The second ranked Golden Gophers (21-6-5, 13-6-5 WCHA) and Minnesota-Duluth (10-17-5, 8-13-5 WCHA) met again tonight at Mariucci Arena in front of 10,241, for the regular season finale for the two teams as foes in the WCHA. The Gophers twice saw their one goal lead disappear, and had to settle for a 2-2 tie with the Bulldogs.
Here is what I saw.
* It's good to get three out of a possible four points on a weekend, but you should also be able to put away teams in the rear view mirror of the league standings. When you tie a team like UMD, which is having a down year, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
* The Officiating was terrible. We've come to expect it from Don Adam though I guess. Kyle Rau got slashed hard on the hands, no call. Same shift, Rau whacks at the UMD players stick and he drops it. Rau gets a slashing penalty. UMD would score on the power play. Later in the second period, Brady Skjei gets called for a phantom trip where the UMD player clearly took a dive. Then Erik Haula got called for two matching penalties during the game, neither of which was a penalty. The second of those penalties he took a punch to the face and knocked to the ice while the guy that hit him went off into the corner taking full swings with his stick at the head of another Gopher. Nothing more frustrating than when the Referees help determine the outcome of a game.
* The Minnesota coaching staff must have seen something on tape regarding the way UMD was clearing the zone last night, as the Gophers picked off a couple of clearing passes early on and got good shots on goal out of those steals.
* Gophers looked like they were playing with purpose tonight, right from the get go. They were lackadaisical at times on Friday night.
* UMD Goalkeeper Matt McNeely looked like he was lost most of the first period, because he had no idea where the puck was half the time. The Gophers were getting a lot of traffic in front, and taking away his vision. Looked like he was seeing the puck better the rest of the game, although there were a couple of shots that hit him before he even reacted.
* Gophers special teams could use some work in practice this week. The Penalty Kill gave up three power play goals in two games, and the Power Play only managed one goal all weekend.
Here are the post game comments:
Minnesota Head Coach Don Lucia:
Regarding the game… "I thought both teams played well, I thought the effort was there by everybody, goaltenders were sharp on both sides, and it was just a hard fought WCHA game tonight. The teams really competed hard from start to finish. There was shot blocking, playing the body, goaltenders making saves at critical times… It was a good game. I thought we played better tonight than last night. Our game was better, it was faster, more crisp. We made a mistake on the second goal. That's disappointing. It was kind of a fluky play. We only gave up the one five on five goal. At this point, one five on five goal a night, and we did that both nights"
Regarding Kyle Rau… "He's going to go to the dirty areas, that's just Kyle. He's always scored his goals in those types of areas. He's not going to back down from anything. He took a pounding, but it's not going to prevent him from going in those areas. Sometimes you have to settle him down a little bit, because I think it can take him off his game too. There's that fine line that we don't want him to cross, where he can be involved in the game, but not take yourself out of the game"
Regarding fixes for next weekend… "I thought our penalty kill struggled a little bit this weekend. We gave up three, and I think we had only given up nine all year coming into it. Denver's got a good power play, and we'll have to do better than that"
Mike Reilly:
Regarding the weekend… "We haven't had four point weekends, and I think that's really hurting us in the standings. With how tight the standings are, I don't think we're satisfied with three of four points this weekend. We've gotta learn how to close it out on Saturdays. I think Fridays we're doing great, and Saturdays we're not playing our best. I definitely think we can improve that in the last two weekends here, and I think we're going to have to get a four point weekend here if we want to win it all"
Regarding his goal… "(Ben) Marshall and I did a little switch, and he dropped it down. No one came at me so I went to the middle. I threw a fake shot on the Goalie and I didn't know if he saw me, so I went to the left and put it in the back of the net"
Travis Boyd:
Regarding the game… "Definitely disappointing. Especially because we had the lead in the third period. And then to go ahead and make a couple of mistakes that lead to their goal to tie it up, it's very disappointing. I give them credit. They played good in the D zone, and they blocked a ton of shots. You could really tell that they were going to do anything to try and get the win, or at least a tie, and they got the tie. It's a good job for them"
Regarding what the coaches told them between the second and third periods… "Well, they said we've got twenty minutes to win a game. It's a tie game going into the third, so whoever wins that period, wins the game. They just kept it simple, and said we've got twenty minutes, at home, to win a game. Let's go out there and take it"
Regarding what the team needs to do differently… "We've gotta get better consistency. We've gotta be able to win two games on a weekend. We can't come in on Friday, win, and then come in on Saturday and tie or lose. Once you get into the playoffs, you've gotta win two games in the weekend. If you can't do that, you're not going to be moving on"
The Gophers will take on the Denver Pioneers next weekend at Mariucci Arena. Game time both nights is 7:00 PM (Central). Fridays game will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network, and Saturdays on Fox Sports North.
Here is what I saw.
* It's good to get three out of a possible four points on a weekend, but you should also be able to put away teams in the rear view mirror of the league standings. When you tie a team like UMD, which is having a down year, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
* The Officiating was terrible. We've come to expect it from Don Adam though I guess. Kyle Rau got slashed hard on the hands, no call. Same shift, Rau whacks at the UMD players stick and he drops it. Rau gets a slashing penalty. UMD would score on the power play. Later in the second period, Brady Skjei gets called for a phantom trip where the UMD player clearly took a dive. Then Erik Haula got called for two matching penalties during the game, neither of which was a penalty. The second of those penalties he took a punch to the face and knocked to the ice while the guy that hit him went off into the corner taking full swings with his stick at the head of another Gopher. Nothing more frustrating than when the Referees help determine the outcome of a game.
* The Minnesota coaching staff must have seen something on tape regarding the way UMD was clearing the zone last night, as the Gophers picked off a couple of clearing passes early on and got good shots on goal out of those steals.
* Gophers looked like they were playing with purpose tonight, right from the get go. They were lackadaisical at times on Friday night.
* UMD Goalkeeper Matt McNeely looked like he was lost most of the first period, because he had no idea where the puck was half the time. The Gophers were getting a lot of traffic in front, and taking away his vision. Looked like he was seeing the puck better the rest of the game, although there were a couple of shots that hit him before he even reacted.
* Gophers special teams could use some work in practice this week. The Penalty Kill gave up three power play goals in two games, and the Power Play only managed one goal all weekend.
Here are the post game comments:
Minnesota Head Coach Don Lucia:
Regarding the game… "I thought both teams played well, I thought the effort was there by everybody, goaltenders were sharp on both sides, and it was just a hard fought WCHA game tonight. The teams really competed hard from start to finish. There was shot blocking, playing the body, goaltenders making saves at critical times… It was a good game. I thought we played better tonight than last night. Our game was better, it was faster, more crisp. We made a mistake on the second goal. That's disappointing. It was kind of a fluky play. We only gave up the one five on five goal. At this point, one five on five goal a night, and we did that both nights"
Regarding Kyle Rau… "He's going to go to the dirty areas, that's just Kyle. He's always scored his goals in those types of areas. He's not going to back down from anything. He took a pounding, but it's not going to prevent him from going in those areas. Sometimes you have to settle him down a little bit, because I think it can take him off his game too. There's that fine line that we don't want him to cross, where he can be involved in the game, but not take yourself out of the game"
Regarding fixes for next weekend… "I thought our penalty kill struggled a little bit this weekend. We gave up three, and I think we had only given up nine all year coming into it. Denver's got a good power play, and we'll have to do better than that"
Mike Reilly:
Regarding the weekend… "We haven't had four point weekends, and I think that's really hurting us in the standings. With how tight the standings are, I don't think we're satisfied with three of four points this weekend. We've gotta learn how to close it out on Saturdays. I think Fridays we're doing great, and Saturdays we're not playing our best. I definitely think we can improve that in the last two weekends here, and I think we're going to have to get a four point weekend here if we want to win it all"
Regarding his goal… "(Ben) Marshall and I did a little switch, and he dropped it down. No one came at me so I went to the middle. I threw a fake shot on the Goalie and I didn't know if he saw me, so I went to the left and put it in the back of the net"
Travis Boyd:
Regarding the game… "Definitely disappointing. Especially because we had the lead in the third period. And then to go ahead and make a couple of mistakes that lead to their goal to tie it up, it's very disappointing. I give them credit. They played good in the D zone, and they blocked a ton of shots. You could really tell that they were going to do anything to try and get the win, or at least a tie, and they got the tie. It's a good job for them"
Regarding what the coaches told them between the second and third periods… "Well, they said we've got twenty minutes to win a game. It's a tie game going into the third, so whoever wins that period, wins the game. They just kept it simple, and said we've got twenty minutes, at home, to win a game. Let's go out there and take it"
Regarding what the team needs to do differently… "We've gotta get better consistency. We've gotta be able to win two games on a weekend. We can't come in on Friday, win, and then come in on Saturday and tie or lose. Once you get into the playoffs, you've gotta win two games in the weekend. If you can't do that, you're not going to be moving on"
The Gophers will take on the Denver Pioneers next weekend at Mariucci Arena. Game time both nights is 7:00 PM (Central). Fridays game will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network, and Saturdays on Fox Sports North.
