It was another good game at Mariucci Arena last night. Minnesota held on
to beat Duluth for the 6th consecutive time this season. Both teams
skated and passed well, so it was a fun game to watch.
 
UMD scored first in the 1st period on a nice break in. Federinko rapped
in a centering pass from Lidster. The Gophs came right back, however,
scoring a pp goal. The Gophers went 3 for 4 on the powerplay.
 
With the score tied after 1 period, the Gophs shut down UMD in the
second, limiting the Bulldogs to just 4 shots on goal. Minnesota got the
go ahead goal early in the second from Bell and went up 3 - 1 on a pp
goal from Trebil. Trebil's slap shot is starting to look pretty good. He
buried the puck from high in the slot on pp goal.
 
The third period was the most interesting. Just as the fans started to
scurry for the exits in order to get home to watch the Moorhead/Duluth
East game, UMD started mounting steady pressure. The Bulldogs started
getting to feisty, however, when a UMD player was called for holding and
MN went on the powerplay. The Gophs quickly set up the powerplay and were
closing in on the UMD goal. A shot from Trebil at the point bounced off
Lendzyk's pads and he slid out to the right of the goal to try and cover
up the rebound. The puck bounced away from him however, and he kept
sliding away from the goal. Scrambling furiously to get back into the
net, Lendzyk wasn't quick enough. The puck was fed to Kraft on the left
side of the net where Kraft slid a nice pass to Crowley waiting in the
slot. Crowley let a rising wrist shot go just as Lendzyk was sliding back
into the goal.
 
Crowley's goal proved to be the game winner as the stumbling, bumbling
moronic crew of Schmitt, Goddard and Schmidt tried their best to get UMD
back into the game. For the second night in a row, the refs made strange
calls which lead to UMD goals. Let me DIGRESS:
 
In Friday night's thriller, the refs called Nick Checco for checking the
goalie in a play where a shot bounced from Lendzyk and Checco breezed by
trying for the rebound. Checco did not hit Lendzky, but Taras put on a
great performance falling to the ice and wriggling and wriething as if he
had been blind sided. The Refs gave UMD a powerplay and they quickly
scored to tie the game.
 
In Saturday's game a UMD player and Minn's Larson both skated into the
corner on the left of Minn's goal. Both players were going for the puck,
the UMD player reaching the puck first. Now I could be wrong on this, I
was on the other side of the rink, but it seemed to me that Larson just
followed through on the play and checked the Bulldog player to the
boards. The UMD player crumpled under Larson's hit and Larson was called
for cross checking.
 
On the ensuing powerplay with time running out, UMD put heavy pressure on
the Gopher net. With a pile up in front of the goal and 2 UMD players free
in the slot looking for the puck, Minn's Dan Trebil intentionally jarred
the net from its moorings ala UW fashon. To Trebil's considerable
surprise, his infraction wasn't the interferance or delay of game two
minute minor he was expecting... it was a PENALTY SHOT!!!!
 
So, with the game paused with 3 seconds left on the clock, UMD's Aldoff
got to perform hockey's most exciting play, the penalty shot. Aldoff came
in at medium speed with Callanan embarrassingly far out from the goal
line. Aldoff stick handled the puck, giving no hint as to which way he
would break. At at least 10 feet out from the net, Callinan lunged at the
puck, attempting to poke check the puck off Aldoff's stick. Callinan
missed and as the goalie flopped to the ice Aldoff deposited the puck in
the empty net.
 
Luckily there were only 2.7 seconds on the clock and the clock expired
quickly after the face off. UMD and the refs made it interesting, however!
 
So Minnesota ends UMD's season, with the Gophers completing a total
season sweep over the Bulldogs.
 
The most exciting news of this weekend's first round play has to be North
Dakota SWEEPING SCSU on SCSU's home ice. WOW!!!!! Way to go North
Dakota!!!! Also, how about Northern!? I knew Northern was better than
their 9th place finish! They've got a lot of seniors playing for pride!
Today's game is going to be a real nail biter I'm sure! Good luck Huskies!
 
Well, all roads lead to the Civic Center in lovely downtown St. Paul, my
fair city!
 
Reed