Gophers Shutout by Bulldogs, 3-0

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Not much went right on Friday evening as the Gophers were handled by in-state rival, Minnesota Duluth. Minnesota got down early and couldn’t muster any offense, falling 3-0 to the Bulldogs in the series opener

Disastrous Start
Just 22 seconds into the game, freshman Leon Bristedt took a holding penalty to give the dangerous Bulldog team an early man advantage. The Gophers had almost killed the minor but UMD’s Austin Farley found the back of the net. In an important game like this, it was obvious that both teams wanted to come out fast and everything came to a screeching halt for the Gophers after the goal.

“They’re always a quick starting team here,” said Duluth coach, Scott Sandelin, of the Gophers. “I lived that for 20 years when we played here. We harped on that all week.”

One thing that Don Lucia likes to teach his players is to win the first 10 minutes and you’ll have a great shot of winning the game.

“They were the better team tonight from the get-go,” said Don Lucia. “We tried to play a 10-minute game and we took a penalty the first shift, they scored, we couldn’t get anything going all night long. They got to loose pucks…It wasn’t our night tonight. They played very well and deserved to win the game.”

The impressive thing for the Bulldogs is that they were able to maintain the early pressure throughout the game. It seemed like every breakout for Minnesota was a foot behind the forward or the Gophers were always a half step behind when going into the corners. Nothing was crisp and nothing looked easy or natural. Penalties, offside, icing, Minnesota was doing themselves no favors and it never clicked. I have to give credit to UMD who didn’t play down to the Gophers’ level, instead continuing to press and make every pass difficult for Minnesota.

“Real good 60-minute game for our team,” said Sandelin. “We harped on getting a good start like we did last week; I thought we did that. Obviously we had a very good first period…That’s what you need against this team. You can’t let your guard down. I thought our guys did a good job, the whole night, for the 60-minute game.”

Discipline Disparity
As with any rivalry, there was plenty of contact and chippyness after the whistle. I also noticed a ton of chirping from both sides. What was frustrating was that the combination of being down and the extra-curriculars caused Minnesota to give the Bulldogs six powerplays while the Gophers had just one.

“When you’re staring at a 31, 32 percent powerplay, you don’t want to give them too many opportunities,” said Sandelin. “Our guys did a great job of moving their feet and not putting ourselves in positions, you know, I thought we skated really well tonight. I think that was really important not taking some of those penalities.”

The penalties weren’t the only reason for the loss, but it certainly didn’t help with the Gophers playing from behind for all but two minutes of the game.

“I was really disappointed,” said Lucia of his team’s lack of discipline. “I had not seen that. I’m embarrassed at some of those penalties at the end. That’s not the way we play, that’s not the way we coach. It just summed up our guys and their frustration. One of the things we talked about before the game was UMD has a good powerplay and the discipline factor, we didn’t have it tonight.”

Lone Bright Spot
From top to bottom, I found it hard to pick out one player or one line that had a good game. The only reason the score wasn’t more lopsided was the play of Adam Wilcox who came up with some huge saves to keep the game close until the third period. The Bulldogs shelled Wilcox for 38 shots on net (Minnesota had just 17) and also fired 68 total shots compared to just 31 for Minnesota. It really goes to show the type of possession hockey UMD was playing throughout. If not for Wilcox, this game could have easily been 5 or 6-0.

Three Stars of the Game
#3 Goalie Kasimir Kaskisuo
#2 Center Cal Decowski
#1 Left Wing Austin Farley

What’s Next
The Gophers have a tough road as they try to avoid the sweep. They will travel to Duluth after the game on Friday as they look for the series split tomorrow evening at 7 p.m. The game can be seen on FSN+ or heard on ESPN1500.
 

What a disappointing weekend of Gopher hockey.

Hoping we get back on track quickly.

Go Gophers!!
 

I missed the Saturday game, so I'd be curious on any thoughts, but that was a garbage performance on Friday. Warno couldn't seem to do anything right: bad decisions, bad stickhandling, bad passes, bad pass receptions. Kloos got into a position a couple of times where he was back covering for defenseman, and he looked totally lost and got turned around badly. Collins played some pathetically lazy shifts. All in all, I didn't like a lot of our decisionmaking or are execution. In the first period, we seemed hellbent on setting up the cycle in the corner, and there were a few times where we passed up an open guy in the slot for a good scoring chance to work it down to a covered winger in the corner.

Also, the boarding call on Christian was horse crap, but the game was already over. I can't believe we got a major because the Duluth guy couldn't skate.
 




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