MHM 2018 Oct-digital
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TALKING NORTHERN HOCKEY<br />
UMD ADDS DEPTH IN ATTEMPT TO DEFEND NCAA TITLE<br />
Continued from previous page<br />
tournament time.<br />
In the championship game against Notre Dame,<br />
Kuhlman scored his 13th goal of the season midway<br />
through the first period, and 10 minutes later,<br />
Thomas scored his 11th goal of his season after<br />
Kuhlman had forechecked the puck free to him.<br />
That made it 2-0, and the Bulldogs kept hustling,<br />
while Shepard took control from there, yielding<br />
only a second-period power-play goal to anchor<br />
the 2-1 victory.When it ended, Shepard let it all out,<br />
racing to the corner of the rink for a high-jump into<br />
the boards that would have won Olympic Gold if<br />
they had high jumping in goalie pads as an event.<br />
The championship was as surprising to Sandelin<br />
and his staff as it was to all the opposing teams who<br />
took the Bulldogs too lightly until it was too late,<br />
then were helpless to stop the momentum.<br />
UMD allowed only 16 goals in its final 12 games<br />
last year, evidence of Shepard’s talent and the<br />
rapid development of the five freshmen and a<br />
sophomore on the kiddie-corps defense. The final<br />
twist of statistics was more frosting on the cake:<br />
Most of the Frozen Four emphasis going in was<br />
on No. 1 ranked Notre Dame and its top-rated<br />
goaltender Cale Morris. The 2-1 UMD victory still<br />
left Morris with an exceptional 1.94 goals-allowed<br />
average, but the unheralded Shepard wound up<br />
1.93.<br />
That .01 difference brought back the .001 edge<br />
-- one ten-thousandth of a point -- in the NCAA’s<br />
performance index ratings that let UMD slip past<br />
Minnesota for the 16th and final spot in the NCAA<br />
tournament field. Notre Dame’s move to the Big<br />
Ten and its domination there raised the computer<br />
profiles of the whole Big Ten, and despite clear<br />
evidence that the NCHC remained the strongest<br />
conference in college hockey, three of the Frozen<br />
Four teams were from the Big Ten, and Minnesota<br />
was close to making it all four.<br />
UMD remained under the radar despite having<br />
beaten Minnesota 4-3 in an overtime thriller for<br />
the nonconference season opener last season, and<br />
head-to-head play figures into the computer. Close<br />
as it was, the Bulldogs outshot the Gophers in all<br />
four periods that night for a 44-21 total, and won<br />
on a goal by Parker Mackay, this year’s captain, and<br />
another prospect for scoring more than in his injury<br />
limited junior year. Observers say winning that<br />
game paid off in the final computer analysis for the<br />
.001 edge, but if that victory meant so much, why<br />
was Minnesota ever ranked ahead of the Bulldogs?<br />
Last year’s opening victory sent them against<br />
Minnesota in this year’s opening series having<br />
beaten the Gophers an amazing eight straight<br />
times.<br />
Most likely, it was a matter of respect, something<br />
that Sandelin and the UMD program have worked<br />
hard to gain. The Gophers have historic respect<br />
as one of the vital programs that hoisted college<br />
hockey into the realm of big-time sports. It has<br />
taken over a decade for many to realize that the<br />
Gophers are no longer the reigning top dog among<br />
Minnesota’s five Division 1 programs, as St. Cloud<br />
State, Minnesota State and Bemidji State have all<br />
risen in competitive strength. UMD may finally<br />
have attained that elusive respect, after beating<br />
the Gophers for the eighth consecutive time, then<br />
ignoring theories about young defense and a lack<br />
of scoring, and compensated with hard work and<br />
goals-by-committee to keep hanging with the<br />
NCHC leaders.<br />
At the end they squeezed into the NCAA<br />
tournament’s selected 16 teams by that<br />
computerized eyelash, and stayed hot to win the<br />
West Regional with come-from-behind one-goal<br />
victories over WCHA champ Minnesota State and<br />
upstart Air Force to reach the Frozen Four at Xcel<br />
Energy Center in Saint Paul.<br />
Once there, sophomore goaltender Shepard<br />
continued to be rock solid, and the five freshmen<br />
and a sophomore “veteran” on D were even more<br />
impressive. The Bulldogs knocked off Ohio State 2-1<br />
in the semifinals, then beat top-seeded Notre Dame<br />
by the same 2-1 count to claim their second NCAA<br />
title at the same site as their first championship, in<br />
2011. This time, UMD singlehandedly knocked off<br />
three Big Ten entries in the Frozen Four, providing<br />
the NCHC with its third consecutive national<br />
championship in four years of existence.<br />
“I don’t notice any difference in attitude of our<br />
guys this year,” Sandelin said. “But we can’t take<br />
anything for granted, because getting to the NCAA<br />
tournament doesn’t just happen. At the same time,<br />
our guys might be even more hungry to prove that<br />
we deserve that respect. We’ve got good leadership<br />
from our captains, because Parker Mackay, Nick<br />
Wolff and Mikey Anderson are all a lot like Karson<br />
was.<br />
“We’ll have to make sure we keep working hard,<br />
and that we’re not getting too far over our ski tips.<br />
We need to have short-term focus, and not the idea<br />
we’re going to get there at the end.”<br />
Two years ago, UMD made it to the NCAA Frozen<br />
Four with a solid and experienced team, but after<br />
that spring of 2017, graduation and early signings<br />
sent some Bulldogs into pro hockey and left UMD<br />
with some glaring holes. It didn’t seem to matter to<br />
Sandelin that he would have one lone defenseman<br />
returning, and he was Nick Wolff, only a freshman.<br />
Defying dour predictions about the lack of proven<br />
goal-scorers, needing to solidify a promising but<br />
unproven goaltender, and having to write in the<br />
names of five freshmen to join sophomore Wolff<br />
on defense every game, Sandelin whistled past the<br />
doom and gloom forecasts in the NCHC like a Pied<br />
Piper in hockey breezers.<br />
Sandelin gives strong credit to his staff. Brett<br />
Larson and Jason Herter were his top assistants,<br />
and all three had been defensemen as players.<br />
Larson, a primary recruiter of the first UMD<br />
championship team, left to become head coach<br />
in the USHL, then became top assistant to Steve<br />
Rohlik at Ohio State, where he recruited most of the<br />
Buckeyes team UMD defeated 2-1 in last spring’s<br />
NCAA semifinals. Eventually, Larson returned<br />
to UMD and helped recruit most of the current<br />
Bulldogs, but now he’s gone to replace Bob Motzko<br />
as head coach at St. Cloud State. Larson’s loss will<br />
hurt, and while Sandelin is certain Larson will do<br />
a great job leading the Huskies, he moved on by<br />
making Herter an associate head coach, and hired<br />
former two-year UMD captain Adam Krause to<br />
leave pro hockey and become his second assistant.<br />
His youth, 28, should be an asset in communicating<br />
with the team’s young players.<br />
Sandelin may turn up the wick on his laid-back<br />
theory of scoring more, knowing how tenuous it<br />
was last year, when the Bulldogs always seemed<br />
to get just enough contribution from everybody<br />
on all four lines, plus that big boost from the<br />
rambunctious defensemen.<br />
“We expect more scoring from the forwards,”<br />
said Sandelin. “But I don’t mind who scores, as<br />
long as somebody scores. We have some returning<br />
players who should score more. I expect Riley Tufte<br />
to maybe get up to 20 goals, and Nick Swaney,<br />
Peter Krieger and Justin Richards could also score<br />
more. And we have some freshmen, who, in time,<br />
might add to the scoring, because all of them put<br />
up good numbers in junior hockey.”<br />
Up front, Krieger and Tufte were together and<br />
may remain a tandem, possibly joined by Swaney<br />
on their right wing. Richards and captain Parker<br />
Mackay -- another forward who could add more to<br />
the offense -- were linemates and may start being<br />
centered by freshman Noah Cates. His brother,<br />
Jackson Cates, opened at center on another line,<br />
and returnees Jade Miller and Billy Exell are now<br />
experienced and will be joined by several other<br />
incoming freshmen to form units. They can feel<br />
secure in knowing that under Sandelin’s new and<br />
improved strategy, the lines will be balanced, and<br />
the fourth line is allowed to outplay the first line<br />
and earn immediate promotion.<br />
“We’ve got some freshmen who are ready to step<br />
in and see what they can do, and it’s a nice problem<br />
to have, being able to shift guys around with more<br />
depth,” said Sandelin. “We’re deeper through the<br />
middle, and we’ll move guys around more easily.”<br />
Sandelin also fulfilled his plan of a tough<br />
nonconference schedule, which also helps the<br />
selection committee’s computer decide who gets<br />
the nod in final ratings. “We’ve got a tough first<br />
month,” said Sandelin. “We always pride ourselves<br />
on a tough nonconference schedule, and this year,<br />
after Minnesota, we go to Michigan Tech, then<br />
we come home against Maine, and then we go to<br />
Notre Dame.”<br />
Ah, Notre Dame. And we promise (wink-wink) to<br />
not bring up the fact that UMD beat Notre Dame<br />
in the semifinals of the 2011 Frozen Four before<br />
knocking off Michigan for the school’s first title, and<br />
again beat the Fighting Irish 2-1 in the NCAA final<br />
last spring in the same Xcel Center. That’s all history<br />
now, of course, and the future is now, couldn’t look<br />
brighter. 6<br />
OCTOBER <strong>2018</strong> MINNESOTA HOCKEY MAGAZINE MINNESOTA HOCKEY MAGAZINE OCTOBER <strong>2018</strong><br />
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