KALAMAZOO, Mich. — In case you’re wondering, the weather will be better than it was on the trip here last season.
Wouldn’t take much.
Snowed the whole time we were here in November 2022. Once I got to the hotel in the rental car early-ish Thursday afternoon, I didn’t leave until it was time to go to the rink Friday. This time around, snow is expected, but nothing that can’t be managed. Even in Michigan, where snowplows are sometimes optional.
UMD is further short-handed heading into a weekend series against Western Michigan. It’s the kind of season that you can’t really script, nor would anyone want to.
8 THOUGHTS
1. I’ve seen UMD teams besieged by illnesses and injuries. Happens sometimes in sports. Just ask the Minnesota Wild.
There have been plenty of times that UMD didn’t have the maximum number of extra players healthy for a road trip, as they do here this weekend. I vividly remember Adam Krause — the player version, that is — making a trip to Omaha where he had less of a chance of playing than Scott Sandelin did. He was there because they were so banged up at that point that they had an opening for an extra player to travel.
But I don’t recall one position being as ravaged as the center position is this season.
Dominic James was lost for the season in the second period of the second game. Cole Spicer was lost for the season after Christmas.
Now it’s Carter Loney’s turn. The junior pivot will miss two to three weeks with an undisclosed injury, according to Sandelin. The head coach is usually pretty reserved when it comes to assigning injury timelines. One has to wonder if he offered one for Loney because he was so excited at the prospect of a player actually returning to the lineup.
Loney’s injury means UMD will be missing, arguably, its top three centers for the time being. Add that to the loss of defenseman Will Francis for the second half of the season, as he decided to take a redshirt, and UMD is down to 12 forwards and seven defensemen available to play this weekend, meaning no healthy scratches from the lineup. Luke Loheit will move to the middle of the rink — he volunteered his services after Spicer was ruled out for the season before the Milwaukee trip. Loheit, Matthew Perkins, Jack Smith, and Braden Fischer will center lines this weekend.
Maybe they can sneak Krause on the ice if worse comes to worse. He still looks like he’s 23.
2. Oh, and did we mention senior goalie Zach Stejskal is battling an injury? Sandelin said Stejskal missed practice Wednesday and would be a game-time decision for Friday’s series opener at Lawson Ice Arena.
With UMD not practicing after its trip to Kalamazoo Thursday, I would not be surprised if Matthew Thiessen got the start on Friday.
(For the record, Stejskal was made available to talk to me this week, an interview I’ll play back Saturday night. That would certainly indicate this isn’t going to be a long-term issue. At least we hope it isn’t.)
Either way, it’s another stress on a team that’s already dealing with more than enough.
The goalies continue to be a highlight. Stejskal has conceded 17 goals over his last eight starts while posting a .924 save percentage and giving UMD a chance to win literally every one of those eight games. Prior to that, Thiessen had a .915 while giving up 17 goals in six games (five starts) and also giving UMD a chance, even though the Bulldogs were mired in their eight-game winless streak at the time and Thiessen never got a “W” out of those strong efforts.
No offense to Thiessen, but this stretch of play from Stejskal is probably the best we’ve seen from him in UMD colors. The Cohasset native had never started more than five straight games, mostly through no fault of his own. Testicular cancer robbed him of most of his 2021-22 season, and he admits that he wasn’t completely healthy at the onset of 2022-23.
“I had an okay season, but I don’t think I was back 100 percent,” said Stejskal of his 2022-23 campaign.
Talking about this season, however, Stejskal is optimistic.
“I think I figured it out mentally,” he said. “I just take it day by day. I don’t look in the past, and I don’t look too far ahead.”
3. Fischer’s playing time continues to increase. After not playing a minute in UMD’s first 13 games, Fischer — a freshman from Winnipeg — has quickly become a mainstay in the Bulldogs’ lineup. Yeah, some of that is out of necessity, being that Fischer is a center and there are a few of them not playing at the moment.
But Fischer is not a bit player in this lineup. He’s evolving quickly into a trusted contributor.
And he’s an impressive guy. Talking to people around the program, what stands out is that Fischer never said a word about not playing. He just worked hard so he would be ready when the time came.
“We knew he would probably have some limited looks early in the season,” Krause said last week. “He knew that. And the one thing that impresses me with him, he was one of our hardest workers. He was very diligent on doing things after (practice) and asking questions and very engaged and wanting to get better. And he’s really earned that.”
Fischer noted he had a long-term injury last season while playing for Minot of the NAHL, which limited him to 27 games (counting playoffs). So maybe it was a blessing he wasn’t expected to step right into the lineup this season.
Matt Wellens of the Duluth News Tribune asked Fischer if he knew he would need to bide his time.
“I had a feeling that it could be the way it goes,” he said, “and that was something I was willing to do.”
I asked Fischer to evaluate himself as a player.
“I think being able to think the game has always been strength of mind and playing hard and competing. I think something I need to work on is playing with a little more pace. That’s something I think I can continue to improve via the practices here, and getting more comfortable in the games. Just playing faster, making plays quicker, stuff like that. But I think my thinking the game, being in the right spots and when I am in the right spots, capitalizing on it (are strengths).”
Fischer might not be on NHL radars, but he’s a solid player with an A+ attitude. In other words, he’s the kind of guy UMD can win with.
4. Now, it’s on to a hornets’ nest. Lawson Ice Arena is, as we’ve previously chronicled, a bit of a relic in today’s college hockey world. As programs all over have moved on to glitzy, modern facilities, Western Michigan still plays its games in a total throwback rink with a total throwback student section.
The team that plays home games here, well, it’s also somewhat unique. There are teams that pressure. There are teams that are good in transition. There are teams that send waves of bodies north quickly after getting possession of the puck. Not everyone does all these things as well as Pat Ferschweiler’s Broncos do.
Throw in a lethal power play (nearly 30 percent), a stingy penalty kill (90 percent, basically), and UMD has its hands full this weekend.
“They can score,” Sandelin said. “Five guys with 20 plus points. Nothing different. They play north. They get after it. I like the way they play. They’re tenacious. Power plays at about 30 percent, so stay out of the box. But when you go there, it’s a great building to play in. It’s always fast.
“We’ve had some great games with them there. But you got to be ready to play. They play north quickly. They’re a good transition team. They’re heavy down low, hard at the net, dangerous power play. They picked up some really good players.”
“You have their student section which spans goal line to goal line,” Stejskal noted, “and they’re on top of you chanting the whole game you know if you do something bad out there they’re gonna let you hear it so.”
(Worth noting: Stejskal has never played at Lawson in front of people. He dressed for both games last season, but Thiessen got the call. His only game in Kalamazoo was during the COVID year of 2020-21, when no fans were allowed in the building.)
“We have a methodology of playing here that I think excites players,” Ferschweiler said this week, “and has attracted some of the top transfers. We’re trying to send our guys forward and we’re trying to score. And it doesn’t always work out every night, but we don’t have our guys playing, fearing failure. We have them playing looking for success and so they’re on their toes. They know they can be aggressive. If a play doesn’t work, they’re not going to come to the bench to be punished. They’re gonna be taught what the path is to success the next time. With that mentality, I think they can not grip their sticks and really try to make plays.”
Most of UMD’s younger players got to experience this last season for the first time. A smaller freshman class gets its first taste of it this weekend. Don’t worry, they’re as prepared as they’re going to be.
“That’s going to be an eye-opening experience for me,” Fischer said when asked about playing at Lawson for the first time. “I think it’s going to be really exciting. They play hard. They play fast. I’ve heard lots of great things, lots of fun things about their atmosphere there too. So we’ve got to be ready to go and we will be.”
5. Another busy weekend in the NCHC includes a marquee matchup. First-place St. Cloud State is home to face second-place North Dakota. These series are always super-intense and emotional, and this should be no different, with big crowds at the Brooks Center.
Can Dominic Basse and the SCSU defense keep North Dakota’s high-octane top six at bay? Will the Huskies break through on Ludvig Persson and/or Hobie Hedquist (Persson has missed some time with illness, and Hedquist got the nod in goal Saturday as UND rebounded against Omaha)? Should be a hell of a weekend.
Elsewhere, Denver plays at Omaha. The Mavericks — currently one point back of sixth-place UMD in the standings — are desperate for a good weekend to climb the table, and the Pioneers are hoping to keep taking steps defensively. Offense isn’t an issue for DU, with an eye-popping 114 goals in 22 games. The Pioneers have been occasionally leaky at the other end, a big reason why DU sits in a third-place tie with Wester Michigan.
Miami is at Colorado College this weekend. I’m intrigued to see if the RedHawks can build off Saturday’s 4-3 home win over WMU. Colorado College played two strong games in Duluth last weekend, a series that probably should have ended just like it did (a straight split of the six available points). As Kris Mayotte’s team tries to build consistency, it’s important they have a good weekend at home.
6. The UMD women are in Columbus this weekend to face Ohio State. I asked both Crowell and assistant coach Emma Sobieck about trying to make Ohio State — a team that lives to put tons of pressure on its adversaries, and does it verrrrrry well — feel some heat for a change.
“That’s their MO, right? It’s super aggressive,” Crowell said of the Buckeyes. “They’ll activate down the walls a lot. So if you just try to break out with wrapped pucks up the wall, you’re going to spend a lot of time in your D zone. I think it provides an opportunity for some creativity to try to go to different spots than that. When there’s a lot of pressure, when they’re sending one, two, sometimes three, you just have to find them.”
“The biggest thing we want to do is move pucks quick,” Sobieck said. “We want to get back, we want to be able to have our toes up ice, be able to see the play. I think we’ve grown offensively, too, on our rush offense, in zone as well. And so I think our biggest thing is sticking to how we want to play. Obviously, we’re going to have pressure, but the more that we get ready for that pressure, the better we’re going to be.”
Basically, I was asking how UMD could take the Buckeyes’ game and shove it in their faces.
Remember the scene from “Miracle”?
I didn’t necessarily say these exact words, nor did I cite the movie, but it’s where my brain went when thinking about this matchup.
Then Olivia Wallin stepped to the podium. And she went there.
“Well, I’m going to quote Herb Brooks, USA coach,” she said, “kind of take their game and shove it back in their face. I’m sure they don’t like to play in their D zone. I’m sure they spend a lot of time in other teams’ (D) zones. So just putting the puck deep, grinding, getting the puck back, I think getting a lot of shots off, crashing the net, like that’s the key to our success this weekend.”
Easier said than done, yes, but credit to Wallin. Sometimes, I get in my own head and wonder if people remember specific moments from movies the same way I do. I’m appreciative that, in this moment, at least one other person walking this planet did.
7. When UMD saw Ohio State in October at home, the Buckeyes really took it to UMD in the Friday game, winning 5-2 in a game that didn’t feel as close as the final score indicated.
And while shots were very lopsided in the Saturday affair, it’s worth noting that UMD didn’t concede a five-on-five goal that day. Both of Ohio State’s goals came after a controversial (to put it mildly) major penalty on UMD defender Nina Jobst-Smith.
UMD played its best hockey of the weekend in the third period, finally generating some even-strength scoring chances, even though nothing got by OSU netminder Raygan Kirk.
I asked Crowell what worked as the game and series went on in October.
“I think it’s using speed when you have team speed,” she said, “whether that’s your slashing wing, cutting across to provide seams. When we have possession of the puck, getting up ice quickly. There are a lot of 50-50 battles with this team. They like to, like I said, bring the D down the wall so you’ve got your wing. She’s going to be in a 50-50 battle. We’ve got to win those things.
“Once you get a little confidence and you win that battle and you create those odd man rushes that you can find against a really aggressive offense, you just start believing a little bit more. I thought we learned a lot from Friday night’s game, implemented it on Saturday way back in October. And now we’ve learned a lot throughout the year. So we’ve got to bring that on Friday.”
8. Friend of the blog Brad Schlossman wrote extensively this week on the topic of NCAA men’s hockey regionals. Future tournaments are awarded through 2026, with a two-year bid cycle underway.
The gist of Schlossman’s column, which I encourage all of you to go read, is that it’s time to move the regionals to campus sites and reconfigure the tournament.
The solution isn’t complicated.
It’s bringing regionals to the home buildings of the higher seed.
Here’s how it would work: The 16-team field would be selected. The top eight would host on opening weekend — No. 1 vs. No. 16, No. 2 vs. No. 15, No. 3 vs. No. 14 and so on.
The next weekend, the quarterfinals would be played with the higher seeds hosting again.
Then, it would go to a pre-determined NCAA Frozen Four site, the lone part of the men’s hockey tournament that has been successful.
I’m starting to come around. I’ve never really been opposed to the idea of either having a layout like Brad proposed or having the top four seeds host four-team regionals, though the latter idea is fraught with issues, starting with the fact that not every college hockey rink has the ability to host a four-team regional. Either the building doesn’t have the necessary locker room space, or the press box is way too small, or there aren’t enough hotels within a reasonable distance of the facility, or it’s a shared building and there’s no guarantee it’ll be available to begin with.
Brad’s idea could work, but there’s still a problem. Either we’re adding a week to the college hockey season, which isn’t necessarily going to just slide right through the necessary committees without a pushback of any kind, or we’re eliminating the off-week before the Frozen Four and playing games on the same weekend as basketball’s Final Four, something that’s always been resisted.
Yes, you could structure a weekend of regional finals/national quarterfinals at home sites around the Final Four. Play two games on Friday night and two Saturday afternoon, before the basketball games start.
This also would eliminate the Sunday regional finals, perhaps allowing less resistance to getting rid of the off-week. Because as long as there are two Frozen Four spots up for grabs on Sunday, hell will freeze over before the national semifinals are the following Thursday.
Spitballing here, kids. Trying to make things work.
Anyway, give Brad’s column a read. Hit me up wherever you like to hit me up with your thoughts on the topic. I’m not sure I have the mental capacity to carry on a long conversation about this seemingly never-ending topic, but talking about tired topics within the sport is better than no talking about the sport at all.
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5:30 pregame Friday back in Duluth, 4:30 on Saturday. Bless you, Western Michigan, for the early start that will allow me to watch the Packers in my hotel room and not on my tablet at the rink, or maybe get to bed before the early flight home Sunday.
Back pregame from Lunatic Fringe with the lines.
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