Greetings from my humble abode.
No matter how far we get into the pandemic season, it’s still weird to think about UMD playing hockey games while I’m in a different city.
The Bulldogs, by the time this is available on the Dot Com for reading, will have long since arrived in St. Cloud for Saturday’s single game against St. Cloud State (1pm on KDAL). I will not be arriving in St. Cloud this weekend, instead staying back in Duluth once again. This time, however, there’s a reason that doesn’t involve the safety of the announcer or anything like that.
In fact, my intention was to be in St. Cloud on Saturday. However, the opportunity came up to call the UMD women’s game Saturday in the WCHA semifinals, and doing both while traveling to St. Cloud would have been an impossibility. So we’ll do the studio setup, both games are coming up on the radio, and both games are absolutely massive.
So what’s on the line this weekend? Let’s go in chronological order, which means eschewing the old adage “Ladies first” and starting with the men.
North Dakota has already won the NCHC regular season title for a second straight year. Congratulations to Brad Berry’s crew, for sure, on a very impressive accomplishment. But second place is up for grabs on Saturday afternoon at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center. A UMD regulation win means the Bulldogs secure the No. 2 seed for the NCHC Frozen Faceoff, and will play a quarterfinal game next Friday, March 12, at Ralph Engelstad Arena. That might sound like it’s not a big deal, but UMD head coach Scott Sandelin did talk about the extra day of rest that next Friday’s winners will get, because the semifinals aren’t until Monday, March 15. The championship game is the next day, so the teams that make it that far will have played three games in five days, but the teams playing in the Saturday quarterfinals will have to deal with three games in four days.
Sandelin and his team know what they’re getting into Saturday afternoon.
“We’ve got to be a better team, too,” said Sandelin, “because we know what’s coming.”
St. Cloud State can’t be pleased with what happened in Duluth last weekend, where the Bulldogs got a couple of fortuitous (and badly needed) bounces in the first period, made it 3-0 before the first was over, then held off the Huskies in a 5-1 game that really wasn’t a four-goal game in how it played out.
“I think our first period was really good,” the veteran head coach said. “We got off to a good start, we scored some goals quickly. Personally, I didn’t like our second period as much as our first. The score is great, makes you breathe easier, but every game against them is hard-fought, usually a tight game. We had a good first period that we made hold up the rest of the game.”
No one asked Sandelin on his weekly Zoom call, but with a regulation win needed to finish in second place, you’d think the door is open for UMD to potentially do something weird, like pull its starting goalie late in a tie game because it needs the regulation win. These things don’t happen often in hockey, so let’s embrace the weird!
(Except I don’t think it’s happening. A regulation loss will look worse than an overtime loss, even if it doesn’t get to a shootout, when it comes to the NCAA Selection Committee. No reason to tempt fate just to get an extra day of rest and last line change through at least the conference semifinals. Or is there? 😁)
In all seriousness, I expect St. Cloud State to be better, from the net out. Goalie David Hrenak didn’t have a poor game at Amsoil Arena, but he was the victim of a couple bad bounces in the first period. Coach Brett Larson talked last week about how well Hrenak has responded to things not necessarily going his way. If he plays well in this rematch, the Huskies will automatically be a tougher nut to crack.
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There’s one other thing I want to riff on here, and please understand this is complete conjecture and basically stream-of-consciousness.
The schedule says UMD and St. Cloud State are done with each other after Saturday. That could very well not be the case.
They’ll be seeded second and third for the conference tournament, putting them on a collision course to meet in the semifinals, barring upsets.
But even that isn’t a guarantee to be the end.
The NCAA has been largely silent about the selection process for the national tournament. I’ve done very little sniffing around, but there is no concrete knowledge as to how the field will be selected and placed. Let’s face it: Revenues are tight. The regionals and Frozen Four will be conducted with limited attendance. So will the massively popular basketball tournaments. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to surmise that the NCAA will try to regionalize the hockey tournament as much as it can. Could that mean waiving the longstanding rule that keeps conference adversaries from meeting in the first round of the hockey tournament? I have no idea, but to be frank about it, I don’t think I have an issue with the NCAA if it does this.
As an example, if the NCAA wants to regionalize as much as possible, here’s a thought on a possible draw for the regional in Fargo:
1. North Dakota
2. UMD/SCSU
3. UMD/SCSU
4. Bemidji State
No one flies. Already, the NCAA is looking at flying four teams to Loveland unless Denver or Colorado College get on a heater and win the NCHC postseason title (neither team is eligible for an at-large bid because they can’t finish the season with a record at or over .500 without winning the league). There’s the potential for the NCHC to get four teams (UND, UMD, St. Cloud, and Omaha), while the Big Ten gets at least three (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan). There aren’t a lot of teams out east looking to make the tournament, and I’d be surprised if many (if any) of them flew out west for regionals.
Remember, we’re still in a pandemic. This tournament is a blessing. Is this a great way to construct a national tournament? No, but if the alternative is “no national tournament for a second straight year,” I’m taking it. And we’re not even sure it’ll go down this way. It’s just the thought of one (possibly crazy) person.
Either way, I think there’s more on the line here than just second place in the league. Should be a good one Saturday afternoon.
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What’s on the line for the UMD women? Potentially everything.
Similar to the men, there is no PairWise to stare at and figure out who will finish where. Instead, it’s a mad dash to make yourself look as good as possible ahead of Selection Sunday, which is *checks notes* Sunday.
UMD is in a strange spot. Yes, the Bulldogs finished second in the WCHA. Yes, they are the only team all season to win a series from Wisconsin (the Bulldogs took four of six points last weekend, UW had gotten at least three in each of its previous WCHA series this season). Yes, they held current No. 3 Ohio State — a team that went 5-3 against Wisconsin and Minnesota, sweeping the Gophers in its last games Feb. 12-13 — to one goal in two games, a mid-January series split. But UMD is probably a bubble team at this moment in time.
The Bulldogs may need to beat Ohio State Saturday at the WCHA Final Faceoff in Minneapolis (5pm on KDAL) in order to secure a spot in the field of eight. We just don’t know enough at the moment, but the old adage “Control what you can control” seems highly appropriate now.
(If I’m to be honest, there’s no way UMD shouldn’t already be in. The Ohio State and Wisconsin wins have to be enough, considering the Bulldogs avoided any major slumps and survived multiple COVID-induced pauses to their season. Yes, the overtime loss in Bemidji isn’t ideal. No, the Minnesota losses in November aren’t a great look. But the Gophers had ten games against Wisconsin and Ohio State, managing as many wins [two] in those ten games as UMD did in four. The schedule was highly unbalanced in this pandemic season, and UMD had zero control over that. I get that the rematch at Minnesota was scrapped because UMD had a COVID issue, but the Bulldogs’ series in Madison was lost through no fault of their own, that was because of a COVID problem at UW. And Minnesota/UMD shouldn’t be an either/or scenario. Penn State had a strong season in College Hockey America [lost in the CHA semifinals Friday to Syracuse], but that league has done nothing to establish itself with the major conferences, and there’s no reason to treat it as such just because of the pandemic. /rant)
The Bulldogs are strong in back, led by WCHA Defenseman of the Year Ashton Bell and WCHA Goaltender of the Year Emma Soderberg. Senior forward Anna Klein quipped that the team loves playing defense.
“Every time we have a defensive drill in practice, we get excited,” she said.
UMD has gotten more scoring as of late from its top forward, junior Gabbie Hughes. She scored four times in the Wisconsin series last weekend and has seven over UMD’s last four games. Her luck was awful before this, and now she’s cashing in on the karma that comes from sticking with playing this game the right way, even when the results aren’t coming.
“Honestly, I think I felt that way the whole time,” Klein said this week of Hughes’ scoring surge. “That’s how much confidence I have in her.”
UMD hasn’t made the NCAAs since 2017, a year before Klein and her classmates arrived on campus. What would it mean to lead the way back into the national tournament?
“I think it would be so cool,” Klein said. “Like you said, I haven’t had that opportunity yet. We’re just such a good group, we’re such a family, we love each other. We just got to get through Ohio State, that’s the only thing we care about right now.”
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As I was putting this together, some awful news broke involving a member of the Bulldog hockey family. 1980 Olympian Mark Pavelich, who starred at UMD, was found dead Thursday at a rehabilitation center in Sauk Centre, where he had been staying as part of a criminal case involving his alleged assault of a neighbor in Lutsen in 2019. He was due back in court later this month.
Pavelich had been getting mental health treatment, and enough progress was made that he was ruled competent to stand trial.
Pavelich grew up in Eveleth and was an All-American at UMD. After winning gold as part of the Miracle on Ice U.S. team, Pavelich had a run in the NHL, playing mainly with the New York Rangers. Since retiring from the sport, Pavelich coveted his privacy, avoiding much of the publicity that some of his teammates have gotten and embraced over the years since that historic win over Russia, a win that just passed its 41st anniversary last month.
I never met Mark, but obviously have spent significant time with people who did. Mental illness is a real thing, everyone, and it can strike literally anyone, anywhere, and anytime. My deepest sympathies to Mark Pavelich’s surviving family members, friends, ex-teammates, and everyone saddened by his passing. He was just 63 years old.
UMD released a brief statement on Pavelich’s passing Friday night.
Statement from UMD on the passing of former UMD hockey standout and 1980 Olympian Mark Pavelich. pic.twitter.com/CQr5jtGoxN
— Bruce Ciskie (@BruceCiskie) March 6, 2021
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Please join us on the radio this weekend. Coverage of the men’s game starts at 12:30, with the women’s game to follow at 4:45. If the UMD women win, they’re back Sunday for the WCHA championship, and we’ll carry that as well.
You can stream any and all UMD games here.
Back here before the men’s game with the lines for both teams.
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