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Let’s agree on one thing: Seattle’s victory over Green Bay in the NFC championship game was NOT the best game in pro football history. But it might have been the most amazing -- maybe even the greatest -- in NFL history.

How can a game be the greatest without being the best? Easy. The Seattle Seahawks, defending Super Bowl champs, were my pick to win it again. The Green Bay Packers, under the fine touch of Aaron Rodgers, was a worthy challenger, there in the rain and wind of Seattle. 

For three quarters, and part of the fourth, the Packers outplayed the Seahawks on virtually every series, while Russell Wilson and the Seahawks suffered through the kind of miserable performance you don’t like to see any team have in such an important game. Wilson was intercepted four times, and Seattle fumbled away a fifth turnover. The Packers were dominant because their defense was able to contain and punish the Seahawks normally explosive offense. It was 16-0 at halftime.

Then it came down to incredible plays. And nobody does those better than the Seattle Seahawks. They can beat you on offense, on defense, on special teams, and, when the usual game-plan fails, they can beat you with trick plays. A fake field goal in the third quarter saw holder Jon Ryan roll out to the left and lob a pass to Garry Gilliam, a tackle turned eligible, standing 19 yards away, uncovered, in the end zone. That cut the deficit to 16-7, but Mason Crosby kicked his fourth field goal of the game to make it 19-7 for the Packers in the fourth quarter.

Wilson, whose passes had been going to the Packers as much as to Seahawks all day, suddenly caught fire. He forced the Packers to look for Marshawn Lynch -- the NFL’s best running back -- at the goal line, then ran in himself from the 1 to cut it to 19-14 with 2:09 remaining, but the odds were slim they’d get the ball back. The Seahawks tried a high pop-up of an onside kick, and recovered when it bonked a Packer on his facemask. Incredibly, Lynch blasted through for a 24-yard touchdown and Seattle has a most-improbable 20-19 lead. 

Coach Pete Carroll, realizing one point wouldn’t guarantee anything, went for a 2-point conversion, and on what might have been the most amazing play of the game, Wilson scrambled right, ducked and dodged, but looked hopelessly headed for a sack. Instead, he spun and put everything on a high, lofted pass back toward the left. If the pass had been long enough, it probably would have been intercepted; it was short by just enough so that Luke Willson had to step back out on the field, catching the ball just in front of the leaping defenders, then he leaned into the end zone. That made it 22-19 Seahawks.

But Rodgers brought the Packers back far enough that Crosby could tie the game with a 48-yard field goal, his fifth of the game. And we went to overtime. Seattle won the toss, received, but had to start at its own 13 yard line. No matter. Wilson ran and passed, and Lynch was the superb weapon, to reach the Packer 35. From there, Wilson launched a high, arching strike to Jermaine Kersey, who had a half step on the defender and made the catch while in firm grasp, falling into the end zone. The Seahawks won 28-22.

The heroes were many, and Wilson was overcome with emotion, facing up to post-game interviews still sobbing, and with tears streaming down his face. Wilson was 14-29 for 209 yards -- only because he completed six of his last seven passes for 134 yards after a miserable 8-22 for 75 measly yards until the final rally. Lynch carried the ball 25 times for 157 yards. Michael Sherman had an interception for Seattle, but played the second half ferociously despite a pinched nerve negating use of his left arm.

Fingers are being pointed at all sorts of unfortunate Packers, but let’s pause to give ultimate credit to the Seahawks bend-but-don’t-break defense. They boast about their Legion of Boom, but consider that while the Packers appeared to be dominating the game, they were outgained 194-135 in rushing yards, and 203-171 in passing yards. I find that unbelievable. 

But the bigger achievement is that the 13-yard touchdown pass from Rodgers to Randall Cobb to make it 13-0 in the first quarter was the only time the Packers scored a touchdown in the game. Six times the Packers seemed ready to strike, but on five of those, the Seahawks forced them to settle for Crosby field goals. The Seahawks scored three times in regulation, but they were all touchdowns, with a fourth coming in overtime.

Me? I feel bad for Rodgers and for the brilliant Packer defense that stifled Seattle for much of the game, but the Packers didn’t give that game away. The Seattle Seahawks found a way to get it all together and take it. 

John Gilbert has been writing sports for over 30 years. Formerly with the Star Tribune and WCCO. He currently hosts a daily radio show on KDAL AM.

UMD Men Stumble, Women Rise in Puck Sweeps

As the legend goes, no matter how much hockey you watch, you are still likely to see something you’ve never seen before. If you were among the folks at AMSOIL Arena Saturday afternoon, when UMD’s women beat St. Cloud State 2-0, it happened again.

 The Bulldogs got an early lead when Katherine McGovern scored her first goal. It stayed that way until the third period, when a pileup in the St. Cloud crease resulted in the officials calling for a penalty shot because a defenseman had covered the puck in the crease. Katarina Mrazova got the call for UND, skated in, cut to her backhand, and slid the puck behind goaltender Julie Friend -- but also out the other side. A near miss. But that’s not the curious thing.

 Bridgette Lacquette, a defenseman I’ve criticized frequently for not sharing the puck, took a feed from Zoe Hickel and moved in, beating a defender, than sending a perfect pass to the left edge, where Lara Stalder converted a one-timer to make it 2-0.

 Eric Rud, the new St. Cloud State coach, knew he had to gamble, so he pulled Friend with over 3 minutes remaining. The Huskies hustled and tried, but couldn’t break through Kayla Black’s shutout. With 2:57 left, UMD ace Ashleigh Brykaliuk got loose in center ice, deked around the last defenseman, and had nothing but 90 feet of open ice between her and the open net. An official blew the whistle. Meekly, I might add. Play stopped, naturally. There followed a long discussion among all the officials. It had to last five minutes.

 Upstairs, we examined a video stop-action. Aha! The Huskies had six skaters on the ice. Then we had a secondary realization -- with the goaltender pulled, they were allowed to have six skaters. After the long delay, the Huskies were served with a penalty for too-many on the ice. But UMD was deprived of a cinch goal. It ended 2-0, so no further harm was done.

 But I had to ask Rud what the officials said to him. “They said that for about 10 seconds before they blew the whistle, we had seven players on the ice,” said Rud. He didn’t say anything derogatory, although he had a faint smirk that indicated he knew how many were on the ice, and it might have coincided with what I saw on the replay.

 My concern was heightened, not alleviated, by that disclosure. First, if an official saw seven Huskies on the ice, why was there a 10-second delay before calling it? More than that, I don’t even want to think about the possibility that the officials knew they blew the call, but instead of saying, “Sorry, we shouldn’t have blown the whistle. Let’s face off,” they called a penalty on the Huskies to mask their embarrassment at such a strange call.

 Sweeping the pesky Huskies 2-0 and 3-2, the Bulldogs strengthened their hold on third place in the WCHA, at 10-6-2. That’s close behind second-place Wisconsin’s 14-4-2, and stronger than fourth-place Ohio State’s 9-9-2.

 The UMD men, on the other hand, were caught up in an exhaustive series against Western Michigan, trailing 2-0 in the first period before rallying for a 2-2 tie -- only to lose to Nolan LaPorte’s backhand goal in the 1-1 shootout. The Bulldogs got a break because last-place Colorado College knocked off first-place Nebraska-Omaha, but in the second game, the Bulldogs again fell behind 1-0 and 2-1, but rallied to tie 1-1 when Alex Iafallo scored a picture goal from Adam Krause later in the first period, and got a scramble goal at the crease for a 2-2 tie midway through the third period. But Colton Hargrove scored to give Western a 3-2 lead, expanded to 4-2 by an empty-net tally.

 Still, the NCHC is so tight, the race is far from over. UMD now must turn its attention to Pairwise ratings and the Xcel Center tournament.

Patriots? Cheat? Never!

 Amazing word out of the AFC championship game is that the New England Patriots, who romped to a 45-7 victory at home over Indianapolis last Sunday, have been accused of slightly deflating some of the footballs during the game.

That could prevent them from being kicked well, and the softer balls might have allowed Tom Brady to more easily grasp them.