Western Collegiate Hockey Association
Jean-Philippe Lamoureux stops Mike Curry in game action between UND and UMD |
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Knowns and Lesser-Knowns Lead Fighting Sioux to Key Road Sweep at UMD
March 6, 2008
T.J. Oshie deserves a lot of credit for being North Dakota's catalyst, and Ryan Duncan, his linemate and Hobey Baker Memorial Award winner last season, is staying right up there with Oshie, 1-2 in team scoring. But a lot more has come together to lift the onrushing North Dakota Fighting Sioux to the No. 1 rank in the nation, and a last-weekend shot at the WCHA championship.
One of coach Dave Hakstol's biggest challenges this season was to find someone who could join Oshie on the first line, after Jonathan Toews left school to sign with the Chicago Blackhawks. First he tried Chris VandeVelde, it simply didn't work very well, and the Sioux went along splitting their first seven WCHA series. Hakstol tried others, and only by chance did he try Andrew Kozek up there.
Sure enough, VandeVelde and Kozek stepped prominently into the spotlight last weekend to lift the Fighting Sioux to a tough WCHA road sweep at Minnesota Duluth, with a 2-0 victory, then 2-1 in overtime. Not that they were alone, of course. Jean-Philippe Lamoureux, who continues to be 5-foot-8 but also continues to play like a giant in goal, was spectacular, and he had a lot of help from an underrated Fighting Sioux defense to subdue the eager and hustling Bulldogs.
That sweep lifted North Dakota to an 18-7-1 WCHA record, just as Minnesota State, Mankato stunned Colorado College in the second game at Colorado Springs to leave CC 19-6-1, only two points ahead of the Sioux, and facing a home-and-home series with arch-rival Denver (16-9-1) to conclude the regular season.
North Dakota's final weekend at home, in Ralph Engelstad Arena, is no picnic. St.Cloud State (12-12-2) travels to Grand Forks, exactly tied with Minnesota State (11-11-4) for the fifth and final home-ice playoff position, with 26 points - just one point behind fourth-place Wisconsin. The plot thickens because Wisconsin's season is done, so their 11-12-5 mark for 27 points can't change.
That means Mankato could pass the Badgers just by splitting with Michigan Tech in Mankato, so St. Cloud State can do the same only by splitting at North Dakota. On the other hand, if both the Mavericks and Huskies lose both games this weekend, seventh-place Minnesota could pass both of them by sweeping Minnesota Duluth at Mariucci Arena, to claim the final home-ice slot.
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Great theatrics. But none of it would have mattered to North Dakota unless the Sioux took care of business at Duluth last weekend, which they did, by the most slender of margins. The teams had split an earlier series at North Dakota. Go back to midseason, and North Dakota started 6-6 before going on a 12-0-1 surge in league games (14-0-1 overall) - the hottest streak in the nation. UMD was similarly 6-6-3 through the first semester of games. But just as the Fighting Sioux took off, the Bulldogs faltered to a 2-8-2 second half. None of that matters, because UMD's players seem to rise to a frenzy whenever either Minnesota or North Dakota is in the opposite bench.
In the first game, goaltenders Lamoureux and UMD's Alex Stalock battled through the first period, which was scoreless until :45 seconds remained. At that point, Oshie pulled a faceoff back to Chay Genoway at the right point. Genoway blasted a shot that clanked in off the crossbar. Afterward, it was discovered that Oshie had deflected the shot off the crossbar, but he wasn't going to take credit for it.
"A point's a point," he shrugged, meaning the assist would be just as good as the goal, and overlooking the hockey "tradition" that shows many players claiming goals they really didn't touch, but only a special few who would not try to claim a goal they legitimately did score. Oshie is that special. He stood out in that first game, as if everyone played at a feverish pace, but he had a "hyper" switch that allowed him to play at an even quicker tempo.
The score stayed 1-0 until the final minute of the second period. Oshie was stationed in the left circle on a power-play when the Sioux made a dizzying passing exercise when all five Sioux skaters touched the puck. The next-to-last was Oshie, whose quick relay found VandeVelde at the crease. VandeVelde stepped to his left and deposited the puck past Stalock.
Dizzying maybe, but Oshie remembered it like Memorex. "Robbie Bina had it on the point, and he passed to Taylor Chorney at the other point; Chorney passed it in to me, and I got it to VandeVelde," said Oshie, although it required more time to describe the sequence than it took for the swift Sioux to execute it.
After outshooting the Bulldogs 35-28, UMD had been blanked for the third straight game. Not that the pace of the game displayed any great difference. UMD played hard, deserved better, and didn't even really make a mistake on either goal.
In the second game, the Bulldogs played even better hockey. They lost Michael Gergen for a major checking from behind disqualification just 1:11 into the first period when he slammed Chay Genoway into the end boards. The Sioux, who lost center Evan Trupp to a twisted ankle in the first game, lost Genoway for the rest of the game with a hand or wrist injury.
The second straight Lamoureux-Stalock goaltending duel raged into the third period 0-0. Lamoureux stopped a breakaway by Mike Curry to keep it scoreless, but the Bulldogs finally broke through when MacGregor Sharp lunged to score at the crease at 11:10. The 1-0 score not only was UMD's first lead in a while, but it snapped a 232 minute, 10 second span of scoreless futility for the Bulldogs. It also ended 196 minutes and 42 seconds of shutout hockey by Lamoureux.
Just over a minute later, UMD defenseman Josh Meyers backpedaled into his zone. In a weird, bad-karma instant, Meyers scuffed the puck when he tried to stickhandle one more time. In that same instant, Kozek grabbed for the puck and snapped a quick shot. Before Stalock knew the puck had changed hands, Kozek's deadly shot had zipped between his leg pads at 12:50. The 1-0 lead had changed to 1-1.
"After trying VandeVelde on that line with Oshie and Duncan, we moved Brad Miller there," said Hakstol. "But Brad got sick when we went to Mankato. Evan Trupp didn't work out there, so I moved Kozek there. He had been playing well, and he's got a lethal shot, one of those quick-release guys."
No kidding. The goal was also Kozek's 15th of the season, which means he quietly has assumed the team goal-scoring lead, ahead of Oshie's 14 and the 13 of both Duncan and VandeVelde. "I was just forechecking, and the puck came loose," said Kozek, a junior from Sicamous, British Columbia, who has found himself after two seasons. "I got it away quick and it went 5-hole. I've been on that line for about four weeks now. Those two are unbelievable players - I just have to get open."
The 1-1 tie held until the third period ended. The Sioux outshot UMD 35-23, but nothing was settled until overtime. The big line started and came off. Next up was VandeVelde's line. Joe Finley, the big, 6-foot-7 defenseman, fired the puck in behind the UMD goal. Winger Rylan Kaip got it and jammed it into the crease.
VandeVelde, at the right edge, and Stalock saw the loose puck at the same instant. Stalock dived to cover, and VandeVelde stabbed for the puck with a lunge, stuffing it through at 0:53 of overtime. "We both went for it, and I got to it first, but just barely," said VandeVelde, who now also has 14 goals. His last two were huge - the clincher in the 2-0 game, and the overtime game-winner, 2-1.
The Bulldogs, once again, deserved a better fate. The Sioux players mobbed VandeVelde, then they engulfed Lamoureux. Hakstol should put in rules about not mobbing the 5-8 Lamoureux too eagerly, but if being small means being quick, small wins. His play, as a senior, is remindful of another diminutive Sioux goaltender, Karl Goehring, who seemed to put Dean Blais-coached Sioux teams into the Frozen Four and himself into the Sioux record books every year a decade ago.
"Karl is the main reason I am where I am right now," said Lamoureux. "My dad (Jean-Pierre Lamoureux) played goal for the Fighting Sioux back in 1979-83. When I was 14, I went to a camp that Karl was putting on, and I have kept working out with him every summer, when he comes back to Grand Forks."
Lamoureux's dad had the misfortune of being at North Dakota when Bob Iwabucci backstopped an NCAA championship team in 1979-80, then was backup to future NHL'er Jon Casey the next three seasons, including the 1981-82 NCAA championship term.
"UMD played well, and I had to play smart," Lamoureux said. "I know my role. Stats are fine, but I have to be solid. The first half of the season, we played well, but we seemed to lose have three or four minute lapses here and there. The second half, we've had good focus and execution. Teams are so evenly matched, we have to be ready to play 60 minutes.
"We have to be ready to play desperate teams every night."
Sounds like the motto for the WCHA's final week.