This is always a tough time of year. One loss (in the men’s case, two this weekend), and it’s all over.
There’s time to reflect, and hopefully that time is not coming this weekend, but we know it’ll be here eventually. In the meantime, UMD’s teams are as ready as they can be for the task at hand this weekend, a task that starts for the women in a few hours.
8 THOUGHTS
1. For the second straight season, UMD will try to win two games at the University of Minnesota’s Ridder Arena to advance to next weekend’s Women’s Frozen Four.
Talking to reporters this week, UMD coach Maura Crowell and fifth year senior center Kylie Hanley mentioned that their itinerary was virtually identical to last year’s trip to the NCAA regional in the same building. Same hotel, same dinner spot, same times for everything.
Hanley is an admitted creature of habit, and she didn’t seem bothered by it at all.
While admitting that “it’s nice to be adaptable,” Crowell is hopeful this will be a slight advantage for her team, given the tough task that awaits the Bulldogs on the ice.
“We were basically able to look at our itinerary from last year, make a few adjustments and and go from there,” she said. “So in that way, this has been really nice. Our road trip down in Minneapolis is very convenient, very comfortable for our players, staying in the same hotel as we did last weekend. Their families obviously can get there easily. So there’s a lot of familiarity with with where we’re going and what happened last year.”
That on-ice task starts Thursday at 6pm against Clarkson (watch for free on Big Ten Plus). The Golden Knights made the tourney as an at-large out of the ECAC. Clarkson upset Yale in double overtime in the league semifinals on Friday, but the Knights were thrashed 8-2 by Colgate in the conference title game, as the Raiders claimed the ECAC’s automatic bid and the league joined the WCHA in placing four teams in the NCAA Tournament (Yale and Quinnipiac also made it).
Anne Cherkowski (a Gophers transfer) and Gabrielle David each have 52 points, Cherkowski with 23 goals and David 21.
“They always attract top Canadian talent,” Crowell said of Clarkson’s program, which has the only three NCAA titles not won by WCHA programs. “They’ve got a great feeder, basically with Ontario. So a lot of top players, a lot of Canadian Olympians now go to Clarkson. That’s their background, that’s kind of their bread and butter. And once you have a culture like that, you kind of churn them out and people are attracted to play for them.”
2. UMD’s bread and butter this season has been the defensive side of things. The Bulldogs have a program-record 13 shutouts this season, a program-record 11 of them posted by Emma Soderberg, inexplicably not a top ten Patty Kazmaier finalist (and the fact two goalies made the top ten leads one to believe Soderberg won’t take home the Women’s Goaltender of the Year award, either).
Besides having Soderberg for a full season, with no shuttling off to China to play in the Olympics during the campaign, UMD also has a full blue line. Ashton Bell and Maggie Flaherty have been the Bulldogs’ top defensive pairing all season. Bell was centralized with Team Canada last season and didn’t play at all for UMD. Flaherty suffered an injury in January and was lost for the rest of the season. That left Hanley, who moved from center, to take on a massive number of minutes defensively, and it gave some of UMD’s younger defenders — chief among them Taylor Stewart and Nina Jobst-Smith — big opportunity.
Now, Stewart and Jobst-Smith are on UMD’s second pairing. Stewart is a strong, stay-at-home defender, and Jobst-Smith has flashed some real offensive flair this season, posting career highs in goals (5), assists (21), points (26), and shots on goal (62).
Soderberg, of course, is a pretty good last line of defense if something breaks down in front of her.
“Playing good defense at this time of year is critical,” said Crowell, “and we’ve talked a lot about how good our defense is. We feel really confident and that’s our identity as a team. These guys know it. We spend a lot of time talking about how we’re going to spend a little time in our D zone so we can spend more time offensively. Good defense leads to good offense.”
UMD’s play down the middle of its lineup is also critical to that strong defensive mindset. The Bulldogs’ top three lines are centered by a fifth year senior (Gabbie Hughes), a fourth year senior (Mannon McMahon), and a fifth year senior (Hanley).
“We have a ton of experience down the middle,” Crowell said this week. “I think our wings have been pretty consistent this year and what they’re doing so you know, you look at our back end they generate a ton of offense for us as well as being a really good shut down group.”
3. The NCHC playoffs start Friday, and league honors have been trickling out all week, ahead of the conference’s annual awards celebration next week in St. Paul. The NCHC released its all-conference teams and all-rookie team. Fifth place UMD has one player (second team defenseman Wyatt Kaiser) on an all-league team, with Ben Steeves making honorable mention and also being named to the all-rookie team.
From the league, here are the all-conference teams:
2022-23 First-Team All-NCHC
F: Jason Polin, Sr., Western Michigan – 43 points (14 first-team votes)
F: *Massimo Rizzo, So., Denver – 36 (12)
F: Jami Krannila, Sr., St. Cloud State – 30 (9)
D: ^Mike Benning, Jr., Denver – 35 (11)
D: Chris Jandric, Gr., North Dakota – 24 (7)
G: *+Magnus Chrona, Sr., Denver – 26 (8)2022-23 Second-Team All-NCHC
F: *Carter Mazur, So., Denver – 27 (7)
F: *Jackson Blake, Fr., North Dakota – 16 (2)
F: *%Riese Gaber, Jr., North Dakota – 10 (1)
D: Jack Peart, So., St. Cloud State – 19 (5)
D: *~Wyatt Kaiser, Jr., Minnesota Duluth – 12 (3)
G: *Kaidan Mbereko, Fr., Colorado College – 25 (6)2022-23 Honorable Mention All-NCHC
F: Hunter McKown, Jr., Colorado College – 6 (1)
F: *Ben Steeves, Fr., Minnesota Duluth – 5 (1)
F: Jack Randl, Sr., Omaha – 4 (1)
F: *Ryan McAllister, Fr., Western Michigan – 4 (0)
F: Zach Okabe, Sr., St. Cloud State – 4 (0)
D: *Sean Behrens, So., Denver – 10 (2)
D: Dylan Anhorn, Sr., St. Cloud State – 7 (1)
G: Simon Latkoczy, Fr., Omaha – 7 (1)*All-Rookie Team selection as a freshman
% 2021-22 First-Team All-NCHC
^ 2021-22 Second-Team All-NCHC
+ 2021-22 Honorable Mention All-NCHC
~ 2020-21 Honorable Mention All-NCHC
And here is the all-rookie team:
2022-23 NCHC All-Rookie Team
F: Jackson Blake, North Dakota – 45 points (15 first-team votes) – unanimous
F: Ryan McAllister, Western Michigan – 43 (14)
F: Ben Steeves, Minnesota Duluth – 39 (12)
D: Joaquim Lemay, Omaha – 37 (11)
D: Jacob Guevin, Omaha – 35 (11)
G: Kaidan Mbereko, Colorado College – 36 (10)
4. As is tradition, I have opinions, even if I don’t vote on the awards. Here’s how I would have voted.
FIRST TEAM
Forwards: Jami Krannila, St. Cloud State; Carter Mazur, Denver; Jason Polin, Western Michigan
Defensemen: Mike Benning, Denver; Justin Lee, Denver
Goalie: Kaidan Mbereko, Colorado College
SECOND TEAM
Forwards: Jackson Blake, North Dakota; Massimo Rizzo, Denver; Ben Steeves, UMD
Defensemen: Sean Behrens, Denver; Wyatt Kaiser, UMD
Goalie: Magnus Chrona, Denver
Frankly, a tough year on the blue line. It’s weird taking three DU guys, but the most obvious choice for these teams was Dylan Anhorn, and the SCSU senior is still on crutches after a season-ending injury suffered in January. No one on any blue line was terribly productive offensively, so I chose Lee because I love the way he plays the game and respect the hell out of what he’s done in his career. Sue me, it’s not like these choices count for anything anyway. 😁
Up front, I picked Steeves over a couple guys, including fellow freshman Ryan McAllister, who fell off in the second half (seven points and just one goal over the last 14 games).
Mbereko is my choice on the goaltending side over Chrona, as I felt he kept his team in a lot of games as the Tigers struggled to get any goals from people not named Hunter McKown.
UMD is the only team among the eight not represented in the league’s list of finalists for individual awards, as Steeves didn’t make the cut of three for Rookie of the Year (Blake, McAllister, Mbereko).
5. It’s back to St. Cloud for the men, who will battle the St. Cloud State Huskies for a second straight weekend, and the 11th, 12th, and maybe 13th times over the last two seasons. Best of three starts Friday at 7:30.
UMD should feel pretty good about its chances, this weekend, having taken three of four in the season series while only trailing for 3:24 of the first game in Duluth back in January. Outside of that, every second of the four games was played either tied or with UMD in the lead.
“Should give us some confidence, especially against them,” head coach Scott Sandelin said. “But we’ve played well against good teams all year. Fortunately, we’ve won some games against them. Doesn’t guarantee anything.”
The Bulldogs have gotten some real quality out of their defense against SCSU, both at home and in St. Cloud on the big rink (UMD conceded just two five-on-five goals last weekend, allowing a six-on-five goal, two power play goals, a short-handed goal, and a three-on-three overtime goal).
“We’re focusing on a few things,” said Sandelin, “that I think our guys have bought into. They like to play a lot at the back of the net, they’re good on the wall. You have to make sure you’re defending those well. Make sure you’re protecting above the goal line, not getting into bad ice.”
Sandelin said he showed his players a clip from Friday’s game where UMD was defending in its zone for 20 seconds, but St. Cloud State did nothing with the possession time. Everything was on the perimeter, with nothing getting towards goalie Zach Stejskal. Sandelin will take that, saying he knows the Bulldogs will have to weather a few of those situations. He liked how they handled that particular one.
6. St. Cloud State should be healthier on the blue line. Anhorn is out for the season, but Peart and Ondrej Trejbal (who both missed last weekend’s games) could be able to go this weekend. That will help, especially on the power play, where Anhorn has been missed a ton since he went down. Peart and Trejbal are both experienced in running the power play, as is three-year captain Spencer Meier.
Coach Brett Larson saluted the guys who played last weekend.
“They’re playing above their usual pay grade,” Larson said of guys like Cooper Wylie, who ran a power play unit last weekend, and Mason Reiners, who played a lot of minutes with Meier at five on five. “For the most part, I thought they did a really good job. I don’t think we could have asked any more out of that group. I was really proud of how they battled all weekend.”
Larson is also focused on getting out on the front foot more effectively. He didn’t mind his team’s starts in either game last weekend, but the Huskies found themselves down 2-0 Friday and 3-0 Saturday.
“It’s been odd, because it hasn’t been our intensity or focus,” he said. “We just have these portions of periods, two or three minutes, that have hurt us.”
7. The NCAA added some points of emphasis surrounding pregame protocols this season, requiring players to be off the ice with 23 minutes to go before the opening faceoff or face a minor penalty to start the game. This has felt a bit on the silly side, so I’ve taken to charting on Twitter when the ice is cleared after the warmup so everyone knows there are no protocol violations that will affect manpower to start the game.
In doing so, we’ve come to notice a consistent trend. UMD sophomore Carter Loney is regularly the last player off the ice for the Bulldogs at the end of the warmup. Sometimes it’s with ten seconds to spare, sometimes five or six, and there’s been a time or two that his skates leave the ice with just a second to spare.
No matter the time, it’s always Loney who is the last one off.
“I think I just stay out there longer than the other guys,” he said, “and it just happens that I’m the last guy out there. I’m not a big superstitious guy, but being the last one off is just something I like to do. I know me and (Steeves) are usually the last two out there, we’ve cut it close a couple times. We’ve been told by (athletic trainer) Sarah (Miller) that we’ve been out there with a second to spare, something like that. I think it’s just a routine for me.”
Loney admitted the referees have tried to get on players to get off the ice, even standing by the net so no one can shoot pucks.
8. The NCHC quarterfinals could deliver some intrigue. Yes, everyone expects Denver to dispatch Miami easily, but the RedHawks have perked up as of late, beating UMD and taking Omaha and Western to overtime after holding two-goal leads in regulation.
Colorado College brings the best young goalie in the country to Kalamazoo to face Western Michigan. Yes, the Broncos went 4-0 against CC this season, but the most recent games (Feb. 17 and 18 in Kalamazoo) saw the Tigers score first in both, and Western needed three third period goals (one an ENG) to win Friday, then goals 22 seconds apart late in the third on Saturday to win 2-1. If Colorado College can keep the games tight, anything is possible with Mbereko in goal and McKown up front.
And North Dakota heads to Omaha after sweeping the Mavericks last weekend in Grand Forks. Omaha is the only team in the NCHC to have never played in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff (in its semifinals-championship weekend format, not the 2021 COVID year deal where all eight teams went to Grand Forks). Can the home team get over the hump this weekend?
7pm pregame Friday from St. Cloud. Enjoy playoff hockey!
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