Friday, January 27, 2017

Game 25: Minnesota vs UMD (North Star College Cup)

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Here we go with the last North Star College Cup at XCel Energy Center in St. Paul. The Bulldogs and Gophers will play their only scheduled game of the season, one year after a home-and-home series and two after a crazy year that saw the teams meet five times in five different buildings.

Next season, there is also only one scheduled meeting, as Minnesota will play UMD in the semifinal round of the Ice Breaker in Duluth to kick off the season. A four-year run of home-and-home series will be played between 2018 and 2023, but exact dates are not known at this time.

Anyway, should be a good one. Both teams like to play with pace. Puck management is essential for the Bulldogs against a Minnesota team that has the speed and skill to beat anyone in transition. If UMD can limit those opportunities and make the Gophers' top guys play more defense than they're accustomed to, the odds of a seventh straight win for UMD over Minnesota are good.

Lines?

Lines.

UMD
Iafallo - Toninato - Johnson
Osterberg - Thomas - Anderson
Tufte - Peterson - Kuhlman
Miller - Spurrell - Exell

Soucy - Raskob
Pionk - Kotyk
Wolff - Molenaar

Miska - Deery - Shepard

UMN
Pitlick - Kloos - Sheehy
Bristedt - Lettieri - Cammarata
Gates Jr - Szmatula - Reilly
Norman - Romanko - Ramsey

Bischoff - Lindgren
Johnson - Sadek
Zuhlsdorf - Collins

Schierhorn - Lehr - Kautz

(Minnesota does not list its goalies in starting order, necessarily. But we believe it to be Schierhorn.)

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