That, and the advancement of the concept that you should never pick against Patrick Mahomes when the Super Bowl itself comes down to the closing seconds with everything on the line. Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs — for those who might have been in seclusion for the last week — came through with a vital little touchdown pass with 3 seconds left in overtime to beat the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in a game that droned on as a defensive showdown for three quarters.

Showdowns will become more prevalent in men’s college hockey in the next few weeks in the Big Ten, NCHC, and CCHA. But the future is now for the WCHA’s women, who have only two weekends remaining before league playoffs.

WCHA women’s hockey battles down the stretch
The University of Minnesota is in the thick of two huge rivalries to end the regular season, as they battle to find consistency against the top contenders. Ohio State continues to dominate the standings with a leading 23-1 record, good for the runaway No. 1 rank in the nation as well. Wisconsin is second with a 20-4 record that would be spectacular if the Buckeyes weren’t around. The Golden Gophers are third at 18-5-1.

The spotlight of the weekend, though, finds Minnesota at Wisconsin, with a shot at sneaking past the Badgers with a sweep. If that wasn’t enough drama, the Gophers return home next week and face Minnesota Duluth, which is not in contention but is perhaps Minnesota’s most fierce rival.

UMD has its own mini-drama, because the Bulldogs are battling to move into contention but also to free themselves of the new threat to their status of fourth-best in the league, coming from St. Cloud State. The Huskies lost two tough games to Minnesota last weekend, while UMD swept two games at St. Thomas, which vaulted UMD ahead of the Huskies and into a five-point lead for fourth place and the final home-ice spot in the first round of the WCHA tournament.

This weekend, St. Cloud State goes to Duluth to face the Bulldogs, and the interesting thing about that series at AMSOIL Arena is that one victory by UMD will assure them of the fourth spot and home-ice advantage. But in the first round of playoffs, the fourth-place team plays fifth place, so after this weekend’s series, both teams know they are going to be facing each in the best-of-three first round, with the only question being which will be the home team. On the final weekend next week, UMD goes to Minnesota while St. Cloud State plays at Bemidji State, and the highlight series will be Ohio State at Wisconsin.

The WCHA Women’s tournament is always a season treasure with close, tough, single-elimination games — usually an overtime of two — at Ridder Arena on the Gophers campus in Minneapolis. So, after all the posturing for playoff position, whoever wins between UMD and St. Cloud State gets the honor, undoubtedly, of taking on No. 1 Ohio State in the league semifinal.

Hunt has productive weekend vs. UST 
Last weekend, UMD’s sweep at St. Thomas was pretty much because of the presence of Reece Hunt. She played four years at Bemidji State, and with no sniff of playoff advancement, she jumped into the transfer portal and went to UMD as a graduate student for her fifth year.

How effective was she at St. Thomas last weekend? Well, completed a natural hat trick and scored all four UMD goals by the second intermission in the eventual 4-1 victory. Rylee Bartz scored the UST goal in the second period. 

The next night, Hunt scored to open the second period and break a 1-1 tie, with what stood up as the game-winner in a 5-1 victory. For the weekend, Hunt scored five goals and she also assisted on Olivia Wallin’s third-period goal for a six-point series.

“Reece Hunt is a massive addition to our program, and a great person,” said UMD coach Maura Crowell. “I never care who scores; whoever scores, I’m happy. But Reece always knows where to go and how to finish.”

Hunt was asked which of her four Friday goals was her favorite.

“The first three, because all three of us on our line were involved,” Hunt said.

UMD stands 1-1 against St. Cloud State this season, and the Bulldogs have a perfect 12-0 record against the bottom three teams in the league, but are 1-9 against the top three — Ohio State, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

As compelling as the UMD-St. Cloud State series is, both games will start at 3 p.m. on Friday and Saturday at AMSOIL Arena, because the prime-time night schedule has the UMD men hosting preseason-favorite Denver both nights at AMSOIL.

High school sections, St. Scholastica splits, Rivalry Series
It’s altogether fitting and proper that we watch the girls high school hockey sections get decided this week with some outstanding games, and their ever-increasing skill level makes the games and the sections more competitive than ever. The same holds true for Division III college hockey, where St. Scholastica split two captivating games against St. Mary’s last weekend. Despite the heavy emphasis on Division I college hockey, the caliber of Division III has risen amazingly, both in skill and tempo.

The Saints split two games with St. Mary’s, losing 2-1 in overtime Friday after the Saints saw a 1-0 lead disappear with 1:19 remaining. But then the Saints came back against the favored Cardinals on Saturday night at Mars-Lakeview Arena. It was a tough game, and thankfully the Saints had sophomore Makenzie Cole, from Grand Rapids-Greenway, in the nets. She stopped 60 shots in the first game, and was just as spectacular in blunting the St. Mary’s attack on Saturday afternoon. The Saints won a highly emotional shootout victory.

After the series, which drew a hearty and loud crowd, Saints coach Julianne Vasichek, who is originally from Montana, made a quick trip to St. Paul to watch former teammates play on both sides in the seventh and deciding game of the Rivalry Tour, won 6-1 by Canada over Team USA at Xcel Energy Center. The United States won the first three games in the series, but Canada stormed back to win the next three, including the game seven blowout.

It was a deserving celebration for Vasichek. It was her birthday, as well as nine years since she survived a liver transplant at the Mayo Clinic. Last week, she was announced as a member of UMD’s all-time 25-year all-star team. Vasichek was a two-time NCAA champion and All-America for the Bulldogs and remains in contact with former UMD coach Shannon Miller, who now lives in Palm Springs, Calif.

Not a bad way to celebrate National Girls and Women in Sports week.

UMD men’s coach looking for urgency vs. Denver
Denver is not exactly dominating NCHC after a strong start. The Pioneers have slipped to fifth behind North Dakota, St. Cloud State, Western Michigan and Colorado College in the tightly bunched NCHC.

“Denver has strong lines, and they play with continuity and don’t give up the puck,” said UMD coach Scott Sandelin. “We have to take care of the puck because they’re a good transition team, and a strong defensive team. They don’t turn pucks over, and if you’ve got the puck, they get on you and can frustrate you.

“Just like every team in our league. We’ve got eight games left, and we need some guys to play better. I’ve been waiting for that for quite a while now. We need overachievers, not underachievers, and any contributions we get from anybody means a lot.

“If you don’t have urgency now, you’ll never have it.”

In the Super Bowl, Mahomes won the MVP award, for the back-to-back Super Bowl wins. But despite the assembled gang of television analysts that insisted on spewing endless superlatives as if they were unique in their opinions, they all agreed that a victory would mean the Chiefs were a dynasty. But let’s get one thing straight: This modern-day NFL doesn’t have room for dynasties. Parity dominates, and on any given Sunday, any team can beat any other, and even the Vikings could take down the 49ers in the right circumstance.

But while I thought the Detroit Lions lost to the 49ers in a day of botched officials calls, and Baltimore, Buffalo and Dallas were all extremely strong, we can declare that the Chiefs and the 49ers were the best two survivors, and when the big trophy was on the line, Mahomes proved again that he is the best survivor of them all. Very Brett Favre-like.

The post Hockey outlasts Super Bowl Weekend appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The Huskies were in far better spirits when they returned home Sunday, after they blew a 4-2 lead in the third period to force overtime, then nipped the Pioneers 2-1 in a shootout to come away with a victory, even though the rules note the game is counted as a tie in the standings. 

The game-one loss shows the disparity between national ratings and league standings, because St. Cloud State went into the series ranked No. 14 but led the NCHC with a 7-0-1 record. While Denver ranked No. 6 in the country. So, the Huskies flew home with a 7-1-2 league record, still good for first place. While Denver moved to 5-3-1, and the capacity for splitting NCHC series still alive and well.

St. Cloud State’s schedule doesn’t ease up at all, as the Huskies welcome North Dakota, which risked its 5-4 NCHC standing and No. 4 ranking in last weekend’s split against Omaha in Grand Forks.

More evidence of NCHC parity was obvious in last weekend’s visit by Colorado College to AMSOIL Arena to face UMD in a series that could have elevated one ahead of the other in the middle of the NCHC pack. Instead, the two teams split, and it couldn’t have been more equitable. UMD captured a 3-2 overtime victory Friday night, when Ben Steeves scored his 15th goal for the winner 1:06 into overtime. In the next game, Colorado College CC got the tying goal from Nicklas Andrews with 0:00.2 showing on the clock near the end of the second period. Noah Laba scored the winner for Colorado at 1:39 of overtime. The games also featured goaltending duels between UMD senior Zach Stejskal and CC sophomore Kaidan Mbereko.

Colorado College arrived in Duluth holding fifth place in the NCHC as a reward for coach Kris Mayotte’s rebuilding plan, while the Bulldogs were sixth. Friday night’s victory boosted the Bulldogs into a three-way tie for fifth with Colorado and Omaha.

The rest of the NCHC follows the rules of parity too, as Western Michigan split with Miami, and Omaha surprised North Dakota for a split.

Ohio State still dominates WCHA
Both UMD-CC games were part of a celebratory weekend in Duluth, with Friday’s dedicated to Make-A-Wish Foundation. Saturday night, both the UMD women’s and men’s games were part of the ceremonial tribute to Sophie’s Choice, a mental health foundation originated by UMD’s women’s star, Gabbie Hughes, who is now playing for PWHL Ottawa.

The UMD women made the best of the circumstances, playing Bemidji State through a tough first game Friday afternoon resulting in a 2-0 victory. 

The next night, it rained goals for UMD as the Bulldogs smothered Bemidji State 7-0. Reece Hunt, who transferred to UMD from Bemidji State for her final season, scored at 8:50 and 10:30 of the first period, then completed her hat trick at 8:50 off the second period to make it a 3-0 lead. Grace Sadura, Mannon McMahon and Danielle Burgen added second-period goals before Danielle Brunette added one more at 4:41 of the third period to complete the rout.

With a 10-6 record, UMD rises to fourth in the WCHA, behind Ohio State, Wisconsin and Minnesota, and leading St. Cloud State, Minnesota State-Mankato, Bemidi State and St. Thomas. A full WCHA slate is coming up this weekend, with UMD at Ohio State, Wisconsin at Mankato, Minnesota at Bemidji State and St. Thomas at St. Cloud State.

Last weekend’s series between WCHA leader Ohio State and the rebuilt Minnesota Golden Gophers was supposed to be some sort of showdown in Ridder Arena in Minneapolis. But Ohio State settled that issue with a 7-0 rout of the Gophers, followed up by a 6-1 hammering by the Buckeyes.

The high-flying Buckeyes are now 15-1 atop the WCHA, with Wisconsin second at 12-4, Minnesota third at 10-5-1, and UMD fourth at 10-6. St. Cloud State is hot on their heels at 9-6-1 in fifth place.

The post No Sweeps Allowed in Rugged NCHC appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

But last week’s action involving Minnesota’s six Division I college hockey teams resulted in some impressive goaltending performances that made headlines in the Big Ten Conference, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, the Central Collegiate Hockey Assocation, the women’s Western Collegiate Hockey Association for women, and even the NHL.

The Minnesota Gophers stayed at the top of national men’s ratings, despite splitting two games at North Dakota, with the goaltending of Justen Close. He was responsible for the Gophers’ 4-0 victory in game one, and he couldn’t be faulted when he made 32 saves when the Fighting Hawks came back to beat Minnesota 2-1 in the rematch at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks.

Close’s first-game victory gave him back-to-back shutouts. But the Hawks got 21 saves from Ludvig Persson, their goaltender of the hour, in game two. Minnesota’s loss didn’t cause it to drop out of the No. 1 national ranking because both Boston University and Michigan, ranked No. 2 and No. 3, also lost over the weekend. The only movement among the top five was North Dakota, which appropriately moved up from fifth to fourth and served notice to their NCHC rivals that they are, indeed, equipped for contention.

Frost gets 2-year extension; WCHA packs top-10 rankings
The Gopher women, also ranking high at No. 4 in the WCHA, gave coach Brad Frost a two-year contract extension because he simply forms a contending team year after year. They stand No. 4 after running up a 5-0 record in the early going, including a WCHA midweek match with ever-improving St. Cloud State. The Gophers lost a lot of offensive firepower from last season, causing Frost to proclaim that it will take a more defensive posture to win this year, and beating the Huskies was a clear example.

Frost’s goaltender was Skylar Vetter, who was trying for the fourth-straight Gophers shutout. Avery Farrell spoiled the shutout big with a goal with 5.2 seconds left in the third period. Minnesota had gained the advantage when Ava Lindsay scored midway through the second period, and Taylor Stewart, a fifth-year transfer from University of Minnesota Duluth, scored a short-handed goal into an empty net with 47 seconds left. Fifth-year goaltender Jojo Chobak — another transfer from UMD — was pulled for a 6-on-3 skater edge. The Gophers won 2-1.

The Gopher women have a big challenge this weekend, with a trip to Ohio State (5-1), which is ranked No. 2 in the WCHA-dominated top 10. Wisconsin, Ohio State, Colgate and Minnesota make up the top-four ranked teams, followed by unbeaten Quinnipiac and Yale. UMD (4-2) is ranked No. 7 with St. Cloud State (7-2) rising to No. 10. 

UMD swept Minnesota State Mankato in WCHA play by 3-1 and 4-1 margins. Mary Kate O’Brien, Reece Hunt and Hanna Baskin scored for the Bulldogs in game one. In the second game, Gabby Krause scored a pair of goals to go with goals from O’Brien and Jenna Lawry. Bulldogs freshman goaltender Eve Gascon made 21 saves in the second game, and she was named WCHA Rookie of the Week for her stinginess. 

An interesting part of this coming weekend’s UMD trip to Bemidji State is that it will be a homecoming of sorts for Hunt. She transferred from Bemidji State to UMD for her fifth year, seeking a master’s degree in business with UMD’s curriculum.

Bemidji State’s Mattias Scholl watches his blocked UMD shot trickle past him. (MHM Photo / John Gilbert)

Cohasset natives shine in net at college, NHL levels
Minnesota-Duluth’s men may have good reason to help the good folks of Cohasset, Minn., a tiny mining town on the Western tip of the Iron Range, build a statue to goaltenders. Hunter Shepard, a Cohasset native, is a former Grand Rapids High School standout who guided the Thunderhawks to the Class 2A state tournament before playing junior hockey on his way to UMD. He was the MVP as the Bulldogs won back-to-back NCAA championships. Shepard recorded 15 shutouts in his days at UMD.

While he continued to do his hometown of Cohasset proud by winning the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup trophy for Washington’s AHL franchise, he was called up to start his first NHL game for the Washington Capitals vs. New Jersey on Oct. 25. That was the same day that current UMD goaltender Zach Stejskal was named NCHC Co-Goaltender of the Week for recording his first collegiate shutout in last Friday’s 4-0 victory over Bemidji State before also surviving a wild, power-play-filled shootout to beat the Beavers 5-4 in overtime Saturday in Bemidji.

“I know I came close a lot of times,” Stejskal said, of getting a shutout victory. “I remember one game we were tied 0-0 against St. Cloud, and they beat us 1-0 in overtime. When we’d win and I’d give up a goal late, I’d always say that shutouts didn’t matter, winning was what was important. But now that I finally got a shutout, I’ve got to admit, it’s pretty neat.”

Both nights, Stejskal had to outduel Bemidji State’s Matthias Scholl, who was victimized by a three-goal first period for the Bulldogs, all on power-play tallies from Matthew Perkins, Luke Bast and Aaron Pionk. The next night was not a pleasant one for either Stejskal or Scholl.

“I thought their goalie (Scholl) played great,” said UMD coach Scott Sandelin. “We looked really confident on our power play in the first game, but there were some unnecessary penalties that we will have to tighten up.”

After a miraculous recovery from cancer, UMD senior Zach Stejskal recorded his first career shutout against Bemidji State to keep the Bulldogs unbeaten at 3-0-2. (MHM Photo / John Gilbert)

Stejskal’s story has a double impact, because he, too, is from Cohasset, Minn., and was a state tournament star at Grand Rapids before playing at UMD. After one impressive season, however, Stejskal was stunned by the news in the fall of his sophomore season that he had testicular cancer and would miss the entire season during treatment. He made it through treatment, got a clean bill of health, made it back last season and has become the No. 1 netminder as a senior for the Bulldogs.

Somebody asked Sandelin what he thought Shepard would be going through in his first NHL start at Washington, and the coach said: “Knowing Shep, he’s probably nervous, excited, and probably won’t show it.”

Unlike the 6-foot Shepard, Stejskal is 6-foot-5, towering over the crossbar, the crease and just about everybody on both teams. Maybe they’ll need twin statues up in Cohasset.

The post Glory to Goalies appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.