DENVER — Remember those couple weeks where things were somewhat normal for UMD?
Those were the days.
The Bulldogs lost captain Noah Cates for the Olympics, as they expected. Cates missed Tuesday’s tie against St. Cloud State, and barring something completely unexpected, he will miss the next two weekends. Anything beyond that is guesswork until we know how long Team USA lasts in Beijing and how quickly players can return stateside once their competition is over.
Throw in the absence of Dominic James (upper body) this weekend, and you have a rehash of the problems that befell the Bulldogs in the first half of the season, when so many lineup changes weren’t the choices of the coaches, but instead were forced by injuries or illness.
One silver lining: For the first time since the Frozen Four against UMass in April, Luke Mylymok will pull a UMD No. 24 game jersey over his head and enter the lineup. Mylymok, the hero of the five-overtime regional final win over North Dakota, was injured during preseason practices and has been rehabbing ever since. It was actually Kobe Roth who broke the news to me in early December that Mylymok had returned to the ice as the next step in his process, and coach Scott Sandelin said before the Minnesota State series over New Year’s that Mylymok and goalie Zach Stejskal were back on the ice with some degree of regularity.
Sandelin said this week that Mylymok was a full participant last week, and his mom tweeted Thursday night that her son received final clearance from the doctors to return to play.
Mylymok slots in on the fourth line, while Ben Almquist takes Dominic James’ spot, and the James Gang becomes Ben Folds Five.
On the other side is a Denver team that hasn’t lost at home all season, and hasn’t lost anywhere since it returned from break. The Pioneers are formidable, but UMD knows what it has to do to both stay in this game and perhaps win it.
The blueprint is pretty simple. Get pucks deep, make Denver go 200 feet every time it has the puck. If the Pioneers are getting turnovers in the neutral zone or within ten feet of their defensive blue line, UMD will have a very, very hard time in this game. UMD has to be sharp on its own zone exits, too. Soft or sloppy plays against a team like Denver will very often end up being pucks your goalie will have to pull out of the net while the goal song plays.
Should be a very interesting weekend. We get started at 7:30.
Lines?
Lines.
UMD forwards
Roth – Gilling – Bender
Olson – Almquist – Biondi
Kleven – Jacques – Laderoute
Mylymok – Loney – Loheit
UMD defense
Anderson – Roehl
Kaiser – Gotz
Gallatin – Kelley
Lellig
UMD goalies
Fanti – Stejskal
Denver forwards
Mazur – Guttman – Brink
Webster – Rizzo – Wright
Savoie – Stapley – Barrow
King – Caponi – Devine
Ozar
Denver defense
Mayhew – Behrens
Buium – Benning
Lee – Tuomisto
Denver goalies
Chrona – Davis – Caruso
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