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Denfeld rallied from a 1-0 deficit to beat Eveleth-Gilbert 5-2 in Saturday’s first Hockey Minnesota Day game. Photo credit: John Gilbert

There was a lot of hyperbole leading up to last Saturday’s Hockey Day Minnesota, a joint venture of the Minnesota Wild and Fox Sports North. Turns out, it couldn’t have been closer to perfect.

With the entire state watching the festivities at Bayfront Festival Park, Denfeld rallied from a 1-0 deficit to beat Eveleth-Gilbert 5-2 in a 10 a.m. start to the long day. Then at 1 p.m., Duluth East set out to avenge last March’s state tournament championship loss to Lakeville North, but came up just short in a 3-2 classic.

The scene was fantastic. It was mild, in fact a bit too mild – a surprise visit by the sun in the midst of the second game turned the surface from slick to slushy. The teams didn’t complain. They made the best of it, exactly the way you do it on an outdoor rink. Lakeville North was wearing unique uniforms, adorned with horizontal striped of red, white and black, which made it a little dicey for passing, because East was wearing its black uniforms, trimmed with red and white. Again, though, when you play an outdoor game, you look carefully before you pass.

Duluth East’s Ryan Peterson celebrated his first-period goal on Lakeville North goalie Buzz Eigner. Photo credit: John Gilbert

Austin Crist fed a pass on a Duluth East rush as 5,500 fans filled Bayfront Festival Park’s stands. Photo credit: John Gilbert

Ryan Peterson scored both goals for the Greyhounds, the first to stake them to a 1-0 lead, and the last to ignite a closing rally that couldn’t get closer than 3-2. Meantime, Ryan Poehling scored shorthanded at the end of the first period, then he assisted on the other two goals scored by the Panthers.

The loss snapped an eight-game winning streak by East, who had beaten Hopkins Thursday after blowing a 2-0 lead and then winning 3-2 on Ash Altmann’s overtime goal. The ’Hounds faced Lakeville South Monday night and next moved on to the 7AA tournament seedings.

East goalie Kirk Meierhoff froze the puck as Garret Worth (5) arrived to help out. Photo credit: John Gilbert

The only disappointing thing about Hockey Day Minnesota is that just to the east, about a good slapshot away, UMD was sweeping Colorado College with a 3-2 victory coming after a 5-3 opener. The second game was a tough 2-1 deficit for UMD until Andy Welinski whistled in the tying goal with four minutes left, and then Alex Iafallo scored from the left edge of the crease with 2:42 remaining.
That game would have been a perfect part of Hockey Day, had it been played at 4 p.m. on Fox Sports North. Instead, they showed the Gopher game against Penn State from Mariucci Arena at 4, then showed the Wild game at St. Louis Saturday night. As it turned out, the Gophers lost 5-3 to Penn State, and the Wild lost at St. Louis.
Meanwhile, back at Bayfront Festival Park, they couldn’t play the Fire Department vs. the Police Department because the uncommonly warm day had kept on warming up and it was about 38 degrees and too slushy to play by Saturday night.
I would love to see the City of Duluth round up enough sponsors to hold a month-long celebration on an outdoor rink at Bayfront, with a Squirt tournament the first weekend, a Peewee tournament the second weekend, a girls high school tournament the third weekend, and a high school boys tournament the fourth weekend.

Walt Bruley was summoned out of retirement to provide a little historic Zamboni resurfacing at Bayfront. Photo credit: John Gilbert

Hockey Day Minnesota could easily become the Duluth Hockey Festival.

If that can’t be done, we’ll just all sit back and recall one of the greatest days of celebrating the game – our game – in February of 2016.

Broncos defense more Super than Panthers

The Denver Broncos are the 2016 Super Bowl champion, or “Super Bowl 50” if you prefer. Because of the Broncos stifling defense, their victory shouldn’t be a surprise. I picked the Carolina Panthers, after they eliminated my season-long choice, the Seattle Seahawks.

But there is no disagreement with Peyton Manning and the Broncos winning 24-10. The surprise would only be how totally they subdued Cam Newton, Carolina’s 6-foot-5, 250-pound monster of a quarterback, and the league’s runaway Most Valuable Player.

Since the game, all I’ve heard is critics complaining about how lousy a game it was, how dull, how unexciting. I find brilliant defensive games like a chess match, interesting and compelling every bit as much as a 45-42 shootout.

In the final analysis, however, it must be pointed out that the Carolina defense was every bit as impressive as the Denver defense. In case you missed it, Carolina had a 118-90 edge in rushing yards, and a 197-104 yard edge in passing. That’s 315 total yards for Carolina to 194 for Denver. Manning was 13-23 with one interception, while Newton was 18-41 with one interception. The Panthers made it on three of 15 first downs to 1 of 14 for Denver.
Each team scored one rushing touchdown, and the Panthers had possession for 32 minutes and 47 seconds to Denver’s 27 minutes and 13 seconds. The critical difference, of course, was that Carolina also pounced on one of two fumbles by Newton, and that defensive touchdown was huge.

Denver scored two touchdowns, one on the fumble recovery by Malik Jackson in the first quarter for a 10-0 lead, and the other on a 4-yard “drive” that took three plays. The Panthers – the top-scoring team in the NFL all season – mounted only one serious drive, and it was a beauty. Newton was 4-for-4 on that 73-yard, nine-play march, and he ran twice for 23 total yards. Jonathan Stewart hurdled the goal line for the last yard, but at that point, closing the gap to 10-7, I figured the Panthers were taking over.

Instead, Carolina couldn’t generate anything else resembling that drive. Carolina coach Ron Rivera had a tough day. He lost an early challenge, and when Jericho Cotchery made a sensational diving catch of a Newton pass, and it was ruled incomplete, he spent his second challenge. Replays showed he trapped the ball against his hip, and when he hit the ground and rolled over, he made sure his hand was always under the ball and it never hit the ground. A catch there would have been for a first down, and Carolina was on the move.

By not getting the first down, the Panthers wound up punting, yielding that offensive possession. That call also resonated in the third quarter, when Graham Gano tried a 44-yard field goal to cut into the 13-7 deficit. The kick went off the right upright and it stayed 13-7. On the play, it was obvious Denver was offside, but the officials missed it, and Rivera was short one needed challenge.

Von Miller, Denver’s lighting-quick linebacker, was the game’s MVP, and it was well-deserved. He flew around and past the Carolina offensive ends and tackles to make life miserable for Newton throughout the game. Twice had got to him in time to swat the ball away from him. One was Malik Jackson’s recovery in the end zone for the 13-7 halftime lead, and the other was a critical play that snuffed Carolina’s last hopes.

That was the play where Newton didn’t know the hit was coming, and when the ball was knocked away, he seemed stunned for an instant. When he figured out where the ball was, it was about to be smothered by the Broncos. Curiously, Newton stepped toward the ball, then stepped back a bit, and then there was no chance to recover. He has been roundly criticized for being unwilling to dive after the ball. I think it was more a case of him anticipating the loose ball might squirt away and he would get it, and then it was too late.

Along with his two fumbles and an interception, Newton and the Panthers were undone by the blitzing of Miller and DeMarcus Ware, who had Carolina’s linemen so spooked they repeatedly flinched their way to four false starts. On the other side, Manning moved the Broncos into position for anticipated touchdowns several times, only to find the Panthers defense stiffen into an impenetrable wall.

Manning, in fact, failed to convert on eight consecutive third-down situations in the defensive battle. Two such great quarterbacks were unable to generate more than Newton’s lone touchdown drive, and yet the old adage was proven once again, that a great defense can stop a great offense. Or in this case, two great defenses can stop two great offenses, in the same game.

After the game, Newton was accused of being petulant, pouting, immature, and rude. Really, all he did was sit on the pedestal for about six questions, then, after very brief responses, he got up and walked away, wearing a hoodie to cloak his frustration. The next day he admitted he’s a sore loser, doesn’t like to lose, and never will.

I say, more power to him. I’ve listened to those stars of national journalism ask some of the most obnoxious questions. “How did you feel when you...”, or “tell us about what went through your mind...” If the columnists want to rip Newton for not being cordial in the post-loss setting, perhaps we could have a rule where the flowers of journalism each get to immediately submit one question for the NFL to peruse and select any that are relevant and might actually coax an articulate response. My thought is it would be an even shorter press conferences than Newton made it.