U skates past Michigan schools
Jeff Sherry - Staff Reporter
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[Image]
MILWAUKEE -- The upper level of the Bradley Center has
about 10,000 seats. The lower level has about 8,000 seats. And when the
Gophers played there in the College Hockey Showcase early Friday and
Saturday evening, most of them were empty.
In fact, the turnout for the 5 p.m. Minnesota games in the Brew City was
similar to what you might expect at a Norm Green fan club meeting in the
Twin Cities. Because Wisconsin played after the Gophers on both nights, many
of the fans didn't arrive until just before the Badgers' opening face-off.
But the fans who did trickle in early saw two impressive performances from
Minnesota. The Gophers used strong goaltending from Steve DeBus and timely
scoring to beat Michigan State, 6-5 in overtime Friday, and Michigan, 3-2 on
Saturday. Minnesota swept the Showcase for the second straight year.
And it didn't matter if there weren't many people there to see it. The
Gophers came into the weekend hoping to make a bigger impression on the NCAA
selection committee than on the Bradley Center crowd. Last year's wins
against the CCHA powers were big reasons why Minnesota earned a berth in the
NCAA tournament despite finishing fourth in the WCHA.
"This weekend we were playing for a chance in the end," said Gophers
co-captain Brian Bonin, who was named the weekend's outstanding player after
scoring three goals and adding an assist. "These are big games for the end
of the year and very significant for the NCAAs. If we can beat good teams
and move up in the national standings, we'll be closer to where we want to
be."
Minnesota, ranked fifth nationally, should move up in the polls after
beating the third-ranked Wolverines, who entered the weekend tied for the
CCHA lead with Michigan State. Fourth-ranked Vermont also lost Saturday, 2-1
to Maine.
The Gophers' dominance of the All-Showcase team showed the quality of their
play this weekend. Four of the six players chosen for the team by the media
were from Minnesota. Ryan Kraft joined Bonin at forward, Mike Crowley was
selected on defense and DeBus was named as the weekend's top goaltender.
DeBus saw more playing time in Milwaukee than he has in a single weekend all
year.
He replaced goalie Jeff Moen with the score tied 3-3 at the end of the first
period Friday. He held on for the win and played in all of Saturday's
victory against Michigan. DeBus has now won his last six games.
But he needed late heroics from Kraft on Friday to pull out the win against
Michigan State. Kraft's slap shot five minutes, 30 seconds into the third
period tied the game at five. Then with just more than two minutes left in
the period, he almost won the game when he rang a shot off the crossbar.
In overtime, he didn't miss. Dan Trebil sent a pass from near the Gophers'
end boards and caught Kraft in stride near center ice. Kraft came in alone
on Spartans goalie Chad Alban and beat him high for the game-winner.
"Dan really made the play happen," Kraft said. "It was a perfect pass and
luckily things worked out for me. After hitting the crossbar in the third
period like that I said to myself, 'I'm not going to miss this one.'"
The Gophers are hoping Kraft won't have to miss their next series, Dec. 9-10
against North Dakota at Mariucci Arena. Kraft left Saturday's game a minute
into the third period after getting cross-checked in the hip. He was on
crutches after the game.
Gophers trainer Bob Broxterman said the hip pointer injury wasn't serious,
and he expected Kraft to be ready for North Dakota in two weeks.
Kraft's injury was the low point of an otherwise stellar showing against
Michigan. Gophers coach Doug Woog said his team's ability to limit the
Wolverines to one goal on 10 power-play opportunities was the difference in
the game.
Crowley said the team's confidence grew in its performances this weekend.
"When we came in, we had no idea how good we were," Crowley said. "We know
we've improved since we played Colorado College (Oct. 21-22) so this was a
good test. And it just shows our guys how far we've come this season and
hopefully we're even going to get better."
=46RIDAY'S SUMMARY
Michigan State 3 1 1 0 -- 5
Minnesota 3 1 1 1 -- 6
=46irst period: Minn -- Bonin 8 (Crowley), PPG 3:46. Minn -- Berg 6 (Crowley=
,
Larson), 10:12. MSU -- Tuzzolino 5 (York, Carter), PPG 10:51. Minn -- Bonin
9 (Berg, Crowley), PPG 12:54. MSU -- Clarke 2 (Ferranti), 14:18. MSU --
Watts 8 (Clarke, Slater), PPG 18:32.
Second period: MSU -- Tuzzolino 6 (unassisted), 9:56. Minn -- Checco 4
(Hankinson, Bonin), 15:48.
Third period: MSU -- Crane 5 (Berens), 1:27. Minn -- Kraft 7 (Godbout),
5:30.
Overtime: Minn -- Kraft 8 (Trebil), 3:22.
SATURDAY'S SUMMARY
Michigan 1 0 1 -- 2
Minnesota 0 2 1 -- 3
=46irst period: Mich -- Madden 5 (Morrison, Legg), PPG 17:38.
Second period: Minn -- Anderson 2 (Bertogliat), 6:26. Minn -- Hankinson 6
(Smith, Brink), 13:42.
Third period: Minn -- Bonin 10 (Rasmussen), 7:38. Mich -- Hilton 6
(unassisted), 18:50.
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=A9The Minnesota Daily
Pam Sweeney
Go Gophers!
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