University of Minnesota Athletics
GOPHERS TO HOST MIDWEST SHOWDOWN SEMI-FINAL GAME
3/1/1999 12:00:00 AM | Athletics
The Huskies will host the Beavers Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the National Hockey Center in St. Cloud.
MINNESOTA RECENTLY-The Gophers came away winless in a physical series with Brown over the weekend, dropping a 2-1 decision to the Bears Friday before skating to a 1- 1 tie Saturday.
The two-game set featured two of the nation's top goalies living up to their billing as Minnesota's Erica Killewald (Troy, Mich./Troy) and Brown's Ali Brewer each turned in a pair of stellar performances.
Brewer bested Killewald in the series opener, stopping 28 of 29 shots while Marcie Deering scored both goals for the Bears, including the game-winner with 3:56 to play in the game. Minnesota's lone goal was a short-handed effort by co-captain Kris Scholz (Hugo, Minn./Stillwater Area) while Killewald stopped 28 shots.
Saturday night saw the two teams play tentatively through the first 40 minutes, combining for just 28 shots during two scoreless periods.
The pace of the game picked up in the third period as Minnesota and Brown combined for 27 shots in the period and the Gophers got on the board first when Nadine Muzerall (Mississauga, Ontario/Kimball Union Academy) lifted a rebound over a pile of bodies and past Brewer at 6:54 on the power play.
The Bears got the goal back, however, when Jill Graat picked up a rebound and scored on a shot through traffic with 5:41 to play in the third period.
Killewald made 29 saves for Minnesota while Brewer turned in another 28-save performance for Brown.
ST. CLOUD STATE RECENTLY-The Huskies' regular season came to an end Saturday with an 8-2 loss at Wisconsin- Superior. Sara Ganser, on the power play, and Kimberly Gubernot scored St. Cloud State's goals while Sondra Diaz-Arntzen stopped 35 shots.
Kerry Brodt, the older sister of Gopher center Winny Brodt (Roseville, Minn./Roseville Area) is in her first season as the head coach at St. Cloud State. A 1995 Husky graduate, Brodt earned four letters in golf and earned All-American honors in 1992. She sports a career record of 7-11-2.
BEMIDJI STATE RECENTLY-The Beavers' regular season came to an end Saturday with a 12-0 loss at Minnesota State, Mankato, the second seed in the Midwest Showdown.
MSU, Mankato scored eight times in the opening period to put the game away early. The Mavericks held a 42-6 advantage in shots on goal. Bemidji goalie Janet Hicks and Amber Parks combined for 30 saves.
Ruthann Cantile is in her first season as the Beavers' head coach. A 1996 graduate of Western Michigan, she led the Broncos to the national club championship as the team's coach last season. In her first year as a varsity coach, she is 2-19-0.
ABOUT THE MIDWEST SHOWDOWN-The Midwest Showdown features the five Minnesota schools that will be members of the new Division I women's conference next season.
The tournament gets underway Wednesday as fourth- seeded St. Cloud State hosts fifth-seeded Bemidji State at 7 p.m. at the National Hockey Center. Semifinal action takes place this weekend and gets underway Saturday, at 1:05 p.m., as second-seeded MSU, Mankato hosts third-seeded Minnesota-Duluth at the Midwest Wireless Center. Minnesota will host the St. Cloud State/Bemidji State winner Sunday, beginning at 1 p.m. at Mariucci Arena.
The championship game, pending availability of facilities, while take place at the site of the higher seed, Friday, March 7, at 7 p.m.
AT HER BEST-Minnesota goalie Erica Killewald was on top of her game again this past weekend. Some of her best performances have come against the best teams in the nation.
The Gophers have played six games against the four other schools - Harvard, New Hampshire, Brown and Northeastern - ranked in the top five nationally.
Despite just a 1-2-3 record, Killewald has not allowed more than two goals in any of those six games and has a 1.28 goals against average and a .959 save percentage versus those four opponents.
GETTING OFFENSIVE-Last season, Emily Buchholz (Waupun, Wis./Waupun) led the Gophers' defense with 12 assists. This season, three of the team's blueliners have reached that total.
Brittny Ralph (Brooklyn Center, Minn./Brooklyn Center) leads the Minnesota defense with 16 assists while Buchholz has 14 and Courtney Kennedy (Woburn, Mass./Buckingham, Browne & Nichols) has 13.
In all, the Gophers' regular group of six has scored 26 goals, led by Kennedy with 13, and 83 points.
ABOUT TO IMPLODE-Depth has been the biggest strength of the Minnesota team this year, especially when it comes to scoring.
Last season, the Gophers had six players top the 10-goal mark and seven reached 20 points. This year, 10 players have reached double figures in goals and 11 have broken the 20-point barrier.
Minnesota's top nine forwards have all reached the 10-goal and 20-point marks, including five who have recorded at least 20 assists to date.
TAKING A BREAK-When the U.S. Women's National Team heads to Finland, for the World Championships, March 8- 14, Jenny Schmidgall will be accompanying the team.
Schmidgall will miss the Midwest Showdown, March 7 and 12, but will be available if the Gophers are invited to the American Women's College Hockey Alliance championship game, March 26-27.
This will be Schmidgall's second tour of duty with the national squad. Last year, she was a member of the team that claimed the gold medal at the Winter Olympics. She scored two goals and five points at the Olympic games and tallied nine goals and 21 points in 30 games for the season.
REPRESENTING THEIR COUNTRY-First-year center Jenny Schmidgall and sophomore center Winny Brodt played for the U.S. Women's Select Team at the Three Nations Cup in Finland, Dec. 10-15.
Canada grabbed a 2-1 win over the United States, Dec. 10, in the tourney opener, but the U.S. rebounded the next day with a 3-2 win over Finland as Schmidgall assisted on the game-tying goal and then scored the game-winner 56 seconds into the final period.
After a two-day respite, the U.S. again fell to Canada, Dec. 14, 4-3 in a shootout before closing play with a 4-3 win over Finland.
NATURAL BORN KILLERS-The Gophers were 11-for-11 killing penalties over the weekend. The second-ranked penalty killing team in nation, Minnesota has allowed just two power-play goals in its last 15 games.
During that 15 game stretch, Minnesota had a 10- game streak of not allowing a power-play goal and has killed 54 of 56 power plays.
THE SERIES-Minnesota is 2-0-0 against St. Cloud State, including one victory over Huskies' club team last season. The Gophers are 1-0-0 versus Bemidji State.
WHEN LAST WE MET-The Gophers travelled to Bemidji, Nov. 14, for their only meeting with the Beavers this season. In that game, Minnesota outshot its hosts 68-1, got points from 13 different players, and cruised to a 10-0 victory.
St. Cloud State opened 1999 by coming to Mariucci Arena, Jan. 9, and dropping a 10-0 decision as Jenny Schmidgall had four assists and five points and Nadine Muzerall scored three goals.
NATIONAL STATISTICS-Minnesota was ranked highly in a number of team statistical categories last week, as were several Gopher players.
Total points-4. Jenny Schmidgall, 66; t8. Kris Scholz, 44; 11. Nadine Muzerall, 41. Points per game-4. Schmidgall, 2.44; 8. Muzerall, 1.58; 11. Scholz, 1.52. Total goals-t1. Schmidgall, 32; 8. Muzerall, 23; t20. Scholz, 15. Goals per game-3. Schmidgall, 1.19; 8. Muzerall, 0.88. Total assists-4. Schmidgall, 34; 6. Scholz, 29; t10. Brodt, 23; t20. Laura Slominski, Ambria Thomas, 20. Assists per game-4. Schmidgall, 1.26; 8. Scholz, 1.00; 15. Brodt, 0.85. Power-play goals-t2. Schmidgall, 9; t7. Muzerall, 7. Short-handed goals-t3. Muzerall, Schmidgall, 2. Game-winning goals- t2. Muzerall, 5; t13. Schmidgall, Shannon Kennedy, 3.
Goals against average-1. Erica Killewald, 1.18. Save percentage-1. Killewald, .947. Winning percentage- 3. Killewald, .850. Shutouts-t2. Killewald, Crystal Nicholas, 6.
Scoring offense-2nd, 6.00. Scoring defense-1st, 1.14. Scoring differential-2nd, +4.86. Power play-3rd, 29.1%. Penalty kill-3rd, 90.8%.
THE COACH-Now in her second season behind the Minnesota bench and ninth season as a college head coach, Laura Halldorson has established herself as one of the nation's premier coaches in women's hockey, sporting a 105-85-15 overall record and a 45-10-6 mark at Minnesota.
She began her head coaching career at Colby College, where she led the White Mules, one of only two non-Division I schools at the time in the 12-team Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference, to a 12-9-1 overall record in 1995-96, earning ECAC Co-Coach of the Year honors as well as being named the New England Hockey Writers' Coach of the Year. While at Colby, she also recruited and coached ECAC Player of the Year Meaghan Sittler.
At the national level, she was the assistant coach for the gold medal-winning team at the 1998 U.S. Olympic Festival. In December, she will serve as an assistant for the U.S. National team that competes in the Three Nations Cup in Finland.
A native of Plymouth, Minn., and a 1981 graduate of Wayzata High School, Halldorson played four years at Princeton, where she was a co-captain and all- conference performer while leading the Tigers to three Ivy League titles. She graduated from Princeton in 1985 with a degree in psychology.
A member of the 1987 U.S. National Women's Team and three national club championship teams with the Minnesota Checkers, Halldorson returned to her alma mater in 1987 to begin her collegiate coaching career as an assistant.
GONE POLLING-Minnesota remained second in the U.S. College Hockey Online coaches poll and fell one spot to fourth in the American Hockey Magazine/USA Today poll last week. Harvard maintained its top ranking in both polls.
U.S. College Hockey Online Poll (Feb. 22, 1999) Team Record Pts LW 1.Harvard 24-1-0 100 1 2.Minnesota 15-1-2 88 2 3.New Hampshire 16-4-5 75 3 4.Brown 17-4-3 74 5 5.Northeastern 18-6-2 60 4 6.Dartmouth 14-6-4 48 7 7.Providence 15-9-2 45 6 8.Princeton 13-10-1 15 8 Cornell 11-13-0 15 NR Also receiving votes: None.
American Hockey Magazine/USA Today Poll (Feb. 23, 1999) Team Record Pts LW 1.Harvard 24-1-0 25 1 2.Brown 17-4-3 18 5 3.New Hampshire 16-5-5 15 2 4.Minnesota 25-2-2 9 4 5.Northeastern 21-6-2 7 4 Also receiving votes: None. UP NEXT-A victory in Sunday's Midwest Showdown semifinal would put Minnesota in the championship game, tentatively scheduled for Friday, March 12. The site and time will be announced following this weekend's semifinal games.
THE POWER PLAY-As a team, Minnesota is 33-for-116 (28.4%) on the power play after going 1-for-6 during the weekend. The Gophers' 113 power plays have resulted in 178:38 of power-play time and they average a goal every 5:25 while on the power play.
THE PENALTY-KILL-As a team, Minnesota is 99-for-108 (91.7%) killing penalties after going 11-for-11 over the weekend, with their opponents having spent 172:02 on the power play, averaging a goal every 19:07.
