As we start to see the season begin to transform the landscape of green to brown it harkens many to be thinking about holidays like Thanksgiving or Halloween. For some they may see this change as a sign that its the start of football season, where the fans find a nice comfortable place to watch their favorite team(s) battle it out on Saturday and Sunday. That sounds all well and good until you consider what sort of football most of the fans in the State of Hockey have been afflicted to. With no offense to the many high school, Division II and Division III programs in the state I am of course referring to the poor starts of the University of Minnesota and to a lesser extent the Minnesota Vikings. I promise, I will only touch on either of these two embattled organizations rather briefly before I begin my main point. It started on Thursday as the heavily hyped NFL Kickoff to the 2010-11 season matched up the Minnesota Vikings and the defending champion New Orleans Saints. After giving up a quick score to New Orleans the Vikings defense stepped up and kept Minnesota in the game, but Brett Favre had difficulty finding open guys as neither Percy Harvin or Bernard Berrian could find open space while Adrian Peterson had rather average first game which was disheartening 14-9 loss. If you thought the vanishing act of the Vikings recievers or vaunted pass rusher Jared Allen was impressive that was nothing in comparison to the complete disappearance of the Golden Gophers defense in their game against Division I-AA opponent South Dakota University. Minnesota found itself down 28-10 at one point to their neighbor to the west and the Big 10 representative was thoroughly embarrassed by the Coyotes Dante Warren who was making just his 2nd start of his college football career as he shredded the the rodents for 358 yards through the air and another 81 on the ground as South Dakota rolled to an 41-31 victory. Heavily criticized Head Coach Tim Brewster has stated he acknowledges the fans’ frustration when he told the Minneapolis Star Tribune, “There’s such a deep-seated skepticism about our program, because there hasn’t been a championship since 1967. That’s a long time. So I have empathy with our fans who want to win a championship.” If you didn’t know they were talking about the Minnesota Golden Gophers football program you could be forgiven if someone thought he was referring to the Toronto Maple Leafs but I digress. So are you sick of the programs not living up to the hype? If you are tired of the empty cliches and disappointing football teams its time to embrace hockey. Why not embrace the Wild and even though they’re not playing, its prospects are busy playing in the annual Traverse City NHL Center I.C.E. Tournament.
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Minnesota has been a participant in this 8 team tournament the last few years, but it has been a while since the organization has had a competitive team. The seven other teams are the Eastern Conference franchises; Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Rangers, Carolina Hurricanes and the Western Conference attendees Detroit Red Wings, St. Louis Blues, and the Dallas Stars. So far the Wild have been rock solid as the team’s prospects has earned 3 wins, and showing a strong offensive attack under the guidance of Aeros Head Coach Mike Yeo.
In game 1, the Wild would show great speed right off the opening faceoff pinning a talented Carolina squad into its zone early and drawing a delay of game call on Michael McDonald when he cleared a puck up and over the glass. On the power play the Wild struck when Fridley, Minnesota-native Jarod Palmer threaded a pretty pass towards the front of the goal where it was tapped by Mike Murphy to give Minnesota 1-0 lead. A few minutes later it was Palmer again setting up the play as he found a crashing Joel Broda near the top of the crease and he efficiently deposited it by Murphy to give the Wild an impressive 2-0 lead. The Hurricanes would pour it on in the 2nd period, peppering goaltender Matthew Hackett with shots but he was steadfast making save after save and keeping Carolina off the scoreboard. The Hurricanes would try to rally back again in the 3rd, and they put a little scare into the Wild’s youngsters when Carolina’s Mike McKenzie fired a shot over the shoulder of Hackett, but Minnesota’s 3rd round pick from 2009 would close that window of hope quick as he helped seal away a 2-1 victory.
The story was a little different in Game 2 against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Just 1:38 into the game the Blue Jackets struck first when Oliver Gabriel tapped home a nice feed from Chris Francis that just managed to beat an outstretched Darcy Kuemper. Minnesota would answer back as Palmer, who has been an offensive workhorse all tournament rifled a shot by Riley Gill to knot the game at 1-1 just prior to the six minute mark. The Wild could sense a momentum shift and renewed its efforts offensively and its tenacity would pay off as Cody Almond would take a pass from Tyler Cuma before one-timing a laser underneath the crossbar to give Minnesota a 2-1 lead. In the 2nd period, the Wild continued to strike offensively, the first goal being scored on a scorching shot from the point by tryout defenseman Jared Spurgeon on the power play. Columbus tried to answer back but as they took risks Minnesota was able to counterpunch and a bad pass was stolen by Elk River, Minnesota’s Nate Prosser and the smooth skating blueliner raced in and beat Riley Gill with a wicked wrap around on a quick deke. In the team’s first game, tempers stayed relatively calm except for a lone fight by tryout defenseman Josh Caron but the Blue Jackets prospects were a bit more fiesty and the gloves would drop with frequency throughout the rest of the game with 31 penalties called in the game that included 3 fights and numerous roughing minors. Perhaps the more surprising fight of the 3 standoffs was the one between Tyler Cuma and Columbus’ Stephon Thorne. It was a surprising level of scrappiness for the normally calm and poised defenseman but he held his own after being challenged which is a good testament to his competitive level. Minnesota would add one more goal with just 8 seconds left to play as Casey Wellman lit the lamp on a nice pass by Kris Foucault as the Wild cruised to a 5-1 victory.
Game 3, the final game of the round robin portion of the tournament the Wild battled the prospects of the New York Rangers. Minnesota would get off to a fast start, using superior team speed to put the Rangers’ kids on their heels early, and this pressure would lead to power play. The Wild had already demonstrated a very efficient power play, operating at 33% going into the game and it would not let them down in this game either as Joel Broda ripped a snap shot on goal and Jarod Palmer was near the crease to shovel home the rebound to put Minnesota up to a 1-0 lead. The Rangers would answer right back as Quebec’s Kelsey Tessier fired a wrister that eluded Matt Hackett to tie the game just 3:32 into the 2nd stanza. Yet it was the power play that would come back to haunt the Rangers, as two minutes later Casey Wellman would find the twine when he would bury a rebound chance off a big point shot by Spokane’s Jared Spurgeon to give Minnesota a 2-1 lead. Minnesota would show an ability to counterpunch, as they turned great defense into offense and they would add to their lead about five minutes later when tryout forward from Rimouski Alex Emond would take the puck away from Lee Baldwin and race down the ice before dishing it off to Jay Fehr who slammed home the puck by Cam Talbot to give Minnesota a 3-1 advantage. With Minnesota seemingly in control the Wild would let up and this nearly cost them as the Rangers scored a goal in the final minute of the 2nd and in the first minute of the 3rd to tie the game at 3-3. The Wild prospects could’ve collapsed at this point but instead they went on the attack, and Jarod Palmer led the way with his 3rd goal of the tournament (and 2nd of the game) by unloading a blistering one-timer off a feed by J.T. Barnett that Talbot had no chance on to re-take the lead, 4-3. The goal was very deflating to the Rangers and Minnesota was able to take advantage of their indifferent play by adding to its lead when on another power play when Joel Broda roofed a wrist shot over the shoulder over the sprawling New York goaltender to take a commanding 2-goal lead. From here the Wild would sit back into rope-a-dope mode. The passive style almost cost them as the Rangers would go for an all out last ditch effort to try to solve the Wild’s defense and they would pull Talbot for an extra attacker. Minnesota’s skaters showed great courage and unselfishness by dropping down to block shots time after time and all New York would manage is a goal in the final second by Ethan Werek but it wasn’t enough and the Wild would hold onto a 5-4 victory.
An impressive showing by the Wild prospects but it will all be for not if they cannot capture the NHL Center I.C.E. prospects tournament championship in a game against the prospects of the Detroit Red Wings. I know its still a long ways before anyone calls the Minnesota Golden Gophers or the Minnesota Vikings’ respective seasons over just yet, but so far it looks like the Wild’s recruiting is vastly superior to Tim Brewster’s and these unheralded kids are making something positive happen unlike the Vikes. Hopefully they finish the tournament with a championship!
Here is the Wild’s roster for the tournament.
#63 – C ~ Casey Wellman
#79 – F ~ Jarod Palmer
#62 – C ~ Cody Almond
#73 – C ~ Joel Broda
#76 – C ~ Tyler Johnson
#72 – LW ~ Kris Foucault
#75 – C ~ Chad Rau
#56 – C ~ Matt MacKay
#45 – RW ~ Carson McMillan
#54 – LW ~ Brett Bulmer
#59 – LW ~ Brandon Buck
#43 – LW ~ J.T. Barnett
#52 – C ~ Alex Emond
#65 – C ~ Jay Fehr
#57 – RW ~ Dylen McKinlay
#74 – D ~ Clayton Jobke
#61 – D ~ Bjorn Krupp
#68 – D ~ Josh Caron
#64 – D ~ Marco Scandella
#71 – D ~ Tyler Cuma
#78 – D ~ Jared Spurgeon
#39 – D ~ Nate Prosser
#70 – G ~ Darcy Kuemper
#30 – G ~ Matt Hackett
Follow the team for yourself at the website link listed below. It is complete with team stats and boxscores for the respective games.
http://pointstreak.com/prostats/scoreboard.html?leagueid=505&seasonid=5958&date=09/11/10
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