The Gophers (0-0-0 B1G, 9-2-1 Overall) took it on the chin Sunday evening at Mariucci Arena, losing to UMD (2-2-0 NCHC, 6-5-1 Overall) by a final score of 6-2, and getting back a little of what they had doled out themselves to the Bulldogs on Friday night.
Here is what I saw.
* Nate Condon and some other Gopher players looked flat today. Guys who normally supply the spark, looked lifeless today. It was hard to come up with the name of one player who actually stood out in a positive manner this afternoon.
* Hudson Fasching was dazzling from behind the net on occasion again tonight. He will get some assists from back there, and will surely have a couple of wrap around goals before the year is over. He’s got good size, a long reach, and stick skill. Despite the overall poor performance by the team, there are glimpses of greatness.
* Gophers took a lot of bad penalties, and it killed them. In the matter of just a few seconds, Mike Reilly took an unnecessary penalty in front of his own net, and Brady Skjei followed that up with an interference penalty just seconds later. UMD capitalized shortly thereafter, to make it 3-0.
*All I could think part way through the first period was, I hope Lucia chews them out between periods, because they need a wake up call in the worst way. I get the feeling that the Gophers were a little too full of themselves after Friday night.
* Minnesota had plenty of opportunities in the first period, but there were a lot of near misses. UMD Goaltender Matt McNeely didn’t look sharp, but managed to get a piece of the puck when he needed to. McNeely got a lot of support from his team, unlike Adam Wilcox, and Michael Shibrowski after him. As Don Lucia said after the game, they were “hung out to dry” several times.
* I must admit, it is nice to see that UMD’s team is made up primarily of Minnesotans. There is a lot of Minnesota pride in that. It’s just too bad they are the second tier talent, you know, because they don’t play for the Gophers. I believe they are also referred to, in some circles, as “Gopher Rejects”, followed by several claps.
* Officiating was TERRIBLE. Some really weak calls on both sides, and no calls when there should have been. They were also in the way three or four times, had some quick whistles, etc. You expect that in every game to some degree, but they were very bad today.
Here are the post game comments:
UMD Head Coach Scott Sandelin:
Regarding the game…. “All I know is we got off to a good start, got a lead, and we built off it. Kinda turned the tables on them. For one, our power play was going tonight. That’s been a little bit of a thorn. Tonight we were able to build on the lead. Obviously it was a nice shorthanded goal, and then we got some goals and took a little wind out of their sails, like they did to us in the first period on Friday. I thought they started a little bit better than us, but our Goalie kept us in it. It was a little bit of mirror images between the games”
Minnesota Head Coach Don Lucia:
Regarding the game…. “The specialty teams were the big thing tonight. You can’t give up four goals on the penalty kill, and a short handed goal, and give yourself a chance to win. I don’t think we played with great structure today. I don’t think we were real disciplined in our play, whether it was taking penalties or improper stick positioning on our penalty kill. We’re all in it together, and we’ll take blame for that. But UMD played well, and they deserved to win today. There’s going to be nights like this, but it’s all part of the process. It’s something we’ve been talking about since the first day of the season, the process of working, and trying to get better. There’s going to be some peaks and valleys, and that’s all part of it. We understand that, we expect that, and we have to learn from it. I didn’t think it was a chippy weekend at all, I thought two teams competed and played hard. Now we come back to work on Tuesday and get better, and get ready for Wisconsin. The good news for me is we’re sitting 9-2-1, we’ve had a great non-conference run here to begin the season, and we’ve put ourselves in a good position. Now we get ready for two Big Ten weekends of play, before we break for Christmas”
Regarding Adam Wilcox…. “He was hung out to dry a little bit. You had the five on three backdoor, he had a couple of those backdoor plays that we weren’t in great position. To me, that’s being mentally engaged as much as anything, and I’m not sure how mentally engaged we were to play a smart game, which you have to do against good teams. You have to give yourself a chance to win every night. That doesn’t mean you’re going to win, but I don’t think some of the mental errors we made gave us a chance to win tonight”
Regarding the special teams…. “We were twenty percent on the power play, so that’s better than our average. That wasn’t our issue. We had about eighteen or nineteen shots on the power play, so we had some good looks tonight. In the third period, we were just running our lines, and letting some other guys have an opportunity. The guys that are in those positions, whether it’s the power play or penalty kill, have to do their job. You have to give credit to the other team for making some good plays, and you have to credit the goaltender for making the save at the right time. So again, this is all a part of the process. We’ll learn from it and move on. A big part of penalty killing is positional play, stick positioning, and all that. That’s one of the things, we allowed some seems tonight on the passing. That’s one of the rules not to do, and we did it. As a result, pucks were hitting the net”
Travis Boyd:
Regarding the game and the weekend series…. “Usually they’re tight games. This weekend was a little different than usual. Both games were lopsided. Sure didn’t come out to play the way we wanted to today. I don’t think we executed very well. We made some mental mistakes, and they capitalized on them. It was a good job by them. I don’t think we had any offensive time. This whole game, we just weren’t clicking. No one out there was really dialed in and ready to go today. I think we were shooting ourselves in the foot tonight a lot tonight. I just think we made too many mental mistakes out there to create any offense. It turned into a specialty teams game. It’s tough to stay into it, because you’re going to have some guys that won’t play for a stretch of five to ten minutes, and some guys that will be out there for almost the entire five or ten minutes. It’s definitely tough. Part of being mentally into the game, and I don’t think we were there today. I think we’ve got to make sure we come every game, every day, ready to work and give it one hundred percent. I just don’t think we were ready to go today. It has nothing to do with a young team anymore, we just weren’t ready to go. I don’t think we got any traffic, and don’t think we got any rebounds today. I think we made the game easy for them. We had a lot of shots from the outside, with very little pressure on them”
The Gophers will host the Wisconsin Badgers next Friday and Saturday at Mariucci Arena. Game time is 4:00 PM (Central) on Friday, and 5:00 PM on Saturday. Both games will be televised. Friday on ESPN U, and Saturday on Fox Sports North.
Here is what I saw.
* Nate Condon and some other Gopher players looked flat today. Guys who normally supply the spark, looked lifeless today. It was hard to come up with the name of one player who actually stood out in a positive manner this afternoon.
* Hudson Fasching was dazzling from behind the net on occasion again tonight. He will get some assists from back there, and will surely have a couple of wrap around goals before the year is over. He’s got good size, a long reach, and stick skill. Despite the overall poor performance by the team, there are glimpses of greatness.
* Gophers took a lot of bad penalties, and it killed them. In the matter of just a few seconds, Mike Reilly took an unnecessary penalty in front of his own net, and Brady Skjei followed that up with an interference penalty just seconds later. UMD capitalized shortly thereafter, to make it 3-0.
*All I could think part way through the first period was, I hope Lucia chews them out between periods, because they need a wake up call in the worst way. I get the feeling that the Gophers were a little too full of themselves after Friday night.
* Minnesota had plenty of opportunities in the first period, but there were a lot of near misses. UMD Goaltender Matt McNeely didn’t look sharp, but managed to get a piece of the puck when he needed to. McNeely got a lot of support from his team, unlike Adam Wilcox, and Michael Shibrowski after him. As Don Lucia said after the game, they were “hung out to dry” several times.
* I must admit, it is nice to see that UMD’s team is made up primarily of Minnesotans. There is a lot of Minnesota pride in that. It’s just too bad they are the second tier talent, you know, because they don’t play for the Gophers. I believe they are also referred to, in some circles, as “Gopher Rejects”, followed by several claps.
* Officiating was TERRIBLE. Some really weak calls on both sides, and no calls when there should have been. They were also in the way three or four times, had some quick whistles, etc. You expect that in every game to some degree, but they were very bad today.
Here are the post game comments:
UMD Head Coach Scott Sandelin:
Regarding the game…. “All I know is we got off to a good start, got a lead, and we built off it. Kinda turned the tables on them. For one, our power play was going tonight. That’s been a little bit of a thorn. Tonight we were able to build on the lead. Obviously it was a nice shorthanded goal, and then we got some goals and took a little wind out of their sails, like they did to us in the first period on Friday. I thought they started a little bit better than us, but our Goalie kept us in it. It was a little bit of mirror images between the games”
Minnesota Head Coach Don Lucia:
Regarding the game…. “The specialty teams were the big thing tonight. You can’t give up four goals on the penalty kill, and a short handed goal, and give yourself a chance to win. I don’t think we played with great structure today. I don’t think we were real disciplined in our play, whether it was taking penalties or improper stick positioning on our penalty kill. We’re all in it together, and we’ll take blame for that. But UMD played well, and they deserved to win today. There’s going to be nights like this, but it’s all part of the process. It’s something we’ve been talking about since the first day of the season, the process of working, and trying to get better. There’s going to be some peaks and valleys, and that’s all part of it. We understand that, we expect that, and we have to learn from it. I didn’t think it was a chippy weekend at all, I thought two teams competed and played hard. Now we come back to work on Tuesday and get better, and get ready for Wisconsin. The good news for me is we’re sitting 9-2-1, we’ve had a great non-conference run here to begin the season, and we’ve put ourselves in a good position. Now we get ready for two Big Ten weekends of play, before we break for Christmas”
Regarding Adam Wilcox…. “He was hung out to dry a little bit. You had the five on three backdoor, he had a couple of those backdoor plays that we weren’t in great position. To me, that’s being mentally engaged as much as anything, and I’m not sure how mentally engaged we were to play a smart game, which you have to do against good teams. You have to give yourself a chance to win every night. That doesn’t mean you’re going to win, but I don’t think some of the mental errors we made gave us a chance to win tonight”
Regarding the special teams…. “We were twenty percent on the power play, so that’s better than our average. That wasn’t our issue. We had about eighteen or nineteen shots on the power play, so we had some good looks tonight. In the third period, we were just running our lines, and letting some other guys have an opportunity. The guys that are in those positions, whether it’s the power play or penalty kill, have to do their job. You have to give credit to the other team for making some good plays, and you have to credit the goaltender for making the save at the right time. So again, this is all a part of the process. We’ll learn from it and move on. A big part of penalty killing is positional play, stick positioning, and all that. That’s one of the things, we allowed some seems tonight on the passing. That’s one of the rules not to do, and we did it. As a result, pucks were hitting the net”
Travis Boyd:
Regarding the game and the weekend series…. “Usually they’re tight games. This weekend was a little different than usual. Both games were lopsided. Sure didn’t come out to play the way we wanted to today. I don’t think we executed very well. We made some mental mistakes, and they capitalized on them. It was a good job by them. I don’t think we had any offensive time. This whole game, we just weren’t clicking. No one out there was really dialed in and ready to go today. I think we were shooting ourselves in the foot tonight a lot tonight. I just think we made too many mental mistakes out there to create any offense. It turned into a specialty teams game. It’s tough to stay into it, because you’re going to have some guys that won’t play for a stretch of five to ten minutes, and some guys that will be out there for almost the entire five or ten minutes. It’s definitely tough. Part of being mentally into the game, and I don’t think we were there today. I think we’ve got to make sure we come every game, every day, ready to work and give it one hundred percent. I just don’t think we were ready to go today. It has nothing to do with a young team anymore, we just weren’t ready to go. I don’t think we got any traffic, and don’t think we got any rebounds today. I think we made the game easy for them. We had a lot of shots from the outside, with very little pressure on them”
The Gophers will host the Wisconsin Badgers next Friday and Saturday at Mariucci Arena. Game time is 4:00 PM (Central) on Friday, and 5:00 PM on Saturday. Both games will be televised. Friday on ESPN U, and Saturday on Fox Sports North.