ncaa regionals East Ralph Engelstad Arena, fighting sioux down michigan, advance to west regional final Northeast

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1 ncaa regionals West Ralph Engelstad Arena, Grand Forks, ND March 24 No. 4 Holy Cross 4 vs No. 1 Minnesota 3 (ot) No. 3 Michigan 1 vs No. 2 North Dakota 5 March 25 North Dakota 5 vs Holy Cross 2 (championship) Northeast DCU Center, Worcester, MA March 24 No. 4 Nebraska-Omaha 2 vs No. 1 Boston U. 9 No. 3 Boston College 5 vs No. 2 Miami 0 March 25 Boston College 5 vs Boston U. 0 (championship) East Pepsi Arena, Albany, NY March 25 No. 4 New Hampshire 0 vs No. 1 Michigan State 1 No. 3 Maine 6 vs No. 2 Harvard 1 March 26 Maine 5 vs Michigan State 4 (championship) Midwest Resch Center, Green Bay, WI March 25 No. 4 Bemidji State 0 vs No. 1 Wisconsin 4 No. 3 Colorado College 2 vs No. 2 Cornell 3 March 26 Wisconsin 1 vs Cornell 0 (3 ot) (championship) The Maroon and Gold finished the season on a three-game losing streak and fell in the semifinals of an NCAA Regional for the first time since a 5-4 overtime loss to Maine in The WCHA Champions opened the season with a record, before posting a mark to finish the regular season. The Golden Gophers struggled in the postseason, going 2-3 and losing their last three games by a combined score of The first period was a scoreless affair with Minnesota out-shooting Holy Cross, The two teams went a combined 0-for-5 on the power-play (UM 0-for-2). The Golden Gophers and Crusaders finally lit the scoreboard in the second period to take a 2-2 score into the second intermission. At 8:49, Holy Cross gained the game s first lead as Dale Reinhardt took a Blair Bartlett pass in front of the net and beat UM goaltender Kellen Briggs high to the glove side. Tyler McGregor picked up the second assist. Minnesota struck back at 13:15 with a shorthanded goal by Mike Howe. Gino Guyer forced the puck out of the UM zone and skated down the left side and feeding Howe at the left circle. Howe s first shot hit the pipe, but he corralled the rebound and flipped the puck over HC netminder Tony Quesada for his 13th tally of the season. The shorthanded goal was his first of the season and second of his career. Just :41 seconds later, the Crusaders re-gained the lead with a 5-on-3 power-play goal by McGregor. Taking a James Sixmith pass at the left circle, McGregor fired a one-timer to beat Briggs to the stick side. Jon Landry was credited with the second assist. Phil Kessel made it 2-2 at the 15:45 mark of the period with his 18th goal of the season. With UM just off the penalty-kill, Evan Kaufmann streaked down the right side of the ice and found Kessel coming out of the penalty box to skate in on a 2-on-1. With a quick wrister, Kessel beat Quesada to the 5-hole. Chris Harrington earned the second assist on the play. For the period, Minnesota outshot the Crusaders The third period saw the Golden Gophers take their first lead of the game, only to see Holy Cross respond with a fortunate bounce to knot the game at 3-3. At 2:17, Alex Goligoski gave Minnesota 3-2 lead, taking a Blake Wheeler feed at the high slot and beating Quesada to the stick side with a snap shot. The Crusaders struck back at 7:53 when a shot by Sean Nappo from the point hit the pipe and landed in the crease behind Briggs. With both teams scrambling to find the puck, HC s Pierre Napert-Frenette got behind Briggs and knocked the puck into the open net. Landry picked up the second assist. Both teams saw quality scoring chances in the latter half of the period, but neither could find the back of the net. For the period, Minnesota out-shot Holy Cross, The Crusaders completed the shocking upset only :53 seconds into the overtime period. McGregor skated down the left side with his attempted pass hitting a UM defenseman s skate and bouncing right back to the senior captain. McGregor found Briggs out of position and fired a shot to the netminder s stick side for the game-winner. Holy Cross out-shot Minnesota 2-0 in the extra session. For the game, the Golden Gophers owned a advantage on the shot board. Minnesota went 0-for-7 on the power-play, while Holy Cross was 1-for-10. Briggs got the loss with 24 saves to fall to , while Quesada earned the win with 35 saves to improve to by Kevin Kurtt, UM Sports Information game summary NCAA West Ralph Engelstad Arena, Grand Forks, ND No. 4 Holy Cross 4 vs No. 1 Minnesota 3 ot 1st: No scoring. 2nd: G1 HC - Dale Reinhardt 11 (Blair Bartlett, Tyler McGregor), 8:49; G2 UM - Mike Howe 13 (Gino Guyer), SHG, 13:15; G3 HC - McGregor 25 (James Sixsmith, Jon Landry), PPG, 13:46; G4 UM - Phil Kessel 18 (Evan Kaufmann, Chris Harrington), 15:45. 3rd: G5 UM - Alex Goligoski 11 (Blake Wheeler), 2:17; G6 HC - Pierre Napert-Frenette 16 (Sean Nappo, Landry), 7:53. OT: G7 HC - McGregor 26 (Matt Burke), GWG, 0:53. Score by Periods: HC = 4; UM = 3. Pen: HC 8-16; UM PP: HC 1-10; UM 0-7. Saves: Tony Quesada (HGC), = 35 (60:46); Kellen Briggs (UM), = 24 (60:53). Att: 11,153. Time: 2:45. fighting sioux down michigan, advance to west regional final GRAND FORKS, N.D. The UND men s hockey team entered Friday s (March 25) NCAA West Regional with the unique distinction of being tied for most wins (27) AND most losses (15) of the 16 teams in the NCAA field. Victory number 28 came at a great time for the Fighting Sioux, the 5-1 victory over the Michigan putting UND ( ) into Saturday night s 8 p.m. regional championship game against surprising Holy Cross (27-9-2). Five different players scored a goal and junior goalie Jordan Parise (Faribault, MN) continued his stellar post-season play by stopping 34 of 35 Michigan shots. Parise, the MVP of last weekend s WCHA Final Five won by the Sioux, made 25 of his 34 saves over the final two periods as the Wolverines tried to battle back from the early deficit. With the victory, the Sioux eliminated the Wolverines and moved to within one more victory of their second straight trip to the NCAA Frozen Four. The Sioux meet Holy Cross Saturday night after the Crusaders upset No. 1 seed Minnesota 4-3 in overtime in the first semifinal game at Ralph Engelstad Arena. Power-play goals by freshman Ryan Duncan (Calgary, AB) at 5:01 of the first period and another und s Jonathan Toews, uw s Brian Elliott Named regional Most Outstanding Players University of North Dakota freshman center Jonathan Toews and University of Wisconsin junior goaltender Brian Elliott were named the Most Outstanding Players at their respective NCAA regionals over the March weekend. Toews (Winnipeg, MB), who led the 2006 NCAA West Regional at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks in scoring with five points on two goals and three assist, had a goal and an assist in UND s 5-1 win over Michigan on March 24 and a goal and two assists, including one on teammate Matt Smaby s game-winner, in the 5-2 victory over Holy Cross on March 25. Elliott (Newmarket, ON), meanwhile, posted back-to-back shutouts in the 2006 NCAA Midwest Regional at Resch Center in Green Bay. He had a 15-save, 4-0 win over Bemidji State on March 25 and then came back with a 40-save, 1-0 triple overtime shutout over Cornell in the 111:13 game on March 26. Elliott s total of 111:10 minutes played in that game is second in WCHA history, behind the 129:30 total of Wisconsin s Kirk Daubenspeck and Colorado College s Judd Lambert in a WCHA playoff game at CC on March 8, WCHA players named to the NCAA West Regional All-Tournament Team were North Dakota goaltender Jordan Parise, defenseman Matt Smaby, and forwards Ryan Duncan and Jonathan Toews. WCHA players named to the NCAA Midwest Regional All-Tournament Team were Wisconsin goaltender Brian Elliott, defenseman Tom Gilbert, and forwards Joe Pavelski and Jack Skille. Holy Cross Upsets Minnesota 4-3 (OT) at NCAA West Regional The top-seeded University of Minnesota men s hockey team suffered a shocking 4-3 overtime loss to No. 4 seed Holy Cross tonight in the semifinals of the 2006 NCAA West Regional Friday (March 24) at the Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks, N.D. The Golden Gophers (27-9-5) owned a 3-2 lead early in the third period, but the Crusaders ( ) fought back with the tying goal at 7:52 of the final stanza, and gained the upset win with Tyler McGregor s 26th goal of the season only 53 seconds into the extra session. north dakota s jonathan toews 2006 ncaa west regional mvp 5 5 t h a n n i v e r s a r y s e a s o n 81

2 one by freshman T.J. Oshie (Warroad, MN) at 17:28 provided the Sioux all the offense they needed this night. Duncan cranked in his 15th goal of the season and Oshie followed with his 24th as two early penalties by the Wolverines came back to bite them in a hurry. For Oshie, it s his ninth game-winning goal of the season, a school record and the most of any player in the nation. For Parise, it was his 54th win of his career, moving him into second place on the career win list at UND. With 11,153 on hand at Ralph Engelstad Arena an NCAA West-Midwest region attendance record the Sioux got a big lift from the return of junior forward Drew Stafford (Faribault, MN) in the second period. Stafford, who has missed the last four Sioux games with a leg injury, scored his nation-leading seventh shorthanded goal of the season at 4:08 of the second period. It gave the Sioux a 3-0 lead and put the Wolverines in a big hole. The shorthanded goal was pretty costly, it was a killer, Michigan coach Red Berenson said. The Sioux stretched their season-best winning streak to five games and in all five games, have scored two or more goals in the opening period. That they did it against Michigan with a packed house supporting them vocally made it a steep hill for the Wolverines to climb. Michigan answered Stafford s shorthanded goal with Chad Kolarik s power-play goal 22 seconds after Stafford scored, but the Sioux put it away with the last two goals. Freshman Jonathan Toews (Winnipeg, MB) scored his 20th goal of the season at 14:39 of the second period, extending UND s lead to 4-1 after two periods. Sophomore Travis Zajac (Winnipeg, MB) followed with his 16th goal of the year. Oshie fought off a couple of checks along the right wall, and dove out to feed a cross-ice pass to Zajac. Zajac one-timed his blast past the stick side of Michigan goalie Noah Ruden (28 saves) to close the scoring. That s a good group of forwards, the best group of forwards we ve played against this year, said Michigan captain Andrew Ebbett. And we ve played against some good groups. UND coach Dave Hakstol said the return of Stafford to the lineup was big. You need more veteran leadership this time of the year, Hakstol said. That was a big positive. The difference was that the Sioux cashed in on their chances against Ruden while Parise turned back the Wolverines time and again. From our perspective, we didn t think it was a 5-1 game, but it turned out that way, Berenson said. North Dakota got a good start and the crowd got into it. It was a great crowd and a great environment for a regional and a great facility. Parise came into the game with a career 1.51 goals-against average in NCAA tournament play and was even stingier than that Friday. I think the team in general is playing a lot better in front of me, Parise said. They re clearing lanes and making my job a lot easier. But yeah, the puck seems really big right now. The Sioux acknowledged the importance of Stafford s return to a youthful lineup. It s always good to have a guy with his skill and stature back, said Toews. I think we stepped it up when we didn t have him for these last couple of weekends. The Sioux met their pre-game goal. We wanted to come in tonight and have the opportunity to come back to the rink tomorrow and prepare for another game, said Hakstol at the press conference Friday night. Call it mission accomplished. by Virg Foss game summary NCAA West Ralph Engelstad Arena, Grand Forks, ND No. 3 Michigan 1 vs No. 2 North Dakota 5 1st: G1 UND - Ryan Duncan 15 (Jonathan Toews, Kyle Radke), PPG, 5:01; G2 UND - T.J. Oshie 24 (Rastislav Spirko, Brian Lee), PPG/GWG, 7:28. 2nd: G3 UND - Drew Stafford 24 (Travis Zajac), SHG, 4:08; G4 MICH - Chad Kolarik 12 (Brandon Kaleniecki, Matt Hunwick), PPG, 4:30; G5 UND - Toews 20 (Duncan), 14:39. 3rd: G6 UND - Zajac 16 (Oshie), 14:42. Score by Periods: MICH = 1; UND = 5. Pen: MICH 7-14; UND PP: MICH 1-6; UND 2-4. Saves: Noah Ruden (UM), t h a n n i v e r s a r y s e a s o n 2006 ncaa midwest regional all-tournament team member jordan parise = 28 (60:00); Jordan Parise (UND), = 34 (60:00). Att: 11,153. Time: 2:26. cornell knocks cc out of ncaa tourney with 3-2 comeback victory at midwest regional GREEN BAY, Wis. Colorado College s season, which began with much the same promise as the team s NCAA tournament opener on Saturday (March 25), came to a quiet end in a 3-2 loss to Cornell University at the Resch Center in Green Bay, Wis. After dominating the first period with an 11-1 advantage in shots on goal and a 2-0 lead on the scoreboard, Colorado College watched its hopes for a second consecutive trip to the Frozen Four evaporate as the game wore on. The Big Red shook off early power-play goals by Tiger defensemen Brian Salcido and Jack Hillen, got back in the game with a power-play goal of its own in the middle frame, then struck for a pair of red lighters in the third stanza to advance to Sunday s Midwest Regional championship game against the University of Wisconsin. Marty Sertich assisted on both Collorado College goals to end his career with 182 career points, while Brett Sterling helped set up Hillen s tally to finish his collegiate career with 184. courtesy of CC Sports Information Office 2006 ncaa midwest regional all-tourney team member joe pavelski game summary Saturday, March 25 NCAA Midwest Resch Center, Green Bay, WI No. 3 Colorado College 2 vs No. 2 Cornell 3 1st: G1 CC - Brian Salcido 8 (Marty Sertich, Scott McCulloch), PPG, 4:57; G2 CC - Jack Hillen 4 (Sertich, Brett Sterling), PPG, 16:49. 2nd: G3 CU - Topher Scott 6 (Matt Moulson, Jared Seminoff), PPG, 16:44. 3rd: G4 CU - Moulson 18 (Mitch Carefoot), 4:50; G5 CU - Jon Gleed 1 (Raymond Sawada, Chirs Abbott), GWG, 9:20. Score by Periods: CC = 2; CU = 3. Pen: CC 4-8; CU 3-6. PP: CC 2-3; CU 1-4. Saves: Matt Zaba (CC), = 20 (59:04); David McKee (CU), = 20 (60:00). Att: 7,859. Time: 2:28. pavelski s hat trick lifts badgers over bsu, into midwest regional final GREEN BAY, Wis. Sophomore Joe Pavelski recorded his first career hat trick as the No. 1 seed Wisconsin men s hockey team shut out Bemidji State 4-0 Saturday (March 25) afternoon at the Resch Center to advance to Sunday s NCAA Midwest Regional final. The Badgers ( overall) will meet the winner of this afternoon s regional semifinal between Cornell and Colorado College at 4 pm. Pavelski (Plover, WI) scored two power-play goals, including the game-winner, and one five-on-five goal to notch the fifth Badger hat trick in NCAA tournament play and the first since Jason Zent scored three goals against Lake Superior State in the 1992 championship game. Hobey Baker Award finalist Brian Elliott (Newmarket, ON) recorded his seventh shutout of the season and 10th of his career by making 15 saves for UW. Elliott now has four shutouts in his last seven games. His counterpart, Layne Sedevie, made 41 saves for the Beavers, who were outshot in the game Bemidji State ends the season with a record of What could have been a disastrous turn of events for the Badgers became a momentum builder when senior winger Ryan MacMurchy (Regina, SK) was called for a five-minute checking from behind major and game misconduct at 11:13 of the first period. Wisconsin dominated the ensuing penalty-kill, preventing the Beavers from registering a shot on goal. Then 3:46 into the BSU power-play, Pavelski drew a penalty in the neutral zone, ending the manadvantage. After the major expired, Wisconsin went on its second power-play of the game and opened the scoring with a goal at 17:07. Senior captain Adam Burish (Madison, WI), along the left boards, fed junior Andrew Joudrey (Bedford, NS) at the left point to start the play. Joudrey flipped a pass through the BSU forwards, who got a piece of the puck to slow it down, but not enough to stop the play. Pavelski received the pass and one-timed it through Beaver goaltender Layne Sedevie s five-hole for his 21st goal of the season. Pavelski scored again to make it 2-0 just 26 seconds into the second period. With an offensive faceoff deep in the BSU end, Pavelski won the draw cleanly through the BSU center s legs, skated toward the goal and stickhandled past Sedevie for his 22nd of the year. Jake Dowell (Eau Claire, WI) gave the Badgers a 3-0 lead when he one-timed a Burish pass under Sedevie from the bottom of the left circle at the 17:30 mark of the second period. The goal was Dowell s first since December 10, 2005, against Michigan Tech at the Kohl Center. Pavelski completed his hat trick at 6:38 of the third period. Senior Tom Gilbert (Bloomington, MN) added an assist on the power-play goal to give him 30 points on the season (11 goals, 19 assists). Gilbert is the first Badger defenseman to amass 30 points in a season since Craig Anderson did so in Wisconsin finished the game 2-for-8 on the power-play while Bemidji State was 0-for-4. UW s shutout was its fourth in an NCAA tournament game and the first since a 1-0 overtime win against Ohio State in a regional semifinal in The Badgers will play the winner of this afternoon s Cornell/Colorado College at 4 pm CT Sunday in the Midwest Regional Final at the Resch Center for the right to advance to the Frozen Four April 6-8 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. Live

3 coverage of the regional final can be found on FSN North and ESPNU. courtesy of UW Sports Information Office game summary NCAA Midwest Resch Center, Green Bay, WI No. 4 Bemidji State 0 vs No. 1 Wisconsin 4 1st: G1 UW - Joe Pavelski 21 (Andrew Joudrey, Adam Burish), PPG/GWG, 17:07. 2nd: G2 UW - Pavelski 22 (unassisted), 0:26; G3 UW - Jake Dowell 5 (Burish), 17:30. 3rd: G4 UW - Pavelski 23 (Tom Gilbert, Joudrey), PPG, 6:38. Score by Periods: BSU = 0; UW = 4. Pen: BSU 8-16; UW PP: BSU 0-4; UW 2-8. Saves: Layne Sedevie (BSU), = 41 (60:00); Brian Elliott (UW), = 15 (60:00). Att: 7,859. Time: 2:31. north dakota rolls to west regional championship; sioux march on to frozen four GRAND FORKS, N.D. All season long, the University of North Dakota men s hockey team struggled to put together a winning streak of any duration. The streak that reached a season-high six games Saturday (March 25) night couldn t have come at a better time for the Fighting Sioux. UND beat Holy Cross 5-2 in the championship game of the NCAA West Regional in front of a West Region record 11,492 fans at Ralph Engelstad Arena, sending the Sioux back to the Frozen Four for the second straight year. The Sioux got a goal from freshman Jonathan Toews (Winnipeg, MB), named the tournament s Most Outstanding Player, on a wraparound just 1:18 into the first period and never trailed the Crusaders, who had upset top-seeded Minnesota 4-3 in overtime Friday night in the semifinals. With the victory, the Sioux march on to the Frozen Four, beginning April 6 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wis., where they won their sixth NCAA title in The Sioux ( ) will meet Boston College ( ) in one Frozen Four semifinal, more than likely in the 2 pm CT game on April 6. UND added the West Region title to the Broadmoor Trophy it won the weekend before by capturing the title in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association Final Five tournament. The Sioux will be making their 16th overall trip to the Frozen Four and will be seeking their eighth NCAA title and first since It appears the Sioux are peaking at the most important time of the year. It (improvement) is a continual process through the year, UND coach Dave Hakstol said. I don t think you ever get to the point that you say, well, that s it, that s as good as it could possibly be. The victory culminated a whirlwind close to the regular season and the beginning of the playoffs for the Sioux. We didn t do anything different, Hakstol said of UND s late-season surge. With this team, the chemistry clicked in after the St. Cloud State series (a pair of 2-1 Sioux losses) here at home. Sometimes adversity pushes you one way or the other. For this team, it pushed us in the right direction. Toews, who led the West Region in scoring with five points (two goals, three assists), added two assists to his lone goal tonight to lead the Sioux with a three-point game. With 10 freshmen in the lineup, the Sioux showed no jitters against the Crusaders, who finish with a record. Maybe getting better is just by continuing to build momentum, Hakstol said at the post-game press conference. I think we do have good momentum right now. I think we are playing well. But we want to continue to build on that. Maybe it s as simple as that. What was simply outstanding tonight for the Sioux was their power play. The Sioux converted on 3-of-5 chances, a twogoal swing for UND as the Sioux held Holy Cross to a 1-for-5 power-play night. Toews scored on the first shot on goal by either team, as he came around the net and wrapped his slider in on the far side of the net around Holy Cross goalie Tony Quesada (27 saves). UND freshman T.J. Oshie (Warroad, MN), hit the goal post flush on a drive two minutes later, but the Sioux came back with another goal by a rookie at 15:16 on a power play. Ryan Duncan (Calgary, AB) took a feed from Toews in the high slot and drilled a high shot past Quesada on the stick side for a 2-0 Sioux lead. The goal was the 16th of the season for the Sioux rookie who wears No. 16 on his jersey. Holy Cross chopped the lead in half at 3:03 of the second period when Matt Werry scored his first goal of the season on a sizzling slap shot. Sioux junior defenseman Matt Smaby (Minneapolis, MN), the UND captain, got that goal back 14 minutes later. With just 13 seconds left on the power play, the 6-foot-5, 220-pound Smaby stationed himself in front of Quesada and banged in a rebound for his fourth goal of the season. The power play before the goal, (assistant) coach (Cary) Eades told me to get right in front of the goalie, Smaby said. Drew Stafford forced the puck down low and I pick-pocketed the guy. I tried to put it on net, and it went in. Blair Bartlett trimmed the Sioux lead to 3-2 on a power-play at 5:21 of the third period, but the Sioux answered quickly. Sophomore Travis Zajac (Winnipeg, MB) tipped in a point shot from freshman defenseman Brian Lee (Moorhead, MN) at 6:48 on a power-play, giving the Sioux a 4-2 lead. Matt Watkins (Aylesbury, SK) became the third Sioux rookie to score a goal in the game when he tapped in a rebound off the initial shot by junior Chris Porter (Thunder Bay, ON) at 9:03 of the final period. It was the fifth goal of the season for Watkins. Sioux junior goalie Jordan Parise (Faribault, MN), who came into the game with a 1.44 goals-against average in NCAA tournament play, made 17 saves in raising his NCAA tournament won-lost record to 6-2. It s the most tournament wins by any active NCAA goalie. It was his 55th overall win at UND, second most in school history for a goalie. Parise was one of four Sioux named to the all- West Region tournament team, joined by Smaby, Duncan and Toews. Our team has gone on an up-slope and we just keep getting better, Parise said. I just try to keep up with the guys. They ve been playing extremely well. I ve had to elevate my game in order to keep up with theirs. Holy Cross coach Paul Pearl likes the Sioux chances of doing damage in the Frozen Four. I think their chance is very good, Pearl said. I don t know if youth will hurt them at all. Those kids are players, they get up and down the sheet really good and they do a great job of going to the net. Said Hakstol: It was a battle out there, right down to the final buzzer. I m very, very proud of our hockey team. We took another step forward tonight. We re very excited to be headed to Milwaukee. We certainly aren t just happy to be going there. Holy Cross left feeling good about themselves. I don t feel we gave a good effort, said Crusader captain Tyler McGregor. We had a few untimely penalties, myself included. I don t know how they feel their effort was, but I feel pretty confident that the two teams that were on the ice tonight would have been pretty even on another night. Not this night, though. This night belonged to the Sioux. by Virg Foss game summary NCAA West Ralph Engelstad Arena, Grand Forks, ND No. 4 Holy Cross 2 vs No. 2 North Dakota 5 (championship) 1st: G1 UND - Jonathan Toews 21 (Ryan Duncan, Drew Stafford), 1:18; G2 UND - Duncan 16 (Toews, Matt Smaby), PPG, 15:16. 2nd: G3 HC - Matt Werry 1 (Jim Tselikis), 3:07; G4 UND - Smaby 4 (Stafford, Toews), PPG/GWG, 17:23. 3rd: G5 HC - Blair Bartlett 13 (Tyler McGregor, Dale Reinhardt), PPG, 5:21; G6 UND - Travis Zajac 17 (Brian Lee, T.J. Oshie), PPG, 6:48; G7 UND - Matt Watkins 5 (Chris Porter), 9:03. Score by Periods: HC = 2; UND = 5. Pen: HC 5-10; UND PP: HC 1-5; UND 3-5. Saves: Tony Quesada (HC), = 27 (60:00); Jordan Parise (UND), = 17 (59:51). Att: 11,492 (sellout). Time: 2:15. wisconsin s brian elliott 2006 ncaa midwest regional mvp skille sends wisconsin to frozen four; badgers win triple-ot thriller over cornell GREEN BAY, Wis. Freshman Jack Skille s goal 11:13 into the third overtime propelled the No. 1 seed Wisconsin men s hockey team past Cornell 1-0 Sunday in the NCAA Midwest Regional Final at the Resch Center and into the team s first Frozen Four since Josh Engel (Rice Lake, WI) sent a pass from the right side to Skille (Madison, WI) in the high slot, who ripped a shot past David McKee for the game s only goal 111:13 into the contest. Skille s 4-on-4goal sends the Badgers ( overall) to the Frozen Four April 6-8 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. Junior Hobey Baker Award finalist Brian Elliott (Newmarket, ON) stopped 40 shots in the game to record his third straight shutout. Elliott, who was named the NCAA Midwest Regional s most valuable player, has already tied the record for most shutouts in an NCAA tournament at two and has not allowed a goal in 252:15. Elliott was joined on the all-regional team by teammates Joe Pavelski (Plover, WI), Tom Gilbert (Bloomington, MN) and Skille. Forward Matt Moulson and defenseman Jon Gleed represented Cornell on the all-regional team. The Big Red finished the season with a record of McKee made 59 saves as Wisconsin out-shot Cornell in the contest. Wisconsin s best chances to score in regulation came on a power-play in the final three minutes of the third period. The Badgers fired six shots on goal during the two minute advantage, including a shot on a 2-on-1 down low by Andrew Joudrey (Bedford, NS), but were unable to score. The Badgers finished the game 0-for-5 on the power-play while Cornell was 0-for-1. The game marked only the third time in NCAA tournament history that a contest went to overtime scoreless. The first such game was played between Wisconsin and Ohio State two years ago to the date. The Badgers won that contest 1-0 in the first overtime. Wisconsin takes on Maine in an NCAA semifinal April 6 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. Boston College and North Dakota will meet in the other semifinal. game summary NCAA Midwest Resch Center, Green Bay, WI No. 2 Cornell 0 vs No. 1 Wisconsin 1 (3 ot) (championship) 1st: No scoring. 2nd: No scoring. 3rd: No scoring. 1st OT: No scoring. 2nd OT: No scoring. 3rd OT: G1 UW - Jack Skille 13 (Josh Engel), GWG, 11:13. Score by Periods: CU = 0; UW = 1. Pen: CU 7-14; UW 3-6. PP: CU 0-1; UW 0-5. Saves: David McKee (CU), = 59 (111:13); Brian Elliott (UW), = 40 (111:10). Att: 8,086. Time: 4: t h a n n i v e r s a r y s e a s o n 83

4 wcha regular season championship, macnaughton cup minnesota earns wcha championship Selected in the pre-season by the league s head coaches as the favorites for the Western Collegiate Hockey Association regular season championship in , the Minnesota Golden Gophers lived up to those expectations by capturing the MacNaughton Cup. Minnesota turned the difficult 28-game conference race into a six-point cushion by season s end, finishing with a mark for 43 points and giving the Maroon and Gold the school s first MacNaughton Cup since they shared the league title with North Dakota in It was also UM s first outright title since Head coach Don Lucia s Golden Gophers supplanted Denver and Colorado College, who had shared the WCHA regular season championship in Denver and Wisconsin tied for second last season. minnesota 2006 wcha champions Player Roster (Number, Name, Position): 1 - Jeff Frazee, G; 2 - Peter Kennedy, D; Chris Harrington, D; 4 - P.J. Atherton, D; 5 - Derek Peltier, D; 6 - R.J. Anderson, D; 7 - Gino Guyer, F; 9 - Andy Sertich, F/D; 10 - Alex Goligoski, D; 11 - Nate Hagemo, D; 13 - Ben Gordon, F; 14 - Justin Bostrom, F; 15 - Mike Vannelli, D; 16 - Ryan Potulny, F; 17 - Blake Wheeler, F; 18 - Kris Chucko, F; 19 - Danny Irmen, F; 20 - Evan Kaufmann, F; 21 - Tom Pohl, F; 22 - Brent Borgen, F; 23 - Tyler Hirsch, F; 24 - Mike Howe, F; 26 - Phil Kessel, F; 29 - Ryan Stoa, F; 34 - Kellen Briggs, G; 35 - Brent Solei, G. Team Staff: Head Coach: Don Lucia. Assistant Coaches: Mike Guentzel, John Hill. Program Associate: Mark Bahr. Manager: Harry Broadfoot. Athletic Trainer: Mike Vogt. Public Relations Director: Kevin Kurtt t h a n n i v e r s a r y s e a s o n left: university of minnesota team captain gino guyer receives the macnaughton cup, symbol of the wcha championship, from commissioner bruce mcleod in on-ice ceremonies at mariucci arena.

5 wcha playoff championship, broadmoor trophy north dakota claims wcha final five crown The University of North Dakota emerged as Broadmoor Trophy champions at the 2006 Red Baron WCHA Final Five, held March 16, 17 and 18 at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minn. Coach Dave Hakstol s Fighting Sioux defeated Wisconsin, 4-3, in a semi-final on Friday afternoon and then powered past St. Cloud State, 5-3, in the playoff championship game on Saturday night. The playoff championship was North Dakota s eighth overall and first since the campaign. The league s annual playoff championship tournament drew a record attendance of 87,579 to the five games at Xcel Energy Center, eclipsing the previous mark of 82,564 set in 2004 at the X. Four of the five games also set attendance records, with 16,312 at the March 16 matchup between St. Cloud State and Minnesota Duluth, 16,468 at the Friday afternoon (March 17) game between Wisconsin and North Dakota, a Final Five record 19,353 at the Friday evening clash between Minnesota and St. Cloud State, and 16,134 at the Saturday (March 18) afternoon third place game between UM and UW. The Broadmoor Trophy championship game on Saturday night drew a sellout crowd of 19,282. The league also hosted a dozen members of the 1972 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team that claimed a Silver Medal in Japan at the Final Five as well as former Michigan Tech All-American and NHL goaltender Tony Esposito. north dakota 2006 wcha final five champions Player Roster (Number, Name, Position): 1 - Jordan Parise, G; 2 - Joe Finley, D; 4 - Taylor Chorney, D; 5 - Todd Alexander, D; 6 - Zach Jones, D; 7 - T.J. Oshie, F; 8 - Ryan Martens, F; 9 - Jonathan Toews, F; 10 - Andrew Kozek, F; 11 - Rastislav Spirko, F; 13 - Lee Marvin, D/F; 14 - Brad Miller, F; 15 - Travis Zajac, F; 16 - Ryan Duncan, F; 17 - Rylan Kaip, F; 18 - Drew Stafford, F; 19 - Mike Prpich, F; 20 - Matt Watkins, F; 21 - Erik Fabian, F; 22 - Brian Lee, D; 24 - Chris Porter, F; 25 - Scott Foyt, F/D; 26 - Kyle Radke, D; 27 - Matt Smaby, D; 28 - Robbie Bina, D; 30 - Aaron Walski, G; 34 - Philippe Lamoureux, G. Team Staff: Head Coach: Dave Hakstol. Associate Head Coach: Brad Berry. Assistant Coach: Cary Eades. Manager: Pat Swanson. Athletic Trainer: Mark Poolman. Public Relations Director: Dan Benson. photo, above left: north dakota team captains mike prpich (left), chris porter (center) and matt smaby (right) pictured with the broadmoor trophy after the fighting sioux won the 2006 red baron wcha final five at xcel energy center in st. paul. 5 5 t h a n n i v e r s a r y s e a s o n 85

6 2006 red baron wcha final five championship won by north dakota record 87,579 attend wcha final five at the x a wcha final five record crowd of 19,353 at xcel energy center watched the 2006 semi-final matchup between um and scsu t h a n n i v e r s a r y s e a s o n T here were many interesting story lines around the 2006 Red Baron WCHA Final Five and qualifying teams Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, St. Cloud State and Minnesota Duluth. The Golden Gophers, Badgers, Fighting Sioux and Huskies were all ranked among the top 20 teams in the nation while the Bulldogs, despite a overall record, made their third appearance in the Final Five in the past four seasons and were coming off a First Round WCHA Playoff series victory over two-time defending national champion Denver. The 2006 Red Baron WCHA Final Five drew a minnesota duluth made its third final five in the past four years record 87,579 fans to the five games for a recordsetting per game average of 17,516. Attendance records were set in four out of five games, including a WCHA Final Five single game record 19,353 for the Friday (March 17) semi-final matchup between Minnesota and St. Cloud State and another sellout of 19,282 for the Broadmoor Trophy championship game between North Dakota and St. Cloud State on Saturday (March 18). North Dakota captured the Broadmoor Trophy as 2006 Red Baron WCHA Final Five champions, defeating Wisconsin, 4-3, in their Friday afternoon semi-final and then knocking off St. Cloud State, 5-3, in the title contest last Saturday. Named to the 2006 Red Baron WCHA Final Five All-Tournament Team were forwards Ryan Potulny of Minnesota, T.J. Oshie of North Dakota and Brock Hooton of St. Cloud State, defensemen Kyle Klubertanz of Wisconsin and Matt Smaby of North Dakota, and goaltender Jordan Parise of North Dakota. Parise was also named the tournament s Most Valuable Player. All five games were telecast live by Fox Sports Net North and all five games were all also audiocast live world-wide via the league s official web site, www. wcha.com. The rosters of the five Final Five teams were filled with underclassmen. No. 1 seed Minnesota had 15 sophomores and freshman among their 25 players. No. 2 seed Wisconsin had 12 sophomores and freshmen among their 25 players. No. 3 seed North Dakota had 18 sophomores and freshman among their 27 players. No. 4 seed St. Cloud State had 12 underclassmen among their 27 players. And No. 5 seed Minnesota Duluth had 17 freshman and sophomores among their 25 players. The 2006 Red Baron WCHA Final Five also showcased a total 49 National Hockey League Draft picks

7 among the rosters of the five teams. Minnesota had 14 NHL Draft selections on their Final Five roster, Wisconsin had 11, North Dakota had 11, St. Cloud State had five and Minnesota Duluth had eight. Other Final Five noteables included the appearance of former Michigan Tech All-American goaltender Tony Esposito, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, appearances and book signings by members of the 1972 United States Olympic Hockey Team including coach Murray Williamson, who was an All-American at Minnesota, and Keith Huffer Christiansen, the team captain and a former All-American at Minnesota Duluth. The WCHA conducted a press conference with Esposito, Christiansen and Williamson during the Final Five at Xcel Energy Center on Friday following the afternoon game. Also on hand were pep bands from Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and St. Cloud State, team mascots, and cheerleaders, as well as a special appearance by Michigan Tech s hockey pep band. Combined with great hockey, intense rivalries, record-setting crowds, a renowned venue, and the St. Patrick s Day holiday weekend, it truly was a WCHA Final Five for the ages final five recap Game stories by John Gilbert Game 1: Goepfert, Huskies beat UMD, face golden Gophers next March 16 There was some disagreement when St. Cloud State s Bobby Goepfert was named first team All-WCHA goaltender Thursday (afternoon, but the Huskies junior strode out onto the Xcel Energy Center ice sheet and eliminated the critics especially any of those wearing Minnesota Duluth jerseys by kicking out 36 shots to lead the Huskies to a 5-1 victory in the play-in game of the WCHA Final Five tournament. The game drew a first-game record crowd of 16,312 perhaps a benefit of the busride range of all five entrants, where UMD, St. Cloud State and No. 1 Minnesota are all within an hour or two, and the most distant teams are Wisconsin and North Dakota. Wisconsin might have filed the most valid complaint about the identity of the league s best goaltender, because of Brian Elliott, who will face North Dakota in Friday s first semifinal. But few will question the choice of the lightning-quick Goepfert after his performance allowed St. Cloud State to return to Xcel Energy Center to face the Gophers in the second semifinal. As a team, it s big for us to do well here, but the personal accolades didn t mean anything to me as far as this game went, said Goepfert, a transfer from Providence. Playing the Gophers, who are No. 1 in the country, will be a big test. We re all excited for that, but you can t look ahead at more than one game at a time, and we were focused on Duluth. Motzko wasn t so sure. One of the key factors in St. Cloud s favor when the Huskies put their record out against Minnesota s ledger will be that the Huskies got past any Xcel Center awe in the UMD game. They were apparently uptight at und s travis zajac, t.j. oshie and taylor chorney celebrate a goal the start of the game, and yet they jumped ahead 3-0 an ironic twist for Motzko, who said he hoped they d be hustling and outworking UMD, but instead they got outhustled and yet jumped into the lead. We got three in the first to get ahead, and I don t know when that s happened, said Motzko, whose team usually has to work hard for goals. We needed our first line to score, and they got two, and we needed our power-play to come through, and it did. He started to add that the Huskies also needed a strong game from Goepfert, but that was a given. We didn t have the energy at the start, but we got it in the third period, Motzko said. Everyone was surprised that Minnesota Duluth beat Denver last weekend, but to me the surprise was that Duluth finished ninth, because they re the second fastest team we ve played, after Colorado College. We ve become a good hockey team, and Bobby gives us a good chance to win. Bobby is what you saw tonight. Goepfert got all he needed in the first three minutes. Just :44 seconds after the game started, Bill Hengen got the puck back after a left corner faceoff, and drilled a shot past UMD goaltender Nate Ziegelmann for a 1-0 lead. At 3:18, Nate Dey scored for a 2-0 St. Cloud lead, and UMD hadn t had a shot yet. The Bulldogs started shooting, as well as skating and moving the puck in something close to dominant fashion, but when St. Cloud State got the only power-play of the first period, Brook Hooton got free on the left side of the net and quickly converted a perfect pass across the goal-mouth from Joe Jensen, deep in the right corner, at 12:55. With Goepfert in goal, the 3-0 lead must have seemed like a mountain to the Bulldogs, although Tim Stapleton came back to snap a screened shot past Goepfert at 13:56 to cut the deficit to 3-1. A goal of any flavor in the second period might have lifted UMD back into it, but after outshooting the Huskies 11-6 in the first period and 11-2 after St. Cloud s opening flurry UMD stormed the net in the second period, outshooting the Huskies But Goepfert allowed nothing to pass. It s a great building to play in, and the whole event is great for our team to be a part of, said Goepfert. The three quick goals made things a little easier, but I figured after the first period that the second period would be big, so I got really focused in the dressing room. I might say a few things at the start of the intermission, but then I m pretty much silent, and I zone out except when coach is talking. Stapleton was not surprised by Goepfert s play. I played against him in juniors, and he s always been that way, said Stapleton. He makes the first save, and he doesn t allow rebounds. We had our chances; at one point I looked up at the scoreboard and the shots were But the score never got closer. The Bulldogs, who finish , could have made it more dramatic with a goal to open the third period, but instead Andrew Gordon scored at 0:48 off a left corner faceoff, and it was 4-1. The Huskies started firing on all cylinders after that, and got off 17 of their game total 26 shots in the final 20 minutes. They scored the final goal when UMD coach Scott Sandelin pulled Ziegelmann for a sixth attacker with 3:36 to go, hoping to cut into the three-goal deficit. But Goepfert stayed invincible, and after missing the open net twice, Hengen fired a 125-footer into the net at 17:34. After the first five minutes, I thought we played pretty well for the next 35 minutes, said Sandelin. I was proud of the way we played after being down 3-0. Obviously, when you ve gone 1-15, things are not looking very bright, so ending our season here, instead of at Denver, was important. We had our chances, but obviously Goepfert made some saves. It was a tough night for Ziegelmann, whose touch turned magic last weekend in the playoffs, when he rose from No. 3 in Duluth s goaltending scenario to win his first two college games in upsetting Denver. The victories came after the Bulldogs had won just one game in calendar 2006, and reinvigorated the Bulldogs after a drop to ninth place. The victories also cost two-time defending NCAA champion Denver a chance to return to the Final Five, and ultimately will probably prevent the Pioneers to get invited to the NCAA tournament. The Huskies, meanwhile, know they only have one chance to make the NCAA field, and that would be to win the Final Five championship which, of course, means beating Minnesota in the semifinals. Game 2; Sioux rally to overcome Wisconsin in final five semis March 17 The University of North Dakota faced an imposing challenge Friday afternoon. As if facing Wisconsin was not enough, the underdog Fighting Sioux also gave up the first two goals, and faced star goaltender Brian Elliott in the Badger nets. But North Dakota pulled out something of a secret weapon to charge back with the next four goals, and whipped Wisconsin 4-3 before a first semifinal session-record 16,468 fans at Xcel Energy Center. The victory sends North Dakota ( ) into Saturday s championship game of the WCHA Final Five for the seventh time in the last 10 years, where they face the winner of Friday night s Minnesota-St. Cloud State game. Wisconsin ( ) will face the late-game loser in the 2:30 third place game, which takes on some extra importance for seeding purposes for the NCAA tournament, which will be announced Sunday. Wisconsin made a couple of plays early that got them going, but we were fortunate to come back, said North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol. There were some good goals, and good goaltending, at both ends. The championship game will be a big challenge, but that s what we came here for. I don t care whether we play Minnesota or Wisconsin. We ll prepare ourselves to play as well as we can, and you can t pick your poison. The magic potion for the Sioux Friday was Rylan Kaip, a sophomore from Wilcox, Sask., who hadn t ever scored a goal in two collegiate seasons, albeit missing half of his freshman term with recurring legendary mtu and wcha goalie tony esposito drops the puck goldie gopher & bucky badger do battle before the um vs uw game 5 5 t h a n n i v e r s a r y s e a s o n 87

8 concussions. Kaip scored in the final minute of the first period to lift the Sioux to a 2-2 tie, then, with the Sioux leading 3-2, Kaip scored again late in the second period for a 4-2 lead a goal that stood up as the game-winner. It definitely felt good, said Kaip. I can remember the last time I scored it was back playing junior hockey in Saskatchewan. Scoring slumps happen, but mine probably went longer than most. Both teams came out pretty strong, and when we got behind 2-0, we just had to take a deep breath and start picking away. The Badgers had jumped ahead when Joe Pavelski picked a shot by Kyle Klubertanz out of the air, deflecting it down, where it went past goaltender Jordan Parise like a bad-hop single to left. That came at 7:43 of the first period, and right after North Dakota freshman flash T.J. Oshie had zigzagged the length of the ice for a scoring chance, the Badgers returned to the Sioux end for a perfectly-executed 2-on-1 rush. Jake Dowell, a left-handed shooter, rushed up the right side, pulled the puck back and snapped a pass across the slot, where Andy Brandt, a righthanded shooter skating up the left side, one-timed it past Parise at 11:05. It looked good, but for Brandt, a little-used fourthline junior from Wausau, Wis., it was his first goal of the season and second of his career. The Sioux responded quickly, but it took several minutes of generating momentum before they broke through on a power play at 18:07. The goal looked surprisingly easy, as Ryan Duncan walked in from the right point to the top of the circle, and fired a wrist shot over Elliott s glove and into the upper right corner. I thought we had made as many plays as they did when we were down 2-0, said Hakstol. Duncan s goal was a major turning point, and then we got one in the last minute of the period. That one came with 58 seconds left in the first period, less than a minute after Duncan s goal, when Matt Watkins passed the puck out from the end boards on the left of the net to Kaip who was playing his 38th game of the season at right wing, despite never having scored. Kaip let go with a wrist shot from the left circle to tie the game 2-2. We got ahead 2-0, then we became kind of complacent, said Pavelski. We had a number of chances to make it 3-0, and to put them away, but we weren t desperate all the time. We need every guy going out there. The Sioux seemed to like the momentum, and they resumed it when the second period began. Rastislav Spirko, a sophomore from Slovakia who counts as a veteran on the youthful Sioux team, came out from behind the net on the left just in time to deflect Oshie s wide shot past Elliott at 4:10. A succession of penalties and successful penalty kills filled the middle period until the 18:24 mark, and then Kaip struck again. This time, he looked like a veteran goal-scorer instead of a kid getting his second collegiate goal. A shot by Chris Porter had been blocked and caromed to the right circle, where Kaip caught it on his stick blade. Instead of shooting the wide-angle shot immediately, he coolly stepped ahead, and shot a wider-angle shot high into the net for a 4-2 cushion. Wisconsin got a power-play chance before the middle period ended, and Robbie Earl made it click, waiting in the slot for a perfect feed from Pavelski, deep in the left corner, then one-timing a low shot between the pads of Parise as he dropped to the ice at 18:59. That set the stage for a wild third period, but the Fighting Sioux managed to prevent any more scoring, with Parise turning acrobatic to stop all 12 Badger shots in the final session. We got off to a good start, which we wanted to do, but North Dakota stayed with it and got themselves back in the game, said Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves. The third period was pretty even, we just couldn t get the tying goal. We seemed to be disconnected; if one guy was forechecking, another would be holding back instead of supporting him. It s a learning process, and individuals learn at different rates. So do teams. The question we have to face is do we have the mental toughness to get it done? Even when we were playing so well earlier in the season, one thing we haven t had to deal with is coming from behind. The Badgers almost pulled it off, but Parise s brilliant finish stymied them. Wisconsin came at us hard, especially down the stretch in the last four t h a n n i v e r s a r y s e a s o n the golden gophers light the lamp in their final five semi-final against scsu or five minutes, said Hakstol. As he s done all year, Jordan was there. The guys play extremely well for Jordan, and he came through for them. Game 3: Huskies stun Gophers in Overtime to reach title game March 17 Matt Hartman, a fourth-line sophomore, flung a shot from deep in the left corner that somehow managed to find its way into the Minnesota net at 9:14 of sudden-death overtime, lifting St. Cloud State to an improbable 8-7 victory and into a berth in Saturday s 2006 Red Baron WCHA Final Five playoff championship game. The triumph came despite a heroic performance by Minnesota s Ryan Potulny, who scored his fourth goal of the game with :15 seconds remaining to tie the game and force overtime. In the overtime, Hartman rushed up the left boards and pulled up sharply in the corner. Nate [Raduns] had bumped the puck ahead to me, and when I got to the corner, I saw Brock [Hooton] screaming down the slot there, said Hartman. Golden Gopher backup goaltender Jeff Frazee also apparently saw Hooton coming down the slot, and started to move off the short-side pipe, anticipating a pass. I thought I d throw the puck on net, and it found a way through, said Hartman. I saw the net fly up, but I had no idea where it went in. The winning shot was improbable, and so was the score, but even more improbable is that the Huskies ( ) snapped Minnesota s eight-game winning streak and find themselves one game away from a berth in the NCAA tournament s 16-team field. The playoff winner gets an automatic berth, and that s the only way the Huskies could reach the select field. Minnesota (27-7-5) remains the nation s No. 1 rank and will face Wisconsin in Saturday s 2:30 pm third-place game a game which could determine the nation s No. 1 seed overall, with Minnesota No. 1 and Wisconsin No. 2 in the Pairwise ranking. St. Cloud State will take on North Dakota at 7:30 for the championship. Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota are already secured among the nation s top 16 teams and should make the field easily when the NCAA selection committee announces its picks Sunday. But St. Cloud State had no chance of making the NCAA on ratings. No question, we re playing to get into the NCAA tournament, said coach Bob Motzko, who is in his first year at St. Cloud after assisting at Minnesota. With both teams stressing low goalsagainst, the goal-scoring binge was out of character for both. Minnesota was outshot 16-8 in the first period but outshot the Huskies for the game. It is draining for a coach, said Motzko. But when the game got going like it did, we had to keep going. We knew they were having fun getting back into it, so we told the guys they had to keep going. You get into a nutty game like this, you ve got to go with it. The teams played nearly half the first period without a goal. Ben Gordon got one on a slick pass across the slot from Blake Wheeler at 9:36 to stake Minnesota to a 1-0 lead, but Matt Hartman tied it 1-1 at 10:57 when he scored with a one-timer after Matt Stephenson s shot was deflected to him at the left of the cage. Minnesota sophomore defenseman Alex Goligoski regained the lead 2-1 for Minnesota at 13:33, but then went off for a penalty that opened the chance for Andrew Gordon, who scored his 20th with a screened wrist shot from center point that eluded Golden Gophers goaltender Kellen Briggs at 15:02. The flurry of four goals in six minutes should have been an indication of things to come, but nobody could foresee the second period antics, as the Huskies scored three straight goals to stun the Gophers. Andrew Gordon got his second of the game at 0:58, Casey Borer beat Briggs with a wrist shot from the left point at 3:50, and Grant Clafton scored at 5:54, making it the first time in 49 games the Gophers had yielded as many as five goals, and prompting Minnesota coach Don Lucia to pull Briggs for backup Jeff Frazee. It was one of those games where the puck was going in, but never in my wildest dreams did I think it would be 8-7, said Lucia. When they got ahead by three, I thought it was one of those nights for us. Potulny and the Gopher power play kept the game within reach, as Potulny, a left-handed shooter, drilled Phil Kessel s pass from the right circle at 9:43 to cut it to 5-3. But after Potulny scored his nationleading 35th goal, Brock Hooton scored his fifth for St. Cloud by intercepting a careless breakout attempt up the slot, walking in and firing past Frazee at 11:40 of the middle period. the huskies rush on ice to celebrate matt hartman s game-winner in overtime against minnesota

9 Before the second period ended, Potulny smacked in Danny Irmen s pass at 14:08, and then completed his hat trick with a power-play goal when Kessel went behind the net and fed him at his favorite right circle station with a scant :0.4 seconds remaining. It was dramatic, and it cut the deficit to 6-5, but amazingly enough, the drama was still in its preliminary stage. The way we played, it s just not going to cut it, said Potulny. I think the team decided it was time to turn things around, and I was in the right spot at the right time. The Gophers had outshot St. Cloud State, 17-12, in the wild second period, and they stormed the Huskies goal for a 20-7 shooting edge in the third, which put ace St. Cloud goaltender Bobby Goepfert under intense pressure. Despite the score, he played well. He let in seven, and he made some big-time saves, Lucia said. The Huskies were left clinging to the 6-5 lead through the first 16 minutes of the third period, then Hooton blocked the puck free and zoomed in to score on a breakaway for a 7-5 Huskies lead at 16:21. Undeterred, the Gophers swarmed on the attack, and Irmen lifted a rebound up and over the fallen Goepfert with 2:01 to play to cut it to 7-6. Lucia called time, and pulled Frazee for a sixskater attack. When St. Cloud State went back up by two goals, I was so mad I didn t even want to pull the goalie, said Lucia. Then we scored, and I had to. The Gophers pressed, the Huskies defended, and as the last minute ticked away, Kessel forechecked the puck free to Irmen, who curled up the boards from the left corner and spotted Potulny at guess where? the right circle. Irmen s pinpoint pass was perfect, and Potulny one-timed it for his 38th goal of the season at 19:45. We tie it with :15 seconds to go, said Lucia, who could appreciate how much the fans must have enjoyed the explosive game. For the fans my gosh they should ve charged $50. With four goals and one assist, Potulny now has to take the nation s point-scoring lead as well as expanding his goal-scoring lead. Game 4: Badgers blank Gophers for third place, and much more by John Gilbert MARCH 18, 2006/SAINT PAUL, Minn. Had Minnesota and Wisconsin played for the WCHA Final Five playoff championship Saturday night, it is impossible to predict what might have happened. Instead, they played in the afternoon third place game, which meant the duel of the two teams that have dominated the nation s No. 1 ranking all season were left with whatever intensity they could muster after disappointing semifinal losses. It was no contest. Wisconsin whipped Minnesota 4-0 before a third-place-game record crowd of 16,164 fans at the Xcel Energy Center. The Badgers ( ) thoroughly outplayed the Gophers (27-8-5) from start to finish, getting shutout goaltending from Brian Elliott, while Andrew Joudrey scored in the first period, Jack Skille scored midway through the second, and Ross Carlson and Robbie Earl chipped in with third-period goals. The victory pushes Wisconsin from No. 2 to No. 1, displacing Minnesota, in the Pairwise computer rankings that the NCAA selection committee uses to select the field that will be announced today for the national tournament, which starts next weekend. Both teams undoubtedly will be top seeds for NCAA regionals, which will be held at four sites, including Grand Forks and Green Bay. Wisconsin undoubtedly will now be the No. 1 seed at Green Bay, while Minnesota very likely will be No. 1 seed at Grand Forks where North Dakota, a resurgent team that played St. Cloud State Saturday night for the WCHA playoff title, will be the host, and a crowd-favorite. Neither team came to the tournament to play in the third-place game, and both had reasons to lack intensity Saturday: Minnesota lost an emotional 8-7 overtime semifinal to St. Cloud State Friday night after rallying from a 6-3 deficit to tie it in the closing seconds; Wisconsin had earlier lost a tough 4-3 game to North Dakota, after blowing a 2-0 lead. Our team responded well, redemption being a great motivator, and nobody on our team was looking at this as just a third-place game, said Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves. We were playing for possible No. 1 in the Pairwise, and this was also the rubber match between the two teams. With the rivalry, intensity is going to be there all the time, but the intensity goes up a level this year, because both teams are good. wisconsin s jack skille attacks the minnesota net Indeed, Wisconsin was virtually unbeatable from the start of the season, going overall until mid-january, and then losing four straight games and five of six when Elliott was injured, and struggling to a finish. The drop-off cost the Badgers the No. 1 rank in the nation as well as a huge lead in the WCHA. Minnesota, meanwhile, started off with an under-achieving through a painful sweep at home against Wisconsin on December 2-3, but since then had ridden an amazing streak into the Final Five including a revenge sweep at Wisconsin while winning the WCHA regular season title and the No. 1 national rating. After both teams lost in Friday s semifinals, Saturday s game turned Wisconsin s fortunes upward, while the Gophers must shake off their first two-game lost weekend since December. The Gopher players seemed frustrated and a little angry that they had failed to play with any competitive fire against Wisconsin, but their coach rationalized a bit. The reality of the game today was what happened last night, said Lucia. We worked so hard to get back into the game, then lost in overtime. Had we won, I m sure we would have been more excited about playing today. Maybe if we had gotten a goal it could have been different, I can t say I anticipated us lacking intensity, but there were a lot of blank stares today. Both teams are moving on, so you come here to play for a trophy, and we lost that right last night. The coaches different feelings may best be filtered through a bit of historic perspective. Both Eaves and Lucia stress even-keel approaches to coaching, keeping the big picture in mind throughout the long season. But at playoff time even league playoff time spikes in emotional fire can beat even-keel every time. No question, said Eaves, who smiled at the recollection of those electrifying Gopher- Badger games of 30 years ago. You can never forget them. Eaves lived through the fullest intensity of the Gopher-Badger rivalry as a star at Wisconsin back in the 1970s, when Badger Bob Johnson coached against Minnesota s Herb Brooks, and the two schools were the premier hockey programs in the country. Hatred is too strong a word for their rivalry perhaps, but then again, maybe not. On the other hand, Minnesota coach Don Lucia played for some very good teams at Notre Dame, but the Fighting Irish never had a rivalry that approached the Minnesota-Wisconsin electricity. The Gopher players refused to accept any crutch from the night before. As players, you re supposed to be able to bring it, said captain Gino Guyer. It wasn t there, for whatever reason. We weren t into it. After the first period, you could tell we were pretty dead. Every time we can win a trophy, we want to win it, and from here on out, we ve got to win or else. Teammate Danny Irmen agreed. Give Wisconsin credit, he said. They played well, and they re a good defensive team. Last night, the energy was there, but today, everybody was looking around for someone else to do it, and you can t have that. Just 3:30 into the game, Jake Dowell chipped the puck off the boards in the Wisconsin zone, and Andrew Joudrey broke up the middle, caught the pass, split the flat-footed Gopher defense, and was gone. Speeding in on a breakaway, Joudrey deked and slid a backhand through goalie Kellen Briggs. It was the 11th time the Badgers had scored in the first four minutes of a game this season. Wisconsin outshot Minnesota 11-7 in the first period, even though the Gophers had three power plays to one for the Badgers. The 1-0 score stood until midway through the second period, when Jack Skille broke up the right side with both teams a man short, leaned hard against a defenseman as he veered toward the net, and jammed his shot past Briggs at 10:07 for a 2-0 count. The Badgers clicked on a power play at 3:02 of the third period, silencing the predominately Gopher crowd, which hadn t had much to cheer about anyway. Defenseman Kyle Klubertanz had the puck at the blue line, and he angled to his right to pick up a screen, then shot for the left edge. Briggs kicked out and blocked the shot with his right skate, but the rebound went right to Ross Carlson, who quickly shot it in. The Gopher defense, which had a shaky tendency to throw the puck carelessly something it had overcome during the team s recent hot streak saw that issue return in some cases. The costliest might have been when Robbie Earl stepped in to pick off sophomore Alex Goligoski s D-to-D pass and broke in alone. His shot was blocked by Briggs, but the puck trickled in behind him, and Earl tapped in his own rebound as he sped past the net. A night before, Gopher fans chanted HO-BEY BA-KER over and over for center Ryan Potulny, who scored four goals and an assist as the nation s top goal and point scorer. On Saturday, the chant came from the red-clad Badger fans, who chanted HO-BEY BA-KER for Elliott, who seemed to be back in top form, with his third shutout in his last six games. I don t even know what back is, said Elliott. We kind of took it to them in their end, and when our forwards are going, that s our best defense. Our defensive corps pushed them to the outside and didn t allow many good chances. Lucia said: Elliott is a good goaltender, but he didn t have too tough of a game today. Game 5: Championship Game Sioux topple Scsu, 5-3, to win Final Five, broadmoor trophy March 18 Freshmen Ryan Duncan scored two goals and T.J. Oshie and Jonathan Toews scored one apiece as the North Dakota kiddie corps claimed a 5-3 victory over St. Cloud State Saturday night to win the WCHA Final Five championship before a sellout crowd of 19,282 fans at Xcel Energy Center the perfect tonic for the Fighting Sioux, who seem to be reaching their peak just in time to play host to one of four NCAA regional tournaments next weekend. No team that started the Final Five by playing the play-in game has ever won the tournament, but the Huskies gave it a run. They knew they had to win the tournament to gain an automatic berth in the 16-team NCAA field, but instead of showing signs of fatigue, St. Cloud State struck for the game s first goal, but North Dakota countered just :10 seconds later, scoring twice in :15 seconds, in fact, and sped away to a seemingly secure 5-1 lead. But the Sioux never could put the scrappy Huskies away, and their rally to the finish and a edge in shots for the game made it an entertaining final. North Dakota ( ) moves on, while St. Cloud State ( ) goes home, but not without satisfaction from a strong finish. Konrad Reeder s opening goal for St. Cloud State came at 3:50 of the first period, but Rastislav Spirko countered by knocking in Oshie s assist at 4:00, and Toews shot from the slot and knocked in his own rebound at 4:15. That flurry got the attention of the big crowd, but Parise stifled St. Cloud s ability to keep pace with the Sioux scorers. Oshie finished the first period with a power-play slap shot for his 23rd goal of the season, and Duncan scored two picture goals in the second period to boost the lead to 5-1. At 4:58 of the middle period, Duncan rushed up the left side, faked a slapshot to get goalie Bobby Goepfert to commit, then strode in deeper to shoot into an empty net behind him. At 14:41, Toews rushed in hard and fed a great pass to Duncan for another power-play tally. The Huskies stormed back, closing the game to 5-3 on goals by Brock Hooton and a third-period marker by Billy Hengen, and were battling for more to the final buzzer. At a time when other coaches might be rationalizing away setbacks by staying focused on the big picture, North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol said he and his staff have instead gone after short-term objectives, and this weekend s strong tournament play was one of them. We ve taken things on a short-term basis, and we had an opportunity to win a championship, and we did that. The Broadmoor Trophy is going home with us. Hakstol began, however, by paying respects to St. Cloud State. While the Fighting Sioux came in as No. 3 seed, St. Cloud was No. 4, which meant the Huskies, who upset Colorado College in three games last weekend, had to defeat Minnesota Duluth on Thursday, then get past No. 1 ranked Minnesota in Friday s semifinals, which they did, 8-7 in overtime. That put them up against the Fighting Sioux, who defeated second-seeded Wisconsin 4-3 on Friday. I want to congratulate St. Cloud State on a tremendous performance, said Hakstol. Everybody knows what they ve gone through the past nine days. On St. Cloud s side, first-year coach Bob Motzko was emotional, but handled it well. I ve got to congratulate North Dakota and its coaching staff, said Motzko. Five goals by freshmen what a job that coaching staff did to prepare a young team like that. This one hurts, because we came to play. We made three mistakes and they cost us the game, but we had a very strong game. North Dakota played well, and their freshmen carried them. Pretty impressive, and with Zach Jones and that young defense, killing penalties it s scary how well they played. Actually, freshman only had four, because what appeared to be Oshie s first of two goals was later given to sophomore Rastislav Spirko, who knocked in the rebound of Oshie s try.the Fighting Sioux had six freshman forwards and four of their six defensemen were freshmen. And Drew Stafford, one of their few veterans, and the Sioux leading scorer, is out with an injury suffered last weekend in the first game of a tough, best-of-three victory over Minnesota State. The Sioux also had to engage a St. Cloud State team that had beaten them three out of four times during the season, including a sweep at Grand Forks. When St. Cloud swept us in our building, it was the low point in our season, said Duncan. After that, we decided to collectively come together as a group, and we ve been going the same direction every since. The losses to the Huskies were both 2-1, with the second in overtime. Since then, the Sioux have gone10-3, and four straight victories, including the two in the Final Five. Jordan Parise, North Dakota s goaltender, came in comparatively unheralded against the likes of St. Cloud State s Goepfert and Wisconsin s Brian Elliott 5 5 t h a n n i v e r s a r y s e a s o n 89

10 wcha referee derek shepherd signals goal in north dakota s 5-3 victory over st. cloud state in the broadmoor trophy championship game at the 2006 red baron wcha final five and we belong here. Maybe we had to experience this to stand out there on the ice, and watch North Dakota get that trophy. Broadmoor Trophy Championship Game summary March 18, 2006 St. Cloud State 3 vs North Dakota 5 1st: G1 SCSU - Reeder 11 (Brocklehurst, Carlisle), PPG, 3:50; G2 UND - Spirko 10 (Oshie), 4:00; G3 UND - Toews 19 (Duncan), 4:15; G4 UND - Oshie 23 (Chorney, Lee), PPG, 17:41. 2nd: G5 UND - Duncan 13 (Toews, Lee), GWG, 4:58; G6 UND - Duncan 14 (Toews, Smaby), PPG, 13:41; G7 SCSU - Hooton 7 (unassisted), PPG, 16:20. 3rd: G8 SCSU - Hengen 9 (Jensen), 5:07. Score by Periods: SCSU = 3; UND = 5. Pen: SCSU 5-10; UND PP: SCSU 2-7; UND 2-3. Saves: Goepfert (SCSU), = 24 (59:14); Parise (UND), = 37 (60:00). Att: 19,282 (sellout). Time: 2: red baron WCHA Final Five All-Tournament Team Forwards Ryan Potulny, Minnesota; T.J. Oshie, North Dakota; Brock Hooton, St. Cloud State Defensemen Kyle Klubertanz, Wisconsin; Matt Smaby, North Dakota Goaltender Jordan Parise, North Dakota Final Five Most Valuable Player Jordan Parise, G, North Dakota the two goaltenders he and his teammates beat in the tournament. Parise was named most valuable player of the event, and was joined on the all-tournament team by defensemen Kyle Klubertanz of Wisconsin and Matt Smaby of North Dakota, and forwards Oshie, St. Cloud State s Brock Hooton and Minnesota s Ryan Potulny. Parise had no chance on the opening goal, a power-play rush with Reeder one-timing a neat backhand pass to the slot by Aaron Brocklehurst. He also was beaten at 16:20 of the second period by Hooton, whose speedy burst up the left boards got him past the defense, and he cut across the goal-mouth before scoring inside the right pipe. That goal gave the Huskies life for the third period, and Hengen s goal came in a scramble when his shot hit Parise, popped up high, and as Joe Jensen crashed into Parise in the crease, the puck landed behind him and trickled across the line at 5:07, inspiring the Huskies to keep pressing. We weren t thinking of the past, and we re not thinking too far ahead, either, said Parise. There have been games I haven t been at my best, but it hasn t caused my confidence to deteriorate a bit. I have a job, and my teammates rely on me; they have a job, and I rely on them to do it. A few goals didn t hurt, either. Oshie, runner-up for freshman of the year to Minnesota s Phil Kessel, was the best freshman at the tournament, and came out from behind the net to jam a shot at Goepfert, creating the opening for Spirko s goal. Motzko, reflecting on how far the Huskies came this season, said: We became a good hockey team, the 2006 wcha final five champions celebrate on -ice with the broadmoor trophy at xcel energy center t h a n n i v e r s a r y s e a s o n

11 wcha award winners T wo upperclassmen from the University of Denver defenseman Matt Carle and forward Ted O Leary together took home three of the top individual awards given out by the Western Collegiate Hockey Association today (March 16) at the league s 2006 Awards Banquet, presented by RBC Financial Group and held at Rivercentre in Saint Paul, Minn. A junior and assistant team captain, Carle (Anchorage, AK) became the first player in WCHA history to earn both the WCHA Player of the Year and WCHA Defensive Player of the Year honors, while O Leary (Arvada, Co), was named the WCHA Student-Athlete of the Year. The annual league awards presentation marks the start of the 2006 Red Baron WCHA Final Five championship weekend, being held today through Saturday (March 18) at Xcel Energy Center. The WCHA Rookie of the Year award for went to freshman forward Phil Kessel of the University of Minnesota, the WCHA Scoring Champion was University of Denver forward Paul Stastny, and the WCHA Goaltending Champion was Brian Elliott of the University of Wisconsin. The WCHA Coach of the Year award for was shared by the University of Minnesota s Don Lucia and St. Cloud State University s Bob Motzko. The WCHA Player of the Year Award, presented by RBC Financial Group, is voted on by coaches, student-athletes, sports information directors and media, while the WCHA Defensive Player of the Year is selected by the league s ten head coaches. Carle, who also earned All-WCHA First Team honors for the second straight season, is the top scoring defenseman both in the WCHA and in Div. 1 hockey though March 9 with 11 goals, 39 assists and 50 points, an average of 1.39 points per game. The 'complete package', he quarterbacks the Pioneers top-rated WCHA power-play, is a primary penalty-killer, averdenver defenseman matt carle makes history, earns both wcha Player of the Year, defensive player of the year awards; du s ted o leary named Student-Athlete of the Year; um s phil kessel is wcha rookie of the year; coach of the year award shared by um s don lucia, scsu s bob motzko; du s paul stastny is wcha scoring champion; uw s brian elliott is wcha goaltending champion WCHA player of the Year matt carle, jr, d, university of denver WCHA student-athlete of the year ted o leary, Sr, F, university of denver WCHa defensive player of the year matt carle, jr, d, university of denver WCHA rookie of the year phil kessel, fr, f, university of minnesota WCHA co-coach of the Year Don Lucia, university of Minnesota bob motzko, st. cloud state university WCHA scoring champion paul stastny, so, f, university of denver WCHA goaltending champion brian elliott, jr, university of wisconsin matt carle denver ted o leary denver phil kessel minnesota don lucia minnesota bob motzko st. cloud state paul stastny denver brian elliott wisconsin ages over 30 minutes of on-ice time per game, and leads his team in blocked shots. He was also named to the All-WCHA Academic Team for the second time, carrying an overall grade-point average of 3.3 in Real Estate/Construction Management, was honored as WCHA Defensive Player of the Week three times during the regular season, and shows career numbers of 29 goals, 91 assists and 120 points in 109 games played for the two-time defending national champions. Carle was a First Team All-American selection in The WCHA Student Athlete of the Year Award, presented by RBC Financial Group, went to four-year veteran forward and assistant team captain Ted O Leary of University of Denver. O Leary, a senior who carries a 3.89 cumulative grade-point average at DU, represents the epitome of the collegiate student-athletes. He is an enthusiastic participant in community programs, especially those serving children, is involved in the reading program at a nearby elementary school, and pays regular visits to a local children s hospital. Originally a walk-on at DU, O Leary is a four-year member of the Pioneer hockey team and two-time national champion, is currently working toward an MBA within a 3/2 program and is a WCHA Scholar-Athlete and member of the All-WCHA Academic Team. He has already completed work toward his bachelor s degree in Biology which will serve to help him gain admission to medical school. One of the team s top defensive specialists, O Leary has played in 34 of his team s 36 games this season with just four minor penalties. His career totals show 64 games played with one goal, five assists and six scoring points. The WCHA Student-Athlete of the Year Award is determined from nominations made by the member institutions and each institution then has one final vote. The criteria is as follows: 1) must be a senior student-athlete, i.e. one who is finishing his competition as an eligible player in the WCHA; 2) consistently displays outstanding sportsmanship on and off the ice; 3) is a good student making satisfactory progress toward a degree; and 4) is a good hockey player who has performed consistently as a regular member of the team. The WCHA Rookie of the Year Award for , presented by RBC Financial Group, went to University of Minnesota centerman Phil Kessel (Madison, WI), who topped all first-year players in the WCHA in scoring during the regular season with 14 goals, 28 assists and 42 points overall and in 28 conference games. He was also named to the All-WCHA Rookie Team and ranked second both nationally and among his Golden Gopher teammates in scoring through March 9. He was honored as WCHA Rookie of the Week three times this winter and also earned the Hockey Commissioners Association National Rookie of the Month award this past November. For the first time since the award was first presented in , two individuals shared the WCHA Coach of the Year award in Don Lucia of Minnesota and Bob Motzko of St. Cloud State. Lucia, who previously won the coach of the year honor with Colorado College in both and , guided his Golden Gophers to the WCHA championship and MacNaughton Cup with a league mark and to the nation s No. 1 ranking with an overall record of through March 9. Minnesota was the only team in the WCHA to register a victory against every other conference opponent in Motzko, who is in his first season behind the bench of the SCSU Huskies and formerly served as an assistant coach at UM, has led his club to a overall record through March 9 and to a top 20 ranking in the national polls. The Huskies, who finished ninth in the WCHA a year ago, moved up three places to sixth this in the final conference regular season standings and were in the running for a top five league until the final weekend of the regular season. Along the way, SCSU recorded victories over the likes of nationally-ranked Minnesota, Denver, North Dakota, Colorado College, and Northern Michigan. The WCHA Scoring Champion is University of Denver sophomore center Paul Stastny (St. Louis, MO), who led the conference with 15 goals, 29 assists and 44 points in 28 games. The son of NHL Hall of Famer Peter Stastny and the first Denver player to win the league scoring title since Dave Shields in , Paul also earned All-WCHA First Team selection, is a member of the All-WCHA Academic Team, and was a two-time WCHA Offensive Player of the Week honoree. The WCHA Goaltending Champion for is Brian Elliott, a junior at the University of Wisconsin. Elliott topped the conference in both goals-against average at 1.84, saves percentage at.930, and shared the best record in the WCHA at His 1.84 GAA was the sixth best in the 54-year history of the WCHA. Elliott was also named WCHA Defensive Player of the Week five times, was the Hockey Commissioners Association National Player of the Month last November, and as of March 9, ranked first in winning percentage at.796 on a overall record, was second nationally in goals-against average at 1.76, and was third in saves percentage at.931. Named to the All-WCHA First Team, presented by RBC Financial Group, were (statistics shown are league games only): F - Ryan Potulny, Jr, Minnesota (28 gp, ); F - Brett Sterling, Sr, Colorado College (27 gp, ); F - Paul Stastny, So, Denver (28 gp, ); D - Matt Carle, So, Denver (28 gp, ); D - Tom Gilbert, Sr, Wisconsin (28 gp, ); G - Bobby Goepfert, Jr, St. Cloud State ( , 2.09 GAA,.926 SV%). Both Sterling, who was the Hockey Commissioners Association National Player of the Month this past October, and Carle are repeat first team selections. Potulny, who was the HCA s National Player of the Month for February, and Gilbert were All-WCHA Third Team choices in Stastny was a member of the All-WCHA Rookie Team a year ago while Goepfert is in his first playing season at SCSU after transferring from Providence. Named to the All-WCHA Second Team, presented by RBC Financial Group, were (statistics shown are league games only): F - Joe Pavelski, So, Wisconsin (28 gp, ); F - Marty Sertich, Sr, Colorado College (28 gp, ); F - David Backes, Jr, Minnesota State (27 gp, ); D - Alex Goligoski, So, Minnesota (28 gp, ); D - Brian Salcido, Jr, Colorado College (28 gp, ); G - Brian Elliott, Jr, Wisconsin (15-3-3, 1.84 GAA,.930 SV%). Sertich earned another all-league honor, after being a first team choice in , Backes was a third team choice last winter, and both Pavelski and Goligoski were members of the All-WCHA Rookie Team as freshmen. Elliott, meanwhile, was the HCA National Player of the Month this past November. Members of the All-WCHA Third Team, presented by RBC Financial Group, were (statistics shown are for league games only): F - Drew Stafford, Jr, North Dakota (28 gp, ); F - Ryan Dingle, So, Denver (27 gp, ); F - Danny Irmen, Jr, Minnesota (18 gp, ); D - Chris Harrington, Sr, Minnesota (27 gp, ); D - Matt Smaby, Jr, North Dakota (28 gp, ); G - Jordan Parise, Jr, North Dakota (13-7-0, 2.41 GAA,.924 SV%). Irmen, who was also a third team choice in , was the HCA National Player of the Month in January. Nine players who were named to the three all-league teams this season were also honored 5 5 t h a n n i v e r s a r y s e a s o n 91

12 All-WCHA First Team Pos Name Team Hgt Wgt Yr Hometown Pts F Ryan Potulny UM Jr Grand Forks, ND 367 F Brett Sterling CC Sr Pasadena, CA 287 F Paul Stastny Denver So St. Louis, MO 266 D Matt Carle Denver Jr Anchorage, AK 390 D Tom Gilbert UW Sr Bloomington, MN 304 G Bobby Goepfert SCSU Jr Kings Park, NY All-WCHA Second Team Pos Name Team Hgt Wgt Yr Hometown Pts F Joe Pavelski UW So Plover, WI 204 F Marty Sertich CC Sr Roseville, MN 143 F David Backes MSU Jr Blaine, MN 138 D Alex Goligoski UM So Grand Rapids, MN 222 D Brian Salcido CC Jr Hermosa Beach, CA 174 G Brian Elliott UW Jr Newmarket, ON 270 members of the all-wcha first team pictured at the wcha awards banquet. from left: bobby goepfert, g, scsu; tom gilbert, d, uw; matt carle, d, du; paul stastny, f, du; brett sterling, f, cc; ryan potulny, f, um. with selection to the All-WCHA Academic Team. They were: Brett Sterling, F, Colorado College; Matt Carle, D, Denver; Paul Stastny, F, Denver; David Backes, F, Minnesota State; Jordan Parise, G, North Dakota; Matt Smaby, F, North Dakota; Drew Stafford, F, North Dakota; Brian Elliott, G, Wisconsin; and Tom Gilbert, D, Wisconsin. Named to the All-WCHA Rookie Team, presented by RBC Financial Group, were (statistics shown are for league games only): F - Phil Kessel, Fr, Minnesota (28 gp, ); F - T.J. Oshie, Fr, North Dakota (28 gp, ); F - Mason Raymond, Fr, Minnesota Duluth (28 gp, ); D - Chris Butler, Fr, Denver (26 gp, ); D - Brian Lee, Fr, North Dakota (28 gp, ); G - Dan Tormey, Fr, Minnesota State ( , 2.83 GAA,.903 SV%). Kessel and Oshie were both second on their respective teams in scoring thru March 9, Raymond led the Bulldogs, and Kessel, Oshie, Butler and Lee were all members of the U.S. National Junior Team. Voting for the WCHA s annual post-season awards is done by Association-member team coaches, players, sports information directors and media. After member head coaches submit nominees from their own teams in each respective category to the league office, the ten member institutions then each receive eight final voting ballots which contain the coaches nominations as well as space for additional write-in candidates. Points for the all-league teams are awarded on a 5 (first team vote), 3 (second team vote), 1 (third team vote) basis. The WCHA Defensive Player of the Year is selected by the league s head coaches while the WCHA Student-Athlete of the Year is chosen by institutional representatives All-WCHA Third Team Pos Name Team Hgt Wgt Yr Hometown Pts F Drew Stafford UND Jr Faribault, MN 131 F Ryan Dingle Denver So Steamboat Springs, CO 118 F Danny Irmen UM Jr Fargo, ND 113 D Chris Harrington UM Sr St. Cloud, MN 122 D Matt Smaby UND Jr Minneapolis, MN 76 G Jordan Parise UND Jr Faribault, MN All-WCHA Rookie Team Pos Name Team Hgt Wgt Yr Hometown Votes F Phil Kessel UM Fr Madison, WI 73 F T.J. Oshie UND Fr Warroad, MN 72 F Mason Raymond UMD Fr Cochrane, AB 40 D Chris Butler Denver Fr St. Louis, MO 55 D Brian Lee UND Fr Moorhead, MN 50 G Dan Tormey MSU Fr Syracuse, NY all-wcha academic team inety-three (93) student-athletes, representing all 10 Western Colle- Hockey Ngiate Association-member institutions, were honored on March 16 as members of the All-WCHA Academic Team at the annual WCHA Awards Banquet, presented by RBC Financial Group, and held at Rivercentre. This represents a gain of five student-athletes who earned All-WCHA Academic Team accolades over the previous season s total of 88, while 48 are repeat honorees. In addition to the 93 players named to the all-league s academic team, University of Denver senior forward Ted O Leary was honored as the recipient of the prestigious WCHA Student-Athlete of the Year Award, presented by RBC Financial Group. To earn a position on the All-WCHA Academic Team, student-athletes must meet the following criteria: 1) have completed at least one year of residency at present institution prior to the current academic year; 2) have a grade point average of at least 3.00 (on a 4.00 scale) for the previous two semesters or three quarters, or may qualify if his overall GPA is at least 3.00 for all terms at his present institution. The annual All-WCHA Academic Team was instituted by the conference beginning with the season. Following, by WCHA team, are All-WCHA Academic Team honorees: University of Alaska Anchorage Chad Anderson* (Jr, D, Chisago City, MN); Luke Beaverson (So, D, Vadnais Heights, MN); Peter Cartwright (So, F, Anchorage, AK); Charlie Kronschnabel* (Jr, F, Mendota Heights, MN); Ryan McMullan (Jr, D, Eagle River, AK); Ales Parez* (Sr, F, Nymburk, Czech Republic); Mark Smith*, Jr, D, Edmonton, AB); Chris Tarkir (So, F, Fresno, CA); Blair Tassone (So, F, Castlegar, BC); Eric Walsky (So, F, Anchorage, AK). Colorado College John Brunkhorst* (Jr, F, Rochester, MN); Joey Crabb (Sr, F, Anchorage, AK); Trevor Frischmon* (Sr, F, Ham Lake, MN); Jack Hillen (So, D, Minnetonka, MN); Chris Kawano (Jr, G, Aurora, CO); Scott McCulloch (So, F, Lacombe, AB); Brett Sterling* (Sr, F, Pasadena, CA); Jesse Stokke* (Sr, D/F, Hermantown, MN); Lee Sweatt* (Jr, D, Elburn, IL); Scott Thauwald* (Jr, F, Rochester, MN); Matt Zaba* (Jr, G, Yorkton, SK). University of Denver Zach Blom (Jr, D, Englewood, CO); Matt Carle* (Jr, D, Anchorage, AK); Steven Cook (Jr, F, Denver, CO); J.D. Corbin* (Jr, F, Littleton, CO); Glenn Fisher* (Jr, G, Edmonton, AB); Ryan Helgason* (Jr, F, Woodbury, MN); Jon James* (Jr, D, Arnold, MD); Danny King* (Jr, G, Colorado Springs, CO); Brock McMorris* (Jr, F, Cherry Hills, CO); Ted O Leary* (Sr, F, Arvada, CO); Paul Stastny (So, F, St. Louis, MO); Andrew Thomas (So, D, Bow, NH). Michigan Tech University Nick Anderson* (Sr, F, Winthrop Harbor, IL); Mike Batovanja (Jr, F, Hinton, AB); Kevin Hachey (So, G, Ontario, CA); Lars Helminen* (Jr, D, Brighton, MI); Mark Malekoff (So, D, Grande Prairie, AB); Pekka Saittakari* (Sr, D, Heinola, Finland); Brandon Schwartz* (Sr, F, St. Cloud, MN); Tyler Skworchinski* (Jr, F, Marathon, ON). University of Minnesota Kellen Briggs* (Jr, G, Colorado Springs, CO); Gino Guyer* (Sr, F, Coleraine, MN); Mike Howe (So, F, Oakdale, MN); Evan Kaufmann (So, F, Plymouth, MN); Peter Kennedy* (Sr, D, Brookfield, NS); Derek Peltier (So, D, Plymouth, MN); Tom Pohl (So, F, Red Wing, MN). University of Minnesota Duluth Dan Carlson (So, G, White Bear Lake, MN); Isaac Reichmuth (Sr, G, Fruitvale, BC). Minnesota State University David Backes* (Jr, F, Blaine, MN); Chad Brownlee* (Jr, D, Kelowna, BC); Ryan Carter (So, F, White Bear Lake, MN); Chris Clark* (Jr, G, San Mateo, CA); Lucas Fransen* (Jr, D, Langley, BC); Joel Hanson (So, F, Elk River, MN); Mark Hinz (So, D, Waldheim, SK); Kurtis Kisio* (Jr, F, Calgary, AB); R.J. Linder (So, D, St. Cloud, MN); Shane McCormick (So, F, Mission, BC); Ryan McKelvie* (Sr, F, New Brighton, MN); Travis Morin* (Jr, F, Brooklyn Park, MN); Steve Wagner (So, D, Grand Rapids, MN). University of North Dakota Robbie Bina (Jr, D, Grand Forks, ND); Erik Fabian* (Jr, F, Roseau, MN); Scott Foyt* (Jr, F/D, Andover, MN); Jordan Parise* (Jr, G, Faribault, MN); Chris Porter (Jr, F, Thunder Bay, ON); Matt Smaby (Jr, D, Minneapolis, MN); Drew Stafford (Jr, F, Faribault, MN); Travis Zajac (So, F, Winnipeg, MB). St. Cloud State University Chris Anderson (So, D, North Oaks, MN); Tim Boron* (Jr, G, Winnipeg, MB); Aaron Brocklehurst (So, D, Nanaimo, BC); Justin Fletcher (Jr, D, Maryville, IL); Matt Francis (So, F, Surrey, BC); Andrew Gordon (So, F, Porters Lake, NS); Matt Hartman (So, F, St. CLoud, MN); Billy Hengen* (Sr, F, Eden Prairie, MN); Gary Houseman* (Jr, F, Saskatoon, SK); Joe Jensen* (Sr, F, Maple Grove, MN); T.J. McElroy* (Sr, D, Golden Valley, MN); Marty Mjelleli (So, F, Faribault, MN); Nate Raduns* (Jr, F, Sauk Rapids, MN); Konrad Reeder* (Sr, F, Vanderhoof, BC); Josh Singer* (Sr, D/F, Lino Lakes, MN); Matt Stephenson (So, D, Midland, ON). University of Wisconsin Brian Elliott* (Jr, G, Newmarket, ON); Matthew Ford (So, F, West Hills, CA); Tom Gilbert (Sr, D, Bloomington, MN); Nick Licari* (Sr, F, Duluth, MN); Matt Olinger* (Jr, D, Madison, WI). * previous honoree t h a n n i v e r s a r y s e a s o n

13 denver s ted o leary, north dakota s meghan mutrie named WCHA Post-Graduate Scholarship winners for 2006 T he Western Collegiate Hockey Association announced it s fourth group of post-graduate scholarship winners for On the men s side, the post-graduate scholarship winner was the University of Denver s Ted O Leary while on the women s side, the winner was the University of North Dakota s Meghan Mutrie. An advocate of excellence both on and off the ice, the WCHA announced it s new annual post-graduate scholarship program in April of 2003 and made it effective beginning with the school year. The scholarships are two grants of $5,000 each that are presented annually to a male and female student-athlete for post-graduate studies. The original announcement of the WCHA Post-Graduate Scholarship program was made jointly by P.J. Hill, then Chair of the Association and current Faculty Representative from University of Alaska Anchorage and Bruce M. McLeod, WCHA Commissioner. In announcing the post-graduate scholarship program, Hill said, This represents another positive step forward for the Western Collegiate Hockey Association in the area and recognition of academic achievement. We are extremely proud of the excellent reputation our member institutions have in both athletics and academics, and this new post-graduate scholarship program will only enhance that. O Leary, a senior from Arvada, Colo., was a four-year member of the Denver Pioneers hockey team after originally being a walkon. He earned multiple varsity letters as a forward, played on back-to-back national championship teams in 2004 and 2005, was honored with the WCHA s prestigious Student-Athlete of the Year for , was in the inaugural group of 50 WCHA Scholar- Athletes announced this past February, and three times earned selection to the All-WCHA Academic Team. An alternate team captain this past season while playing in 37 games (67 career games played), he owns a 3.85 cumulative GPA at Denver and is currently enrolled in the Daniels College of Business, pursuing an MBA. After completing his MBA, he plans to progress on to medical school. His undergraduate major at Denver was biological sciences and he was on the pre-medical school track throughout his career there. Denver head coach George Gwozdecky said O Leary is the epitome of the studentathlete. Ted has made an outstanding contribution to the University of Denver Pioneer hockey program, said Gwozdecky. Ted has played an important role as a defensive specialist and penalty-killer and has always set the example for his teammates with his mature and serious approach to both his academics and his hockey training. He is an outstanding student, has volunteered his time to many community activities, including the Starlight Foundation and the University of Denver Youth Hockey Association, and has also represented the DU program at numerous other events throughout the region. I am very proud to have Ted O Leary as a member of the Pioneer Hockey program, and as a medical school student he will represent both DU and the WCHA in a first class and proud manner. Nominated for the award by Denver Faculty Representative Nancy Sampson, O Leary is the son of Michael and Kathleen O Leary. Following is an outline of the WCHA s post-graduate scholarship program: Criteria: 1. the nominee must graduate by the end of the academic year (or by the end of the summer) and must have earned at least a 3.0 grade-point average. 2. the nominee must have competed in the WCHA for at least three years. Nominating Process: A student-athlete must be nominated by the Faculty Athletics Representative. Nominations are due April 15th. Selection Process: Scholarship recipients and alternates will be selected by a vote of an Association Committee composed of five Faculty Athletics Representatives. The Association selection committee(s) will review and make the final selections. The committee(s) may select one male and one female winner annually to receive the WCHA post-graduate scholarship, as well as an alternate for each scholarship. Selections will be made by the committee by May 15th. Process Following Nomination and Selection: Following notification, the award winners have until July 1 to accept, in writing, the scholarship. Announcements will be made at the kick-off event at the student-athlete recipient s home venue, the following fall. The winners must enroll in graduate school within two years of graduation. Designated full-time enrollment (post-graduate degree hours) shall be required and verification from the program director must be presented to the Conference office before the award shall be presented. The scholarship money ($5,000) will be sent directly to the post-graduate institution. 50 conference student-athletes named WCHA Scholar-Athletes T he Western Collegiate Hockey Association, through Commissioner Bruce M. McLeod, Associate Commissioner Sara Martin, University of Wisconsin Faculty Representative Linda Baumann (Chair, men s league) and St. Cloud State University Faculty Representative Bill Hudson (Chair, women s league) announced on Feb. 22, 2006 an inaugural group of 50 WCHA Scholar-Athlete Award recipients, a new honor developed though Association member team Faculty Representatives and approved by the conference membership for this season. In keeping with a long-standing tradition of promoting excellence both on the ice and in the classroom, the WCHA is extremely pleased to announce this new annual award, said McLeod, Martin, Baumann and Hudson in a joint statement. This is truly a significant development and all of this year s recipients should be extremely proud of their tremendous accomplishments as student-athletes. On behalf of the entire WCHA family faculty wcha post-grad scholarship, scholar-athletes ted o leary meghan mutrie Red Baron WCHA Offensive Players of the Week Date Name, Pos, Team (Opponent) Oct. 10 Derek Patrosso, F, CC (vs Union, Maine) Oct. 17 Chris Conner, F, MTU (vs Vermont, RPI) Oct. 24 Marty Sertich, F, CC (vs Notre Dame, Air Force) Oct. 31 Brett Sterling, F, CC (@ MSU) Nov. 7 Ryan Dingle, RW, DU (vs MTU) Nov. 14 Ryan Potulny, C, UM (vs UAA) Nov. 21 Joe Pavelski, C, Wisconsin (vs MSU) Nov. 28 Brett Sterling, F, CC (@ Massachusetts, Boston Univ.) Dec. 5 Drew Stafford, F, UND (@ MTU) Dec. 12 Danny Irmen, F, UM (@ UND) Dec. 19 Aaron Slattengren, F, CC (@ UAA) Jan. 2 Joey Crabb, F, CC (vs Michigan, Michigan State) Ryan Potulny, C, UM (vs Union, UMass-Lowell) Jan. 9 Travis Zajac, C, UND (@ UAA) Jan. 16 Joe Pavelski, C, UW (@ CC) Jan. 23 Dan Kronick, F, SCSU (vs UMD) Jan. 30 Danny Irmen, F, UM (@ UW) Kurtis Kisio, F, MSU (@ UMD) Feb. 6 Matt Hartman, F, SCSU (vs UAA) Feb. 13 Paul Stastny, C, DU (vs MSU) Feb. 20 Brett Sterling, LW, CC (vs UAA) Feb. 27 Ryan Potulny, C, UM (@ UAA) Mar. 6 Paul Stastny, C, DU (@ CC, vs CC) representatives, athletic directors, coaches, staff and fellow student-athletes we congratulate them all. To earn recognition as a WCHA Scholar- Athlete, conference-member student-athletes must have completed at least one year of residency at their present institution prior to the current academic year and must also have a grade-point average of at least 3.50 on a 4.0 scale for the previous two semesters or three quarters, or may qualify if his or her overall GPA is at least 3.50 for all terms at his or her present institution. This year s first group of men s and women s WCHA Scholar-Athletes were recognized and honored on-ice at member team home games during the season and presented with a commemorative plaque. The winners were also to be recognized in the men s and women s post-season tournament programs as well as in future men s and women s conference yearbooks. By member school, men s WCHA Scholar- Athletes for were: Colorado College: John Brunkhorst, Scott McCulloch, Brett Sterling, Lee Sweatt. Denver: Zach Blom, Steven Cook, J.D. Corbin, Daniel King, Brock McMorris, Ted O Leary. Michigan Tech: Brandon Schwartz, Tyler Skworchinski. M i n n e s o t a : M i ke H owe, Evan Kaufmann. Minnesota State: David Backes, Ryan Carter, Chad Clower, Joel Hanson, Ryan McKelvie. North Dakota: Erik Fabian, Chris Porter, Matt Smaby. St. Cloud State: Nate Raduns, Matt Stephenson wcha players of the week Red Baron WCHA defensive Players of the Week Date Name, Pos, Team (Opponent) Oct. 10 Jordan Parise, G, UND (vs Lefty McFadden Invit.) Oct. 17 Matt Zaba, G, CC (vs Ohio State) Oct. 24 Jordan Parise, G, UND (@ New Hampshire) Oct. 31 Bobby Goepfert, G, SCSU (vs UM) Nov. 7 Brian Elliott, G, UW (@ UND) Isaac Reichmuth, G, UMD (vs UM) Nov. 14 Brian Elliott, G, UW (vs CC) Nov. 21 Brian Salcido, D, CC (vs MTU) Nov. 28 Brian Elliott, G, UW (@ Michigan State, Michigan) Dec. 5 Matt Carle, D, DU (vs CC) Brian Elliott, G, UW (@ UM) Dec. 12 Nathan Lawson, G, UAA (@ DU) Dec. 19 Matt Carle, D, DU (@ UMD) Jan. 2 Isaac Reichmuth, G, UMD (vs Maine, Cornell) Jan. 9 Chris Harrington, D, UM (vs Niagara) Jan. 16 Tom Gilbert, D, UW (@ CC) Philippe Lamoureux, G, UND (@ UM) Jan. 23 Glenn Fisher, G, DU (@ UW) Nathan Lawson, G, UAA (@ MTU) Jan. 30 Bobby Goepfert, G, SCSU (@ UND) Feb. 6 Michael-Lee Teslak, G, MTU (@ MSU) Feb. 13 Matt Carle, D, Denver (vs MSU) Feb. 20 Jordan Parise, G, UND (vs UMD) Feb. 27 Alex Goligoski, D, UM (@ UAA) Matt Zaba, G, CC (@ UMD) Mar. 6 Brian Elliott, G, UW (vs SCSU) Red Baron WCHA rookies of the Week Date Name, Pos, Team (Opponent) Oct. 10 Geoff Kinrade, D, MTU (vs Mercyhurst) Oct. 17 T.J. Oshie, F, UND (vs Northeastern) Mat Robinson, D, UAA (vs Rensselaer) Oct. 24 Brock Trotter, F, DU (@ Air Force, vs Notre Dame) Oct. 31 Chad Rau, F, CC (@ MSU) Nov. 7 Dan Tormey, G, MSU (@ UAA) Nov. 14 Phil Kessel, F, UM (vs UAA) Dan Tormey, G, MSU (vs DU) Nov. 21 Drew O Connell, G, CC (vs MTU) Nov. 28 Andrew Carroll, F, UMD (vs Yale) Phil Kessel, F, UM (@ Michigan, Michigan State) Dec. 5 Chris Butler, D, DU (vs CC) Dec. 12 Mason Raymond, F, UMD (@ CC) Dec. 19 T.J. Oshie, F, UND (@ Bemidji State, vs Bemidji State) Jan. 2 Michael-Lee Teslak, G, MTU (vs Michigan State) Jan. 9 John Swanson, F, SCSU (@ Colgate) Jan. 16 Justin St. Louis, F, MTU (@ UMD) Dan Tormey, G, MSU (vs UAA) Jan. 23 Michael-Lee Teslak, G, MTU (vs UAA) Jan. 30 Brian Kilburg, D, MSU (@ UMD) Feb. 6 Nick Kemp, F, UMD (vs UW) Feb. 13 Rob Nolan, G, MTU (vs UM) Feb. 20 Phil Kessel, F, UM (vs DU) Mike Zacharias, G, MSU (vs SCSU) Feb. 27 Jonathan Toews, F, UND (@ DU) Mar. 6 Ryan Stoa, F, UM (vs UMD) Jonathan Toews, F, UND (vs MTU) 5 5 t h a n n i v e r s a r y s e a s o n 93