WEST ALLIS, Wisc. — We have made it to the outskirts of Milwaukee, words I never thought I would utter in advance of hockey games.
UMD is here for this week’s Kwik Trip Holiday Faceoff, where it will match up against Northeastern on Thursday afternoon. After spending Christmas with family in Nebraska, we have logged nearly 1,000 miles of windshield time since leaving the house on Thursday of last week, so pardon me for being a bit weary this week and not having written a midseason review previously.
I had UMD coach Scott Sandelin on my radio show Dec. 13, a few days after we returned from the Miami trip. After watching the Bulldogs get nine of 12 points over the last two series of the first half, there was plenty to be optimistic about as players dispersed for some family time before this tournament.
When I asked Sandelin about the first half, he started by saying “I’ll leave it that we had a better December than November. Let’s leave it at that.”
“Hopefully, the last couple of weekends gave us a little bit of a shot in the arm, as far as finding ways to kind of get that winning feeling back again.”
We’ll dive into some of the finer details in this blog, along with taking some of your questions. But, unfortunately, we have to start with some news from this week.
8 THOUGHTS
1. Cole Spicer’s season is over. The sophomore forward, UMD’s youngest player at 19 years old, was declared academically ineligible for the second semester and will not play again this season, Sandelin announced on Tuesday.
Sandelin offered no further detail, and I can’t imagine he plans to at any point in the future. To be honest, whatever happened is between Cole Spicer and UMD as far as I’m concerned, and that’s a boundary I don’t plan on breaking. Bluntly, it’s none of my (or your) damn business what happened.
It’s obviously a big blow in many different ways. Spicer took over as UMD’s top line center when Dominic James was lost for the season in the second period of the second game. He contributed five goals and nine points, including a beautiful short-handed goal against Northern Michigan and a big boy-type play to end the Saturday game in Bemidji.
27 SECONDS INTO OVERTIME! SPICER CALLS GAME!
5-4 UMD | #BSUvsUMD | #BulldogCountry pic.twitter.com/jkjNXYWeVF
— UMD Men's Hockey (@UMDMensHockey) October 22, 2023
Spicer was also a big part of the UMD penalty kill, was getting power play minutes, and according to Brad Schlossman he was second among UMD forwards in ice time per game.
The center position now is missing two key players in James and Spicer, and what appeared to be a position of key depth for UMD is now a massive question mark as the final 18 regular season games begin Thursday.
I was not at Sandelin’s press conference Tuesday at Amsoil Arena (was traveling back from a family trip), but he indicated the plan is for Braden Fischer — who made his UMD debut in the Omaha series as the 13th forward both nights — to play the next couple weeks. UMD has the games in Milwaukee this week, then an exhibition at St. Thomas on Jan. 6 before the NCHC schedule resumes Jan. 12 against Colorado College.
At the press conference, Bulldogs captain Luke Loheit offered his services in the middle as well. It’s a position he played in high school at Minnetonka, and one Loheit played on a very part-time basis early in his UMD career before settling in at wing.
While we were making our way here Wednesday, Sydney Wolf of The Rink Live noted that Spicer showed up on the USHL transaction wire as a pickup to Youngstown. Schlossman reposted this and said it isn’t a definite that Spicer will play there, saying that he has not gotten word that Spicer is planning to leave UMD, and making it sound like this is basically Youngstown shooting its shot on a guy who could decide to play in the USHL.
I know you’re all surprised by this, but as I sit here in my 19th season of calling games, I don’t have a great understanding of how these things work. I can barely handle the job I’m tasked with doing most of the time.
Anyway, my best wishes to Cole Spicer. No matter how this ends up, I wish nothing but the best for him and his family. Hopefully, we see him on the ice for UMD again next fall. In the meantime, one would think such things don’t need to be said out loud, but lay off the guy for crying out loud. You have no idea what happened, so your critiques and name-calling are coming from a place of ignorance. I know part of that is the world we live in, but I maintain it is not unreasonable to expect the bare minimum amount of decorum from adult citizens.
/rant
2. With or without Spicer (I guess it’ll be “without” for now), UMD has to find a way to fix what’s become a faceoff problem.
After a strong start in the circle, one that continued after James went down, it’s been a nose-dive down the percentage charts since NCHC play began.
As I noted before the final game of the Miami series, the Bulldogs were basically a 51 percent faceoff team in its first nine games of the season (all non-conference). Not great, no, but good enough to not be any kind of issue that has to be fixed.
Over eight NCHC games, however, oof.
UMD is 191-for-464 (.411) on faceoffs in league play, including back-to-back sub-.400 performances in the Saturday Omaha and Friday Miami games. Spicer was 58-for-135 (.430) in those eight games after a strong start (.543 through the non-con games).
Here’s how everyone else has been doing, starting with the non-conference games.
James: 23-for-32 (.719)
Spicer: 95-for-175 (.543)
Jack Smith: 58-for-114 (.509)
Carter Loney: 57-for-116 (.491)
Matthew Perkins: 48-for-114 (.421)
Others: 9-for-19 (.474)
Now here are the rest of the numbers over league games.
Smith: 30-for-93 (.323)
Loney: 47-for-113 (.416)
Perkins: 46-for-95 (.484)
Has UMD won as a mid-ish faceoff team before? Yes. Does it make winning harder? Also yes.
And with UMD’s occasional struggles when it comes to possessing pucks and generating offensive zone time (more on that to come), losing gobs of faceoffs is not ideal.
3. UMD’s youth continues to show promise. Perkins has been the Bulldogs’ best faceoff guy since league play started. For not being a natural center, he’s shown tremendous growth there over his first 17 games. His long-term future might be on the wing, but for now you can expect to see him get some major minutes in the middle with Spicer out.
And how about Anthony Menghini? The guy plays the game like a bat out of hell, and we love watching it. His speed is an obvious factor, especially mixed with the tenacity he brings to the ice every shift.
“I think Anthony has been very consistent,” Sandelin said. “You see how he plays. He’s been part of a line (with Smith and Kyler Kleven/Luke Johnson) that’s given us some really good shifts, game in and game out.”
On the back end, all Aaron Pionk has done — by the way, playing his second full season since moving from forward to defenseman — is eat top-pair minutes, run a power play unit, and kill penalties. UMD’s coaches know there’s offense in his game we haven’t seen just yet, but right now they need him to be a standout in his defensive zone first. It’s incredible to see what he’s doing when you consider his lack of experience at the position.
(I also want to shout out Joey Pierce here. Another guy who moved to defense who has done a really nice job for UMD. He’s a fixture on the kill, and we’ve seen him get a little more involved offensively as he’s gained experience and confidence.)
4. The goaltending has really been solid. A major question mark entering the season, and even after the season started, Zach Stejskal and Matthew Thiessen have settled in nicely. Since Thiessen took over for an injured Stejskal Nov. 3 at Minnesota, the two have combined to stop 278 of 302 shots faced for a .921 save percentage.
“I think in the beginning it was it was probably average,” said Sandelin. “But I think they’ve given us a chance.
“I felt for Matty, I thought he played some really good hockey games for us in the net, and we didn’t win any of those games for him. Zach’s come back and I think has looked really solid. I think he played some really good, very consistently. Those guys haven’t been the issue.”
The tandem have mostly done their jobs. And as UMD has improved defensively since Thanksgiving, hopefully they’re even more settled than they already were.
UMD was giving up wayyyyyyy too many quality scoring chances in the first dozen or so games. Zone exits were sloppy, plays weren’t being stopped quickly, and the result was too many goals and chances conceded.
Over the Omaha and Miami weekends, even strength shots on goal allowed per game went from over 24 to just over 20. Meanwhile, even strength shots for per game are up from about 21 to 25.5 over the same four games. It’s a baby step in the right direction. UMD needs to continue to be effective at stopping plays and exiting its zone, even if it’s just barely getting pucks over the defensive blue line. An exit is a required reset for the adversary, at a minimum, and of course can be a lot more meaningful. But it has to start there.
5. Circumstances have not been great this first half. This young hockey team has dealt with a lot over the first half of the season (and with Spicer’s ineligibility, I guess the hits keep on coming in a sense).
Before fall camp started, it was revealed that big defenseman Will Francis’ cancer had returned. Players lined up to support their teammate in any way possible, and prepared to play at least the first half without him as he underwent treatment.
(Francis is not with the team yet, but is doing well. He’s expected back next week and could play in the exhibition at St. Thomas.)
Four periods into the season, James went down and will not be back. We don’t need to rehash what happened to Adam Johnson and how it affected a lot of people in the program, players and staff. That happened at the start of UMD’s eight-game winless streak. In the last game of that streak, captain Luke Loheit sat out a one-game suspension for a check to the head of a St. Cloud State player, forcing UMD to play the game with just 18 skaters instead of 19 when extra forward Luke Johnson was injured and unable to play that night, either.
It’s a lot of emotional load on young adults who are trying to compete and find their way on the ice and off it. The Bulldogs picked themselves up after Thanksgiving and played better hockey, now the job is to carry that over into this weekend and try to keep building.
6. Discipline has improved. There’s no question UMD had an issue with discipline. While the problem is not totally solved, the Bulldogs have taken some major steps in the right direction since NCHC play started.
While the penalty minutes haven’t decreased, the number that has come down significantly is the number of power play chances given up.
The Bulldogs gave up 51 power play chances over nine non-conference games (5.67 per game). In eight NCHC games, that number has come down to 29, or 3.6 per game, almost exactly two fewer power play chances given up.
It is not a coincidence that the penalty kill has flourished. After adversarial power plays clicked at a 23.5 percent clip in non-league games, they’ve struggled to a 10.3 percent success rate in the eight NCHC games (3-for-29).
7. What hasn’t happened is an uptick in power play chances. UMD has just 21 power play chances over eight league games, barely 2.5 per game. There have been four power play goals, basically a 20 percent success rate that most coaches would at least find acceptable.
But what is strange is that, for a second straight season, UMD is getting far fewer power play chances than basically anyone else in the NCHC. 21 chances in eight games is the fewest in the league, next lowest is St. Cloud State at 24.
(Western Michigan has 55 power plays in all games, four fewer than UMD and Miami at 59.)
When you combine this season’s numbers with 2022-23, you’ll find that UMD is wayyyyy behind its NCHC peers when it comes to getting chances on the man advantage.
Opponents have received 50 more power plays than UMD over its 54 games since the start of last season. Not only is that easily the worst differential of the NCHC’s eight teams, it’s not even close. Next worst is Miami at minus-17. Those are the only two NCHC teams with negative differentials since the start of last season.
For context, while UMD has struggled in puck possession statistics this season, the Bulldogs were actually a quite solid possession team last year and still had 27 fewer power play chances than anyone else in the league.
The trend has continued.
For additional context: No one in the program will deny that the Bulldogs have taken some silly and undisciplined penalties this season, myself included. I’ve had a great seat for most of it, and I’ve said as much during games. Multiple times. What’s tough to understand is a sequence like the one we saw in the Saturday Omaha game, where Omaha forward Nolan Sullivan is hanging on UMD’s Carter Loney as he skates around the back of the Omaha goal and towards the side boards. Sullivan hits Loney near the head, then Loney retaliates with a cross check that is somehow the only penalty of the sequence. That’s the kind of thing that has frustrated UMD staff, moments where they feel like their player should be drawing a penalty and is instead the only one going to the box.
8. You have questions. I’ll try to give some answers.
Is the dogs lack of size on D something that is by design? Is it something that can work? It seems we have offensive defenseman but very little in defensive defenseman. (Overall) Do we need to get bigger or more physical to help defensively?
Am I wrong?
— Mike (@mikemcleod66) December 20, 2023
If they are hopefully able to get Will Francis back in the second half, where can he best help the team improve?
— Ross (@SkolRoss) December 20, 2023
Obviously, Francis’ absence has been felt. And they’ve got some real size in the pipeline. But it’s possible to win in this sport in 2023 without big, hulking defensemen.
He gives them a size element, and he’s got a shot that no human should want to stand in front of. If Francis can get back to what we saw down the stretch last season, he could become a real X-factor for UMD. But he has to be healthy first and foremost. This could be a process as the second half evolves, so patience is likely necessary.
Do you feel that this team is under-achieving, over-achieving, or performing about as expected?
— tate (@_tatewarren) December 20, 2023
Yes.
(In all seriousness, I picked them third. They’re far from out of the home ice race. The start wasn’t what I had hoped. The James injury complicated matters, yes, but they needed to find a way to win a couple games they did not win in November. They were never that far off, so I don’t know that it’s fair to say they underachieved. It just didn’t go as well as I had hoped when the season started.)
What can we do to get back to where we were? Hopefully can talk Pionk, Spicer and Steve’s into waiting this out for the nice recruiting class coming in.
— Jeremy Rogosheske (@jerogo6) December 27, 2023
It starts defensively. Northeastern is a good possession and faceoff team with a solid power play and aggressive penalty kill. UMD has to be strong in its zone here and going forward, because that’s where it all begins for this program.
I’m not going to get into departure talk at this point, but there’s no doubt that UMD is excited about the talent in its pipeline. Adam Gajan’s World Juniors are off to a terrific start, Zam Plante is having a great season in Fargo, Ty Hanson is producing in Sioux City, Jayson Shaugabay is doing well in Green Bay, and let’s not forget Callum Arnott playing well up in Penticton, among other future Bulldogs having good seasons. Hard not to smile when you think about the future, but a lot of this current roster is a part of that bright future. Enjoy watching guys like Ben Steeves, Pionk, Menghini, Perkins, and others continue to get better as this season goes on.
3:30pm pregame Thursday from Fiserv Forum. Bucks in six, or something.
