Dictionary.com defines “attrition” as “a reduction or decrease in numbers, size, or strength.”
The men’s hockey teams colliding at Amsoil Arena know about it. All too well.
8 THOUGHTS
1. By now, you’re likely aware of UMD’s struggles with health. Its top three centers — Dominic James, Carter Loney, and Cole Spicer — remain out this weekend, James and Spicer for the balance of the season, Loney for another week or two.
(My guess is Loney will be back for the Denver series after UMD’s early February bye, but I am not a doctor, athletic trainer, hockey player, or hockey coach.)
Exasperated at this point by all the injuries, UMD coach Scott Sandelin said Wednesday at his weekly press conference he was only going to address the Bulldogs’ longer-term injuries, and he reiterated that Loney was to remain out this weekend. In doing so, Sandelin hinted at other players being at least question marks for the weekend series, but he did not identify any of them.
Sandelin said he would update injuries “if someone’s out long term like Loney’s been out, Dom’s obviously out. Because we’ve got guys dinged up every weekend.”
Just last weekend, UMD had to get through a pair of in-game injury scares. Jack Smith was lost for a chunk of the second period Friday after getting slammed into the glass, and Matthew Perkins was lost for more than half of the first period Saturday after a check from behind into the boards. Both players eventually returned to and finished those games, but the line is pretty thin right now. In fact, if any additional players are out this weekend, UMD will have to field a lineup short of the allowed maximum of 19 skaters. There’s literally no one left to plug in.
2. Miami knows this conundrum all too well. The RedHawks went to Colorado Springs last weekend minus their top goaltender, Logan Neaton. They went home with two thirds of their top line injured and unable to return to the lineup this weekend.
Forwards Matthew Barbolini and Raimonds Vitolins were in the lineup Friday at Colorado College. Neither finished the game. Neither played Saturday. Neither will play this weekend, according to head coach Chris Bergeron.
“We don’t get any healthier,” Bergeron said this weekend. “It looks like it will be longer than shorter.” The fifth-year head coach said Miami would only travel 22 players this weekend instead of the allowed 23 because they don’t have enough healthy players. With Neaton out, freshman Bruno Bruveris — who played well last weekend in his first extended action — figures to draw the starts in goal for Miami.
Later in his media availability, Bergeron made clear that he wasn’t asking for sympathy.
“I can tell you, nobody at Minnesota Duluth is going to care. They’ve had a very difficult year in terms of roster upheaval.”
We are fully aware, unfortunately. UMD actually traveled short of its allowed player total last week to Kalamazoo.
So, basically, we have the hockey equivalent of pro wrestling’s classic Last Man Standing match this weekend. Last one with a player who can stand before the count of ten wins.
In all seriousness, Sandelin knows his team will have to be ready Friday. The Bulldogs weren’t ready to play the Friday game at Miami, and found themselves down 2-0 barely a minute into the game.
“It’s still a mystery to me why they aren’t where they are,” Sandelin said of a RedHawks team he strongly believes is better than its 7-13-2 record. “They’ve got some really good players. In their building, we weren’t ready to play one night and it was 2-0 the first two shifts. You want to play chase hockey, I don’t care who you’re playing, it’s tough. We’ve got to be ready to play like we were on Friday at Western.”
3. Sandelin abhors making excuses, but he did talk a bit Wednesday about the improvements his team has shown, especially in the second half.
Yeah, it would be easy to pack it in, given all the talent and muscle currently out of the lineup. But UMD is 5-4-1 in its last ten games with one regulation loss. A seven-game NCHC points streak was snapped Saturday with the 5-2 loss to Western Michigan.
“I was proud of our team last weekend,” said Sandelin, “going in there a little bit short-handed and playing against a really good hockey team and playing good hockey. I think our last two weekends we’ve done a lot of really good things. And there are two splits against good teams, and another one coming in here this weekend.
“Collectively, do we need to be better? Absolutely. I’ll say that until the last game of the year. I think we’ve done some really good things. I don’t always go by wins and losses. I go by what we need to do to win games.”
“Friday game was awesome,” sophomore forward Ben Steeves said of last weekend. “A lot of secondary scoring, a lot of guys just playing hungry. And even the Saturday game, Western had a little more domination in their game. But I think we still played a solid game.”
UMD still has some steps to take in its game as we start to approach the stretch run of the regular season. Sandelin pointed to the inability to build leads in a lot of games as a problem he’d like to see alleviated. Referencing Saturday, when UMD took a 2-0 lead and couldn’t build on it during a five-minute power play, Sandelin talked about what he thinks is a season-long trend.
“Unfortunately we didn’t extend that lead,” Sandelin said, “and that’s been an issue with us all year. Like 2-1, can’t get it to 3-1. 3-1, can’t get it to 4-1. 2-0, can’t get it to three. Those are situations that, if we could extend leads, maybe it makes the game a little easier or a little bit more out of reach for those teams.”
4. Steeves brought up another potential issue that’s mostly happenstance. In addressing UMD’s disallowed goal from Saturday’s game, Steeves noted the length of the video review as Western Michigan challenged the goal for offsides.
It took the officials 6:15 to review the Kyler Kleven goal, find that the puck had entered the zone off the stick of Braden Fischer and struck UMD’s Luke Johnson on his way out of the zone, and reset the clock to the right time so play could continue. It’s a completely unacceptable length of time to be sitting around, whether there are technical issues or not. But we don’t have a system that sets a time limit on these reviews, only the largely-unspoken mandate that we’re doing it to get calls right.
UMD felt it had seized momentum by scoring two-plus minutes after Western got two quick goals to tie the game 2-2. Instead, as Steeves said, “We paused the game.”
“It’s happened to us a lot this year,” Steeves said. “It happened in Milwaukee against Northeastern. We were up, whatever happened with the glass, it got messed up. And (after a delay of nearly eight minutes) they went out and scored right away.
“It happened here, glass in the far corner. I think Colorado College came out and scored right away after it. I just think it’s happened a lot.
“We could thrive on momentum, which is good, but I also think when we theoretically lose momentum just off of little lulls in the game. We could definitely get better at just keeping our game simple and powering through those moments.”
5. It’s another full weekend of action in the NCHC. New league leader North Dakota, off a four-point weekend at St. Cloud State, hosts Denver this weekend. The Fighting Hawks took four of six points from DU during a first-half series in the Mile High City, including an insane 7-5 win in the Friday game. We’ll see if Denver can play enough defense to unlock their offensive game. Both teams have the skill to win a slugfest, but who will get the critical stops?
Omaha heads to St. Cloud in a series that features teams looking for a bounceback. Omaha conceded 12 in losing both ends at home to Denver last weekend, while St. Cloud State needed a shootout win Saturday to salvage two points against UND. The Mavericks are in danger of falling out of the home ice race, with critical series against SCSU this week and UMD next week before its February bye week.
Finally, Western Michigan is home to face Colorado College. The last time the Tigers visited Kalamazoo, they emerged with a two-game NCHC playoff sweep that sent them to St. Paul and the NCHC Frozen Faceoff. The Broncos only lead CC by one point for the final home ice spot, with UMD lurking four points back, likely hoping these two teams bludgeon each other all weekend long.
6. The UMD women match up this weekend with defending national champion Wisconsin. The Badgers will make their first visit to Duluth since winning their seventh national title 1-0 over Ohio State at Amsoil Arena on March 19.
This time, they will not have thousands of supporters packing the Amsoil Arena lower bowl, nor will they their band entertaining the crowd. Guessing the arena DJ won’t play “Jump Around” afterwards whether Wisconsin wins the game or not.
Should be a fun series. UMD will bring its defensive prowess (more on that in a moment) and some increased secondary scoring that will matter quite a bit against the talented and deep Badgers. The teams met Dec. 2-3 in Madison, with UMD rebounding from a 3-0 loss in the opener to win the second game 3-2 and earn a straight split in the series.
“We came in and played played fearless,” said junior defender Hanna Baskin. “We did what the coaches told us to do. We stuck to the game plan and came out with a win. So I think that’s that’s gonna be key here in this weekend is just sticking to our game plan, play how we know how to play. We have a lot of confidence so should be good.”
UMD has to deal with two of the nation’s best this weekend. Sophomore forward Kirsten Simms leads the WCHA with 45 points, while classmate Caroline “KK” Harvey is one of the best in the world at her defensive position.
“There are few and far between that play the game as well as KK does,” said Crowell, “One thing we’re not going to do is get too focused on any individual player because they have so many. So what we need to do and what we did the last time and what we try to do every weekend is play really good team-structured hockey and make it frustrating. Take away her options.”
7. One of the most impressive things about this UMD team is its defensive play. Top 2022-23 defenders Ashton Bell (Ottawa) and Maggie Flaherty (Minnesota) are now standout players in the PWHL — Crowell talked about watching both play on Wednesday night.
And yet, here is UMD among the top defensive teams in the nation despite a murderous schedule with top opponent after top opponent.
Eve Gascon and Hailey MacLeod both enter this weekend’s series with .952 save percentages.
“Those numbers are insane,” Crowell said, laughing a bit. She knows that, not only is her program set up well for success in this season of transition, but also going forward. And it all starts in goal with Gascon and MacLeod.
“We’re talking about a freshman and a sophomore putting up those numbers against top teams in the country with the best players in the world,” Crowell said. “It’s just incredible, and we’re really excited about what we have it in Hailey and Eve, and as you’ve heard me say they give us a chance to win every single game.”
The Bulldogs blocked 49 shots last weekend against Ohio State, and a similar effort may be needed this weekend. Baskin said her and her teammates will do whatever is needed to help out the goalies, even if it hurts.
“It’s honestly one of the best things when you know you’re going to block that shot and you get down and then you feel it,” she said. “You hear your teammates screaming and you might even get a clear off of that. So that feels even better and it kind of masks the pain.”
8. If you’re planning on attending Saturday’s UMD-Wisconsin women’s game, and you have young kids, we want you to be aware of a cool event happening before the 3pm puck drop.
It’s Young Athletes Foundation Appreciation Day, an event that includes kids’ races in the Amsoil Arena concourse Saturday afternoon.
It’s free and open to kids 14 and under, who will run in age-specific races. Parents/guardians/chaperones of participants can get discounted $5 tickets for the game, while the kids who take part will get in free.
Pre-registration is required, get that by clicking or tapping here. Ticket discount is available until noon Friday here.
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It’s a doubleheader weekend on KDAL. We’ll have the women’s games with coverage at 2:45pm Friday and Saturday, and the men’s pregame follows at 6:30pm.
Follow me on Twitter/X for more pregame nuggets.
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