One of the big series finds St. Cloud State — the most surprising team in the NCHC, if not the whole country — at home on its Herb Brooks National Hockey Center ice to take on perennial CCHA contender Michigan on Friday and Saturday.

The Huskies sputtered through their non-conferemce schedule with a meager 2-4 record, but now we suspect St. Cloud State coach Brett Larson was using those non-conference games precisely as they were intended, to work newcomers into his lineup and juggle units for the regular season.

That suspicion gains credibility when you check out the Huskies once the shooting started in the NCHC. Forget the 2-4 start, because St. Cloud State has zoomed through six games to take sole possession of first place, most recently disassembling University of Minnesota Duluth with the same sure-handed force that might have been deployed to disassemble that Thanksgiving turkey on your platter.

Huskies bite the Bulldogs
Scorewise, both games on the big rink at St. Cloud lived up to the intense rivalry tendencies of Huskies-Bulldogs games over the last decade, although this time both games saw some uncommon rough stuff to end both of the St. Cloud victories last Friday and Saturday night, by 2-1 and 6-5 scores.

The first game was scoreless until Jack Reimann scored late in the second period for St. Cloud State, and UMD’s Matthew Perkins scored midway through the third period to tie the game 1-1. That put Joe Molenaar in the spotlight. Molenaar has been a trusted, loyal soldier throughout his career at St. Cloud State, but he’s never given Larson reason to expect big goal numbers. Until this year. Molenaar, who scored only two goals last season, scored the game-winner with 2:19 remaining against UMD. It was his fifth goal in the last four games. 

The first game boiled over in lost tempers in the final minute as a couple of 5-on-5 scraps broke out. The second one came at the final horn and ended with UMD captain Luke Loheit switching from peacemaker to aggressor, delivering a face-to-face cross-check that earned him a 5-minute major, game misconduct and, because the official time of 20:00 didn’t leave much for punishment, he was also suspended for the next game (last Saturday).

Unlike the defensive shutdown battle, both teams hit the ice running in game 2, and it veered back and forth. Jack Rogers staked the Huskies to a 1-0 lead at 1:46. But Blake Biondi, getting a chance to center the injury-ravaged first line, scored on a power play at 8:56 for a 1-1 tie. Veeti Miettinen — who Larson *did* expect to score this season — regained a 2-1 lead for the Huskies on a power play at 17:46, only to see Anthony Menghini tie it 2-2 in the final second of the opening period.

That pattern resumed in the second period when Tyson Gross gave the Huskies their third lead of the night at 10:38, but UMD defenseman Owen Gallatin countered that in the last minute of the middle period for a 3-3 standoff.

St. Cloud State broke through for two goals in a row to open the third period, with Kyler Kupka scoring at 0:39 and Miettinen at 3:20 for a 5-3 cushion. That made eight goals in Miettinen’s last eight games. UMD battled back for a goal by Quinn Olson to cut the deficit to 5-4, but Jack Ingram made it 6-4 with 2:56 remaining. The Bulldogs weren’t about to concede, and with 1:48 to go, Gallatin scored his second of the game to cut it to 6-5. But the Bulldogs, who never led, couldn’t get the equalizer and went down to extend their exasperating streak to 0-7-1 in their last 8 games.

A look at the men’s hockey conference standings
With their early growing pains providing valuable experience, the Huskies sit in first place alone with a 6-0 conference record, leaving North Dakota (4-0) second in NCHC standings. North Dakota, however, can take satisfaction from moving up to the No. 1 rank in the U.S. College Hockey Online rankings.

St. Cloud State stays at home on its Olympic-sized — 200 x 100 feet — ice surface to take on Michigan, which like Minnesota, is finding it a challenge to string victories together in the Big Ten. The Wolverines, bristling with new talent, is only 2-4-2 in the Big Ten. The top three in the Big Ten are Michigan State (5-0-1),Wisconsin (4-2) and Notre Dame (3-1-2). Michigan State, definitely the surprise team in the Big Ten, swept Wisconsin 4-2 and 3-2 to make the Badgers’ stay at No. 1 short as they plunged to No. 6. The Spartans visit Mariucci Arena this weekend to face Minnesota.

In the CCHA, the standings show nearly everybody tangled up and deadlocked. Bemidji State lost 5-1 at Minnesota State Mankato. In their second game, Bemidji State came back to rally from a 5-2 first-period deficit to cut the deficit to 6-4 after two, then rallied for three unanswered goals late in the third period to escape with a 7-6 victory. Jackson Jutting scored at 13:58 and Lleyton Roed tied the game at 14:48 before Jutting scored the game-winner at 15:46. The three goals in the span of 1:48 was enough for the victory and the hop into first place in the CCHA.

It doesn’t get easier for Bemidji State, as the Beavers make a Thanksgiving weekend trip to its closest Hwy. 2 rival — North Dakota. Another pair of CCHA highlights this week show Michigan Tech at MSU Mankato, and St. Thomas is at home to face Lake Superior State.

Women’s hockey updates
In the WCHA women’s competition, Ohio State swept Wisconsin in a battle of undefeated league-leaders, winning 3-0 and then 2-1 on Hannah Bilka’s short-handed goal at 1:17 of overtime. Jennifer Gardiner, who scored the first goal in the second game, had two goals in the 3-0 opener.

Minnesota swept two games at Duluth, both by 3-1 counts, with Abbey Murphy scoring a goal in both games and Peyton Hemp scoring an empty-netter with 0:15 left. Hemp also scored the final goal in the second game. 

The WCHA gets a chance to flex its power this weekend with an array of games against Eastern foes. UMD stays home in AMSOIL Arena to take on Colgate, which is ranked No. 2 in the country behind Ohio State.St. Lawrence is at Ohio State. Minnesota and St. Thomas travel to Washington D.C. for a weekend tournament. The Gophers face Harvard on Friday afternoon and Cornell on Saturday afternoon. Flip-flop those opponents and days for the Tommies as they face Cornell and Harvard.

The post Hockey Over The Holiday appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Hunter Shepard keeps cool as UMD stays hot

St. Paul — Hunter Shepard looked as cool chewing gum and answering questions in the locker room as he looked calm and collected stopping pucks 45 minutes earlier, helping Minnesota-Duluth reach the national championship game.

UMD’s sophomore goaltender stopped 19 shots in the Bulldogs’ 2-1 Frozen Four semifinal game Thursday evening at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. The Bulldogs (24-16-3) will face the Michigan/Notre Dame winner in national championship game at 6 p.m. Saturday.

The theme of UMD’s run to the title game has been its young defensive corps that had to regroup after losing five of its members to graduation or pro contracts with five freshmen, but the Bulldogs had to replace a goaltender, too.

Shepard was Hunter Miska’s backup when UMD went to last year’s national championship game in Chicago. Miska, a freshman in 2016-17, played remarkably down the stretch and signed professionally after the Frozen Four which made the job Shepard’s after winning an early-season battle with Nick Deery.

The measure of Shepard’s success during the tourney run hasn’t necessarily been shutouts, although he did post goose eggs in UMD’s NCHC first-round sweep of Western Michigan and he has the second-most shutouts in the nation this season with eight.

But this NCAA tournament, he doesn’t needed to put up gaudy save totals because he hasn’t needed to. Shepard stopped 19 shots against Minnesota State-Mankato in the first round and 11 against Air Force in the region final.

“I only have to make 3-4 key saves against a quality opponent and that’s my job,” Shepard said, sitting back in his stall after a postgame stretch with a wad of gum in his mouth and a towel around his neck.

“I just need to make decent saves at key times and manage the game from there.”

Minnesota Duluth goaltender Hunter Shepard makes one of his 19 saves during the Bulldogs’ 2-1 Frozen Four semifinal win over the Buckeyes on Thursday, April 5 at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

Shepard has the nation’s eighth-best goals against average (1.93) and 10th-best save percentage (.924). The UMD defense performed in the first period Thursday like it had at the West Regional two weeks prior in Sioux Falls with suffocating defense that kept attempted shots from turning to shots on goal.

In addition to the six goalless periods that Shepard delivered, the defense held opponents without a shot in one period in each of the Bulldogs’ regional wins. UMD held the Buckeyes to four shots in a UMD-dominated first period that resulted in 17 shots on goal and a 2-0 lead for the Bulldogs.

Of course, Shepard will be the first to pay homage to his D.

“The way we play defensively, teams don’t shoot the puck all the time,” Shepard said. “We’re good on our gaps, our guys are up on their guys and there aren’t a lot of lanes for them to shoot.

“It’s good for me, because when you only see 20-25 shots a game it’s easy to stay fresh. You’re not laboring as much on a back-to-back as you would if you got 35-40 shots.”

Though OSU increasingly sustained offensive pressure as the game went on, Shepard seemed to tighten the seal on his net more and more.

He committed robbery in the first two minutes of the third period, victimizing both Brendon Kearney and Lakeville native John Wiitala. Kearney was on the doorstep of the crease with an attempt to redirect the puck, but Shepard’s right pad blocked it. Shepard sprung across the crease to stop Wiitala’s rebound attempt with the left pad.  

“I was on the post and I gave the guy in front of me a quick shoulder check,” Shepard said. “I slid to my right and made the save. All I did then was make a little push over and tried to stay in position and the guys cleared it away.

“It wasn’t a very easy to play to clear because it was so bang-bang. It was (Ohio State’s) best opportunity of the third period).”

On a penalty kill as a result of a Riley Tufte elbowing penalty, Shepard moved left across the crease to rob OSU captain Mason Jobst with the left pad and stick on a one-timer from the left circle.

But Shepard’s bid for his first shutout since the Western Michigan series was ripped up following a Nick Wolff tripping penalty on a Tanner Laczynski wrist shot that put the Buckeyes on the board with his 17th goal of the season with 10:33 left in the game.

But that was it. The Buckeyes couldn’t find a way to penetrate the UMD defense to get the puck to puck to Shepard, much less past him.

With last season’s title game experience, Shepard has an idea of how to spend the next 40 hours.

“I just stay in a routine doing what you do two days before a game,” Shepard said. “Staying in a routine is probably the biggest thing for me and just be ready to go Saturday.”

The post Bulldogs Backbone appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Bulldogs blitz Buckeyes early, hold on late to reach second straight title game

The preliminaries to the NCAA Frozen Four were all written and spoken in colorful language: Was the Big Ten clearly the best college hockey conference because they got three teams to the Frozen Four? Does a youthful UMD stand a chance as the NCHC’s lone entry? And are the Bulldogs doing it with mirrors, using five freshmen on defense and eight in all, and still returning to the Frozen Four?

It didn’t take long for the answers to start coming in, and they kept coming in as the Bulldogs held off Ohio State 2-1 in the first NCAA hockey semifinal at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul. 

Minnesota Duluth forward Jade Miller takes on on the chin from Ohio State’s Ronnie Hein during the Bulldogs’ 2-1 Frozen Four semifinal win over the Buckeyes on Thursday, April 5 at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

The story of this year’s UMD team is its defensive poise, all those freshmen notwithstanding. They worked it again and now take a 24-16-3 record into Saturday’s 6:30 p.m. championship game, in quest of their second-ever national championship. Ohio State ends its season 26-10-5, and the Bulldogs are assured of facing another Big Ten power in the winner of Thursday’s second semifinal, between Michigan and Notre Dame. 

It doesn’t seem to matter. On the third shift of the game, UMD made a spirited attack and Ohio State goaltender Sean Romeo blocked a couple of close-in chances, although he seemed unable to find the puck after one save. Undoubtedly some cynic in the seats, and maybe on the Buckeye bench, might have wondered, “Romeo, oh Romeo, wherefore art that puck?”

Ah, UMD junior winger Parker Mackay found it before Romeo got his bearings and directed it out to center point, where UMD freshman defenseman Matt Anderson spotted his partner, fellow-freshman defenseman Louie Roehl, in deep on the right, impersonating a forechecking right winger. “I thought Matty was going to shoot,” said Roehl. Instead, Anderson sent Roehl a crisp pass, and Roehl ripped a shot past Romeo and into the Buckeyes net at 1:53.

 The UMD fans were still aroused from that early goal, when a couple of seniors collaborated for another one. Jared Thomas deflected the puck away from an Ohio State point man, and when he saw it was headed for captain Karson Kuhlman, Thomas took off, breaking behind the OSU defense. Kuhlman, near the right boards in his own end, zipped a perfect 100-foot pass right on the tape, springing Thomas for a clean breakaway. Closing fast, Thomas gave a little head feint and a deke to go to his backhand, but he interrupted his own move to slide a backhander under Romeo and between his pads at 3:04.

“Karson made a great pass to me, and did what he always does — he gives us a spark when we need it,” said Thomas.

The Bulldogs used that early springboard for a dominant first period, outshooting the Buckeyes 17-4 and taking that 2-0 lead to intermission.

“We had two freshman ‘D’ get us the first goal, then Jared Thomas gets free for the second one, and that gave us a huge start,” said UMD coach Scott Sandelin.

Ohio State coach Steve Rohlik said, “We haven’t done that all year. For whatever reason, we seemed to be on our heels at the start, and I looked up and after only 3:04, we’re down 2-zip. UMD’s defense plays a lot like we want to play; they use their speed to take away time and space.

“But I told our guys to go out and play to win. We’ve come too far, and I was proud of the way we came back, and right to the buzzer, we felt like we could win.”   

The second period was considerably tighter defensively, but neither team scored. The big, strong Buckeyes forwards started exerting their physical forecheck and the Bulldogs had some problems getting out of their end. But, as they’ve done all season, the Bulldogs displayed great poise in their own zone, and sophomore goaltender Hunter Shepard held the 2-0 lead into the third period.

Ohio State got back into the game thanks to a couple of penalties. Riley Tufte went off for elbowing at 5:38, and less than a minute after killing that one, Nick Wolff was called for tripping.

Minnesota Duluth defenseman Dylan Samberg (Hermantown) drills Ohio State’s Wyatt Ege (Elk River) during the Bulldogs’ 2-1 Frozen Four semifinal win over the Buckeyes on Thursday, April 5 at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

Even then, the Buckeyes needed one more “break” to get on the board. Sophomore defenseman Wyatt Ege moved in from the right point for a power-play shot, but his stick broke as he swung. As Ege, who is from Elk River, went in search of a new weapon, the puck skittered free, and Dakota Joshua shoved it to Tanner Laczynski, who moved to the top of the right circle and drilled his clean shot past Shepard at 9:27.

“We didn’t generate the number of chances we wanted to,” said Buckeye captain Mason Jobst. “But they did a good job clearing out in front, and their goalie played well.”

Rohlik pulled Romeo with 2:10 remaining, and the Buckeyes charged again. A couple more freshman defensemen came through with poise in the face of that pressure, however. First, when the Buckeyes rushed hard up the right boards, Mikey Anderson blocked a pass that ricocheted back out across the blue line, necessitating a regroup instead of an attack.

Then, with the clock ticking down into the final 15 seconds, right in the midst of a mad scramble in the corner, UMD freshman defenseman Dylan Samberg dropped down on all fours. Knowing he couldn’t cover the puck, or throw it out of the zone, he groveled back and forth on hands and knees, tapping the puck back and forth, but out of the Buckeyes reach, as the clock went down to 0:00.

The officials checked the video and determined there was still 1.2 seconds left, but the Bulldogs won the faceoff and killed that as well, for their second game-winning celebration. And it might be the first time in UMD history that a Bulldog hockey highlight video might have to show a freshman defenseman killing the clock on his hands and knees in the corner.

The post Moving On appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

[See image gallery at minnesotahockeymag.com]

The post Frozen Four Gallery: OSU vs UMD appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Get up to speed with Dustin Nelson’s women’s WCHA  postseason primer

The WCHA playoffs start this weekend, featuring three teams that rank in the top four nationally. It’s yet another year where a WCHA team could grab a national championship, but with more parity in the conference this year, there’s also the chance for a significant upset.

No. 1 – University of Wisconsin Badgers

(Photo by David Stluka)

The Badgers are the team to beat. They’ve been number one in the nation since the first preseason poll and lead the nation and the WCHA in almost every statistical category.

With an in-conference record of 22-2-4-3, the only team that was able to split their season series with them was the Gophers. They’re the only team in the nation that allowed less than one goal per game on average at 0.91 per game. Amazingly, it was even less when starting Ann-Renee Desbiens was between the pipes. She leads the nation with a 0.741 goals-against average.

The Badgers start the playoffs with a series against the eighth-ranked Mavericks. In four games against the Mavs this season, the Badgers went 4-0 with a 16-2 goal differential. There’s an expectation that they’ll be able to march through the first two rounds with relative ease.

PLAYER TO WATCH:

Annie Pankowski, Jr, F — Though Desbiens is the one who is capable of single-handedly stealing games, Pankowski has been outstanding after an early-season slump. Considering she didn’t score at all in the first nine games of the year, it’s amazing she finished the regular season ranked seventh in points.  She put up 20 goals and 16 assists in the final 20 games of the year. 

The post It’s Playoff Time appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

St. Paul – It’s all about “getting that first goal,” said Minnesota coach Don Lucia.

Sounds simple and obvious enough.

“It took us a while to find the rhythm,” Lucia said. “We needed the one goal to kind of get us going.”

That theory really rang true for the Gophers as the No. 1 seed managed a four-goal third period for a comeback victory over No. 4 seed Ohio State (14-18-4) in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament Friday at Xcel Energy Center.

The Minnesota Gophers (20-16-0) propelled themselves to the championship game behind a three-point effort from freshman winger Tyler Sheehy and a two-goal night from junior Taylor Cammarata. Lucia said they usually rely on three main guys for scoring goals, but this game felt different.

“If we were going to win tonight, somebody else was going to have to step forward,” Lucia said. “Guys that maybe haven’t scored on a nightly basis really came through in the clutch.”

Cammarata came into the game with five goals on the season. In the third period Friday, he took about five minutes to add a couple more to his total.

“I thought we dominated the third period,” Cammarata said, who had his first multi-goal game this season.

Sheehy was a big factor in Cammarata’s pair of goals. On the first one, he created a turnover and passed it to Cammarata who was all alone in front and put a laser shot past the goalie. On the next one, Sheehy banked a pass along the boards from his own zone up to Cammarata.

That made the game 4-1.

Sheehy got the Gopher goal train chugging 1:36 into the third off a 2-on-1 opportunity. He held the puck into the zone, drove the net, took the shot himself and beat Ohio State goalie Christian Frey on the high glove side.

That opened the floodgates.

“It’s amazing how a goal can just kind of ignite you,” Lucia said.

The players knew what they needed to do, Sheehy said.

“After that (first goal), we were kind of rolling from there,” Sheehy said.

Junior Vinni Lettieri picked a fine time for his seventh goal of the season. With the game tied 1-1, he scored that all-important next goal about four minutes later, putting Minnesota up for good before Cammarata added his pair of goals.

Ohio State’s David Gust scored with 2:16 left in the game to make it 4-2. Minnesota won the shots on goal battle 45-29.

The third period was definitely a turnaround from the first two, as the Gophers were down 1-0 at the 13-minute mark of the first. They weren’t executing, Lucia said, that included a lot of missed passes and pucks bouncing around over sticks.

Minnesota also failed to capitalize on a five-minute major power play in the first period. Ohio State’s Joshua Dakota checked Minnesota freshman winger Ryan Norman from behind and also received a game misconduct penalty. Lucia said after the game that the one hit took both players out of the game.

It was the third consecutive year Ohio State and Minnesota met in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals. With the Gophers winning 3-0 last year and the Buckeyes with a 3-1 win in 2014. It was the first time this season the matchup wasn’t a one-goal game. Three of the four regular season games went to overtime, with the Gophers winning each of them.

The Gophers snapped the Buckeye’s eight-game unbeaten stretch.

“Our guys weren’t going to quit until the horn went off,” said Ohio State coach Steve Rohlik.

The Gophers are looking to make it two in a row for Big Ten Tournament titles. They beat Michigan 4-2 in the title game last year.

The two will meet again in the championship game at 7 p.m. Saturday at the X. Michigan, the No. 2 seed and ranked No. 7 nationally, beat Penn State 7-2 in the early semifinal Friday.

“It’s going to be another good battle tomorrow night,” Sheehy said.

Other tidbits:

Junior defenseman Jake Bischoff played his 100th career game Friday. He had three shots on goal and was a -1.

Minnesota was the only Big Ten team Ohio State did not beat this season.

Sheehy’s 12th goal leads Minnesota freshmen.

The post Gophers Rally Past Buckeyes appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

[See image gallery at minnesotahockeymag.com]

The post Gallery: Gophers vs. Buckeyes appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Megan Bozek scored three goals in a Minnesota sweep of UMD in Duluth. (Photo: WCHA.com)

No. 1 Minnesota (12-0-0, 8-0-0 WCHA) at Minnesota-Duluth (3-6-1, 2-5-1 WCHA)

Friday: UM 4  UMD 1
Saturday: UM 4  UMD o

Minnesota extended its winning streak to 18 games in sweeping Minnesota Duluth on the road for the first time since Oct. 26-27, 2007. Freshman Maryanne Menefee scored twice while fellow rookie, Hannah Brandt, and  junior Amanda Kessel each added a pair of assists toward Friday’s win. UMD junior forward, Jamie Kenyon, scored the lone goal of the series for the Bulldogs early in the third period but Gopher goalie Noora Räty stopped all 23 other  UMD shots in the opener. Minnesota-Duluth goaltender, Kayla Black made 23 of her series total of 52 saves on Friday.

In Saturday’s finale, Senior defenseman, Megan Bozek, scored twice–her second and third goals of the series–and Räty made 17 saves in shutting out the Bulldogs. Brandt added two more assists to maintain her team and national points lead at 33 (12-21–33) while Kessel scored her team-leading 15th goal of the season, which also leads the nation. In addition, Bozek’s 18 points (6-12–18) tops all Division I defensemen.

Minnesota State (4-6-2, 2-4-2 WCHA) at Wisconsin (7-3-2, 3-3-2 WCHA)

Friday: UW 2  MSU 0
Saturday: UW 5 MSU 0

Wisconsin goaltender Alex Rigsby, last week’s WCHA Defensive Player of the Week, extended her shutout streak to 189 minutes in blanking the Mavericks twice in Madison. With the exception goaltender Danielle Butters‘ 72 saves in the series, not much went right for MSU in two games at LaBahn Arena. Warroad’s Karley Sylvester contributed an assist in each game for the Badgers.

No. 10 Ohio State (9-3-0, 7-3-0 WCHA) at St. Cloud State (2-7-1, 2-6-0 WCHA)

Friday: OSU 3  SCSU 2
Saturday: OSU 4 SCSU 2

With a goal on Friday and a pair of assists on Saturday,  Ohio State sophomore forward Taylor Kuehl–and reigning WCHA Offensive Player of the Week–of Minnetrista, Minn. helped lead the Buckeyes to a sweep of the Huskies in St. Cloud. Edina’s Ellie Sitek recorded her first goal of the season early in the third period of the series opener but OSU answered just over six minutes later on a Tina Hollwell goal which would become the game winner. SCSU goaltender Julie Friend of Minnetonka took the loss on Friday despite her 32-save effort.

Audrey Hamner had a goal and an assist in Saturday’s loss at home to Ohio State (Photo: St. Cloud State University Athletics)

Andover’s Alex Nelson got the Huskies on the board first on Saturday and a late second-period goal by Audrey Hamner of Wyoming, Minn. gave St. Cloud State a 2-1 lead heading into the third, but Ohio State countered with a trio of third-period goals to put the game away. Kuehl assisted on Hollowell’s empty-net goal at the 19 minute mark to seal the sweep for the Buckeyes.

No. 4 Clarkson (8-2-0, 2-0-0 ECAC) at No. 9 North Dakota (5-5-0, 4-4-0 WCHA)

Friday: CU 3  UND 1
Saturday: UND 3  CU 2

North Dakota freshman goaltender Shelby Amsely-Benzie of Warroad made 23 saves to earn her second win of the season and help UND salvage a split in its non-conference series with visiting Clarkson University on Saturday. Mary Loken, a senior forward from Roseau, assisted on Jocelyne Lamoureux‘s 100th collegiate goal at 3:16 of the second period in the win.

The post WCHA women’s weekend recap appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.