ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Welcome to windy St. Cloud. I left also-windy Duluth early afternoon and made my way south and west to find that the wind is, if anything, worse here.
UMD is on the road for a playoff series for the first time since 2015, when the banged-up and worn-down Bulldogs went to Denver and absorbed a two-game sweep while safely in the NCAA Tournament field. Before 2015, UMD had road playoff series in 2013 (two-game loss at Wisconsin), 2009 (two-game win at Colorado College), 2008 (two-game loss at Denver), 2007 (three-game loss at St. Cloud State), and 2006 (three-game win at Denver).
My advice to many this week has been to mentally prepare yourselves for a three-game war here. The Bulldogs’ last Sunday playoff series finale was 2010 at home against Colorado College (won that), so you could certainly argue UMD is way overdue for such a thing.
Big news into the opener. St. Cloud State fifth year goalie David Hrenak is not dressing for this game. As of this writing, we don’t know if this is an injury or illness for Hrenak, who shut UMD out on 34 saves Saturday night in Duluth and looked quite sharp throughout. Junior Jaxon Castor will start in goal, his fourth start and sixth appearance of the season. Castor has played just under 264 minutes in goal, with a .919 save percentage and 2-1 record.
Also out is senior defenseman and captain Spencer Meier. Assuming that this is an illness issue, but we will pass along any info we get.
UMD can’t relax because it’s not facing the calm, experienced Hrenak. Oh, not at all. Instead, UMD needs to be ready from the hop to make Castor’s life difficult. With Seamus Donohue returning on defense after missing Saturday’s game, that task has become even tougher.
UMD has everyone available, but did tweak its top two lines for the series opener.
Lines?
Lines.
UMD forwards
Roth – Gilling – Laderoute
Cates – Jacques – Bender
Olson – James – Biondi
Kleven – Loney – Loheit
UMD defense
Anderson – Roehl
Kaiser – Gotz
Gallatin – Kelley
Lellig
UMD goalies
Fanti – Stejskal – Patt
SCSU forwards
Kupka – Fitzgerald – Miller
Brodzinski – Walker – Hentges
Miettinen – Krannila – Okabe
Brand – Salquist – Molenaar
SCSU defense
Donohue – Perbix
Peart – Luedtke
Jaycox – Trejbal
Bushy
SCSU goalies
Castor – Lamoreaux
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