Peter Mannino, when he was choosing a college,
came to Magness Arena knowing that the platoon of Wade Dubielewicz
and Adam Berkhoel had led the Pioneers to a WCHA title in
2002, and the platoon of Berkhoel and Glenn Fisher had led
the program to a NCAA title in 2004. In Mannino’s
rookie year, his platoon with Fisher led DU to an NCAA title
repeat.
But the winds of change are blowing on the
Front Range as the new season begins. Pioneers coach George
Gwozdecky served notice early that the team’s crease
might be the sole property of one goalie, not both, depending
on who’s playing better.
“I believe we have the best 1-2 goaltender
combination in the country,” Gwozdecky said in the
WCHA’s preseason teleconference. “Our platooning
of Glenn and Peter is up in the air right now. We aren’t
sure if we are going to do that again, we might just go
with who has the hot hand at the present time.”
Indeed, last weekend against St. Cloud State,
Fisher got the Friday start and notched a career-high 47
saves in a 4-3 overtime win over the Huskies. Gwozdecky
started him again Saturday.
“We knew going in one of the key positions
for us was going to be in goal,” Gwozdecky said after
Friday's game. “Glenn was terrific for us tonight
and gave us a chance.”
The second start didn’t go so well for
Fisher or the team. The goalie played 33 minutes, allowing
four goals on 11 shots before the coach put in Mannino to
finish the 5-2 loss. Although he’s only been started
one of the Pioneers' four games thus far, Mannino says he
likes the new policy.
“Coach wants to go
with the guy who’s playing well, so the hot goalie’s
going to play now,” Mannino said. “Glenn and
I have a great relationship, so we’re both pretty
positive about it because we know we’ll both get more
opportunities the better we play.”
SEEN AND HEARD IN THE WCHA
Another Hockeytown in Michigan: We’re
not hearing as much “Hockeytown” talk from Detroit
these days with the Tigers in the World Series and all.
But another Michigan community is underscoring its proud
hockey past.
As
was reported in the Daily Mining Gazette recently,
the Houghton City Council unanimously voted to change the
city’s official slogan to, “The Birthplace of
Professional Hockey.” In the 1903-04 season, the Portage
Lakes Club played there, and has been recognized as the
first collection of hockey players who skated for money.
The team was commemorated two years ago with a centennial
celebration in Houghton featuring Gordie Howe and a team
of Detroit Red Wings alumni playing a game versus a Michigan
Tech alumni team.
Hockey roots run deep in the home of the Huskies.
Michigan Tech gave college hockey the MacNaughton Cup (and
memorably took the Cup to the CCHA when the Huskies moved
there for a few years in the early 1980s). And the Houghton
city manager who proposed the new slogan is Scott MacInnes,
the son of legendary Huskies coach John MacInnes.
In his 26 years behind the bench at Tech,
the elder MacInnes led the Huskies to seven WCHA titles
and three NCAA titles. The Huskies’ home rink bears
his name today.
Reunion Arena?: After
nine years and two NCAA titles spent as an assistant coach
behind the home bench in Denver, Seth Appert will be on
the visitors’ bench this weekend when his Rensselaer
team visits his old employer. Having had a similar experience
a year ago, St. Cloud State head coach Bob Motzko said he
didn’t prepare much differently when getting his new
team ready to face Minnesota, where he’d been a part
of two NCAA titles as an assistant.
“You spend your time just getting ready
for work like you would with any other opponent,”
Motzko said. “As a coach, you don’t make it
personal with your team. You actually want to downplay it.
It’s dangerous to put too much emphasis on any one
weekend.”
Still, Motzko admits that when the Gophers
took to the ice against his Huskies the first time last
year, the sight of the familiar maroon and gold sweaters
“kinda hit me upside the head.”
For Appert’s former players, there will
be excitement and strangeness at the same time. Mannino
notes that with a junior hockey background, it’s common
for collegians to face former coaches and teammates nearly
every weekend, and that he isn’t worried about Appert
knowing his weak spots.
“Everyone has video these days,
so it’s not like you can really hide anything,”
Mannino said. “We’re pretty excited for Seth.
He definitely deserves this. It’ll be good to see
him, but it’ll definitely be a little awkward to see
him on the other bench.”
FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG
Great Weekend Getaway
Maine
at North Dakota (Fri.-Sat.) The game that fans of the Fighting Sioux
and the Black Bears hoped for last April will be played
as a series this weekend in Grand Forks. Unbeaten
Maine is riding high, making its second trip to WCHA
country this season — the Bears beat Minnesota
two weeks ago in St. Paul. Meanwhile, the Sioux had
an impressive win at Wisconsin on banner night at
the Kohl Center last weekend before becoming the latest
in Brian Elliott’s long line of shutout victims
Saturday. The key matchup pits NoDak’s hot young
forwards versus Maine’s veterans and huge goalie
Ben Bishop. And get to your seats early or you’ll
miss the laser show.
While You’re There: It’s
Hall of Fame Weekend at North Dakota, and hockey will
take center stage, with Alan Hangsleben, Tony Hrkac,
and the 1982 Sioux hockey team getting inducted into
the school’s athletic ring of honor. Hangsleben
was an All-American as a freshman in 1972 and played
more than a decade in the WHA and NHL. Hrkac won the
Hobey in 1987 en route to the school’s fifth
NCAA title. And the 1982 club defeated Wisconsin 5-2
in Providence for the NCAA title. That team was led
by future NHLers such as James Patrick, Jon Casey,
Craig Ludwig, Troy Murray, and Phil Sykes. Before
he played 15 seasons in the NHL, Murray became the
fastest Sioux player ever to reach the century mark,
notching his 100th point in his 50th game.
Stick
Salute
After
coming up with a new logo a few years ago, Denver
has decided to de-emphasize use of the red-tailed
hawk and is going with a simple "DU" more
often for its official logo. We tip our cap to Pioneers
goalie Peter Mannino for going Denver throwback
– way back – on his helmet with a depiction
of long-ago mascot Denver Boone. The cartoon pioneer
(complete with a coonskin cap) was worn by the team
for 30 years, starting in 1968. Trivia buffs will
note that Denver Boone was one of only two college
logos designed by Walt Disney. The University of Oregon’s
duck is the other.
Bench
Minor
After playing
it ad naseum after goals for more than a decade, hockey
teams throughout North America have generally banished
Gary Glitter’s “Rock & Roll
Part II” (a.k.a., the “Hey!”
song) from their buildings recently. Since 1997, Glitter
(born Paul Francis Gadd) has been arrested several
times on child pornography charges in the U.K. and
in southeast Asia, and is currently in a Vietnamese
jail after being convicted of obscene acts with minors.
Thus far, the folks who play music inside the National
Hockey Center at St. Cloud State have not followed
suit and, as of last weekend, were still playing Glitter’s
signature tune when the Huskies scored.
• Before their sophomore seasons at
Denver, Mannino and forward Paul Stastny found a nice apartment
and decided to room together. When Stastny signed a pro
contract over the summer and made the Colorado Avalanche
roster, he apparently saw no reason to get new lodging.
Mannino said other than Stastny getting a paycheck now,
not much has changed.
“For the most part we’re still
just hanging out and playing PlayStation when we’re
at home, but I tell Paul I have to go to class and he tells
me he has to go sign autographs at a charity event,”
Mannino said. “He’s bought me dinner a few times
and he got me an advance copy of Martin Brodeur’s
book before it came out, but for the most part, Paul doesn’t
change.”
• New Hampshire – and nearly any
other non-WCHA team – may be looking for wins in the
wrong place as the Wildcats travel to Colorado Springs to
face undefeated Colorado College this weekend. Over the
last four seasons, the Tigers are a combined 27-3-3 versus
non-conference opponents.
• Another weekend means another home-and-home
series for Minnesota State as the Mavericks face St. Cloud
State in Mankato and in St. Cloud, respectively, Friday
and Saturday. Mavs’ coach Troy Jutting says that despite
the additional bus trips, he thinks the here-and-there series
are a good thing.
“It’s a huge benefit to the fans
because they don’t have to commit a whole weekend
to hockey,” Jutting said. “I think it helps
with the rivalry, playing one night in each town, and it
means more weekends where we can expose our program to our
home fans.”
The Mavericks split a home-and-home tilt with
Notre Dame last weekend and will play two such series with
both St. Cloud State and Minnesota before the season is
through.
“Doing it this way gives us two more
weekends where we have at least one home game,” Jutting
said. “I think it’s a good thing, but of course
it doesn’t matter for me because I’ll be there
both nights anyway.”
• Shootouts have been happening all
over the NHL this season, and the Nye Frontier Classic in
Anchorage last weekend was decided via shootout when Alaska
Anchorage and Nebraska-Omaha were tied 2-2 at the end of
overtime. UAA took the tournament crown via a 3-1 shootout
advantage, but the victors aren't ready to embrace the idea
of NHL-style shootouts in college hockey.
“Maybe at the professional level it’s
good because they play 82 games, but I’m not an advocate
of it at the college level because of the fewer number of
games,” said Seawolves coach Dave Shyiak. “It’s
great for the fans and the shooters. I’m not so sure
the goalies like it, but it’s certainly entertaining.”
• Wisconsin’s 1-0 win versus North
Dakota last Saturday was the ninth 1-0 victory in the history
of Badger hockey and the fourth 1-0 win by the Badgers since
March. En route to the NCAA title last season the Badgers
had 1-0 wins over St. Cloud State (March 3), Michigan Tech
(March 11) and Cornell (March 26). The Badgers also had
a 1-0 loss to Denver on Jan. 20.
• Minnesota held Wayne State without
a shot on goal in the third period of the Golden Gophers’
7-1 win over the Warriors last Friday. It was the second
time in less than a year that Minnesota has held a team
without a shot for 20 minutes. Alaska Anchorage had zero
shots on goal in the second period of a 4-0 Gophers win
on Feb. 25 in Anchorage.
"It's a combination of the opponent and
of us playing a puck-possession style of hockey," said
Gopher coach Don Lucia. "If you put a clock on it,
on an Olympic-size rink, we probably had the puck most of
the time. For the goalies, sometimes when you only see 15
shots its harder to play and stay focused than in a game
where you face 30."
• Last weekend, Minnesota Duluth rookie
forward Logan Gorsalitz’s parents, Stafford and Joy,
made an adventure out of the first of what they figure will
be many, many long road trips to see their son play. The
couple lives in Fort McMurray, Alberta, which, under optimal
conditions, is a 23-hour drive from the DECC. But due to
trouble with snow tires, an unexpected delay in Minot, N.D.,
and snow in western Minnesota, it took the Gorsalitz clan
30 hours to get to the Twin Ports. They said the trip was
well worth it not only to watch Logan, but to experience
the antics of the student fans and the band at the DECC.
The final horn had barely sounded after Saturday night’s
7-3 Bulldogs win when the Gorsalitz parents were back in
their Acura headed northwest for 17 hours. Stafford admits
they bent a few Saskatchewan speed limits to make it to
the Camrose (Alberta) Kodiaks game by 2:30 the next afternoon.
From Camrose it was another five hours north to Fort Mac
after the game. Undaunted, they’re making the trek
again in two weeks when the Bulldogs host Denver.
• Those of us who frequent college hockey
pressboxes are saying so long to an old friend this week.
Anchorage Daily News writer Doyle Woody, who has
covered the Seawolves seemingly since before Alaska gained
statehood, was shifted to the ECHL Alaska Aces beat last
week and won't be making his WCHA rounds this season. We'll
miss his great sense of humor and perpetual smile, even
in the face of some dismal on-ice results. A personal favorite
story comes from the Seawolves' lone trip to the WCHA Final
Five in 2004 when former Minnesota coach Doug Woog, working
for Fox Sports North, said on the air, "I'd like to
welcome my good friend Woody Doyle to the broadcast booth."
A variety
of sources were utilized in the compilation of this report
After
coming up with a new logo a few years ago, Denver
has decided to de-emphasize use of the red-tailed
hawk and is going with a simple "DU" more
often for its official logo. We tip our cap to Pioneers
goalie Peter Mannino for going Denver throwback
– way back – on his helmet with a depiction
of long-ago mascot Denver Boone. The cartoon pioneer
(complete with a coonskin cap) was worn by the team
for 30 years, starting in 1968. Trivia buffs will
note that Denver Boone was one of only two college
logos designed by Walt Disney. The University of Oregon’s
duck is the other.