Aaron Crandall Takes Huge Step Toward Seizing UMD No. 1 Goalie Gig

Andy Welinski had to think about it.

"I don't know," he initially said.

Don't worry. I really didn't ask him a tough question.

I only asked him what his favorite Aaron Crandall save was in Omaha.

"Tough to beat the one on (Josh) Archibald," Welinski offered.

OK, but which one? Crandall stopped Archibald 15 times in two games, including nine in UMD's 3-2 win Friday.

"I'd say the first period on Friday night was a pretty big save."

Can't argue with that. That and the stop Crandall made on Archibald in the third period of Saturday's win are two of the best saves you'll see anywhere.

"There were a few of them," head coach Scott Sandelin said, before concurring with Welinski's assessment. He added that the save Crandall made on a partial breakaway by Archibald in the third period was pretty sweet, too.

"I'm not sure I could get in the position Cranny was in on that one," he said. "He certainly did a good job of stretching across and getting the toe on it."

The reigning NCHC Goaltender of the Week was positively fantastic in both games, stopping 90 of 93 shots as the Bulldogs swept Nebraska Omaha. It marked UMD's first series sweep of the season.

There aren't many words that can be used to describe what Crandall was able to do in Omaha, so we'll let the well-spoken Duluthian Welinski give it a whirl.

"He was steady. I think he kind of stole the show this weekend. It's what we need, a hot goaltender."

While 93 shots is a lot over two games, and 53 is a lot for a single game, Welinski and his teammates can take solace in the fact that Crandall was seeing virtually everything. UNO got a few tipped shots to the net, but most of the shots -- especially on Saturday -- were basically routine for the UMD senior. There were a lot of them, but many were from a distance or were pucks that just sort of trickled to the crease area so Crandall could cover.

Crandall was great on Saturday. He was beyond that on Friday. Archibald will be seeing a couple of his chances from that game in his sleep until he scores again. Crandall robbed him, as I already mentioned, with a superb save in the first period, but he also slammed his skate into the left post and prevented Archibald from stuffing the puck home after he had gotten by the UMD defense late in the third. It was UNO's last major scoring chance until Saturday night. He faced more traffic, more deflections, and more difficult saves on Friday, even though the volume of his work wasn't as high as Saturday.

"That's a big thing we worked on," Welinski said. "Boxing guys out and not letting them get in front of Aaron's eyes. He obviously had to make some saves, but I think we also did a great job of letting him see the puck, which helps a goalie out a ton."

Back in October, 14th-year head coach Sandelin talked about the need for a goaltender to emerge as the bona fide No. 1 for his team.

"They need to understand that someone needs to want that and step up and try to grab it," he said before the team's exhibition against Lakehead. "I think it creates some good competition, but the sooner the better (on a No. 1 emerging)."

One weekend does not a No. 1 goalie make. We've danced that dance before. However, Crandall took a huge step toward taking control of the position with his performance in Omaha. Thanks to the best weekend of his career, UMD enters this weekend on a three-game winning streak.

Crandall has struggled with controlling his emotions over the course of his UMD career. Thanks to his refusal to stop working at that, he's taken some huge steps this season.

"His demeanor has been a lot better," Sandelin said. "The last couple years maybe, the fuse might have been a little shorter. I think now it's a little longer. He's settled into just playing and not getting so in the ups and downs of a goaltender. He's a very competitive goalie. The emotions of the game got to him sometimes."

There have been a lot of firsts for Crandall this season. He had never won at North Dakota before (and from talking to Crandall, I can tell you that -- without a doubt -- this meant something to him), and he had never won back-to-back starts the same weekend before the trip to Omaha. He made eight straight starts, easily a career high, before giving up the net to Matt McNeely in the Minnesota series. Now, he has a chance to re-establish himself as "The Man" in goal for UMD, a label he's never been able to hold on to. You can bet he's determined to make it happen.

2012-13 UMD Hockey Preview: Goalies

Replacing an All-American who practically carried a No. 7 seed to a league championship and NCAA berth wasn't going to be easy.

And Kenny Reiter wasn't expected to be the guy carrying the torch.

Indeed he was, though. Reiter, of Pittsburgh, came in to UMD out of the North American Hockey League -- regarded as the second-best junior league in the country behind the USHL -- and he sat for his first two years, including a freshman season where he took a redshirt.

Reiter didn't play until the opening weekend of the 2009-2010 season, when the sophomore lost his first career start to Northern Michigan. He didn't see action against a WCHA opponent until he took over for Brady Hjelle for the third period of a loss to St. Cloud State two weeks later, and he didn't win a WCHA game until UMD won at Colorado College on Nov. 6.

He picked it up from there. Eventually, Reiter outperformed Hjelle enough to start UMD's home playoff series against Colorado College that year. He then performed exceptionally well in a 2-0 loss to North Dakota at the Final Five that ended UMD's season.

Reiter traded off with then-freshman Aaron Crandall for much of the 2010-11 season, but had the job pretty well secured by February. He was a key cog in UMD's national championship run, playing notably well in a shutout win over Union to open the NCAA Tournament, and then in the title game win over Michigan.

As a senior, Reiter played in 38 of 41 UMD games, going 23-9-6 with a 2.43 goals against and .911 save percentage. Reiter posted a 2.37 goals against and .912 save percentage in his UMD career, winning 52 games and pitching nine shutouts to tie Stalock's career record.

Alas, Reiter's eligibility is exhausted, and he's playing pro hockey.

It leaves UMD with a question mark in goal, but it's a question mark junior Aaron Crandall hopes to answer. Crandall played a bunch in his freshman year, basically alternating with Reiter while both struggled to win the job full time until we were in the month of February. Reiter ran with the proverbial ball, UMD won its first-ever national championship, and the rest was history.

Crandall appeared in just four games last year, starting three. He performed very well in one fill-in appearance, during the January rear end-kicking delivered by Michigan Tech. He had a .917 save percentage against WCHA foes, but it was only .855 for the season, largely because of a rough start in the opening weekend against Notre Dame.

I expect Crandall to start at least once on opening weekend against Ohio State, perhaps in Friday's opener.

Joining Crandall are freshman Matt McNeely and Alex Fons, who spent half a season at Minnesota before returning to the NAHL last year. He didn't play at Minnesota, and is officially a freshman at UMD.

Head coach Scott Sandelin has a competition on his hands. McNeely was highly-touted out of the U.S. Under 18 program, but "only" had an .892 save percentage last season in the USHL with Cedar Rapids. Fons had a great season with Fairbanks, winning 21 games and posting a 2.33 goals against and .907 save percentage.

The development of the youngsters will be a huge key. Goalies don't always end up committing early to colleges -- and many of the ones that don't still end up having nice careers -- but it's worth noting that UMD doesn't have a single goalie committed in a future class (not 2013, 2014, or beyond).

Sandelin has a strong three-man competition, and he will make the most of it. Barring unforeseen circumstances early in the season, it wouldn't be at all surprising to see all three goalies play at some point.

That doesn't mean the goaltending won't be good. Sandelin noted at times last year that it wasn't quite as good as he'd like it to be, and that will probably happen again.

However, there is reason for hope that McCrandons will have plenty of help from the guys in front of the chosen goaltender on a particular night. If that happens, the peripheral numbers might improve, even if the overall play from the position isn't remarkably better.

Kenny Reiter Cements Spot in UMD History

It was really good to see UMD respond like it did last weekend in Denver.

Down 1-0 after 64 seconds, 2-0 later in the first, and eventually 3-1 in the second period, the Bulldogs had nothing going offensively. Head coach Scott Sandelin decided to mix up UMD's lines, and the changes worked.

UMD scored two power-play goals to force a 3-3 tie Friday. The Bulldogs then used their newly-drawn lines for the entire game Saturday, cruising to a 4-0 win.

The line changes became a bit of a story over the weekend, and justifiably so. For those who didn't hear, Sandelin took Travis Oleksuk off Jack Connolly's line and put him back to center, then moved Caleb Herbert and J.T. Brown to his wings. Connolly now centers Mike Seidel and Joe Basaraba. You can expect to see more of these lines in the Alaska-Anchorage series this weekend.

But equal or greater to all that was the play of senior goalie Kenny Reiter.

After struggling in his first three starts (two losses), Reiter has caught fire as of late. In leading UMD to a six-game unbeaten streak entering this weekend's games, Reiter has posted a .944 save percentage and stopped 151 of 160 shots.

Reiter has shutouts in his last two Saturday appearances, giving him eight for his career. That's one off the school record. He has also taken the top spot all-time in save percentage (.912) and goals against (2.34) entering this weekend, besting former UMD All-American Alex Stalock.

This isn't to say that Reiter is automatically a better goalie or a better NHL prospect than Stalock. They're different goalies with different strengths who played on different teams at UMD. Stalock didn't have the benefit of guys like Connolly, Connolly, Fontaine, Oleksuk, or others for most of his UMD starts. The 2007-2008 team he started for was one of the worst offensive teams UMD has ever had, and Stalock kept them in virtually every game they played.

Reiter, meanwhile, has a ring, which counts for something. He's been pretty consistent, and he's worked his way up to this job. He didn't have Stalock-ian hype coming in, and when he eventually earned the right to start most of the games for UMD, it came after virtually everyone assumed that someone else would take the job and hold it for a couple years.

He's at his best when he's fighting through screens to see the puck, and he's become quite capable of playing the puck, even if he'll never be able to hold a candle to the never-boring Stalock in that department.

Instead of just accepting his fate as a backup, Reiter established himself as at least an equal to Brady Hjelle from the start of the 2009-2010 season. By year's end, he was far and away UMD's best option in goal, getting the call in the WCHA playoffs against Colorado College and in the Final Five against North Dakota. That last game -- a 2-0 loss -- might have been Reiter's best of the season. UMD could do little offensively, but were in a scoreless draw deep into the third period thanks to Reiter's stout play in net. Hjelle transferred to Ohio State, where he isn't exactly stinking up the joint early in the season (.938 save percentage in three games).

If Reiter can keep up his current level of play, he will hold three major UMD career goaltending records (save percentage, goals against, shutouts) when he's done at the end of this season. He will also become the men's hockey program's first-ever four-time WCHA Scholar Athlete.

It's hard not to be impressed by that.

Kevin Genoe's Jeff Frazee Impersonation, Or David Makowski's Robbie Bina Impersonation

While UMD was beating the snot out of Minnesota State, and Kevin Pates was racing to complete his game story before I left Mankato without him, Denver was busy rallying from an early deficit to break Michigan Tech's one-game unbeaten streak.

Along the way to the win, this happened.



That's Denver freshman defenseman David Makowski with the 185-foot goal. At least, that's my guess on the distance. It gave Denver a 3-1 lead on their way to a 5-1 victory.

As they say, it looks like a twisted wrister in the box score. See? You wouldn't have a clue.

Then again, it was a twisted wrister.

Only from 180 feet away.

Poor Kevin Genoe. He played well Friday, helping the Huskies to a 3-2 win that snapped their 26-game winless streak.

Then he lets in that clunker.

Good, by the way, for Deron Cousens of Tech. The co-captain got back to his goalie and consoled him almost immediately. That's what you need to do in that situation.

The headline for this post, of course, came from this classic.