Yet in reality, successfully mastering the move is the result of months and years of work behind the scenes.

For Minnesota State fifth-year senior forward Reggie Lutz, scoring a go-ahead wraparound goal in the Frozen Four against Minnesota is a move that he has been practicing on since the age of five when the Elk River native received a special incentive.

“Every time I would score a wraparound goal, my Dad would take me to McDonald’s, and I’d get a Happy Meal. I’ve been working on one for a while and it was pretty cool to see it work on the big stage,” he said after the Mavericks defeated Minnesota 5-1 in the Frozen Four semifinals. “It was able to pay off tonight, so it was pretty cool.”

Working for years behind the scenes is Minnesota State’s M.O. 41 NHL Draft picks descended to Boston from the Frozen Four teams. Only one, Nathan Smith, came from the Mavericks.

It did not matter to the only program to make a repeat Frozen Four appearance, as thousands of fans came from Mankato, Minnesota, and points elsewhere to cheer, to high-five, and enjoy a program-high against three of the sport’s traditional bluebloods. Thousands lined the TD Garden red carpet for both the April 7 semifinal and the April 9 championship game.

“We’re still building,” said Mike Hastings, who found his wife in the crowd before Thursday’s game. “Pretty special to be a part of it and to have the people travel that distance, spend the time away from work.

“We had some students hop on flights. I’m not sure where the pay came from, but they hopped on some flights out here to support us.”

Photo courtesy of Mansoor Ahmad

Lutz’s path to the Mavericks from Elk River included stops in Fairbanks and Chicago. The 25-year-old’s road to college is the norm for Minnesota State, who had one player debut before their 20th birthday. Burnsville’s Cade Borchardt won a USHL Clark Cup after high school, the culmination of three different teams in three years. Smith played high school hockey in Florida. 

Dryden McKay, the 2022 Hobey Baker Award-winning senior goaltender and men’s hockey all-time shutout leader, spent three straight seasons as a Mike Richter Award finalist without winning the award.

Even Hastings, celebrating his 10th anniversary being hired as Minnesota State’s head coach, has come a long way from an early season series against Denver where the Pioneers swept his Mavericks in Mankato. 

“You learn from the hard things. That was a hard weekend. I remember it vividly,” he said. “I thought we played well that weekend, and we didn’t get a point.”

That Mavericks team eventually made the NCAA Tournament, as did another six under Hastings. When Minnesota State broke through to make it to the Frozen Four in 2021, Borchardt said that he took in the moment, remembering the ones that got him there, before his latest.

In its second Frozen Four appearance, Minnesota State, who began the season sweeping the defending national champions in Massachusetts, made the most of its recent experience in comparison to Minnesota, Michigan, and Denver.

Relaxed, screaming, and happy pregame, the Mavericks players embraced their “we before me” team mantra. The group became one, utilizing its suffocating defense against one of the nation’s top offenses and dispatching Minnesota despite trailing 1-0.

McKay gave up a goal on the first shot he saw of the weekend on a 2-on-0. He did not give up another until the third period of the national championship game. Before Lutz, Benton Maass scored a wraparound goal.

“I think it’s right when you step foot on campus. Ever since Coach has been here in Mankato, he’s built a great culture of family, team first,” Lutz said. “Anything that gets thrown our way, you’re going to put our team first. We don’t have one selfish guy on our team.”

The same team that collectively learned from the hard things and took the long path to college quickly became a perennial national title contender. Walking around Boston was a fanbase, dressed in purple suits, Revolutionary War outfits, and the more traditional Mavericks sweaters, ready for a championship. They had been on the road from Day 1.

Facing the same Denver program Hastings learned from a decade prior, Minnesota State spent 45 minutes keeping the nation’s top offense in neutral. The Pioneers had 4 shots on goal in the national championship game’s first half before finding the back of the net.

Once Denver did, the lessons resumed. A 1-0 third period lead quickly wrapped around into a 5-1 defeat for the Mavericks and the first loss in 19 games. The rainbow that was over TD Garden pregame disappeared. 

“You look at the whole season. We hadn’t lost a game since around Christmas until tonight,” Borchardt said after the championship game. “I mean, obviously nothing’s going to solve this or make us happy right now. So I am proud of everyone, proud of the seniors. It stings.”

Boston was a special place for Minnesota State, who continues to present a difficult puzzle for any team to solve. It is a program long past the point of Providence, Palmquist being pushed, NCAA first rounds, and being a surprise national title contender.  

In a decade, Hastings has evolved the program into one that can reload and keep its identity. The only goal left to change the course of the program is one that barely eluded this group, the ones that came so close to the years of work paying off and wrapping their hands around the trophy.

“I’m incredibly proud of them because they’ve gone to work every day. We all know, your dailies are what make your week, what makes your month, which makes your year. These guys came to work every day with a smile on their face and made their dailies fantastic. The ride they took our staff on and our program on was special,” said Hastings after the title-game loss. 

“There will be time for reminiscing and thinking about the rest of it. Like I said, it’s a little raw now. And we’re going to learn from it and we’re going to move on. We’re going to be better because of what happened tonight and because of the journey that these guys allowed us to have together from the beginning of the year until now.”

Photo courtesy of Mansoor Ahmad

The post That’s A Wrap appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The next time we stopped there, we weren’t starving, so we asked if there was any way he could duplicate that salad — just the salad — as our lunch. He hesitated and said, “I have no idea what I put in that one.”

He’s working in the Twin Cities now, and my new nomination for the best chef in the region is Scott Sandelin. Yes, the coach of the UMD hockey team. I have no idea if he is a master on the outdoor grill or poaching an egg, but his master-chef status is assured each season, when he creates a hockey salad out of assorted players in a work of art that is different enough from previous seasons to take the full season to prepare. He must pick the ingredients, sometimes by trial and error, always by hunches and instincts, then sprinkle in some spices and herbs, and tossing the whole thing onto the NCAA Hockey Tournament platter, where it always comes out as a masterpiece.

If you ask Sandelin how he assembled this year’s Bulldogs and got them to knock off No. 1 ranked North Dakota to advance to their fourth consecutive NCAA Frozen Four, he might have no idea how he attempted to duplicate last year’s team — which might have been his best team, knocked out of a bid for a third straight championship by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic and the immediate shutdown of all events nationwide.

Undeterred, the Bulldogs are making an unprecedented fourth consecutive trip to the Frozen Four, a feat that has caused college coaches all over the country to declare UMD as having the premier hockey program in the country. This spring, two other Minnesota teams — St. Cloud State and Minnesota State-Mankato — will challenge that claim, and try to prove that they, too, have created the best entree.

UMD goalie Zach Stejskal makes one of his 57 saves the hard way in the Bulldogs’ 3-2 5-OT Midwest Regional Final win over North Dakota on March 27, 2021 at Scheels Arena in Fargo, N.D.
Photo by Russell Hons

Among the new ingredients at UMD this season, Sandelin had to find a replacement for goaltender Hunter Shepard, who anchored the 2019 and 2019 championship teams and was at his best in 2019-2020. He did it with a pair of goalies, Ryan Fanti from Thunder Bay and Zach Stejskal, former Grand Rapids state tournament star. Sometimes it seemed Sandelin was blindfolded while reaching for salt or pepper, and whichever he chose made the salad work.

The early signing of Hobey Baker Award winner Scott Perunovich, the spectacular defenseman from Hibbing who signed with the St. Louis Blues after last season, left an irreplaceable hole. Sandelin calmly plugged in Wyatt Kaiser, right out of Andover High School and right into the most important and pivotal roles on defense.

Up front, Sandelin put some line combinations together and almost stubbornly kept them intact, with captain Noah Cates centering Quinn Olson and Nick Swaney on the first line, while brother Jackson Cates centered Cole Koepke and Tanner Laderoute on the second unit. That left Hermantown junior Jesse Jacques to center seniors Koby Bender and Kobe Roth on the third line, and about six skaters rotating in and out on the fourth line. By playoff time, that line had sophomore Luke Loheit centering freshman Blake Biondi, another of the Hermantown contingent, and Luke Mylymok, who hadn’t played for a month and scored only once in eight games.

When Sandelin saw a drop in production, he might move some of those forwards around, but they pretty much returned to his preconceived recipe. Often, an explosive rush by the speedy Bender, from Cloquet, or a brilliant set-up from Bender to Roth, from Warroad, would be the play of the game to inspire the Bulldogs. Or Koepke, an assistant captain as a junior from Hermantown, might prove how he can beat you with speed, with force, with a neat stick handling move, or, mostly, with a hard and deadly shot. Swaney, a senior from Lakeville, got his first collegiate hat trick in a 5-1 victory over St. Cloud State in perhaps the best Bulldog performance in his final game at AMSOIL Arena, and in the rematch at St. Cloud a week later, the revised third line, with Jackson Cates centering Roth and Bender, scored twice in a spirited rally from a 3-0 deficit, before third-unit freshman defenseman Connor Kelley from Maple Grove whistled in the third-period goal that forced overtime in a 4-3 loss to the Huskies to close the regular season and determine second place in the NCHC.

The point of such a varied display of game-breaking big plays was the key part of Sandelin’s winning recipe. Virtually every game, somebody different might rise up to make the game-winning play. That actually is the same formula that carried the Bulldogs to the 2017 Frozen Four and a championship game heartbreaking loss to Denver. One year later, Sandelin boldly sent five freshmen out to play defense, along with sophomore Nick Wolff, and then-sophomore Shepard in goal, and instead of being a problem, they led the Bulldogs to the 2018 championship, just because Sandelin’s trust flushed them with confidence. It happened again to capture the 2019 title, with a dominant 3-0 victory over UMass — the same foe in this Thursday night’s semifinals.

Frozen Four time, so it must be time for the UMD Bulldogs to hit an unbeatable peak. UMD will take on the University of Massachusetts in the second semifinal at Pittsburgh on Thursday, April 8, after St. Cloud State and Minnesota State-Mankato meet in the all Minnesota first semifinal. In the days leading up to the Frozen Four, UMD was the beneficiary for the second time of a COVID-19 outbreak, this one costing UMass its star goaltender and its leading goal-scorer among four players scratched from its roster.

 Nonetheless, UMD will take nothing for granted and will be hard-pressed to match its own  standard established in the Midwest Regional title game in Fargo, where the Bulldogs beat No. 1 ranked North Dakota 3-2 in a 5-overtime marathon.

When UMD was assigned to the Midwest Regional, it seemed unfair for the NCAA selection committee to pair the two long-time NCHC rivals in the same region. North Dakota beat American International 5-1, while UMD had the task of getting by Michigan to get to the regional final. The NCAA used to strive to avoid interconference matchups in the regionals, but now it seems more concerned about having three teams from one conference reaching the Frozen Four.

That scenario happened, but not exactly by design. Michigan dropped out of the tournament after testing positive for Covid-19, giving UMD a free pass to the final. Because of their intense rivalry, the final looked intriguing, even though North Dakota had won the league title and built a 22-5-1 overall record, while UMD finished third and was 14-10-2 overall.

The matchup lived up to its billing: North Dakota is the best team in the country and fully deserving of the No. 1 rank, but UMD simply doesn’t lose at NCAA tournament time.

True, in the last four years, UMD has made it to all three NCAA tournament Frozen Fours, with last year being cancelled, of course. In those three years, the Bulldogs seemed to spend much of the season smoothing out their balanced team concept and saving their best for last, when they recorded a cumulative 11-1 record in NCAA tournament games.

Why should this season be any different? Nobody knew if Sandelin’s final recipe would work against powerful North Dakota in the Fargo Regional, but that elusive Sandelin magic still prevailed.

Junior forward Coale Koepke (17) and senior Nick Swaney celebrate Koepke’s third period goal in UMD’s 3-2 Midwest Regional Final win over North Dakota on March 27, 2021 at Scheels Arena in Fargo, ND.
Photo by Russell Hons

In a game best suited to a time capsule, UMD broke a scoreless tie when Jackson Cates deflected one in at 3:21 of the third period, and barely a minute later, Cole Koepke broke free and, at speed, drilled a perfect 25-footer in off the left pipe. Stejskal was brilliant at the other end, holding the Fighting Hawks off the scoresheet. When the Hawks pulled goaltender Adam Scheel at the end, UMD made two uncharacteristic mistakes at a most critical time — the final two minutes. Not once, but twice the Bulldogs withstood the pressure of North Dakota’s forecheck but gave in to the temptation of firing the puck at the waiting empty net 150 feet away. Both times they missed, for icing calls. The face-offs came back to UMD’s end, and both times the puck didn’t leave the zone until they were picked out of the UMD net. The first one was a fluke ricochet by Collin Adams from the end boards, off the goaltender and in with 1:41 remaining, and the second when a shot from the left point deflected wide to the right, where North Dakota sniper Jordan Kawaguchi had a wide-open net to hit with 57 seconds left.

Then the game turned into a marathon. They played one overtime, then another, then a third and a fourth, but all failed to produce a winning goal, although throughout both teams sped back and forth, attacking and back checking as if unaware they should be too exhausted to continue. UMD’s third line, which had been a trigger throughout the last few weeks, came through for an apparent winner in the first overtime when Koby Bender raced up the left side, cut toward the middle, and fed a perfect pass across the slot where Kobe Roth one-timed his shot into the net. As the Bulldogs mobbed Roth, and the Fighting Hawks consoled goaltender Adam Scheel, the officials reviewed all aspects of the goal. They decided that when Bender rushed into the Hawk zone, he carried the puck on his left side, and an ever-so-slight bobble as he crossed the line meant, in their view, he didn’t have full control, as his back skate cleared the blue line about a millimeter or two before the puck did.

The play was ruled offside. No goal.

It was hard to imagine the Bulldogs were able to follow Sandelin’s demeanor, stay calm, and play on. They did that. In the fourth overtime, Stejskal went down near the goal and summoned help. No matter how much liquid he consumed, his body was cramping from dehydration, and Sandelin sent Fanti in. ESPN announcers sympathized with him for going in cold but because of Sandelin’s random hunch-playing, Fanti had played in UMD’s last previous game, so he wasn’t far from his best rhythm, which showed when he made a slick glove save immediately. He followed with several more over the final 17:36, as the teams went into the fifth overtime — making it the longest NCAA tournament game in college hockey history.

“He played great,” said Sandelin. “They both played great.”

Sandelin also defied gravity a bit when he didn’t use his full roster until late in the marathon. The fourth line, with Loheit centering little-used freshman Mylymok on the left and fellow freshman Biondi on the right, hadn’t hit the ice together through the first two “games” worth of ice time. Mylymok, in fact, hadn’t dressed for a game for a month.

“I sent them a player or two out there a couple times late in the third,” Sandelin said, “Then I thought, ‘They’re fresh,’ so I decided to use all four lines in the fourth overtime, and started getting them in there.”

Freshman forward Luke Mylymok (left) and fellow freshman Blake Biondi celebrate Mylymok’s game-winning goal in the fifth overtime of UMD’s 3-2 Midwest Regional Final win over North Dakota on March 27, 2021 at Scheels Arena in Fargo, ND.
Photo by Russell Hons

That, too, paid off in the fifth overtime. On the line’s, first turn, Mylymok, who had scored one goal all season, got the puck in his own zone and broke up the left boards. On fresh legs, he sped into the North Dakota zone, veered toward the slot and in one deft motion pulled the puck in toward his feet and shot, low and hard — through the legs of the screening defenseman and through the legs of Scheel in goal. This time the celebration didn’t stop. It came at 2:13 of the fifth overtime, after the teams had pushed the longest-game record to 142 minutes and 13 seconds.

Sandelin and North Dakota coach Brad Berry were teammates at North Dakota and later in pro hockey, and they share respect for each other and their coaching philosophies, and it carries over to their teams. There were no cheap hits or chippy penalties as the teams sped back and forth, and when it finally ended an hour or so into Sunday morning, Berry mingled on the ice with the celebrating UMD players to congratulate them. Fanti, UMD’s relief goalie, skated over into the North Dakota team gathering to congratulate Scheel.

That was a game for the ages, and a perfect sendoff for UMD’s fourth consecutive trip to the Frozen Four, where the Bulldogs will try for their third consecutive championship. Every team in the NCAA playoffs is determined to win, and UMD is no different. But Sandelin and the Bulldogs also have found the secret ingredient in the winning recipe: finding a way to avoid losing at tournament time.

The post Top Chef appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Perbix picks up first college goal but Leivermann, Irish take series finale

Jack Perbix is no stranger to the score sheet. The University of Minnesota freshman winger racked up 121 points in 74 games for Elk River high school from 2015 to 2018. 

After finishing his high school career at Elk River in the spring of 2018, Perbix split his 2018-19 season between the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers and the Des Moines Buccaneers, scoring 12 goals among his 49 points in 60 games. But in his first seven games Gopher he had been blanked other than a pair of assists, although not for lack of opportunity.

“I’ve had Grade-A chances that I want back but after getting that first one, you know, it was definitely monkey off my [back],” said Perbix, a 2018 fourth-round pick (No. 116 overall) by the Anaheim Ducks.

The monkey is gone after Perbix notched his first collegiate goal which gave the Gophers a 2-0 first period lead over No. 5 Notre Dame on Saturday night. But a pair of goals by Eden Prairie’s Nick Leivermann helped lift the Irish to 5-3 win over Minnesota in the finale of the opening weekend of the Big Ten conference schedule for both teams.

Leivermann, picked in the seventh round (No. 187 overall) of the 2017 NHL Draft by the Colorado Avalanche, scored twice in the second period, including a game-tying goal after which the Irish never trailed. The sophomore now has three goals to his credit at Notre Dame with all three coming at 3M Arena at Mariucci. 

“We’ve kind of seen what our good hockey can look like; it looks pretty good,” Minnesota coach Bob Motzko said. “We didn’t sustain it tonight.” 

The Gophers jumped out out to a 2-0 lead on a pair of first-period goals by Brannon McManus and Perbix 3:39 apart. McManus, a junior, finished a 2-on-1 with Sampo Ranta when he took Ranta’s feed and beat a sliding Morris from the right circle at the 12:34 mark.

Less than four minutes later, Perbix jumped on a loose puck off a turnover forced by fellow freshman linemate Jaxon Nelson and wheeled into the high slot before firing a shot high off the inside of the right post. 

“I came across the circle and I noticed that I couldn’t see the goalie’s face and that’s just telling me that he couldn’t see mine,” Perbix said. “So I knew that he was screened and I just picked open net and I hit it.”

“The Nelson line emerged looking like college hockey players this weekend,” Motzko said. “I think the first six games we’ve been waiting for a group of guys. We had much more energy at times throughout all of our lines were tonight.”

The Irish bounced back in the second period with a trio of goals, two of them by Leivermann. His power-play goal at 5:20 got the Irish on the board and Notre Dame tied it at 13:46 on a goal by Mequon Wisconsin’s Spencer Stastney. 

“(Coach Jeff Jackson) has kind of been preaching to our power play that we haven’t got enough pucks to the net,” Leivermann said. “So I mean, we just kind of moved it around, make five or six passes, and hopefully, one of them goes in.”

Motzko lamented missed opportunities on special teams on a night when Minnesota’s power play was 0-for-3 against the Irish.

“We lost the special teams battle in a big game when you need it,” Motzko said. “Our power play had a couple opportunities get us back in the game and it doesn’t.”

But the Gophers regained the lead just 42 seconds later on a pretty goal by Garrett Wait. The former Edina star carried the puck into the left circle and across the low slot — with a toe-drag to evade a sliding Irish defenseman — before patiently outwaiting Morris who went down as Wait lifted a backhand shot over him.

The lead lasted less than four minutes, however, as Leivermann cut across the slot and fired a shot from between the tops of the circles that beat Moe for his second goal of the game and just the third of his college career. 

“Both are goals that I had were plays made by other players so it’s nothing to be looked down upon me,” Leivermann said “But I think it’s really fun to play here and I know that the boys kind of get going, especially all of the Minnesotans. We’re excited to be here so it’s fun.”

Jackson said Leivermann, after struggling a bit on Friday night, bounced back solidly on Saturday. 

“He’s learning how to defend because he’s always had the offensive skill,” Jackson said. “We’re trying to be patient with him, trying to get him some playing time so we can build some confidence, and tonight I thought it was really good.”

Tied 3-3 to start the third, the Gophers could not mount any offense and were outshot 17-2 in the final period. Defenseman Charlie Raith’s goal, the sophomore’s first collegiate point, just 1:25 into the period held up as the game winner with Maple Grove’s Trevor Janicke finding an empty net with 11 seconds remaining. 

“The bad thing about tonight’s game in general is we got destroyed on the faceoff,” Motzko said of Notre Dame’s 41-18 faceoff advantage. “So you start the entire night on defense and that wears you down and give Notre Dame credit on that.”

The post Notre Dame Wears down Gophers appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Series of disappointing first-round exits at the NCAA Tournament the only blemish on Hastings’ era in Mankato

The Minnesota State Mavericks have had their hearts broken just about every way imaginable over the years.

In 2015, MSU was the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and saw its season end in the first round on a goal that, by the letter of the law, shouldn’t have counted.

Three years later, the Mavericks jumped in front by a pair of goals early and watched their opponent slowly claw back, drawing even in the final period before winning in overtime.

That opponent would go on to win the NCAA title.

Last season, in a hostile environment, MSU took a three-goal lead — and very a nearly a four-goal lead — before watching that advantage wither away in a blink in an eventual 6-3 loss.

They’ve lost in empty buildings. They’ve lost in full ones. They’ve lost out east. They’ve lost in Sioux Falls, just a two-hour drive from their Mankato campus.

MSU G Dryden McKay (Photo courtesy of Minnesota State University Athletics)

It hasn’t mattered much the circumstance or the quality of opponent, Minnesota State has known only losing when it comes to the NCAA Tournament. And for a program that has won more games than any other in college hockey since Mike Hastings became head coach in 2012, winning games in the NCAAs is really the only measuring stick that matters anymore.

Since college hockey realignment in 2013, Minnesota State has proven its mettle in conference play. MSU has won three WCHA regular season championships and two more playoff titles.

They’ve also reached the NCAA Tournament four times during that span, more than any other team in the conference.

Unfortunately for MSU, the Mavericks are 0-4 once there. And of all the heartbreaking losses once there, last season may have the most staying power.

Minnesota’s State’s 32 victories were a program record. Just a week prior, a miracle comeback in the final minute of the WCHA Championship game allowed MSU to raise yet another banner.

It was almost as though they were a team of destiny.

But placement in the Providence, Rhode Island regional — and a game against Providence College — would be a challenge. An early three-goal lead seemed to put those worries to bed. An apparent fourth goal was waved off for offsides, and from that point on, the game changed.

Providence scored the next six goals and would go on to reach the Frozen Four by winning the following afternoon.

The job of leading the Mavericks to new heights will fall largely on the shoulders of senior captain Marc Michaelis. A native of Mannheim, Germany, Michaelis is one of the top returning players in the country. The WCHA’s Preseason Player of the Year was also named to the All-College Hockey News first team nationally.

Michaelis has been a model of consistency over the years for the Mavericks, scoring between 36 and 42 points in each of his first three years on campus.

He led the team in both goals and points a year ago and could be a darkhorse candidate for the Hobey Baker Award.

Michaelis, who wore the ‘C’ for MSU last season as a junior, will do so again after being named co-captain, along with fellow senior Nick Rivera.

Perhaps no contender in the country had a better offseason than MSU. The Mavericks lost one regular contributor off last year’s team, where former captain Max Coatta will be missed more off the ice. His eight goals and 15 points should be easily replaceable.

Coatta ranked 14th on the Mavericks in scoring last season. The 13 players in front of him all return, as do the next eight behind him.

In this day and age of college hockey, it’s a remarkable statistic: the Mavericks return 20 of their top returning 21 scorers.

Also back is sophomore goaltender Dryden McKay, who was CHN’s Freshman of the Year nationally after posting a 24-7-2 record to go with a 1.76 goals-against average and a .927 save percentage.

Joining McKay between the posts will be freshman Jaxson Stauber, son of former University of Minnesota Hobey Baker Award winner, Robb.

MSU D Connor Mackay (Photo courtesy of Minnesota State University Athletics)

Up front, the Mavericks bring in a player with another familiar surname to college hockey fans in Minnesota, Ryan Sandelin. The son of Minnesota Duluth head coach Scott Sandelin, Ryan stands 6-foot and 192 points and is coming off a 31-goal season with Penticton last year.

Also added to the mix is forward Nathan Smith, a third-round pick of the Winnipeg Jets in 2018 who hails from Hudson, Florida. Smith led Cedar Rapids of the USHL with 53 points in 59 games last season and had 47 points in 51 games the year prior.

On defense, the Mavericks are buoyed by the return of Connor Mackey, a junior who had plenty of NHL options following last season. Mackey led Maverick blueliners in goals (seven) and was tied with Ian Scheid in points (25). Scheid returns for his senior campaign as well.

Edwin Hookenson, Jack McNeely, Riese Zmolek and Wyatt Aamodt all return having played at least 36 games last season, with Hookenson and McNeely having played in all 42.

Skill? Check.

Experience? Check.

Motivation? Check.

All the pieces seem to be in place for the Mavericks this season, leaving just one box left to be checked. And while an NCAA Tournament win would be one giant monkey off the back of the program, there’s no reason why MSU shouldn’t aim significantly higher than that in 2020.

The post Mavericks hope 2020 is their time to shine appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Bob Peters Kept a Sharp Vision From Bemidji State

John Gilbert provides a look into Bob Peters’ remarkable 35-year tenure at Bemidji State.

Article is from our February Hockey Day Minnesota special print/digital issue.

The post Building a Power appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

From MHM’s Northern Hockey Coverage by John Gilbert

UMD adds depth in attempt to defend NCAA title

The carryover from one college hockey season to the next can distinguish a great hockey program from merely a good one, because consistency is an elusive thing when teams lose six or eight players every year to graduation and pro signings.

For the UMD Bulldogs, the carryover factor has been a consistent asset, despite diametrically opposed circumstances the last two seasons. When they had built a strong, veteran team two years ago, they justifiably reached the NCAA men’s tournament; and last season when they had to fill enormous holes in scoring, on defense, and in goal, and had no projections for success, the Bulldogs not only rose to the playoffs, they won the national championship.

Now what?

The projections are off the scale with the still-young but now-experienced Bulldogs, and it was suggested to Sandelin that if a year’s experience means anything, the only thing left for the 2018-19 UMD team is to go undefeated!

He laughed, but cautioned that every season is a different challenge, even for a team making the impressive transformation from NCAA champion to preseason No. 1 ranked team in the land. “What looks good on paper doesn’t necessarily transform onto the ice,” said Sandelin. “But it will be a tough group to break into.”

In reality, the total number of job openings needing to be broken into is four. Hunter Shepard became a standout last season and is a fixture in goal as a junior, and all six defensemen, five of whom were over-achieving freshmen last season, are back, leaving an impressive incoming group of freshmen with speed and scoring ability to battle for playing time with established returnees for four forward openings.

Shepard is back in goal as a proven junior standout. Nick Wolff is assistant captain as a junior on defense, and those five freshmen defensemen are all back as tournament-hardened sophomores. Scott Perunovich, Dylan Samberg, Mikey Anderson, Louie Roehl and Matt Anderson not only were outstanding on defense, but Wolff, a tough, physical presence who insisted he would never score, backed up the freelancing Perunovich by scoring seven goals, without setting foot on the power play.

It was suggested to Sandelin that there was good news and bad news in Perunovich leading the team in scoring a year ago: The good news was it tells how immensely skilled Perunovich is, and the bad news is …can’t any of the forwards score?

Sandelin got a chuckle out of that, too, and took us back to last season as reason he anticipates goals could come a bit easier this season. New-found depth should ease the replacement of the three departing senior regular forwards, Karson Kuhlman, Jared Thomas and Blake Young — all of whom were assets with their work-ethic and leadership, but are not entirely irreplaceable. When junior Joey Anderson chose to sign a pro contract over the summer, it meant a fourth opening up front.

Of last year’s seniors, Kuhlman, the captain from Cloquet-Esko-Carlton, and Thomas, from Hermantown, were perfect role-models for hard work and perseverance, which may have been more important cogs than scoring 20 goals. They had spent four years mostly hustling and working without scoring in significant numbers. But if effort and leadership made them prominent in the lineup, they were rewarded in storybook fashion by coming through for their biggest career goals at tournament time.

In the championship game against Notre Dame, Kuhlman scored his 13th goal of the season midway through the first period, and 10 minutes later, Thomas scored his 11th goal of his season after Kuhlman had forechecked the puck free to him. That made it 2-0, and the Bulldogs kept hustling, while Shepard took control from there, yielding only a second-period power-play goal to anchor the 2-1 victory.When it ended, Shepard let it all out, racing to the corner of the rink for a high-jump into the boards that would have won Olympic Gold if they had high jumping in goalie pads as an event. The championship was as surprising to Sandelin and his staff as it was to all the opposing teams who took the Bulldogs too lightly until it was too late, then were helpless to stop the momentum.

UMD allowed only 16 goals in its final 12 games last year, evidence of Shepard’s talent and the rapid development of the five freshmen and a sophomore on the kiddie-corps defense. The final twist of statistics was more frosting on the cake: Most of the Frozen Four emphasis going in was on No. 1 ranked Notre Dame and its top-rated goaltender Cale Morris. The 2-1 UMD victory still left Morris with an exceptional 1.94 goals-allowed average, but the unheralded Shepard wound up 1.93.

That .01 difference brought back the .001 edge — one ten-thousandth of a point — in the NCAA’s performance index ratings that let UMD slip past Minnesota for the 16th and final spot in the NCAA tournament field. Notre Dame’s move to the Big Ten and its domination there raised the computer profiles of the whole Big Ten, and despite clear evidence that the NCHC remained the strongest conference in college hockey, three of the Frozen Four teams were from the Big Ten, and Minnesota was close to making it all four.

UMD remained under the radar despite having beaten Minnesota 4-3 in an overtime thriller for the nonconference season opener last season, and head-to-head play figures into the computer. Close as it was, the Bulldogs outshot the Gophers in all four periods that night for a 44-21 total, and won on a goal by Parker Mackay, this year’s captain, and another prospect for scoring more than in his injury limited junior year. Observers say winning that game paid off in the final computer analysis for the .001 edge, but if that victory meant so much, why was Minnesota ever ranked ahead of the Bulldogs? Last year’s opening victory sent them against Minnesota in this year’s opening series having beaten the Gophers an amazing eight straight times.

Most likely, it was a matter of respect, something that Sandelin and the UMD program have worked hard to gain. The Gophers have historic respect as one of the vital programs that hoisted college hockey into the realm of big-time sports. It has taken over a decade for many to realize that the Gophers are no longer the reigning top dog among Minnesota’s five Division 1 programs, as St. Cloud State, Minnesota State and Bemidji State have all risen in competitive strength. UMD may finally have attained that elusive respect, after beating the Gophers for the eighth consecutive time, then ignoring theories about young defense and a lack of scoring, and compensated with hard work and goals-by-committee to keep hanging with the NCHC leaders.

At the end they squeezed into the NCAA tournament’s selected 16 teams by that computerized eyelash, and stayed hot to win the West Regional with come-from-behind one-goal victories over WCHA champ Minnesota State and upstart Air Force to reach the Frozen Four at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul.

Once there, sophomore goaltender Shepard continued to be rock solid, and the five freshmen and a sophomore “veteran” on D were even more impressive. The Bulldogs knocked off Ohio State 2-1 in the semifinals, then beat top-seeded Notre Dame by the same 2-1 count to claim their second NCAA title at the same site as their first championship, in 2011. This time, UMD singlehandedly knocked off three Big Ten entries in the Frozen Four, providing the NCHC with its third consecutive national championship in four years of existence.

“I don’t notice any difference in attitude of our guys this year,” Sandelin said. “But we can’t take anything for granted, because getting to the NCAA tournament doesn’t just happen. At the same time, our guys might be even more hungry to prove that we deserve that respect. We’ve got good leadership from our captains, because Parker Mackay, Nick Wolff and Mikey Anderson are all a lot like Karson was.

“We’ll have to make sure we keep working hard, and that we’re not getting too far over our ski tips. We need to have short-term focus, and not the idea we’re going to get there at the end.”

Two years ago, UMD made it to the NCAA Frozen Four with a solid and experienced team, but after that spring of 2017, graduation and early signings sent some Bulldogs into pro hockey and left UMD with some glaring holes. It didn’t seem to matter to Sandelin that he would have one lone defenseman returning, and he was Nick Wolff, only a freshman. Defying dour predictions about the lack of proven goal-scorers, needing to solidify a promising but unproven goaltender, and having to write in the names of five freshmen to join sophomore Wolff on defense every game, Sandelin whistled past the doom and gloom forecasts in the NCHC like a Pied Piper in hockey breezers.

Sandelin gives strong credit to his staff. Brett Larson and Jason Herter were his top assistants, and all three had been defensemen as players. Larson, a primary recruiter of the first UMD championship team, left to become head coach in the USHL, then became top assistant to Steve Rohlik at Ohio State, where he recruited most of the Buckeyes team UMD defeated 2-1 in last spring’s NCAA semifinals. Eventually, Larson returned to UMD and helped recruit most of the current Bulldogs, but now he’s gone to replace Bob Motzko as head coach at St. Cloud State. Larson’s loss will hurt, and while Sandelin is certain Larson will do a great job leading the Huskies, he moved on by making Herter an associate head coach, and hired former two-year UMD captain Adam Krause to leave pro hockey and become his second assistant. His youth, 28, should be an asset in communicating with the team’s young players.

Sandelin may turn up the wick on his laid-back theory of scoring more, knowing how tenuous it was last year, when the Bulldogs always seemed to get just enough contribution from everybody on all four lines, plus that big boost from the rambunctious defensemen.

“We expect more scoring  from the forwards,” said Sandelin. “But I don’t mind who scores, as long as somebody scores. We have some returning players who should score more. I expect Riley Tufte to maybe get up to 20 goals, and Nick Swaney, Peter Krieger and Justin Richards could also score more. And we have some freshmen, who, in time, might add to the scoring, because all of them put up good numbers in junior hockey.”

Up front, Krieger and Tufte were together and may remain a tandem, possibly joined by Swaney on their right wing. Richards and captain Parker Mackay — another forward who could add more to the offense — were linemates and may start being centered by freshman Noah Cates. His brother, Jackson Cates, opened at center on another line, and returnees Jade Miller and Billy Exell are now experienced and will be joined by several other incoming freshmen to form units. They can feel secure in knowing that under Sandelin’s new and improved strategy, the lines will be balanced, and the fourth line is allowed to outplay the first line and earn immediate promotion.

“We’ve got some freshmen who are ready to step in and see what they can do, and it’s a nice problem to have, being able to shift guys around with more depth,” said Sandelin. “We’re deeper through the middle, and we’ll move guys around more easily.”

Sandelin also fulfilled his plan of a tough nonconference schedule, which also helps the selection committee’s computer decide who gets the nod in final ratings. “We’ve got a tough first month,” said Sandelin. “We always pride ourselves on a tough nonconference schedule, and this year, after Minnesota, we go to Michigan Tech, then we come home against Maine, and then we go to Notre Dame.”

Ah, Notre Dame. And we promise (wink-wink) to not bring up the fact that UMD beat Notre Dame in the semifinals of the 2011 Frozen Four before knocking off Michigan for the school’s first title, and again beat the Fighting Irish 2-1 in the NCAA final last spring in the same Xcel Center. That’s all history now, of course, and the future is now, couldn’t look brighter.

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