“Dan loved to throw the puck behind his back, and I’ll just say I wasn’t a huge fan,” Ward said, with a laugh. “I remember his first year he gave the puck right to the other team a few times, and he’d come back to the bench with this look on his face that he knew I was gonna bark at him a little bit, and I did. But that was part of his maturation process as a player.

“I would tell him to save that move for men’s league in the future and I’m sure he’s still tried it a couple times since, but he got better with time. We still laugh about it today and Daniel Shlaine is one of my favorite kids that’s ever played here.”

However, eliminating those passes was just one part of what’s been a tremendous growing process, both as a hockey player and a person.

Shlaine first moved from Moscow, Russia to Faribault at 13 years old with his parents, Ekaterina and Dmitri, to join his older brother, Artem – who is currently a grad student at Arizona State. Artem, who also attended Shattuck-St. Mary’s, split his first four NCAA seasons between UCONN and Northern Michigan and is a New Jersey Devils draft pick (2020, fifth-round).

As for Daniel, he spent five years at Shattuck and the past two seasons with the U18 Prep Team, scoring 42 goals and racking up 146 points over 110 games. He also registered 44 points (19-25-44) over 57 games with the 16U AAA team in 2021-22.

While there have certainly been adjustments on the ice, living in North America was an adjustment in itself, especially early on.

“I was very fortunate to be at Shattuck because everyone knew what they were doing and everyone was so helpful,” Shlaine said. “I didn’t really know much English my freshman year, and I didn’t really know anybody or have many friends, and the size of the rink was different from the European sheet. So, it was just a lot different. But after probably three or four months I was able to adapt and felt comfortable.

“I ended up spending my whole five years of high school there and played with some of the best kids in the country, and the coaching staff is unbelievable. It’s easy to say yes when you have the opportunity to go there and they have everything for you to succeed. You just have to take advantage of it.”

Daniel Shlaine started figure skating as a 3-year-old kid in Russia and shifted to hockey a year later, eventually moving to the United States and Minnesota at age 13. “He quickly became a rink rat, and he was at the rink every day skating and working on his game,” said SSM coach Tom Ward. “He spent a lot of time in the weight room, too and just took advantage of all the perks we have here at Shattuck, and it paid off for him.” (Photo courtesy of Sammy Miller / Lincoln Stars)

Those last four words are exactly what Shlaine did.

“He was a kid that came here with his older brother and his family and honestly, he was just an average player,” Ward said. “He was nothing special as a young player, and he was always Arty’s little brother, but he started to break out his 16-year-old year and put the work in.

“He started to understand how he could be the best version of himself and he just continued to grow, and it was really fun to watch him.”

That growth certainly raised some eyebrows last season as Shlaine received plenty of college interest and ultimately committed to Minnesota Duluth in March. He cited the coaching staff, specifically Scott Sandelin, and UMD’s tradition as his biggest reasons for picking the Bulldogs.

A leader on the Stars
Shlaine had conversations with a number of junior teams last season, too, and was selected by the Lincoln Stars in the USHL Phase II Draft (fourth overall) last May.

He’s made an immediate impact with his new club.

“I was excited to get drafted this past summer and get started, obviously new faces and new coaches, but my time (in Lincoln) has been great so far,” Shlaine said. “Everyone has helped me out a lot and I’ve been able to feel really comfortable, and we’re having a pretty good start to the season too. So, hopefully we can keep it going.”

The UMD commit is averaging more than a point per game to open his USHL career and leads the Stars in points (13) and assists (8). His five goals and plus-7 rating are also tied for the team lead, and Shlaine already has four multi-point games.

Lincoln (9-2-0) currently owns the USHL’s best record and has outscored its opponents 43-25 through 11 games. It’s been a collective team effort.

However, Shlaine has been one of Lincoln’s individual standouts, and he’s certainly impressed head coach Rocky Russo and his staff.

“He’s so talented and you can tell he wants to be successful, and he certainly doesn’t look like a first-year player in our league,” Russo said. “He’s a little bit of an older guy as an ’05, but it’s still an extremely hard league, and it goes to show his hockey IQ and work ethic.

“He’s a great skater, he moves laterally so well, he’s good on the dots and he can play both power play and (penalty kill). He’s got a great brain, and he’s not afraid to advance pucks up the ice either, and he just wants to do whatever to help his team win.”

Daniel Shlaine was Lincoln’s first-round pick in the 2024 USHL Phase II Draft. “It’s kind of funny, but I talked to almost every other USHL team except Lincoln leading up to the draft,” Shlaine said. “I remember I was on my phone watching the draft and we were eating at the dining hall (at Shattuck), and when the Stars were on the clock, I put my phone down for a minute and got up. When I came back the guys started congratulating me, and I saw my name on the screen, and it’s worked out really well so far.” (Photo courtesy of Sammy Miller / Lincoln Stars)

It’s a continuation of what Shlaine showed in Faribault.

“He’s always been an intelligent kid, and he’s no different as a hockey player,” Ward said. “He’s a cerebral guy, and he sees what’s going on on the ice. He plays with vision, he understands how to play the team game, he’s a 200-foot player, and I think he’s a very solid defensive player. He’s just a true centerman and he can play in any situation, and you’re seeing that offensive side of his game too.

“I think you’ve seen his confidence grow and as he’s become more of a counted-on player, his personality has grown so much too. He’s a keeper of a kid.”

While Shlaine hopes to continue producing, he’s also aware the 62-game season will include its share of ups and downs – a challenge he’s ready to embrace.

His goals are to round out the little details of his game and be a consistent 200-foot center, along with winning the Clark Cup. Lincoln last did so in 2003.

However, it’s hard to ignore Shlaine’s start to the 2024-25 campaign.

“It’s been a good start, but there’s still a lot of season left and room to grow,” Shlaine said. “The USHL is a fast league and the guys are obviously bigger and stronger, so you know that you’re going against the best every night. So you just know you’ve got to work twice as hard and I’m excited for that challenge.

“But I think that prepares you well for college, and I’m excited to keep learning and developing my game. You don’t want to look too far ahead, but I’m excited to keep working towards and making that jump to college.”

The post Shattuck-St. Mary’s Shlaine Shines appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

In the CCHA, which used to be the WCHA for both men and women, it couldn’t be more competitive. Bemidji State leads with 37 points on an 11-7-2 record; St. Thomas and Bowling Green are tied with 35 points and identical 11-8-1 records. Minnesota State Mankato also has 35 points and an 11-7-2 record. 

This weekend, things could get straightened out a bit — or even more tangled — in the CCHA when Bemidji State faces two games at St. Thomas, while Lake Superior State invades Mankato, Michigan Tech is at Bowling Green and Northern Michigan at Ferris State.

In the Big Ten, Minnesota stumbled at Notre Dame, but came back from a 6-1 embarrassment to gain a 3-2 overtime victory in the rematch when Jaxon Nelson scored late to tie it, and Jimmy Snuggerud scored at 1:18 of overtime to win it.

Nevertheless, Minnesota’s stretch of 9-1-1 was broken, as was the Gophers hope to vault up into the top spot in the conference. At 12-6-4, the third-place Gophers have 37 points to stay ahead of Notre Dame, but they still trail first-place Michigan State (46 points, 14-4-2 record) and second-place Wisconsin (13-6-1, 39 points). The Gophers are idle this weekend, while last-place Ohio State heads for Michigan State after ruining Wisconsin’s title hopes with 3-2 overtime and 3-1 victories for the Buckeyes last weekend.

The NCHC, meanwhile, which had some struggles early, has now settled into its usual position as the nation’s best conference. The top five teams could legitimately feel as though they could win any other conference in the country. Those top five are North Dakota, St. Cloud State, Colorado College, Denver and Western Michigan, and they are all bunched within eight points.

Rough weekend for UMD vs. Denver
Minnesota Duluth isn’t among the NCHC title-chasers this season, but if they can pull all their loose ends together for the final six regular-season games, the Bulldogs may well decide who wins it. The Bulldogs languish in seventh place after being swept 5-4 in overtime and 5-2 by Denver last weekend at AMSOIL Arena. While Denver looked like the best team any hockey fans in Duluth have seen this year, they trail the leaders: North Dakota (11-6-1, 37 points), St. Cloud State (10-4-4, 36 points) and surprising Colorado College (12-6, 33 points). Denver is 11-6-1 with 31 points.

UMD, having lost twice to powerful Denver, now finishes the regular season at North Dakota this weekend, at Colorado College and back home against St. Cloud State. How’s that for a playoff tuneup?

Last Friday night’s game might have been the most entertaining and exciting games of the season for the Bulldogs who, if they didn’t have their torturous loose ends together, they pulled them together in that wild finish with two goals after pulling goaltender Zach Stejskal to tie the game 4-4 — only to fall on a goal by Aidan Thompson at 1:46 of the 3-on-3 overtime.

The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, all within about four minutes of elapsed time.

The loose ends came back to haunt UMD Saturday night, after another similar rally seemed to lift the Bulldogs from a horrible three-goal opening deficit fashioned in a shaky first seven minutes, to self-destructing when two of their promising scorers — Ben Steeves and Anthony Menghini — wound up sharing penalty box time for misconduct penalties through the final minutes to eliminate any chance of continuing the rally.

It was, in a word, embarrassing. That, after an embarrassing start of three goals on five shots that caused coach Scott Sandelin to pull Stejskal and send in Matthew Thiessen.

“And you know what the most embarrassing thing was?” Sandelin said, challenging three media types who showed up after the game. “That stuff at the end. Having two guys sitting there for mouthing off. It’s frustrating, and I get it, but I’m sorry, if they don’t learn it’s not going to bode well for us. You don’t disrespect the team.”

And with that, Sandelin stalked away from the podium. Press conference over.

That Saturday night, UMD’s fire was extinguished early when Zeev Buium scored on the first shot of the first shift, at 0:31, and Connor Caponi shoveled in a backhander at 5:25. Jared Wright got loose on the right boards and flew in to score short-side on his breakaway for a 3-0 lead at 6:39. Shots were 5-5, but the score was 3-0 Denver, and the crowd was silent. Thiessen was sent in to tend goal, and he was sharp immediately, and made saves on all eight shots the rest of the first period.

Denver took a 5-2 lead in the third period, and the air went out of the balloon. At 9:57 of the third period, it got worse. That’s when Menghini, who has scored seven goals as a freshman, was called for checking from behind. Menghini said something to the ref, and was given a 10-minute misconduct, too. Sandelin sent Steeves over to serve the minor, and it ended just as a whistle blew. Steeves skated out and, as he passed the ref, he made a comment. Bang! He also was awarded a 10-minute misconduct, with eight minutes to go.

Losing the chance to make one last bid to win was too much for Sandelin, and while he has defended his players all season, he blew up this time, although UMD’s dressing room full of players might have been a better audience than the three-person media contingent that showed up after the game.

UMD women’s hockey close to home-ice advantage
Meanwhile, on the women’s front, UMD had a more beneficial answer to the women’s WCHA run to the playoffs. Needing three points to clinch home ice for the first round, the Bulldogs edged St. Cloud State 1-0 on Clara Van Wieren’s goal at 4:33 of the third period, and goalie Hailey MacLeod held on for the victory by that score. Playing as afternoon preliminaries to the UMD men, the Bulldogs played another amazing battle with St. Cloud on Saturday, this time going 0-0 through all three periods and overtime, and sending the game to a shootout to be decided.

Goalies Jojo Chobak of the Huskies and freshman Eve Gascon of UMD were brilliant throughout, but when the shootout started, everybody scored! Hanna Baskin scored for UMD; Emma Gentry scored for the Huskies. Van Wieren scored for UMD; Laura Zimmermann matched it for St. Cloud. Then Olivia Wallin skated in but was stopped by Chobak, putting all the pressure on Finnish freshman Sofianna Sundelin, who scored on Gascon and gave the extra point to the Huskies.

In what might be a brilliant political PR performance, UMD’s MacLeod was named goaltender of the week by the WCHA for her first-game performance, overlooking Chobak’s two-game performance, stopping 28 of 29 shots in the first game and all 39 shots the Bulldogs pelted her with in the second, for a weekend tally of 57 saves on 58 shots.

UMD coach Maura Crowell admitted she was pleasantly surprised that her sophomore goalie got the award, but added Chobak’s cumulative two-game performance deserved something.

UMD senior center Mannon McMahon was cited for playing in her 164th and 165th consecutive games over an illustrious five-season career, and she admitted stopping the game to acknowledge her achievement was “a special moment.”

More importantly, the Bulldogs will play at Minnesota this weekend, after which UMD and St. Cloud will reconvene at AMSOIL Arena next weekend for the first round of the best-of-three WCHA playoffs. And the Huskies, after very impressive performances in both games of last weekend’s series, will not be bothered by not having home ice.

The post ‘Minnesota 6’ Compete for Conference Titles appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

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 presence of junior defenseman Will Francis amplifies this weekend’s annual Make-A-Wish campaign to help kids fight cancer. The women’s hockey series against Bemidji State will couple with the men to carry the clout of Sophie’s Squad on Saturday’s doubleheader to raise awareness for mental health — a movement started last year by UMD senior Gabbie Hughes.

It has become trendy for virtually every cause in search of a successful connection to latch itself onto a successful college athletic program in hopes of making an even greater social impact. In the case of college hockey, nobody has made a more intrinsic partnership than the University of Minnesota Duluth.

Not that it was all by perfect design. For example, the men’s hockey team has had a connection for several years with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and to do their part, the Bulldogs have joined eacah year with a selected youngster who is hoping to conquer cancer and get back to a normal life.

“I remember doing that my first two years here,” said Francis, who added that he remembered the interaction and how he thought it was a true inspiration for the kids involved.

But Francis never imagined he would personally end up as a cancer victim playing the other end of that connection.

Word is that the UMD hockey program has been one of the most beneficial for Make-A-Wish anywhere, and this weekend is UMD’s annual Make-A-Wish series, as the Bulldogs return from holiday break to face Colorado College at AMSOIL Arena.

Will Francis went from Centennial High School to Cedar Rapids in the USHL to UMD. He was also selected in the 2019 NHL Draft by the Anaheim Ducks in the sixth round. (Photo courtesy of UMD Athletics)

Back with the Bulldogs
Francis, a defenseman and a 6-foot-5, 211-pound giant — was stricken with leukemia, which knocked him out of the chance make the Bulldogs roster as a regular. After a year off, his treatment succeeded and he was given a clean bill of health after battling through chemotherapy which left him weakened but no less optimistic about coming back.

He was welcomed back this past fall after working tirelessly to regain his strength and abilities. But at the height of his optimism, the leukemia returned, and he was back in treatment.

“I had been working out with some Stanley Cup champions and a lot of big-time players,” Francis said. “Last time, I only had chemotherapy. This time, they did some things with immune-therapy. I feel really good, I’ve had good workouts in the gym, and I’ve been looking forward to rejoining the team.”

Francis rejoined the Bulldogs last weekend for their exhibition game at St. Thomas, and he was named to start the game. Though he played only a few shifts after blocking a puck on his knee on his first turn on the ice.

He also returned to Duluth to resume school, but announced that he has decided to take the rest of the season off as a red-shirt, which will give him two more full seasons of NCAA varsity participation.

“Last Saturday, I wanted to get out there and have some fun,” Francis said. “I didn’t have to block a shot on my first shift. It meant a lot to me. I don’t think I’ve ever tapped my stick to honor an opposing player, but the St. Thomas guys had heard all about my situation and they did that. I didn’t expect that. It meant a lot to me.

“For me, personally, and for my family and the team culture here, I made the decision to red-shirt. Inside, I feel strong, but I know that I’ve got more to give, and we only have 16 games left. Back in August, I had an extra gear, and I haven’t gotten it back yet.”

Coach Scott Sandelin said he is looking forward to getting Francis back on the ice, and he is aware and appreciative of the connection his players have with the annual Make-A-Wish campaign, and its unintentional personal connection with Francis.

Sandelin also said he is looking forward to both the men’s and women’s teams taking part in the Sophie’s Choice campaign, started by Hughes a year ago.

“Gabbie deserves a lot of credit for getting this program started and getting players to start having conversations about mental health,” Sandelin said.

In her 2021-22 season, Gabbie Hughes was one of just three players in Division I women’s hockey history to be named a finalist for both the Patty Kazmaier and Hockey Humanitarian awards. (Photo courtesy of UMD Athletics)

Sophie’s Squad starts with Hughes
Hughes, who spent some of her summers while at UMD working her dad’s hockey school in Circle Pines, got very attached to some of the youth players at the camp. One young teenager tragically committed suicide, which had a devastating effect on Hughes and her whole neighborhood. As in the case with many suicides, the people left behind always feel as though if they’d had a chance to talk to the person suffering inwardly, they might have been able to change the tragic course of events.

Inspired by Hughes, her whole family helped organize the counseling organization which promotes talking over the mental health issues that can lead to suicide. Hughes, the top scorer on UMD’s women’s team, won the Hockey Humanitarian Award, which earned a banner hanging from the AMSOIL rafters. Hughes, meanwhile, won’t be attending because she has signed to play with the Ottawa franchise in the new Professional Women’s Hockey League.

“We watched how the whole thing affected Gabbie,” said UMD coach Maura Crowell. “Her goal was to make Sophie’s Squad get established to help anybody who might be in need of talking about how you’re feeling and your mental health. Watching Gabbie go through the tragedy of a young woman who took her own life, our team came together off that to support Gabbie. But we saw the dark side of it, too.

“We realize now that we can do things differently, and having conversations about how you feel is the first thing.”

The UMD-Bemidji State games are not only big attractions for Sophie’s Squad, but the games fall on the annual weekend of the Icebreaker Tournament, for young girls of all youth categories. The games will be held at Essentia Heritage Center and other arenas in Duluth and the surrounding area, and the women’s UMD games will invite all participants to come to AMSOIL Arena and get a preview look at the college hockey that might become their objective in the future.

The post Hockey For A Cause appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

But early results from this season indicate that the northern corner of the state known as Section 7 will continue to be a viable threat at least for the foreseeable future.

The mixup of the area is that Hermantown — a geographical area large in size but small in enrollment, just northwest of Duluth — has emerged as the best team and youth program in the area. But while some of the larger, Class 2A, Section 7 schools fluctuate quite a bit in their good fortune, Hermantown insists on staying in Class 1A, Section 7, to play with the smaller schools where it is most likely to succeed.

While the Hermantown youth teams all play at the highest classification, and win consistently, they feed an expansive high school program that can roll out three or even four balanced forward lines, three sets of defensemen, and depth in goaltending that is usually the best in the region.

If the proof of the pudding is in how successfully players advance to play with college scholarships, and maybe even pro hockey, the Hermantown Hawks are a constant source of amazement. For the past decade, the University of Minnesota Duluth has been criticized for taking so many prospects from Hermantown. But when the Bulldogs won three NCAA championships with teams all strongly flavored by Hawks, the critics started to realize that instead of suggesting UMD had too many Hermantown players, maybe they needed more!

The Winnipeg Jets, for example, have Neal Pionk as the anchor of their defensive corps, and Dylan Samberg is another Jets teammate. Both played together on state tournament teams at Hermantown, then played on the same UMD teams winning NCAA titles before they signed NHL contracts.

This season’s UMD team is led by Blake Biondi, who is captain and second-generation forward following his dad, Joe Biondi, to UMD. Blake, of course, was captain and Minnesota’s Mr. Hockey at Hermantown as a senior, where he was joined by current UMD defensemen from Hermantown, including veterans Darian Gotz and Joey Pierce, and just brought in freshman Aaron Pionk, Neal’s brother, who played forward until this season, when coach Scott Sandelin moved him to defense and put him in charge of running the power play.

At Hermantown this season, coach Pat Andrews had to rebuild from key goal-scoring losses to graduation, and the departure of highly skilled brothers Zam Plante and Max Plante, who played as teammates on a state championship Hermantown team. Both committed to UMD before joining their parents in a move to Chicago. Father Derek Plante, a former UMD standout who played over a decade in the NHL, was hired as assistant coach of the Blackhawks in their rebuilding plan.

Max Plante made the U.S. Development camp’s Under-18 team, and Zam — who is a year older — made the Chicago Steel and was traded to the Fargo Force in the U.S. Hockey League. Both will come to UMD next fall as freshmen, but they left enormous holes in the Hawks high school lineup.

While all the other Class 2A and Class 1A Section 7 teams lost heavily from graduation as well, and perennial powers such as Duluth East, Cloquet-Esko-Carlson, and even Grand Rapids are rebuilding, Hermantown is the only program rich and deep enough to merely reload to find scoring. Against Class 2A foes this season, Hermantown beat Cretin-Derham Hall, tied Hill-Murray and then beat Centennial. It also defeated defending Class 1A champion Mahtomedi 5-1. Then, they faced Duluth Denfeld.

Duluth Denfeld moved up to Class 2A this season, ties Hermantown
Denfeld has an interesting program. Located in the West End, West Duluth and Piedmont Heights youth program region — which produce good players, but without the depth Hermantown enjoys. But the Hunters broke new ground in football during the fall. They also have a strong basketball program. Their hockey team, coached by former UMD defenseman Dale Jago, started off beating teams and establishing what might normally be considered an upset is not an upset when facing this Denfeld team’s swift-skating, puck-skilled players.

In an interesting maneuver, Denfeld made a controversial decision to move up from Class 1A to the larger Class 2A. Many larger schools have traditionally sought to move down, to avoid getting beaten by usual meat-grinder Duluth East. But this year in northern Minnesota, Cloquet-Esko-Carlton moved from Class 2A to Class 1A in Section 7, while Denfeld passed the Lumberjacks going the other direction, moving up a class.

Hermantown’s Jack Slattengren (11) peeled away from the goal after scoring the Dec. 19 game’s first goal against Duluth Denfeld goalie Connor Doyle. (MHM Photo / John Gilbert)

Denfeld and Hermantown played at Essentia Duluth Heritage Center on the Tuesday before Christmas, and the Hunters were definitely swift and skilled enough to take on their heralded rivals. That was evident from the drop of the puck. 

The result was mostly a coming out party for Connor Doyle, Denfeld’s goaltender. The more the Hawks attacked, the better Doyle seemed to play. Jack Slattengren gave Hermantown a 1-0 lead as he raced in on a goal-crashing attempt and redirected a goal-mouth pass.

In the second period, the Hawks outshot Denfeld 17-8 and took a 2-0 lead on a Bradford Skytta goal. Doyle kept the Hawks at bay. Denfeld narrowed the gap with a Brady Wick power-play goal from the right poinot. The Hawks almost seemed content to hold that 2-1 lead over Denfeld through the third period, and maybe that was coach Andrews’ intention — to let the Hawks prove to themselves that then can hold onto a slim lead against a team that was throwing everything they could summon at them.

It almost worked. As Denfeld pulled Doyle for a sixth attacker late in the game, Cory Backstrom scored a power-play goal and the sudden 2-2 tie stunned the Hawks, and the fans, into silence. The eight-minute overtime still ended with a 2-2 result as the final score. Hermantown outshot Denfeld 44-28. Doyle’s 42 saves commanded the spotlight and led the Hunters to center stage.

Maybe that’s what those pushy Class 1A schools get for taking on those proud big-school Class 2A teams!

NCHC to leave Xcel Center for campus sites
While the battle among top Western college hockey conferences continues through its midseason break, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference made a move to catch up to its brethren in the Big Ten and Central Collegiate Hockey Conference by making a sweeping change to its future league playoff structure.

Or, from another standpoint, the NCHC had the best idea and has chosen to abandon it.

Since the NCHC began in the 2013-14 season, it decided to offset the big-city attractiveness enjoyed by Minnesota and the Big Ten, or Detroit and the CCHA and Big Ten, and the Chicago and Milwaukee regions of Wisconsin and the Big Ten. So, the NCHC renamed its league playoff semifinals and finals the Frozen Faceoff, and contracted with the Minnesota Wild to hold the event at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul.

Since then, the NCHC has always held its tournament at Xcel Center or at Target Center in Minneapolis — the two largest facilities in the state. Meanwhile, the Big Ten capitulated by playing its playoffs at the site of the highest seeded team, and the CCHA did the same. The advantages of taking the biggest games away from the sites where the teams play all season were quickly overlooked when the Frozen Faceoff drew huge crowds of UMD, North Dakota, and St. Cloud State fans, as well as hard-core hockey fans who might still be upset that Minnesota pulled the plug on the old WCHA, the best and most successful hockey conference in men’s hockey history.

In conference meetings during the holiday break this year, the NCHC voted unanimously to change formats and to give those semifinals and finals back to the college sites where the teams have the best records. For the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, the format will remain the same, although Arizona State will join the NCHC officially for 2024-25, when the quarterfinals will be best-of-three at the highest seeds, and the four finalists will return to Xcel Energy Center for their semifinals and finals.

But when the existing contract expires, the NCHC will give up the big-city draw of St. Paul and play at campus sites in 2025-26. Those playoffs will expand to consume three weekends, with Team Nine playing Team Eight at the site of Team One, which will face that winner the next night in single-elimination play. The top two seeds gain the benefit of being host to the semifinals, with the surviving finalists advancing to play for the championship on the third weekend, at the site of the highest remaining seed.

The post Northern Hockey Is Safe appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The University of Minnesota, for example, has a backlog of traditional rivals that go back to Michigan, Michigan State and North Dakota from the early days of college hockey. More recently, the expansion of Division I college hockey teams within Minnesota has led to ferocious rivalries mainly with the University of Minnesota Duluth, and still more recently, Wisconsin and St. Cloud State, along with Minnesota State Mankato and Bemidji State, and St. Thomas arriving on the DI scene.

By going into the Big Ten Conference, the Gophers pretty well forfeited the intensity of the rivalries with North Dakota, UMD and the other in-state colleges, in exchange for keeping Wisconsin and renewing acquaintances with Michigan and Michigan State. Another thing that is certain is that even if the Gophers don’t consider some of those in-state foes as huge rivals, all of them point to the Gophers as the team they most want to beat.

Gophers goaltender Justen Close got the tip of his pad on this shot by UMD’s Luke Bast (38). (MHM Photo / John Gilbert)

In the middle of November, the Gophers can’t take a weekend off from running a gauntlet of those big rivalries. After a banner season that ended as the NCAA Frozen Four runner-up, the Gophers enjoyed some early weeks as the No. 1-ranked team in the country — despite the signing of five defensemen and three prize forwards that are, frankly, impossible to replace.

The Gophers opened with tune-up victories over Bemidji State and a pair against St.Thomas — including a breathtaking 6-5 overtime win in their season opener against the Tommies. Then things got serious, as Minnesota split a series at North Dakota, then returned to 3M Arena at Mariucci and felt the sting of a pair of setbacks pinned on them by Wisconsin, 5-2 and 3-2.

That set up last weekend’s home-and-home series against UMD, which began under a cloak of emotion as the teams paid pregame tributes both nights to Adam Johnson, a quick and skilled center who played for Hibbing/Chisholm and UMD. Johnson died Oct. 28 after a tragic incident during a game in England when an opponent’s skate made contact with Johnson’s neck.

Tributes have been constant from all around the world, and a celebration of life for Johnson was held in Hibbing earlier this week. Without a doubt, the emotional drain for the Bulldogs left them running on empty for their first game against the Gophers last weekend, losing 5-1 at Mariucci to the speedy Gophers.

The next night, the rivalry shifted to Duluth where UMD rebounded with a 4-3 shootout victory at AMSOIL Arena, which the NCAA counts as a tie. Both games were sellouts, with more than 10,000 at Mariucci and 7,345 at AMSOIL.

Time for a breather? It would be nice, but the Gophers go right to Ann Arbor to face Michigan. For any team, facing North Dakota, Wisconsin’s rejuvenated Badgers, UMD and Michigan on consecutive weekends should earn a trip to Acapulco. But not in the crazy world of college hockey’s biggest rivalries.

“We knew it would be a tough series against Duluth,” said Gopher coach Bob Motzko, after the Bulldogs came back from a lethargic first game for a high-speed and intense rematch. “We knew they’d be better in the second game. And we’re not close to getting into our offensive rhythm yet. They had a quick start and we took two really bad penalties. On the road, you have to be disciplined.”

Rhett Pitlick continues his flight as UMD secures shootout victory. (MHM Photo / John Gilbert)

Back-and-forth between Gophers, Bulldogs
UMD, on the other hand, is also rebuilding a bit, and the experience gained early by the Bulldogs, who started off 3-0-2 with both of the ties being shootout wins, got another shot at the game-deciding plan, which counts for an extra point in league play but is only for deciding official ties in interleague play.

In the second game of the weekend between UMD and the Gophers, the Bulldogs’ Jack Smith scored his first collegiate goal for a 1-0 lead, but Jimmy Snuggerud tied it with his sixth goal of the season for Minnesota. Midway through the second period, Snuggerud took a cross-checking penalty in front of UMD’s goal — one of the bad penalties Motzko later referred to. It was made worse when UMD’s Cole Spicer showed the merits of getting a chance to center the first line and drilled a power-play goal to regain the lead at 2-1. Minnesota again tied it, when Aaron Huglen scored a power-play goal after UMD coach Scott Sandelin might have had a gripe about the hooking penalty Kyler Kleven was assessed to create that Minnesota power play.

Minnesota took a 3-2 lead when Jaxon Nelson scored later in the second period, which ended with Connor Kurth took a last-minute penalty for hooking. The overlapping power play gave UMD’s top sniper, Ben Steeves, a small opening, which was all he needed to drill a perfect pass to the top of the right circle from Luke Loheit at 0:53 of the third period for a 3-3 tie. It stayed deadlocked through to the end of regulation and 3-on-3 overtime, which was mostly 4-on-3 because Minnesota’s Rhett Pitlick was called for an extra man, and then UMD’s Carter Loney was called for tripping Snuggerud as he tried to break out of the Minnesota end to give the Gophers the extra skater.

But repeated blocks of Gopher missiles and some huge saves by UMD goaltender Matthew Thiessen held the tie, and it was on to the shootout, where Thiessen again was the star. Brett Olson skated in and beat Gophers netminder Justen Close inside the left post on the first try, and Thiessen made a big save on Brody Lamb at the other end. Steeves then skated in and whistled a shot past Close on the second UMD try, so when Thiessen went down and stacked the pads to block Pitlick’s shot and send him flying across the crease, UMD had regained its form with a 4-3 shootout victory (though officially a tie).

UMD sophomore Cole Spicer celebrated his goal that gave the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead in Saturday night’s 3-3 tie with Minnesota. (MHM Photo / John Gilbert)

Familiar foe for UMD’s Spicer
Spicer’s goal in the game was another contribution to the rivalry scenario.

“I played two years at the U-18 team in the U.S. Development program,” Spicer said. “When I was there, I was teammates with Snuggerud and Ryan Chesley of the Gophers.”

So, matching goals with Snuggerud was a special treat for Spicer, a sophomore who didn’t play much last year after transferring from North Dakota. Spicer grew up in Grand Forks, and his family has a tradition of great athletes who all played for the Fighting Sioux back in the day when that nickname was proper.

“I committed to North Dakota when I was 14 years old, because my dream growing up was to play there,” Spicer said. “I left high school after one year and played on a Triple-A team in Michigan, then played my junior and senior years on the U-18 team. A year ago, I went to North Dakota and enrolled as a freshman, but they told me because of COVID, some older players had stayed for a fifth year, and they brought in some older junior players, so they wanted me to go back and play another year in junior.”

To say that was a disappointment would be an understatement, so Spicer decommitted at UND and opened his recruiting channels again. UMD associate head coach Adam Krause called Spicer, followed by a call from Sandelin, according to Spicer.

“I accepted their offer right away, because I love the whole culture at UMD,” Spicer said. “Coach Sandelin might have great players or not, but he manages to win. We’ve got a big family here. I’m living with four other guys, and we get together and have other players over to our place every Sunday to watch football and have a lot of laughs. Everybody is a great guy on this team, and I don’t regret what happened to me at all.”

Spicer, who was placed between grad students Quinn Olson and Loheit on the first line when Dominic James suffered a season-ending injury two weeks into the season, now has four goals and is seeing quality time on both the power play and penalty kills. And as rivalries go, he has another one coming up imminently.

North Dakota comes to Duluth for a series to open the NCHC regular season at AMSOIL Arena.

The post Rivalry: Gophers vs. Bulldogs appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Going back 50 years, a hockey series between the University of Minnesota and Minnesota Duluth would command the spotlight of all the state’s sports fans. The Golden Gophers were the only Division I college hockey team before that, until UMD joined the WCHA in a bold attempt to go “big time” Division I in 1965.

After UMD played one year in the old Curling Club, the Bulldogs moved into the sparkling new Duluth Arena — later the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center — and their first WCHA game in that harbor-side facility was against the Golden Gophers on Nov. 19, 1966. The anticipated full house of 5,700 fans was in place, and so was UMD center Keith “Huffer” Christiansen. He spent the game leaving a trail of Gopher skaters behind as he flitted around the ice, setting up six goals as UMD thrilled the home fans and shocked Minnesota 8-1.

That ignited the rivalry that rose to breathtaking intensity over the years between the “Main U” and the ”Duluth Branch,” and should have been the state’s treasure for a lifetime. When the teams meet this weekend, almost 57 years later, Christiansen’s six assists still stand as the UMD single-game assist record. But everything else is different.

First of all, the WCHA has been shattered and split as the expanded field of six Division I teams in the state now branch off into three different conferences — the Gophers in the Big Ten, UMD and St. Cloud State in the dominant National Collegiate Hockey Conference, and Minnesota State Mankato, Bemidji State and newcomer St. Thomas in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.

With the Gophers and Bulldogs in different conferences, and no games between the two last year, the edge of intensity is off the renewal of the rivalry, which will be conducted Friday night at 3M Arena at Mariucci and Saturday night at Duluth’s AMSOIL Arena.

Another reason that might dull the edge is that UMD, after starting 3-0-2 this season and winning shootouts after the two ties, went to Ithaca, N.Y., last weekend and lost 4-1 and 3-0 to highly rated Cornell. The Gophers, then ranked No. 1 in the nation, was swept at home by Wisconsin in 5-2 and 3-2 games. 

Adam Johnson skates in a game against Colorado while playing with the Bulldogs. (Photo courtesy of UMD Athletics)

Bulldogs remember Adam Johnson
The emphasis for the Bulldogs all week is to talk about real-world matters off the ice, and try to focus on practice and the upcoming games during the week of preparation for the Gophers. No small task.

Adam Johnson, 29, was the son of Davey Johnson, who was a star at Hibbing High School and then played for four years at UMD. That connection was among the reasons Adam grew up hoping to also play for the Bulldogs. In high school, Adam led the Hibbing/Chisholm Bluejackets to the Class 1A boys state hockey tournament his sophomore year. Even though they lost to Hermantown in a semifinal game, Johnson scored a pure hat trick. It was after that sophomore season that he accepted an offer from another Hibbing grad, Scott Sandelin, who was by then head coach at UMD.

“We had been tracking him through various summer camps,” said Sandelin. “He could skate, handle the puck, and was a playmaker. For us, being a Northern Minnesota school, it’s important for us to try to get the best Northern Minnesota kids. He was an unbelievable skater and so talented that it was evident he was in an elite category at a young age. I felt fortunate to have coached him for a couple of years just to be around him. I remember his smile, his wit. We all loved him; he was a fun guy to be around. I wish I’d the chance to coach him more than two years.”

As a sophomore, Johnson was UMD’s second-leading scorer in goals and points. His biggest goal was probably the one he scored to beat Boston University 3-2 in the West Region Final to send the Bulldogs to the Frozen Four in 2017. That team, which Sandelin regards as possibly the most talented he’s had at UMD, lost in the NCAA final to Denver. But it was the springboard for UMD to win the next two NCAA championships.

Johnson took advantage of his stellar sophomore season and signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He played in 13 NHL games with the club, and scored a goal against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center. He spent most of his days in the American League, however, so he decided to venture to Europe, where he played with a team in Sweden for one season, then a team in Germany before signing this year with the Nottingham Panthers of the Elite Hockey League.

Johnson’s upbeat and magnetic personality made him an immediate hit with his new teammates, and he was among the best players when the team went to Sheffield to face the Sheffield Steelers last Saturday night. He carried the puck up the left side, going 2-on-2 against the two Sheffield defensemen. Sheffield player Matt Petgrave and Johnson collided, and Petgrave’s skate blade cut Johnson’s throat. 

“I heard about the incident before our game, and I knew it sounded bad,” said Sandelin, who kept the news from his players as they took the ice for Saturday’s Cornell game. “I didn’t know he had passed away until after our game.

“I coached that game with a heavy heart. The incident itself was scary, and you don’t think about things like that happening. It puts everything into a different perspective. Our hockey team is a family, and we’ve lost a family member, and it hurts. The whole hockey world is a family, and it’s pretty touching to see how everybody is reaching out.”

Adam Johnson skates with the puck against Miami. (Photo courtesy of UMD Athletics)

Reactions to Johnson’s death
In the time since the incident, some social media users were quick to criticize Petgrave, 31, who is from Toronto and played for three different Ontario Hockey League junior teams including Niagara Falls, Owen Sound, and the Oshawa Generals, before playing four years at the University of New Brunswick. Trying professional hockey led Petgrave to Europe. He played in Denmark before signing with Sheffield.

After the incident, social media was filled with the narrative that Petgrave tried to intentionally kick Johnson. But various teammates of Johnson came to Petgrave’s defense — including Westin Michaud, a former Cloquet star who played at Colorado College and at North Dakota before making his way to Nottingham.

“The hate that Matt is receiving is terrible and completely uncalled for,” Michaud said, in a post on X. “I was at ice level on the bench, closest to the accident. I saw both players moving fast. The unintentional clip of the Panther player’s leg by the Sheffield player caused the somersault. It’s clear to me his actions were unintentional and anyone suggesting otherwise is mistaken. Let’s come together and not spread unwarranted hate to someone who needs our support.”

Victor Bjorkung, a Panther teammate from Sweden, said in an interview with a Swedish outlet: “I was a couple of meters away, so if anyone experienced it as it really was, it was me. It’s so insane that people think it was deliberate. Check the video, then you will see it’s an accident. Two skates collide right before and it goes so damn fast, there is no chance it is deliberate. I have texted him [Petgrave] and expressed how I feel about everything, and I support him. No one on our team thinks it’s his fault. Quite the opposite. We stand behind him.”

Teams throughout Europe and the NHL have paid tribute to Johnson, none more touching than the Penguins, who put a gigantic photo of Johnson in his Penguins uniform on the scoreboard. Then the announcer said instead of a moment of silence, let’s all give one final cheer in tribute to Adam Johnson.

UMD captain Luke Loheit said the players learned of Johnson’s death after Saturday’s game, then flew home Sunday before Sandelin conducted a team meeting to discuss the incident.

“I didn’t know him real well, but I skated with him a few times,” said Loheit, a fifth-year graduate student from Minnetonka. “We had a conversation as a team Monday, and talked about their family, and how important it is to enjoy being here, and to enjoy each other.

“You can’t go out there [on the ice] and not think about it. It was a freak accident, and as seniors, we all have to deal with it in our own way. Obviously, we lost a family member, and there’s support throughout Minnesota and the hockey world.”

Sandelin and the players talked about the likelihood that some legislation is likely to add neck protection collars to the hockey uniforms as soon as next season. The UK Elite League has already made them mandatory.

“We haven’t talked about neck protection,” Sandelin said. “But I’m sure this will open some eyes to the problem.”

UMD women’s coach Maura Crowell, whose team plays St. Thomas Friday and Saturday at AMSOIL, said she will be investigating what is sure to be an increasing number of throat protectors.

“I would be shocked if the NCAA didn’t pass a new rule about neck protection,” Cromwell said.

Former UMD coach Mike Sertich, who recently came through exhaustive treatment to be declared free of the pancreatic cancer he was diagnosed with less than a year ago, said he has always been close to Davey Johnson.

“He called me all the time while I was going through my treatment,” Sertich said. “And I’ve talked to him several times since this happened. It’s heartbreaking. I haven’t seen the video and I don’t want to see it.”

Sertich, after coaching UMD and Michigan Tech, spent a couple of years coaching Bantam hockey in Hermantown back when Adam Johnson was a Bantam at Hibbing.

“I remember we played them in a playoff game,” Sertich said. “Adam scored the winning goal against us, and afterward he skated over to our bench and apologized to me. That’s the kind of person he was.”

The post ‘Lost A Family Member’ 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.

But wait. For the current 2023-24 season a sixth Minnesota Division I program has vaulted into immediate contention, with the University of St. Thomas opening the season with a startling split with St. Cloud State and taking the then-No. 1 ranked Gophers to overtime before falling 6-5 before more than 11,000 fans at Xcel Energy Center.

The WCHA is, of course, no longer in operation. It shattered when Minnesota went off to help start a Big Ten hockey conference, prompting Minnesota-Duluth and St. Cloud State to start up with the new, and supremely powerful, National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) and leaving MSU-Mankato and Bemidji State in what was left of the WCHA. That league changed its name to the CCHA, recapturing the Central Collegiate Hockey Association call letters forced by Michigan when it branched off from the WCHA to form its “bus league.”

While St. Thomas, under proven mastermind Rico Blasi as head coach, raised all its sports to Division I status, nobody expected the Tommies to be the surprise of the state’s college hockey stalwarts this quickly.

Sophomore Ben Steeves scored a shootout goal as UMD solved a 2-2 tie with Michigan Tech. (MHM Photo / John Gilbert)

Regardless, we have to turn back to Minnesota Duluth to find the new king of bargain promotions in college hockey. The Bulldogs started off this season unbeaten through three games, while giving their fans the benefit of a bargain for their ticket prices. In two of their first three games, the Bulldogs skated to ties, then through scoreless overtimes, and then through shootouts before prevailing to turn those deadlocks into symbolic victories.

A young student, new to big-time hockey, saw the teams prepare for the shootout after UMD and Michigan Tech tied 2-2 in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame game and asked: “Do they get a point if they win the shootout?” He was told no, that there was no tangible benefit, no points, no indication of winning, but only giving the fans the satisfaction of seeing the game end in something other than a tie.

He was unimpressed at the answer, but as the shootout saw Ben Steeves score a goal, and then freshman Anthony Menghini clinch it 2-1, the fans, all of whom stood in their AMSOIL Arena seats, erupted with a roar that would do a league playoff championship proud. The young man acknowledged, “OK, now I get it.”

A week later, in their first official non-conference game against Northern Michigan, UMD started with a 3-0 lead before allowing three unanswered goals and needing to rally to go back ahead 4-3 on Steeve’s second goal of the night, then fell behind 5-4. That left it up to Menghini, the freshman, to score another pivotal goal, tying the game 5-5 with 2:58 remaining. Then the Bulldogs and Wildcats sparred through six rounds of the shootout before Matthew Perkins, another freshman, scored to claim another 2-1 shutout victory. Again, however, it was not a victory, just an official tie. But don’t tell the 5,947 screaming fans that!

They went home happy and, thanks to the return of a previous promotional deal with area Culver’s restaurants, every fan turning in a ticket stub whenever UMD scores five goals or more gets a free scoop of frozen custard. How can you beat having extra-time hockey and free frozen custard after your team won the game — as far as you’re concerned.

The next night, UMD kept rolling through Northern Michigan in a second penalty-fest that saw a repeat of double-digit penalty calls with each team scoring three power-play goals and the Bulldogs getting an 8-5 victory and a sweep.

“These are games that test your inner strength,” UMD coach Scott Sandelin said afterward. “I thought we handled the adversity a little better tonight than in the first game, and fortunately our power play was clicking.”

Fears of struggling to score were washed away in that series sweep, thanks to Steeves and a couple of freshmen, starting a trend that seems to have engaged the whole team, which Sandelin will welcome as he tries to take his team off to the NCAA tournament in quest of his fourth national title at UMD.

Snuggerud is back for the Gophers
Down Interstate 35 a couple of hours, Bob Motzko has assembled a flashy crop of talent led by Jimmy Snuggerud, who started off hot after several of his classmates turned pro after last season’s near miss at NCAA time. Motzko got his way by narrowing the Olympic-sized, 200-by-100-foot ice sheet at 3M Arena at Mariucci to a hybrid width, now 200-by-89 feet. With an inability to use the wider ice surface favored by the late Herb Brooks and Doug Woog to win his first national title with a dressing room filled with NHL draft choices, maybe a narrower rink will help.

At the start, Snuggerud made the plan work. After scoring the overtime winner against upstart St. Thomas to climax a rally from a 4-2 deficit in the third period, Snuggerud brought his teammates back to Mariucci for the second game and scored twice for a 2-0 lead that the Gophers expanded with an empty-net goal for a 3-0 victory and a sweep.

The media-heavy Twin Cities promotional backing may have helped the Gophers gain the No 1 ranking in the nation despite losing four players to early NHL contracts. But Snuggerud makes it appear they won’t be missed as the Gophers try to repeat as Big Ten champions.

Early adversity for St. Cloud State 
The St. Cloud State Huskies, who rose up from a disappointing season to make a run at the NCAA tournament last spring, lost some big scorers. But coach Brett Larson has proven to be a master at fashioning his talent into contenders as the season progresses. The Huskies were the first victim of St. Thomas, losing 5-4 in overtime, and had to go to the Mendota Heights home of the Tommies to battle for a 1-0 victory and a split.

But next came a huge rivalry series against MSU Mankato, which spotted the Huskies the first two goals before roaring back to tie the game 2-2 in the second period and beat St. Cloud 3-2 on Adam Eisele’s overtime goal. The next night, Mankato stung the Huskies 5-1 for a sweep.

New coach leads Minnesota State Mankato
Minnesota State Mankato suffered what seemed like crushing setbacks when Mike Hastings left to become head coach at Wisconsin, and several of his top Mavericks entered the transfer portal to go with him. New head coach Luke Strand, however, has regenerated the Mavericks right from the start.

They were heartened by the return to form of Sam Morton, a fifth-year captain who went out after only 10 games with a knee injury last season. Alex Tracy looks solid in goal. The Mavericks have retained a great tradition, as they blocked 23 shots in the 5-1 game against St. Cloud State.

Beavers host Ice Breaker Tournament
Bemidji State is another team joining Northern Michigan and Michigan Tech in trying to unseat MSU Mankato as CCHA champion, and the Beavers got an early taste of the competition by co-hosting the Ice Breaker Tournament with North Dakota to open the season. That came after losing 5-2 at Minnesota in an exhibition opener. Back home, Bemidji State dropped a 4-3 overtime game to Wisconsin and the reappearance of old rival Hastings on the visiting bench.

The next night, Army came to Bemidji’s sparkling Sanford Center and the Beavers made a determined rally to tie the Cadets 2-2 on Eric Pohlkamp’s goal at 7:30 of the third period. Lleyton Roed scored the game-winner at 0:59 of overtime for a 3-2 triumph. Roed also had a goal against Wisconsin, when the Badgers outshot Bemidji 61-19 and only the 57 saves by goaltender Mattias Scholl kept the Beavers in the game.

Toms roll in game one
The state’s newest DI team, the St. Thomas Tommies, served notice of their intentions not only against in-state rivals like Minnesota and St. Cloud State, but challenging the CCHA as a legitimate contender. Blasi established his skills in building Miami of Ohio into a solid team in the NCHC. After he was let go by Miami he was a natural choice to lead the Tommies into DI. So, his team’s early successes this year shouldn’t be a surprise.

Benefitting by the transfer portal, Blasi has assembled speed and talent that went on display in the season-opener at St. Cloud State. Goals by Jake Braccini, Cameron Recchi, Luke Manning and Matthew Gleason got the Tommies into overtime, where former Duluth East star Ryder Donovan scored at 1:11 to win it 5-4. It won’t be easy for St. Thomas to keep knocking off powerful rivals, but Blasi has made a name for himself by sending tough, tenacious teams over the boards.

Now that St. Thomas is planning a new arena for its future, about all they need is to find an ice cream shop — or maybe a St. Paul pizza joint — and come up with a promotion whenever they score five goals.

The post DI College Hockey Preview 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.