These are fun weekends, at least for us. Four Division I hockey games over a span of around 31 hours at Amsoil Arena, starting Friday at 3pm. We’ll have all four for you on KDAL, starting with Friday’s pregame at 2:45pm.
Hats off to all the staff at Amsoil, plus the staff at UMD on what is a really busy weekend for the Bulldogs. Not only are there four hockey games to host, but UMD also has football and volleyball on campus Saturday afternoon.
It’s a lot of work, but it’s a labor of love for so many who are intimately involved.
Plenty to chew on this week, including a big homecoming for the women, and a bit of a different style for the men to deal with after a successful start to the season last weekend.
Let’s get to it.
8 THOUGHTS
1. Scott Sandelin and Maura Crowell have offices not more than 100 feet apart inside Amsoil Arena. Surely, the UMD hockey head coaches converse from time to time.
And if you ever needed to confirm that, just listen to Crowell at her weekly press conferences so far this season. All two of them.
Much like her colleague has for years, the ninth-year UMD women’s head coach is currently playing her goaltending cards very close to the vest. And she seems to be really enjoying it.
Asked Wednesday by a reporter if she has a plan in goal, Crowell only would say “Do I have a plan in goal? You’ll find out.”
Pressed further, Crowell offered nothing.
“We’re still practicing,” she said. “It’s all evaluated based on how you practice.
“It’s really important to me as a coach that what we do on a daily basis matters. I think as players, they need to know that, because if they just take off a couple days and don’t practice well but still get the games, then what’s the incentive to work hard the next week?”
Asked if she’s enjoying the chance to play this card, Crowell laughed.
It’s all in good fun.
Last week, when told of the coyness from Crowell, Sandelin cracked “So it’s rubbing off,” then talked about how good it is to have choices.
It is a bit of a new phenomenon for the Bulldogs to have a question mark in goal. Emma Soderberg took the job after Maddie Rooney graduated, and Rooney was openly handed the No. 1 job heading into her sophomore year after Kayla Black left. Honestly, UMD hasn’t entered a season with a question as to who its No. 1 goalie would be since before Crowell arrived.
But now there appears to be a true competition in goal. Freshman Eve Gascon and sophomore Hailey MacLeod split the starts against Long Island last weekend, each posting a shutout in their season debut. Gascon made 12 saves, MacLeod 10, which doesn’t leave a lot to go on if we’re to start playing guessing games.
Crowell said the evaluation includes practices, so it’ll be interesting to see how the two are deployed this weekend, as UMD opens the WCHA season against No. 2 Ohio State.
2. Homecoming at UMD was two weekends ago, but the women welcome back a big-time alum this weekend. It’s alumni weekend for the women, and Crowell said they’ve got a bunch scheduled to be back for the games against the Buckeyes. But the spotlight will come on Saturday, when 2023 Hockey Humanitarian Award winner Gabbie Hughes and her family return to see a banner commemorating Hughes unveiled before the game.
Hughes was an All-American and Patty Kazmaier Award finalist in 2022, and on Thursday she was named to the U.S. team for next month’s Rivalry Series games against Canada.
It’ll be great to have her and her family — fixtures at UMD games for four years (and whenever they could during the COVID year) — back in the building.
“To be the first ever Hockey Humanitarian award winner at UMD is remarkable,” said Crowell. “One could argue, Hobey Bakers, Patty Kaz, Hockey Humanitarians, which is more important, but they’re all significant. So we’re really excited to see that banner (go up).
“It (the award) spans D1, D2, D3, men’s, women’s, that’s a lot of people that you’re competing with. So a really special honor, and it’ll be great to have her and her family back in the building.”
Hughes and her family helped found Sophie’s Squad for mental health awareness, and the organization has taken off in its short time. Throw in Hughes’ outstanding on-ice play, which led to her being the 20th overall pick in last month’s PWHL Draft, and her impact at UMD is more significant than can be described in mere words.
“Gabbie’s a super special player,” said senior forward Clara Van Wieren. “She brought a different level of compete to every single practice that we honestly miss out here some days, but it’s going to be cool to see the lifting of the banner and cool to see all the alums back in the building.”
3. Yes, Ohio State is a formidable adversary once again. The Buckeyes won it all against UMD in 2022, then fell to Wisconsin in last year’s title game in Duluth, falling a game short of a repeat.
And the coaches (Crowell and OSU’s Nadine Muzzerall) will make sure their teams are prepared for what they expect to see from the opponent. But “We’re focused on ourselves” is much less of a cliche and much more of a reality at this stage of a season.
With nine newcomers, including six freshmen, Crowell doesn’t want them to overthink.
“I think sometimes ignorance is bliss,” she said. “So I don’t think we need to talk about it more than we talk about any other opponent. This is WCHA play. Obviously, conference points are really important. It’s a little more physical when we’re in league. Just being locked into systems is important.”
“I think we like to focus more on the internal side of things,” Van Wieren said, “and just making sure that we progress as a team every weekend. It doesn’t really matter who the opponent is.”
1-1 Ohio State’s only games so far were a tightly-played split at nationally-ranked Colgate two weekends ago, a 3-2 loss and a 3-2 overtime win.
4. The men’s season opener last weekend was a success. Yes, wins are nice, but a draw against a Michigan Tech team that will win a lot of hockey games this season won’t make anyone think less of UMD.
“I thought we did some really good things offensively,” said Sandelin, “things we’ve been trying to work on a little bit early, especially early. Second period, believe it or not, I didn’t think was our best period, but we actually had chances, maybe not volume. So there were some good things offensively, still some things we’ve got to keep getting better at.”
UMD got even strength goals from captain Luke Loheit and freshman Anthony Menghini, who was making his UMD debut. Menghini added the winning goal in an exhibition shootout that netted UMD the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame trophy.
“I thought our neutral zone, we’re trying some different things on the forecheck. At times would look like that. And then just defensively, again, just trying to clean up some things there. Probably those areas defensively (we’re) not good enough yet, offensively not there yet, but some good things.”
Asked if anything surprised him on Saturday, Sandelin said “I liked our start.”
“That’s something that I think we stressed the last couple of days going into the game. and again before to just make sure. We didn’t start games very well last year, make sure we’re starting a little bit better. I thought Dom’s line (Dominic James with Quinn Olson and Loheit) got out there and set the tone.”
5. Zach Stejskal had a strong start in goal, making 32 saves and earning NCHC Goaltender of the Week honors. The big senior said it was good to get back into games after a long September of preseason practices.
“It’s fun now that we have something to look forward to on the weekends other than just scrimmaging and Sandy skating us,” the Cohasset native said.
He played big and was poised last weekend. It didn’t look like Stejskal wasted a lot of movement, and he was in good position for most of his outing, which was a real nice way for him to get going.
“I thought he had a good game and it’s good for him to get back in it. There’s a good chance to see him again Friday night,” Sandelin said, coming as close as he’ll probably come to actually naming a Friday starter.
Sandelin credited fifth year senior goalie Matthew Thiessen, by the way, with picking the players he used in the shootout Saturday, which were Quinn Olson, Ben Steeves, and Menghini. Stejskal said the coaches do that often, and the goalies will base their choices on what they’re experiencing during post-practice shootouts during the week.
Stejskal credited his penalty killers, who went five-for-five and kept Tech to very limited looks at the UMD goal. The Huskies had just two shots in 1:46 of four-on-three time to wrap up the overtime Saturday, and UMD couldn’t change its three players, James joined by defensemen Darian Gotz and Riley Bodnarchuk.
“I thought the guys did a good job,” said Sandelin. “Sacrificed a lot, you know? Long two minutes.”
James said he cramped up about 45 seconds into the kill, and he couldn’t move much after that.
“Kind of just standing in my spot,” he said, “and trying to get in the shooting lane was my best bet and knowing that I wasn’t going to get a change.”
6. Northern Michigan presents a bit of style clash compared to last weekend. The Wildcats didn’t play last weekend, but they’re typically a team that isn’t terribly uncomfortable in high-pace, higher-scoring games. NMU was runner-up to Minnesota State in the CCHA playoffs a year ago, falling 3-2 in overtime in the title game after blanking rival Michigan Tech 4-0 in Houghton the previous weekend.
Leading scorer Andre Ghantous returns for his fifth year and will serve as captain, and coach Grant Potulny is looking for the dynamic Ghantous to play more consistently.
“For a stretch of each year, going back to sophomore year, he is the best player in our conference by far,” said Potulny. “His challenge is trying to be more consistent with his game. Now you’re not going to be able to do that for 36 games of the year, I understand. But, for him trying to find a little more consistency is key because he’s got all the tools. He’s strong. He could skate. He’s got good vision. He’s smart.”
Sandelin knows the firepower of NMU, but he hadn’t spent much time on the Wildcats as of Wednesday, keeping his early-season focus more internal.
“We’re going to see a different team this weekend,” Sandelin said. “One that’s probably got a lot more offensive firepower, plays that game that way. They’re okay winning 5-4, right? But their goalie is good, too. A veteran team. It’ll be a similar challenge with a little different style.”
7. The NCHC is a busy league this weekend. Western Michigan gets Ferris State in a home and home that begins Thursday night at Lawson. The Broncos thumped the Under 18s 9-4 on Saturday, while Miami split at Ferris, including a gut-punch overtime loss Saturday. Ferris tied the game late after a Miami empty-net chance missed by literally millimeters. And not many of them.
The Ice Breaker is co-hosted by North Dakota and Bemidji State (next weekend’s UMD adversary), with Army at UND Friday, Bemidji on Saturday. Wisconsin will do the opposite, starting its weekend in Bemidji.
(Next year’s Ice Breaker, by the way, goes back to a single-venue format, with Minnesota hosting the proceedings at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.)
St. Cloud State heads to Mankato this weekend, as we see Luke Strand’s Mavericks for the first time. Canisius plays a pair of games at Miami, while Niagara is at Omaha (the Purple Eagles swept a series in Omaha last October), and Union plays at Colorado College.
8. Before we go, I wanted to send out best wishes to longtime ESPN hockey analyst Barry Melrose, who announced Tuesday he is battling Parkinson’s Disease and has stepped away from his television duties to focus on his health and family.
I am the weirdo that didn’t fall into hockey right away in life. I was probably 14 or 15 years old, living a mile or so from Wessman Arena in Superior, and UWS was a fast-rising program in Division III. Started going to games and slowly became hooked.
Long story longer, the first time I remember really paying attention to the Stanley Cup Playoffs was 1993, the year Melrose led Wayne Gretzky and the Kings to the Final against Montreal. Not terribly long after that, Melrose was out of coaching and he became a fixture at ESPN, with his wild hair and wilder suits.
Basically, Barry Melrose was a huge part of my introduction to the sport. It was great to meet him and John Buccigross at the regional in Worcester in 2016. Barry is one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet on the circuit, always willing to stop and visit with fans and take pictures. Buccigross put up a post on Twitter after the announcement of Melrose’s diagnosis, inviting fans to post their pictures with Barry. It was a really cool thread of responses.
ESPN did a great tribute as well.
After nearly three decades on air, ESPN thanks Barry Melrose for an unforgettable career & we wish him all the best pic.twitter.com/gptFvyvoLm
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) October 10, 2023
Thank you, Barry, for all you did for this great sport.
Doubleheaders both Friday and Saturday on KDAL. Coverage at 2:45pm Friday for the women, 6:30pm for the men. We have three UMD events on the radio Saturday, starting with football at noon. We’ll hit the air at Amsoil for the UMD-Ohio State women’s game once football wraps up.
Join us!
