The big picture is still very much in Minnesota’s favor.
Even after a second straight two-game home-and-home sweep against its longtime rival, UMD finds itself 50 wins behind the Gophers in the all-time series (135-85-18). Even if they played twice a year going forward, it would take the Bulldogs another quarter century to tie. A long-term change to a rivalry’s story does happen (just look at Packers-Bears), but it’s rare and very, very difficult.
But only the truest of true die-hard Gopher fans are hanging a hat on that all-time number at this point. UMD’s 2-1 win Saturday at a crazy loud Amsoil Arena gave the Bulldogs what could prove to be a huge two-game series sweep, and it ran UMD’s record to 12-1-1 in the last 14 games against Minnesota. The Bulldogs are now 13-3-2 against the Gophers since the teams left the WCHA after the 2012-13 season (Minnesota for the Big Ten, obviously, and UMD for the NCHC).
Anytime you see a run like this, there’s going to be a game or two along the way where a team has a strong performance and still loses. Saturday is a good example. After basically laying an egg at home Friday, the Gophers played well enough to win the game. However, UMD junior Ryan Fanti (28 saves) and those playing in front of him (16 blocked shots, including two by Wyatt Kaiser in the final ten seconds) wouldn’t let Minnesota complete a comeback from a 2-0 deficit that came before the first period ended.
Let’s start with a few thoughts on the game and the sweep. Later, we’ll look back at the last 14 meetings and see how the Bulldogs have turned this rivalry on its ear.
Big-time performance by Fanti. There weren’t a ton of “How the hell did he do that?” saves along the way, but as Kraig Karakas pointed out during the broadcast, a big reason for that was that Fanti was so strong positionally. Listed at 6-3, Fanti played much of Saturday’s game like a bigger goalie than he already is. It might have been his strongest performance as a Bulldogs, especially given the quality zone time Minnesota was able to generate from the last quarter or so of the second period through about the first half of the third.
Mason Nevers was active for the Gophers with six shots and Minnesota’s only goal on a great tip after a Ryan Johnson center point shot. Fanti turned aside the dangerous Bryce Brodzinski, Blake McLaughlin, and Ben Meyers thrice each. Johnson had five of his seven shot attempts blocked, while fellow blue-liner Jackson LaCombe took four shots and only got one to the net (three blocked). On a night where Minnesota out-attempted UMD 58-44, it was Fanti and the defense who owned the night.
For Gophers coach Bob Motzko, the effort he got from his players is not lost on him, even though the result was certainly not what they were looking for.
“I hate losing two games in a weekend, but we played a lot better tonight,” said Gophers coach Bob Motzko, whose team lost 5-3 in the series opener at 3M Arena at Mariucci. “Their first goal bounced off three or four guys and went in, and they didn’t have many chances while we did. Give their goaltender the nod tonight, he was definitely the best player on the ice. We had our chances.”
UMD was already down sophomore goalie Zach Stejskal, who suffered a lower body injury in practice last week. He started the first two Fridays of the season, in a rotation with Fanti. Then junior forward Luke Loheit (upper body) went out on Friday after blocking a shot and missed Saturday’s game. During the game, senior forward Tanner Laderoute blocked a hard shot and struggled to get off the ice. After conferring with the ATHLETIC training staff on the bench, Laderoute had to be helped down the tunnel. UMD played with 11 forwards for only about one cycle of shifts, however, before Laderoute returned to the bench and got on the ice to help his team secure the win.
“Heart and soul. A few guys were banged up,” UMD coach Scott Sandelin said of Laderoute returning. “He gets the block. I didn’t know if he was coming back or not. That’s how he is. He’s tough, epitomizes our team. He did a great job at the end, even though he’s not 100 percent.”
(To be fair, Quinn Olson was also dinged up blocking a shot, but finished the game. UMD is going to be doing some serious treatment this week. Thank heavens the ATHLETIC training staff is awesome, led by Dr. Suz.)
Laderoute and Blake Biondi scored gritty goals in the first period to stake the Bulldogs to a 2-0 lead. Minnesota used a late second-period power play to seize some momentum, then Nevers scored just past the six minute mark of the third. UMD did find its game as the third period wore on, which helped Fanti and company hold off the Gophers’ rally.
“Great weekend, said Sandelin. “I’m really proud of our kids for battling.”
******
12-1-1 is a pretty awesome run over 14 games. It started in November of 2014. Let’s look at the 12 games leading into this weekend.
November 14, 2014, at Minneapolis: UMD scored in each period and outshot the Gophers 38-17 in a 3-0 win. Austin Farley and Dominic Toninato scored power-play goals. For Toninato, it was his eighth goal in the first ten games of the season. An oft-bored Kasimir Kaskisuo stopped all 17 shots he faced.
November 15, 2014, in Duluth: In UMD’s first home game against Minnesota in three years, Toninato scored 28 seconds in, then Karson Kuhlman added a power-play goal for a 2-0 lead as UMD outshot Minnesota 15-5 in the first period. Minnesota pushed back, but Kaskisuo stopped 24 of 25 and UMD held on late for a 2-1 win.
January 24, 2015, in St. Paul: At the North Star College Cup, UMD dropped Minnesota 2-1 for third place. Minnesota dominated the third and tied the game early in the period, but Bulldog captain Adam Krause scored the winner late on one of UMD’s two third-period shots. Matt McNeely stopped 31 of 32 in goal for UMD and made some key saves late to preserve a much-needed win.
March 27, 2015, in Manchester: At the NCAA Northeast Regional, UMD took a 3-0 lead in the first period on goals by Tony Cameranesi, Justin Crandall, and Willie Raskob, then cruised to a 4-1 opening-round win. The Gophers outshot the Bulldogs 17-5 in the third and got their only goal, but the lead was never seriously in danger. We won’t talk about what happened in the regional final.
October 16, 2015, in Minneapolis: UMD won again at Mariucci Arena, this time taking control of the game with two power play goals (Jared Thomas and Farley) in the second period. After Minnesota cut the lead to 2-1, Toninato scored 32 seconds later to restore order, and UMD won 3-1.
October 17, 2015, in Duluth: Another huge Amsoil Arena crowd, and another 2-0 UMD lead early, this time on goals by Toninato and Kuhlman (again). UMD outshot Minnesota 17-2 in the first, 33-21 for the game, and won 3-0.
January 27, 2017, in St. Paul: This was the opening round of the last North Star College Cup. Riley Tufte, Alex Iafallo, and Avery Peterson staked UMD to a 3-1 lead, and the Bulldogs withstood an incredible Minnesota surge in the third, where the Gophers led in shots 22-2 but only could get one goal. UMD won 3-2, then beat St. Cloud State in overtime the next night to claim the title.
October 6, 2017, in Duluth: At the Ice Breaker, some guy named Hunter Shepard made his first career start in goal for UMD. The Bulldogs, debuting a number of stud freshman defensemen (Scott Perunovich, Mikey Anderson, Dylan Samberg, et al), outshot Minnesota 44-21, but struggled to get pucks by Minnesota goalie Eric Schierhorn. Tufte and Joey Anderson scored tying goals during a see-saw third period, and Parker Mackay bounced a bad-angle shot off Schierhorn’s leg and in early in overtime to give UMD a 4-3 win.
October 6, 2018, in Duluth: The teams played a Saturday-Sunday home-and-home series to kick off the season, and UMD had a national championship banner to unveil before this game. Minnesota led 1-0 on a Sampo Ranta goal, and that lead endured into the third period before Peter Krieger scored on a rebound to tie the game. A pretty even game ended 1-1.
October 7, 2018, in Minneapolis: The rematch was Minnesota’s night early and often. Brannon McManus — now with Omaha — scored twice in the first period, then Tyler Sheehy added a power play goal for a 3-0 lead after one. UMD got the lead down to one in the second, but the Gophers scored two quick goals to restore a three-goal lead and would go on to win 7-4. UMD outshot Minnesota 33-11 over the last two periods, but the Bulldogs’ transition defense was lacking, and the goaltenders (Shepard started and was relieved by Nick Deery) couldn’t overcome that.
October 25, 2019, in Minneapolis: In a game largely controlled by UMD, the Bulldogs took a 3-0 lead in the second period and never looked back, winning 5-2. It was similar to Friday’s game, in that there weren’t a ton of shots either way (25-20 for UMD), but UMD owned the puck for large portions of the game and won going away.
October 26, 2019, in Duluth: UMD got an early Olson goal, then a late Jackson Cates empty-netter. Shepard picked up the 2-0 shutout with 21 saves in a pretty tightly-played game.
(We all know what happened this weekend, so no need to rehash that any more.)
Throw in this weekend’s games, and you have the 12-1-1 run. You don’t get there without some luck, but you’re hard-pressed to find games in this stretch where the Gophers have obviously deserved a better outcome than a loss. Much more often than not, UMD has been the better team on the ice, and the game result was completely justified.
What does it mean? Great question. I never promised an answer, because I don’t think there’s an obvious one. Before the series, Motzko talked about the different styles these teams play.
“They’re not going to beat themselves. That’s one thing that you know. They’re heavy, they’re old, and they’re well coached. They play behind pucks, they play a system that they’re so confident in. They can sit in it all night long, they can play a five overtime game and it doesn’t affect them. That’s Duluth, and that’s the culture that Sandy’s got there. When we were at St. Cloud, we had some awesome battles. We play a different style, we’re going to get up and down and try to cause havoc. Some nights the havoc wins and some nights the structure wins.”
Lately, the structure has won. Consistently. That doesn’t make it a permanent condition, but we’re sitting at seven years of it now, and none of us here hope it ends anytime soon. Minnesota is a very good team that will win a lot of games, so these are nice wins for UMD to have in its back pocket when you think about things like, well, the PairWise (UMD is currently third, by the way, behind Western Michigan and Michigan, not that anyone should be looking at that in October).
******
UMD takes a weekend off, and it comes at a good time. Besides the already-covered injuries, you know guys have been playing through bumps and bruises, because this is hockey and that’s what happens.
Sandelin has talked about using the practice time this week to go over a few things that the staff doesn’t think it has had adequate time to work on. That would probably include — but not necessarily be limited to — the power play (not just five-on-four, but also five-on-three and four-on-three), late-game extra-attacker situations, four-on-four, and maybe even three-on-three. There’s no opponent to prepare for this weekend, so the coaches can do this type of important work. It’ll also be good for physical healing and mental resets. UMD will go straight through to the holiday break after this bye, so methinks it is good for everyone.
NCHC play opens for UMD at Western Michigan Nov. 5-6. I’ll be back next week, barring any news, to talk more about the Broncos, who are off to a great start this season.
Enjoy the bye week, follow my socials for #ByeWeekProblems, and have a great Halloween.
Comments