The post Gallery: Frozen Four Semifinal, Denver vs. Boston University appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The Pioneers faced down an early deficit thanks to a breakaway, top-shelf goal from Boston University’s Luke Tuch on Thursday at Xcel Energy Center. The forwards were still apprehensive about what BU’s top players could showcase when caught off guard, and the defense was keeping the Terriers’ shots to manageable areas. The real breakthrough came when there was a brief lapse in greatness from highly-touted NHL prospect and Montreal Canadiens draft-pick Lane Hutson.

Deep in his own zone, Hutson blindly sent the puck lazily toward the front of his own net, where Miko Matikka gladly scooped the puck up and sent it over to the open man, Tristan Lemyre, with a crease open just enough to sneak the puck past.

Denver’s Tristan Lemyre skates by his teammates receiving high-fives after he tied the game 1-1 in the Frozen Four semifinal. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Lemyre had an interesting journey to the game-tying goal for Denver. Looking at the line chart released before the game, Lemyre was a bit lonely. That is, because he was the 13th forward for the game, without any permanent linemates. In this instance, he was out there with Matikka and Aidan Thompson for the goal.

“He’s been really good for us, he’s been fighting through an injury of his own,” said Denver coach David Carle. “[He’s been] putting his body on the line for the guys and the team. Really, really happy for him that he was able to get rewarded.”

Lemyre’s goal-scoring prowess hasn’t been on full display this season, to say the least, though it has come at opportune times. His game-tying goal in the Frozen Four semifinal game was just his second of the season and sixth of his career.

His only other goal this season? A tally in a 7-2 rout of St. Cloud State on March 2. Lemyre also hasn’t slotted in to each game this season, with Thursday being his 26th of Denver’s overall 43 played through the national semifinal round. Carle said that Lemyre played an integral role while star forward Massimo Rizzo was out with an injury.

“He comes into the night as our 13th forward, he’s been a big reason we’ve went 12-1-1 without Rizzo in the lineup,” Carle said, of Lemyre.

Denver goaltender Matt Davis made 33 saves and allowed only one goal against Boston University. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

‘Big-time’ goaltending performance
Another person that can be hoisted onto a pedestal for why Denver will be playing for its 10th national championship is the backstop, goalie Matt Davis.

Goal scoring has been tough to come by for the Pioneers in the last three games. Just six goals over that span, but the best part for Denver has been that its only ceded three goals. Davis has made the clutch plays when it matters, gobbling up pucks and preventing rebounds to keep the electric BU forwards from cashing in on anything but the Tuch breakaway goal.

“Matty D sitting here again, was excellent for us,” Carle said. “Especially was the best player in the first period and overtime.”

Carle wasn’t kidding. BU had 20 shots through the first two periods while Denver had just 11. Even more, in the first period, the Terriers outshot the Pioneers 10-3. Despite going down a goal, Davis kept Denver in the game with a close score long enough for the forwards to find their game and deliver on offense.

“He’s been unbelievable,” Rizzo said, of Davis. “He showed up when we needed him the most, I’m super proud of him.”

Added Broz regarding Davis: “Big-time performance by him, three straight games.” 

Davis, Lemyre and the rest of the Pioneers will hope to replicate the big-time performance in the national championship game on Saturday.

The post Lucky 13th Forward appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

What is interesting is that as time has evolved, there is no question that women’s Division I basketball has caught and passed the men from the standpoints of technical excellence and creative playmaking. Plus, they shoot 3-pointers as though they invented them.

Another interesting footnote to the NCAA’s wild and crazy climax to the winter sports season is that somehow the NCAA convinced the rest of the world to reserve the first weekend in April for the basketball semifinals and finals — the Final Four in both men’s and women’s basketball. That forces the NCAA hockey tournament to play down to its final four — which are known as the “Frozen Four” — and then put its game on hold before being allowed to finish its peak competition. It’s grown to now-popular status and fills up big arena. But it must wait to be decided a week later.

We have a vested interest this year, because the men’s hockey Frozen Four will be held at St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center. The semifinals are on April 11, with the two winners coming back to collide on April 13 to decide the championship.

That means a two-week break from the wind-up to the intensely heated and competitive play in four regionals around the country, which led to some very surprising survivors to convene in St. Paul. In the first semifinal, it will be No. 2-ranked Boston University facing No. 3 Denver at 4 p.m., followed by the 7:30 p.m. game between No. 1 Boston College and Big Ten stalwart Michigan.

If it appears that all six of Minnesota’s Division I hopefuls got locked out of their home facility, we must admit that there could probably not be four more potent heavyweights in the college hockey world than the ones in the Frozen Four.

Men’s hockey regionals set Frozen Four
We were all hoping to see two or three of Minnesota’s teams reach the Frozen Four, but they fell like dominos leading up to or into the regionals. The Minnesota Gophers was the only team from the state to reach a regional final. That was in Sioux Falls, where the Gophers got a couple of incredibly lucky breaks to score goals and subdue Omaha 3-2 in the semifinal, only to fall 6-3 to Boston University.

At Springfield, Mass., Denver escaped Massachusetts 2-1 in overtime after Cornell came back and whipped Maine 3-1 in the semifinals. In that final, Cornell banged Denver around with speed and strength, and the Pioneers — who spent the season banging around NCHC rivals — were fortunate to win 2-1 to gain the Frozen Four in the slot against BU.

At Providence, Boston College had a tough opener against upstart Michigan Tech from the CCHA before erupting in the third period for a 6-1 victory. Defending NCAA champ Quinnipiac rallied to stun Wisconsin 3-2 in overtime. Quinnipiac then gave BC all it could handle before the Eagles battled from behind four times to catch the Bobcats and only gained the lead once — in overtime, for a 5-4 victory.

That left Maryland Heights, Mo., where Big Ten arch-rivals Michigan State and Michigan battled through a classic championship game before Michigan got third-period goals 12 seconds apart, from Dylan Duke and Gavin Brindley, and beat the Big Ten champion Spartans 5-2.

We’ve got another week to let the ice chips land where they might and ponder the Denver-BU game and the BC-Michigan match. What will astound the NCAA is that this year, instead of brushing off the hockey finals, the men’s basketball final will serve as the appetizer for what should be a fantastic Frozen Four.

And the NCAA women’s basketball finals will put on a show that may attract more attention than the men get — or deserve.

Final Fours in men’s, women’s hoops set with intriguing matchups
What could save the men’s Final Four is that UConn — the driving force in women’s basketball — will also be in the men’s field, and faces Alabama in the second semifinal on Saturday (7:49 p.m. CT). The first semifinal, at 5:09 p.m., features two Cinderella stories when Purdue, from the Big Ten, makes its first Final Four appearance against North Carolina State.

The story of the NC State Wolfpack men’s team means that institution also has both men’s and women’s teams in the Final Four, but NC State spent most of the winter sputtering and struggling to finish 10th in the Atlantic Coast Conference. NC State lost its final four games of the regular season. But everybody gets into the conference tournament and, for no apparent reason, the Wolfpack took off — and hasn’t lost since!

NC State won the South Region by blitzing arch-rival Duke 76-64, and the Wolfpack extended their winning streak to nine games, through the playoffs. How refreshing to not have the usual high-end basketball powers dominating the headlines this year. Purdue would be Cinderella if NC State didn’t also have glass sneakers.

In the women’s Final Four, NC State and UConn also made those fields, and NC State gets to take on South Carolina, which comes in behind the steamroller of a 36-0 record. The field became solidified Monday night when Iowa got a 41-point performance from Caitlin Clark to outlast defending national champion LSU. In the other game that night, UConn blew a 12-point third-quarter lead to allow the University of Southern California to catch up. But former Hopkins High School star Paige Bueckers finished a brilliant 28-point performance to lead the UConn Huskies to a 80-73 victory over USC.

As hype goes, nothing in men’s or women’s basketball can approach the Clark-Bueckers showdown between two of the best guards ever in women’s basketball.

The upset-filled men’s and women’s basketball have been exceptional, and they had to be to coax us to suspend our evaluation of the Frozen Four for another week. Warm up the TV and fill the popcorn bowls with fresh stuff, and enjoy yourselves.

No, none of the six Minnesota teams reached the Frozen Four, so we’ll have to be content to bask in the glow of holding the Frozen Four in our “State of Hockey” palace on West Seventh Street in St. Paul. We just have to wait a week.

The post Hockey Goes On Hold While Basketball Shines appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

It was the end of the first season as Gophers head coach Herb Brooks, who had lifted the faltering program from a 10th-place, 7-21 season, to sixth-place with a 12-13-3 record. Minnesota lost 8-6 in the first game of the total-goal set. The team gathered for a group breakfast down a massive winding staircase at the Edgewater, for the obligatory scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and fried potatoes.

“I remember walking down that art deco staircase,” said Brad Shelstad, a junior goaltender who rode the bench that weekend while Brooks sent Doug Hastings into the nets, despite Shelstad’s better goals-against average and save percentage. “As we were all sitting at our table, there was another group gathered off to one side, and they looked sort of extra casual, with long hair. A couple of our guys made subtle comments about how they looked, but we went ahead with our breakfast.”

The Gophers season ended a few hours later, in a 6-4 playoff loss to finish the 1972-73 season 15-16-3 overall.

“Later on, I checked and found out that the other group in the room was a rock band called Pink Floyd, and they were performing their new album, ‘Dark Side of the Moon,’ in Madison that same weekend,” Shelstad said. “I ended up being a huge Pink Floyd fan, and fan of that album — which I still play all the time.”

That oddity, and that legendary album, might well have gone down as the highlight of Shelstad’s Gophers goaltending career, because there was nothing that spring that foretold what could possibly happen one season later, in the 1973-74 season. Nor could any fans of all the other Minnesota-based college hockey teams appreciate what was coming next.

The University of Minnesota Duluth had just moved up to expand into a Division I program. While St. Cloud State, Mankato State and Bemidji State were all comfortable playing at the Division II level, with reduced scholarship and financial requirements and their own minor-league network. While UMD was striving to reach Minnesota’s stature, the Gophers had never attained proper financial stature with, say, Michigan, which dominated the Big Ten and stood the best chance of competing with the national powers at Denver, North Dakota, Colorado College and the Eastern powers of Boston University, Cornell, RPI and others.

Michigan was the envy of John Mariucci at Minnesota because it enjoyed rivalries with Michigan State, Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan, and later Lake Superior State — five Division I teams compared to Minnesota’s one, or two.

Mariucci stubbornly promoted his homestate high school products, which were trickling out to other schools offering better scholarships. Still, with no junior hockey network to develop prospects up to age 20, Minnesota continued to recruit high school players entering as 18- or 19-year-old freshmen.

Against them, Michigan, Michigan Tech, North Dakota, Denver and Colorado College were all watching Canadian junior players age and develop up to age 20, and those who didn’t get drafted by NHL teams might consider coming to school as 21-year-old freshmen. So, Minnesota’s seniors were sometimes younger than the freshmen brought in post-junior by the other Western college powers.

So, Minnesota had never won an NCAA championship. How could they? When Brooks took over the Gophers program, he was determined to carry on Mariucci’s beliefs and concepts, and while the other in-state college programs considered the Gophers their primary adversary and rival, there was no real indication that something huge was looming on the horizon to attain national championship stature.

In fact, as Shelstad recalled, nothing looked more alluring than “The Dark Side of the Moon” to those young Gophers in 1972-73.

Herb Brooks: The miracle man
In the fall of 1973, the Gophers started 0-4-1, losing to UMD, twice to Wisconsin, tying and losing to Michigan. But then, the Brooks magic set in.

His 23-man roster started to click. Shelstad was No. 1 in goal, with Bill Moen and Eric Lockwood backing up. On defense, Brooks had Brad Morrow, Les Auge, John Perpich, Doug Falls and a giant named Dick Spannbauer. But Brooks wanted more versatility, so he took Joe Micheletti, a young center who had fled Hibbing to the state high school championship, and he converted him to defense. Smart, smooth and good with the puck, Micheletti had an outstanding season. Brooks took a similar path with David Christian on his 1980 Miracle on Ice Olympic team.

Up front, a clever center with a quick shot named John Sheridan was joined by Mike Polich, another Hibbing spark plug, and Tom Vannelli, a crafty center from St. Paul Academy, plus wingers Warren Miller, Buzzy Schneider, John Matschke, Cal Cossalter, Tom Dahlheim, Roseau brothers John and Robby Harris, Edina brothers Bruce and Tim Carlson, Roseville brothers Pat and Mike Phippen. A completely diverse group of forwards — possibly none of whom might have invited notice had they been playing junior hockey, but who all accepted partial scholarships to be a part of the Golden Gophers.

The Gophers gained momentum through the tough WCHA season, although they still had trouble with certain teams. They lost a midseason series at Duluth, split a series with Denver and skated to a pair of ties at Wisconsin. In their final series of the regular season, the Gophers made the trip to Houghton, Mich., where John MacInnes’ Huskies swept the Gophers. That left Minnesota sharing the WCHA championship though still technically second in the conference.

It didn’t matter though, because Minnesota was at home in Williams Arena to two-game, total-goal series against Michigan, which the Gophers swept 5-1 and 5-4. That put the Gophers up against Denver, and the teams tied the first game.

“John Harris backhanded in a big goal for us,” Shelstad said.

Then the Gophers won 2-1 to send them to the NCAA Final Four (as it was known in those days) at Boston Garden.

Gophers reach NCAA Final Four
In the home of the Boston Bruins, the Gophers jumped out ahead of Boston University, but coach Jackie Parker’s Terriersrallied in the third period against Shelstad and the Gophers, closing the deficit to set the stage for the most dramatic single goal in Gophers hockey history.

Having tied the game 4-4, Boston went on the power play when Spannbauer was penalized with a minute to go in regulation. It appeared that the Garden rink was tilted toward Shelstad and the Gophers goal, and it seemed inevitable that the Terriers were going to score again and steal the national championship.

But while killing the penalty through the closing half-minute, Polich stole the puck in the neutral zone and raced into the B0ston zone. Terriars goaltender Ed Walsh, who coincidentally later played with Polich on Montreal’s top farm team where the two were roommates, later told Polich that as he skated in toward the goal, Walsh knew he had an open winger on the far side, and he stole a millisecond glance to see where the winger was. In that instant, when he looked back, he didn’t see any puck.

Polich had cut loose with a quick and deadly shot in that moment, and the puck sailed past Walsh and into the goal for a shorthanded goal to win the game 5-4 with 13 seconds remaining in regulation.

The joy of victory, the great relief at surviving — all the possible emotions — spilled over as the Gophers celebrated. But they still had a huge obstacle awaiting in the defending champion Michigan Tech Huskies.

“We had no options,” said Shelstad. “It was our last game as Gophers. I still remember Bill Steele. I don’t know if he ever went into motivational speaking, but he should have, because he sure motivated me! As we were warming up in Boston Garden, he skated down to our end and came up next to me and said something like, ‘It’s all over now, buddy, because we’re going to fill the net.’ It got to me, and I thought, ‘You little…who do you think you are?’”

The Gophers won its first NCAA championship in Minnesota history by a 4-2 score, outshooting Michigan Tech 39-24.

In the 1975 NCAA championship game a year later, Brooks and his Gophers lost to Michigan Tech. But the teams met again in the 1976 title game in Denver, with the Gophers winning that one. So, after having never won a national title in its history, Minnesota suddenly won two-out-of-three during Brooks’ first three years as head coach.

Brooks put together one more championship team, winning the 1979 NCAA title, to give him three championships in his seven years at Minnesota. That was all before he left to create the 1980 gold-medal-winning Olympic team, loaded Minnesota players.

Now, 50 years later, Minnesota is trying to fight off the challenges from five other Division I programs in Minnesota, with UMD, St. Cloud State, Minnesota State Mankato, Bemidji State and St. Thomas all battling for national prominence. But while gazing into the future, it might be the ideal time to pause for a look back at the proud heritage that Mariucci, Glen Sonmor and Brooks created out of the void of no NCAA titles in Minnesota.

The post Flashback: 1st Gophers NCAA Titles appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The Wild need to see the aggressive side of their forward.

It wasn’t an ideal start to the season for Wild forward Charlie Coyle.

After breaking his fibula in the third game of the season, he was sidelined for 16 games and was able to return game action just five weeks later. Upon his return from injury, he was able to generate some offense with 13 assists in his first 30 games but netted just four goals. Coyle, also rarely shot the puck, as he registered just 44 shots during that span.

However, the classic cliche of “good things happen when you shoot puck” started to apply to Coyle’s game. Entering play on Feb. 15, Coyle has four goals in his last seven games while firing 16 pucks on net.

After Minnesota’s 5-2 loss to Washington, Coyle logged 18:59 of ice time, which was the most of any forward.

“I mean he worked hard. I don’t know if he had any shots on goal or anything but I mean Charlie works hard every night,” said Bruce Boudreau after the Wild’s 5-2 loss to the Capitals. “There’s no ifs ands or buts. It’s just always you think that he could start shooting the puck a bit more, he could get more offensive points.”

Boudreau’s not wrong either. In 41 games this season, Coyle has scored in seven of them and in six of those games he’s fired at least three shots on net. 

This is nothing new for anyone that’s watched Coyle over the last six years. Fans have seen glimpses of a bulldog mentality and nose for the net that leaves you wanting more. Yet, it’s almost as if he possess a switch, sometimes it’s on and sometimes it’s off.

Where has he been effective?

Coyle has earned the bulk of his points this season in even-strength situations – as 20 of 23 points have come five-on-five. He’s seen time on power play units, but probably hasn’t been a mainstay because of his inconsistent nature of shooting the puck.

The former college hockey standout at Boston University has floated between both the wing and center position during his career. Although he may look like prototypical center at 6′ 3″ and 220 pounds, Coyle’s always had trouble winning faceoffs, having won just 46 percent of his draws in his career. But the former first-round pick has been excellent in the circle this season, winning  53 percent of his faceoffs, which is actually the best percentage on the team.

Now winning faceoffs and scoring are two very different things – but his improvement in something he’s historically struggled with provides hope one day he can turn his offensive game around too.

What do analytics say?

New age hockey analytic statistics like Corsi and Fenwick have not been kind to Coyle this season. If you’re not familiar with Corsi, it basically measures the number of shot attempts said player gets at even strength while he is on the ice and it’s divided by the number of shot attempts the opposition gets while he is on the ice. Think of it like plus-minus but for shot attempts.

It’s not a perfect statistic, but since the NHL doesn’t have puck possession figures, this is the closest thing to it. Coyle’s Corsi percentage is 47.2 – typically you’d like to be above 50 – which is five points lower than his career average and seven points lower than his career-high figure of 54.4 from last season. In other words, when Coyle’s on the ice this year, opposing team are getting more shots on net.

Now that’s not all on Coyle, as the Wild as a team are averaging just 28 shots per game which is the fourth-lowest total in the NHL. If anything it’s another tell-tale sign that Coyle – and the rest of the team – needs to fire more rubber on net.

Could they move on?

Currently Coyle is in the third year of a five-year contract and has a cap hit of $3.2 million this season. Unlike most of the veterans on the Wild, he doesn’t have a no-move clause which means he could be moved to any team. His name has even been floated around the trade market, according to Michael Russo of The Athletic.

When you consider his friendly cap hit, the fact he’s just a season removed from a career-year and still in his mid 20’s, you can understand why another team would be interested in his services. Now would the Wild be willing to give him up? That remains to be seen.

But for Coyle’s sake, his head coaches sake and for the fans of State of Hockey, Coyle needs to be more aggressive on the ice for the Wild to succeed.

The post What’s up with Charlie Coyle? appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Third period PP goal lifts BU over UMD and into Frozen Four

Boston University’s Evan Rodrigues scored the deciding goal at 2:24 of the third period to give the Terriers a 3-2 NCAA Northeast Regional final win over Minnesota-Duluth on Saturday night in Manchester, N.H. sending the Terriers to their 22^nd Frozen Four appearance

Rodrigues scored BU’s first and third goals, with the game winner coming on a nifty toe-drag to beat almost everybody on the ice during the Terriers’ second power-play of the game.

In an extremely close and exciting contest, Andy Welinski wrapped his stick around a BU player, taking him out in the defensive zone corner and putting BU up a man early in the third. Minnesota-Duluth coach Scott Sandelin said he was surprised by the call.

“There are things you can’t control, all we can control is trying to kill it, we almost did and they ended up making a great play and scoring the winning goal,” Sandelin said. “It’s frustrating sometimes but just trying to get our guys focused on the penalty and we almost did.”

The game, in its entirety, was a chess match between two fairly equal teams with back-and-forth possessions and goals.

“I wasn’t surprised how that game unfolded. It was kind of like a heavyweight fight” Boston University coach David Quinn said. “We controlled the first few rounds, almost had a couple of opportunities to deliver a knockout punch. Then they’d come back and dominate for about 10 or 12 minutes.

“Then we’d come back and dominate for about 10 or 12 minutes.”

The Terriers twice took the lead at 1-0 and 2-1 before finally ending Duluth’s season 3-2.

Boston University’s Matt Grzelcyk, who assisted on the play, said Rodrigues’ winning goal “unbelieveable.”

“It’s something that he’s done quite a lot over his four years here,” Grzelcyk said. “As soon as I passed it to him, I wanted him to shoot because he seemed to be wide open, but he made a great play and just a great shot after that.”

Rodrigues’ first goal occurred when Duluth failed to clear the zone and Brandon Fortunato intercepted the puck on the blue-line. Fortunato passed it Rodrigues, who was all alone at center ice, and he whipped around and golfed a no-look shot past Kasimir Kaskisuo.

“At the end of practice we play games where we bat pucks up in the air and just start whacking them” said Rodrigues, “So I kind of knew I had a beat on it and I’d make contact.”

UMD had its own unconventional goal when Kyle Osterberg lobbed the puck into the Terrier zone and Matt O’Connor tried to just stab the puck away. Simultaneously Jared Thomas was crashing the net and the puck just trickled in through O’Connor’s five-hole. Thomas took several whacks at the sliding puck but its own momentum took it across the line. That goal tied the game at two goals apiece.

“After two periods you’ve got a 2-2 tie and then I thought that we did what we do best,” Quinn said. “I thought we played a great third period. We were relentless. We were smart. And we just did the things we needed to do to win an incredibly important hockey game and extend our season.”

After beating Michigan 3-2 in overtime to take the national title in 2011, UMD has twice made it to the regional final game, only to lose to Boston College in 2012 and Saturday to Boston University. This was the first meeting between the Terriers and the Bulldogs since 1999 – an 8-5 Duluth victory.

“It was a great hockey game, just unfortunate the way it ended,” Sandelin said. “Hats off to them … a lot of back and forth, zone time for both teams in certain situations but they made a play at the end, right at the end of the power play, won a hockey game … they’re moving on and we’re not.”

Boston University heads to the Frozen Four riding a seven-game winning streak with an overall record of 27-7-5. They will play the winner of the North Dakota and St. Cloud State University West Regional game played Saturday night. The University of Minnesota-Duluth ends their season with an overall record of 21-16-3. The Frozen Four will be played in Boston this year on April 9^th and 11^th.

“It’s obviously pretty cool,” Grzelcyk said of playing at home in Boston. ”I think I’d be just as excited if the Frozen Four were anywhere else. Obviously, we’ve had a pretty good amount of success at the Garden so it’ll be nice to get back on familiar ice. I’m sure the guys will be excited to be back in the environment.”

The post Terriers topple the Bulldogs appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

You are a US born player and spent time with the US National Team Development Program. How important was that to your development as pro?

For me going to Ann Arbor and the program was really important. I was a very raw player and needed a lot of work and I think they saw that as well; to have those kinds of resources as a 16-year old is amazing because you play against older players and it really develops your game. There’s a fine line between developing your game and playing to win and the coaches and the whole staff did a great job of it. I think ultimately my two coaches there and some of the support staff were tremendous in helping me develop and get ready for college and ultimately the next level, here [the NHL].

What is it like for you watching younger players coming through the program now that you are in the NHL?

It’s cool. I think me being a part of it and seeing older guys who went through it and now these young guys…you always remember your experiences there and playing in the World Juniors and the World 18s and it’s just an exciting feeling. You’re always excited to play for your country but as you get up and go through the ranks it’s harder and harder to get that opportunity. I know how special it is for these guys to have this opportunity and they are obviously doing great right now so it’s fun to watch, especially with a couple Canadian guys in the locker room!

Sounds like there’s some friendly competition over the IIHF tournament in the dressing room…

There’s some bets going and we’ll see what happens!

You went from the program to Boston University. How did playing college puck influence your game?

I’m from the Northeast and I grew up watching college hockey so that was my goal. I think for many kids in Canada the goal is often to play in major juniors. Going the college route was very important to me but it’s not an allotted plan for everyone; we all take different routes to get here and for me getting to college was that path. I think BU in particular was important for me because of the coaches and knowing that’s where I would develop best. To be able to have Coach Parker who was very hard on me but in the right ways was really important. Their new Coach David Quinn who was our assistant and defensive coach there took a lot of time to make sure we developed in the right way and I think it was important to do that and I wasn’t rushed out of college either which was also nice.

Do you have any favorite “Winter Classic” style events from your hockey career?

At school we got to play BC at Fenway Park so that’s probably my greatest outdoor game experience. Playing at Fenway in front of 45,000 people was amazing! We got to do that and we won and had a nice little celebration after and it was just a really, really fun night and something that we’ll get to remember for a long time.

Would you like to play in a Winter Classic one day?

I would love to! I think it would be great for us and for the team. It brings a lot of excitement to the game which is important too. Hopefully, we’re crossing our fingers, that St. Louis will get a game sooner or later.

What are your personal feelings on the season so far?

The season so far has been great. It’s nice to start the season on time and go through training camp with all of the guys to get back in the swing of things. I think we have a pretty special team here and we were very excited coming into the season. I think we’ve met our expectations and it’s just been good to not have to go through all of that hoopla and the meetings and such like last year.

You have been stepping up and really contributing to some big wins for your team this season including a game winning shootout goal over the Blackhawks just the other night. How does that make you feel? 

It’s great when you get to fill a big role for your team. I think everyone always hopes to be someone who contributes in a game for their team and when you get the opportunity it’s time to step up and for me it was a great night. It’s always a good feeling to come into the locker room knowing you had a piece of the win and the guys are congratulating you; it’s a very fulfilling type of feeling.

Obviously you guys have already travelled to a lot of cities this winter but what do you think of this Minnesota deep freeze you arrived in yesterday?

Unfortunately I left my coat at home so it wasn’t a great night for me last night! It’s been pretty crazy this season, we’ve been to some cold cities so far but I think Minnesota has taken the cake!

You can follow Kevin Shattenkirk on Twitter @Shattdeuces as well as the author of this article @AmySnow17!

Featured Image:
Kevin Shattenkirk surveys the ice during his two-point night (1-1–2) in the Blues’ 3-2 loss to the Kings on Dec. 2, 2013 in Los Angeles.
(Getty Images/Jeff Gross)

The post Know Your Enemy ~ St. Louis Blues Kevin Shattenkirk appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Dylan Margonari’s goal lifted Minnesota State over No. 2 Minnesota on Saturday (Photo: Minnesota State University Athletics)

No. 2 Minnesota (5-2-0, 2-2-0 WCHA) vs./at Minnesota State (3-3-2, 1-3-0 WCHA)

Friday: UM 3  MSU 2
Saturday: MSU 5  UM 3

Minnesota State led in each of the first two periods on Friday on goals by Zach Palmquist and Teddy Blueger but the No. 2 Gophers battled back to tie each time on power-play goals by Travis Boyd and Nate Schmidt. Zach Budish added a third PP goal at 5:40 of the final period and a great effort by Mavericks goaltender Phil Cook (29 saves) went for naught in a 3-2 Minnesota win. Gopher goalie Adam Wilcox earned his fourth win of the season with 23 saves.

The teams traveled to Mankato for Saturday’s rematch and Dylan Margonari provided the evening’s heroics. The MSU freshman forward’s goal at 16:19 of the final period gave the Mavericks a 4-3 lead on their way to a 5-3 win. Minnesota State’s goal scoring was spread among five players with 10 registering MSU’s 11 total points. Cook was strong again with 25 saves to pick up his third win of the year while Wilcox made 30 saves in his first loss. Erik Haula had a goal and two assist while Nate Condon added a goal and an assist for Minnesota.

No. 18 St. Cloud State (5-3-0, 3-1-0 WCHA) at No. 5 Denver (5-1-0, 3-1-0 WCHA)

Friday: SCSU 3  DU 0
Saturday: DU 6  SCSU 1

St. Cloud State forwards Nic Dowd and Kalle Kossila continued their hot starts and Ryan Faragher made 28 saves to shut out the nation’s highest scoring offense on Friday night in Denver. Dowd scored his fifth and sixth goals of the year and Kosilla his fourth as No. 18 SCSU handed No. 3 Denver its first loss of the season.

The Pioneers bounced back on Saturday, however, behind senior forward Chris Knowlton‘s hat trick and assist to snap the Huskies’ winning streak at five games. Cory Thorson scored  St. Cloud State’s lone goal against DU goalie Juho Olkinuora (20 saves) while Faragher (11 saves on 14 shots) was replaced by freshman Rasmus Reijola (16-19) just 1:03 into the second period after David Makowski‘s goal gave Denver a 3-1 lead.

Colorado College (5-3-0, 2-0-0 WCHA) at Wisconsin (1-4-1, 1-2-1 WCHA)

Friday: CC 5  UW 4 (OT)
Sunday: CC 3  UW 0

On a night in which Wisconsin honored legendary CC and UW coach, Bob Johnson, with a pregame ceremony dedicating the Kohl Center ice to “Badger Bob’s” memory, the Tigers spoiled the party with a 5-4 victory on an Alexander Krushelnyski goal just 25 second into overtime. Friday night’s winner was set up, ironically, by Edina’s Charlie Taft whose father, John Taft, played for Johnson and the Badgers in the 1970’s. CC’s Eamonn McDermott contributed 3 assists to the cause.

Plymouth’s Joe Howe shut out Wisconsin on Saturday to complete a sweep of the Badgers in Madison. (Photo: WCHA.com)

Former Hopkins forward Archie Skalbeck‘s fourth goal of the season at 1:58 of the second period held up as the game winner on Saturday night when Plymouth’s Joe Howe shut out the Badgers on 33 saves to raise his record to 2-0-0 on the season. Krushelnyski scored for the second straight night and McDermott added his fourth assist of the series. To make matters worse for the Badgers, star forward Mark Zengerle was lost in the second period to what UW coach Mike Eaves confirmed was a broken finger.

Nebraska Omaha (4-3-1, 2-1-1 WCHA) at Michigan Tech (2-6-0, 1-5-0 WCHA)

Friday: UNO 2  MTU 1
Saturday: UNO 5  MTU 3

Nebraska Omaha’s Zahn Raubenheimer scored twice, including the dramatic winning goal at 18:50 of the third period, to lead the Mavericks over the Huskies in Houghton, Mich. on Friday night. After Raubenheimer put UNO on the board at 5:38 of the second, MTU’s Tanner Kero tied just under 10 minutes later setting up Raubenheimer’s late-game heroics.

Raubenheimer haunted Michigan Tech again on Saturday scoring two more goals, including  his second consecutive game winner, as the Mavericks completed the road sweep of MTU. Brainerd’s Josh Archibald also scored twice and Rosemount’s Ryan Walters had a goal and a pair of assists for Nebraska Omaha. UNO goaltender John Faulkner followed up Friday night’s 21-save performance with 24 more to raise his record to 4-0-1.

No. 12 Boston University (4-2-0, 3-1-0 HE) at No. 5 North Dakota (3-2-1, 1-0-1 WCHA)

Friday: UND 4  BU 2
Saturday: BU 4  UND 2

Edina’s Connor Gaarder scored a hat trick and Rocco Grimaldi added a goal and an assist to lead North Dakota to a non-conference win over Boston University in Grand Forks on Friday night. Clarke Saunders made 20 saves in the victory for UND.

The Terriers returned the favor on Saturday by an identical 4-2 score to earn a split on the road. BU’s scoring came from four different players including Danny O’Regan who added an assist. Eden Prairie’s Danny Kristo and Stephane Pattyn scored UND’s goals and goalie Zane Gothberg of Thief River Falls made 29 saves in the loss.

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