Was this the same Pioneer team that beat the Colorado College Tigers? In short, Denver played a somewhat misguided, almost confused hockey game this evening against a very focused, very talented Minnesota squad determined to capture the WCHA title. Laaksonen and Anderson, who proved deadly to the Tigers, combined for a 1-1 performance, while the Gophers benefitted greatly from a Casey Hanksinson hat trick and some "smart" hockey (and 2 goals) courtesy of Hobey candidate Brian Bonin. Minnesota, which hasn't lost (10-0-1) since an early November loss against Denver, played textbook-perfect hockey for most of the evening as tonight's victory put them ahead of the Pioneers to plant them in second place in the WCHA. Unless Denver turns it's play up a few more notches, the WCHA may very well become a two-team race between Minnesota and Colorado College (which faces DU in a two-game series next weekend). First Period ============ The Gophers opened up their game with impressive speed and crisp, strong passing, perhaps in an attempt to foil Denver's "trapping" style that proved so effective against the CC Tigers. Unsurprisingly, Denver began the game in much the same way it finished the CC game, combining solid defense and aggressive forechecking. The Gophers gained the uppper hand here however, as two Pioneer "mistakes" gave the visitors a 2-goal lead. The Denver forwards, perhaps eager to open the scoring, may have been too aggressive in their forechecking as Minnesota's Zwakman was able to gain the puck back from Anderson and feed it up to a streaking Hankinson. Wallinheimo had no chance; after all, we're talking textbook hockey here, 2-on-1. Not to long after, Hankinson again benefitted, this time as Rasmussen was able to pick the puck away from a careless T.Smith. Rasmussen gained the puck at the blue line, sped down the left side, and fed the cutting Hankinson. Again, no chance for Wallinheimo -- textbook offense. [I must apologize here, my beeper showed an "emergency" page, and I missed the 1st Denver goal... I was told it wasn't very pretty, but came as the result of some excellent forechecking and a whole mess in front of the net... worst of all, the page was a mistake] At the 17:20 mark however, Anderson and Laaksonen displayed some of their phenomenal speed and awareness that has carried the Pioneers so often this year. Anderson, speeding into a 1-on-2 situation in the Minnesota zone, drew both Gopher defenders to the far side of the circle to Moen's right. Anderson then threaded the puck through both defenders to Laasksonen, who outsprinted his mark to knock in the tying goal past a helpless Moen. With approximately 1 minute to go, Denver gained the advantage, and nearly gained the lead as Patterson showed off with some great stickhandling in the neutral zone and fed T.Smith, who had his man clearly beaten. Smith however, was barely able to get his shot off. A few seconds later however, Zwakman was called for tripping, giving the Pioneers nearly 90 seconds of 5-on-3 hockey. They were unable to capitalize in the few remaining seconds of the first, but looked to be at quite an advantage going into the second. Except for a few DU mistakes (if you call them that), this was a very solid period for both teams, as they tested each other's offensive and defensive strengths. Both goalies, while playing solidly, were not a major factor as both teams tallied only 7 shots apiece, and all 4 goals virtually unstopabble. Period Edges: Defense: Denver Backchecking: Minnesota Forechecking: Denver Passing: Minnesota Skating: Minnesota Chances: Denver OVERALL: EVEN Second Period ============= Denver entered the period with roughly one minute remaining in its 2-man advantage, and used it well -- sort of -- as both Laaksonen and Anderson moved effortlessly and effectively towards the net, but couldn't get the shots off. The collective thumping of the fans' heartbeats rose and fell with each rush, the biggest letdown coming on a 2-on-1, as Casey fed Anderson right past Moen, only to see Anderson flub his chance at the open net. Denver, now playing on the man advantage, was obviously hungry for the lead. However, Minnesota's Pratt picked up the loose puck in the neutral zone, and skating 1-on-1 into the Pioneer zone put on a BEAUTIFUL move past Kraft, pirouetting away from the defender and in perfect view of the goal. Pratt placed a shot low against Wallinheimo, who made the good save -- but gave the rebound up to Bonin, who had walked in unchecked for the shorthanded score. This tally too was in a sense textbook -- the part where it tells you to follow up every shot in case of a rebound. I guess the Denver defensemen missed that page. Shortly after, Denver drew the penalty, and it took Minnesota less than 20 seconds to capitalize on the opportunity. In another textbook example, Minnesota moved the puck marvelously: right defense -- left defense -- left wing -- centering pass -- shoot -- rebound -- score. It looked right out of a scene from "Hoosiers," where everybody needs to get their hand on the ball (puck) before taking a shot. Again, Wallinheimo made a solid kick save with his left pad. Again, the puck redbounded to his left. Again, Bonin was there to knock the puck in. This goal was so perfect it belonged in my old history textbooks. One minute later, Denver drew another penalty. Again, Minnesota moved the puck well, but Denver was not about to let up another textbook goal. Instead, a Pioneer forward (sorry) set up Buzan on a gorgeous cross-ice pass at the Gopher blue line, who then dumped the puck into the zone. Or did he mean to shoot it? I guess it doesn't matter, as Moen couldn't handle the blue-line dump-shot, and the Pioneers were back within a goal at 5:34 on a shorthanded tally. Perhaps the refs thought the game wasn't being called fairly, and suddenly began to blow the whistle in Denver's favor. Unfortunately, Denver couldn't take advantage of any these opportunities nearly as well as Minnesota, and were 0 for 13 on power-play shots. While Moen was rock-steady between the posts, it was the Gopher defense that frustrated the Pioneer forwards. It wasn't long however before it was time for Hankinson to turn his trick. Picking the puck up in his own zone, Hankinson split Krlak and Kidd (Whooops! More freshmen learning things the hard way) at the blue line, put a (textbook) deke on Wallinheimo, and traded in the rubber for a few new hats. Someone in the stands mentioned that this was first natural hat trick that Minnesota's had in a long time. Whatever. Minnesota was now back up a pair, 5-3. Four minutes later, Minnesota was back on the power play (I'm sure Gwozdecky will write a nice letter to the refs tomorrow) when T.Smith, diving to stop another Gopher breakway by Bonin, appeared to have made contact with the puck first, before knocking Bonin over. The ref saw otherwise. Penalty or not, this kid made a great defensive play and more than likely prevented another Gopher goal. On the resulting power play, with T.Smith in the box, Denver was unable to work any defensive wonders and allowed Treble to take aim from the circle. Again, Wallinheimo made a solid save, but again, a Gopher was on his doormat to light the lamp (sounds like a folk song, don't it?). Again, another textbook rebound, this time giving the Gophers insurance. Don't they teach these kids to block opponents out of the crease? (I'd love to see Denver play against BU and Mike Grier) Never one to give up, Gwozdecky pulled Wallinheimo (he didn't really have a chance on any of the goals; most of his rebounds would have been impossible to gather in, given they were mostly pad saves) and sent in Mullin. Perhaps this injected a little life into the Denver kids, as they suddenly began to play the way the had in the first -- physical, fast, and dangerous. Unfortunately for the local fans however, this didn't amount to much as the Pioneers continued to blow a number of great scoring chances, including about 3 open-net shots. In particular, L.Smith beat the final Gopher defender at the blue line, and swpooed in on Moen. Moen came out to challenge Smith, who deftly avoided the charging goalie -- but miffed the simple shot, sending the puck wide to the right. Actually, miffed is too kind of a word. True, he may have been off balance, but you just can't miss those opportunities. The goal was WIDE OPEN. With only 2-3 minutes remaining in the period, Bonin stole the puck at the Pioneer blue line. All alone in the zone, Bonin closed in on Mullin; then the Denver netminder made the defensive play of the night as he deftly poke-checked the puck away from Bonin, spoiling his bid for his own personal hat trick. Now for the question mark: after making such a great save, Mullin was pulled so that Wallinheimo would re-enter the game and finish the period. Goofy. This period looked as if Denver simply forgot what the hell they were doing; if they didn't then they forgot how to finish it. The Denver forechecking was a mere shadow of the neutral-zone domination seen against Colorado College; add to this futility on the power play, and blown open-net chances... well, you get the picture. Add to this a Gopher group that headed into this period looking at the first as only a mere warm-up. Woog and his players knew what they needed to do, and they did, neatly putting away the #6 ranked Pioneers like a good boy and his toys. They certainly came to this period, and this game, to win. I don't know what the hell Denver did. Period Edges: Defense: Minnesota Backchecking: Minnesota Forechecking: Minnesota Passing: Minnesota Skating: Minnesota Chances: Denver OVERALL: Minnesota Third Period ============ In contrast to the 12-plus paragraphs I wrote about the second period, there's really not much to say about hte third. Much like the second, this period started out quite well, with exciting end-to-end action, but with little scoring. T.Smith continued to impress on both ends of the ice, showing off a range of skills, as did many of his teamates who stormed out of the lockerroom with good energy and lots of speed. Unfortunately, this still didn't change the scoring pattern of this team, as Laaksonen fanned on an open net when on the power play early in the period. For Minnesota, the stars of this period were definitely Moen, who had a good lead to protect (and a number of opportunities to lose it), and Tremmel, who kept solid pressure up and down the ice on the Denver forwards. Moen came up with some great sprawling saves in this period, and did thwart a possible Denver goal or two. Tremmel was all over the sheet, delivering solid hits, good picks, and nice passes out of the zone. Gwozdecky, figuring he really had nothing to lose, pulled Wallinheimo at (roughly) the 10-minue mark. 3:30 later, Woog scored the empty-netter. Wallinheimo however, remained out for the majority of the remainder of the period. I guess you could say this about Denver: They kept the Gophers to only one empty-net goal in almost 8 minutes of play. Towards the end there was the usual scuffle (2 of em) -- the first one even brought Wallinheimo off the bench to face Moen at center ice; they didn't fight (darn). The initial scuffle took nearly 15 minutes -- after completion -- to be settled by the refs. All this with only 4 minutes remaining on the clock. The only penalty of mention however, was Denver's Convery (sp?), who was given a 5-minute major and a 2-minute minor. Otherwise, the boxes looked just as cozy as always, with all those hunky players sitting all over each other. Denver came out trying this period, but just couldn't put a dent in Minnesota's defense. Actually, they did dent the defense, and quite effectively. What they really should have done was punched a few holes, and for that they just missed the mark entirely. Minnesota played much more cautiously than they did the second period, but by no means did they sit back and watch the game. Period Edges: Defense: Minnesota Backchecking: Minnesota Forechecking: Denver Passing: Denver Skating: Denver Chances: Denver OVERALL: EVEN (well...) Overall Opinions ================ Briefly: It'll be interesting to see tomorrow night's rematch. Mostly I'm curious to see if Denver was just "off" this evening, or if they've just been playing beyond their ability. Should Minnesota squash the Pioneers again, it might very well signal the demise of Denver's success for this season, as they face a very tough series the following weekend against Colorado College. Did Denver have a bad night? Were they playing "above their ability" in the Denver Cup? I'm sure we'll have our answers next sunday afternoon, after the completion of the second game versus the Tigers. As far as Minnesota goes, I was very impressed. The Gophers showed that they are a very well-rounded team. As someone else here on Hockey-L alluded earlier, when your eigth- or tenth- "ranked" player scores a hat trick against a solid team, you've got depth. I now find myself anxiously awaiting the Colorado-Minnesota matchups, as I feel those are two of the top three teams in the country. Comparing how each team played against Denver, I'd say that Minnesota looked undeniably better than CC -- better defense, better passing, better team depth. Then again, I didn't see the Gopher's November loss to Denver. Early NCAA predictions? Minnesota vs. Michigan, BU vs. CC in the semis. Minnesota vs. BU for the championship. greenie S P O O N ! ! (go BU) HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.