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Confidence for the second half
In her first season as coach of the Minnesota ice hockey team, Laura Halldorson led the Golden Gophers to a fourth-place finish at the 1998 national championship. And in 2000, Halldorson led Minnesota to a 30-6-1 record and the national championship title. Check out Halldorson's diary every other week on CNNSI.com.
January 23, 2000
Well, they invited me back to write a "diary" about my hockey team. I did it last year, and we won the national championship. I'm not superstitious or anything, but maybe, just maybe ... Actually, it has been a huge challenge to get back to the way we were playing at the end of last season. When our season began this September, it was unrealistic for me to expect us to be the same team we were last March. We are not that team. We have nine new players who were not around for our wonderful finish last year. Those individuals have not only had to get used to the college level of play and the systems we use, they have also needed to adjust to college life. That transition is not an easy one. We needed to blend these newcomers with our large contingent of returning players. Our first semester went well. Our overall record before Christmas was 11-4-1, and we were (and still are) in first place in the WCHA league standings. Since then we have won four games against other university teams. We also dropped a pair of games to the U.S. national team; those are the games that I want to write about now. We faced a team this past weekend that is, arguably, the best women's hockey team in the world (I'm assuming the Canadians would be the ones arguing about that statement). On Friday night we got beat 10-1. That's not a close score. We were only down 2-0 after one period, but the second period killed us. They scored six goals in nine minutes, and I was wishing we could cancel the third period! The only bright spot for us was a goal scored in the last five minutes by a sophomore player who hadn't yet scored a goal in her career. The whole team was so excited for her -- it was awesome! Game two took place twenty-four hours later, and it was a whole new ballgame. We scored first -- only two and a half minutes into the game. I think both teams were in shock! Then we got a power play goal just two and a half minutes after that. We were actually winning 2-0 after five minutes of play! I was amazed at my team and the effort they were giving. We had talked earlier in the day about playing with more determination. We wanted them to be determined playing defense and determined in the offensive zone. The national team got the next goal, but we followed with our third of the period, and we went into intermission with a 3-1 lead. Unbelievable! Our crowd of 2,036 was psyched, and so were we! We knew there was a lot of game left, though, so we couldn't be too relaxed. As expected, the veterans from the national team came back and scored the only two goals of the second period. Quickly, the score was tied 3-3. The third period saw some scoring chances by both teams -- mostly for the national team -- but no one could bury it. Then, with 54 seconds left in the game we had a three-on-two rush down the ice and ended up hitting the cross bar. The puck actually landed on TOP of the net. So close! There was a penalty called on the play so we went on a power play for the last minute. We thought we'd at least get into overtime; however, the national team got a shorthanded goal that went in with 3.6 seconds remaining on the scoreboard. Our players were so disappointed. It was an abrupt and unexpected ending to an exciting and fast-paced game. I was so proud of my players. I told them after the game how beneficial it was for us. We now know how well we are capable of playing, and we gained confidence for the second half of the season. Next up, we go to the University of New Hampshire for two games, followed by a series at Bemidji State University. I'll be back again after that. -- Coach Halldorson
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