streak in the national playoffs with the one-goal victory over the Huskies at the Times Union Center in Albany, NY, improved their record to 22-12-4. Clarkson will face Michigan in Saturday’s East Regional Championship.

     "I was really proud of our effort tonight," stated head coach George Roll. "For sixty minutes, I thought we played as well as we have all year. Every guy in our lineup played well."

     After a scoreless first period, St. Cloud (19-16-5) took the opening lead early in the second frame on a goal by Garrett Raboin at 4:08. The Knights answered back late in the period to make it 1-1 through 40 minutes.

    Cayer knocked in a rebound off of freshman defenseman Bryan Rufenach‘s (Cameron, ONT) shot from the point. Cayer drove to the net, picked up the puck and wristed a shot through traffic that deflected off a stick in front, and up and over St.Cloud’s goaltender Jase Weslosky, snapping a lengthy scoring drought in NCAA play for the Green and Gold. Cayer’s 10th goal of the season at 14:15 of the second was Clarkson’s first goal in tournament action in 125:03. Junior defenseman Tyrell Mason ( Dawson Creek, BC) also assisted on the tying goal.

     An outstanding effort by Guthrie lifted the Knights to their first NCAA Tournament victory since 1996. At 4:58 of the third, Guthrie took a pass off the boards from senior defenseman Grant Clitsome (Gloucester, ONT), skated past a St. Cloud defenseman and flipped in a backhand shot. Five of Guthrie’s goals this season have been game-winners.

     Clarkson played a strong game along the broads and out shot the Huskies 40-25. The Knights were especially strong on the penalty kill, shutting down St. Clouds potent power play on all six of its man-advantage chances.

     Leggio posted 24 saves, including 11 in the scoreless first period, to improve his career record to 59-28-12.

Clarkson……………. 0-1-1 — 2

St. Cloud State…… 0-1-0 — 1

First period scoring:

None.
Penalties: CU — Philippe Paquet (obstruction interference) 1:46; CU — David Cayer (cross-checking) 11:32; CU — Mike Willemsen (tripping) 16:34; CU — Shea Guthrie (hitting after the whistle) 20:00; SCSU — Matt Hartman (hitting after the whistle) 20:00.

Second period scoring:

1. SCSU — Garrett Raboin 3 (Garrett Roe, Matt Hartman) 4:08. Roe took the puck into the right corner and hit the brakes. He found Raboin in the high slot. Raboin one-timed a shot that went five-hole on goalie David Leggio with Brent Borgen providing a screen in front.
2. CU — Cayer 10 (Bryan Rufenach) 14:15. Just after a power play expired, Rufenach cranked a slap shot from the left wing. Goalie Jase Weslosky made the save, only to have the rebound kick to Cayer in the right circle. Cayer’s shot deflected off David Carlisle and fluttered up and over Weslosky’s right shoulder and into the net.
Penalties: SCSU — Tony Mosey (hooking) 6:00; SCSU — Chris Anderson (tripping) 12:10; SCSU — Matt Stephenson (obstruction interference) 15:39; CU — Cayer (hooking) 18:47.

Third period scoring:

3. CU — Shea Guthrie 9 (Grant Clitsome) 4:58. Guthrie toasted Aaron Brocklehurst with an outside move at the SCSU blue line. Guthrie then cut to the slot and across the front of the crease, lifting a backhand high, blocker-side on Weslosky.
Penalties: SCSU — Brian Volpei (hitting from behind) 6:34; CU — Dan Tuttle (obstruction interference) 8:46; CU — Tyrell Mason (interference) 15:48.

Summary:

Shots: CU — 15-14-12–41; SCSU — 11-5-9–25; Goalies: CU — David Leggio (24 saves); SCSU — Jase Weslosky (out at 19:02 of 3rd, 39 saves); Power-play goals, opportunities: CU — 0 for 4; SCSU — 0 for 6; Penalties: CU — 6 for 12 minutes; SCSU — 4 for 8; SCSU timeout: 19:19 of 3rd; Referee: Tim Benedetto (Hockey East); Assistant referees: Chris Frederico and Chris Aughe; Attendance: N/A.

St. Cloud Times 3 Stars

3. Leggio; 2. Guthrie; 1. Weslosky.