Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 45

'92 Winter Olympics Albertville Star TribuneSundayFebruary 21992 -4 Another miracle on ice seems quite unlikely Th tchodul of th United Stat hockey team (all time local): Feb. 9 Italy vs. USA, 1:15 p.m. Feb. 11 USA vs.

Germany, 9:30 a.m. Feb. 13USA vs. Finland, 9:30 a.m. Fb.

15USA vs. Poland, 1:15 p.m. Fb. 17Sweden vs. USA, 1:15 p.m.

Feb. 18 'Quarterfinals, 10 a.m., 2 p.m. Feb. 19Quarterfinals, 10 a.m., 2 p.m. Feb.

20Consolations, 6 a.m., 10 a.m., 2 p.m. Feb. 21 Semifinals, 10 a.m., 2 p.m. Feb. 22Bronze, 2 p.m.

Fb.23Gold, 7:15 a.m. ny, Poland, Finland and Czechoslovakia. If Team USA finishes in the top four of that group, it enters a single-elimination medal round. Sweden enters the tournament as a mild favorite, with Canada always the grudge rival for Team USA. Canada has wunderkind Eric Lindros and former NHL goalie Sean Burke.

"They're better than us now, but not by much," Peterson said. The unified team is more troublesome. It has lost most of its stars to the NHL or professional leagues in Europe. But Peterson shudders. "I actually think they're going to be a better team than before," he said.

"They will be younger, just as talented and hungrier than any team in the past. There's a large pool of talent to draw from. They have a new outlet. They know there are contracts waiting for them. There's light at the end of that tunnel for them." For the U.S.

Olympic hockey team, the future is not so clear. By Jay Weiner SiafT Writer The snipers are out. Even though the schedule was the toughest ever for a pre-Olympic team, the critics say the preseason was rotten. Team USA went 17-31-8 (4-14-3 against NHL teams) and won three of 14 from Team Canada, one of the medal favorites at the Olympics. Team selection was flawed.

Too few Minnesotans, puck insiders said. The coaching staff scrambled. How else can you explain the presence of Moe Mantha, the former North Star, Penguin, Maple Leaf, Oiler, Jet and Flyer? (He's big and has international experience, that's how.) Dave Peterson was always a bad choice as coach, can't get along with the news media and doesn't know a puck from a stick, critics said. Sports Illustrated, leading the sniper charge, claims that unnamed players literally are laughing at Peterson's coaching style. Goaltending could be a problem, especially since Olympic tournaments turn on the hot hand of a goalie.

The top goalie is Chicago Black Hawks farmhand Ray LeBlanc, 27. No. 2 is Scott Gordon, a Quebec Nordiques reject. The third goalie is collegian Mike Dunham, who recently played for the U.S. junior team.

They haven't dropped the first puck at the Olympic tournament which involves 12 teams, with eight assured of making the medal round but the heat is on. "If there were no expectations, USA Hockey would be crying," Peterson said last week before he and the team left for Europe. "We accept the expectations. That's a given." Until the ghosts of Lake Placid 1980 beam up into the stratosphere, the image of a fresh-faced U.S. team upsetting the world and winning a gold medal will linger.

Things have changed. The fresh faces are replaced by those of journeymen minor leaguers, or experienced inter national players, who bring role-playing or size to the rink. From the youth will come the scoring: Boston University's Sean McEachern, with 24 goals and 21 assists in S3 games, and Boston College's David Emma, the 1991 Hobey Baker Award winner, will be counted on. In 1988, the rap against Team USA was its lack of defense. So Peterson bolstered 1992's roster with Mantha, former Wisconsin Badger and Montreal Canadien Sean Hill, and Guy Gosselin, formerly of Minnesota-Du-luth and the 1988 Olympic team.

As for Peterson, the 61-year-old former Minneapolis Southwest High coach who directed the 1988 Olympians to a much-maligned seventh-place finish in Calgary, he's sounding positively chipper. Some of the nation's media pundits don't like Peterson because he is confrontational and wonders about the intelligence of their questions. He underwent public relations training after his bad experiences in '88. Last week, he sounded very upbeat. "I like our team," he said before Team USA beat the French Olympic team in the first of seven exhibition games leading up to the opening Olympic game against Italy next Sunday.

"We're gritty. We have good quickness. Don't give up on us because of our record." The team hasn't gotten much cooperation from the NHL. (Wouldn't it be nice to see Mike Modano in the Olympics?) "They have a business to run," Peterson said with resignation. "They've been as cooperative as they can, other than shut the league down." Which is what, of course, the European leagues do.

Canada, Sweden, Finland, Czechoslovakia and the unified team (as the former Soviet club is being called) all have players locked up in the NHL, too. But many players from those nations also are in European leagues that suspend operations for the Olympics. The United States is part of a six-team pool composed of Italy, Germa Circuitous route for Kedican Twin Cities' lone player is atypical! By Jay Weiner Staff Writer He is not your typical Twin Cities' Olympic hockey player. think rink rat from a western' suburb, a former Gophers star, someone who followed the proper Not Bret Hedican. The only Twin1 Cities player on Team USA is a late' bloomer on a U.S.

team with 'jusV four Minnesota-born players; the; others hail from Rochester and Du-' "I really don't know why Tm the' only one," Hedican said last month' before he took off for Europe "There's a lot of great players in the Twin Cities area. It's just unfortunate1 they're not here." There's irony in all this. Herb' Brooks, who coached the 1980 "miracle" cold-medal team, secret I want-' "(France's Surya Bonaly is) a likeable gal. I think gymnasts are the best athletes in the world. She just needs to learn how to skate." Evy Scotvold, coach of American Nancy Kerrigan mm liik mm lUSf i 0 7 1 Associated Press photos Kurt Browning, above, of Canada la a three-time world champion.

Christopher Bowman, right, of the U.S. will have a hard time earning a medal. Kristl Yamaguchi, below, of the U.S. Is a gold-medal favorite. Hiardl to.

figure Emphasis on jumps, colorful characters at forefront ed to coach this '92 team. who many hockey insiders believe would have far more Minnesotans on; his team than coach Dave didn't get the job. In the mid-1980s, Brooks devoted! himself to building a new Division 1 program: St Goud State. Were it not for that act of devetorJ- ment by Brooks, Hedican wouldn't' be on the Olympic team today. Hedi-1 can never was urgently recruited; by any school except St.

Cloud State! when he came out of North St. Paiil High, not exactly a traditional hock-1 ey power, in '88. .1 "(Gophers coach) Doug Woog was; calling the house and a couple1 of other schools," said Gerald Bret's father. "They knew the talent; was there, but they didn't want to take the chance on him." St. Goud State coach Craig Dahl bit, even as Woog was suggesting Hedi-( can needed some time in junior' hockey.

Now Hedican is the first! Husky to make an Olympic hockey team. At 6-2 and 200 pounds, he has grown since high school. "Heck, he's grown in the last two months," said his father, who assigns maintenance tasks for Northwest Airlines. Hedican also has matured as a player. As a freshman, he was a forward, a strong skater.

But he couldn't finish off plays, so Dahl moved him to' defense. He started slow again, then learned, until, by his junior year, "he was going through defensemen and around them and putting the puck into the net," Dahl said. That's when he had 19 goals and 30 assists and was named All-WCHA. Smart player. Able to adjust.

Good listener. Realistic. Not a star. Not yet, although the St. Louis Blues are ecstatic about his progress; St.

Louis drafted Hedican out of high school in the 10th round. "It's a cliche, but Bret is a Cinderella story," said his father. "Through his career, no one invited him to the dance. Now he's not only at the a i i a triple Axel jump. She likes to drag race in her spare time.

Gone is 1988 Olympic fourth-place finisher Jill Trenary, of Minneton-ka, who succumbed to injury and a lack of triple jumps. Trenary will be in Atlanta doing commentary on medalist when the Brians, Boitano and Orser, battled for '88 gold, also has been bothered by injuries. U.S. bad boy Christopher Bowman, who didn't even try a triple Axel at the nationals because he was not in top condition, could land a medal in Albertville by default, if all the other men are hurt or stumble. The former Soviet Union has produced a gold-medal pair at every Olympics since 1960.

This year, the flowing couple of Natalia Mishuten-iok and Artur Dmitriev, competing for the unified team, as the former Soviet squad is known, are favored. But Canada's Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler very active, very busy will challenge. And, surprise, the U.S. pair of Rocky Marval and Calla Urbanski has a shot at a bronze. She is 31, the oldest skater on the U.S.

team, a waitress at a yuppie bar. Marval, the owner of a New Jersey trucking firm, lifts her and throws her like so many cartons onto the back of a semi. Don't rule out Americans Natasha Kuchiki and Todd Sand, either. They were third in the world last year, but looked very shaky at the nationals. In ice dancing, Paul and Isabelle Duchesnay, known for their avant-garde approach, looked as though they were stepping toward a dream situation: a new approach to their art in their home country's Olympics.

In free form, choreographed by ice-dancing giant Christopher Dean, the Duchesnays are a joy. But Paul has been hampered by a groin injury. That could leave room for Marina Klimova and Sergei Penomar-enko of the unified team. So, get the popcorn. Zap on that TV set.

And judge for yourself if figure skating is gliding in the right direc By Jay Weiner Staff Writer The Battle of the Brians has turned into the War of the Orthopedists. The Two Carmens have been -placed by the Triple Axels. Soviet pairs don't exist, but the Russian pairs remain great, and you won't be able to tell the difference. Ice dancing is waltzing through a shakeout that could be influenced by a home-rink advantage. Compul-sories are gone.

A truck driver, a waitress, a woman who grew up poor and a child of JVorld War II internment-camp prisoners are representing the United States. A tiny black woman, who Is a gymnast on ice, should cause a stir. Heavens to baubles, what has gotten into figure skating? Behind the same old makeup is a massively changing face. At the core of transition is the heightened commitment jo jumping, i This is the first Olympics in which jhe compulsory figures are not a part of the program. No longer can (he most technical of all get a leg up pn her competition by tracing the smoothest figure-eights and loops onto ice.

It's now a free-skate game. ft In pursuit of the Olympics' glamour medal women's singles figure-skating gold are the world's top three jumpers: Japan's Midori Ito, the world champ in 1989; American Kristi Yamaguchi, the daughter and granddaughter of Japanese-Americans who were moved into relocation camps in the 1940s; and Tonya Harding, a hard-living, hard-jumping woman from a broken home and an empty bank account in Portland, Ore. She made history in Minneapolis in 1991 by becoming the first American, and second woman Ito is the other to land the itv i TNT Olympic highlight shows. Gone are the "Carmens" of '88. Olympic champion Katarina Witt, who could perhaps have finished fourth at the U.S.

nationals, is now a hot exhibition skater. Debi Thomas, who had a gold medal in her grasp at Calgary but choked, is pursuing a medical career. Surya Bonaly is the natural extension of this trend toward athletics six or seven triple jumps in a long program not aesthetics. Bonaly, 18, is a wisp of a skater from France via her birthplace, the tiny Indian Ocean island of Reunion. The French and European champ, she has attempted quadruple jumps at world championships.

With the Olympics in France, she will be a sensation. But she is a lightning rod for criticism. Evy Scotvold, coach to Nancy Kerrigan, the third-best American, said of Bonaly last month: "She's a likeable gal. I think gymnasts are the best athletes in the world. She just needs to learn how to skate." For the men, the key is to stay healthy.

Three-time world champion Kurt Browning has been bothered by a back injury, a result of the jarring brought on by continuous training on triple even quadruple jumps. Two-time U.S. champ Todd El-dredge missed last month's Olympic trials with a back injury. A decision on Eldredge's participation in Albertville is expected by Friday. Ukrainian Viktor Petrenko, bronze uamc, nc uuc ui uic uesi layers there." Said Dahl: "You can never say, 'I'm going to do this, go here, and then I will become It's not that easy.

Bret worked hard. This shows you can make an Olympic team and ac-; complish your goals in various ways. You don't have to go to the Universi-, ty of Minnesota. They don't have anybody on this team." Last spring, Peterson placed Hedican on a Pravda Cup team that went to what was then Leningrad. Hedican decided to skip his senior season at St.

Cloud, where he was a WCHA all-; Academic team member, and make a push for the Olympic team. "There's no rational reason why I'm the onlv one from the area." Hedican said. "I'm carrying a little piece of North St. Paul and St. Cloud and a little bit of the Twin Cities with me," tion..