DENVER — There are words I don’t ever expect to hear from UMD coach Scott Sandelin about his team.
High on the list is “passive.” Yet in our pregame interview, recorded at the hotel Saturday due to COVID protocols at Magness Arena, Sandelin uses it.
“We can’t play as passive as we did (Friday),” he says in an interview you can hear at roughly 6:50pm on the radio. “I don’t know what we were doing. You can’t give that type of team that much time and space.
“Just coming up the rink, we got beat wide on speed plays, just bad decisions and guys not closing. You have to take away time and space with these guys. Even then, that doesn’t guarantee anything, but it helps. We were way too passive, way too passive to play against this team with the skill level they have. We’ve got to have a much stronger compete level, a much stronger urgency to get pucks to the net.”
“Passive” is just not a word that anyone would use to describe UMD when it’s playing at its best. In fact, it’s the exact opposite of how the Bulldogs are built to play.
It sounds like Sandelin challenged his group to give a better accouting of themselves, regardless of the final scoreline. And, yes, we understand that UMD is inching the wrong way towards the .500 mark, and that could certainly impact NCAA Tournament eligibility. But this is, frankly, still not a time to worry about that. UMD has to start well and play consistently in this game against a very, very good Denver team. If that leads to a victory, great. If it doesn’t, at least you walk out knowing you gave the Pioneers everything you have to give.
It’s not going to be easier. As unfortunately expected, sophomore defenseman Wyatt Kaiser is out with a lower-body injury suffered in the opening minute of the third period Friday. As I wrote after the game, it appeared Kaiser’s foot got caught in a patch of bad ice near the Denver bench after a check from a defenseman. Nothing was revealed about the extent of the injury, and past practice might be that it isn’t completely known yet, as it’s not uncommon for the team to go home and get a player in front of their own doctors before making determinations about injuries. Our normal media availability is Wednesday, so unless Sandelin reveals something postgame (unlikely), that might be when we get any kind of word on Kaiser’s status. Fingers crossed for good news.
With Kaiser out, senior Jake Rosenbaum draws in as the seventh defenseman. The bottom two pairings are mixed up a bit. Up front, the 12 forwards remain the same, but Sandelin has Carter Loney with Blake Biondi and Quinn Olson, while Ben Almquist moves to the fourth line.
Denver makes no changes, outside of Jack Works swapping in for Owen Ozar as the 13th forward.
Lines?
Lines.
UMD forwards
Roth – Gilling – Bender
Olson – Loney – Biondi
Kleven – Jacques – Laderoute
Mylymok – Almquist – Loheit
UMD defense
Anderson – Roehl
Kelley – Gotz
Gallatin – Lellig
Rosenbaum
UMD goalies
Fanti – Stejskal – Patt
Denver forwards
Mazur – Guttman – Brink
Webster – Rizzo – Wright
Savoie – Stapley – Barrow
King – Caponi – Devine
Works
Denver defense
Mayhew – Behrens
Buium – Benning
Lee – Tuomisto
Denver goalies
Chrona – Davis – Caruso
