DENVER — At his weekly media conference Wednesday, UMD coach Scott Sandelin bristled at the opening question from Matt Wellens of the Duluth News Tribune, where Matt asked about how the players are handling the adversity off getting swept by Western Michigan last weekend.
“What adversity are we going through?,” Sandelin asked. “Played a really good game on Saturday. It’s a fine line in this league.”
Friday night in Denver, Sandelin watched his team fall behind 4-0 after the second period before staging a furious rally in the third. That rally fell a goal short, leading to a third straight 4-3 loss.
Some takeaways:
–> In our pregame interview, Sandelin made clear that the biggest key for his team this weekend was taking care of the puck. UMD did not do a very good job of this on Friday, with mistakes leading directly to two of Denver’s four goals. Goals by Reid Varkonyi and Kyle Chyzowski in the second period came right off miscues by the Bulldogs and helped DU open up a 3-0 lead. UMD covered a two-on-two rush poorly on Denver’s opening goal late in the first period, as Sam Harris scored with ten seconds left in the opening frame. And Cale Ashcroft’s goal late in the second period to make it 4-0 came after some great passing by Denver and sleepy coverage in the slot by UMD.
–> The record shows Adam Gajan was beaten four times on Friday. He now has a save percentage of .830 in his last six starts. And I understand that goalies are allowed to stand on their head. Before leaving with an injury in the third period, Denver freshman Johnny Hicks sure appeared to be doing that. But Gajan made a few huge saves in the first period, and he had to make a couple more in the third to keep UMD alive as it tried to rally. None of the four goals were on him, which isn’t necessarily something that could be said as of late.
We’re at this point where it feels like every mistake the Bulldogs make finds a way into the goal. Whether they are Gajan’s “fault” or not, the Bulldogs need more saves from the goalie. Because no team plays a 60 minute game without making a mistake.
–> UMD had a five-minute power play into the third period after Tory Pitner threw a hard hit on Hunter Anderson. The freshman forward had sent a puck up the ice and turned away from Pitner, who followed through on a cross-check in Anderson’s upper back that sent him dangerously into the boards. After a nearly three-minute review, the referees assessed a cross-checking major. It felt like a close call, not one that could be vehemently argued either way.
Kyle Gaffney converted a point shot by Aaron Pionk to get UMD on the board. But more importantly, the Bulldogs had nine shots on the power play and got some momentum from it. UMD dominated puck possession throughout the third, taking 42 shots compared to just 11 for Denver. Daniel Shlaine scored on the power play after Hicks left the game injured (he made a great save on Jayson Shaugabay and immediately grabbed the back of his left leg, left the game, and stayed in the tunnel trying to walk it off the rest of the night).
Ty Hanson made it 4-3 with 5:52 to go, and the Bulldogs got a power play late when Joey Pierce got tripped trying to create a scoring chance. But UMD couldn’t convert, only getting three shots on goal on backup Paxton Geisel after Hicks left. After Hanson’s goal, UMD took 16 shots, five were blocked and eight missed the net.
–> Sandelin and the UMD staff have surely spent time talking about line combinations. It’s the classic conundrum for a coach who has a dominant top line. Do you break them up and try to create some balance in the lineup, or bet that they won’t be shut down forever?
Well, on Friday, UMD tried tinkering in the third period. The Plante line was held off the board all night, despite 27 shot attempts between the three of them. Max Plante had 11 attempts, five wide and five on goal. Zam Plante had nine attempts, three wide and five on goal. Shaugabay finished with nine attempts as well, with two wide and four on goal.
We saw Blake Bechen with the Plantes in the third period, Shaugabay with Callum Arnott and Anderson.
I’m not sure what Saturday will look like, but it seems like we have a nonzero chance that the top line won’t start the game together for the first time this season.
–> We’ll see what happens to Denver in goal. Hicks stayed in the tunnel for the rest of the game, trying to walk off his injury. Quentin Miller is week to week with a lower body injury he suffered on Saturday against St. Cloud State.
And we’ll see what happens to UMD forward Scout Truman. He took his last shift of the game with 8:29 to play in the second period, and we didn’t have an update after the game. No one on the UMD side really knew what happened at that point, either.
Pregame 6:30 Central on the radios. Should be a fun game, join us if you will. Back pregame with lines, which could be newsworthy.
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