Bulldogs ride maturing blueline corps into second straight Frozen Four

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Just a sophomore, Nick Wolff is Minnesota-Duluth’s most experienced guy on a defensive group that was one of the team’s question marks heading into the season.

Assistant captains Carson Soucy and Brendan Kotyk, along with Neal Pionk and Willie Raskob didn’t return to the blue line this year after helping the Bulldogs reach the national championship game in 2017.

UMD sophomore forward Riley Tufte and freshman defenseman Louie Roehl embrace following Minnesota Duluth’s West Region final win over Air Force on Saturday. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

Would their replacements be ready to perform? How much would their youth and lack of experience affect UMD’s ability to hang with the skilled and talented teams in the NCHC?

“We lost a lot, but we knew had a lot of great guys coming in,” Wolff said. “I don’t really consider myself the ‘old guy’. I’m just as goofy as they are. I learn off of them and they learn off of me.

“Right now, they’re killing it. (The young guys) just played one of our best weekend series we’ve seen them play.”

The UMD defense has shackled opposing offenses with the nation’s eighth-best scoring defense at 2.14 goals allowed per game all season and in the NCAA tournament when it mattered most.

The Bulldogs punched their ticket to their second straight Frozen Four and sixth in school history after they eliminated Air Force 2-1 in the West Regional final Saturday night at the Denny Sanford Premier Center.

Minnesota-Duluth (23-16-3) will face the Denver/Ohio State winner in the Frozen Four semifinals April 5 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

“It was a really new team this year and we came together as a group,” UMD sophomore forward Joey Anderson said. “Going to two Frozen Fours is really cool, but we’re not done yet and we want to reach that final goal of winning the national championship.

UMD was able to do what St. Cloud State couldn’t do against Air Force on Friday, and that was to jump on the Falcons early and create chances right from the start, but most of all, suffocate the Falcons with a stifling defense and puck-possession game.

The Bulldogs held their opponents without a shot on goal for an entire period for the second night in a row. Air Force didn’t get its first shot on goal until the fourth minute of the second period.

“From the start, they took us to the woodshed,” Air Force coach Frank Serratore said. “We haven’t seen speed like that all year.”

The Bulldogs took a 1-0 lead halfway through the first period when Dylan Samberg left the puck for Riley Tufte and went hard to the net, making contact with Air Force goaltender Billy Christopaulos at the edge of the crease.

UMD’s Joey Anderson (13) and Dylan Samberg (4) watch Anderson’s shot settle in the back of the Air Force net to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead in the first period of their 2-1 West Regional final win over the Falcons. (MHM Photo / Jonny Watkins)

Tufte took a shot from the point and Joey Anderson cleaned up the rebound. Officials determined after a review that Samberg’s contact didn’t prevent Christopaulos from making the save, one night after Samberg interfered with the Minnesota State goalie to overturn a UMD goal in overtime.

Wolff made the score 2-0 a few minutes later with a wrist shot while trailing the play on a rush.

“I thought it was important to go out and get the first goal,” UMD coach Scott Sandelin said. “We were able to carry that momentum through the rest of the period. We talked before the game about starting on time and getting a lead.”

The Falcons started to apply pressure as the second period progressed and finally broke through with 6:16 left in the game. Evan Giesler scored it for the Falcons, trying to make a pass out front from behind the net and the puck deflected off Hunter Shepard and over the goal line.

Shephard and the Bulldogs withstood a late desperation surge by Air Force to seal the trip to St. Paul where UMD won its title in 2011.

“We’re going home (to the ‘X’),” Wolff said. “We’ve all played there before. I played in the state tournament there. It’ll be good to be home.”

Added Sandelin: “It’s great for our program, but I’m more happy for our players. We have a very young group, so we talk about how hard it is to get here. They needed to get here to realize how hard it is to win two games to get to the Frozen Four.”

The post UMDefense Grounds Falcons appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Regional woes continue for top-seed Huskies

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Those who proudly wear St. Cloud State red and black would like to say this isn’t familiar territory, but lately, it appears to be the truth.

The No. 1 overall seed of the NCAA Tournament Huskies fell to Air Force 4-1 in the West Region semifinals Friday afternoon at the Denny Sanford Premier Center.

“It’s miserable,” junior forward Robby Jackson said. “I just sucks, man. I don’t even know how to put it into words. We battled tooth and nail, but we couldn’t solve their goalie today.”

Air Force improves to 23-14-5 and will face either Minnesota State or Minnesota-Duluth in the regional final at 8 p.m. Saturday. St. Cloud State finishes the season 25-8-6.

The Falcons, ranked well beyond the top 16 in the PairWise Rankings and qualified by winning the Atlantic Hockey playoff title, struck twice early in the second period on goals by Tyler Ledford after the first 20 minutes went scoreless.

Air Force goaltender Billy Christopoulos makes one of his 39 saves to lead his team over St. Cloud State and into Saturday’s NCAA West Region final. (MHM Photo / Jonny Watkins)

The chances SCSU failed to score on or were stopped by Air Force goaltender Billy Christopoulos from that point on will surely haunt the Huskies, who had 18 shots in the second period.

“The second period was crazy, the chances we got,” SCSU coach Bob Motzko said.

The Huskies are 1-4 in their last five NCAA tournament games and the only lead they had in any of those was a one-goal lead for a 7 ½ minute stretch early in the 2015 West Region final against North Dakota, which UND won 4-1.

There was the 4-0 loss to Minnesota in the 2014 West Region final, followed by a first-round overtime win against Michigan Tech in 2015 in which SCSU never led until the OT goal.

And then, the overtime loss to Ferris State in the 2016 West Region when the No. 2 overall Huskies rallied to tie the Bulldogs, only to lose in overtime.

“I never thought we’d hurt worse than we did when we lost to Ferris, but here we are,” Jackson said.

The NCAA tournament has been a lot more kind to Air Force, which beat Western Michigan in the 2017 first round and has now won three tournament games in program history.

Air Force scored its first goal three minutes into the second period when Ledford broke up a soft pass from SCSU Jimmy Schuldt and knocked it out of the air and past goalie David Hrenak. Officials went to the monitor to check if Ledford’s stick rose above the plane of the cross bar, but the goal was called good on the ice and evidence of a high stick playing the puck was deemed inconclusive.

“We just watched (the play),” Falcons coach and Coleraine native Frank Serratore said. “It was really close.”

Ledford tipped home a Matt Koch centering pass for another goal and his sixth of the season, and then Christopaulos became the star of the show.

The junior from North Carolina stretched across the crease to reach out and rob the Huskies with his glove in the second and third periods, once on a cross-ice pass from Ryan Poehling that hit Jackson in the skates before he could shoot, allowing Christopaulos time to get over.

“(Christopaulos) is dialed in right now,” Motzko said. “If he stays dialed in, Air Force is going to win tomorrow. Someone’s gotta score on this kid.”

St. Cloud State’s Will Borgen (20), Robby Jackson (23) and Jimmy Schuldt (22) mob teammate Blake Lizotte after his third period goal. (MHM Photo / Jonny Watkins)

The Huskies scored with time ticking away on their season with 2:51 left in the third period. Blake Lizotte entered the zone and hit Newell on a pass near the far boards and Lizotte redirected Newell’s shot into the goal.

SCSU pulled Hrenak after the Huskies won the ensuing faceoff, but the Falcons gained possession of the puck as he got to the bench, leaving the net wide open as Air Force skated the puck through the neutral zone.

Jordan Himley sent the puck into the net for Air Force, effectively sucking out of the building whatever steam SCSU had generated and added another empty netter shortly after.

“We played the whole game waiting for that big goal to go in, but it came a little too late,” Motzko said. “We all know now, parity in college hockey has never been greater.”

The post Falcons Stun SCSU appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

It’s Wednesday evening and the action is starting to pick up for Erik Martinson and the interns helping him get the Denny Sanford Premier Center ready for the ball.

Martinson has been in Sioux Falls since Sunday, nailing down the fine details of a well-run NCAA Regional hockey tournament from hiding all advertisements and signage to converting football and basketball locker rooms to hockey before the teams get there.

No. 6 Minnesota State and Atlantic Hockey Association champ Air Force roll in first. Top-seed St. Cloud State and No. 12 Minnesota-Duluth are set to arrive a little later.

“I don’t know how we got three Minnesota teams in one region, but I think it’s awesome,” said Martinson, assistant athletics director for operations at the University of North Dakota.

“I’m glad it all worked out with the PairWise Rankings, because I think we’re going to have a great atmosphere.”

Denny Sanford Premier Center Twitter Image

The West Region has a definite Minnesota flavor, with the three Minnesota teams plus Colorado Springs-based Air Force, which has plenty of Minnesota ties with Coleraine-native Frank Serratore behind the bench and seven Minnesota-native players.

“Hopefully there’s more of a positive flavor for the Minnesota teams because of the proximity,” MSU coach Mike Hastings said. “It was nice that we had a 2 1/2 -hour bus ride instead of hopping on a charter and flying like we’ve had to in the past.”

The idea of an arena filled with green-clad North Dakota fans faded as conference championship weekend progressed, but when the NCAA tournament bracket revealed a nice consolation Sunday morning.

“The best outcome would’ve been if UND was here,” Martinson said. “The next-best outcome is what we have with the teams that we got here.”

The NCAA regional rounds have seen notably sparse crowds, especially since the sites were required to be off campus starting around 10 years ago. Hundreds of empty seats are usually visible on TV and thousands more unoccupied in the upper decks, often closed off.

Those in charge at the Denny Sanford Premier Center hope and are confident that won’t be the case this weekend.

“Obviously, North Dakota not making the tournament is going to have an impact,” said Ty Halpin, the on-site NCAA representative in Sioux Falls this weekend.

“But the fan bases are able to drive and I think the game times are conducive to fans coming. Talking to people here, they think a lot of the people who bought tickets thinking North Dakota would be here, will probably still come. Even if it’s not full, it’s still going to be an enthusiastic atmosphere.”

UND showed what an electric atmosphere at a regional can look like with a much smaller, 4,000-seat arena with much of its fan-base willing to pay anything for a ticket when the school hosted at Fargo’s Scheels Arena in 2015 and 2017.

The crowds at those games, around 90 percent Fighting Hawks fans, spilled into the standing-room areas.

“I was down on the ice handing out championship hats to UND players after the region final (at Scheels Arena in 2015),” Martinson said. “It was the loudest noise I’ve ever heard in my life because it’s all the noise is coming at you. Atmosphere drives everything.”

UND’s absence and a larger arena to fill have created challenges when it comes to attendance while trying to match the crazy atmosphere of the Fargo regionals.

The Denny Sanford Premier Center – with a capacity of 10,678 – is home to the United States Hockey League’s Sioux Falls Stampede, an indoor football team and live concerts. The arena is the only one out of 16 in the USHL that seats more than 10,000.

No. 1 in the PairWise Rankings, St. Cloud State was the easy pick for the top seed in the West Region since the selection committee tries to reward top seeds with shorter travel. To maximize attendance, the committee had to do some flip-flopping.

MSU, ranked sixth in the PWR, was slotted to play Midwest Regional host No. 11 Penn State in Allentown, Penn. and No. 12 Minnesota-Duluth would’ve played No. 5 Denver out east in a natural bracket.

Good news for those who value bigger crowds and better atmosphere more than bracket integrity.

“You never know what’s going to happen once the 16 teams are determined,” Hastings said. “I’ve never really tried to figure out who we’re going to play. The important thing is to focus on getting in and progressing from there.”

A large chunk of tickets were gobbled up more than 5,000 on presale by UND fans, who assumed their team would play in Sioux Falls this weekend, and it’s hard to blame them, given their program’s 15-year streak of tournament appearances.

(A host team is automatically placed in the region it’s hosting as long as it qualifies for the tournament.)

Each team that qualifies for the tournament is allotted 400 tickets, typically offered first to their season-ticket holders and Halpin estimated 1,000 tickets were sold via the NCAA’s official ticket exchange.

Fans that do make the trip to Sioux Falls will be impressed when they walk through the four-year-old Denny Sanford Premier Center’s doors, according to Halpin. He said he was impressed by the “four adequate locker rooms” and the sightlines provided by a steep upper deck that makes the fan feel closer to the ice.

“It’s phenomenal and it’s still pretty new,” Halpin said. “They’ve dressed it up pretty well from an NCAA perspective and it has all the bells and whistles you can ask for.”

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