tUMD mixing it up a little bit here...  Here is tonight's lines:

Seidel - Cameranesi - Basaraba

Farley - Crandall - Herbert

Danberg - Hendo - Flaherty

DeLisle - Young - Krause

Olson - Welinski

Bergman - Johnson

Corrin - Casto

McNeely - Crandall

GO DOGS!!

Overview:

The Michigan Technological University Huskies are coming off their bye week, getting a break after previously sweeping the Bemidji State Beavers away from home in two games that went into OT.  The Huskies are 3-5-0 in the WCHA and 4-6-0 overall.  Michigan Tech is currently unranked and sits tied for 7th in the WCHA.

The University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs are coming off a split with the 14th-ranked St. Cloud State Huskies that was played at Amsoil.  The Bulldogs took Friday night winning 2-1, but fell to the Huskies 5-1 on Saturday night.  The Dogs are currently unranked and sit tied for 10th in the WCHA.

(MichiganTechHuskies.com)

Offense:

Lead by freshman Alex Petan with 10 points and sophomore Blake Pietila with 7 goals, the Huskies average 3.1 goals per game.  Freshman Jujhar Khaira has 8 points with 2 goals and Sophomore David Johnstone has 8 points as well.  The leading senior on the team is Steven Seigo who currently has 2 goals and 3 assists on the year.  Seigo also leads defenseman in scoring.

The Dogs have found a way to bury only 29 goals in the 12 games they have played, averaging 2.42 goals per game.  The first line has 59% of those tallies and is by far, tUMD's most powerful line.  Senior Mike Seidel leads the team with 12 points on 8 goals and 6 assists, followed by his freshman linemates Tony Cameranesi with 12 points and Austin Farley with 10.  Senior Wade Bergman leads the defenseman in points with 8, but closely followed by freshman Andy Welinski with 6.

Defense:

Tech is allowing, on average, 3.6 goals per game, the most in the WCHA.  With most of the goals coming in the last two periods (14,14).

MTU has been using 2 goalies this year in Phoenix Copley who has seen 52.8% of minutes played and Kevin Genoe who has seen 43.4% of total action.  Tech also has Jamie Phillips rostered but has only played a total of 18 minutes thus far.  Copley has a .864 save percentage and a 4.30 GAA while Genoe has a .913 save percentage and averages only 2.51 goals per game.

In 12 games the Puppies have been scored on 37 times, most of those coming in the first period, averaging 3.08 goals against per game.

Both Aaron Crandall and Matt McNeely have seen their fair share of time this year and both played about the same amount of times as well.  McNeely holds a .888 save percentage and a 2.95 goals against average while Crandall's save percentage is at .889 with a 3.15GAA.  Crandall started both games last week.

Special Teams:

Michigan tech sits in the middle of the WCHA in terms of power play conversions with 20.8% and has a penalty kill of 76.2% with 2 short handed goals for and 1 against.  Tech has had a total of 117 penalty minutes and averages 11.7 minutes per game.

Duluth's power play is able to convert 23.7 percent of the time (2nd in the WCHA) and kills off 81.4% of penalties they take.  The poor Puppies have had 224 minutes spent in the naughty box averaging 18.7 minutes per game.

(Highlights of last year's game during the unbeaten streak)

The Verdict:

Last week the Dogs played like crap.  We spent most of the time chasing the puck then maneuvering it ourselves.  This has got to stop if the Dogs are gonna start consistently winning games.  The penalty play was much better last weekend and should continue to improve as younger players gain experience and play a bit more disciplined.  I wouldn't feel so bad about last weekend if we didn't get blown out on Saturday, but that happened leaving question marks in fan's heads.

Tech has had some good games, beating the Gophers and recently sweeping Bemidji State, but have also suffered a 5 game losing streak where they were outscored 20-9.  If this were at home I would think a sweep for tBulldogs is not out of the question, but its in Houghton so realistically I'm going to say we can pick up the first game, but lose on Saturday.  Keep in mind a sweep is still not out of the question as this team definitely has the skill to accomplish this, I just need a little more consistent play in order to predict that.  Plus this is WCHA hockey, anything is possible.

GO DOGS!

The Bulldogs are currently sitting in a little bit of trouble.  After doing a little bit of mathematics on the couch today while watching the Vikings get the snot kicked out of them I came to a couple conclussions...  We have some players and classes that may need to step their games up...

Classes:

UMD's freshman class of 7 lead all others in points this season with 30.  Between Cameranesi and Farley, they make up for 22 points alone.

The senior class of 7 sits in 2nd place among classes for points with 29.  Seidel leads with 14 points.

The sophomore.  Together, the 6 of them sit with 13 points.

The junior class.  Well, someone has to hold up the back of the train anyway right?  Between the 3 skaters they have 4 points.

Lines (goals-assists-points):

Farley (4-6-10) - Cameranesi (5-7-12) - Seidel (8-6-14)
+2 - 119 shots - 10 penalties for 28 minutes

Herbert (0-4-4) - Crandall (2-2-4) - Basaraba (3-1-4)
-15 - 85 shots - 21 penalties for 50 minutes

Danberg (0-0-0) - Hendrickson (1-0-1) - Flaherty (1-1-2)
-15 - 41 shots - 7 penalties for 14 minutes

DeLisle (1-1-2) - Tardy (0-0-0) - Krause (0-0-0)
Sampair (0-0-0) - Young (0-0-0) - Decowski (1-1-2)
-4 - 43 shots - 24 penalties for 85 minutes

Olson (1-1-2) - Welinski (1-5-6)
-11 - 42 shots - 11 penalties for 22 minutes

Bergman (1-7-8) - Johnson (0-2-2)
-12 - 24 shots - 8 penalties for 27 minutes

Smith (0-0-0) - Casto (0-3-3)
+2 - 29 shots - 8 penalties for 16 minutes

Matt McNeely (49.9%)  2.95 gaa - .888 Save% - 1-4-1
Aaron Crandall (49.2%)  3.15 gaa - .889 Save% - 2-3-1

GO DOGS!!

The #2 University of Denver Pioneers lost 2 straight overtime games to unranked Yale and #3 New Hampshire at home this weekend.  This team had one previous loss against the St. Cloud State Huskies prior to these.

(Photo: DenverPioneers.com)

Minnesota State gets the road sweep against Wisconsin, Bemidji State finds 3 points against Alaska Anchorage, Minnesota Duluth splits with St. Cloud State, North Dakota Splits with Notre Dame, Minnesota sweeps Vermont, Nebraska Omaha sweeps Alabama Hunsville and Colorado College and Denver were beaten/tied by New Hampshire and Yale.

Friday:
Minnesota State 4 at Wisconsin 2
Alaska Anchorage 2 at Bemidji State 2 OT
St. Cloud State 1 at Minnesota Duluth 2

Minnesota 5 at Vermont 1
North Dakota 2 at Notre Dame 1
Alabama Huntsville 2 at Nebraska Omaha 3
New Hampshire 4 at Colorado College 4 OT
Yale 2 at Denver 1 OT

Saturday:

Minnesota State 4 at Wisconsin 2
Alaska Anchorage 4 at Bemidji State 5 OT
St. Cloud State 5 at Minnesota Duluth 1

Minnesota 3 at Vermont 1
North Dakota 2 at Notre Dame 5
Alabama Huntsville 0 at Nebraska Omaha 8
New Hampshire 6 at Denver 4
Yale 6 at Colorado College 5 OT

WCHA Standings:

			WCHA			OVERALL
	Pts	W	L	T	W	L	T	GF	GA
Denver	14	7	1	0	9	3	0	50	30
Minnesota	10	4	2	2	9	2	2	44	23
St. Cloud State	10	5	3	0	7	5	0	42	28
Nebraska Omaha	9	4	1	1	8	3	1	45	25
Colorado College	8	4	2	0	7	6	1	52	49
North Dakota	8	3	1	2	6	4	2	36	30
Bemidji State	6	2	4	2	3	5	2	28	29
Michigan Tech	6	3	5	0	4	6	0	31	36
Minnesota State	6	3	5	0	5	5	2	35	36
Minnesota Duluth	4	1	5	2	3	7	2	29	37
Wisconsin	4	1	5	2	1	7	2	18	29
Alaska Anchorage	3	0	3	3	2	4	4	23	31

Scoring Leaders:

Player	Team	Goals	Assists	Points
Nic Dowd	SCSU	8	9	17
Nick Shore	SCSU	6	11	17
Rylan Schwartz	CC	7	10	17
William Rapuzzi	CC	7	10	17

Freshman Scoring:

Player	Team	Goals	Assists	Points
Tony Cameranesi	UMD	5	7	12
Kalle Kossila	SCSU	6	4	10
Alex Petan	MTU	4	6	10
Austin Farley	UMD	4	6	10

Goalies:

Player	Team	GA Avg.	Save %
Adam Wilcox	UMTC	1.46	0.931
Clarke Saunders	UND	2.09	0.934
Ryan Faragher	SCSU	2.14	0.927

Scoring Offense:

Team	Goals/GM
Denver	4.17
Nebraska Omaha	3.75
Colorado College	3.71

Scoring Defense:

Team	Goals/GM
Minnesota	1.77
Nebraska Omaha	2.08
St. Cloud State	2.33

Penalty Minutes:

Team	Minutes/GM
Minnesota Duluth	18.7
Denver	16.9
Minnesota State	16

GO DOGS!!

The St. Cloud State Huskies buried the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs 5-1 last night at Amsoil Arena in Duluth.

Yuck.  What an awful game.  I chose the wrong game to come to this weekend it looks like.

So Friday night must have been a tease of something.  Saturday night was simply ugly.  The Huskies came out skating hard and the puppies just couldn't keep up.  It was depressing to watch.  This was also one of the more quieter games i've ever been to, but I guess the missing student section contributes to that.

(Photo: Dave Harwig viewthroughmylens.net)

First period...  yuck.  I would say the majority of the first period was played in our zone.  I can't imagine how Aaron Crandall, who got the start after a successful night last night, felt when the Pups couldn't break out in what seemed to be a 10-minute stretch.  Poor kid, I would have had an anxiety attack with that much adrenaline flowing.  Hanowski started the goal scoring for the night on a Krause-induced power play, followed by a Dowd even strength goal to put the Huskies ahead 2-0 by the end of the first.

Second period wasn't terribly better either.  This wasn't the same team we saw last weekend in Grand Forks, and I wish i could have watched the game on Friday night to compare, but no.  Freshman Husky Kalle Kossila put the Huskies up 3-nill on a power play thank to Derik Johnson and his non-acceptable use of his body when the puck wasn't near, I guess.  Then Nic Dowd scored his second of the night shortly after putting the ole SCSU Huskies up 4-0 off an absolutely TERRIBLE goal.  Let me explain. someone flipped the pick way up, Dowd reached up with his stick and tried to get it, weaving through our defense finally pulling it down in front of Crandall and slid it 5-hole.  How this goal wasn't a high sticking is beyond anything i'll ever be able to comprehend.  Whatever I guess.  Mike Seidel was able to get his 8th of the year getting the Puppies on the board 4-1.

Third Period.  I mean we looked a little better, but not much.  Cory Thorson of SCSU put the Huskies up 5-1 which ended up being the last goal.  Also, it wouldn't be a Bulldog hockey game unless there was a little fighting right?  I watched Welinski pile drive some poor Husky into the ice, so I already like this kid.  Basaraba and Flaherty both sat in the box at some point in the period which ended up being UMD's only punishment this period, surprising, right?

(Photo: Dave Harwig viewthroughmylens.net)

Whatever traction the Pups found on Friday, they lost the following day.  UMD's all-senior line ended up playing the worst finishing at a -2 for the night.  This line has been struggling all year with a combined -15 and 3 total points.  Obviously this line has some strengths, but the weak points glared last night.  I thought A Crandall play pretty decent actually, the goals he did give up involved leaving Huskies unattended in front of the net, Dogs in the box or missed high-stickings.  So not all the kid's fault.

Scoring for the Night:

Mike Seidel:  1-0-1

Austin Farley  0-1-1

Andy Welinski  0-1-1

Nic Dowd:  2-1-3

Ben Hanowski:  1-2-3

Kalle Kossila:  1-0-1

Cory Thorson:  1-0-1

Andrew Prochno:  0-1-1

Jarrod Rabey:  0-1-1

Drew LeBlanc:  0-1-1

Nick Jensen:  0-1-1

Taylor Johnson:  0-1-1

Joey Holka:  0-1-1

A. Crandall  12/17

Faragher:  31/32

GO DOGS!

The University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs ended their 7 game winless streak and achieved their first WCHA win this year beating the St. Cloud State Huskies 2-1 at Amsoil Arena in Duluth.

ALRIGHT!!  THIS FEELS GOOD!!

As a Bulldog fan I almost forgot what it feels like to win it's been so long.  Literally.  The last win was against Notre Dame on October 18th and it's been hard to watch since.  But tonight is a much different story.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to watch, just listen, but as radio man Bruce Ciskie made it sound, it must have been an awesome game.

(Photo: UMD Athletics)

First period went a little something like this...  Aaron Crandall got the start for the Bulldogs and played pretty well as it sounded.  But Kalle Kossila scored his 5th goal of the year for the St. Cloud State Huskies putting them ahead 1-0.  Caleb Herbert found the box twice in the 1st period both for interference which ended up being the only penalties of the period.  The buzzer sounded and SCSU topped the Bulldogs in shots 11-6.

In the second period the Dogs found a little bit of energy.  Both Dan DeLisle and Mike Seidel found themselves in the box for 2 minute minors, which believe it or not, was the last penalties the Dogs were called on all game.  With 3:40 left in the 2nd period, Tony Cameranesi was able to put one by SCSU goalie Ryan Faragher to tie the game 1-1.  Both Mike Seidel and Austin Farley tallied assists for the goal.

The third period fired up and just under 3 minutes in, Jarrod Rabey took a penalty that gave the dogs their first power play of the night which allowed defenseman Wade Bergman to blast his first goal of the season.  Assists went to Tony Cameranesi and Andy Welinski and the Bulldogs took the lead 2-1.  The Huskies had a little trouble staying out of the box this period with 4 penalties and 8 total minutes of power play for the Bulldogs, which continues to prove the point that teams play dirty against the Dogs. In the last few minutes of the game, tUMD went on a 5x3, then as soon as it was 5x4 SCSU pulled their goalie to try and tie it up but couldn't.  The Bulldogs win the game 2-1.

The Dogs are finally finding some traction to their play.  A good, solid win over a nationally ranked team is a good way to do it too.  Keep in mind that #2 Denver's only loss came to St. Cloud IN Denver where the Huskies not only beat them, but shut them out.  2 points is a good start to the weekend and hopefully the Dogs can play even better tomorrow.

Scoring for the night:

Tony Cameranesi  1-1-2

Wade Bergman  1-0-1

Mike Seidel  0-1-1

Austin Farley  0-1-1

Andy Welinski  0-1-1

Kalle Kossila  1-0-1

Andrew Prochno  0-1-1

Cory Thorson  0-1-1

A. Crandall  27/28

Faragher  27/29

See ya tomorrow at Amsoil!!  and always...

GO DOGS!! 

Overview:

The St. Cloud State Huskies are coming off their week of rest, but split with North Dakota the weekend before while playing in St. Cloud.  The Huskies were shutout the first night 3-0 before coming back on Saturday winning 5-2.  SCSU is 4-2-0 in the WCHA and 6-4-0 overall.  The Huskies are ranked 12th in the nation.

The University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs managed only 1 point in Grand Forks last weekend, but put in a fair fight against the 6th ranked North Dakota, pushing both games into Overtime.  UMD is 0-4-2 in the WCHA and 2-6-2 overall.  The Bulldogs fell out of the national rankings last week and did not receive any votes to be placed back in.

(Photo: Dave Harwig - viewthroughmylens.com)

Offense:

In 10 games the Huskies have scored 36 goals, averaging 3.6 goals per game.  Kings prospect Nic Dowd leads the team in goals with 6 and is tied with Drew LeBlanc in points with 14.  Kalle Kossila leads the freshman in scoring with 8 points and Nick Jensen leads all defenseman with 8 points as well. Captain Ben Hanowski has 3 goals and 2 assists in the 5 games he has played but has been injured; he is cleared to play this weekend.

In 10 games the Puppies have scored 26 goals, averaging 2.6 goals per game.  Senior Mike Seidel leads the Bulldogs in goals with 7 and points with 12.  Freshman Tony Cameranesi and Austin Farley both have 4 goals, the upper hand going to Tony who has 2 more points then Austin with 10.  Caleb Herbert is still scoreless this year but has exhibited much aggression toward finding the back of the net.  I would imagine he'll find it this weekend, maybe more than once.


Defense:

The Huskies are allowing 2.5 goals per game, on average, in their 10 games thus far this season, with most of their goals being scored against them in the 3rd period.

The Huskies have used 2 goalies this year, Ryan Faragher and Joe Phillippi, both sophomores.  Faragher has had the most playing time this year, by far, playing 82.9% of SCSU's minutes between the pipes.  He has a remarkable 1.87 goals per game average and stops 93.5% of the shots he has faced.  But most of his exceptionally played games have been at home.


The Bulldogs, on the other hand, have the disadvantage, allowing 3.1 goals per game.  Most of the goals they give up are in the first period, with 12, and then have allowed 9 in both of the last 2 periods.

Both goalies, freshman Matt McNeely and junior Aaron Crandall have seen a decent amount of playing time thus far this year, although McNeely leads in minutes, playing 59.6% of the time.  McNeely averages 2.95 goals per game and has stopped 88.8% of the shots he has faced.  A. Crandall averages 3.23 goals against per game and has stopped 89.3% of the shots he has faced.  Both goalies have played very well so far and I would assume would both get an opportunity this weekend.


Special Teams:

The Huskies have had some luck with their penalty kill, chewing away 82.1% of the penalties they've taken.  Their power play, on the other hand, is what struggles.  SCSU has only been able to convert on 8 of the 48 chances they've had a man up, sitting at 16.7%.

The Bulldogs have had some decent luck with their power play this year, with the exception of last Saturday, but still converting 23.5% of the time.  Penalty kill is at 82.4% which is pretty decent as well. Seidel leads the Dogs in power play goals with 4, followed by Cameranesi with 3, Farley with 2 and Welinski and Basaraba with one each.

(Photo: Dave Harwig - viewthroughmylens.com)

The Verdict:

After coming from Grand Forks with only 1 point, when 3, at least, was easily within grasp, the Puppies are going to be more angry and hungry than ever before.  Many coaches, players and college hockey guru's (like myself :)) know this team is a hell of a lot better then what their record shows.  And with December hockey starting soon and the season slowly ticking away, this team needs to find the traction and move forward.  This week might just be the week.

Why?  Well, St. Cloud is actually 1-4-0 on the road overall and 0-3-0 after being down after the first period, which just so happens to be tUMD's favorite period to score.  The Dogs are going to have to skate 6 whole periods this week.  We're going to have to play disciplined and smart, but a sweep is not out of the question.

If you're at home in the cities this weekend, like myself, tune in to 94x online to listen to Bruce Ciskie call the game.  And if you're going to be at the game tomorrow night, I'll see ya there!!

GO DOGS!!

Alex Petan scored the game winning goal in overtime on Friday when Michigan Tech came from behind to beat Bemidji State 5 to 4.  The Huskies swept the Beavers at Bemidji.  Petan finished the series with 4 points.

Minnesota kept 3 points in their home series against Wisconsin, Minnesota Duluth managed 1 point against North Dakota in Grand Forks, Michigan Tech swept Bemidji State on the road and Denver swept Colorado College in a home-home series.

Friday:
Wisconsin 2 at Minnesota 2 OT
Minnesota Duluth 4 at North Dakota 4 OT
Michigan Tech 5 at Bemidji State 4 OT
Denver 6 at Colorado College 5

Saturday:
Minnesota Duluth 3 at North Dakota 4 OT
Michigan Tech 2 at Bemidji State 1 OT
Colorado College 2 at Denver 6
Wisconsin 1 at Minnesota 3

WCHA Standings:

			WCHA			OVERALL
	Pts	W	L	T	W	L	T	GF	GA
Denver	14	7	1	0	9	1	0	45	22
Minnesota	10	4	2	2	7	2	2	36	21
Nebraska Omaha	9	4	1	1	6	3	1	34	23
Colorado College	8	4	2	0	7	5	0	43	39
North Dakota	8	3	1	2	5	3	2	32	24
St. Cloud State	8	4	2	0	6	4	0	36	25
Michigan Tech	6	3	5	0	4	6	0	31	36
Wisconsin	4	1	3	2	1	5	2	14	21
Bemidji State	3	1	4	1	2	5	1	21	23
Alaska Anchorage	2	0	2	2	2	3	3	17	24
Minnesota Duluth	2	0	4	2	2	6	2	26	31
Minnesota State	2	1	5	0	3	5	2	27	32

Scoring Leaders:

Player	Team	Goals	Assists	Points
Nick Shore	DU	5	11	16
Nic Dowd	SCSU	6	8	14
Drew LeBlanc	SCSU	5	9	14
Erik Haula	UMTC	6	8	14
William Rapuzzi	CC	6	8	14

Freshman Scoring:

Player	Team	Goals	Assists	Points
Tony Cameranesi	UMD	4	6	10
Alex Petan	MTU	4	6	8
Austin Farley	UMD	4	4	8
Kalle Kossila	SCSU	4	4	8
Nolan Zajac	DU	2	6	8
Jujhar Khaira	MTU	2	6	8

Goalies:

Player	Team	GA Avg.	Save %
Sam Brittain	DU	2.01	0.935
Clarke Saunders	UND	2.24	0.927
Adam Wilcox	UMTC	1.55	0.924

Scoring Offense:

Team	Goals/GM
Denver	4.5
St. Cloud State	3.6
Colorado College	3.58

Scoring Defense:

Team	Goals/GM
Minnesota	1.91
Denver	2.2
Nebraska Omaha	2.3

Penalty Minutes:

Team	Minutes/GM
Minnesota Duluth	20.6
Denver	17.5
Minnesota State	16.6

GO DOGS!!!

North Dakota defeats Minnesota Duluth with 30 seconds left in overtime, 4-3.

I have mixed feelings about this game.  I haven't seen the Bulldogs play this well in a couple of weeks, so that is always good to see, but I still think we should have won that game.  Very physical game; probably one of the best periods of hockey i've seen in recent series was the first period.  Both goalies played very, very well and I am now convinced McNeely has a ability to see through people to stop pucks.

(Photo: Peter Bottini UNDsports.com)

First period was, well, AMAZING.  Seriously, awesome.  Right out of the gate the Dogs were flying and getting opportunities.  With under 3 minutes into the game the Dogs struck first with Hendrickson taking a DeLisle rebound and burying it.  But seriously, credit to Danny DeLisle who hustled like a dog to make that play happen.  But, a couple seconds later Danny Kristo put a backhander by McNeely to even the score at 1.  And around 30 seconds after that Casto took a hard shot from the point and Seidel tipped it, putting it under UND freshman tender Zane Gothberg to give the Dogs a 2-1 lead.  Then before the period ended, Dogs went to the powerplay.  Bergman had the puck at the point, dropped it down to Cameranesi who walked around Gothberg to put the Pups up 3-1.  One of the coolest goals i've seen a freshman score all year.

The start of the 2nd period was all about McNeely and the Bulldog Penalty kill.  McNeely made quite a few nice saves until Derek Forbort was able to take a powerful wrister from up top to put UND back within 1 goal.  Then with 5:10 left in the period, all hell broke loose.  Literally.  DeLisle had a little bit of a boarding and then Rodwell went insane.  A huge fight broke out in front of the Bulldog bench.  MacWilliam was thrown into the bench, Casto ended up with his helmet off, and Basaraba and Rodwell ended up on the ice.  After all was said and done, there were 6 Bulldogs and 4 UND skaters in the penalty box.  The period ended with UMD killing a nice 5x3 for awhile and then somehow we ended on a powerplay.  Lots of dings off the pipe in that period.  Very physical.

Period 3 was intense.  Literally a recipe for a heart attack and my anxiety level was through the roof.  UND score with 14:08 left in the period, tieing the score at 3.  I hate this goal.  I can't exactly remember who it was, but there was a Bulldog dragged down in the UND zone as they were breaking out which was obvious and not called, which allowed the goal to happen.  Complete bull.  The rest of the period went back and forth.  The Dogs had a couple of failed power play attempts, but Seidel, Cameranesi, Farley and get this, Wade Bergman had a couple of nice chances.  Bergman even made a slick little move around a defenseman to get a shot off.

When regulation ends and the game is tied, that means overtime.  Hendo rung the pipe just 12 seconds in which sucks knowing the outcome, but it was a nice shot.  Then Cameranesi put a shot on the Gothberg let float in front for a few seconds before gloving it.  Smith had a nice shot from the point as well, and had Zane not sucked it up, Farley was right there and could have ended it.  Then with 34 seconds remaining in the game, Kristo slid a pass to Mark MacMillan who put it by McNeely to end the game.  4-3.

There is no doubt UMD could have and should have won that game.  The Dogs outshot UND 17-7 in the last half of the game, and 31-30 overall.  Powerplay wasn't all there tonight, going 1/5 and UND going 1/7; and get this, Dogs had 16 penalties for 40 minutes vs North Dakota's 13 for 26 minutes.  How bad is that?  Undisciplined?  Yes.  But we did play a hell of a lot better.  And obviously if any game is going to bring out the cheap play its going to be against UND.

Scoring for the night:
Mike Seidel  1-1-2
Tony Cameranesi  1-1-2
Jake Henderickson  1-0-1
Dan DeLisle  0-1-1
Wade Bergman  0-1-1
Chris Casto  0-1-1
Keegan Flaherty  0-1-1

Mark MacMillan  2-1-3
Danny Kristo  1-2-3
Corban Knight  0-2-2
Derek Forbort  1-0-1
Dillon Simpson  0-1-1
Connor Gaarder  0-1-1

McNeely  26/30

Gothberg  28/31

Dogs are at home next weekend against a tough St. Cloud State team who sat who with a bye week this week.  Again, thanks to UND Sports for having this video out and ready to go in a timely manner.  This is the highlight tape from last night.  Enjoy.

GO DOGS!!

The University of Minnesota Duluth Football team's season ended today as they fell to Missouri Western 55-57 in 3 overtimes.  This was the Bulldog's first playoff game in the Division 2 playoff tournament and ended the season 10-2.

(Photo: Dave Harwig - viewthroughmylens.com)

Unfortunately for tUMD, defense has been an issue all year, while offense was literally national championship-calibered.  It's a tough loss for the Puppy seniors who have no reason to hang their heads as some finish with 2 national championship rings already.

UMD senior quarterback Chase Vogler finished the game 14/20 with 195 passing yards and 1 interception.  He also rushed for 184 yards on 29 attempts and 2 touchdowns.  Vogler finishes his career at UMD with a record of 46-6 as starting QB with 7483 passing yards and 59 touchdowns.  Also 2,903 career rushing yards with 39 touchdowns.  That gives the senior 10,386 total career yards with 98 touchdowns.  Unbelievable.

UMD finished the game with 603 yards, 7 touchdowns, 2 field goals, 1 interception, 0 fumbles and 34 total field goals.

The Bulldogs lead the NSIC with 268.8 rushing yards per game.

Head coach Bon Nielson also won his 100th career game this season in 10 seasons with UMD.  He also has coached the Dogs to 3 undefeated seasons and 2 national championships.

(Photo: Dave Harwig - viewthroughmylens.com)

Eleven seniors spent their last minutes on the field today.  Chase Vogler, Garth Heikkinen, Joe Akey, Jake Bscherer, Cameron Harper, Ben Helmer, Jordan Hoesktra, Nick Lloyd, Jon Lynch, Blake Rogers and Collin Stinogel all had successful careers and we wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors.

GO DOGS!!

The University of Minnesota Duluth and North Dakota skate to a 4-4 OT tie.

I'm pretty sure every bulldog/ND blogger used the term "skate" to a tie too.  Interesting, is it not?

ANYWAY!

A tie in the books but a moral victory for the Bulldogs who played the best game i've seen them play all year.  They seemed like a much different team in comparison to previous weeks.  The hunger was there, the teamwork was there, and the mistakes were minimal, although still there.  I thought Crandall, who was in net, played pretty dang well, especially in comparison to how he started the year.  Also, hats off to Clarke Saunders, UND's goalie, who played well too.

(photo: Peter Bottini UNDsports.com)

The period was awesome right out of the gate.  Seidel put the dogs on the board with a UND defensive mistake, beating Saunders high glove side only 4 minutes in.  The pups kept the pressure on too with Danberg and Hendo almost finding the net,  Defense looked to be playing solid too until a bad breakout lead to MacWilliam taking a shot from the point to put it past Crandall to tie the game at 1.

Period number two started with the same intensity, which again, is awesome, but didn't work to well in tUMD's favor to well.  Corban Knight was able to drive to the net where the puck bounced around for at least 5 seconds before the puck squeeked out to Kristo to put it past Crandall.  Herbert had 3 pretty decent shots and that whole line played well this period.  But, a fabulous looking tic-tac-toe ending with a Farley goal tied the game back up at 2's.  Then, to make things even better, tUMD picked up the puck, Farley skated in but the center pass flew into the corner, then Farley gets another shot and with Farley and Cameranesi digging, the puck skids under Saunders legs to put the Dogs up 3-2.  But UND came back pretty quickly on a Drew Olson defensive error that tied the game back at 3's.

Third period fired up agian with intensitiy.  Dogs had a couple of great chances but Clarke Saunders came up big.  Crandall played steller over a UMD penalty kill which ended with Basaraba getting a quality wrister.  The Tardy-Krause-? line definitely had their fair share of scoring chances and in my opinion deserved a goal.  They didn't look like a 4th line which goes to show the depth this young UMD squad has.  UND eventually put one past Crandall on a nice goal by Grimaldi who showed up untouched in front of the net.  Then, with just under 6-minutes remaining Derik Johnson finds Drew Olson WIDE OPEN at the top of the slot who was able to skate in and blow a heavy snapper by Saunders to tie the game at 4's.  The rest of the 3rd had everyone sitting on the edge of their seats.  Both UND and UMD had some dangerously close chances before the final buzzer sounded.

Overtime could have ended in anyones favor.  UMD had a couple of quality chances as well as UND.  But Saunders and Crandall both played exceptionally well and it ended in a 4-4 tie.

Hakstol said it best in his pre-game jazz; this UMD team is a hell of a lot better than they look to be.  I believe this tonight proves it.  This team is young and is finally starting to find that chemisty-groove they have needed.

Scoring for the night:

Austin Farley 2-0-2

Drew Olson 1-0-1

Mike Seidel 1-0-1

Tony Cameranesi 0-1-1

Andy Welinski 0-1-1

Joe Basaraba 0-1-1

Danny Kristo 2-0-2

Drake Caggiula 0-2-2

Rocco Grimaldi 1-0-1

Andrew MacWilliam 1-0-1

Colten St. Clair 0-1-1

Corban Knight 0-1-1

Nick Mattson 0-1-1

Carter Rowney -0-1-1

A. Crandall 25/29

Saunders 38/42

I love UND for doing these videos at the end of the games, so if you would like to watch the long recap of the game, click below.  It's awesome and I hope and wish tUMD can put this together one day.

GO DOGS!!

Who loves predictions?  The WCHA is hard to predict, and it doesn't get any easier this week.  Denver looks to be the steady front runner in the WCHA, as of now of course, with 10 points.  UNO sits in 2nd with 9 and SCSU and CC are tied in 3rd with 8 points a piece.  The lonely UMD Bulldog Puppies are sitting on the bottom stair with only 1 point.

Notre Dame at Michigan:
Yes, it's not WCHA but its on national tv tonight so watch it!

Wisconsin at Minnesota:
Well, at the beginning of the year I would have told you this series would be a fun one to watch.  But, Wisconsin has had worse luck then one could only imagine for a college hockey team.  The NCAA suspended their top recruit, An assistant coach left and their top forward and returning WCHA leading scorer is hurt.  Even with Minnesota losing to Tech, Mankato and tying UAA, i'm still going a gopher sweep.

Minnesota Duluth at North Dakota:
This is a difficult prediction, especially as a Bulldog fan.  tUMD is last in the WCHA and slowly fell out of national rankings over the last few weeks.  They have little scoring and no one wants to skate hard for a full game.  UND on the other hand its playing decently well, coming off a split with BU at home.  But, Saturdays have been an issue for UND who are 0-3-1 on that day.  So, play that in and the amount of anger and hunger the Dogs will have to get points and im predicting a split.

Michigan Tech at Bemidji State:
Tech is coming off a bye week where hopefully they got some of their issues figured out, while BSU is coming off a weekend of being swept away by Colorado College.  I would like to think Tech is going to come back hungry, but after allowing 17 goals in there last 4 games, its hard to believe.  Bemidji, I would assume, is going to be hungry for a home sweep and the valuable 4 points, but I just can't see Tech giving in that easy.  Split.

Colorado College vs. Denver:
This series is actually played in both Denver and Colorado Springs, being a home-home series.  I've gotta admit, this is one of the best series one could follow this weekend, especially in the WCHA.  Denver is coming off a 4 point weekend at home against Mankato State, while CC is also coming off a 4 point weekend at Bemidji State.  Call me crazy but I think Denver is very, very good.  Denver sweep.

GO DOGS!!

Overview:

UMD is 2-5-1 overall (0-3-1 in the WCHA) and gave their last 4 points to Nebraska Omaha where they were swept in Omaha.  The Mavs outscored the Bulldogs 9 to 5 over Saturday and Sunday.  They are currently sitting at the Bottom of the WCHA and have slowly fallen out of the rankings.

UND is 4-3-1 overall (2-1-1 in the WCHA) and split their last series in St. Cloud with the Huskies.  UND took Friday night, shutting out SCSU 3-0, but fell on Saturday to 5-2.  They are currently in 6^th place in the WCHA with 5 points and ranked 6^th in the nation.

Offense:

In 8 games the Bulldogs have scored 19 goals averaging 2.38 goals per game.  Leading scorer is Mike Seidel with 5 tallies, followed by Tony Cameranesi & Joe Basaraba with 3 and Austin Farley & Justin Crandall with 2.  Wade Bergman leads defenders with 8 points followed by Andy Welinski with 3.  On an interesting note, Caleb Herbert has yet to score this year; he had 14 goals and 33 points last year.

In 8 games North Dakota has scored 24 goals averaging 3 goals per game.  Mark Macmillan, Rocco Grimaldi and Connor Gaarder lead with 3 goals each, all freshman.  Danny Kristo leads UND in points with 7, but only 1 goal.  Derek Forbort leads all defenseman with 5 points, followed by Nick Mattson with 3.

Defense:

Minnesota Duluth allows, on average, 2.88 goals per game in the 8 games they have played against.  They have allowed the most goals in the 1^st period with 10, 6 goals in the 2^nd period and 7 in the 3^rd.

Freshman goalie Matt McNeely has played 62.2% of the time allowing 2.78 goals per game with a .892 save percentage.  He is 1-3-1 overall.  McNeely has faced 130 shots, allowing 14 goals in his 5 games.

Junior goalie Aaron Crandall has played 36.5% of the time, but no conference play, allowing 3.05 goals per game with a .898 save percentage.  He is 1-2-0 overall.  Crandall has faced 79 shots, allowing 9 goals in the 3 games he has played.

North Dakota averages only 2.12 allowed goals per game in their 8 games.  Most of those goals, 8, have come in the 3^rd period while 3 have come in the 1^st and 6 in the 2^nd.

Junior goalie Clarke Saunders has played 74.9% of the time allowing 1.98 goals per game and stopping .931% of pucks.  He is 3-2-1 overall.  Saunders has faced 174 shots, stopping all but 12.

Freshman goalie Zane Gothberg has played 24.4% of the time allowing 2.54 goals per game with a .902 save percentage.  He is 1-1-0 overall.  Gotherberg has faced 51 shots, allowing 5 of them to pass.

(Photo: Dave Harwig - http://viewthroughmylens.net/)

Special Teams:

The Bulldogs have actually had a successful power play this year.  They have converted 10 times in 43 attempts for 23.3%.  The penalty kill isn’t as good, but not terrible.  The Dogs have killed 33 of the 41 penalties for 80.5%.  Mike Seidel leads the team with 4 power play goals, followed by Tony Cameranesi with 2 then Austin Farley, Joe Basaraba, Andy Welinski and Cal Decowski with 1.

North Dakota is 5 for 29 on the power play, converting 17.2% of the time.  The strong aspect is their penalty kill with is at 87.5%, killing 21 of their 24 penalties.  UND’s Mark MacMillan, Dillon Simpson, Carter Rowney, Bryn Chyzyk and Connor Gaarder each have 1 power play goal.  Mark MacMillan has the only shorthanded goal for UND.

The Verdict:

This team is hungry.  If not hungry, starving.  The winless streak UMD is on hasn't happened since when...  2008-2009?  If we can find a way to stay out of the penalty box and play aggresively for 6 periods this weekend there is no reason tUMD can't find at least 2 points.  If anything is to happen, i'll predict UND on Friday and the Dogs on Saturyday.  UND is 0-3-1 on Saturdays this year, so that will play a key part as well.  

GO DOGS!!!