Birkholz Bolts For The Dub, Leddy Signs With Chicago

Having missed the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back years and the program on a downward slide, Golden Gophers Head Coach Don Lucia needed all the ammo he could find to hopefully make a return to the field of 16 come this spring. However, the chances of that happening were dealt a major blow as sophomore Nick Leddy will forgo his final three seasons at the U in favor of signing with the Chicago Blackhawks.

Also, fellow sophomore-to-be forward Josh Birkholz has left the team and will resume his hockey career this fall for the Everett Silvertips of the WHL after violating team rules. The former Blake star allegedly failed multiple drug tests this summer.

The much bigger of the two losses here is Leddy, who of course was a first round selection by the Minnesota Wild during the 200 NHL Entry Draft and then was subsequently dealt to Chicago last season, reportedly wowed Blackhawks management during their recent prospect camp.

"[Nick] Leddy was excellent," said Chicago GM Stan Bowman to NHL.com recently. "This is the first time we've seen him here in Chicago. (We) saw him perform during the (college) season, but boy he's really smooth out there. I think he's going to be with the Blackhawks for many years. It's exciting to see that."

The Eden Prairie native had a solid first season with the U, though it was marred by a head injury suffered in early November that knocked him out of action for nine games. For the season, he finished with three goals and eight assists, which certainly aren’t great numbers, but when playing for one of the worst goal-scoring Gopher teams in history, it’s tough to say they are that bad, either.

Leddy was arguably the Gophers top defenseman from Christmas on, and when you take into account he came straight from playing high school hockey right into the WCHA as a defenseman, he had a very good first year in Maroon and Gold. He would have easily been the Gophers top defenseman and arguably their top overall player – on paper – heading into the upcoming season. His loss leaves a gigantic hole on the blueline that will be extremely tough to replace this late in the summer.

Look for former Minnetonka blueline Justin Holl, who was ironically selected in the second round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft by Chicago, to join the U this fall as opposed to spending a year in the USHL honing his game.

Holl, if picked to fill Leddy’s skates, would join fellow incoming freshman bluelines Mark Alt, Nate Schmidt, and Jake Parenteau, meaning half of Minnesota’s blueline this season would consist of first-year players.

The rest of the defensive corps would be rounded out by seniors Cade Fairchild and Kevin Wehrs, along with junior Aaron Ness and sophomore Seth Helgeson.

Closed circuit to senior goalie Alex Kangas: hope you’re eating your Wheaties.

Up front, the Gophers will bring in forward Max Gardiner, who was as third round pick by the St. Louis Blues in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, to replace Birkholz. His older brother, Jake, will be a junior at Wisconsin this season, and Max was slated to play in the USHL this fall and then join the Gophers next fall, but plans changed and now the younger Gardiner will be a freshman this fall.

Max was a senior last year at Minnetonka and did well when he played though he missed a chunk of time with both a wrist injury and mono. He is the classic example of a lanky kid (6-3, 176 lbs) who could have really used a year in the USHL to fill out and go against older / bigger competition, but now he won’t have that option and will likely be a bottom-six forward for Minnesota this season.

In fairness to Lucia, there is no way he could have predicted when Leddy committed in the fall of 2008 that he would be a one-and-done player. But it’s hard to ignore the cavalcade of negative remarks from NHL personnel about the poor state of the Minnesota program, and that certainly had to factor into Chicago’s desire to see Leddy continue his career away from Lucia and Mariucci Arena.

Birkholz was known to be a little bit of a diva prior to him coming to the U, but anything with substance abuse needs to be treated and looked at in a completely different vein.

Lucia and the program as a whole have been taking on water fast and furious over the past three years to say the least. Many feel as though Lucia, whose contact is up at the end of the 2011-12 season, needs to at the very least return to the NCAA Tournament to save his job and earn a possible extension. A Leddy-less team that boasts as many as ten freshmen and returns several inept alleged goal-scorers up front doesn’t seem to have “Frozen Four” written all over it, and even the WCHA Final Five, which the Gophers failed to qualify for a year ago, may seem like a long-shot at this point.

Schroeder Leaves Program, Signs Pro Deal With Vancouver

The first domino of the 2010 Golden Gophers offseason fell today as sophomore center Jordan Schroeder signed a pro deal with the Vancouver Canucks and will forgo his final two seasons of eligibility.

Schroeder, who was a first round pick, 22nd overall, by the Canucks in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, wasted little time departing the Gophers after the 2009-10 season ended, which was a train-wreck for both the team and the Prior Lake native.

The former St. Thomas Academy standout committed to the Gophers at a very young age during the summer of 2006, and fans were giddy with excitement after watching Schroeder dominate at the high school level before departing to spend two years in Ann Arbor at the U.S. National Team Development Program.

While playing for the NTDP, Schroeder excelled on the ice and was a leading scorer for the U.S. in most key events and tournaments despite being small in stature and young; he accelerated his studies to enroll at Minnesota as a 17-year-old freshman.

From the vast majority of his freshman season, he was paired on a line with juniors Ryan Stoa and Jay Barriball, and Schroeder continued his strong play into the early stages of his career as a Gopher. He put up a dazzling 45 points as a first-year player and was named the WCHA Rookie of the Year and National Rookie of the Year by College Hockey News and Inside College Hockey, among other accolades.

However, when Stoa signed with the Colorado Avalanche last summer, some wondered whether Schroeder would be able to repeat his stellar freshman performance without the 6-3, 212 pound Stoa at his side. Aside from Schroeder, Stoa, and Barriball, the team didn’t have many scorers returning from a team that finished just four games over .500 and missed the NCAA Tournament.

The team in general got off to a slow start to last season, forcing head coach Don Lucia to shuffle his lines around for much of the season, and it took quite a while to find consistent linemates for Schroeder. Junior transfer Jacob Cepis, who was not eligible to play until late December, and freshman winger Zach Budish were paired with Schroeder when he returned from helping the U.S. capture a gold medal at the World Junior tournament in early January.

That trio would play together nearly each night for the rest of the season and while they were the Gophers most reliable scoring line, they too were inconsistent and could never establish themselves as an elite unit.

Schroeder finished the season with just nine goals and 19 assists, both well below his freshman totals. He often looked disinterested with his play, not unlike former Gopher Kyle Okposo’s performance during his sophomore season which he cut short by leaving the team in early December of that year. There were even rumors that Schroeder was considering “pulling an Okposo” by leaving midway through this past season, and the University had to issue a press release shooting said rumors down.

Still though, it was clear that, for reasons maybe out of his control, Schroeder was not the same player that hit the ice in the fall of 2008 as a freshman.

Now, Minnesota will enter next season without its two top scorers from the year before, as both Schroeder and Tony Lucia, who led the team as a senior with 28 points, are gone. Next is line is senior-to-be Mike Hoeffel, who had 24 points in 34 games. Hoeffel was a second round pick of the New Jersey Devils, so his return is no guarantee.

Gophers Season Comes To An End In Grand Forks

Prior to the start of this past season, several members of the Golden Gophers talked about needing to be a tougher team to play against and needing to play with more of a physical edge. But as the season wore on, it was apparent that those words would not translate to their on-ice play. Look no further than Sunday night’s season-ending 4-1 loss to the North Dakota Fighting Sioux, who hit Minnesota all over Ralph Engelstad Arena and, in the process, punched their ticket to St. Paul for the WCHA Final Five this weekend and, conversely, ended Minnesota's season.

After Saturday’s somewhat improbably 4-2 victory, which came on the heels of an embarrassing 6-0 drubbing to open the series on Friday night, the Gophers had the momentum in the series and certainly had the Sioux questioning themselves a bit heading into the third and deciding game.

However, Minnesota came out flatter than they did on Friday night, as the Sioux outshot them by a 13-2 margin in the first period and drew three power plays. The converted on one of them, as sophomore defenseman Ben Blood sniped a shot over the blocker of Gopher goalie Alex Kangas, who saw his record in Grand Forks drop to 2-5-0.

The Gophers did manage to knot the game up before the first period concluded thanks to sophomore Jake Hansen’s seventh goal of the season, which came on Minnesota’s first shot of the game. The former White Bear Lake standout found a soft spot high in the North Dakota zone, and took a poor pass from Tony Lucia and managed to kick it to his stick and let a low shot fly that found its way past Sioux goalie Brad Eidsness.

The game would change early in the second period, when North Dakota’s Matt Frattin, who was arguably the best player on the ice this weekend, took a run at Minnesota defensemen Kevin Wehrs. Frattin left his feet, led with his forearms and elbows, and absolutely floored Wehrs, who left the game and did not return.

The end result of the play and ensuing scrum was a five minute Gopher power play, though Frattin was not ejected from the game, but rather charged with contact to the head penalty. Minnesota’s power play, which cashed in three times on Saturday night but was ninth in the WCHA for the season, again cost them in a big way. They generated next to no pressure during the major penalty and, just as was the case last month in Duluth when the Bulldogs took a five minute major against the Gophers but killed it off with ease, the opposing team took the momentum because of Minnesota's ineptness.

Later in the second period, freshman defenseman Nick Leddy would injure his leg after a hit from UND’s Brad Malone. Leddy played very sparingly the rest of the way, thus leaving the Gophers with just four defensemen for the majority of the second and third periods.

The two teams were tied at a goal apiece late in the second period until Danny Kristo, who had his initial shot blocked, got one on net that Jason Gregoire tipped past Kangas to put the Sioux out in front for good. It was Gregoire’s 19th goal of the season and came with just under four minutes to go in the second period.

Minnesota never really mounted a charge as the third period wore on, as several of the players that you’d expect to help mount an offensive rally remained silent, which should have surprised no one considering this was more often than not the case for the entire season.

At the 11:24 mark, Frattin would score a goal similar to UND’s second one in that, while on the power play, he had his first shot blocked but got the puck back and scores his ninth of the season, with the assists going to Brett Hextall and Chris VandeVelde.

Hextall would tack on an empty-net goal with under a minute to go, his 13th of the season.

The Gophers clearly didn’t come out on the favorable end of officiating on this night, as there were several calls or non-calls that didn’t go in their favor. Now, that being said, North Dakota was clearly the better team all weekend long and deserved to win this game and the series.

Minnesota couldn’t match their intensity in either of the two losses, and while in Sunday’s game especially the Sioux were a little bit over the top in terms of their play, there was no answer from the Gophers in terms of a) scoring on the power play, or b) taking out some aggression on the Sioux in the form of payback.

This group of Gophers played some of their best hockey towards the end of the season, and they should be given credit for their play in the final two games of the season. But unfortunately for the Gophers, they were far too inconsistent from the start of the season to the end, and thus found themselves playing in Grand Forks against a physical UND team, which was a terrible matchup for the finesse style Minnesota employs.

Minnesota, who will not qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight season, will finish with a below .500 record for the first time since 1998-99 season, which was Doog Woog’s last as head coach.

Also for the second time in as many years, the Gophers will not be playing in the NCAA West Regional which they hosted at Mariucci Arena last season and will host at the Xcel Energy Center two weeks from now.

Now, the team will be left to wonder which underclassmen will leave the program or turn pro over the course of the next six months. Gone is a hard-working but non-impactful senior class that will give way to what could be a large group of freshman that will hopefully help pull the program out of the downward spiral that it’s found itself in for the last three seasons.

UMD Wins 5th NCAA Championship

Wong Scores Winner in 3OT Victory over Cornell

3/21/2010 –UMD 3, Cornell 2 - 3OT

Jessica Wong deflected a Tara Gray shot by Cornell goalie Amanda Mazzotta at 19:26 of the third overtime to give Minnesota-Duluth their fifth NCAA National Collegiate Championship in ten years.

At 119:26, the game was the longest in championship game history.

“It was a great game,” Cornell Coach Doug Derraugh said. “I want to congratulate [UMD coach] Shannon [Miller] and Minnesota-Duluth. They went out, and they took it. They deserved to win.”

The Bulldogs (31-8-2, 20-6-2 WCHA) went 17-1 in the second half of the season, after being only 13-7-2 at the break.

“My strength coach told me that these guys listened and that they had a great work ethic and if you have that in the beginning, you know you're going to accomplish some great things through the course of the season and it'll just take some time,” Miller said.

The winning goal came just six seconds after the end of a Bulldog powerplay, the first penalty called since each team was assessed one early in the first overtime. Lauriane Rougeau came out of the penalty box and challenged Gray’s shot from behind, but she was not able to fully tie up the UMD defenseman’s stick.

“She took a shot and there was traffic in front of the net,” Big Red defenseman Laura Fortino said. “There’s not much you can do about that. We just tried clearing sticks, and it went in.”

Fortino wound up on the ice for the entire penalty kill and beyond, not having the legs to get to the bench even when Cornell managed to clear the puck after logging a ton of ice time.

Mariia Posa also had an assist on Wong’s goal.

“I just went in front of the net,” Wong said. “Coach always says get two in front of the net and double screen.”

Melanie Jue tied the game for Cornell (21-9-6, 14-2-6 ECAC) at 2-2, making the equivalent of a second game necessary, when she scored at 16:30 of the final period with Fortino and Karlee Overguard picking up assists.

"She's somebody who has come up with a lot of big goals for us all year long,” Derraugh said.

Trailing 1-0 coming into the third period, the Bulldogs forged a 2-1 lead on the strength of two powerplay goals. Emmanuelle Blais picked up her own blocked shot and got a shot over Mazzotta just 18 seconds into the period for her 32nd goal of the season.

“I think that this year, we’ve had to come back in a lot of games,” Blais said.

Blais, playing her final game for the ‘Dogs, was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.

When Jaime Rasmussen got open on the weak side and found the net with just over five minutes to go, it looked like UMD had all the goals that they were going to need.

The Big Red got on the board first with a power play goal with 6:36 remaining in the second period. Rougeau got off a slap shot that Jue deflected past Jennifer Harss after UMD had survived a 5-on-3 skater disadvantage. Fortino earned the second assist.

Cornell played in their first NCAA tournament after not having a winning season since 1998.

“The group of seniors that we have, they're four people that you can't replace,” Mazzotta said. “They did amazing things for us this year. When you see where they came from their freshman year to where we got them to now, it's too bad we couldn't get the win tonight, but it's been an incredible team and an incredible season.”

Mazzotta, who finished with 61 saves, was named to the All-Tournament Team along with Big Red teammates Fortino and Rougeau. All of the forwards on the team came from UMD, as Laura Fridfinnson and Wong joined Blais.

Jennifer Harss earned her 29th win in her rookie campaign by turning aside 49 shots.

For Saara Touminen, the game capped a month-long stretch in which she led Team Finland to a bronze medal at the Olympics, then returned to Duluth to captain UMD to WCHA and NCAA titles.

“This year is a like a dream coming true,” she said. “It’s been a busy month, but it’s been an amazing year.”

Gophers Season Ends in National Semifinal

Bulldogs Bounce Minnesota for 4th Straight Time

3/19/10 – Minnesota-Duluth 3, Minnesota 2

The line between winning and losing can be very fine and hard to distinguish. Apparently when Minnesota faces Minnesota-Duluth, that divide is also very real, because the Gophers (26-9-5, 18-6-4 WCHA) keep winding up on the wrong side of the score.

All six head-to-head meetings between the two branches of the University of Minnesota became races to three goals, and the Bulldogs (30-8-2, 20-6-2 WCHA) won the last four of those races. UMD triumphed 3-2 Friday night in the national semifinal before 2,070 fans.

“I think getting the first goal was huge, but we started the game with a lot of confidence,” Coach Shannon Miller said.

The Bulldogs were able to get on the board first despite being out shot 13-7 in the opening period.

“It was a wraparound,” Laura Fridfinnson said. “[Emmanuelle Blais] shot it on net, and the goalie came out to play her, so I just took it behind the net and wrapped it around and got it in.”

Just as key was the goal that enabled UMD to take a 3-1 lead into the locker room for the second intermission. Blais scored off of a pass from Fridfinnson at 19:15, less than two minutes after Sarah Erickson got the Gophers on the scoreboard and halved Duluth’s 2-0 lead.

“It was a great pass,” Blais said. “Obviously, it was good for us to just come back right away after their goal, and especially just at the end of the second.”

Blais, who also scored UMD’s second goal, finished with two goals and an assist. Line mate Fridfinnson added a goal and two helpers.

The Gophers spent the entire final period trying to close the gap once more. They finally pulled their goalie in the final minute and got an extra-attacker goal from Emily West. West batted the puck out of midair and past Jennifer Harss with 55 seconds to go. Harss prevented any additional offense by Minnesota as she did most of the night in saving 27 shots, and the clock ran out on a 3-2 win for UMD.

“I thought [Harss] was remarkable tonight,” Miller said. “She’s gotten better and better through the course of the season.”

So have the Bulldogs.

“Their transition game is second to none,” Erickson said.

Those quick transition strikes often forced Minnesota to pay on the scoreboard for the smallest of miscues.

“There was no doubt in our mind we could win this game; we just didn’t,” Erickson said.

Minnesota Coach Brad Frost said that the hardest part of losing is that “the season comes to an abrupt ending.”

They bow out knowing they fought to the end.

“From a player’s point of view, I think they played amazing the whole game,” Blais said of her opponent. “It’s very hard; I’m absolutely exhausted right now.”

For the ‘Dogs, it continues against Cornell on Sunday at noon in Ridder Arena.

“We haven’t played against them, so it’s kind of exciting to have a new opponent,” Fridfinnson said.

Despite the Big Red’s brief NCAA history, Miller expects a battle on Sunday.

“Anybody that’s here is a great team,” she said. “I’m not worried about a letdown at all. It doesn’t matter who we play, we have to bring our absolute best game, and that’s the bottom line.”