Well, that weekend was slightly more predictable, but we still had a few surprises in store.
Bemidji State took three from Colorado College
– This. This right here is an example of said surprises and a result that neither Tyler nor I saw.
– Friday was an offensive explosion and, as BSU coach Tom Serratore told the Colorado Springs Gazette’s Joe Paisley,
“It was a crazy game to be part of.”
– 5-5 ties can be like that.
– The Tigers kept getting leads but the Beavers kept coming back to tie.
– Even though Jaden Schwartz was back for CC, Tim Hall was the team’s early threat. I’ll borrow from Paisley here:
“After recording only his second goal of the season last Saturday, the junior from Pittsburgh doubled his season total with two scores 6:25 apart to lead the Tigers to a 3-2 lead after a wild first period.”
– On Saturday, the Beavers rallied from being down 1-0 early to win 2-1.
– One thing that probably hurt CC was losing Tyler Johnson to injury on Friday.
– However, the weekend was an overall good one for the Beavers, as Serratore told the Bemidji Pioneer‘s Eric Stromgren:
“It was a good weekend for us and I’m really happy for the fans because they saw some good hockey this weekend.”
Michigan Tech split Denver
– First of all, congrats to the Huskies for breaking their 26 game winless streak with a 3-2 win on Friday.
– It was funny reading the status updates of Tech fan friends on Facebook – their reactions ranged from extreme elation to utter shock.
– The feat was helped out by MTU’s two short-handed goals … and the rare fact they were able to hold a third period lead.
“Composure is big, and typically as a coaching staff you start looking at your older players; we don’t have any older players,” coach Jamie Russell told USCHO’s Candace Horgan. “You look at the ice and who’s out there with five minutes left and a one-goal game, it’s a lot of freshmen. That’s a learning process; you can talk about the things with X’s and O’s, but I thought our guys did a great job.”
– On Saturday, the Pioneers made some changes and earned the series split (and home ice) with a 5-1 victory.
– The highlight of the game, however, ended up on ESPN SportsCenter as the number three play. While short-handed, DU’s David Makowski sent what should have been a routine clear from behind his own blue line down the ice toward the Tech end … the puck ended up taking a funky bounce and went in past Tech goaltender Kevin Genoe.
– Ironically enough, Russell said that, “For Kevin’s sake, I hope it’s not on SportsCenter.”
– The goal was reminiscent of the one UND’s Robbie Bina scored on UM’s Jeff Frazee a few years ago.
– Well here, why don’t I just embed it?
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a79Ej7WK5Q
Minnesota State split Minnesota-Duluth
– Unsurprising result here.
– The Mavericks won Friday 3-1 on the strength of two power play goals.
– The Bulldogs outshot MSU 41-27, but couldn’t get much past Austin Lee.
“We did everything but score,” UMD’s Scott Sandelin told fellow columnist Tyler Buckentine. “It’s just not going in right now.”
– It did on Saturday, however, as the Bulldogs earned the split, winning 6-2.
– UMD also clinched home ice in the process and continued to avoid losing back-to-back games.
North Dakota took three from St. Cloud State
– Kind of surprising to see SCSU only get one point this weekend.
– However, the Sioux getting the one point on Friday meant they were the only top team in the league to earn a point (UMD, UNO, DU all lost).
– Matt Frattin scored two including the game-tying goal to help the Sioux tie SCSU, 3-3 on Friday.
– On Saturday, it was Brett Hextall’s turn to score twice as the Sioux beat SCSU, 3-2.
– From loosely following along on live blogs, it sounded like both games were hard fought and both teams had goals disallowed on the weekend.
– “These were highly intense games,” UND coach Dave Hakstol told the Grand Forks Herald’s Brad Schlossman on Saturday, succinctly summing up the series.
Nebraska-Omaha split Alaska-Anchorage
– Also an unsurprising result.
– The Seawolves won 3-2 on Friday, winning their fifth straight home game. Moreover, it was their fifth straight league home win, a first in team history.
– The loss broke a four-game winning streak for the Mavericks.
“They came out and hit, did a good job all over the ice and didn’t allow us to play our skating game,” UNO coach Dean Blais told the Anchorage Daily News’s Doyle Woody.
– On Saturday, from the sounds of Woody’s recap, the Seawolves put forth a good effort, but still lost, 4-1 …
– … thanks to the efforts of UNO’s John Faulkner.
“The difference was they scored on some of their quality chances and we didn’t,” said UAA coach Dave Shyiak. “You’ve got to give credit to their goaltender. He came up with some big saves.”
Minnesota took three from Wisconsin
– In turn helping them out tremendously in terms of home ice, as the Gophers sit in sixth place, just one point behind the Badgers.
– If you’re playing along at home, remember that Wisconsin took three from UM at Mariucci earlier this year … marking it the first time since the 2005-06 season that neither team successfully defended home ice.
– UM won 5-2 on Friday thanks to its upper class stepping up.
– Three seniors (Mike Hoeffel, Jacob Cepis, Pat White) combined for five points (3g, 2a).
– “It looked like we were biking into the wind,” UW coach Mike Eaves told USCHO’s Benjamin Worgull in a fun analogy. “We didn’t make enough hockey plays tonight. It looked like we were really fighting it, and that was the difference in the game.”
– If you’ve ever biked into the wind, by the way, you understand and empathize with Eaves.
– On Saturday, each team exchanged a goal a period to end up in a 3-3 tie.
– The game-tying goal was a big one for not only for the team, but for the player who scored it – it was Badger freshman forward Jefferson Dahl’s first career tally.
– “It was hard fought,” Gopher coach Don Lucia told Worgull. “I think both teams came out, had a sense of urgency with how important this game was, and I think there’s two pretty tired hockey teams right now because they laid it on the line.”
– Also worth noting: Eaves sat goaltender Scott Gudmandson in favor of Brett Bennett on Saturday saying, “pure and simple, it was time for a change.”
WCHA teams in the PairWise
– UND – 2nd
- DU – t4th
– UMD – 7th
– UNO – t-8th
– UW – 14th
– UM – 18th
– CC – 19th
– MSU – t-23rd
– SCSU – t-25th
– BSU – 29th
– UAA – t-31st
