2003

The U.S. invaded Iraq, the space shuttle Columbia crashed, and an estimated 800 people died worldwide of the SARS virus. But enough with the disasters already.  

The Austrian freshman, Thomas Vanek, led the Minnesota Gopher hockey team to a repeat as NCAA champion. He led the Gophers with 31 goals and 31 assists, the most points by a Gopher freshman since Aaron Broten in 1980 and the first to lead the team in scoring as a freshman since Mike Antonovich in 1970. He scored the winning goals in both the NCAA semis and the final—a 3-2 win over Michigan in OT, and a 5-1 thrashing of New Hampshire, respectively. 

• The Gopher women’s basketball team returned to the NCAA tournament behind Lindsay Whalen and shocked perennial power Stanford on their home court, 68-56, in the second round. Coach Brenda Freese left after just one season, and was replaced by Pam Borton. The Gopher football team under coach Glen Mason won ten games for the first time in 98 years, beating five ranked teams including Penn State 20-14, Indiana 55-7, Wisconsin 37-34 and Oregon in the Sun Bowl 31-30.

• Speaking of football, St. John’s defeated perennial power Mt. Union, 24-6, to win its fourth national championship under long-time coach John Gagliardi.

• The Minnesota Timberwolves and the Minnesota Wild were improved, though in the case of the Timberwolves, it was just one game, from 50-32 to 51-31. And, they lost their first round playoff series for the seventh consecutive year. Kevin Garnett continued to establish himself as one of the NBA’s best, winning the All-Star Game MVP award while averaging 23 points and 13 rebounds per game. Meanwhile, the Wild won 42 games, 16 more than in 2002, in just their third season, then won two playoff series after trailing three games to one in both. 

• In the high school ranks, Apple Valley wrestling and South St. Paul girls hockey racked up record winning streaks. Apple Valley won 81 straight dual meets and four straight state titles from 2001 to 2004. South St. Paul won 63 straight games through the end of 2003, and 86 games without a loss through 2004. They won state titles in 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006, with a 31-0 record in 2003.

#20 (tie) Season Minnesota Wild The Minnesota Wild were founded in 1997. Minnesota had been promised a new NHL franchise when the NHL allowed the dirtbag Norm Green to move our North Stars to Dallas in 1993. The Wild finally began play in 2000. After treading water for two years, as expansion franchises were supposed to do in those days, the Wild got it going in 2002-2003. They had their first winning season at 42-29-10-1. They scored 198 points; only six teams scored less. But, playing coach Jacque Lemaire’s infamous neutral zone trap, they gave up just 178 goals, third fewest in the NHL. Lemaire was named NHL coach of the year, while goalie Dwayne Roloson gave up a third-best 2.00 goals per game.  Scoring was another story. The speedy Slovak Marion Gaborik led the Wild with 30 goals and 65 points, but was widely known to be frustrated with the team’s clutch-and-grab style. The Wild scored less than 2.5 goals per game and gave up a little more than two. In both the conference quarter-finals and the conference semi-finals, the Wild fell behind Colorado and Vancouver, respectively, three games to one, being outscored 23-17 in those eight games. They roared back both times, doubling their previous output by outscoring the Avs and Canucks 25-11 in those six games. The wheels, or the blades, came off in the conference finals as the Anaheim Ducks swept the Wild, outscoring them 9-1. Gaborik scored 17 points in 18 playoff games, 20 percent more than his regular season clip.  Gaborik scored 66 points in 2006 and 88 in 2008. The Wild picked up the pace and scored 235 goals while still giving up a league low of 191 goals in 2007. They won their division for the first and only time in 2008. But, after 2003, they won just two playoff series while losing eight. Lemaire was fired in 2009.  Overall, the Wild have won a lot of hockey games—130 more than they lost—but playoff success was a one-time thing, and that was way, way back in 2003. They’re now 4-9 in playoff series and 25-47 in playoff games.

#31 Coach Jacque Lemaire The first coach of the Minnesota Wild, Jacque Lemaire, lasted almost ten years in the job—almost twice as long as any other coach of the Wild or the North Stars. He won 293 games, losing 255 and tying 108 times (.529). He won his first two playoff series in 2003, but then lost the next three. He was 11-18 in playoff games after starting 8-6. Previously, Lemaire was a veteran of 13 NHL seasons, all with the Montreal Canadians, where he was a part of eight Stanley Cup champions. He scored more than 90 points three times, with a high of 44 goals in 1973. He was named one of the top 100 players in NHL history, and he also won a Stanley Cup as coach of the New Jersey Devils in 1995. Lemaire was somewhat controversial as an NHL coach. He was very defensively-oriented, using the neutral-zone trap. The trap was invented by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1920s, and was re-popularized by Scotty Bowman and the Montreal Canadians in the 1970s. It fell out of favor in the high-flying 1980s of Wayne Gretzy and the Edmonton Oilers and New York Islanders, but was again popularized by Lemaire and the Devils, who followed their 1995 Stanley Cup with additional Cups in 2000 and 2003. This came to be known as “the dead puck” era. In their heyday, the Oilers won the Stanley Cup by scored five and five-and-a-half goals per game, the Islanders four-and-a-half. The Devils won Stanley Cups scoring under three goals per game. The neutral zone trap is often referred to as “clutch and grab” hockey as the “trap” is often implementing by simply grabbing the offensive players. This style is widely derided for taking skating and scoring out of the game of hockey.  Still, it was probably the main reason for whatever success that the Wild had in the early days.

Year	Athlete of the Year	Team of the Year	Fearless Leader	Event of the Year
2003	1. Thomas Vanek, Minnesota Gopher hockey, C 2. Whalen 3. Garnett	1. Minnesota Gopher hockey (29-8-9, NCAA champion) 2. Minnesota Gopher women’s basketball (25-6) 3 (tie). Apple Valley wrestling South St. Paul girls hockey (31-0) (both state champions)	1. Jacque Lemaire, Minnesota Wild 2. Lucia 3 (tie). John Gagliardi, St. John’s football (NCAA Division 3 champion) Glen Mason, Minnesota Gopher football	1. The Minnesota Gophers edged Michigan 3-2 in OT in the NCAA hockey semis. 2. The Gopher women’s basketball won at Stanford 68-56 in the NCAA tournament. 3. The Wild won two playoff series after trailing 3 games to 1 in both.