There are those, myself included, who think the Stanley Cup Playoff final series between the Chicago Blackhawks and Tampa Bay Lightning is as close as we can get to a match made in heaven. Both teams play the game with speed and creativity and an overriding instinct to put teammates in position to succeed.

Both teams also are strong from the top down, from the ownership and administration, down through management and coaching. Among those who have had a hand in their teams’ success are a couple of former UMD Bulldogs – two of the best, in fact. Norm Maciver is assistant general manager of the Blackhawks while Tom Kurvers is assistant general manager of the Lightning.

At UMD in the mid-1980s, coach Mike Sertich, who had just replaced Gus Hendrickson, had Kurvers in place on defense and brought in Maciver, and paired them on one defensive tandem. “I was two years ahead of Norm,” said Kurvers. “He came to college with a fork and a Wayne Gretzky clock.”

What makes the success of their current teams less than coincidental is that both of them played the game the way it should be played, with smooth precision and always-thinking anticipation that put them on a higher plane, whether stopping an opponent, heading off a scoring threat, or making a quick transition to offense by moving the puck out of the zone, or skating it up-ice, or feeding a breaking forward. The also could join the rush and carry deep to help the offense, yet could still recover in an instant to turn back to defense. Is it any wonder the Blackhawks and Lightning have defensemen who play that way?

In assessing the finals, both Kurvers and Maciver know there will be no surprises. “No question, we’re aware of Tampa Bay’s speed and ability to score,” said Maciver, whose family still lives in Duluth. “Both teams can play at such a high pace, that it might be a really great series to watch. Teams normally try to run us, but Tampa Bay will skate with us. I think there will be plenty of scoring chances, even if there’s not much scoring.”

Kurvers isn’t convinced that the high-speed, playmaking style of the finalists will necessarily become a trend through the whole NHL. “Our team and Chicago, and teams like Detroit, Montreal and the New York Rangers, play a high-tempo game. But the bottom half of the league still has got to entertain their fans, so they might still have some heavyweights and try to win by intimidation. But the day is gone when teams could keep a guy just because he will drop the gloves and go after somebody. They’ve almost been eliminated from the game, and if you’re going to have a heavyweight in your lineup, it better be someone who can play, too.”

       
The Blackhawks have more experience, but the youthful Lightning are extremely quick. Corey Crawford remains a solid and effective goaltender for Chicago, but one who always seems to get overlooked when people talk about elite goaltenders. Among the most elite are Montreal’s Corey Price and Henrik Lundqvist of the Rangers – who just happen to be the goaltenders Tampa Bay’s Ben Bishop just finished outplaying. Crawford stopped Anaheim when the series was on the line, but nobody can match Bishop’s feat of outplaying Price in Tampa Bay’s triumph, and then shocking the Rangers with matching 2-0 shutouts at Madison Square Garden in Games 5 and 7.

Chicago has the better-known stars, in Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane up front, and the amazing Duncan Keith on defense, generating offense whenever he’s not squelching opposing chances. Keith leads the NHL by averaging 31 minutes and 35 seconds per game through the playoffs, where he also has scored 18 points in these playoffs.

Tampa Bay is led by its “Triplets” line, ignited by Tyler Johnson, who has 21 goals in the playoffs, and leads the playoffs with 21 points. Next in overall playoff scoring is Chicago’s Kane, with 20 points including 10 goals; Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov, with 19 points and 9 goals; Chicago’s Jonathan Toews with 18 points and 9 goals; Chicago defenseman Duncan Keith with 18 points; and Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos with 17 points and 9 goals.

That, of course, excludes whatever points were scored in Wednesday night’s Game 1 of the finals.

“That ‘Triplets’ line, if you watch their goals, they score beautiful goals,” said Maciver. “It’s easy for them. They all think the game on the same wave-length. And they’re not in the finals without that line.”

Kurvers recalled the 1983-84 season at UMD, when Maciver showed up and joined Kurvers and a well-manned UMD defense. “Norm and I played together at full strength and on penalty kills,” said Kurvers. “On our top power play, Matt Christensen had the hardest shot on the team, so I  played one point and he was on the other. Norm moved up and played center. And we had a crazy goal-scoring power play, scoring at something like 40 percent.”

Maciver recalled that creative coaching by Mike Sertich helped, too. “Sertie basically opened the door and let us go,” said Maciver. “He trusted us to do the right thing and make the right plays.”

When it comes to predicting the Cup winner, I picked Chicago in seven games. It has to be seven games. The play in this year’s Cup final will be so swift and so good that we need as much of it as we can get.Make

Honda Reclaims Prestige on Wet Detroit Track

When Chevrolet-powered Indy Cars finished 1-4 at the Indianapolis 500, it was a good time for a lot of Chevy backers to boast. Gloat, even. They didn’t want to hear any stories about Chevrolet losing touch with aerodynamics in their quest for speed. Or Honda gaining an advantage itself when its engineering kept the cars stable even on the full boost that IRL officials negated at Indy.
Last weekend, the same Indy Car circus went to Detroit for a pair of matching sprint races on Saturday and Sunday. Chevrolet power sent Will Power to the pole position as the fastest qualifier in record time for Saturday’s first of two “Chevrolet Duals in Detroit.” He was followed by fellow-Chevy drivers Helio Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya. Takuma Sato in a Honda-powered racer was fourth fastest, but Chevrolet power dominated – especially in the eyes of the media.
A columnist in the Saturday Detroit Free Press treated the Honda cars as a nuisance, blocking the Chevrolet cars. “Chevy’s advantage appears to be in its IndyCar teams adapting better to the new aero-kit package...” Apparently he was unaware that one week earlier, the controversy swirled around Indy that when three Chevy-powered race cars flipped end-over-end, the Indy Racing League immediately called for lowering the available boost for all cars.
That helped the Penske cars stay on the track, but it reduced Honda’s already balanced power substantially, and the Honda racers finished fifth and sixth. One week later – last weekend at Detroit’s Belle Isle road course – the cars went onto the track behind a hybrid pace car. Will Power won the pole, and took off from the start, in the rain
Persistent rain got heavier Saturday afternoon in Detroit, and as driving capabilities worsened, officials red-flagged the race in the heaviest of the rain. They waited in the pits for an hour, then the race was declared officially over. A Honda-powered race car driven by Carlos Munoz won. His first victory was doubly good for Honda as Marco Andretti took second in another Honda.
The rain continued all Saturday night and on into Sunday. With other races in the program cancelled, the rain stopped just in time and the Indy Car officials started the race. Sebastian Bourdais was leading in a Chevrolet, but incredibly the next eight cars were Honda powered – Takuma Sato, Graham Rahal, Tristan Vautier, Marco Andretti, Conor Daly, Jack Hawksworth, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and Gabby Chaves finished 2-9 in Honda powered cars.
That order became official when officials realized the race had gone over 2 hours and 38 minutes, and was supposed to have a 2-hour time limit. Apparently the competitiveness of IndyCar racing returned last weekend. At least on road courses, in Detroit, in the rain.

HUSKIES GET
WALK-OFF BUNT

It was a perfect night for baseball, back when the Duluth Huskies took on Willmar as the Northwoods League opened at revised Wade Stadium. Wonderfully warm, in the high 60s, and a nice crowd on hand.
UMD’s contributions included starting pitcher Bo Hellquist, and first baseman Alex Wojciechowski, who both figured into the action. Hellquist threw five shutout innings as the teams battled 0-0. Wojciechowski got a hit, and the game went on to the last of the ninth.
Wojciechoski gets another single, and the Huskies go for a sacrifice to get him to second. The third and first basemen charge, and the bunt goes to third. The throw to first got the out, but as Wojciechowski got to second, he realized nobody was covering third – so he kept running.
At this point, the Willmar defense committed one of the weird mistakes of all time. Maybe the player was raised to throw the ball to the right place, and somebody will get there. But the throw went to third, where nobody was covering, and it sailed right on up the third base line. Wojciechowski kept right on running, and came in to score.
The game ended 1-0, and the Huskies had won the game on a “walk-off sacrifice bunt.”

UMD LOSES ANOTHER COACH

Annette Wilde has announced she is resigning as women’s basketball coach at UMD, and UMD accepted the resignation. End of release.
Wilde has been a successful coach for the Bulldogs, taking them to two NCAA Division II tournaments in her seven seasons, and only this past season were they under .500 at 12-15.
The story behind the story, of course, is that Wilde is the third woman head coach to leave since December. Shannon Miller and her whole women’s hockey coaching staff were told their contracts wouldn’t be renewed, and Jen Banham refused to accept a new contract when her softball coaching offer was adjusted without notification to include less money.
One year ago, UMD’s athletic image was at the elite level; the handling of women’s coaches in the department has reduced that status to enough of a failure to be the subject of scorn nationally.