St. Cloud State coach Brett Larson knew what he was up against, taking his team to Duluth.
“I wish we could have played them four times in the first half of the year, because I know it’s a team that’s just going to be a heck of a lot better down the stretch,” said Larson. “I’ve watched them on tape quite a bit, their last few games, and to be honest, I’m seeing a team that’s dominating long stretches of games, especially with the offensive zone time they create and the intensity that they’re playing with.
“I think they’re playing really, really well, and I think they’re gonna pop. I’m just hoping they don’t pop this weekend.”
Well, they popped. Oh, boy, did they ever.
8 THOUGHTS
1. Four power play goals in a 5-3 win Friday, UMD’s most in a game since 2017. A natural hat trick from Ben Steeves, his second of the season, making him the first UMD player with multiple hat tricks in a season since J.T. Brown in 2011-12.
(Steeves also became the first UMD player since at least 2002 with three power play goals in one game. To add to it, UMD scored thrice on a five-minute major, something I do not believe has happened since at least 2002-2003.)
UMD coach Scott Sandelin talked about a few “tweaks” to the Bulldogs’ power play, which had dried up a bit since the Bemidji State series. Of course, UMD also had eight power plays over three games before having eight in Friday’s game alone.
(To be fair, the Huskies only took five penalties that led to UMD power plays, but every time UMD scored a goal, it started a new power play for statistical purposes. So one power play — the five-minute major — turned into four. It’s a weird statistical quirk, but that’s how it works. You can’t go three-for-one on a power play.)
I’d say the tweaks worked. Steeves was stabilized as UMD tried to set him up for one-timers in the right circle. The coaches found a way to funnel some traffic to the front of the net as he took on more of a catch-and-shoot role. When SCSU rotated more strongly towards him Saturday, UMD moved the puck to the bumper spot, where Luke Loheit was wide open. Then Steeves got open in the right circle again on a tic-tac-toe passing play that followed an exquisite zone entry.
Can’t stop Steeves
Make that power play goal #4 this weekend https://t.co/bxLpBRNZ4B pic.twitter.com/uFzWWoSnMK
— UMD Men’s Hockey (@UMDMensHockey) January 29, 2023
Perfectly executed.
2. Saturday started with special teams, but the Bulldogs played well at five-on-five. Loheit and Steeves scored in the first, then Jesse Jacques capped a great effort play with a short-handed goal that gave UMD a 3-0 lead. Jami Krannila tried to shoot his team back into the game with a pair of power play snipes in the second period, but the Huskies couldn’t equalize during a five-minute power play, and UMD held them at bay the rest of the night to complete the series sweep.
Sandelin has talked over and over (and probably over) again about his team chasing the game too often. It does wear on just about anyone, and it likely isn’t a coincidence that UMD won two games where it trailed for around 210 seconds over the whole series. The Bulldogs built leads, generally played disciplined and smart hockey with them, and swept a conference series for the first time this season.
3. St. Cloud State entered the weekend with goalies Jaxon Castor and Dominic Basse combining for a .930 save percentage over 13 (Castor) and 11 (Basse) games.
UMD entered the series with the fifth-worst team shooting percentage in Division, having scored on just 7.4 percent of its shots on goal through 24 games.
So, as anyone could have predicted, UMD rang up 10 goals on 53 shots on goal with the SCSU net occupied, a shooting percentage of 18.9 and a save percentage of .811.
Did the Bulldogs do a better job getting to the high-danger areas? Yes. Did they do a better job getting pucks there with traffic? Yes. But you could see the confidence growing with every good thing that happened over the weekend. The Bulldogs got goals from forwards on all four lines. They got major contributions from the blue line. They got big saves when they were needed.
Not one or two players carried the team, and look what happened.
4. Enjoy the highlights. There are a lot of them. Here’s every goal from the weekend.
5. Jacques and Tanner Laderoute had a quality weekend, mainly with Luke Mylymok but also some shifts with Jack Smith, who was the 13th forward in both games. I said late in Saturday’s game that it might have been Jacques’ best weekend in a while. He was physical, strong on pucks, won key faceoffs, and scored a great short-handed goal.
Jacques and Laderoute have become, most of the time, the forwards UMD chooses to use at the start of a penalty kill. And they’re winning draws and making power plays chase the puck at the outset a lot more often than they aren’t. Associate coach Adam Krause has talked before about the importance of winning that initial draw, so the killers aren’t having to get into structure immediately, and so the puck gets cleared and time gets wasted. Laderoute then denied a clean zone entry after that initial clear, allowing Jacques to re-activate into the offensive zone and will himself to the shorty.
6. The young guys are gaining more and more confidence. Steeves went goal-less for seven straight games before a four-goal weekend. Spicer and Howard combined for a huge goal. Carter Loney scored his first of the season. Kyle Bettens scored again and had another good weekend playing with Loney and Quinn Olson.
For Howard, that’s three goals over the last five games, and he has reached ten points on the season. It might be too early yet to declare that he’s heating up, but he indeed appears to be heating up. That line with Luke Johnson (Smith got a few shifts there on Saturday after Johnson’s major penalty in the second period) kept earning more and more ice time as they played more together. It made sense, considering how much of their time was spent in the offensive zone. Spicer has to improve on faceoffs, where he’s struggled to be consistent, but he’s 18 years old and that will come.
UMD’s veterans are largely good role players, not stars, but the Bulldogs’ most talented players are young. They needed time, and now they’re emerging when it’s needed most. While a really good sign for the future, why wait?
Another freshman is blossoming into a star.
Defenseman Aiden Dubinsky isn’t going to light up the scoreboard, but his stick and footwork in the defensive zone are already pretty darn special. It’s excessively difficult for anyone to get by him. He competes hard, wins puck and stick battles, and is generally pretty efficient at getting the puck up the ice when it’s on his stick.
Basically, Dubinsky continues to look like a right-handed version of Mikey Anderson, which is absolutely a compliment (especially when you look at what Anderson is doing in the NHL), and he will be an elite defender by the time he leaves UMD. For now, he’s a top-four guy who allows his partner (right now, it’s mostly Derek Daschke) to play a little more offensive.
7. The UMD women had a tough go against a very, very good Gophers team. Minnesota got a goal from 2022 U.S. Olympian Abbey Murphy (set up by fellow Olympian Grace Zumwinkle) to break a 1-1 tie on its way to a 3-1 win Friday. On Saturday, it was Peyton Hemp scoring twice for the Gophers, who held off charge after charge from the Bulldogs to win 4-3.
UMD got goals from Gabby Krause, Mannon McMahon, and Taylor Anderson to cut into two-goal leads, but the Bulldogs just could never find an equalizer. Minnesota swept the four-game regular season series and got 11 of a possible 12 points.
But as a wise man said over the weekend, the Bulldogs only need to beat the Gophers once, when it matters most. It’s what happened last year after a Minnesota blowout of UMD in the WCHA semifinals, as they met in the NCAA Tournament and UMD won 2-1 to advance to the Frozen Four. We’ll see what happens from here, but the story of this UMD team has not been written just yet.
8. Unfortunately, officiating was a hot topic after the Saturday UMD-Minnesota game. Apparently you can check someone square in the head and avoid a head contact major. You just need the right referee to badly misinterpret the NCAA rulebook.
Referees have a hard job, but it’s never easier than it is when they’re looking at slow-motion replay on a monitor, and they see something as clear as this. The inability (or, perhaps, unwillingness) to call a major penalty on a play like this is a sign that the referees are going out of their way to make their job more difficult than it already is.
Here is the hit on UMD’s Gabbie Hughes that was called an interference minor. UMD challenged for a major penalty and lost the challenge.
“The explanation I got was because Gabby’s head was down, the defender had nowhere else to go, basically, then to her head.” – Maura Crowell pic.twitter.com/o6T0FeSoT0
— Matt Wellens (@mattwellens) January 29, 2023
The explanation is completely non-sensical.
For starters, checking is against the rules in women’s hockey. Gabbie Hughes is not eligible to be checked on this play, hence the interference call. And that’s a heck of a time to roll out the “her head was down” excuse. It’s, even two-plus days later, one of the craziest replay decisions I’ve seen since replay became a thing in college hockey.
No one who misinterprets a rule this badly should be allowed near an ice surface. https://t.co/hKTMrTfjcS
— Bruce Ciskie (@BruceCiskie) January 29, 2023
Maybe a bit harsh, but I generally stand by this one.
UMD coach Maura Crowell told Matt Wellens after the game that she would be contacting the WCHA for a further explanation. Oh, to be a fly on the wall for that one…
6:30 pregame Friday from Amsoil as UMD hosts Western Michigan. From one really tough and important series right to another. Such is life in the NCHC. Back Thursday with a preview.
