Before we get to some hockey talk, it is impossible to acknowledge the tragedy that struck the UMD football team this week, when senior defensive lineman/outside linebacker Reed Ryan lost his life at just 22 years old.
Ryan was stricken last Tuesday afternoon, following a workout in the UMD weight room on campus. According to Ryan’s obituary, he died of cardiac arrest caused by an undetected genetic condition. He will be part of an NCAA research study that his family hopes will help prevent this from happening to future athletes.
There are no words that can be said to soften this pain. I did not know Reed Ryan at all, but obviously I’ve gotten to know much of the UMD staff over the years, and the pain the Bulldogs staff and players have to be going through right now is unimaginable. At a press conference Wednesday, head coach Curt Wiese — who fought through his own emotions to deliver some tremendous words about his fallen player — said the university has been great in handling this terrible situation, starting with the moment Ryan collapsed. Counseling has been made available for anyone who feels they need it.
Our sympathies go out to Reed Ryan’s family, his friends, teammates, and the football families at UMD and North Dakota State, where Ryan was a part of the Bison for four years before heading to UMD.
In his obituary, Ryan’s family asks everyone to “Please honor Reed by being kind.”
Seems simple enough, and it’s a nice goal to aim for.
8 THOUGHTS
1. There’s no escaping the elephant in the room. UMD is winless in eight games (0-7-1) since getting off to a fairly solid 3-0-2 start to its season. Those eight games? Cornell, Minnesota, North Dakota, and St. Cloud State. I mean, the Huskies are pretty good, and they’re probably the fourth-place team if you’re to rank these four. And if it’s not them, it’s Minnesota, also pretty good.
UMD coach Scott Sandelin has been open all season about looking for more out of his team, especially on defense. And all the positives one can muster from a 6-5 loss at St. Cloud State in UMD’s last game on Nov. 18 come with the caveat of having conceded six times.
“We’ve got to value some things that are important to winning games,” he said this week, “and be more consistent with those things in our game so that they become repetitive. Like I told the guys repetitiveness equals trust. When you start doing those things over and over again, you start to trust.”
Assistant coach Cody Chupp acknowledged it’s been a tough stretch, but preached the importance of being positive.
“I think there were some things, especially from Saturday, that we can take as a positive,” he said. “We’ve got to clean some things up, but it’s a loss, and we’ve got to find a way here.”
2. “Our only way out is through.” Those were the words of UMD senior Blake Biondi when asked about how the Bulldogs have tried to keep a positive outlook through this tough stretch of games.
“There’s no reason to panic,” he said. “We have to come together.
“I think it (last week’s bye) was a good little break for us. Obviously, it hasn’t been the stretch we’ve wanted. But for us, it was good. We had some time off and had a good week of practice last week.”
That doesn’t mean just accepting results and not learning from them. It means everyone doing what they can to keep this from eating away at them. This isn’t the NHL, where teams try to create quick fixes by changing coaches or trading players.
The staff isn’t going anywhere (nor should they, by the way, and I feel bad for even indirectly planting this idea in anyone’s head, but I’m trying for a bigger point so play along). The roster is the roster. As Biondi said, the only way out is through. No one is coming to save you, you must save yourself. Cliche, yes, but it’s valid.
And it’s not like they’re far off.
Even with a poor start in the Friday game, it took a late power play goal for North Dakota to put away UMD in the league opener. The Saturday game was a 2-0 final, yes, but the Bulldogs had their chances in the third period to make it really interesting. Both games in St. Cloud were one-goal margins, with Matthew Thiessen pulled late for an extra attacker and the Bulldogs pressing for a tying score.
“We’re probably not as far off as it feels or maybe appears at times,” said Chupp. “At no point (in St. Cloud), did it feel like we were outmatched, and that goes back a few weekends. Even the Minnesota game on Friday night, that didn’t feel like it was a 5-1 game. We self-inflicted a couple things, which probably is where a lot of our frustration lies.”
Chupp acknowledges that they are “judged on their record,” so don’t misread this as anything more than some positivity at a time where it is lacking. It’s not too late for UMD to fix some of ths mistakes it has made too many of this season, and doing that perhaps allows for some better results.
3. The UMD formula hasn’t changed. Offensively, we saw glimpses of it in the Saturday loss to St. Cloud State before the break. Pucks and bodies to the net. Biondi scored a greasy power play goal by just getting to the front of the net with his stick available. Nothing that will land on SportsCenter’s Top Plays, but plenty effective. Anthony Menghini and Owen Gallatin scored goals with perimeter shots finding their way through traffic in front. Quinn Olson found a way around the back of the net with the goalie out of position for a slick wraparound goal after some good work down low by UMD to create space and opportunity for him.
The Bulldogs can be a good offensive team, but they probably won’t be finding their way to any highlight reels with how they have to score.
“We get guys to the net,” Sandelin said. “We get more pucks to the net. It’s nothing’s pretty. Everybody wants things to be pretty. Winning hockey isn’t pretty. You can watch all the highlight reel goals, but I don’t care what level you’re at. Winning hockey games is not always pretty, but everybody wants it to be. Whether it’s a fancy pass or the extra pass or the highlight reel goal.
“Usually, it’s pretty ugly.”
4. Omaha comes in with a three-game winning streak, a run that started with a weird weekend in Denver. The Saturday game (Nov. 18) started on time, and the teams completed a scoreless first period, but trouble struck during intermission. An area of the ice behind one of the goals was bad, and no one could find a way to make it playable. The teams had to suspend their game, finishing it the following afternoon. That meant some stressful times for Omaha director of hockey operations Brian Suslow, who became responsible for re-booking flights for the travel party of 23 players plus coaches and support staff, securing an extra night of hotel for everyone, and of course finding food for the next day, a Sunday that was supposed to feature a quick flight home to Omaha and instead now included two-thirds of a hockey game.
“I think the bottom line to summarize the story,” Omaha coach Mike Gabinet said, “is I think it was like maybe midnight or something, maybe even later, and I called him. ‘Brian where you at?’ And he still hasn’t left the locker room. He’s like ‘I don’t want to hang up the phone or get off my computer, I’m afraid I’m going to lose something.’
“We got everyone home by 12:30 Sunday night, two different airlines. He did a great job.”
On the ice, the Mavericks have rode a balanced attack to an 8-3-1 start. No one has more than ten points in the 12 games, but Gabinet is pleased to see a lot of different players contributing.
“We’ve had a couple really good games from our so-called called fourth line here the last couple of games,” Gabinet said. “And that’s what we’ve talked about from day one. We want to be a team that wins as a team.”
“Hard, they play fast,” Sandelin said when asked about the Mavericks. “On the back end, they’ve got a few guys that I really like. Special power plays always good with (Gabinet). You’ve got some older guys, like (captain Nolan) Sullivan’s a bull, man. He’s a bull. They’re a good face -off team. They’ve got some big bodies that will be hard at the net.”
5. The NCHC isn’t terribly busy this weekend, but the other league series is a massive one, with No. 2 North Dakota playing at No. 3 Denver.
I’ve always been one to say that these finely-tuned athletes best not listen to all the altitude talk. While the fat radio guy might have the occasional bad day trying to get exercise while at altitude, hockey players can handle such things just fine, thankyouverymuch.
That said, if you have the resources to potentially combat it, why take chances?
…another notable offseason development in Grand Forks was a renovation of UND’s training facilities, which were already considered to be among the most impressive in North American hockey (at all levels). This includes a 1,400 square foot High Altitude training room, one of the largest such facilities on Earth.
Much is said about playing in the ‘thin air’ of Denver, and the storyline came to the forefront earlier this year during the NBA Finals between the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat. “Thin air” is of course a bit of a misnomer. The partial pressure of oxygen is lower at altitude, and so the air can better be described as less dense. The potential result for an athlete? It’s harder for red blood cells to deliver oxygen to, for instance, muscle, and so athletes may tire faster. They’ll breathe harder.
High altitude training rooms, like the one in Grand Forks, can simulate conditions at various altitudes by using advanced technology to adjust oxygen levels, temperature and humidity. Training at “high altitude” will result in the body producing more red blood cells, and the life span for a red blood cell is about 20 days. More red blood cells, more oxygen delivery, increased exercise tolerance at altitude.
Denver swept UND at Magness last season, and while I’m sure this training room won’t hurt, UND having a much better team this season also helps its cause tremendously.
Non-conference, Lindenwood plays two at Western Michigan, while Arizona State is at Colorado Collegef for a weekend series.
6. While the 2023-24 Bulldogs try to find some footing before the midseason holiday break, UMD has signed six recruits that appear to ensure a very bright future for the program.
UMD Thursday announced the six-player group. Leading the way are three Hermantown products, defenseman Ty Hanson and forwards Max and Zam Plante. The Plantes will be the 13th and 14th sons of UMD alumni to play in the program, and Derek Plante will become the first UMD alum to have two sons play for the Bulldogs. Joining them are forward Jayson Shaugabay, the 2023 Minnesota Mr. Hockey out of Warroad, defenseman Adam Kleber, and goalie Adam Gajan, who impressed playing for Slovakia at the 2023 World Juniors and is having a very good season for the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers.
For now, enjoy following all six from afar: Max Plante plays for the US U18 team, Zam is with USHL Fargo, Gajan and Shaugabay are in Green Bay, Kleber is with Lincoln of the USHL, and Hanson is in Sioux City.
7. The UMD women had a great weekend over the holiday, winning and tying against then-No. 2 Colgate at home while conceding just one goal in the two games.
It keeps up a theme that has seen Maura Crowell’s team playing some incredible defensive hockey in front of standout goalies Hailey MacLeod (WCHA Goaltender of the Month for November) and Eve Gascon.
“I think back to 21 -22,” said Crowell, “when we made it to the national championship game, our defense, if you ask anyone that played us, that’s what they talked about. The layers, you got one on you, then you’ve got another one, and then another one, and then you get to a tremendous goalie. So, it’s a mental battle, too, that teams have to deal with when they play us, because we are so stingy defensively, and then we have great goaltending, too.”
UMD matches up with Wisconsin Saturday and Sunday in Madison. The Badgers have been missing standout sophomore defender Caroline Harvey since Oct. 20, but she’s uncertain for this weekend. Her return seems imminent, however, and she was included on the U.S. roster for December’s Rivalry Series games with Canada.
Caroline Harvey, who has been out of the Badgers women's hockey lineup since she suffered a knee injury on Oct. 20, is on the ice at practice with a no-contact jersey.
Here's what Mark Johnson said about the possibility of her return in the final two series before break: pic.twitter.com/NGFdFNfPNb
— Todd Milewski (@ToddMilewski) November 28, 2023
8. As usual, the home weekend that happens between Thanksgiving and Christmas is setting up to be a traffic nightmare. Not much that can be done but deal with it, as many fans will.
By now, most of you know the drill pretty well. Get to the DECC area early to find a parking spot, or just park downtown and walk over to Amsoil Arena via the Skywalk.
Friday’s game starts at 7pm, with Bentleyville and some planned events there being the biggest traffic snag. But Saturday adds in the Duluth Winter Village behind the DECC, as well as two shows in Symphony Hall. Keep in mind that the weather looks downright wonderful for this time of year, so Bentleyville and the Winter Village will probably draw big crowds.
Be smart and give yourself plenty of time to get to the games on time.
6:30pm pregame Friday, 4:30pm Saturday. Back pregame with more thoughts and the line charts.
