Despite off-season defections to NHL organizations, most observers remain optimistic about Gopher hockey for the 2007-2008 season.  It’s not a positive to lose underclassmen Erik Johnson, Alex Goligoski and Jim O’Brien but the Gophers returning and incoming players are so numerous and talented that even national championship speculation isn’t unreasonable.

Former Gopher coach Glen Sonmor, now a WCCO radio color commentator on Minnesota broadcasts, thinks the Gophers, who last year won a second consecutive WCHA championship and were a top five ranked team nationally, will be “awfully good” again. Five of last season’s leading scorers, all forwards, return.  Included in the group are the two top scorers, leading scorer Jay Barriball and Kyle Okposo (all conference as a freshman).

“The Gophers have got just a tremendous depth at forward coming back,” Sonmor said. “Proven scorers and everything.  That’s not a problem at all for them. Their problem is going to be they lost their three top defensemen (Johnson, Goligoski and Mike Vannelli) and they were just tremendous defensemen. …”

The Gophers have minimal experienced defensemen with returnees like senior David Fischer and sophomore Derek Peltier and Sonmor is optimistic about newcomer Cade Fairchild, a freshman from Duluth who has drawn talk of being a No. 1 NHL draft choice.  Optimism about defense includes the return of senior goalie Jeff Frazee who could be among the best at his position in college hockey.

“They’re going to be very, very good,” Sonmor said. “I don’t think they’re going to start the season off 22-2 or something like they have the last couple years but I think that might be good if they don’t, and they may be coming really strong a little later in the year.  They got a tremendous boost when Kyle Okposo decided to come back.  I think he’s going to immediately become a Hobey Baker candidate.  I think he probably should have been one last year to tell you the truth. …”

Coach Don Lucia and the Gophers open their season next month in the College Hockey Ice Breaker Invitational at Xcel Energy Center.  Can the schedule eventually include winning the national championship?  Sonmor thinks it’s a possibility but cautions about injuries and how the seeding develops in the NCAA playoffs. “I always admire Don Lucia, the way he puts it,” Sonmor said.  “He says…you know sometimes you win when maybe you weren’t the best team, and sometimes you lose when you were the best team. It takes a whole combination of things to win the championship. …”  

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The Gopher hockey team (see above) plays RPI in the Ice Breaker Invitational starting at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, October 12.  Also in the tournament and playing earlier that night are Michigan and Boston College.  Tickets for the two-day tourney are available at the Xcel Energy Center Box Office, all Ticketmaster locations, charge by phone at (651) 989-5151 or online at www.ticketmaster.com.

Although he is an older player at almost 35, the Vikings were willing to sign defensive tackle Pat Williams to a three year contract extension because of both his ability and durability.  He has started 33 consecutive games for the team since coming here from Buffalo.  After last season he and sidekick defensive tackle Kevin Williams both played in the Pro Bowl.  In Vikings history the only pair of defensive tackles to earn that honor together were Alan Page and Gary Larsen (1969 and 1970).

Gopher kicker Jason Giannini missed three field goals in Saturday’s win over Miami of Ohio.  A junior with game experience, Giannini is expected to perform better and coach Tim Brewster said on WCCO radio yesterday he’s considering a change in kickers.

The Gophers started their 2007 schedule as the only team in the country to have both rushed and passed for over 2,000 yards in each of the past eight seasons (1999-2006). During that period the Gophers averaged 227.8 yards rushing and 230.8 yards passing per game.  Minnesota has rushed for 246 and 306 yards and passed for 188 and 271 yards in its first two games, putting the Gophers on pace to extend the streak to nine seasons.

Minneapolis area native David Gilreath, who started his high school career at Washburn and finished at Armstrong, is returning kickoffs for Wisconsin as a true freshman. He ran one kickoff back for 37 yards last Saturday against UNLV.

Defenseman John Scott, 6-8, 247, and left wing Derek Boogaard, 6-7, 254, are the two biggest players on the Minnesota Wild training camp roster. Right wing Pierre-Marc Bouchard, 5-10, 162, is the smallest.  The Wild open training camp on Friday.

The Wild will scrimmage on Sunday, September 16 at the White Bear Lake Sports Center (1328 Highway 96) starting at 11 a.m.  Dominic Nardini, a Bantam from White Bear Lake, was the winner of last season’s Hockey Day Minnesota “How I Show My Sportsmanship” essay contest and won the right to have the sports center host a Wild preseason scrimmage this season.  There is no admission charge for the scrimmage and it’s open to the public.

Rob Leer’s company, Leer Communication & Consultants, is the media relations liaison for the Minnesota Ballpark Authority that is overseeing the construction and management of the new baseball stadium.  Leer is a former sports and investigative reporter for KSTP TV.

Tennis fans across the country get excited watching the U.S. Open but the big stars seldom play in cities like Minneapolis because they aren’t interested in exhibitions or they want appearance fees that are too much for promoters to accept.  Star players could help tennis by coming to communities like ours.

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Like everyone else in the business, Sports Headliners doesn’t guarantee its predictions. However, I am willing to offer up a guess on the Vikings’ 2007 season record.  So go ahead and read the prediction, with my permission to laugh, cry or kick your foot through the monitor.  I even agree to be reminded in December about the prediction.

It will be a small gathering if you pull together a group adamant that the Vikings are headed for a championship season.  Advertise for a crowd who believes the results will be mediocre at best, lousy at worst, and you should have no problem filling the Metrodome.

The elusive among us prefer to forecast a range of wins and losses.  Safe ground looks like 6-10 to 10-6 for the Vikings.  People who think like this wear plain clothes, invest all their money in treasury bonds and never buy an American car.

I drive a Chrysler and perhaps that doesn’t make me a risk taker but I am willing to be more specific than predicting a range of wins and losses.  I think the Vikings will finish close to .500.  Let’s go with an 8-8 record.

Don’t hold me to the prediction if Adrian Peterson is injured and misses a few games. The rookie running back is that important to the season’s results.  Peterson can become one of the NFL’s best running backs and he has three potentially elite linemen working for him, Steve Hutchinson, Matt Birk and BryantMcKinnie.  Those four players figure to make or break an offense that is quarterback and receiver challenged.

Peterson and friends must be just good enough point producers to complement a good defense that by season’s end might be great.  Defensive tackles Kevin Williams and Pat Williams, safety Darren Sharper and cornerback Antoine Winfield rate with the best players at their positions in the NFL.  Peter King of Sports Illustrated lists Kevin Williams as the top defensive tackle and 14^th best player in the NFL.  Sporting News assigns players a 1-5 ranking and gives fives to Williams and Hutchinson.

Last season the defense held opponents to 20 points or less in nine games.  The Vikings were No. 1 in rushing defense and No. 8 in overall league defense.  What’s needed to make the next step is better pass rushing, particularly from the defensive ends. Those ends now are Ray Edwards and Kenechi Udeze but Erasmus James, recovering from a knee injury, may become a starter later in the season.  During the pre-season the Vikings looked formidable defensively and playmakers included improving linebackers Chad Greenway and E.J. Henderson.

The 16 game schedule includes at least four teams who are clear choices to be better than the Vikings.  Playing Chicago twice and single meetings with Dallas, Philadelphia, San Diego and Denver will allow the Vikings to make comparisons between themselves and the NFL’s better teams.  A challenging schedule is not a prediction.  It’s a fact.

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