Tough pill to swallow Friday night at Amsoil for UMD, and a lot to unpack after Omaha scored two power play goals in the third and held on to beat the Bulldogs 3-2. It was a game UMD largely dominated at five-on-five, something we’ve been waiting to see from this team, and the reward wasn’t there for multiple reasons.
Let’s just get into this thing. Sorry to everyone who hates when we talk about the officials, as we really possess no choice after that game, unless we want to disbelieve our own experience.
8 THOUGHTS
1. After some early back-and-forth, UMD really asserted control of this game at five-on-five. The Bulldogs led 30-15 in even-strength shots, the third straight game where the Bulldogs conceded fewer than 20 shots on goal at even strength.
Frankly, the Bulldogs looked like the Bulldogs in a lot of ways. They were above pucks, they were layered defensively, they gave up little when Omaha had puck possession, and UMD drove hard to the net in the offensive zone to generate chances.
The so-called Diaper Line, with freshmen Jack Smith, Kyle Bettens, and Cole Spicer, was outstanding. No, we aren’t forgetting Luke Mylymok, but with all due respect to the junior (who returned from a three-game injury absence), the line was at its best with the three freshmen on the ice. Bettens had a great scoring chance he flubbed, and Spicer and Smith had strong games. Bettens was more physical than he’s been at any point so far this season, and it’s fun to watch these young guys gain more confidence as the game slows down for them.
2. Does UMD need to generate more than two goals per game? Absolutely. And it’ll come. This is not last season, when UMD struggled to generate quality scoring chances. The Bulldogs need to finish better, but I’m reminded of something one of the coaches — please don’t ask me which one because I do not remember — told me years ago.
When players are consistently in the right spots, good things will happen. They might not always happen, but UMD has players who can score goals, some of them have already proven it at this level, and it will come. We’re not having conversations about players not being able to make the plays necessary to score goals. The finish is the hardest part to execute, but the rest of it is there, which should be encouraging and not the opposite.
3. Let’s address the striped elephant in the room. UMD led 2-1 into the third before a Ty Mueller goal late in a power play tied the score. That penalty was a carry-over from the second, an offensive zone call against Smith, and one that no one on the UMD side could really take much issue with.
The rest of the third period? Welp.
Just before the midpoint of the third, Omaha defenseman Victor Mancini blew a tire on his way to pick up a puck below the goal line in the Mavericks zone, all with Bettens in his hip pocket. Mancini went hard into the end boards, and Bettens crashed into the wall over the top of the fallen player. The referee trailing the play signaled for a penalty on Bettens, called a cross check and reviewed for the potential of a major penalty.
The problem? There was no cross check. Or contact of any real note. Mancini fell on his own. Was it loud? Yeah. Could Mancini have been seriously injured? Yeah, and we’re all glad he was not and stayed in the game. Did Bettens have anything to do with Mancini falling down and hitting the boards? Not at all.
Then Matt Miller scored with nine seconds left in the penalty to give Omaha a 3-2 lead.
And then it somehow got worse.
With 6:29 to play in a one-goal game, the officials stopped play with Omaha goalie Jake Kucharski lying face-down in the goal crease, the result of contact from UMD defenseman Wyatt Kaiser, who drove the net to create a scoring chance and crashed into the goalie. No penalty was called initially, and the puck eventually left the Omaha zone before being brought back in by Quinn Olson, who somewhat sheepishly shot it into the wide-open top portion of the goal as the whistle blew.
Olson and Omaha’s Miller went on matching roughing calls for a tussle after that whistle, and the officials eventually decided to look at the Kaiser hit on Kucharski.
Was it a penalty? Yes, and it’s ridiculous that the official who was standing on the Omaha goal line watching it happen didn’t put his arm in the air. At the time, most of us thought it was a makeup for the Bettens call that led to Omaha taking the lead. Since no call was made, the officials could call a major on Kaiser or nothing at all.
They chose to call a major, which might have been worse than calling nothing at all (and that was pretty bad, too!).
Again, undeniably a penalty. Unquestionably a penalty. But absolutely comical to call that a major, especially with six and change left in a one-goal game. That UMD managed as many shots (three) as Omaha did during those five minutes was a credit to the Bulldogs’ killers, but it sapped precious time away from UMD trying to rally. And with how vastly superior UMD was at five on five, the fact it was killing this penalty until 90 seconds remained in regulation becomes even more frustrating.
All in all, a bad night for the men in stripes, after a Saturday in Colorado Springs where a good goal was taken off the scoreboard for no real discernible reason.
4. The new line centered by Jesse Jacques had a good night. Jacques, Tanner Laderoute, and Blake Biondi were each plus-two, and both goals came from deflections as players were going hard to the front of the net. Sometimes, it really can be that simple.
Jacques got his first of the year 99 seconds into the second, and Laderoute scored his first off a deflection 12 minutes later. The three combined for 12 shots on goal.
Even more significantly, Jacques’ line was matched up most of the game against Omaha’s top line of Jake Pivonka, Tyler Weiss, and Jack Randl. Those three combined for a minus-six, no points, and nine shots on goal, most of which came on the power play (four by Weiss, five by Randl).
UMD’s coaching staff hasn’t done a ton of tinkering in the early going, but they might have hit on something here.
5. If UMD coach Scott Sandelin is going to be annoyed by anything from this game (besides the aforementioned striped elephant), it’s likely the finishing, the offensive zone penalties, and the struggling penalty kill. Omaha had four power plays in the game, and all four came from penalties UMD committed on the offensive half of the ice, three in the offensive zone at or below the goal line, so basically 200 feet from UMD’s net. The fourth was a Darian Gotz hold that happened at or just across the Omaha blue line as he got tangled up with a UNO player.
The kill was impacted by a couple failed clears (missing on chances for a zone exit will hurt so often), some lost draws, and continued struggles to defend the cross-seam plays. No one doubts it will get cleaned up, but UMD simply can’t afford to keep struggling to get kills.
6. Especially when the power play isn’t finishing. UMD had some looks on Friday, but didn’t score in three tries and lost the special teams game 2-0 (official stats have it 1-0, but Mueller’s goal is right now scored as even strength, even though Smith was still in the box when it went in, and I believe this is an error that will be corrected).
The top unit — Dominic James, Olson, Biondi, Isaac Howard, and Kaiser — is struggling at the moment. I like the mix here, and they’ve been disrupted a lot lately because of the Howard and Kaiser suspensions, but they need to simplify the offensive zone game. The second unit — which is Carter Loney, Ben Steeves, Luke Loheit, Owen Gallatin, and Derek Daschke — has UMD’s most recent power play goal (last Saturday in Colorado Springs) and had its best looks Friday against Omaha because they’re keeping things simple. Steeves, Daschke, and Gallatin are all unafraid to shoot, quickly and often. The top unit is often too tentative and we just don’t see enough quick shots (or quick decisions of any kind). It leaves them prone to pressure, which they saw a lot of from Omaha.
PK pressure requires quick puck movement by guys who know their options on a play. We’re seeing that on PP2, not as much on PP1.
7. Gotta hand it to Denver. The Pioneers were delayed in their travel to Grand Forks, forced to bus five and a half hours there from the Twin Cities Friday morning and afternoon. So they got off the bus and beat North Dakota 3-2 to open that two-game rivalry series. Jared Wright snapped a 2-2 tie with 12:27 to play in regulation.
In Oxford, Red Savage and Matthew Gleason traded goals in regulation, as Miami and Colorado College played to a 1-1 draw. Colorado College won the shootout for an extra point in the NCHC standings.
And in St. Cloud, Western Michigan rode three power play goals to a 4-2 win over St. Cloud State. I know you’re wondering, and no, we couldn’t get through the weekend without another protocol penalty, this one on SCSU at the end of the second period. Just glad we’re catching these egregious acts of players trying to be good teammates like they’ve been taught to do since they were six years old.
8. The UMD women picked up a 2-0 win in St. Cloud on Friday, thanks to first-period goals by Clara Van Wieren and Anneke Linser. Emma Soderberg stopped 14 of 14 shots for her 14th career shutout. UMD fifth year co-captain Gabbie Hughes missed the last two periods with an injury. We don’t know what it is or if she will be available for Saturday’s 2pm rematch, but hopefully this doesn’t end up being a really costly win for a team that badly needed the three points and got them.
Hockey Fights Cancer on Saturday, 5:30 pregame. Back with lines beforehand.
Timm Walsh is one of the worst if not the worst official in the NCHC. It seems like every game he works he’ll make a call from out of no where that will affect the outcome of the game (aka Brad Shepherd). Last night was no exception. For two periods there was a nice flow to the game then in the 3rd Timm decided it was time for him to be seen, hence the stripped elephant in the room.