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Thinking It Through: #AskBruceAnything About the 5-0-1 Bulldogs

By Bruce Ciskie Dec 12, 2020 | 5:23 PM

Before we get to your questions, a few thoughts on Saturday’s 4-1 win over Denver that keeps UMD unbeaten at 5-0-1, and atop the NCHC at 17 points.

While it wasn’t a perfect performance by any means, UMD continues to show signs of improvement. The Bulldogs were able to get their forecheck game going a bit more, and UMD defended better than it did in the first meeting against Denver.

Sophomore goalie Ryan Fanti made 26 saves in another strong performance, and UMD rode power play goals by Jackson Cates and Cole Koepke to its fifth win in six games during pod play.

This was a better game than the 4-1 final indicates. The teams traded chances during a scoreless first period that saw Denver outshoot UMD 12-11. The Bulldogs got the Cates goal on a slick shot from the left circle by DU goalie Magnus Chrona to get on the board first, but Connor Caponi answered on a Denver power play a few minutes later.

The Bulldogs had the lead through 40 minutes thanks to Koby Bender’s rebound goal, which came not even three minutes after the Pioneers tied the game. Then things really turned in the opening minutes of the third. Tanner Laderoute led what became a two-on-one rush that Jesse Jacques finished for a 3-1 UMD lead. Then not two minutes after that, Kyle Mayhew of Denver slammed Kobe Roth into the end boards on a classic check from behind. A quick video review later, Mayhew was ejected, and UMD had a long power play. Near the halfway mark of that man advantage, Denver took a bench minor to go down two men for two minutes, and Koepke’s laser of a one-timer capped the scoring.

It’s a huge win to secure a season sweep against a very good Denver team that has seen its share of bad luck on the way to a 2-4 record that includes one overtime loss (to North Dakota). To make things more difficult on David Carle’s group, DU must finish the pod without sophomore forward Bobby Brink, who made the U.S. World Junior team, as did North Dakota defensemen Jake Sanderson and Tyler Kleven.

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UMD had a couple gaffes that led to really good scoring chances for Denver. One of them was early in the five-minute power play, when Denver’s pressure allowed McKade Webster to squirt free for a shorthanded breakaway. Fanti stared him down and made the save, as he has in so many big spots during this early portion of the season.

In the second period, UMD caught a break when DU freshman Carter Savoie — who had scored in each of the Pioneers’ first five games — rang the dinner bell off a faceoff in a scoreless game. As Minnesota United coach Adrian Heath likes to say, goals change games. Who knows how this plays out if Savoie finds the net on that one?

The power play wasn’t great, but UMD is generating possession and getting chances. That’s a positive. The Bulldogs need to get more traffic to the net and bear down on rebound chances, but even when the power play wasn’t scoring and mired in a 1-for-13 stretch, there were good things happening. The penalty kill broke down on Caponi’s goal, giving up a really good chance from the left circle off a rush after UMD cleared the zone but couldn’t get the puck all the way down the ice.

It’s always more enjoyable to pick these things apart after wins.

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How about that third line? Jacques, Bender, and Laderoute combined for UMD’s two even-strength goals Saturday, coming off a strong game Thursday against North Dakota. Jacques is playing the most consistent hockey of his career so far, and Bender’s speed is a huge factor for this trio. Laderoute is just a smart guy, another in a long line of players in this program who were smart, team-first, and capable of moving up or down the line chart depending on the need. But he’s a great fit on this line.

Last season, it was Jade Miller with Roth and Bender when this line was at its best, especially down the stretch of the regular season. Jacques, who played mainly a fourth line role last season, has stepped in very nicely here.

With so much attention on guys on UMD’s top two lines (especially Roth, Nick Swaney, and Koepke), the kind of production the Bulldogs got from the third line Saturday has the potential to be gargantuan going forward.

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Time for your questions. Thanks for the Twitter submissions.

There are a few tough parts of doing this job from a distance. To me, the most challenging part is what you can’t see when watching on television. There have been multiple times that penalties were called that I had no idea about (the bench minor on Denver in this game is a great example, as I got a text from someone in the pod about it to clue me in). In general, it’s difficult sometimes to discern why play stops, unless it’s really obvious. Pucks out of play along the benches can be tough to pick up if they don’t leave the playing surface completely.

Also hard to see: Line changes. I was lucky enough to interview Doc Emrick on my radio show before Thanksgiving about his new book, and I picked his brain about calling games off TV, since he had just done it during the Stanley Cup Playoffs for NBC. His biggest point was the difficulty that existed in picking up the far-side forward on plays. What I’ve tried to do is recognize the other forwards on the ice and use them to read who the wing is on the far side of the screen, sometimes using process of elimination in my own mind to figure out who it is.

(Sidebar: There was an interesting moment during last Friday’s UMD women’s game that I called. Anneke Linser had left the game with an injury, but none of us caught it since she started her shift and left during the flow of play. Since there wasn’t a media timeout, I didn’t ever get around to counting players, so I didn’t know UMD was missing someone. The Bulldogs had a play where the far-side winger with Gabbie Hughes and Anna Klein streaked down and scored, and I immediately noticed it wasn’t Linser because the jersey number was a single digit. I didn’t think it was Naomi Rogge because she had just been out, but I knew it wasn’t the other option — Taylor Anderson — because her hair color didn’t match. By then, this split second mental debate was settled, because Rogge turned enough that I could see her number!)

Honestly, the overall intensity of these games has been unbelievably good. Frankly, it’s been awesome. Maybe part of it is that we’ve all been so starved for college hockey, and anything would have been good. But I think the pace and intensity of these games has been tremendous.

That’s a big-time credit to these kids, who have brought energy despite the lack of fans in the stands. I know Roth talked after the opener against Omaha about how the league took steps to bring some atmosphere into the building, but there’s only so much that you can do.

The games have been a lot of fun to this point, a great start to a weird season for the NCHC.

Interesting topic. I was on 740 The Fan in Fargo earlier Saturday with Travis Dunn, and we talked a little about Scott Sandelin’s successes at UMD (three national titles, four wins away from 400 career victories). As things have evolved over the years, one thing that’s become a constant is that Sandelin coaches the team he has. He doesn’t try to take a team that appears built more for run-and-gun hockey and try to play a down-low, grinding style with them, and vice versa. He’s consistently shown the willingness to adapt with his teams, and that’s such an important thing for a coach to do. Not every team is going to be constructed the same way, after all. That said, Sandelin and his staff appear to have found their proverbial sweet spot as of late.

1. That would likely be ace UMD equipment manager Chris Garner. At least it seems like it would be his responsibility.

2. The better question might be: Why wasn’t this done last year, when Matt was the only Anderson left?


St. Cloud State and UMD are joined in the “East Division” by Miami and Western Michigan. Divisions were drawn up to limit air travel. UMD is playing the “West Division” teams — Colorado College, Denver, North Dakota, and Omaha — twice each in the pod, with two games also scheduled against Miami.

(Obviously, Colorado College’s late arrival means one of the games with the Tigers is being played in 2021, that will happen at some point in Duluth.)

When play resumes at home sites in 2021, UMD will play St. Cloud State six times (three home-and-home series), Western Michigan six times (series at each venue that will be three games, played on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday), and Miami four times (twice at each venue).

I think there was something on the internet that brought on another “UMD or Duluth or Minnesota Duluth” conversation that I decided not to jump in to.

I was all about never calling this team “Duluth” for many years. Then UMD opened Amsoil Arena in jerseys that had — you guessed it — “Duluth” on the front. We’ve never seen them since North Dakota bashed the Bulldogs 5-0 that night, but in my mind, things changed a bit. It’s nothing against anyone, but those who so loudly fought against UMD being called “Duluth” had nothing to go on once the university called itself “Duluth.” So I moved on to get angry about other things.

The “no hyphen” thing doesn’t really impact me, since I never really write out “Minnesota Duluth.”

But I’ll always prefer UMD. I just don’t yell about it like I used to.

Whoa, one question at a time. Haha.

Anyway, the young guys are looking pretty good. Obviously, the newcomers on defense — Wyatt Kaiser, Connor Kelley, Darian Gotz, and transfer Matt Cairns — are getting more ice time than the new forwards are, but it’s been fun so far to watch a couple guys in particular gain more and more confidence.

Kelley is going to be a really good player. He didn’t get Kaiser’s hype, but he’s come in and gotten better each game.

And up front, it looks like Blake Biondi is settling in. He wasn’t as much of a factor Thursday, but you can tell he’s gained confidence since Sandelin moved him to wing after the second pod game.

Kaiser has been outstanding, as noted already. Gotz has been solid. Up front, Luke Mylymok only got limited ice time in one game, caught up in a bit of a numbers game.

As for Fanti, what more can we say? His poise is off the charts. He’s stared down multiple breakaways, a penalty shot, and a three-round shootout against some serious North Dakota skill. What a find he was.

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Colorado College is the next opponent (11:30am pregame Sunday on KDAL).

The Tigers are 0-2-1 through three games, with two points in hand after a shootout win over Western Michigan to start things in the pod last week. Colorado has since dropped 6-1 and 5-2 decisions to Omaha and Western, respectively.

It’s hard to get a good read on Colorado College because of the limited number of games played, and this is a really young Tigers team.

What do we know? UMD has to come correct on Sunday. If you don’t respect opponents in this league, regardless of who it is, there’s a good chance you’ll get beat. As tough as it is off a couple big games in a row, the Bulldogs have to find that energy again.

Back pregame with the lines.
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