Headline: Puck rivals face off in latest encounter
Publish Date: 11/12/1993
By David Jackson
Staff Reporter
 
Jeff Nielsen and Chris Marinucci have become opposite equals.
 
Nielsen and Marinucci left Grand Rapids, Minn., in 1990, the former a
flashy wing for Minnesota and the latter a rugged center for
Minnesota-Duluth.
 
Three years later, each has emerged as one of the top scoring
forwards in the WCHA. But as they enter their senior seasons, it's
been a different climb for each.
 
They cross paths again in Duluth tonight and Saturday when Nielsen's
Gophers play Marinucci's Bulldogs.
 
Nielsen and Marinucci led the Grand Rapids Indians to the state
hockey finals in 1990, where their team lost to Roseau.
 
They occasionally played on the same line, but their coach, Lyn
Ellingson, said they were most effective killing penalties.
 
``Chris would always get the puck to Jeff in the open ice, and Jeff
had a lot of shorthanded goals his senior year,'' Ellingson said.
 
``We'd create chances,'' Nielsen said. ``I'd just take off flying,
and he had such great rink sense that he knew where I was and he'd
get me the puck.''
 
But Ellingson said the two players' styles were quite different.
 
``Jeff likes the open ice and likes shooting the puck. Chris is great
in traffic, along the boards, and he comes out of the crowd with the
puck,'' he said.
 
Both players had 47 career goals entering this season, but while
Nielsen's rise as a scorer has been steady and gradual, Marinucci's
has been meteoric.
 
Nielsen scored 11 goals his freshman year and followed that with
totals of 15 and 21, an improvement he attributes to seeing more time
on the power play.
 
``Your production goes up as you get more ice time,'' Nielsen said.
``The guys putting up the numbers are the guys who play on the power
play all the time, and I didn't do that my first couple of years.''
 
The Gophers are counting on Nielsen to take another step this year.
He is a co-captain, and he is the one proven breakaway scorer Coach
Doug Woog has.
 
``Neely has to step forward and score a big number of goals,'' Woog
said. ``Maybe with that in mind he'll challenge himself. He has to
score goals for us to be successful.''
 
Last year, Bulldog coach Mike Sertich moved Marinucci from his
natural center position to right wing on a line with conference MVP
Derek Plante.
 
After scoring only six goals in each of his first two years,
Marinucci struck for 35 as a junior.
 
His increase from 19 points to 77 was the second largest in school
history. Sertich said the improvement didn't come by accident.
 
``He's always had a big heart,'' he said. ``There was a lot of stuff
going against him -- pucks hitting pipes, pucks getting behind the
goalie but not in. And the harder he worked, the more frustrated he
became.
 
``Last year, he got off to a good start and everything picked up.''
 
Marinucci, also a team captain, hasn't missed a step this season,
even with Plante gone to the NHL's Buffalo Sabres.
 
He has moved back to center, playing on a line with right wing Brad
Federenko and left wing Rusty Fitzgerald, and he has seven goals and
five assists in the team's six games.
 
The Marinucci line has produced 13 of the team's 20 goals.
 
``Derek helped me out a lot in getting me the puck to boost my
confidence,'' Marinucci said. ``Now that he's gone, I've got to take
it upon myself to get my chances.''
 
While Marinucci is off to a flying start this season, Nielsen has
only two goals and one assist in the Gophers' six games. His slow
start mirrors that of the team, which is 0-5-1.
 
``Jeff has got to play with fewer interruptions,'' Woog said. ``To be
a goal scorer, you've got to go to the net and you've got to shoot
the puck. And Marinucci does both of those things.''
 
Despite the Gophers' record, Sertich said the Bulldogs (2-1-1 in
WCHA, 3-2-1 overall) cannot afford to take them lightly this weekend.
 
``That concerns me a lot,'' Sertich said. ``It's the old wounded
animal axiom. They need a win and that's an unfamiliar role for them.
 
``They had a lot of chances to score last weekend (against Northern
Michigan) -- four or five breakaways. Those are going to drop one of
these games. I hope it's not this weekend.''
 
Carol S. White                            BITNET: c-whit@uminn1
University of Minnesota        internet:[log in to unmask]
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