LOVELAND, Colo. — Whatever you do, please don’t ever take this run for granted.
What UMD is doing, at a time where parity in the sport has never been higher, is really nothing short of remarkable. There aren’t a lot of other words to describe it.
Not only is UMD’s streak of seven straight NCAA Tournament appearances the longest in the country (followed by such college hockey blue-bloods as Notre Dame, Minnesota State, St. Cloud State, and American International), but the Bulldogs have won at least one game in each of those seven appearances.
(This doesn’t even account for the fact that the UMD women have made two straight Frozen Fours and just played for a national championship on Sunday.)
After Thursday’s 3-0 win over Michigan Tech, the Bulldogs tried to refocus during a 90-minute practice Friday at Budweiser Events Center. UMD coach Scott Sandelin was clear that while his team’s start Thursday was good, he wasn’t thrilled with what followed.
I talked to assistant coach Adam Krause on Friday morning, picking his brain on what he thought changed for the Bulldogs after a good first 20 minutes.
“They started outworking us, to be totally honest,” he said. “Getting above us, forcing us to make quicker plays than we wanted to. We didn’t manage the puck as well as we needed to. A lot of it was due to our mistakes, but a lot of our mistakes were due to their hard work. Credit to them, forcing us into some bad ice.”
(Bad ice, as used here, is not a commentary on the playing surface, to be clear. Though there were a lot of those comments all over the place over the first two days of the national tournament. Again. Krause is referring to players skating into areas where it’s harder to make the right play. It’s actually something UMD did really well in the last meeting against Denver, disrupting the Pioneers’ speed up the rink and making it harder for them to attack in waves.)
Now, UMD has a chance to move on to the Frozen Four, and for the third time in program history, the last obstacle is a league rival.
Last year, UMD beat North Dakota in a (five-overtime) game you might have heard about. In 2004, it was UMD beating Minnesota to go to the Frozen Four, which was held that year in Boston, of all places.
This time, it’s the Denver Pioneers. These NCHC rivals will meet for a sixth time this season, and there’s no reason to think it won’t be another UMD-Denver game, where every inch of ice is contested and every goal really matters.
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If the matchup wasn’t already juicy enough, Denver fifth-year forward Cameron Wright — a graduate transfer from Bowling Green — had some interesting comments after scoring a beautiful winning goal in Thursday’s regional semifinal win over UMass-Lowell.
“We owe them,” Wright said. “We’re going to come out fast and we’re going get traffic in front of the goalie. We’re going to bat a couple in and find a way to score on this guy and beat them for sure.”
(Wright is, of course, referring to UMD goalie Ryan Fanti, who has not allowed a goal since the Trump administration. Or since March 12. Close enough. 90 straight saves for Fanti, and a scoreless streak of over 200 minutes heading into this regional final. 60 of those came against Denver. I remember talking to Fanti last week about the illness that plagued the team before the Bulldogs’ win in Denver on Feb. 12, and he said he was excited for a chance to bounce back after a tough Friday game that Denver won 5-3. He certainly was off to a good start — 13 saves on 13 shots before the bug was too much for him to keep playing through — and carried that into St. Paul last week. If he can stay at that level, the Bulldogs are going to be in good shape Saturday.)
Look, Wright’s comment screams OMG BULLETIN BOARD MATERIAL 😡, right? Like, from the rooftops. And this is the case even if you consider the context, which is: Wright transferred to DU after four years at Bowling Green. The Falcons made the NCAA Tournament in 2019, Wright’s sophomore season, but UMD got a late goal from Parker Mackay to tie the game, then another Mackay goal to win in overtime. It was a game that, to be frank, I still can’t believe UMD won. Bowling Green was outstanding that afternoon, and only the will of the Bulldogs’ captain kept them from being another in a long line of No. 1 seeds to get bounced in the first round of this wacky tournament.
Anyway, you need to find the video from this press conference. Because the best part comes after Wright says “beat them for sure,” when teammate Carter Savoie shoots him a look. One of those “Did I hear that right?” looks that you see once in a while. Describing it doesn’t do it justice.
I’m sure there are a few Bulldog fans who see this quote and think that it’s going to end up plastered on the whiteboard pregame. Maybe, but in the grand scheme of things, is this really a big deal? These teams have played each other five times this season. They know each other almost as well as they know themselves at this point.
“Denver’s an extremely talented team, probably the most talented team we’ve seen all year,” Krause said. “Player skill level, hockey IQ, awareness, it just keeps our guys on their toes. Really high-flying offense, going to be a fun challenge.”
I asked Krause how you go about tweaking a game plan from last Friday in St. Paul (a 2-0 UMD win) that worked so well, knowing DU will empty the tank to try to prevent that from happening again.
“They’re certainly going to come at us,” he said. “There’s not many more things they can do. It’s an execution level, and they have the guys who can do that.”
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Before we get to this game, I want to encourage everyone to tune to NHL Network Saturday morning at 10:30 (Central time), as the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award will be given to the top player in women’s hockey. UMD senior Gabbie Hughes is part of an all-WCHA top three for the award, joined by forward Taylor Heise of Minnesota and defenseman Sophie Jacques from national champion Ohio State. No UMD player has ever won this award, which remains insane to think about when you consider the wealth of talent that has come through the program since the award was instituted in 1998.
As for our broadcast: Montage at 2:30. Faceoff at 3 from Loveland. Join us on KDAL.
Frozen Four on the line.
Be there.
Lines?
Lines
UMD forwards
Roth – Gilling – Laderoute
Cates – Jacques – Bender
Olson – James – Biondi
Kleven – Loney – Loheit
UMD defense
Anderson – Roehl
Kaiser – Gotz
Gallatin – Kelley
Lellig
UMD goalies
Fanti – Stejskal – Patt
Denver forwards
Barrow – Guttman – Brink
Savoie – Stapley – Devine
Mazur – Rizzo – Wright
King – Webster – Ozar
Edwards
Denver defense
Behrens – Mayhew
Buium – Benning
Lee – Tuomisto
Denver goalies
Chrona – Davis – Caruso
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