Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
We’ll get to the series in a moment. Obviously, the big news surrounding the UMD program this week surrounds sophomore goalie Zach Stejskal, who revealed on Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with testicular cancer.
The good news? Stejskal made it clear he expects to play again this season, which is wonderful. He told UMD athletic director Josh Berlo he was diagnosed in October after noticing something wasn’t quite right. Surgery and chemotherapy followed, with the latter ongoing. The Cohasset native said he feels good, but the ordeal was quite scary, which feels like an understatement.
The timing of Stejskal’s announcement comes with the month of November, which of course brings a lot of Movember campaigns around the country for men’s health awareness. Stejskal, through the online story linked above, encourages men to get checked regularly and make sure they are taking care of their health.
As part of Movember, a group of UMD players, led by fifth year senior goalie Ben Patt, have been doing a fundraising campaign online and growing (largely bad) mustaches. You can donate to the cause, which has raised over $5,800 as of this writing, here.
We send our best to Zach and his family, hoping for a full and speedy recovery, followed by a return to the ice. And as I said on Twitter, I’m excited to call his games once again when he’s healthy and cleared to play. And I know a lot of you will be excited to cheer him on from the stands at some point.
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On the ice, UMD plays Alaska this weekend, the first meeting between these programs since 1988. The Nanooks are an independent this season, thanks to the WCHA disbanding, and they are playing this season after not playing last year on account of COVID concerns.
As an independent that didn’t play last season, you can imagine it’s been a struggle record-wise for Alaska. It’s a 1-9 start, but you don’t get a 1-9 vibe when you watch the Nanooks take Cornell to overtime twice in Ithaca, or go into the third period last Friday at home leading Omaha 2-1 (the Mavericks put up a crooked number in the third to win 5-2). Alaska played Omaha four times already (twice in Omaha in October, then twice last weekend in Fairbanks), losing all four games but giving the UMD coaching staff a bit of frame of reference, a chance to see what the Nanooks did against a familiar adversary.
“We don’t know a ton about them,” head coach Scott Sandelin said. “It’s nice they played Omaha last weekend, a team in our league. Was watching that, trying to figure out what they do. Another team that plays hard, don’t look at the record. They pressure pucks, they play a game where they push you out of the zone, kind of like Western (Michigan) does. First thing I told our guys is don’t look at the record. Records don’t mean anything in college hockey.”
Filip Fornaa Svensson, a sophomore from Sweden, is the leading scorer for Alaska, with two goals and seven points in ten games. Goals have been hard to come by for Alaska, with just 15 in ten games. Six of those have come on the power play, so discipline will be a huge key for UMD, as it usually is and is especially magnified when you face a team that struggles to score five-on-five.
For UMD, graduate transfer forward Casey Gilling is out, as is sophomore defenseman Wyatt Kaiser. As usual, check Twitter @BruceCiskie for the latest, as we get Sandelin at 5:30 and will find out what’s going on. Freshman Will Francis, a cancer survivor himself, makes his UMD debut as the seventh defenseman.
Ryan Fanti vs Gustavs Grigals.
Lines?
Lines.
UMD forwards
Cates – Jacques – Laderoute
Roth – Loney – Bender
Olson – James – Biondi
Kleven – Almquist – Loheit
UMD defense
Anderson (Matt) – Roehl
Gallatin – Kelley
Gotz – Lellig
Francis
UMD goalies
Fanti – Patt – Anderson (Brady)
Alaska forwards
Henbrant – Matsui – Koethe
Rubtsov – Breault – Fornaa Svensson
Israels – Zohovs – Risk
Hite – Doyle – Falk
Alaska defense
Pyke – Bergmanis
Kalkis – Virtanen
Muzzillo – Komuls
Jakobsons
Alaska goalies
Grigals – Allin
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