Series Preview - North Dakota

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!!!