From today's (11/20/95) Minnesota Daily
http://www.daily.umn.edu/~online/daily/11201995/sports/col20/
 
> UMD coach keeps perspective in defeat
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> DULUTH -- His Bulldogs had just made WCHA history by becoming the
> first team in 41 years to get swept at home in consecutive shutouts.
> Minnesota-Duluth coach Mike Sertich was in no mood for a night on
> the town.
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> Sitting in his office Saturday night after his players had humbly
> dispersed from the locker room, Sertich wasn't agonizing, he just
> didn't want to be seen in public.
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> "In Duluth?" he said. "I might get shot."
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> Bulldogs fans -- 5,433 on Friday and Saturday night at the Duluth
> Entertainment and Convention Center -- had watched 120 minutes of
> hockey without celebrating a single goal.
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> Even worse, the rival Gophers had come to town and added insult to
> Friday's 2-0 victory, by stomping UMD 7-0 on Saturday.
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> Not since Michigan Tech lost 5-0 in consecutive games to North
> Dakota on Jan. 5-6, 1954, had a WCHA team shown such offensive
> ineptitude at home.
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> The scene was set for the classic coach's tirade: thrown sticks,
> shattered water coolers, broken chalk boards. Sertich could have
> torn his players apart for allowing an eight-game home winning
> streak to end so miserably.
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> But Sertich, who in many ways draws comparisons to Indiana men's
> basketball coach Bobby Knight, chose another approach.
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> "He just came in here and asked if we thought we could have done
> anything differently," UMD captain Joe Ciccarello said.
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> Of course, no one had any answers. Who could explain eight
> consecutive defeats to Minnesota?
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> But that's where Sertich left it. The only four-time winner of the
> WCHA Coach of the Year award reminded everyone about next weekend's
> series at Northern Michigan and sent them on their way.
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> "There's no sense yelling at them when they're down," Sertich said.
> "It's like your kids at home. They know they screwed up."
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> Sertich, 48, is admittedly a different coach since he collapsed at
> Mariucci Arena while his Bulldogs were playing the Gophers on Feb.
> 11. People thought he was having a heart attack, but doctors at
> University Hospital found a communication breakdown between his
> brain and heart, which is treatable with medication.
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> "I used to let this game totally consume me," Sertich said. "But you
> can't get all wrapped up in it. This game teaches you about life,
> but it's not bigger than life."
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> Sertich made the Bulldogs seem larger than life for Northern
> Minnesota hockey fans during the mid-1980s. Duluth and the Iron
> Range produced many hockey legends before then, but UMD's program
> had always played second-fiddle to the Gophers' until he began his
> head coaching career there in 1982.
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> Sertich won coach of the year honors his first three years as the
> Bulldogs won the WCHA title in 1984 and 1985 and played in a
> thrilling four-overtime loss to Bowling Green State in the 1984 NCAA
> championship game.
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> The Bulldogs also won the WCHA title in 1993 and Sertich was again
> named coach of the year. Like Knight, who turned a sometimes
> laughable Indiana team into a basketball dynasty, Sertich found the
> formula to prosper in an area where the interest ran thick.
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> The Gophers may label themselves "Minnesota's Pride on Ice," but UMD
> prides itself in its sovereignty from the southern program.
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> Two years ago Sertich chastised a Daily reporter for differentiating
> between the teams as "Minnesota" and "Duluth." When the teams met
> last year at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center, a UMD
> official asked the scoreboard operator to switch the Gophers' label
> from "Minnesota" to "UM -- Twin Cities."
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> Bulldogs fans like nothing more than when their team sends the
> Gophers back down to Minneapolis with their tails between their
> legs. On those nights, the noise inside the convention center keeps
> people awake across the bridge in Superior, Wis.
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> With five minutes remaining in Saturday night's game, however,
> single voices could be picked out of the UMD audience.
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> "Just score one," an elderly fan pleaded. "That's all we're asking."
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> But the Gophers defense and goaltender Steve DeBus steered every
> shot away, just as netminder Jeff Moen had done the night before.
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> After his brief post-game speech, Sertich settled into his office.
> It was after 10 on Saturday night, and he planned to watch the video
> tape, like he does every night UMD plays.
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> Assistant coaches, trainers and equipment managers stopped in to say
> their good-byes. And even at the end of his long weekend when
> reporters came knocking with their questions, he fielded them all --
> sprinkling a few wise cracks in with his answers.
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> The losses still hurt, but considering the strength of the opponent,
> he kept things in perspective. "We weren't exactly playing Marathon
> Oil," he said.
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> His good humor showed he wasn't about to let this game consume him.
> Not anymore.
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> [Image]
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> =A9The Minnesota Daily
 
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