24 seconds.
The length of an NBA shot clock. 60 percent of a play clock in pro and college football.
How long Tanner Laderoute tied up a puck along the wall at the tail end of a key UMD penalty kill in Saturday’s 6-5 win over Denver.
It wasn’t something that won UMD the game, but it did help turn the game’s tide.
8 THOUGHTS
1. Laderoute, who has always been the type willing to do whatever is needed to win, said he’d never done something like that for that period of time.
“It felt much longer,” said the UMD captain. “It felt like it was like an hour.”
Laderoute killed roughly 15 seconds of Quinn Olson’s second major penalty of the night, as you can see in the screenshot, and held the puck on the wall until the referee blew his whistle to stop play.
As the battle ensues, it looked like a Denver player was kicking at Laderoute’s stick, in a futile effort to get Laderoute to let the puck go. No dice.
“Broke Tanner’s stick,” said defenseman Derek Daschke. “There was fiberglass in the corner just all over the ice.”
“I had to get a new stick,” Laderoute said. “The stick was just kind of in pieces. He was just stomping on it. I don’t really know why he did that.”
Fellow fifth year senior Jesse Jacques enjoyed the show.
“I wasn’t sure if I should get in there,” he said. “But he held it there pretty good.
“He’s our leader.”
“That was actually pretty crazy,” said Daschke. “I remember going into the pile and there was like 35 seconds left on the kill. When we came out of the pile, there was no time left on the kill.”
Close, but much like Laderoute, Daschke thought it lasted longer than it did.
“I thought the refs were going to blow the whistle, to be honest with you,” said Laderoute.
2. It was shades of the late, great Andrew Carroll, who was so good at tying up pucks and killing time that I named the maneuver after him. I don’t remember what season it was, but I do recall one game where Carroll had a puck tied up on the wall for a good 10-15 seconds and you could hear the noise swell from the appreciative DECC crowd.
Younger fans might remember Dylan Samberg eating a puck on the wall at the end of the 2018 national semifinal game with Ohio State. It ran a good ten or so seconds off the clock, which initially ran all the way down to zero before the officials ruled they had blown their whistles with three seconds left and we just couldn’t hear them over the pro-UMD crowd in St. Paul.
At the end of the day, it’s often a forgotten move. Laderoute simply didn’t have a play to get the puck out, so he tied it up to kill as much time as possible. For UMD coach Scott Sandelin, it’s his captain doing captain things. It’s the kind of competitiveness that embodies playoff hockey, too, so it’s really important to see it as the postseason quickly approaches.
3. It also started the ball rolling on some clear frustration for Denver. The Pioneers didn’t like not being able to dig that puck free, and clearly didn’t like not scoring when handed a second five-minute power play in the same game. Down 3-2, DU couldn’t get anything going, and it gave momentum to the visitors.
When Ben Steeves scored to make it 4-2, you could see Denver standout sophomore Carter Mazur trying to sell that he’d been hit, um, there, by a UMD player. No such thing happened, and Denver went short-handed shortly after Steeves’ goal, which allowed Wyatt Kaiser to score another before the end of the second period.
UMD took a (nefarious) penalty before the second period clock hit zero, allowing Denver a chance to get back in the game in the third, which really shows you how fine the line is in this sport, and this league. One false move, and a game you might think is basically over turns out to be far from it.
4. In a game where UMD conceded five times, it’s arguable the Bulldogs took steps defensively.
Denver closed to 6-5 with more than 11 minutes left in the third period. The rest of the game, which included a Denver power play, saw the Pioneers attempt nine shots, getting only four on UMD goalie Matthew Thiessen.
So, in a way, defense won that game for the Bulldogs.
“It kind of reminded me of the Duluth of old,” said Laderoute. “No chances, puck’s rarely getting into the zone. If it gets in the zone, it’s on the perimeter and we get it right now. That was really good to see. It paralleled some of the teams of the past, and how we need to play if we’re going to win.”
Sandelin was pleased, but he isn’t ready to proclaim his team ready to play consistent lockdown hockey.
“We’ll take it game by game,” he said, “almost shift by shift.”
5. Sandelin admitted he thought his team got a bit rattled on Saturday, as Denver scored twice in a span of 50 seconds to close a 5-2 deficit after 40 minutes to 5-4 early in the third. Another in a series of key sequences at that point came when Carter Loney drew an offensive zone penalty on DU, allowing a red-hot UMD power play to take to the ice. Ben Steeves then restored the multi-goal advantage, and the Bulldogs settled into their game after that.
“I think we were scrambly,” he said, “and just needed some line to go out there and try and settle it down. But it’s hard, man. It’s hard when teams like that get rolling, right? That’s where you need big saves or you just need a line to go and play on their end or put a couple shifts together.”
It was likely fitting that the power play seized the opportunity to get back some separation in the game. UMD was three-for-four with the man advantage on Saturday night, after a Friday game that saw the Bulldogs squander a five minute major penalty in the second period down 3-2.
“I challenged the power play a little bit the day before, because I thought we could have been better,” Sandelin said. “They came through for us. Timely goals.”
6. 30 games have been played out of 34. 20 NCHC games in out of 24. And UMD will see Miami for the first time this weekend.
Strange, but true. Every schedule has its quirks, after all.
UMD gets last-place Miami at home this weekend. Much like UMD having a un-UMD-like season didn’t dissuade Denver coach David Carle last weekend, Miami being in eighth place isn’t going to keep Scott Sandelin from having his team as ready as possible.
“Every time we’ve played them, they have played us tough,” said Sandelin. “You know, every time you know going back to last year, we had four tough games with them. Didn’t fare very well the last game (a 4-0 loss in Oxford last season). We need to be ready, and hopefully we are, because nothing’s easy in this league every weekend.”
The RedHawks haven’t won in 2023, going 0-8-2, but both ties have come in February, and one of Miami’s losses to Omaha last weekend required overtime.
“We competed hard,” said Miami coach Chris Bergeron, who said the RedHawks had their chances in that overtime loss to Omaha to extend what was once a 2-0 lead, but couldn’t find a goal, a struggle for them throughout the season. Bergeron did say he didn’t think Miami was playing hard enough at times this season, which bothered him. But the last couple series — two ties at St. Cloud State, followed by two close losses (one OT) to Omaha — have been better.
“They’ve always played hard, they play physical, they play in your face,” Sandelin said when asked about playing against Chris Bergeron’s teams, going back to the 2019 NCAA Allentown Regional, when Bergeron was at Bowling Green and the Falcons nearly engineered a first-round upset of UMD.
Daschke — a four-year mainstay at Miami before transferring to UMD — said Miami’s defensive system will be a different one than what UMD faced against Denver last weekend. The Pioneers focus their coverage down low, basically daring teams to get pucks low to high and back to the front of the net, something the Bulldogs did a great job of on Saturday.
7. The Penrose Cup could be clinched this weekend. Denver heads to Kalamazoo with a five-point lead over Western Michigan, and with the teams meeting head-to-head, it means they both control their proverbial destiny to win the league title. If Western sweeps Denver and then Miami next week, the Broncos will become the fourth team to win the NCHC regular season championship (DU and UND shared it last year, those two and St. Cloud State are the only teams to win it so far).
UMD’s somewhat slim home ice chances ride on the St. Cloud State-Omaha series at Baxter Arena. UMD needs to take care of its business this weekend, while Omaha takes at least four points from the Huskies.
The other series pits North Dakota against Colorado College at Ed Robson Arena. Those are the teams directly behind fifth-place UMD in the league standings, making it increasingly likely that the Bulldogs finish no worse than fifth.
8. This might be the last weekend of UMD hockey at Amsoil Arena this season. Home ice chances for the men are hanging by a thread, while the women host St. Cloud State in a best-of-three first-round playoff series.
Yes, UMD is still hosting the Frozen Four next month, but there’s no guarantee the Bulldogs make it there. After this weekend’s series, UMD would likely need to make the Frozen Four to play on home ice again. The Bulldogs are seventh in the PairWise coming in to this weekend, with the top four hosting regionals in the 11-team women’s tournament. Stranger things have happened, but UMD’s odds of making that kind of climb are low, even if the Bulldogs win the WCHA tournament.
“It’s kind of bittersweet,” said fifth-year senior forward Jesse Jacques of the potential of this being his last weekend at Amsoil Arena. “Obviously it was my senior last year, (I) didn’t know what my future held. Obviously happy to be back, and it’s just it’s kind of a crazy ride. I loved every every moment playing here.”
With the women playing postseason games that could feature unlimited overtime, be prepared for long nights both Friday and Saturday. Scheduled pregame starts for the men are 6:30pm Friday and 8pm Saturday. We’ll keep you posted of changes via social media.
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