Gopher fans may have seen the last of Austrian phenom Thomas Vanek (photo: Christopher Brian Dudek).<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
There, an early scare in the form of two quick scores for the Irish merely strengthened the Gophers’ aura. The two-time defending champions scored five unanswered goals to take a 5-2 win and roll into the regional final against the Bulldogs, whom the Gophers had just beaten a week earlier.<\/p>\n
Ay, there’s the rub. Although that Final Five win over UMD secured the top seed for the Gophers — to the consternation of those still not familiar with the selection process — the Bulldogs had won all four regular-season meetings between the teams, including a decisive sweep, 6-1 and 4-1, on Feb. 13 and 14 in Duluth.<\/p>\n
So perhaps the Gophers just went to the well once too often.<\/p>\n
In the regional showdown, Minnesota-Duluth got sterling play from netminder Isaac Reichmuth, who was in top form in outdueling Gopher freshman Kellen Briggs.<\/p>\n
Minnesota’s star forwards — including 2003 playoff hero Thomas Vanek and red-hot Troy Riddle — were shut down by the Duluth defense, although postseason stalwart Grant Potulny did score the Gophers’ lone goal.<\/p>\n
That proved lethal to the Gophers’ three-peat hopes, which had seemed very real during their late-season charge. Head coach Don Lucia, though, was in no mood to mope.<\/p>\n
“We won 27 games, we won our playoff title and made it to the NCAA quarterfinal,” Lucia told the Minnesota Daily<\/i>. “I think we had a great year.”<\/p>\n
Two weeks earlier, Lucia had bristled — as much as the even-keeled bench boss can — at the suggestion that the Gophers’ season was one of underperformance.<\/p>\n
“You’ve got to allow a team to grow,” said Lucia after the Gophers’ sweep of SCSU. “We’ve won, what, 24 games [at the time] and we’re fifth in the PairWise, and you get criticized because it’s not enough.”<\/p>\n
In fact, the Gophers put together a 25-6-2 run between the near-disastrous start — which came while contending with the defection and injury of two top blueliners, and the loss of their championship goalie — and the season-ending loss, but still finished three wins short of their goal.<\/p>\n
So the college hockey world will have to wait a few more years to see Michigan’s 1951-53 streak of championships equaled. And for Minnesota, the loss begins an offseason of uncertainty.<\/p>\n
Apart from the graduation of seniors Potulny, Riddle and playmaking center Matt Koalska, Vanek — the fifth overall pick, by Buffalo, in the 2003 NHL draft — is a candidate to depart the program for the pros. And Hobey Baker finalist Keith Ballard — whose NHL rights were acquired last month by Phoenix — may leave as well.<\/p>\n
Should those things come to pass, Minnesota would enter 2004-05 without its top four scorers from a year ago, and with junior-to-be Gino Guyer (11-21–32) as its most productive returning forward.<\/p>\n
Of course, both Vanek and Ballard’s departures would be semi-expected, unlike that of netminder Travis Weber, who left the team a month before the start of this season for personal reasons. That left backup Justin Johnson and Briggs, a rookie not expected to carry the load, as the goaltenders for a team that needed a veteran presence between the pipes.<\/p>\n
Briggs, the number-one goaltender down the stretch, will have that year of experience to start next season. Also on board will be Guyer, steady blueliner Chris Harrington, high-upside Barry Tallackson, rapidly-developing Danny Irmen and another Potulny — Ryan, who showed great promise after returning from injury, giving up a medical redshirt to play with big brother Grant.<\/p>\n
Those players, and the rest of the Gophers, will be expected to take up the chase for the NCAA title anew, no matter how much talent has been lost.<\/p>\n
This is the State of Hockey, after all, where championships are expected, even after a 23-year hiatus between legendary coach Herb Brooks’ 1979 title-winners (Brooks’ third, all with Minnesota) and Lucia’s 2002 team.<\/p>\n
(The state, of course, may still get its championship courtesy of the Bulldogs, who play Denver in the first national semifinal Thursday.)<\/p>\n
So what derailed this year’s chances? Minnesota was picked — inappropriately, perhaps — as the No. 1 team in the nation in the preseason USCHO.com poll, before falling almost out of the national picture by mid-November. But by the end of the season, no one wanted to play the Gophers.<\/p>\n
No one, that is, except for the Bulldogs, who were itching for redemption after their Final Five loss. And history will likely record that Minnesota was simply beaten by a better team.<\/p>\n
But for the Gophers, it’s hardly a time to hang their heads.<\/p>\n
“These seniors have been a part getting two playoff titles, two national titles — you see how difficult it is to get to a Frozen Four once, to be able to win back-to-back national titles is a tremendous accomplishment,” said Lucia after the loss.<\/p>\n
“They’ve had the weight of that on their shoulders all year. I couldn’t be more proud of our guys and what they’ve accomplished.”<\/p>\n
Paula C. Weston contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Everything seemed to be falling into place for the Gophers, but something funny happened along the way…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/p>\n