March 21, 2008
Howe About That
Minnesota Advances to WCHA Semis
by Dane DeKrey/Staff Writer
ST. PAUL, Minn. — At a young age, University of Minnesota senior forward Mike Howe, a St. Cloud, Minn., native, was faced with a dilemma: cheer with his hometown or with his heart.
"You know, growing up I was a big Gopher fan, but you know, I was also a big Husky fan," said Howe. "It was a tough decision, but like I said earlier, I was always a Gopher fan."
And with Howe scoring Minnesota's game winning goal with 12.7 seconds remaining in the third period in the WCHA Final Five play-in game to beat St. Cloud State, 3-2, Gopher fans everywhere couldn't be happier with Howe's choice.
Minnesota's NCAA Bid Still in Jeopardy
But for Howe, he knew all along where he belonged.
"I always knew that if I had the opportunity to play here [Minnesota] that I was going to come, and when I was deciding where to go this was a better fit for me," Howe said. "There's just so much tradition and pride that comes with this program that it was too hard for me to say no; and I'm glad I made the decision I did."
This year, however, has been an uncharacteristic one for the Gophers, as time and again the team struggled — on and off the ice. First it was the academic ineligibility of Mike Carman, and season-ending injury to Ryan Stoa. Then it was the midseason departure by Kyle Okposo. And just last week, the team lost senior leader Tom Pohl to a tragic head injury.
The players that did remain, talented ones with impressive resumes and NHL Draft pick credentials, struggled to pick up the scoring slack.
Despite this, the team has continued to battle.
"We didn't have the greatest regular season," said Howe. "But we always tried to focus on getting better every day and get focused on making it to the playoffs. Right now, we're taking good strides towards playing our best hockey and as a senior it's sweet to see everybody kind of putting it all together at the right time."
On Thursday night, in front of a sellout crowd of 19,232, Howe put the exclamation point on what is turning into a late-season surge by Minnesota.
According to head coach Don Lucia, a bounce in his team's favor is long overdue.
"Tonight's the kind of game we wanted to have," Lucia said. "We wanted to make the best of our chances and fortunately tonight we got a good bounce and scored the game winner. But you know what, this teams deserves a few bounces because we haven't had a lot this year."
The bounce that made the difference started from a slapshot from the point, then ricocheted off the boards behind the goal of St. Cloud State goaltender Jase Weslosky, and ended up near the left faceoff circle and onto Howe's stick.
From there, Howe took over.
"When I saw the puck come to me you know I figured the goalie would be sliding across and there was a lot of traffic in front, so my main focus was to get it on net," Howe said, describing the fracas in front moments before his goal. "And then the puck came to my stick and I saw his five-hole open up and I just slide it right through and that's that."
In a season of that's not thats, tonight, for Howe and Minnesota, that was that.
Minnesota was clearly the better team this night. St. Cloud did not play its "A" game.
Mar 21 2008, 1:35 am by Hans, Grand Forks
Gopher fans should give the MVP of this game to D. Sheppard as he is making it very difficult to understand that officials are supposed to be biased. If SCSU interfered with the goalie how can he not call the same penalty at the end on the Gophers when Carmen reached out and tapped Weslowsky, Good no call on one end SCREW JOB on the other
Mar 21 2008, 8:36 am by
sounds like crying to me over SCSU loss,every time a team gets beat the blame the officials WAH WAH WAH
Mar 21 2008, 10:22 am by SARGE, MN
Couldn't sy it better myself. Watching Gopher games lately D. Sheperd has the most assists on the Gophers squad I sure hope he is awarded from the Gophers at the end of the year. It is pathetic to see how one sided he is with the Gophers, and to think HE is supposed to be a professional. What a JOKE!
Mar 21 2008, 10:26 am by
No not crying just watching the game without gophervision and actually seeing how biased the officials are is a little upsetting. SARGE, tonight try and take off the gopher googles and watch the game
Mar 21 2008, 10:53 am by Chad
As always, those who choose to blame the officiating are revealing a great deal about their intelligence. Evolve a bit.
...The refs do not have an agenda; the WCHA is not the WWF.
Mar 21 2008, 11:15 am by CP, Maple Plain, MN
You are correct the WWF as better acting.
Mar 21 2008, 11:24 am by Chad
Chad, I wish you luck in the world with that attitude. The 'blame game' approach to life is not usually very successful. All the best!
Mar 21 2008, 11:33 am by CP, Maple Plain, MN
Sorry, has better acting
Mar 21 2008, 11:34 am by Chad
CP, I hope your not comparing sports to life experience and if you are you should seek help immediatly before you become one of those dad's that tries to start a fight and there child's games.
Mar 21 2008, 11:38 am by Chad
I am not and I would.
Mar 21 2008, 11:49 am by CP, Maple Plain, MN
you are not but you would that is very disturbing that you would admit to being a guy that would start a fight at his child's game. Not good cp I have kids and I hope we never play a team that you are associated with.
Mar 21 2008, 11:53 am by Chad
Chad, Let me help you with your spelling and grammar this time:
- 'you're' not 'your'
- 'immediately' not 'immediatly '
- 'dads' not 'dad's'
- 'their' not 'there'
Good luck!
Mar 21 2008, 11:55 am by CP, Maple Plain, MN
Your 11:53 reply is misconstruing my response to suit your little game. ...You would not have a fear in the world regarding me, Chad. I WOULD seek help before I did anything. I don't anticipate it happening however. I am not the type of person you are depicting!
Mar 21 2008, 11:58 am by CP, Maple Plain, MN
SCSU fans...check the box score... SCSU had two more power plays then the gophers did.. so how to you justify that sheppard should be awarded of being biased? SCSU... just think, this is the worst team we have had in a decade and we still beat you when it counts... Good luck making it into the NCAA's
Mar 21 2008, 11:59 am by
Chad, I am sure you enjoy having the last word, so here you go; I am done. Get your last word in and then move on to bigger and better things!
Mar 21 2008, 12:01 pm by CP, Maple Plain, MN
...Figured that would shut you up! :)
Mar 21 2008, 12:17 pm by CP, Maple Plain, MN
cp, shouldn't you be beating a kid or something you arogant piece of **it
Mar 21 2008, 12:29 pm by Chad
All this Gophers officiating bias is non-sense. SCSU had more power plays during the game and Minn. was short-handed for what seemed like the entire second period.
Mar 21 2008, 12:39 pm by Ryan, Shakopee
Chad: It is 'arrogant' not 'arogant'.
Mar 21 2008, 12:40 pm by CP, Maple Plain, MN
I am a UND fan and watched the game. The officiating was the same both ways. No advantage to either team. Now the standard of what is acceptable and not acceptable is an issue, but that comes down from the top. The WCHA will eventually change the standard, but we will have to wait until next year, if we are lucky.
Mar 21 2008, 12:49 pm by ke, grand forks
Howe about this-people are fighting in your comment box. It's like a damn Sioux game with all this fighting!
Mar 22 2008, 2:56 am by
I will be the first to admit that I have been really hard on the Gophers this year because I believed that they had no heart and under achieved. The last week has changed my mind about this team. They are playing with a lot of heart and a strong desire to win. If they keep this level of play going, they will be in the Frozen 4. Go Gophers. remember, you are not playing above your abilities, you are playing at a level you should be playing with the talent and coaching you have.
Mar 22 2008, 5:29 am by jbuss, seattle
Well thanks to gophers for beating cc and allowing us to take a 1 seed
Mar 22 2008, 7:35 pm by Lake,ND
The Gophs are a realtively young team. I knew they would progress throughout the season as the Sioux did the year they had 11 freshman. I think they are playing better defensive now and Kangas has been solid too. Offensively, they are putting more pucks on the net.
They've definitely made some strides these last few weeks. And since they've played in many close games this season I don't think it's a fluke they pulled off a win over St. Cloud and CC.
Mar 24 2008, 10:55 am by Marv, Grand Forks
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