News Tribune Final Four story

Christa Lawler Duluth News Tribune
Published Friday, March 16, 2007
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — It couldn’t have been scripted better.

The Minnesota Duluth women’s hockey team goes into today’s NCAA Frozen Four semifinal against Boston College on the brink of a milestone. Eighth-year coach Shannon Miller, who started the program, is sitting at 199 career wins.

It’s not necessarily a tally that Miller etches into her office wall. The people around her are more cognizant of the celebratory numbers.

“I don’t follow that,” Miller said recently. “Someone told me I had 199. That’s fun. It would certainly be fun to get 200. Not because its 200, but because it would put us in the championship game.”

Miller has had a quick ascent up the wins list, stemming from a program that was immediately successful and immediately controversial. As soon as she was hired, Miller began recruiting European players, bringing in big names in Swedish and Finnish women’s hockey. This was unprecedented, as most other Division I teams limited their recruiting to North America.

“When they hired me they said, ‘Build a successful program,’ ” the former Canadian women’s national team coach said. “The first thing I did is figure out who my contacts are. Europe was part of the picture, like the U.S. and Canada. … When I moved to the U.S., no one said, ‘Okay, only recruit Americans.’ They said, ‘Hey, you’re from Canada. Look around and see what’s worked and build a successful program.’ ”

UMD (23-10-4) faces Boston College (24-9-2) at 7 p.m. today. The winner advances to the finals at noon Sunday. Bulldogs senior goalie Riitta Schaublin is expected to start. St. Lawrence (29-7-3) faces defending champion Wisconsin (34-1-4) in the other semifinal.

And aside from Jenny Potter, an Eagan, Minn., native, and Caroline Ouellette, of Canada, it is the European recruits who have led the team.

First came players like Maria Rooth and Erika Holst — Swedish national team players who, after graduation, helped their team upset the U.S. national team in the semifinals of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Other early European Olympians included Hanne Sikio, Nora Tallus and goaltender Tuula Puputti of Finland.

In eight seasons, UMD has had 15 European players from Sweden, Finland, Germany, Russia and Switzerland. There are seven on the current roster, including freshman goalie Kim Martin, who also was key in helping Sweden win the silver medal.

For Saara Tuominen, a freshman from Finland, the idea of playing college hockey in the United States was synonymous with playing at UMD.

The Olympian said this became an option when she was about 12 years old. Later she discussed her options with Sikio, a 2003 graduate, and by the time she viewed a video tape of the Bulldogs’ Frozen Four win in 2003, she was sold.

“I was interested right away,” Tuominen said. “UMD was the first college I knew of because of the Finnish girls who came here.”

Elin Holmlov, a freshman from Sweden, said she followed Sikio’s and Rooth’s examples and hopes to have similar success.

“I would like to be as good as them some day,” she said.

It was one of Miller’s top-five favorite wins that got the Bulldogs to today’s game. The underdog Bulldogs beat second-seeded Mercyhurst 3-2 in overtime last Friday in the regional quarterfinal. Senior forward Jessica Koizumi had two goals — including the game-tying and game-winning goals.

“[The seniors] have been chipping away and missed it [the Frozen Four] by inches,” Miller said of the recruiting class that began playing after three consecutive national titles. “I had tears after the game. It was for them.”