The #2 Gophers (10-2-2 B1G, 21-4-5 Overall) took on the #10/11 Michigan Wolverines (6-5-1-1 B1G, 14-9-3 Overall) again tonight at Mariucci Arena in front of 10,495, in the weekend finale between the two teams. Minnesota spotted the Wolverines a goal in the first couple of minutes of the game, and then answered with four unanswered goals for the 4-1 win, and the weekend sweep.
Here is what I saw.
- Minnesota and Michigan reversed roles from Friday night in the first period. Michigan was firing on all cylinders, and the Gophers looked out of sync. But unlike the first period on Friday night, when the Gophers dominated and only had a one goal lead to show for it, the Wolverines could only muster a tie after ruling the rink in the opening period tonight.
- Connor Reilly’s goal in the second period was a laser. If I was a Goalie, and I happen to be, I would have ducked. I never said I was any good. But seriously, the shot was a rocket. That’s some good netting to hold that puck from going right through.
- Last night it was Taylor Cammarata. Tonight it was Justin Holl’s turn to get knocked around. He got knocked into the Michigan bench in the first, and took a big hit behind the net in the second period that put him on his back.
- Gophers gave up waaaaay too many odd man rushes tonight.
- I like Hudson Fasching’s game. Besides all of the offensive talent, and hockey sense, He’s probably the cleanest player on the ice, but he’s the first one to step in when a teammate is getting abused.
- Michigan’s thuggish hockey was a little surprising to me. I would think a team coached by a legend like Red Berenson would be a little more disciplined. But Defenseman Michael Downing of the Wolverines got a game misconduct for the second night in a row after throwing a flagrant elbow to the head of Sam Warning. He had gone after Kyle Rau late in last nights game, again targeting the head. Later in the third period, it was Defenseman Andrew Sinelli cheap shotting Justin Kloos after the whistle, and then cross checking Nate Condon in the face. Really dirty hockey, and really kind of surprising.
Here are the post game comments:
Michigan Head Coach Red Berenson:
Regarding the game…. “I thought we played better tonight, right from the get go. We had good chances, but we didn’t capitalize on our best chances. We gave up goals too easily, and goals were precious this weekend. I liked our team. I thought we came out great in the first period, the second period, and the third period. But you’ve gotta capitalize on those chances. Their goalie played well, and their team played well. We had some good chances, but didn’t score“
Minnesota Head Coach Don Lucia:
Regarding the weekend…. “I’m just happy we rebounded after losing a couple of games in Madison the previous week. I thought we played pretty well that weekend, but you know, you can play well and not win too. I thought we were opportunistic this weekend. We had some timely goals. I thought (Gabe) Guertler’s line played extremely well this weekend. Both nights they gave us some quality minutes and contributed three goals on the weekend. I think that’s a big reason we won a couple of games”
Regarding the success of the fourth line…. “When you look at what they did in Junior hockey, I mean last year, (Gabe) Guertler and Vinni (Lettieri) both had basically thirty goals. And Connor (Reilly) was a big scorer coming off his knee injury. We needed some production. We sat the guy who have been rotating in and out of that line. They hadn’t scored since RPI, and we just felt we could get more from them. Some of it is just confidence, and getting out there, making some plays and feeling good about themselves. They did that this weekend. They had a lot of good shifts, and didn’t spend a lot of time in our own zone. I’m happy for them. They’re kids that work hard, they want to contribute, and they were able to do that this weekend. Some of it’s just ebb and flow I think. When you look at them, they have the ability to put some pucks in the net, and they did that. I mean, Connor’s was a great shot, and so was Gabe’s. They have the ability to do that. It takes the pressure off some other guys when you get those goals like they got tonight. I thought the important goal for us tonight was the first one. Michigan came out like we figured they would after losing on Friday night. First shot goes in, and we’re kind of able to right the ship as we went along with that first one to tie it up one to one was important to us”
Regarding their upcoming break…. “The break comes at a good time. We’ll have three weekends to go in the regular season when we come back. We should be back at one hundred percent. Tommy (Serratore) came back and was a little rusty this weekend, and we’ll get (Michael) Brodzinski back basically live on Monday for practice. We’ll take some days off. It will be a good break for Adam (Wilcox) at this point. We’ll get him some rest. The whole team can kind of take a deep breath right now, as we try to get ready for our final six games”
Regarding the game…. “Early on I didn’t think we had great structure to our game. In our neutral zone play, we’re running around giving up odd man rushes, and getting caught. Then we kind of settled in a little bit and had a little better structure to our game. We were opportunistic and scored some nice goals. We’ll take our two wins. We know we have to go there at the end of the year. That will be a great environment to play in for our guys. Now we have six difficult games left”
Regarding the Olympic Hockey Team…. “I saw parts of the game this morning. I didn’t go to sleep until late last night, so… I saw a lot of the second period, and I got here a couple of minutes into overtime when I drove in. What great talent on the ice. The will to win, when you see McDonough and Kesler blocking those shots. It doesn’t feel good. We talked to our guys
about that. We said that’s 9.7 million blocking shots between those two. If they can do it, we can do it”
Regarding shootouts… “Well, if I had my way, there wouldn’t be shootouts. But that’s a different story”
Connor Reilly:
Regarding the success of the fourth line…. “Coach actually brought us into his office on Wednesday, and really challenged us. I took it a little personal and said I had to step up and do something. I had to do something or come out of the lineup. In general, we just had to get pucks in, we had to bring energy, and we had to contribute, and I think we did that. It made our team a lot deeper and more successful“
Regarding their upcoming break…. “It’s a lot nicer coming off a sweep. We’re still going to come to work every day. Might have an off day this week. But our mindset is not going to change. If you do it the right way, you take care of your body, and do the right things, you can definitely come back recharged and stronger. We’ve got a couple of guys that have some bumps and bruises, so I think it will benefit us”
Regarding the Big Ten…. “I think it’s very competitive. Coach said coming into this weekend, if we’re going to win the Big Ten title, we’re going to have to win the series against Michigan. We put ourselves in a great spot, up two to nothing right now. We’ve gotta keep getting better. We’ve got three weekends coming up with Penn State, Michigan and Ohio State. And I know Michigan is very tough at home. So we’ve gotta keep focused“
Regarding his goal…. “Honestly, I came down and was trying to blow it past him. I wasn’t really going to try to aim too much. I knew I was going high glove, and was just going to shoot it as hard as I could and blow it past him. Luckily I did”
Nate Condon:
Regarding the success of the fourth line…. “It’s great. We always expect a goal or two out of our top two lines. Any time our fourth line can pitch in and get a goal here and there, it’s just going to help our team even more. I think the coaches talked to the fourth line, and talked about picking up their scoring, and they answered pretty well”
Regarding the scoring outburst this weekend…. “It was great. It was great (smiling). Playing with a two goal lead is a lot better than one. Our offense has been struggling a little bit, and I think guys found their touch again this weekend. It was great to see (Sam) Warning get back on the stat sheet. It’s hopefully something that we get back to, and something that we pride ourselves on”
The Gophers have next weekend off before hosting the Penn State Nittany Lions on 2/28 & 3/1. Game time is 8:00 PM (Central) Friday (BTN), and 6:00 PM (Central) on Saturday (NBC Sports Network).
Here is what I saw.
- Minnesota and Michigan reversed roles from Friday night in the first period. Michigan was firing on all cylinders, and the Gophers looked out of sync. But unlike the first period on Friday night, when the Gophers dominated and only had a one goal lead to show for it, the Wolverines could only muster a tie after ruling the rink in the opening period tonight.
- Connor Reilly’s goal in the second period was a laser. If I was a Goalie, and I happen to be, I would have ducked. I never said I was any good. But seriously, the shot was a rocket. That’s some good netting to hold that puck from going right through.
- Last night it was Taylor Cammarata. Tonight it was Justin Holl’s turn to get knocked around. He got knocked into the Michigan bench in the first, and took a big hit behind the net in the second period that put him on his back.
- Gophers gave up waaaaay too many odd man rushes tonight.
- I like Hudson Fasching’s game. Besides all of the offensive talent, and hockey sense, He’s probably the cleanest player on the ice, but he’s the first one to step in when a teammate is getting abused.
- Michigan’s thuggish hockey was a little surprising to me. I would think a team coached by a legend like Red Berenson would be a little more disciplined. But Defenseman Michael Downing of the Wolverines got a game misconduct for the second night in a row after throwing a flagrant elbow to the head of Sam Warning. He had gone after Kyle Rau late in last nights game, again targeting the head. Later in the third period, it was Defenseman Andrew Sinelli cheap shotting Justin Kloos after the whistle, and then cross checking Nate Condon in the face. Really dirty hockey, and really kind of surprising.
Here are the post game comments:
Michigan Head Coach Red Berenson:
Regarding the game…. “I thought we played better tonight, right from the get go. We had good chances, but we didn’t capitalize on our best chances. We gave up goals too easily, and goals were precious this weekend. I liked our team. I thought we came out great in the first period, the second period, and the third period. But you’ve gotta capitalize on those chances. Their goalie played well, and their team played well. We had some good chances, but didn’t score“
Minnesota Head Coach Don Lucia:
Regarding the weekend…. “I’m just happy we rebounded after losing a couple of games in Madison the previous week. I thought we played pretty well that weekend, but you know, you can play well and not win too. I thought we were opportunistic this weekend. We had some timely goals. I thought (Gabe) Guertler’s line played extremely well this weekend. Both nights they gave us some quality minutes and contributed three goals on the weekend. I think that’s a big reason we won a couple of games”
Regarding the success of the fourth line…. “When you look at what they did in Junior hockey, I mean last year, (Gabe) Guertler and Vinni (Lettieri) both had basically thirty goals. And Connor (Reilly) was a big scorer coming off his knee injury. We needed some production. We sat the guy who have been rotating in and out of that line. They hadn’t scored since RPI, and we just felt we could get more from them. Some of it is just confidence, and getting out there, making some plays and feeling good about themselves. They did that this weekend. They had a lot of good shifts, and didn’t spend a lot of time in our own zone. I’m happy for them. They’re kids that work hard, they want to contribute, and they were able to do that this weekend. Some of it’s just ebb and flow I think. When you look at them, they have the ability to put some pucks in the net, and they did that. I mean, Connor’s was a great shot, and so was Gabe’s. They have the ability to do that. It takes the pressure off some other guys when you get those goals like they got tonight. I thought the important goal for us tonight was the first one. Michigan came out like we figured they would after losing on Friday night. First shot goes in, and we’re kind of able to right the ship as we went along with that first one to tie it up one to one was important to us”
Regarding their upcoming break…. “The break comes at a good time. We’ll have three weekends to go in the regular season when we come back. We should be back at one hundred percent. Tommy (Serratore) came back and was a little rusty this weekend, and we’ll get (Michael) Brodzinski back basically live on Monday for practice. We’ll take some days off. It will be a good break for Adam (Wilcox) at this point. We’ll get him some rest. The whole team can kind of take a deep breath right now, as we try to get ready for our final six games”
Regarding the game…. “Early on I didn’t think we had great structure to our game. In our neutral zone play, we’re running around giving up odd man rushes, and getting caught. Then we kind of settled in a little bit and had a little better structure to our game. We were opportunistic and scored some nice goals. We’ll take our two wins. We know we have to go there at the end of the year. That will be a great environment to play in for our guys. Now we have six difficult games left”
Regarding the Olympic Hockey Team…. “I saw parts of the game this morning. I didn’t go to sleep until late last night, so… I saw a lot of the second period, and I got here a couple of minutes into overtime when I drove in. What great talent on the ice. The will to win, when you see McDonough and Kesler blocking those shots. It doesn’t feel good. We talked to our guys
about that. We said that’s 9.7 million blocking shots between those two. If they can do it, we can do it”
Regarding shootouts… “Well, if I had my way, there wouldn’t be shootouts. But that’s a different story”
Connor Reilly:
Regarding the success of the fourth line…. “Coach actually brought us into his office on Wednesday, and really challenged us. I took it a little personal and said I had to step up and do something. I had to do something or come out of the lineup. In general, we just had to get pucks in, we had to bring energy, and we had to contribute, and I think we did that. It made our team a lot deeper and more successful“
Regarding their upcoming break…. “It’s a lot nicer coming off a sweep. We’re still going to come to work every day. Might have an off day this week. But our mindset is not going to change. If you do it the right way, you take care of your body, and do the right things, you can definitely come back recharged and stronger. We’ve got a couple of guys that have some bumps and bruises, so I think it will benefit us”
Regarding the Big Ten…. “I think it’s very competitive. Coach said coming into this weekend, if we’re going to win the Big Ten title, we’re going to have to win the series against Michigan. We put ourselves in a great spot, up two to nothing right now. We’ve gotta keep getting better. We’ve got three weekends coming up with Penn State, Michigan and Ohio State. And I know Michigan is very tough at home. So we’ve gotta keep focused“
Regarding his goal…. “Honestly, I came down and was trying to blow it past him. I wasn’t really going to try to aim too much. I knew I was going high glove, and was just going to shoot it as hard as I could and blow it past him. Luckily I did”
Nate Condon:
Regarding the success of the fourth line…. “It’s great. We always expect a goal or two out of our top two lines. Any time our fourth line can pitch in and get a goal here and there, it’s just going to help our team even more. I think the coaches talked to the fourth line, and talked about picking up their scoring, and they answered pretty well”
Regarding the scoring outburst this weekend…. “It was great. It was great (smiling). Playing with a two goal lead is a lot better than one. Our offense has been struggling a little bit, and I think guys found their touch again this weekend. It was great to see (Sam) Warning get back on the stat sheet. It’s hopefully something that we get back to, and something that we pride ourselves on”
The Gophers have next weekend off before hosting the Penn State Nittany Lions on 2/28 & 3/1. Game time is 8:00 PM (Central) Friday (BTN), and 6:00 PM (Central) on Saturday (NBC Sports Network).