Game 34: UMD at Western Michigan

KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- It'll be interesting to see how UMD responds after Friday got out of control so quickly in the second period. Western made it 2-0 late in the first, then got two goals in 53 seconds early in the second to double the lead and chase UMD freshman goalie Hunter Miska. Hunter Shepard finished the game by stopping 12 of the 13 shots he faced, doing his best to keep UMD in the game.

Bad news: Senior defenseman Carson Soucy is out with an injury, replaced in the lineup by freshman Jarod Hilderman. Not sure the prognosis at this point, but he went down late in Friday's game with what appeared to be a lower-body problem after a collision with Western Michigan forward Griffen Molino, who was sliding to block a shot but ended up hitting Soucy after he skated forward before trying to shoot. From what I saw, it didn't appear to be anything malicious, just unfortunate. It's Hilderman's sixth game this season, third since the new year.

Mixes up defensive pairings, as you can imagine. Up front, Riley Tufte is ill, so the lines are a jumbled mess.

As for the game, I hammered on the earlier blog the problems that reared their ugly heads in Friday's game. No need to rehash. Read down for that stuff. Playoffs start with Miami visiting on Friday night. This is the last chance to get everything going the way UMD wants it to before the second season begins.

One more note: This will be the last game this season where potential major penalties are not subject to video review. The NCAA directive is that officials be allowed to look at these during postseason games, and that extends to conference tournaments as well as the NCAAs. Because you're a loyal UMD fan, I'm giving you this info now so hopefully it sinks in for all of us by next weekend.

Lines?

Lines.

UMD
Iafallo - Toninato - Anderson
Johnson - Peterson - Kuhlman
Osterberg - Thomas - Mackay
Young - Spurrell - Exell

Molenaar - Kotyk
Pionk - Raskob
Wolff - Hilderman

Miska - Shepard

WMU
Molino - Dries - Iacopelli
McKee - Rebry - Hadley
Courtnall - Tiffels - McMullen
McGing - Conrad - Allison

Dienes - Bafia
Schueneman - Fleming
Lee - Moldenhauer

Olson - Blacker - Gorsuch

(WMU lists goalies in numerical order. Starter is expected to be Blacker, I'll update on Twitter blah blah.)