Lucas Punkari
It’s been a few days since Joe Basaraba and the rest of the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs captured the NCAA’s men’s hockey national championship in St.. Paul, but only now is the realization of what the 19-year-old Fort Frances native has accomplished is starting to set in.
“When it happened, it was just a surreal moment, and you’re just trying to enjoy it and take everything all in,” he remarked.
“But now that we’re back in Duluth now, and everyone is congratulating us and being so supportive, it’s really starting to sink in as to how big an accomplishment this is for not only our team, but for the whole school and the entire city of Duluth,” Basaraba added.
The Bulldogs captured their first-ever national title after 67 years of trying Saturday night at the Xcel Energy Center in a 3-2 overtime thriller over the Michigan Wolverines.
Senior forward Kyle Schmidt netted the game-winner just over three minutes into the extra frame.
“We were all standing up on the bench at that point waiting to see what would happen,” Basaraba recalled.
“T.O. [Travis Oleksuk] was able to wheel around the net from the corner while Kyle was able to beat his defender out of the corner, and knowing how much of a great play-maker T.O. is, he was able to feed it to Kyle out front, who banged it home.”
At that point, complete bedlam ensued on the Bulldogs’ bench as the rest of the team chased down Schmidt, who was lying flat on his back doing “snow angels” towards the other end of the rink where the UMD student section was going ballistic.
“I thought his celebration was pretty hysterical and that’s the first time I’ve seen something like that,” Basaraba laughed.
“That feeling, though, when he scored was just incredible, and to be able to skate over to where our fans were and celebrate with them after scoring a national championship-winning goal was pretty unbelievable,” Basaraba noted.
Basaraba, a freshman who played at right-wing on the third line in both “Frozen Four” games, also was excited for Schmidt, who is one of his closest friends on the team.
“He actually broke his hand twice this season, and we didn’t even know if he’d even end up playing in the ‘Frozen Four’ after he had surgery on his hand two weeks ago,” Basaraba explained.
“To see him battle through all that he went through, and then to have him score not only the biggest goal of his career, but in UMD’S history, was great not only for him but for our team,” he stressed.
The two friends hooked up on a goal during Thursday afternoon’s 4-3 semi-final victory over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Schmidt netted what was then the game-tying 2-2 goal just past the halfway mark of the first period after a feed from the Florida Panthers’ prospect.
“We had just come off of an icing call so our lines were sort of jumbled up there, so Kyle was one of my wingers when the play got underway,” Basaraba recalled.
“The puck came around the boards to me and I saw Kyle on the far side just streaking in with his speed.
“I just managed to get the puck across to him, and he was able to break in on net and put it up top.”
After a crazy opening 20 minutes that saw the Bulldogs take a 3-2 lead, UMD was able to settle things down in the second period to move out in front by two goals before withstanding a third-period barrage from the Fighting Irish to clinch a berth in the final.
“In between the second and third periods, we knew that they would make a run for it,” Basaraba noted.
“We tried to prepare for it as best as we could by just playing good defence, and we were able to just stick together and come away with the victory.”
The first-year forward nearly put his team on the board in the first period of the title game against Michigan—finding himself with an gorgeous scoring chance in front of the net.
“Jake Hendrickson made a nice move to take it wide and the rebound just came out in front to me,” Basaraba said.
“I was able to throw a quick backhander on net but the little goalie on Michigan [Shawn Hunwick] was playing great and he made a real nice save on me, so I had to swing the puck back around to Jake so he could go for a shot.
“While it would have been nice to bury that one, the end result [winning the title] was good enough for me,” Basaraba stressed.
After a pair of second-period goals gave the Bulldogs the lead, Michigan knotted things back up late in the period. A scoreless third period set the stage for overtime.
“Even though the game was tied up, we felt like we were really taking it to them and the tide was being pushed into our favour,” Basaraba noted.
“Before the overtime, coach [Scott Sandelin] just told us that we were a team that had been through this situation before with the amount of overtime games that we had played this season, and to just go out there, play our game, and have some fun,” he added.
Another factor that may have played into the Bulldogs’ hands was the sold-out crowd of 19,222 on hand at the Xcel Energy Centre, who were very supportive towards the home state side.
“The atmosphere was just wild, and over half of the crowd was our fans so that was great,” Basaraba enthused.
“We even had some [North Dakota Fighting] Sioux and [Minnesota Golden] Gophers’ fans cheering for us, which was really cool, but I don’t think we’ll be seeing that happen again too often,” he joked.
Along with members of his family who were in attendance, Basaraba also received a special show of support from the people of Fort Frances as 10-year-old Ethan Carlson-Jourdain, who was in Minneapolis for an ‘AAA’ hockey tournament, presented Basaraba with a sign filled on both sides with signatures from people back home.
“I have to give a special thanks to everyone who was involved in making and signing that poster, along with everyone showing their support,” Basaraba said.
“This is such an exciting time in my life, and to have everyone back home pulling for me along the way just makes it that much more enjoyable,” he remarked.
With a championship celebration reception being held at the AMSOIL Arena tonight, along with the fact he’s preparing for his upcoming business exams, Basaraba hasn’t even had much of a chance to think about next season.
But he and the rest of the Bulldogs already are looking forward to the chance to become the first back-to-back national champs since the University of Denver accomplished that feat in 2004-05.
“We’re going to have another really good team next year, and our goal is to make another run for the ‘Frozen Four’ in Tampa,” Basaraba said.
“The big thing for me during the summer is to just get stronger and quicker, so I’m going to be putting in a lot of hard work and dedication during the off-season.
“And, hopefully, I’ll be able to experience this feeling once again come next April,” he reasoned.
