ST. CLOUD, Minn. — UMD head coach Scott Sandelin has used the term “lucky” to describe his penalty kill quite often in recent weeks. He was under the belief that UMD was not doing things right from a structural sense and maybe getting away with some of those mistakes due to lucky bounces and/or the play of goalie Hunter Shepard.
Well, UMD has paid some of that luck back in the last two games, including Friday's 4-3 overtime loss to St. Cloud State, where the Huskies went 3-for-4 on the power play to snap the Bulldogs' three-game winning streak.
And, let's be honest, there's some bad luck going on here.
Here's what Sandelin said about his killers before Friday's game, speaking about Miami's first-period outburst (three goals on three power plays) Saturday.
“Even the penalty kill, after looking at it, it wasn't a lot of structural things. It was just shots that found their way in, rebounds. Block some shots maybe, but just tighten up. Hopefully we do that moving forward.”
SCSU got a power play goal off the rush in the first period, then one off a weird turnover in the third period, before winning the game on an overtime goal by Nick Perbix that absolutely, 100 percent never should have been allowed to stand because it was clearly kicked in.
I mean, it doesn't get any more obvious.
But, yet, there's this:
You'll be shocked by this, but the word “pendulum” does not appear in the 176-page NCAA rule book.
Look at the second of the three angles CBS showed. Both Ben Holden and Dave Starman took pause at that point, because they knew damn well what they saw. Perbix kicked the puck. There is no alternative argument. There's a distinct kicking motion that directs the puck into the net.
This is not a legal goal by the written rule of the land in college hockey.
(Now, I've argued before this is dumb, but the rule has not been significantly altered from its present form. We don't get to make the rules, we play by the ones made by others. If I ran things, a lot of rules would be different and a lot more people probably wouldn't like me much.)
(There's an argument — to be completely fair — that the standard over the years on these calls is it takes a lot more than what Perbix did to constitute a distinct kicking motion.)
Keep in mind, we still haven't addressed how St. Cloud State was on the power play for all but 30 seconds of overtime. And as much as we might like to rag on the officials, I've always had a determination that this not be a “rag on the refs” blog, no matter how things play out, and we have a long history of this blog in different forums that will back that up.
So here's another gif.
And one more gif (@cjzero on Twitter is a rock star).
Couple thoughts here and then I PROMISE we'll move on.
We'll start with the Noah Cates major that put SCSU on the power play for all but 30 seconds (which was four-on-four) in overtime.
Jon Lizotte — whom I certainly hope is okay because he does take a bit of a shot here — comes in low on Cates, who isn't looking at him as he braces for contact. But it looks like he follows through on the hit, as awkward as the whole play is. And you can argue that Cates isn't looking at Lizotte (you'd appear to be right), but that doesn't matter. He is responsible for how he contacts an opponent. Frankly, by itself, this is a pretty easily defensible call, and it's also very fair to say that we'd all be livid had someone hit a UMD player like this with no call (with or without a video review).
The second set of animations show you two hits thrown by SCSU players on UMD players late in regulation. The second — by Jack Ahcan on Nick Swaney — was (correctly IMO) called a minor for boarding. I can see why the fans didn't like it, as it was very late in the game, and Ahcan appears to throw a shoulder-to-shoulder hit. At first, I was surprised they didn't look at it for a possible major, but it looks like I'm the idiot here, and they got it right.
The first, a hit by Ryan Poehling on Justin Richards, was not called a penalty at the time, but at the first stoppage after the hit, it was looked at via video review for a possible major. Since there was no penalty at the time of the hit, the only options were a major penalty for boarding, or nothing.
The officials opted for nothing, clearly not thinking this rose to the level of a major. Richards is in a vulnerable position, is hit forcefully, and falls headfirst into the boards with no opportunity to protect himself. To be fair, I'm having a tough time with that decision, especially in light of the Cates penalty. But, again, it is what it is.
******
Pretty strong game from UMD. At five-on-five, both teams had pushes, as you'd expect in a heavyweight bout like this. Very entertaining, lots of flow for a large chunk of the game.
In the end, a lot to like for the Bulldogs. Again, we're seeing contributions from everyone, which is a major positive. We're seeing puck possession. I thought UMD's puck management was much better in this game, as the Bulldogs avoided feeding St. Cloud State's deadly transition game. The Huskies' one even-strength goal came off a pass to Nick Wolff that got by him and sprung Micah Miller, who turned on the jets. It was avoidable with better execution, but also a tad bit unlucky in how everything happened.
At even strength, UMD outscored St. Cloud State 2-1 and outshot the Huskies 25-19. Yeah, 19 even strength shots for a team that averages over 30 total shots per game. Not bad. It's certainly a good sign for this team, because we all know it gets real starting next weekend.
The penalty kill struggles are definitely going to garner some headlines. They should, too. A kill that was over 90 percent for a good chunk of the season has allowed six power play goals on nine chances in the last two games. Chalk it up to whatever you want, that isn't good. There's some bad luck in there, just like there was some good luck in some of UMD's successful kills. The Bulldogs have to find a way around this hiccup, because this is a bad time for the PK to spring a leak.
******
Newsworthy night in the NCHC, even discounting what happened here.
For the first time since 2002, North Dakota will not finish in the top half of its conference. UND beat Omaha Friday, 2-1, but will not have a shot at home ice after Western Michigan won at Miami 5-1.
Despite its loss to St. Cloud State, UMD still clinched the No. 2 seed for the NCHC playoffs by virtue of Colorado College's 2-1 win over Denver.
So what's left to decide on the last day of the regular season?
Denver is in third with 39 points, but Western Michigan is just one point back in fourth. The Broncos win the tiebreaker against Denver, so if WMU gets one more point than Denver Saturday, Western will finish third.
Omaha and Miami are tied in seventh. Omaha will hold the tiebreaker if they end up with the same number of points.
