MARQUETTE, Mich. -- Maybe it was just hope, but I really thought UMD had hit rock bottom last weekend in Denver. Friday's effort was strong, but Saturday was just not good enough as Denver held on late to win 2-1.
"I thought we didn't play confidently," head coach Scott Sandelin said of his team's performance in that game. "Our game, we need to get our feet moving, and we really didn't have that. They kind of had the jump."
But UMD didn't hit rock bottom. I know this because Friday's 4-3 loss to Northern Michigan here was another step down the ladder toward rock bottom. Maybe this is it. I won't try to guess.
It was another game for UMD that simply wasn't good enough.
The Bulldogs wanted to play tighter defensively, but NMU scored twice -- including Robbie Payne's winner on a power play late -- off scramble plays in front of the net where bodies got to the front and UMD couldn't close out.
(This isn't meant as a rip on the goaltender, but without the benefit of replays, I'd say it could be argued that Kasimir Kaskisuo allowed a couple regrettable goals along the way. None of this should excuse more shoddy defensive zone play.)
Defensive zone play was a culprit on Friday, goaltending played a role, but the UMD power play might have been the most to blame. Scoreless in four chances, shotless in three of them, and somehow UMD missed a wide open net on the power play for the second time in three games.
I don't get it.
Most galling, the teams were playing four-on-four in the final minute and UMD had Kaskisuo pulled. NMU took a penalty with 29 seconds left, giving UMD a four-on-three power play that became a five-on-three with the empty net. The Bulldogs got two shots off in that 29-second sequence. One was wide, and one was blocked. Nothing on net.
It was a terrible setup by UMD. At a time in the game where urgency should just be a given (I mean, they're down a goal with less than a half minute to play), the Bulldogs showed none. Andy Welinski and Neal Pionk went back and forth up high, and at no point did the puck get picked up by a forward until half the 29 seconds had bled off the clock. It was a situation that screamed for someone to take the bull by the horns and make something happen, but that's not how it played out.
With how the power play has struggled, I guess it was fitting to see the game finish up that way.
******
Not sure what else to write. Nothing about this game was good. The crowd was small and quiet. The goal horn is loud and annoying, and I swear the damn thing is right by where I sit. The officiating was hideous. I didn't think UMD played all that particularly well. UMD lost.
The guys are frustrated. The coaches are frustrated. I'm frustrated. You're frustrated.
What can I say to make you guys feel any better?
Well, I asked on Twitter. Lots of "what's going on?" type questions. "What's it going to take to turn the season around?" That stuff.
Honestly, and this isn't an excuse, I think the whole season to this point is starting to catch up with UMD. Not only are we talking about kids, but we're talking about human beings. How many times can they dominate a game and get kicked in the face in the end before it starts to affect their confidence?
Now, as Sandelin noted regarding Saturday's loss in Denver, the Bulldogs are starting to look like a team that just isn't sure of itself. Everyone around it can deny, but UMD is morphing into a team that's waiting for something bad to happen because that's all it's seen as of late.
As long as there's season left, there's time to turn this around. I firmly believe that. But I'm also not a moron. There isn't a lot of time. UMD has kicked away some real opportunities to win games and build a resume, and now I don't know what needs to happen to fix what's wrong.
I screamed about the importance of scoring three goals. And then we gave up four.
I talked about scoring five on five. We did that three times Friday. So did the adversary.
Basically, it looks like I'm wrong a lot.
We'll be back Saturday night to try again. For now, I'm going to drown my sorrows in SmartWater while I watch women's curling on TV and something on Netflix.
MARQUETTE, Mich. -- I can think of no better time to start turning this season around. At 8-10-5, UMD is completely off the national radar, an also-ran in the bloated national polls (one-third of the nation's teams are ranked by USCHO, just think about that, then ponder the fact that national polls rank 25 of nearly 340 Division I basketball teams!), and trailing in the PairWise.
This weekend, the Bulldogs do battle non-conference with Northern Michigan, a WCHA team that has been hovering around .500 much of the season and is sitting at exactly .500 right now (9-9-6).
It might be an unfamiliar venue (UMD hasn't played in Marquette since 2010), but it's a familiar feel. The Berry Events Center is an Olympic ice sheet -- 200 feet by 100.
The Olympic sheet -- or "big sheet," as most call it -- has been very good to UMD over the last two seasons. "Good" might be an understatement.
Since the start of the 2014-15 season, UMD is 6-0 in Olympic surfaces, outscoring the adversaries 23-4. Included in that is a 3-0 mark this year, with a 14-1 aggregate.
That average of four goals per game sure is enticing. UMD just can't seem to shake the scoring doldrums this year. I don't know the power play/even-strength breakdown from 2014-15, but last season UMD scored on 8.9 percent of its shots overall. This year, the Bulldogs have 59 goals on 884 shots (7.0 percent). If UMD was scoring on 8.0 percent of its shots this season, the Bulldogs would have 20 more goals.
Think about that. A team that has lost three games by one goal and three more by two (one of those was a one-goal game until a late empty-netter) with 20 more total goals scored, nearly one per game. If UMD merely matched its opponents' shooing percentage of 8.4, the Bulldogs would have 13 more goals, more than enough to still make a difference.
It's scary.
That's how low the margin for error is in this sport, and UMD is consistently -- for whatever reason -- coming up on the wrong side of it.
As head coach Scott Sandelin noted this week, there's still time to get this fixed. But he also correctly stated that "we're running out of time." Sounds contradictory, but both statements are very true.
Lines?
Lines.
UMD
Iafallo - Toninato - Mackay
Farley - Cameranesi - Kuhlman
Thomas - Decowski - Johnson
Sampair - Spurrell - Young (Austyn)
DENVER -- Greetings from the Mile High City on a stunningly awesome day. Temps pushing the 60s and no mentionable threat of precipitation. Or cloud cover.
This is what people like me adore about Denver. Latter part of January and it's almost shorts weather, yet when you go walking along trails in the city, you can still find snow cover in areas that don't get much sun.
Anyway, there is a game of significance for UMD Saturday night. The Bulldogs absolutely need three points out of this weekend. It's not about the PairWise, because UMD is far from out of it there. It's not about the league title, because that ship left port already. It's not about home ice, because UMD will remain at least in striking distance of a home ice spot even with a loss in this game.
It's just time. The Bulldogs have played seven teams currently ranked ahead of them in the PairWise (which I only looked at for the purposes of this exercise because dammit it's only January and it's not time yet *pounds fist on hotel desk because this hotel actually provides a desk*). Those seven opponents account for 15 of UMD's 22 games so far.
UMD's record in those 15 games? 3-8-4, with no wins in ten games since Oct. 30 (UMass-Lowell).
No forward changes for UMD in the rematch, which isn't surprising, because who would you take out after Friday's game? There are changes elsewhere.
First off, senior goalie Matt McNeely gets his first start of the season. It'll be just his second appearance (he played the third period of the Halloween night loss to UMass-Lowell) of the season, and his first start since a 6-3 win over Northern Michigan last Feb. 7. His last go before that was possibly his best start in a UMD uniform. McNeely made 31 saves as the Bulldogs beat Minnesota 2-1 at the North Star College Cup, one year ago Sunday (Jan. 24, 2015).
Kasimir Kaskisuo started every game this season prior to this one, and as of this writing I'm of the belief it isn't a health-related move to get McNeely this start.
Also, junior defenseman Carson Soucy is back after a bout with something that kept him at the hotel on Friday night. Junior Brenden Kotyk will be scratched to make room. UMD's blue line was exploited a bit on Friday, I thought, and based on the chart you'll see below, the coaches may think so, too. I don't know that the pairings you see will be permanent, but what it does is create balance across the blue line pairs. UMD doesn't get the choice of matchup when on the road, and having all the top four defensemen together creates a third pair that can be exposed as a matchup problem against guys like, say, Danton Heinen.
It's why "one-line" teams will sometimes break up that top line on the road. They'll talk about how it creates balance, and it's sometimes true, but the other upshot is it makes those top players harder to check defensively. UMD doesn't have that problem up front right now, but having Andy Welinski and Neal Pionk paired together when Soucy was out put quite a bit of pressure on the other four to get the job done against Heinen's line, and that clearly didn't happen to the extent that was necessary.
We'll see what head coach Scott Sandelin has to say about that when I meet with him about 90 minutes before faceoff. Follow Twitter for more updates and discussion (@BruceCiskie) and #ListenToTheRadio.
Lines?
Lines.
UMD
Young (Blake) - Toninato - Iafallo
Farley - Cameranesi - Kuhlman
Johnson - Decowski - Mackay
Sampair - Spurrell - Young (Austyn)
Welinski - Molenaar
Soucy - Raskob
Corrin - Pionk
McNeely - Kaskisuo
DU
Moore - Gambrell - Heinen
Janssen - Shore - Terry
Lukosevicius - Levin - Staub
Arnold - Marcinew - O'Connor
DENVER -- Boy, you probably couldn't have scripted a better start for UMD Friday night in Denver.
By the 6:13 mark of the first period, UMD had a 2-0 lead and appeared to be rolling. Even in the subsequent half-dozen or so minutes, the Bulldogs looked to be in complete control of the affair.
Problem: That still left around 48 minutes of hockey to be played.
Denver rallied, and had the game tied 2-2 before the first period ended. Danton Heinen's second of the game came with just a bit less than seven minutes remaining in the second, and that was enough to give Denver a 3-2 win here Friday.
Honestly, I'd love to sit here and nit-pick the things that UMD didn't do well in the game. There were a few. I thought the Bulldogs were not sharp in their defensive zone, and DU exploited it at times. Breakouts weren't always crisp, and the Bulldogs looked like they had troubles with DU's forecheck, which we all know is very good.
After starting hot in the faceoff circle, things went badly for UMD from about the 12-minute mark of the first on. Denver ended up winning 42 of 70 draws on a night full of stoppages, including taking 14 of 20 in the third period. The large number of stoppages of play gave Denver a chance to further exploit the absence of UMD junior Carson Soucy (illness) on the blue line by getting favorable matchups against Heinen's line. As a result, Heinen led DU with five shots on goal, including four in the second period.
Finally, when UMD took a 2-0 lead, DU replaced goalie Tanner Jaillet (five saves on seven shots) with Evan Cowley. Despite watching Cowley fight the puck for most of the first period, UMD couldn't get enough bodies to the net to make him pay for it, which combined with flat-out missed opportunities allowed Cowley to settle in and DU to surge back into the game.
Cowley made 39 saves and earned star of the night status, but none of the 39 were of the "How did he do that?" variety, at least that I can recall. It's a flimsy narrative to go on, because it's not like we're keeping a statistic of "holy crap" saves a goalie makes in a game. If we did, it would be more subjective than scoring chances. But it was my feeling -- perched in the press box, naturally, where everything looks nice and easy -- that UMD's net drive in the last 48 minutes wasn't quite as good as it was in the first 12.
Of course, part of that is Denver upping the intensity level on its end. They've got guys with scholarships and pro aspirations and pride, and Heinen brought it after his coach, Jim Montgomery, was somewhat critical of him in our conversation this week. Montgomery said Heinen was "putting too much pressure on himself," to the point where the coach said his star sophomore was so desperate to score goals he was "cheating" on his defensive responsibilities and extending shifts and getting caught on the ice too long. If Montgomery will say those things to the opposition's radio guy, I have to think he was just as open -- if not more -- to the player.
He got what he was looking for out of Heinen Friday night. He scored twice, linemate Trevor Moore had two assists, and DU ran its unbeaten streak to seven.
UMD fell to 8-2-2 when scoring first, but the Bulldogs are 1-8-3 when failing to score at least three goals. Oh, and while the power play looked good at times over two chances, it netted zero goals in those chances and now sits at no goals in 23 chances going back to Dec. 11. In all, the power play has scored in just eight of UMD's 22 games this season.
By no means was this a bad performance by UMD. But it's becoming like Groundhog Day for this team. Do a lot of good things, but not quite enough. There's still, believe it or not, a lot of time to get things righted. I don't know how that happens, but the talent's in place, the character's in place, and the coaching is definitely in place.
******
Weird night in the NCHC. Four of the eight starting goalies were pulled, including both in the Colorado College-North Dakota game. There, UND jumped to a 4-0 lead and chased CC starter Tyler Marble. But on the way back to a tie game and eventually a 5-4 lead, CC chased UND starter Cam Johnson. Rhett Gardner's second of the game came in the final minute and tied the game for North Dakota, and it stayed tied through five-on-five and three-on-three overtime before UND got a shootout goal for the extra NCHC standings point. Hunter Fejes had a four-point night for the Tigers, while Luke Johnson added two goals for the Fighting Hawks.
Also getting a hook from his start was Western Michigan goalie Lukas Hafner, who allowed four goals on 11 shots in St. Cloud. Backup Trevor Gorsuch conceded four more on 20 shots as the Huskies blasted the Broncos 8-2. Joey Benik scored once and had four assists, while Patrick Newell had two goals as part of a three-point night.
Miami went into Baxter Arena and upset Omaha 3-1. Jay Williams made 27 saves and Matthew Caito scored the winner on a power play with 2:03 left after UNO was called for too many men on the ice. Kevin Morris iced Miami's victory with a late empty-netter.
DENVER -- No question it's "go time" now for UMD. The Bulldogs are stuck at the .500 mark overall and desperately in need of NCHC points to stay afloat in the race for home ice.
It won't be easy in the series opener. Junior Carson Soucy, one of the team's top blue-liners without question, will not play Friday. Senior Willie Corrin will work with Willie Raskob on the second pair, while Dan Molenaar and Brenden Kotyk comprise the third pair for the game.
This is early, because both teams have tweeted their line charts for the game. I'll have access to UMD coach Scott Sandelin at around 7pm Central time and hope to get more insight as to the nature of Soucy's absence. To my knowledge, he didn't miss any time in practice this week, but the team has skated twice now since we got to Denver, and there's also the fact it's virus season (I've had this crud for over a week and I know a couple people who had it for close to two weeks ... it isn't fun). So he's out for this game, and I'm guessing he's injured or sick. I'm a genius, I know. At this point, I have no reason to think this is a long-term concern, so we'll try to see what's up. Follow me on Twitter (@BruceCiskie) for the latest information, or #ListenToTheRadio starting at 8pm Central (92.1 The Fan, The Red Rock Radio Bulldog Sports Network, or iHeartRadio by searching for 92.1 The Fan).
Lines?
Lines.
UMD
Young (Blake) - Toninato - Iafallo
Farley - Cameranesi - Kuhlman
Johnson - Decowski - Mackay
Sampair - Spurrell - Young (Austyn)
Welinski - Pionk
Corrin - Raskob
Molenaar - Kotyk
Kaskisuo - McNeely
DU
Moore - Gambrell - Heinen
Janssen - Shore - Terry
Romig - Levin - Staub
Arnold - Marcinew - O'Connor
Ahead of a scheduled pre-trial conference Monday, attorneys for the Board of Regents of the University of Minnesota have issued a response to a lawsuit filed by former UMD coaches Shannon Miller, Jen Banford, and Annette Wiles. The lawsuit alleges discrimination by UMD based on gender, sexual orientation, national origin, and age, allegations strongly denied by the defendant.
I have obtained a copy of the response, which was filed Wednesday. The 11-page document answers allegations levied by Miller, Banford, and Wiles.
Specifically, the response to the lawsuit addresses claims made by Miller regarding scholarship money allocated to the men's and women's hockey programs.
According to the statement of case: "Indeed, the total women’s hockey scholarship funding has historically exceeded that of the men’s hockey team. For instance, in 2014–15, total scholarships of $460,785 were awarded for women’s hockey, versus $408,754 for men’s hockey, even though the men’s team had more players."
The statement goes on to refute Miller's allegation of discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation by noting the female who was hired to take over the UMD women's program (Maura Crowell) identifies as gay.
It also addresses claims by Miller that the school's treatment of men's coach Scott Sandelin is evidence of discrimination towards her. The statement says Sandelin's contract doesn't expire until 2017, and notes his 6-2 record in three recent appearances in the NCAA Tournament. Over that same time span, Miller's teams went 0-1 in the NCAA Tournament. It also notes that Sandelin's base salary was $265,000, not "in excess of $300,000" as claimed in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also brings up the contract extension given to football coach Curt Wiese as support of discrimination allegations. The school refutes that, noting Wiese's salary was a fraction of Miller's, and his teams had performed consistently at a high level.
From the statement of case: "Wiese’s pay of $85,000 was approximately 40% of Miller’s, and—unlike Miller—he was not the highest paid coach in his sport’s level of intercollegiate athletics (i.e., NCAA Division II football). He was not even the highest-paid football coach in UMD’s conference (the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC)). Rather, Wiese’s pay ranked 8th out of 16 in the conference. Yet, since Wiese’s arrival (as offensive coordinator, then promoted to head coach in 2012) at UMD in February 2008, the football team has gone 86-10 (for an .895 winning percentage—a figure unmatched by any Division II football program), and the team captured two NCAA Division II national championships (2008 and 2010) along with six NSIC titles (2008–12 and 2014) while producing two perfect 15-0 seasons."
Regarding Banford, the statement of case accuses her of hiding a significant fact from her January 2015 disclosure to ESPNw and other media outlets that she was being non-renewed as UMD's softball coach and director of women's hockey operations.
Again, taken from the statement: "A few days after (Assistant Athletic Director Jay) Finnerty emailed Banford the non-renewal letter regarding the hybrid position, on or about December 16, 2014, Associate Athletic Director and Senior Woman Administrator Karen Stromme met with the softball team and told them that Banford would be their softball coach for the coming season. Finnerty then spoke to Banford on or about December 17, 2014, and told her that it would be an approximately 60-day process to provide her the new appointment as head softball coach. Berlo also spoke with Banford on or about December 18, 2014, and communicated that the University fully intended to retain her and that they were working through the details.
"About one month later, on January 15, 2015, Banford inquired of Finnerty by email as to the status of the new appointment. Finnerty advised her in person that same day that the appointment was still in process. Also that same day, Finnerty facilitated the electronic scheduling of a January 20, 2015 meeting with Berlo and Banford to explain where they were in the process. Banford accepted the meeting appointment. Two days later, on January 17, 2015, Banford electronically declined the previously-accepted January 20th meeting and apparently reported to the media that her contract as head softball coach had been non-renewed. Banford supplied the media only with the letter of non-renewal of the hybrid Head Softball Coach/Director of Women’s Hockey position and neglected to supply the media with Finnerty’s cover email. Thus, on Sunday, January 18, 2015, ESPNw reported that Banford said that she received notice that her Head Softball Coach position would not be renewed. The online version of the story provided a link to the non-renewal letter, but not the cover email, which Banford chose to hide from the press."
The response also notes that UMD's softball team played its greatest number of home games in the last five years, as the teams that shared Malosky Stadium -- football, track and field, and soccer -- made accommodations for each other, as well as for softball. It also denies Banford's allegations that equipment for players was "held hostage" by the school.
Wiles, you might remember, resigned from UMD after the 2014-15 season, alleging a hostile work environment. The school denies such an environment existed, and the response notes a conversation Wiles had with two other coaches in the spring of 2015 where she admitted she didn't experience a hostile work environment and said UMD was a "great place to work."
The statement of case goes on to detail the friendship between Wiles and UMD Assistant Athletic Director Abbey Strong. It says Wiles severed that friendship in October 2014 after she incurred charges of over $1,000 for wear and tear on a leased Toyota vehicle that was provided to her free of charge. The contract said Wiles would responsible for wear and tear charges and mileage overages, but she wanted Strong to find money in the department's budget to pay for them. When Strong struggled to do that, "Wiles became hostile toward Strong -- not the other way around," the statement says.
"Coaches throughout the Athletic Department were treated similarly with respect to leased vehicles: each coach who received a leased vehicle rather than a monthly stipend signed a lease with Toyota obliging the coach to pay wear-and-tear charges, mileage overage charges, and the like."
The statement also says Wiles -- like Banford and Miller -- are alleging gender discrimination when UMD hired a woman (Mandy Pearson) for the position of women's basketball head coach.
The final page of the statement of case addresses unequal pay accusations.
"Plaintiffs’ allegation that they received unequal pay for equal work is meritless. Compensation for each employee depends on job performance, duties and responsibilities, and market conditions. An employee’s gender and sexual orientation were not considered in determining compensation."
DENVER -- Count Duluth News Tribune scribe Matt Wellens and me as probably the only members of the media who have descended on Denver for something other than the AFC Championship Game Sunday.
Instead, we'll be at Magness Arena for a key two-game NCHC series between UMD and Denver. The No. 15 Pioneers lead fourth-place and 19th-ranked UMD by one point in the NCHC standings, but DU has two games in hand that the Pioneers will be able to take advantage of over the next three weekends. UMD has a non-conference series and a bye mixed in there, so this is one of just two chances for the Bulldogs to gain league points before the stretch run starts with a Feb. 19 game at North Dakota.
The Bulldogs have prided themselves on being "road warriors" in recent years.
No, not them.
Since the NCHC formed for the 2013-14 season, UMD is 18-11-1 in league games away from home, including 3-2-1 this year, and 3-0-1 in the last four (goal differential is 17-3 in those games). Over the same stretch of time, UMD is 10-15-7 in NCHC home games, including 2-4-2 this year, and 0-3-1 in the last four (outscored 10-2 and shut out twice).
And, no, no one really knows why.
"We really haven't performed extremely well at home," head coach Scott Sandelin said this week. "It's unfortunate, because that's a building that we need to take advantage of.
"For whatever reason, we've been a much more consistent team on the road. The results have been much better on the road than at home. Somehow, we have to continue that, and find a way to be a better team at home."
"I think we're a super close team," senior Austin Farley said. "Spending time on and off the ice, you get away from just being in Duluth. Playing in other people's buildings, with other fans, it's fun to go out there and play against them."
"When we go on the road, we play that hard-nosed
hockey," senior Cal Decowski said. "We're ready for a battle in other
teams' buildings. I think coming in with that mentality, trying to be
road warriors really helps."
Decowski might be on to something, but I wish it was easy to bottle up so UMD could use it at home, too. Whether there should be or not, it's undeniable that there's a different mentality that goes along with playing on the road. And in recent years, the Bulldogs have played some of their best hockey when backed against a wall and sent on the road.
--> I know it was "just against Colorado College," but UMD took a five-game unbeaten streak on the road the weekend before Thanksgiving and swept the Tigers by an 11-0 aggregate.
--> Armed with an up-and-down 4-4 record, UMD went to St. Cloud Nov. 7-8, 2014, and took down the Huskies in two straight games, sweeping at the National Hockey Center for the first time.
--> Losers of four straight and threatened with a first-round road trip in the NCHC playoffs, UMD won twice at Miami Feb. 28-March 1, 2013, and eventually earned home-ice two weeks later. We won't talk about what happened that weekend.
There are a myriad of examples of UMD getting the job done on the road, and that better be the case with this team. At 8-8-5 after last weekend's loss and tie against St. Cloud State, the Bulldogs can ill afford to miss many more chances to earn points. Screw the league title, now home ice is very much up in the air.
Maybe there's no better place to go than Denver. Going back to the 2003-2004 season, UMD has played seven regular-season series at Magness Arena. In those 14 games, the Bulldogs are 7-6-1, including 2-1-1 in the last four meetings, a span of time that actually takes us back to the 2011-12 season (UMD didn't go to Denver, somehow, for a full two regular seasons after that).
I don't know much, but I do know this: Three of UMD's next four NCHC series are on the road, and they're against ranked opponents ahead of them in the league standings (Denver, North Dakota, St. Cloud State). This team is good enough to go 4-2 in those six games, and if that happens, and UMD can properly handle business at home, the Bulldogs will be at home to start the NCHC playoffs.
If there was ever a time to get those road fires burning again, now is it.
******
Nov. 13's game between these two teams in Duluth might still stand as UMD's worst 60-minute performance of the season. The Bulldogs had very little going that night, outside of the first ten minutes or so, and DU got a power-play goal in the first, another in the second, and then a transition goal after that, for a 3-0 win. Goalie Evan Cowley only had to stop 27 shots for the shutout, and a practically listless UMD team made it perhaps the easiest shutout of his career.
(Last Friday against St. Cloud State was bad, but I felt UMD was more competitive throughout the game. The oh-fer on seven power plays makes that game look worse than it probably was five-on-five.)
But that next game against the Pioneers showed some of the potential -- and frustrations -- of this Bulldog team. UMD outshot Denver, a really good team, by a 46-20 margin that was the worst for Denver in roughly two full seasons. Of course, DU goalie Tanner Jaillet stood on his head, and the Bulldogs only got one goal in regulation that night before getting the extra point with a Tony Cameranesi three-on-three tally.
DU struggled through the first half, losing four straight (outscored 20-5 by North Dakota and St. Cloud State) to limp into the break. The Pioneers have found their stride out of Christmas, however. Denver is 3-0-3 since break, with two home ties against Notre Dame, a road sweep at Omaha (UNO's first two losses at Baxter Arena), and last weekend's win and tie against Western Michigan.
"They're playing much, much better," Sandelin said of DU. "They look like a much different team than they did before break."
"Our details and our habits, our preparation in practice has been better," coach Jim Montgomery said this week. "That's allowed us to have more puck possession time in games."
Jaillet has started all six games after rotating with Cowley in the first half.
"The way he's matured, how vocal he is in the defensive zone and on breakouts," Montgomery said. "He's taken another step as far as ownership on our team."
Jaillet, by the way, has a .938 save percentage over those six games, giving him a .922 for the season.
I talked in my Monday blog about how similar these teams are. Needless to say, both coaches are aware of this, and they agree special teams will be a huge determining factor in the weekend.
"The seasons we've had, lack of production five on five, we're almost mirror images," Montgomery said. "For us, the inconsistency on the power play has hurt our ability to win games."
UMD has spent a lot of time working on the power play this week. There have been personnel changes on the units. The players and coaches know this streak of 22 straight scoreless power plays has to end. And as it becomes harder and harder to score five-on-five, the urgency only ramps up for the power play to produce.
******
For those who have heard my occasional whining about the return of obstruction in college hockey (credit to Shane Frederick of the Mankato Free Press for really getting the ball rolling on this issue), the NCAA Ice Hockey Rules Committee -- headed by Michigan State coach Tom Anastos and Big Ten/NCAA Supervisor of Officials Steve Piotrowski -- released a four-page memo this month addressing, among other things, interference.
The key part of the memo is this:
The committee’s consensus is that defenders should be allowed to engage/bump/contact an attacking player “immediately” after the puck is released on a dump in, but players are expected to release the attacker and pursue the puck or retreat following this initial contact. The same standard would be applied regardless of whether or not the attacking player was knocked down. However, it ultimately was decided that the ‘immediacy” of the contact continues to be a determination made by the officials on a case-by-case basis.
Therefore, as a reminder, immediate contact may be made against the attacking player who dumps the puck past a defender. The defender is obligated to release immediately so as not to be guilty of interference. The standard is no longer two seconds or two strides after releasing the puck. It should be noted that allowing offensive players more freedom here must not be taken as license to create collisions at higher speed.
Time after time, we're seeing either late contact or a situation where the defending player doesn't just bump and release the attacking player. That's interference, even when a UMD guy does it.
You want to know why scoring is down? Yeah, goalies and better-coached defenses are making an impact. So are uncalled rules infractions. Either more power plays would come from consistent enforcement, which should help increase scoring, or teams will adjust to existing rules if enforced, and there will be more room to make plays as a result of that.
As I said on KFAN a couple weeks ago, don't make new rules. Properly call the ones that exist. You'll see a difference.
There was no question in my mind that UMD would bring a much improved effort in Saturday's rematch against St. Cloud State. And I wasn't disappointed.
But despite outshooting a very good SCSU team 39-21, the Bulldogs were forced to settle for a 1-1 tie after Dominic Toninato's one-man rush paid off for UMD in the first period, but Charlie Lindgren shut every other Bulldog chance down.
At the other end, Kasimir Kaskisuo made a couple very nice saves, but SCSU tied it on a tip-in by Joey Benik in the second, and Patrick Russell got his team an extra NCHC standings point with a shot that went off Kaskisuo's glove and into the net during three-on-three overtime.
(I'm not going to rip Kaskisuo, who has a .923 save percentage and a goals against safely under 2.00 (1.87). If it weren't for him, this team isn't 8-8-5. Hell, it seems wrong to criticize him at all, but Matt Wellens was on-point after Saturday's game (read it here) with sentiments very similar to those we expressed on the air during Friday's loss. I don't need to pile on. Kas has higher expectations of himself than most of us would probably think is reasonable, and there's no doubt he's having a good year and will only get better as he gains experience and more knowledge of how the game is played at this level.)
In UMD's last nine home games, it is 2-5-2 while being outscored 22-19. If you remove the two wins (both over Western Michigan), that margin is 20-6. Six goals in seven games on home ice. That's not exactly optimal.
After Scott Sandelin said his team took "three or four too many" penalties on Friday, the Bulldogs took two on Saturday and killed both SCSU power plays. The Huskies were held to three shots in those man advantage opportunities, which is a good sign for the UMD kill. The Bulldogs did a good job defensively, blocking 21 of 51 SCSU shot attempts (Blake Young had five and Carson Soucy four).
Every UMD skater except Sammy Spurrell had at least one shot on goal (Karson Kuhlman led with seven). Overall, it was a much better effort.
Now, it's time to fix the results.
UMD is 1-1-2 since break. Sandelin has said it's "go time" for his team. And while the PairWise still shows UMD at 17th and very much within striking distance for an NCAA bid, the path is going to get more and more difficult the longer the Bulldogs struggle to score goals.
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None of this is meant to be a downer on a good effort. UMD controlled the puck and the flow of the game for a large amount of 65 minutes against what I think is the best team we've faced this season.
(No disrespect at all to North Dakota and UMass-Lowell, both of which are very good teams. But SCSU is the most explosive team I've seen. The Huskies have four lines that are more than solid, and that defensive corps is -- while young -- almost as deep as North Dakota's. So SCSU is deeper at forward, comparable on defense, and Lindgren is far from a slouch in goal. The Huskies are for real, everyone. I see them as a very legit national title contender.)
But scoring will be an ongoing topic until it's remedied. If anything else, look at a weekend where Kaskisuo gave up two possibly regrettable goals in regulation time (out of the four he conceded), and imagine where UMD would have come out if it could score three goals a game, a number Sandelin has often mentioned.
There are a lot of notable scoring droughts involving the Bulldogs. By no means do these notes mean I don't think the individuals are playing well. It's not meant as a callout of them, but instead the glut of guys with long dry spells goes to show the problem at hand.
Austyn Young and Austin Farley haven't scored since Dec. 5 (six games). Adam Johnson is goalless since the same date (five games played). Kyle Osterberg went 12 games without a goal before suffering an upper-body injury Friday that kept him from playing Saturday. Andy Welinski has no goals since Oct. 30 (15 games). Jared Thomas was a healthy scratch Saturday and hasn't scored since Oct. 17 (17 games). Alex Iafallo has one empty-net goal and Karson Kuhlman no goals since Dec. 4 (seven games).
Team-wide, only Farley (ten), Toninato (eight), and Tony Cameranesi (seven) have more than a half-dozen goals. Only Farley (20), Cameranesi (19), and Andy Welinski (11) have more than ten points.
Again, a number of these guys are playing good hockey. Welinski and Neal Pionk have strung together some high-quality performances since being reunited on the blue line. I like how Osterberg had been playing since break and hopefully he won't be gone long. Johnson looked great last weekend after sitting out the Saturday game at Miami. Kuhlman, as I already mentioned, really stepped up Saturday and generated great chances, and even when his offensive game isn't great, Kuhlman's effort level and play without the puck is usually exemplary.
The offense is likely to keep sputtering, however, as long as the power play struggles. The Bulldogs haven't scored on the man advantage since Dec. 5, a run of 22 power plays in a row without a goal. Over that time, UMD has gone from 22 percent on the season down to 16.7 now.
The Bulldogs need to solve their power play woes in order to make a run in the second half. It's hard to assess the personnel changes UMD made ahead of Saturday's game with only one power play. While that didn't score or generate a shot on goal, the puck movement was good, and UMD did a better job getting into the offensive zone than it did Friday. But it's hard to get much out of one two-minute power play. Friday was bad, but the goalless run is somewhat deceiving. They had some very good looks against North Dakota, and I thought they did okay against Miami.
It's similar to the team's play five on five. Just need to find a way to bury more pucks, but I fully acknowledge it's much easier said than done.
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A rematch with Denver awaits the Bulldogs this weekend. The Pioneers took four of six points in Duluth Nov. 13-14, including a 3-0 Friday win that likely still stands as UMD's shoddiest 60-minute performance of the season.
The Pioneers are unbeaten at 3-0-3 since break, including a sweep at Omaha Jan. 8-9 and a win and tie over this last weekend at home against Western Michigan. Goalie Tanner Jaillet has started all six games since break, allowing 11 goals in six games and posting a .939 save percentage.
Denver defenseman Will Butcher is maturing into a top-flight player at his position in college hockey. He scored twice in the Jan. 8 3-0 win over Omaha and continues to play big minutes on the DU blue line. With sophomore Danton Heinen struggling a bit to score goals, freshman Dylan Gambrell has picked up some of the slack and leads the Pioneers with 21 points. Matt Marcinew leads in goals with seven.
DU's power play is two tenths of a percentage point better than UMD (16.9 to 16.7), while the UMD kill is better than DU's by a slightly larger margin (84.4 to 83.8).
These are similar teams in structure and style, and this should be an enjoyable weekend in a football-mad city (Denver hosts the AFC Championship Game on Sunday afternoon). Clearly, with how hard it is to score five-on-five, it'll come down to who can score on special teams. In the Nov. 13 win in Duluth, Denver scored two power play goals for a 2-0 lead in a game where not much was going on otherwise.
Some news on he UMD side. Forward Kyle Osterberg (upper body) is out for the time being. Don't know the timetable, but it might not be just this game that he misses (we hope that's all it is, but as you'll hear in our pregame chat with Scott Sandelin, it seems like a longer-term absence). Also, sophomore Jared Thomas (no goals and just four points in 17 games) a healthy scratch for the first time this season.
Lines?
Lines.
UMD
Young (Blake) - Toninato - Iafallo
Farley - Cameranesi - Kuhlman
Johnson - Decowski - Mackay
Sampair - Spurrell - Young (Austyn)
It seems like the words "home loss" have become all too common. Since opening 2-0 at Amsoil Arena, UMD is a pedestrian 2-5-1 on home ice.
Oh, and those two wins were Dec. 4-5 against Western Michigan. Outside of that, 0-5-1 and outscored 19-5, shut out three times.
Ouch.
The latest setback came Friday night, 3-1 to No. 5 St. Cloud State. Before we get to the nuts and bolts of things, let's give credit where it's due. Too often, we -- and I mean all of us as fans of particular sports teams -- are too quick to tear down those who we feel may have failed (hi, Blair Walsh!). Oftentimes in doing so, we forget to give credit to those who come through in the clutch and do what it takes to win.
St. Cloud State was not perfect on Friday night, but head coach Bob Motzko has to be thrilled with his team's commitment to a 200-foot game in the series opener. UMD was hounded all over the ice by adversarial players, and SCSU used active sticks and good body position to win races, win battles, and break up UMD passes and chances for the Bulldogs to get the puck down low.
But let's go back to Wednesday. At his weekly press conference, UMD head coach Scott Sandelin was asked what it would take to beat St. Cloud State.
"Stay out of the penalty box, number one," he said. "A key to us winning two games in their building last year was us staying out of the box and not giving them opportunities."
In case we weren't listening, he repeated this mantra to me -- almost verbatim -- before the game. Kraig Karakas said he ran into Sandelin Monday night and basically heard the same speech.
I'm guessing he told the players a time or two, as well.
And while discipline didn't reach the levels of embarrassment Friday night, key breakdowns on UMD's part proved very costly.
At 8:33 of the second period, UMD lost a puck battle on the offensive zone (more on that coming) and Kyle Osterberg -- who later left the game with an upper-body injury and is likely out Saturday -- took a tripping penalty. Seven seconds later, Ethan Prow to Joey Benik to Kalle Kossila, and Kossila buried the puck for a 2-1 St. Cloud State lead.
Eight minutes later, UMD captain Andy Welinski took a needless and very much out of character interference penalty (he isn't afraid to play physical, but you don't see that kind of penalty from him often). It didn't lead to a goal, but it did lead to a great rush chance for Dominic Toninato. As he was burying a short-handed goal, referee Timm Walsh was calling freshman Neal Pionk for interference probably 40 to 50 feet behind Toninato in the neutral zone. Goal nullified, game stays 2-1, and UMD goes down two men. It was a killer.
(There was much debate about the call. I did not see the replay provided on the arena video board, as it came after play had resumed and I had to call a five-on-three power play. That took precedence over trying to watch TV. What I saw live action was Pionk trying to hook a St. Cloud player, and it appeared to me he was doing it to slingshot past the guy into the offensive rush. Could you argue it's not a penalty within the context of this game? I saw worse let go. But it's against the rules.
I had to give up watching to follow the puck. So while it could be argued the whistle was maybe a little late, it's hard to argue that Pionk didn't do anything to merit a penalty, given what I saw and how I remember it playing out. It actually looked quite silly, to be honest, on Pionk's part, because it was so insignificant to what was going on 40 feet or whatever it was in front of him.
I'm not fully adamant about this, by the way. I know a few people in the press box disagreed with the call, and I know the UMD staff didn't like it. I'm willing to be shown the error of my ways. It's hard when you don't get to look at the replay. Then I have to react to things the way the officials do on the ice. What the hell fun is that? :D)
Blake Winiecki got one for the Huskies about halfway through the third that took a lot of air out of a building that didn't have very much of it. It was a short-side shot that beat Kasimir Kaskisuo. To be perfectly blunt, it's a shot Kas has to stop 100 times out of 100. It didn't cost UMD the game, but it was not a good goal.
UMD never seriously threatened with Kaskisuo pulled in the final minutes. In fact, SCSU probably had the better of those scoring chances. Cal Decowski, who scored UMD's goal, made a great hustle play to prevent an empty net goal, and UMD blocked a couple shots at the yawning cage.
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Discipline was an issue Friday night. I wrote in the series preview that I don't think it's been a huge problem this season, and I still don't. UMD has had more power plays than its opponents this season, and the gap actually ended up growing on Friday.
But look at UMD's losses. There's a bit of a weird trend that's developed. In those eight games the Bulldogs have lost, UMD has averaged 15 penalty minutes per. In eight wins, UMD has averaged 6.75.
I'm not smart enough to understand how such a disparity can happen, and it's still admittedly a bit of a small sample. But it's clear that the Bulldogs are capable of playing clean, disciplined hockey. It's also clear UMD doesn't do it consistently.
Then again, do the Bulldogs do anything consistently well at this point? Even a defense that looked to be in lockdown mode last weekend sprung a myriad of leaks on Friday, leading to SCSU's first goal and some other good chances. The power play, which has shown signs of life, did little to nothing on Friday against a penalty kill ranked near the bottom nationally and under 75 percent on the season. The power play was consistently out worked and outhustled, and the theme of lost races and lost battles carried over into five on five play.
"There's still lots of season left" is starting to wear thin for many of you. I understand that and agree to an extent. I saw lots of signs last weekend that things can turn around, but Friday night felt like a step in the wrong direction. I hope I'm overreacting, and it wouldn't be the first time.
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Elsewhere in the NCHC, Austin Ortega scored in overtime to lift Omaha past No. 1 North Dakota 4-3 in Grand Forks, ending the Fighting Hawks' eight-game winning streak. UNO coach Dean Blais pulled a Dean Blais, starting freshman goalie Alex Blankenburg in his college debut. He allowed three goals on 29 shots. Jake Guentzel factored in all four UNO goals, with one goal and three assists.
In Denver, the Pioneers ran their unbeaten streak to five with a 5-3 win over Western Michigan. Quentin Shore scored twice for the Pioneers. Sheldon Dries had two for the Broncos in a losing effort.
