MUCH, MUCH BETTER

Game 2: UMD 5, Northern Michigan 0

UMD Goals

Sharp 2 (M. Connolly 2, Montgomery 1), 2:17 1st period. Sharp took the puck down the middle with Nick Kemp on the right wing. Instead of passing, Sharp picked the top right corner and beat NMU goalie Brian Stewart with a quick wrist shot.

Sharp 3 (M. Connolly 3, Kemp 1), 12:57 2nd period. Connolly brought the puck into the NMU zone, skated into the right circle, took advantage of some time and space, and found Sharp coming down the slot for an easy backdoor goal.

Akins 1 (Fontaine 1, Meyers 1), 5:03 3rd period (PP - EAG). As UMD was about to get a five-on-three, Fontaine found Akins open in front of the net.

Fulton 1 (Cascalenda 1), 8:11 3rd period. Fulton took a pass from Cascalenda in the neutral zone, came down the middle, and ripped a shot past Stewart.

Akins 2 (Fontaine 2, Oberg 2), 14:03 3rd period. Similar play to the first Akins goal. This one came at the end of a UMD power play, and was technically an even strength goal even though the offensive zone still showed a manpower advantage for UMD. It was Fontaine to Akins over the middle once again to close out the scoring.

Thoughts

A nearly-perfect effort. 60 minutes of solid play by UMD on both ends of the rink. We again saw a pretty good forecheck that bottled the Wildcats up at times. The Bulldogs were very good on the penalty kill in this game. NMU had a couple of rather long five-on-threes, and UMD kept a good pocket around Alex Stalock. Sticks got into passing lanes to break up feeds to open players (when you're two men short, you're going to give up some open people, so it's key to find the passing lanes and disrupt the rhythm).

This was a team shutout. Stalock had a couple nice saves during NMU power plays, but nothing that made you gasp. It was very reminiscent of the 1-0 win at UMass-Lowell last year in that regard. Stalock didn't have to stand on his head, but he was clearly seeing the puck very well.

A good start to the season. We saw a good mix of experienced players stepping up and finishing plays and young guys making plays. Hard to complain about anything we saw.