ST. CLOUD, Minn. — At least it was a nice day to drive a few miles.
Welcome to UMD’s first Tuesday night game since Jan. 23, 2018, a 1-0 loss in Mankato against Minnesota State. Prior to that, it was almost six years ago to the day the last time UMD played on a Tuesday: Feb. 9, 2016. That was the home game against Bemidji State that was supposed to serve as UMD’s home opener until someone forgot to call 811 (I hope it’s still not too soon to make this obvious joke), causing a localized power outage in Canal Park that couldn’t be rectified in time to save the ice at Amsoil Arena.
Bemidji won the game 2-1, the first of three straight Bulldog losses that week that came by the painful score of 2-1. We won’t discuss the Friday game in Grand Forks that week that left me speechless and gave us what might have been my best blog post ever.
Hopefully no similar shenanigans here. Instead, just a UMD team coming off a bye and facing a St. Cloud State team that might be approaching the wrong side of desperation. The Huskies lost three of four over two straight weekends on the road, and the one non-loss was a tie/shootout loss, meaning SCSU has picked up all of one (1) NCHC standings point in the last two weekends. The run of poor results has left the Huskies six points back of UMD for the final home-ice spot with ten games left in the regular season for each.
UMD has not played its best hockey by any means yet, but still here sits UMD in a good spot to be at home when the playoffs begin March 11. Just need to navigate some choppy waters the next two weeks, with difficult series against Denver and North Dakota joined by these two Tuesday games in St. Cloud (the other is Feb. 22).
No Noah Cates for UMD, which will give Koby Bender the first shot with Casey Gilling and Kobe Roth. Kyler Kleven draws in to fill the third line spot Bender vacated. No Nick Perbix or Sam Hentges for SCSU, which is also missing head coach Brett Larson at the Olympics.
5:30 pregame on KDAL. Enjoy, and I’ll be back Thursday from Denver.
Lines?
Lines.
UMD forwards
Roth – Gilling – Bender
Olson – James – Biondi
Kleven – Jacques – Laderoute
Almquist – Loney – Loheit
UMD defense
Anderson – Roehl
Kaiser – Gotz
Gallatin – Kelley
Lellig
UMD goalies
Fanti – Stejskal – Patt
SCSU forwards
Kupka – Fitzgerald – Brand
Brodzinski – Walker – Miller
Miettinen – Krannila – Okabe
Rocco – Salquist – Molenaar
SCSU defense
Donohue – Meier
Peart – Trejbal
Bushy – Luedtke
Ziemer
SCSU goalies
Hrenak – Castor – Lamoreaux
