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Since UMD entered the old WCHA, back in the 1960s, any and every game against the University of Minnesota has been the pinnacle of the hockey season. This year should have been no different, especially when Minnesota started the season ranked No. 1 in the country in some prognostications, and UMD was ranked No. 2.


A promoter’s dream, it would seem. But when the Bulldogs travel to Minneapolis to face the Gophers Friday night, then the two teams drive north to AMSOIL Arena for Saturday night’s rematch, the traditional edge is no longer there.

Of course, with Minnesota vacating the WCHA to help start the Big Ten hockey conference, and UMD joining a group of rebellious colleges to start the NCHC (National Collegiate Hockey Conference), the old WCHA rivalry is ancient history. These games are very important for things like national rank and post-season seedings, perhaps, and even though Minnesota coach Don Lucia has insisted the Gophers games against traditional rivals like UMD and North Dakota will remain just as intense, the fact is -- they aren’t.

Almost as though a footnote was required, the teams opened up last weekend with nonconference games. Vermont came to Minnesota and stunned the Gophers 3-0. UMD suffered an on-ice power failure, with its opener against Bemidji State postponed by an external power failure that knocked out the lights and the ice-freezing capacity of AMSOIL Arena. So the Bulldogs and Bemidji State drove up Hwy. 2 to Bemidji for Saturday’s return match, which had become the opener now. Bemidji State scored with 23 seconds remaining to beat UMD 3-2.

That means this weekend, instead of the nation’s potential No. 1 and No. 2 teams colliding, the series will be between No. 7 UMD and No. 15 Minnesota.


Once the puck drops, nobody can force the Bulldogs to back off their intensity at Mariucci Arena, nor can they coax the Gophers to ease off from their preferred pace.

What you want to do is get your hands on a ticket, arrive early, and expect to see a game for bragging rights, at the very least.

Football In Spotlight

UMD had to summon all its moxie in the fourth quarter to hold off St. Cloud State and claim a 34-27 victory in a Homecoming game that drew a record 6,157 fans to Malosky Stadium. That makes the Bulldogs 4-2 overall, but 2-0 atop the North Division of the NSIC, as they head for the University of Mary and Saturday’s road trip.

Meanwhile, St. Scholastica continues to parallel UMD’s title quest in the UMAC. The Saints beat Iowa Wesleyan 41-8 last Saturday at Public Schools Stadium, to become 5-1 overall and 5-0 atop the UMAC.

Actually, that 5-0 record is only good for a share of first place, because Northwester College of Roseville also is 5-0. When do they meet, I hear you ask? How about Saturday, at Northwestern.

“They have really come on as a program,” said Kurt Ramley, St. Scholastica’s second-year coach. “The last few years, St. Scholastica has played Northwestern for the outright championship. It’s become a big rivalry, and the winner this time should have the inside track on the conference title.”

Ramler is a lot like UMD coach Kurt Wiese. Both have imaginative and creative offenses, but both take the most pride in how their defense can carry their fortunes. The Saints simply surrounded every Iowa Wesleyan ball-carrier last weekend, allowing the offense to establish a 35-0 halftime lead.

Even the Gophers caught on to the idea of winning, beating Purdue, but the Gophers had better bear down this weekend, with Nebraska coming to TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. The Cornhuskers have lost four games this season, but all four have come on their opponents’ last play of the game -- an amazing and presumably unprecedented occurrence. what Utley inflicted.

Baseball Playoffs Command Fall Sports Spotlight

Maybe the best thing about the Minnesota Twins not being in the Major League playoffs is that we can all relax and watch the divisional games in both leagues with none of the self-imposed pressure we put on ourselves – as though our support can actually help “our” team come through.
For me, I’m still riding a casual comment I made back in the first week of August. The Twins had just gone to Toronto for a series, and they were 54-50 at the time, in the thick of the American League Wild Card picture. Toronto was a comparative unknown.  Being from Canada, the Blue Jays get precious little national television coverage in the U.S., although we knew they were rebuilding and had only a 50-51 record.
But we got plenty of coverage of that series, which was swept by the Blue Jays in four straight. That dropped the Twins to 54-54, and lifted the Blue Jays to a position best called “onrushing.” That sweep represented the middle of an 11-game winning streak, with Toronto going into New York and sweeping the Yankees to serve notice that first place in the East was up for grabs.
At any rate, back in that first week of August, I made the comment that while we could hope the Twins made it, if they didn’t, I would most like to see a World Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Chicago Cubs.
Now, I had my mind blown by watching the Jays swing from the heels at every pitch, going for home runs shamelessly, and attaining them surprisingly often. As for the Cubs, I’ve never been much of a Cubs fan, but I do think the world of Joe Madden as a manager, and when he left Tampa and landed in Chicago, I paid more than casual attention. Sure enough, he threw a cluster of promising rookies into the mix, got the Cubs to believe, and brought them along all season.
Because I suggested that would be my ideal World Series to watch, I’ve now been pulling for it. When Toronto lost both games at home to Texas in the best-of-five divisional tournament, it looked bleak. But the Blue Jays broke out with their customary home run punch and swept both games in Texas, to send the series back to Toronto for a deciding Game 5. That’ll be history, by the time you read this, but I stand by my pick.
The Cubs, meanwhile, had to go into Pittsburgh and win a tough game aginst the battle-hardened, blue-collar Pirates. They did it, and then they lost the first game of the best-of-five at St. Louis, which is generally considered the best team in baseball this season. The Cubs then bounced back, hitting a playoff record six home runs to overrun the Cardinals and take a 2-1 lead in games once in Chicago.
It’s been highly entertaining, and not without controversy. When the Mets played the Dodgers in Los Angeles, it was a classic match up. There was a huge play in Game 2 that had earth-shaking impact on the game. With the Mets leading 2-1, the Dodgers had runners on first and third in the seventh inning. On a hard ground ball up the middle, the Mets went for an unlikely double play, with the second baseman making a backhand stab at the ball behind the bag, and flipping it toward second.
Mets shortstop Ruben Tejeda, a 36-year-old veteran and a great player, came across the bag swiftly, as Chase Utley, a hard-nosed baserunner, came charging in from first. In baseball, rules have been installed to try to avert purposeful collisions, but they never get called or punished despite happening in virtually every game.
In this case, Tejeda is going hard, and has to reach back to catch the throw, as he kicked at the second base bag. The only way he could possibly get a throw off to first was to spin to the outside, 360 degrees, and fire. Utley, coming in hard, never even came close to the bag, but instead threw his body at Tejeda, four or five feet wide to the right. Utley didn’t even hit the ground until his body was past the bag, and with Tejeda pivoting artfully, he was helpless with his back turned to the infield, and Utley hit him on the back of the right leg. Remarkably, Tejeda held onto the ball, as his body crashed to the dirt. He right fibula was broken, and he was fitted with an inflatable cast before being carried off the field.
The umpire called Utley out, and without argument, he got up and jogged to the dugout. Interestingly, he never touched second base. The Dodgers asked for a review, and, incredibly, the officials determined that one view of the slow motion appeared to indicate that Tejeda’s attempted toe drag across the outer edge of second base may indeed have missed the bag by a half-inch, max. The umpires reversed the call, declared Utley safe because Tejeda missed the bag.
Now, another tradition in Major League baseball is that there are a lot of phantom plays at second base, as infielders are liberally allowed to come close as they hop over the bag before making their throws to first. This particular play was closer than any “neighborhood” phantom play could be. And while Tejeda was carried off on a stretcher, with his season over and his career in jeopardy, Utley was allowed to go back to second base – which he never touched – and was called safe.
Joe Torre, the former manager now running discipline in the Major Leagues, immediately expressed concern for how late the slide was, and how he was going to have to look at the videos harder. The next day, he declared that Utley was being suspended for two games. If the Dodgers just shut up and accepted it, Utley would have missed the two games at the Mets field and then he’d have returned to the lineup. Instead, the Dodgers immediately protested and appealed. The appeal was delayed for who knows how long, so he can play. But the Dodgers didn’t use him in the first game in New York, perhaps fearing fan reprisal. Had they not appealed, that game would have been half his suspension.
The basis for the appeal is that those hard slides into infielders are commonplace and never called. Torre acknowledged as much, but said some plays go over the line, and a tightening of enforcement was necessary.
As written, Rule 5.09 (a) (13) states that the rule is intended to prevent the “deliberate action of leaving the baseline for the obvious purpose of crashing into the pivot man on a double play, rather than trying to reach the base.”
To me, it’s a lot like a rule such as the speed limit on a highway. If you happen to be driving in a string of cars that are all going 10 mph over the limit, and you get stopped by a policeman, you can whine and scream all you want, but no matter how many others might have done the same thing, it does not relieve you of exceeding the speed limit. I think Utley is a great player, but in this case, he is wrong.
Maybe Major League Baseball could write in a clause called the “Utley Rule,” in which umpires may or may not call a runner out for sliding recklessly into an infielder, but if he happens to fracture the leg of the infielder with his action, then he shall be called out, ejected from the game, and immediately suspended for the next two games.
I want to see Utley play, but more than that, I want to see Tejeda make his silky smooth plays at shortstop. Nobody deserves what Utley inflicted.