It was supposed to be the #2 Ferris State Bulldogs and #1 Minnesota in the Championship game of the Mariucci Classic tonight. But the Gophers (3-0-1-0 B1G, 12-2-3 Overall) couldn’t get the job done against Colgate Friday night, and ended up in the third place game against the R.P.I. Engineers (3-3-3 ECAC, 8-7-4 Overall) tonight at Mariucci Arena in front of 9,632.
Here is what I saw:
- Which title for this game summary is worse? “R.I.P., R.P.I.”, “Gophers Rip R.P.I.” or “Engineers Derailed By Gophers” (I know, it's probably the other kind of Engineer, not the railroad kind, but I've never seen that specified anywhere). Guessing none of those have EVER been used before.
- Is jet lag contagious? The Gophers looked like they were all suffering from it in the first period. After a lethargic first period, Minnesota erupted for 3 goals in the first seven minutes of the second period, and the game was never in doubt after that point.
- Seth Amboz seemed more "animated" tonight when he skated, and when he got hit. He even seemed a little wobbly at times. He did shave his head. Perhaps his hair is heavy, and the loss of so much of it at one time is throwing his balance off?
Here are the post game comments:
Rensselaer Head Coach Seth Appert:
Regarding the disallowed goal/penalty…. “They (the Officials) had no idea who got interference, who interfered. It was a bad call, but that’s not why we lost. It was a big moment, obviously it would have been 4-3 with eight minutes to go. It was a big moment, but that’s not why we lost”
Regarding the game…. “We lost because we came out…uncertain of ourselves, and not one hundred percent committed to play the way we need to play, to beat a team of their caliber. I thought they came out with a lot of pace. I give Minnesota a ton of credit. They’re very talented, but I thought their compete level was very high tonight. I thought Minnesota was real committed to playing an honest game tonight. They finished checks, they were strong, they had good gaps, and so that’s part of it. I thought their whole team was like that. And then, their D corp skates really well. It’s a really mobile D corp that can shut you down if they have that mentality, and then they also move the puck well, and transition out of the zone. We weren’t physical enough in the first two periods”
Minnesota Head Coach Don Lucia:
Regarding his return…. “It was nice to be back with the guys. I really haven’t seen them play since our Saturday Michigan State game. It’s always nice when you’ve been away from the guys, you love em a lot more than when you’re with em all the time. So it was good to be back around em. I was kind of excited to get back in there tonight with em. I got back to my house around 7:30, and I thought about coming to the rink, but I thought it would be more of a distraction than anything else. I thought last nights game wasn’t on TV. I didn’t realize it even was. I was in bed about ten minutes to nine. I woke up this morning and saw the score, and knew we’d be playing R.P.I. so I was down at the rink about eight this morning. Mike (Guentzel) was doing video of last nights game, and Grant was doing prep work for R.P.I., so the team was obviously in great hands. You don’t have to worry about that. But it was good just to get back with the guys”
Regarding the game…. “I think that we had a good strong first period, and had a lot of good looks. That was obviously an important goal (Connor Reilly’s goal in the first), because I think it set the tone for the start of the second period. We came out and scored some goals to give us some breathing room tonight. We revamped the lines totally. We just felt we’re getting back into Big Ten play. It seemed like some of the guys were a little stale, and hadn’t scored in a while. It was great to see (Kyle) Rau get a couple of goals tonight. A nice shout out to Travis Boyd and their line, because we matched them up the whole night, pretty much, against RPI’s top line, who have thirty eight goals. They scored a couple of goals, and were a plus two. I thought Brady (Skjei) did a good job defending against that line. I really think Brady’s come back a better player. He played that role for us at the World Juniors. He understands what he is, and when he’s playing that way, it makes us a better team”
Regarding the disallowed goal/penalty…. “Well, they could have called six others for face-off interference. They finally called one”
Regarding the power play…. “It was great to see the power play come through and score the goal. I thought we had pretty good rhythm to our power play, especially after the first one. We left (Taylor) Cammarata with (Kyle) Rau, because he was playing together on the line. They hadn’t practiced together, but it looked like they had a little bit of chemistry going, so it was good to see. One of the things I talked to the guys about on the power play is puck movement and puck support. It seems like we’re holding it, and holding it, and not moving it until we have to. Let the puck do the work. And you also have to move without it. You have to create some two on one’s, you have to go retrieve it and you have to be in a better support position to make shorter pass’s and then deliver pucks to the net. It’s not rocket science. I mean, you’ve got to let the puck do the work, and move it more quickly. The more you move the puck, the more the defense has to move and adjust. And when a defense adjusts, then you’re going to open up some seems”
Ben Marshall:
Regarding the Defense…. “You know, we played a lot of minutes last night, and carried over into today. We’re glad that (Brady) Skjei was able to get back. I think it was just that we were in sync. We got our shifts, and paced ourselves a little better tonight than last night. We got more rest, so it was better for the D corp”
Regarding their scoring outburst…. “Yeah, it’s called ‘puck luck’ (smiling). No, they just emphasized getting the puck to the net, beating the first defender. Every now and then you throw pucks at the net, you get lucky and have forwards bang it home for you”
Regarding the Defense getting into the offense…. “We’ve always got the green light. Every game the coaches give us the green light. I think tonight, we had six D, so we were more in sync. We had more energy to get up in the rush, where last night, maybe we were a little tired and had to move the puck up instead of rushing it up”
Travis Boyd:
Regarding his line…. “It’s a nice way to start the second half off. It’s important to get the confidence going after the break like that, so getting off like that is definitely a good thing. We knew we were going to be matched up against em (RPI’s first line), so we knew we had to do a good job at D. I think we picked our spots to create offense, and I thought my line tonight played absolutely phenomenal. Tommy (Serratore) & ‘Broz’ (Seth Ambroz) did a great job. We shut them down, and gave our team spark”
Regarding the game…. “it was nice having six D. Kind of get into more of a rhythm. For me at least, playing with Tommy and Ambroz was nice. I think our team responded well tonight and had a good game. Last night was maybe a little rusty. You take twenty seven days off, you’re not going to be great coming back the first game. We weren’t happy about it, but at the same time, we knew we were going to play better tonight. I think we did that, and we’re confident moving forward into Big Ten play. You just gotta come every night, and do the little things every night that are going to help you win”
The Gophers will take on the Penn State Nittany Lions next weekend in University Park, PA. Game time both nights is 6:00 PM (Central). Broadcast of the game Friday is currently not planned, while Saturday’s will be broadcast on the B1G Network.
Here is what I saw:
- Which title for this game summary is worse? “R.I.P., R.P.I.”, “Gophers Rip R.P.I.” or “Engineers Derailed By Gophers” (I know, it's probably the other kind of Engineer, not the railroad kind, but I've never seen that specified anywhere). Guessing none of those have EVER been used before.
- Is jet lag contagious? The Gophers looked like they were all suffering from it in the first period. After a lethargic first period, Minnesota erupted for 3 goals in the first seven minutes of the second period, and the game was never in doubt after that point.
- Seth Amboz seemed more "animated" tonight when he skated, and when he got hit. He even seemed a little wobbly at times. He did shave his head. Perhaps his hair is heavy, and the loss of so much of it at one time is throwing his balance off?
Here are the post game comments:
Rensselaer Head Coach Seth Appert:
Regarding the disallowed goal/penalty…. “They (the Officials) had no idea who got interference, who interfered. It was a bad call, but that’s not why we lost. It was a big moment, obviously it would have been 4-3 with eight minutes to go. It was a big moment, but that’s not why we lost”
Regarding the game…. “We lost because we came out…uncertain of ourselves, and not one hundred percent committed to play the way we need to play, to beat a team of their caliber. I thought they came out with a lot of pace. I give Minnesota a ton of credit. They’re very talented, but I thought their compete level was very high tonight. I thought Minnesota was real committed to playing an honest game tonight. They finished checks, they were strong, they had good gaps, and so that’s part of it. I thought their whole team was like that. And then, their D corp skates really well. It’s a really mobile D corp that can shut you down if they have that mentality, and then they also move the puck well, and transition out of the zone. We weren’t physical enough in the first two periods”
Minnesota Head Coach Don Lucia:
Regarding his return…. “It was nice to be back with the guys. I really haven’t seen them play since our Saturday Michigan State game. It’s always nice when you’ve been away from the guys, you love em a lot more than when you’re with em all the time. So it was good to be back around em. I was kind of excited to get back in there tonight with em. I got back to my house around 7:30, and I thought about coming to the rink, but I thought it would be more of a distraction than anything else. I thought last nights game wasn’t on TV. I didn’t realize it even was. I was in bed about ten minutes to nine. I woke up this morning and saw the score, and knew we’d be playing R.P.I. so I was down at the rink about eight this morning. Mike (Guentzel) was doing video of last nights game, and Grant was doing prep work for R.P.I., so the team was obviously in great hands. You don’t have to worry about that. But it was good just to get back with the guys”
Regarding the game…. “I think that we had a good strong first period, and had a lot of good looks. That was obviously an important goal (Connor Reilly’s goal in the first), because I think it set the tone for the start of the second period. We came out and scored some goals to give us some breathing room tonight. We revamped the lines totally. We just felt we’re getting back into Big Ten play. It seemed like some of the guys were a little stale, and hadn’t scored in a while. It was great to see (Kyle) Rau get a couple of goals tonight. A nice shout out to Travis Boyd and their line, because we matched them up the whole night, pretty much, against RPI’s top line, who have thirty eight goals. They scored a couple of goals, and were a plus two. I thought Brady (Skjei) did a good job defending against that line. I really think Brady’s come back a better player. He played that role for us at the World Juniors. He understands what he is, and when he’s playing that way, it makes us a better team”
Regarding the disallowed goal/penalty…. “Well, they could have called six others for face-off interference. They finally called one”
Regarding the power play…. “It was great to see the power play come through and score the goal. I thought we had pretty good rhythm to our power play, especially after the first one. We left (Taylor) Cammarata with (Kyle) Rau, because he was playing together on the line. They hadn’t practiced together, but it looked like they had a little bit of chemistry going, so it was good to see. One of the things I talked to the guys about on the power play is puck movement and puck support. It seems like we’re holding it, and holding it, and not moving it until we have to. Let the puck do the work. And you also have to move without it. You have to create some two on one’s, you have to go retrieve it and you have to be in a better support position to make shorter pass’s and then deliver pucks to the net. It’s not rocket science. I mean, you’ve got to let the puck do the work, and move it more quickly. The more you move the puck, the more the defense has to move and adjust. And when a defense adjusts, then you’re going to open up some seems”
Ben Marshall:
Regarding the Defense…. “You know, we played a lot of minutes last night, and carried over into today. We’re glad that (Brady) Skjei was able to get back. I think it was just that we were in sync. We got our shifts, and paced ourselves a little better tonight than last night. We got more rest, so it was better for the D corp”
Regarding their scoring outburst…. “Yeah, it’s called ‘puck luck’ (smiling). No, they just emphasized getting the puck to the net, beating the first defender. Every now and then you throw pucks at the net, you get lucky and have forwards bang it home for you”
Regarding the Defense getting into the offense…. “We’ve always got the green light. Every game the coaches give us the green light. I think tonight, we had six D, so we were more in sync. We had more energy to get up in the rush, where last night, maybe we were a little tired and had to move the puck up instead of rushing it up”
Travis Boyd:
Regarding his line…. “It’s a nice way to start the second half off. It’s important to get the confidence going after the break like that, so getting off like that is definitely a good thing. We knew we were going to be matched up against em (RPI’s first line), so we knew we had to do a good job at D. I think we picked our spots to create offense, and I thought my line tonight played absolutely phenomenal. Tommy (Serratore) & ‘Broz’ (Seth Ambroz) did a great job. We shut them down, and gave our team spark”
Regarding the game…. “it was nice having six D. Kind of get into more of a rhythm. For me at least, playing with Tommy and Ambroz was nice. I think our team responded well tonight and had a good game. Last night was maybe a little rusty. You take twenty seven days off, you’re not going to be great coming back the first game. We weren’t happy about it, but at the same time, we knew we were going to play better tonight. I think we did that, and we’re confident moving forward into Big Ten play. You just gotta come every night, and do the little things every night that are going to help you win”
The Gophers will take on the Penn State Nittany Lions next weekend in University Park, PA. Game time both nights is 6:00 PM (Central). Broadcast of the game Friday is currently not planned, while Saturday’s will be broadcast on the B1G Network.