First Sweep Of The Season

Twynntown

Member
Joined
Sep 10, 2011
Messages
330
Reaction score
0
Points
16
First League Sweep Of The Season

The #1 ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers (16-3-3, 8-3-3 WCHA) closed out the weekend series with the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves (3-13-4, 1-12-3 WCHA) tonight at Mariucci Arena, with a 7-1 win in front of 9,607, and their first WCHA sweep of the season.

Here is what I saw:

* Minnesota got off to a much better start tonight, holding the Seawolves without a shot through the first eight minutes of the game, which included a UAA power play. They outshot Alaska-Anchorage 12-2 in the first period, and a lopsided 31-13 for the game. With the Gophers up 2-0 going into the second period, the Seawolves came out hard, like they did last night. It created some brief concern when they scored a goal a little over thirty seconds into the period, and effectively took the crowd out of the game for the moment. But the Gophers were able to get the game under control, and put away Alaska-Anchorage in convincing fashion.

* Mike Reilly has looked a lot more comfortable since returning from the U.S. Junior National team. He's holding onto the puck a lot longer, and doing something with it. It's too bad that Brady Skjei didn't make that team. He has looked better of late, but that tournament is so valuable in the further development of players.

* Seth Helgeson dropped the gloves with UAA's Chris Crowell late in the third period. Helgeson plastered Crowell to the boards, and knocked him to the ice. As Helgeson made his way to the front of the net. Crowell got up and chased after Helgeson, cross checking him in the back. Then it was on. Sticks were dropped, and an odd number of gloves were dropped as the two players exchanged punches. I'm sure if this had been Friday night, we wouldn't have seen the slugfest. After that, the game got a little chippy, and there was a bit of a scrum near the benches as Tom Serratore got taken out hard. Jake Parenteau jawed with the Seawolves bench before having to be restrained by his teammates.

* Goaltender Mike "Shibby" Shibrowski saw his first ice time in a long time, after coming back late in December from a lower body injury suffered in practice back in November. Shibrowski entered the game with a little less than seven minutes left, and kept Alaska-Anchorage scoreless in that time. Good to see him back on the ice. Adam Wilcox is the clear starter right now, but Shibrowski is so likable, it's hard not to want to see him out there.

* SWEEEEEEEP!


Here are the post game comments:


Nate Schmidt:

Regarding his four assist game… "I can't say that I deserve all the credit. Kyle Rau, Sam Warning, Nick Bjugstad, you know, those guys made me look good tonight. When you weigh the options, and you see some of the guys I get to go out on the power play with, it's quite an adventure every time I go out there, and it's a lot of fun, I won't lie to you"

Regarding tonights game… "They came out really hard last night, and they caught us off guard. So we wanted to make sure to go out there and eliminate those surprises early. We wanted to kill their momentum and their speed early, and try to take over the game. Our twelve forwards against their six defenseman was the kind of matchup that we wanted to exploit. It was a crucial weekend for us to get a couple of points and make sure heading into this next weekend that we had momentum. And so I think that this next weekend will really tell us where we're at on moving forward in the standings.

Regarding retaining the McNaughton Cup… "At this point we just want to take it one game at a time, and try to get better each and every game. We have to make sure we're not looking ahead. When you start thinking about those kind of things early, teams can sneak up on you and you can get yourself in a lot of trouble. We gotta take it one game at a time"

Regarding the North Dakota series… "It means a lot. Our whole season last year we played them six or seven times. We have a lot of tradition in the rivalry with these guys, so it's really exciting to get em in our place for the last time playing in the WCHA. I'm really excited about next weekend"


Kyle Rau:

Regarding his hat trick… "It was a fun game for us. We tried to get the goalie moving side to side and that's what happened on two of my goals. It's something I'll always remember"

Regarding the sweep… "It was huge. We were sitting at sixth before the weekend, so it's big for us to start climbing in the league and get back to where we want to be. We want to just forget about the first half of the year. We didn't play like we wanted to. We want to come out in the second half refreshed and recharged, and hold onto what we've got right now, get some confidence, and start rolling"

Regarding the North Dakota series… "Oh man, we're so excited. Rivalry week. It doesn't get much better than that"


Minnesota Head Coach Don Lucia:

Regarding tonights game… "It was a better start for us tonight. They (Alaska Anchorage) played so hard last night, and maybe losing a heartbreaker like that took a little bit out of them tonight. But our guys came out and played much better and dominated the first period. They (Alaska Anchorage) gave a little surge in the second period to make it 2-1, but then we scored the third and fourth goals, and that pretty much ended it tonight. When Rau gets the hat trick, and the power play scored a couple more goals tonight….we were much more in sync. We were hunting pucks better, moving it better, and just played a much better overall game. I like the fact that we lost Erik (Haula), and we won three games without him, and scored some goals. That's a positive part. Now we'll see what his availability will be"

Regarding the sweep… "We had the wins and ties on weekends, and we did a lot of good things that first half, and actually this is the end of the first half for us, that was our fourteenth game. We're sitting in a decent position, especially overall. We want to work to continue to get better, but I thought our D played a lot better tonight. I liked Brady (Skjei) this weekend. I think he made a couple of strides. I think Mike Reilly was really noticeable tonight versus last night, and we had the puck a lot more tonight, and made some plays when we had it. "

Regarding the depth of the WCHA… "We've got a good league. It doesn't matter who you play. That showed last night when we probably stole a win. You've gotta come to play every night to give yourself a chance to win. It doesn't guarantee you a win, but at least you give yourself a chance. Tonight, we played much better"

Regarding his thoughts on defending the McNaughton Cup… "Well, talk to me at the end of February, early March to see if we're in a position or not. That's a long ways away. We're worried about North Dakota this weekend, I think that's enough to worry about"

Regarding Mike Shibrowski getting ice time… "We seriously thought about starting him tonight. It worked out fine. He got a chance to get his feet wet tonight, and now he's in a position to play if we need him. He's gotta get back into the rhythm. He missed a lot of time, and now he's got a couple weeks of practice under his belt. I think he's in a much better position to play from here on out"

Regarding Adam Wilcox possibly getting burn out… "I'm not worried because of breaks in our schedule. We play four more games and we have a complete week off. If you see signs where he needs a day off, or a game off, then you give him a game off, because you still have to look at the big picture. Adam's very athletic and in great physical condition, and it's not like he's seeing forty shots a night either. He's getting in the low twenties, and I think that makes a difference too"


The Gophers will take on North Dakota next weekend at Mariucci Arena. Game times are 7:00 PM (Central) on Friday, and an early 5:00 PM (Central) start on Saturday. The games will be broadcast on Fox Sports North.
 

I don't think this is the first sweep. We swept Michigan State to open the season. But it was the first swep of WCHA play.

Good sweep all around.
 

But I was in San Francisco for the Michigan State weekend, so it didn't count. ;) Yes, first WCHA sweep of the season. My bad.
 




Top Bottom