SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — “The hill gets steeper.”
Scott Sandelin talked about games getting harder than what his team experienced last weekend from a Long Island team that looked mostly overmatched — outside of the excellent play of goalie Daniel Duris — by the second period of the Saturday game.
That would have been the case if UMD was fully healthy heading into its first-ever regular season game in the state of South Dakota.
Alas, as we’re aware by now, UMD is not healthy. Max Plante is week to week with an upper body injury suffered last weekend. While his timetable is fuzzy at this point, the Bulldogs must forge ahead without their best player and co-captain.
Read: 10 Thoughts Weekend Preview
Listen: Weekend Preview Podcast
It starts here in South Dakota. Junior Harper Bentz gets the first chance to move up to the Plante line, as any temptation Sandelin might have had to move Jayson Shaugabay to the right wing of that line was removed by how well Shaugabay played at center and his line played as a whole last weekend. Bentz and Zam Plante played together in Fargo, and they have played on the same line some during their time at UMD. Bentz’ smarts and repeatability could be a shot in the arm for the remaining Plantes.
Lines?
Lines.
UMD forwards
Hall – Shaugabay – Anderson
Plante (Victor) – Plante (Zam) – Bentz
Zaremba – Arnott – Kohanski
Bibby – Platter – Bechen
UMD defense
Murphy – Hanson
McInnis – Kleber
Cleveland – Siepmann
Toll
UMD goalies
Dahlmeir – Axelsson – Sheffield
Augustana forwards
Meerman – Burtch – Bischoff
Bohn – Langus – DelGreco
Bulgakov – Jastrzebski – Fletcher
Gau – Howard – Hennen (Tyler)
Nelson
Augustana defense
Fandel – Hennen (Hayden)
Meritahti – Chakrabarti
Baumgartner – Young
Augustana goalies
Langevin – Zol – Nelson
Comments