Rivalry Renews as Gophers and Bulldogs Meet Again

Unlike some players or coaches UMD may add over the course of time, there's no need to indoctrinate Brett Larson into the rivalry with Minnesota. A Duluth native and former UMD defenseman before joining the coaching staff for his first stint in 2008, Larson knows all about it.

"There's always that mentality that you feel like you have something to prove," Larson said this week. He relayed a story from his childhood, hearing a Minnesota assistant coach do a TV interview where he talked about how big the games were "for the kids from Duluth."

"One of the assistants from the Gophers goes on and says 'Ah, it's such a big weekend for the kids from Duluth. They all wanted to be Gophers but couldn't, so now they're trying to prove themselves.'

"There's nobody more fun to play against, and there's nobody more fun to beat."

It's a mantra echoed by Larson's one-time-boss-and-now-boss-again, head coach Scott Sandelin.

"To me, they're always a fun team to play, and they're always a fun team to beat, if you can. I think our guys feel the same way."

It's Gopher week. No one cares about last week (both teams lost their season openers to teams that were at least perceived to be underdogs heading in). Now, it's go time.

If last week's 3-2 loss to Bemidji State is largely going to be forgotten by Friday, last year's 4-1 record against the Gophers is a distant and possibly repressed memory.

"I don't know if last year matters," Sandelin said. "We're different teams and it's a different year."

Veteran Minnesota coach Don Lucia -- five wins away from 400 on the Gophers bench -- agrees with Sandelin. He pointed out this week that his team has ten new faces who know nothing of last year outside of what they've read and heard.

"I'm not into revenge," Lucia said. "Last year, they had a good team and they played very well against us. They deserved to win those games. They knocked us out last year. So be it."

If anything was going to stick in Lucia's craw about last year's meetings with UMD, it would have to be the last one. His team was practically lifeless -- especially during the second period -- and UMD cruised to a 4-1 win in the Northeast Regional. Lucia called his team "emotionally flat at times" after that game, something you hate to hear a coach say after an NCAA Tournament game. And in Lucia's case, he wasn't bus-chucking or excuse-manufacturing. He was accurate. His team didn't apply serious pressure on UMD until it was too late to matter.

Lucia is human. His players are human. Those back from last year, including talented captain Justin Kloos and future NHL power forward Hudson Fasching, are human. They might say they don't care about last year, but don't be surprised if this Gophers team has a little bit extra in the tank for Friday night at home against basically the only team they couldn't figure out a year ago.

As for lessons from last week, Larson talked glowingly about his penalty kill in Bemidji, which only allowed one power play goal in a relatively high 12 minutes of BSU man advantage time. Keep in mind all 12 minutes came after one of UMD's best killers, defenseman Carson Soucy, was ejected. Soucy won't play Friday thanks to an NCHC suspension, meaning Nick McCormack likely draws in for his season debut against Minnesota.

"I was pleased with our start Saturday for sure," Sandelin said.

"I thought we made some bad decisions and didn't have the right coverage (later in the game). It led to some outnumbered rushes that we need to eliminate."

The Gophers are younger, especially up front, where Kloos centers the top line, and Lucia deploys three freshmen -- Tommy Novak, Tyler Sheehy, and former Minnesota Wilderness standout Darian Romanko -- as the other pivots. UMD has a definite advantage in experience, especially at center, but it'll take solid execution from the start to exploit that.

Freshman Eric Schierhorn started in goal against Vermont on Saturday. As of Lucia's Wednesday press conference, he said he hadn't decided on a goalie plan for the weekend, but it stands to reason Schierhorn will go at least Friday. Lucia has typically been a fan of having a clear-cut No. 1 goalie. We'll see if Schierhorn -- an Alaskan by way of Shattuck-St. Mary's -- can be that guy for the Gophers. He played well against the Catamounts in a 3-0 defeat.

It's been a storied rivalry largely dominated by the Gophers over its 228 previous games. However, UMD is 5-3-2 over the last ten meetings, and UMD is 5-2-1 against the Gophers since the conference shift happened before the 2013-14 season. To keep that run of success going, the Bulldogs need to call on past lessons learned against this team.

The experience is obvious. Honorary Minnesotan Austin Farley has torn up the Gophers for seven goals and ten points in ten lifetime games. Actual Minnesotans Tony Cameranesi and Dominic Toninato have seven goals (five by Toninato) and 17 points (nine by Cameranesi) combined in 18 games. And goalies Kasimir Kaskisuo (four starts) and Matt McNeely (five) have combined to allow a scant 16 goals to Minnesota in over 500 minutes of work, for a 1.88 goals against average and a .935 save percentage.

As Larson pointed out, they found a pretty good formula last year. Maybe it's as simple as remembering what worked and making Minnesota show it can do something about it.

******

Exceptionally sad news came Tuesday night/Wednesday morning for the UMD men's hockey family. Suzie LeGarde Menz, the wife of former UMD men's hockey equipment manager Rick Menz, died in an incident at Twin Ponds in Duluth. Menz was struck by a car that eventually ended up in the water. The driver fled and was later arrested. He is facing criminal vehicular homicide charges, among others, and he has quite a rap sheet, as detailed in the story linked above.

Rick Menz worked for UMD from 1979-2008, a run of dedication toward one of the more thankless jobs in college hockey. The gig of equipment manager is one that includes extremely long hours, along with travel wherever the team goes. Rick retired after the 2007-08 season, but he never really left. As Larson noted this week, he remained involved.

"He's always been around, and he's always been a part of it. Rick's always involved, always around the guys. He's a guy (alumni) want to touch base with when they're around. I know the guys are just praying for his family."

There are no words of conciliation. We offer thoughts and prayers to Rick and his entire family, and to all who knew Suzie. You can read her obituary here, and there's a link there to leave a memory or best wishes to the family.

End of Minnesota-North Dakota A Loss For College Hockey

One of the enduring things with college sports has to be the rivalries that exist.

In football, we have a multitude of great traditions, including Michigan-Ohio State, Alabama-Auburn, Cal-Stanford, Harvard-Yale, Amherst-Williams, and so many others.

In basketball, there's Duke-North Carolina, Michigan-Michigan State, Kentucky-Louisville, Syracuse-Georgetown, and the list goes on.

Hockey has many great traditional rivalries, too. Among them: Minnesota vs. North Dakota.

And this weekend, the two will meet for the last scheduled time for at least a few years.

How did we get to this point?

Well, the fact of the matter is that Minnesota is moving to the Big Ten next season, while North Dakota joins UMD and six others in helping launch the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. They are under no obligation to play, and it doesn't appear they will for some time.

Minnesota coach Don Lucia has offered multiple reasons for the end of the rivalry. He's talked generically in the past about things becoming too heated (more on that in a second), as well as mentioning the UND nickname fiasco, the need to continue playing in-state teams, and a desire to take his players to see different places.

(Minnesota has scheduling deals in place with Notre Dame, along with the eastern tandem of Boston College and Northeastern.)

The nickname bit is tired. Minnesota had a policy in place that would have banned Lucia from scheduling UND for non-conference games had UND not dropped the Fighting Sioux nickname, one that went away last year. Wisconsin had a similar policy, but managed to make a scheduling deal with UND going forward. Hearing that Lucia went with that card as recently as a Friday morning interview with Paul Allen on The Fan is somewhat troublesome, largely because I don't buy it.

The in-state argument holds water. Minnesota will have no fewer than four games against in-state teams in future seasons. Next year, they have a two-game home series with UMD, as well as the Minnesota Cup, where the Gophers match up against St. Cloud State in the opening round and then either UMD or Minnesota State the next day.

(I believe I heard somewhere that Minnesota is also planning to play the in-state team that rotates out of the Minnesota Cup every year, meaning the Gophers would also be playing Bemidji State next season. However, I can't confirm that.)

That's a lot of games tied up. Even UMD coach Scott Sandelin has told me he'd like to continue playing teams outside the region in non-league play, if for no other reason than to give his kids some different experiences. So I can buy that part of the argument.

However, one of the things I've heard behind the scenes more than anything is that Minnesota -- Lucia in particular -- is tired of some of the shenanigans that happen when these two teams play. It's not all about what you see on the ice, though let's go back to the last time the teams met in Grand Forks. Watch how that game ended.


At the time, I wrote that Minnesota's Jake Hansen was culpable here, because he came off the bench and two-handed Ben Blood after the game ended, and he did it while Blood was already mixed up with Minnesota players on the ice.

That doesn't excuse Blood's idiotic actions in the handshake line, which came after he was chirped by Kyle Rau, a player known for chirping. Blood behaved idiotically there, and deserved the internal punishment coach Dave Hakstol levied.

Of course, the internet tried to make Blood out to be acting alone, largely ignoring Hansen's slash that put him on tilt, and largely ignoring the possibility that a mouthy player said something he shouldn't have after an emotional game.

Incidents like this have been too common lately, but that's not all.

"The Gophers have had some really unpleasant travel experiences in Grand Forks," UMD alum Jess Myers said this week. Myers, who covers the Gophers for 1500 ESPN, came the closest to laying out one of the specific reasons why Minnesota is generally being credited with blamed for discontinuing this rivalry.

"If you're the schedule makers, and you're Don Lucia, you're looking at them as a non-conference team, and you're saying 'I don't need to subject myself to that anymore.'

"'I don't need to go up there and get spit at on the bench, and get my wife and kids harassed.'

"God bless North Dakota fans for being as passionate as they are, but there's a place where you have to draw a line."

(You'll hear this in our normal Friday night chat in the second intermission. Jess goes on to talk about how this is somewhat personal for him, because Minnesota-UND was his first exposure to college hockey while growing up in Warroad.)

It's not all on Lucia, but he's taking the brunt of the criticism for it. I'm sure he's okay with that, and if not, he has no choice.

Perhaps a cooling-off period is what is best for these two heated rivals. The fact that people beat each other up over the Alabama-Auburn game, or the fact that soccer fans riot during rivalry matches, none of that makes the action okay.

If Minnesota thinks the Minnesota-North Dakota rivalry has gone too far, Minnesota should fess up and say that, however. It shouldn't be my job or Jess' job to talk about that stuff. If Don Lucia is discontinuing this series -- even in part -- because he's sick of how he, his family, or his players, get treated in Grand Forks, he needs to say that.

I tend to believe it's a big part of this, because the other stuff doesn't hold water. If you were responsible for making your team's schedule, and you had a traditional rival you were no longer going to share a conference with, why wouldn't you hold a spot on the schedule for that rival? College sports can be all about rivalries for some, and certainly the players feel that intensity, too. For a young man who grew up wanting to be a Gopher, isn't at least part of that the chance to feel the Minnesota-UND rivalry? Certainly, that youngster didn't dream of growing up and wanting to play Northeastern or Boston College. Or Penn State, for that matter.

It's the reality, the hand we're dealt. As a college hockey fan, I'm going to really miss these two teams playing each other. Hopefully, cooler heads prevail, and the teams can start scheduling each other as soon as it's humanly possible to do so.

In the meantime, I can only hope a couple years off will make people appreciate what this rivalry should be about. It's not about the extracurriculars that have marred games. It's not about handshake-line hi jinx. It's not about taking a chance to spit on a coach or throw something at a player.

It's about great players and great hockey. Just ask Blake Wheeler.


Or Chris Porter.

The Rivalry Still Burns

It's that time of the year again.

Bulldogs-Gophers.

What was always a great rivalry -- despite being largely dominated by Minnesota -- got a jolt of new energy April 9, when Kyle Schmidt put a centering pass from Travis Oleksuk past Michigan goalie Shawn Hunwick. It gave UMD its first national championship in men's hockey, and it was accomplished in a Frozen Four that was hosted by the University of Minnesota and played in St. Paul.

Appearing on KFAN with Paul Allen Aug. 30, Minnesota captain Taylor Mattson admitted the scene bugged him.

"It really bites you," he said. "We've beaten them ... twice last year, so it's really hard to take that in. Especially for a Minnesota team, you hate to see the spotlight go to them."

(Yes, we know Minnesota only beat UMD once last year. But I'm telling you what he said. Maybe he wishes they'd beaten UMD a second time. Anyway, that's not the relevant part of that quote, and you all know it. Hehe.)

Asked about that quote Wednesday, UMD coach Scott Sandelin deadpanned, "Maybe they're respecting us a little more."

"I think there's a bit of an arrogance there, but they've always had good teams, and that's why they're always fun to play and beat. And for us as a 'small school' so to speak, it's just one of those things. You learn to have a dislike for certain teams. For me personally, for our guys, this is one of those teams."

Matson made it abundantly clear this week when asked about this rivalry ... it means something to him and his teammates.

"It is a huge rivalry," he said. "It is in-state and has been around forever. They are the defending national champions, so we have to give them credit for last season. We have to go in and play hard every single shift and for the entire game. We have to go up there with the right mentality.

"They are the defending national champs and we have to go into their barn. Their fans are going to be rowdy, so we have to try and control the pace with our speed and ability.

"They are a University of Minnesota school as well and it is great for the state, but we want to be the best team in Minnesota."

It wasn't a topic of discussion at the time, but Schmidt's historic game-winner may have re-ignited a rivalry that felt a bit too one-sided in recent years. Gopher fans openly rooted for UMD at the Frozen Four, one of them walking by me with a Minnesota jersey that had a UMD logo taped over the block "M" on the front and on the shoulders. A brilliant look, a likely "Jersey Foul," and something about 95 percent of UMD fans would never do in return.

This is my seventh year covering UMD hockey. While I've never particularly cared for Minnesota, I've developed a great respect for coach Don Lucia, to the point where I took a lot of guff from Gopher fans for a column I wrote last year defending the work he's been doing. I think the world of new/old assistant coach Mike Guentzel, a superb hockey mind who will add to this program in every way. The media folks -- most notably radio guys Wally Shaver and Frank Mazzocco (welcome back!) -- are top-notch professionals and a joy to deal with on game nights. Hockey SID Paul Rovnak is a rock star.

Basically, from my standpoint, it's hard to root against Minnesota. The program may have a history of arrogance, and it may still come out in certain ways, but there are too many good people connected to the program. It's just not easy for me to "hate" the Gophers.

Of course, that doesn't mean I don't take great joy out of watching the Bulldogs beat them. I get the significance of this weekend. I get what this opportunity means for a large chunk of the UMD roster. The guys who are from Canada -- or, in the unfortunate case of Mike Seidel, Illinois -- have been around long enough to understand what it means.

"It's a big opportunity for me and the team to show what we can do out there," junior Jake Hendrickson, a Cities kid, said this week. "Watching the Gophers growing up, until my junior year of high school, it was the team I was rooting for. Obviously, now I'm looking forward to a good weekend against them."

That said, Hendrickson said the Gophers are just another opponent, to a certain extent. He noted that he also watched teams like North Dakota, Wisconsin, and St. Cloud State growing up, and it's special to play against all of them, too.

Of course, Hendrickson's ears are functional, and he knows that even if this series doesn't mean a ton more in the room, it means more to the paying customers, who want to see their beloved Bulldogs take down the "mighty" Gophers.

"Hopefully, this place is going to be rocking again this weekend. I know the students and the fans get pumped up when the 'U' comes up here, so it should be a good time."

It's going to be a challenge on the ice. That's for sure. Minnesota has a formidable team, led by senior goalie Kent Patterson and forwards like Erik Haula, Jake Hansen, Matson, and youngsters Nick Bjugstad, Kyle Rau, and Seth Ambroz. Minnesota can play, and they're dying for a chance to take down the defending national champions, who happen to be a pretty intense rival.

Weird how things eventually come full circle, isn't it?

******

Look for a UMD lineup very similar to last Friday against Notre Dame, only without forward Cody Danberg. No changes to the top two lines are expected, the defensive pairs should be identical, and Kenny Reiter is expected to be in goal.

Bob Bradley: You're an Idiot

Mexico 2:1 United States.

0-23-1.

More later.

Legendary Hockey Rivalry Gets Documentary

No matter where you live, you probably know some of the history college hockey has in Boston.

Between traditional powers Boston College and Boston University, long-lasting Northeastern, former NCAA champion Harvard, and the annual Beanpot tournament, Boston is home to some of the best college hockey around.

(Outside of Minnesota, of course.)

The rivalry between BC and BU has been unbelieveably intense over the years, and now there is a documentary being produced to celebrate the two schools' history. The best part? The production company got legendary play-by-play voice Mike "Doc" Emrick to narrate the program.

“I can’t wait to see the action footage and hear the sound bites from the many who have played such a part in this intense history,” Emrick said. “That I can also be a part of something so important to hockey history is an honor.”

Rival Films began production on “The Battle of Comm Ave” in January. The film will examine the unique hockey rivalry between two schools that share the same street in Boston.

The entire documentary will be shot in high definition.

The show will be available on DVD, and will be shown on NESN.

For those who appreciate college hockey at its finest, this is likely to be a must-see.