Gopher Hockey Notes vs Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs – 2-22-2013

• PENALTY – Wade Bergman for Boarding on Tom Serratore at 2:03 of the 2nd period – Tom Serratore gets a loose puck just inside the Bulldog zone on the right boards and dumps it in then gets checked by Wade Bergman into the boards partially from behind and the official calls boarding on the play.
• • Scott Sandelin doesn’t agree with that call and Casey Hankinson says the call was partially made because it was a dangerous play.
• PENALTY – Travis Boyd for Slashing on Andy Welinski at 3:52 of the 2nd period – Travis Boyd is forechecking on the power play and gets knocked down. He gets up and slashes at Andy Welinski knocking the stick out of his hands and the official calls him for  the slash!
• • If the stick doesn’t get knocked out of Welinski’s hands, the call probably isn’t made or that’s a make-up call!
• GOAL! (SHORT-HANDED) – Erik Haula from Zach Budish at 7:50 of the 2nd period – A bad pass to the point on the UMD power play turns into a scoring chance when Zach Budish is the first man to the puck getting to it just to the left of the left face-off dot and instead of just taking a shot, he looks for the pass and sees Erik Haula coming down the center of the zone and sets him up for a one-timer that Haula gets enough of to get it past Matt McNeeley into the lower right of the net. GOPHERS 2-0!!!
• • Great job by Haula to get something on that shot because it looks like it got tipped slightly by the defenseman.
  • Mike Seidel was watching the puck instead of looking for a man to cover!
• GOAL! (POWER PLAY) – Justin Crandall from Cal Decowski at 8:27 of the 2nd period – Seth Helgeson makes a bad decision on the penalty kill when he gets the puck off a turnover and tries to make a move and he turns the puck back over. It goes in front of the net where Cal Decowski gets a backhand shot off and Adam Wilcox leaves a rebound that goes right to Justin Crandall and he quickly shoots it past Adam Wilcox to the short side and to the left of Wilcox’ right leg pad! BULLDOGS 1-2!!!
• • After seeing the replay it looks like Helgeson never had full control of the puck but he gets out of position and then turns the puck over towards the front of his own net. OOPS!
• PENALTY – Keegan Flaherty for Holding on AJ Michaelson at 9:53 of the 2nd period – A face-off at the dot just outside the left of the Gopher blue-line is won by the Gophers back to Mike Reilly playing left D. He goes D-to-D to Nate Schmidt(?). AJ Michaelson, playing left wing, off the face-off win spins off the defending Bulldog winger and makes for the Bulldog zone through the center of the neutral zone. Nate Schmidt sees him and makes a long pass through the neutral zone to get Michaelson a breakaway and Keegan Flaherty has no choice but to hold on to AJ and take away a scoring chance & now he gets to sit in the sin bin and think about it!
• • Great play without the puck by AJ Michaelson getting open for the long pass!
  • Have to believe the coaching staff saw that as a weakness when watching film on the Bulldogs!
  • • or an adjustment during the 1st intermission!
• GOAL! – Austin Farley from Joe Baseraba & Tony Cameranesi at 13:10 of the 2nd period – Tony Cameranesi gets the puck at the middle of the red line, skates in the right of the Gopher zone, gets wide around Nate Schmidt and takes a bad angle shot that Adam Wilcox saves off his right pad but the rebound goes up the middle off Austin Farley and up in the air. Zach Budish catches the puck & drops it to the ice but seems to think he has more time than he does. Cameranesi kept skating around the back of the net and catches Budish from behind forcing a turnover that goes to Joe Baseraba at the left point. He skates in a couple strides & takes a wrist shot  that’s going wide but it hits Seth Helgeson’s right skate and deflects in on Adam Wilcox, who makes the save. Because the puck basically just hits Wilcox, he’s not able to control the rebound so the puck goes off the toe of his left skate and bounces to his goalie stick but he can’t react fast enough to cover the puck as Austin Farley is right there to shoot the rebound into the top of the net! BULLDOGS TIE IT AT 2!!!
• • A lot of bad things happened on this play for the Gophers! Turnover turns into bad coverage by the Gophers!
  • • Zach Budish handling the puck as if he’s playing pick-up. No urgency to get it out of the zone
    • • Was there anyone telling him Man On!!!? The players on the ice? The coaches and/or players on the bench?
      • Talk to your teammates on the ice! Tell them where the puck is! Tell them there’s a man coming at them. Tell them where to play the puck.
    • Every Gopher on the ice watching the puck. You need to know where the puck is and face the puck but you need to know where your man is so you can keep them covered defensively.
    • Seth Helgeson has to know where he is on the ice and where he is in respect to his goaltender. Then he makes the mistake of getting his foot in front of the shot so a shot that was going 2-3 feet wide ends up deflecting on goal, creating an awkward save for Adam Wilcox and ending up with the puck in the net and a tie game!
  • This is one of those situations where the Gophers were breaking out so they are trying to get some space between them and the nearest Bulldog player for an offensive rush then the puck is turned over and they scramble to get good defensive coverage but fail miserably.
  • • So many goals happen because of panic after a turnover.
• GOAL! – Sam Warning from Nate Condon at 14:52 of the 2nd period – After being caught in their defensive end for a good 30 seconds, Nate Condon finally gets his stick on the puck behind his own net wrapping it around the left corner so Sam Warning can pick it up off the left half-wall and head up the left boards. Nate Condon is even with Warning as they cross the blue line and Bulldog defenseman Andy Welinski is closer to Nate Condon than Sam Warning. Welinski finally goes to Warning, going down on one knee & putting his stick flat on the ice to take away the pass, but Warning pulls the puck back and just gets the puck under Welinski’s stick then makes a move to his backhand to get around Bulldog forward Adam Krause and make goalie Matt McNeeley move side to side so he can slide the puck through five-hole! GOPHERS 3-2!!!
• • It was a 2-on-2 so Andy Welinski should be taking the body there. Going for the puck means you might miss it and the player will get by you. Taking the body is the better play there.
  • • He had a forward as his defensive partner (because the other d-man pinched) on the 2-on-2 so maybe he’s getting in Condon’s way for that reason.
    • He could be trying to keep Condon from driving the net too.
  • Adam Krause was alright but he can let Condon go once he’s out of the play but that’s what you get when you have a forward playing defense.
  • The threat of Nate Condon helped turn that play into a goal!
  • It doesn’t help that the back checker is coasting until he sees Warning get free for a scoring chance!
• PENALTY – Ben Marshall for Hooking on Keegan Flaherty at 17:33 of the 2nd period – Ben Marshall is covering Keegan Flaherty but as the shot goes to the net, Flaherty goes to the net too and Marshall tries to hold him up by putting his stick in his midsection & ends up taking him down allowing Adam Wilcox to make a couple great saves with the toe of his right skate and then his stick & blocker.
• • You might say good penalty but Marshall allows Flaherty to get to the front of the net so he wasn’t covering him as well as he could’ve been. Get in the way of his path to the net!
• GOAL! (POWER PLAY) – Austin Farley from Tony Cameranesi & Caleb Herbert at 19:16 of the 2nd period – Caleb Herbert is at the middle of the blue line and passes to Tony Cameranesi at the top of the left circle for a one-time slap shot that Mark Alt tries to block but it gets through him, hits the left post (to Adam Wilcox’ right) and bounces out to Austin Farley about 5 feet just off the right side of the net. He corrals the puck and shoots it into the empty net but it hits Seth Helgeson’s skate and the back of Adam Wilcox before going into the net.
• • Not sure that’s the technique you want when trying to block a shot, Mr. Alt!
  • • Going down on one knee and leaving a chance for the puck to get through doesn’t help out your goalie at all!
    • You’re basically screening the goalie! Get your stick in front of you and in front of the shooting lane to deflect it up and out of play!

• PENALTY – Caleb Herbert for Checking From Behind on Nick Bjugstad at 4:05 of the 3rd period – The puck gets deflected up in the air & Nick Bjugstad tries to catch it and gets drilled from behind and the Gophers will get a power play out of it!
• Crazy sequence with the puck in or near the UMD crease for almost 10 seconds!
• • Wade Bergman almost covers it in the crease which would be a penalty shot but Matt McNeeley fishes it out and Dan DeLisle clears it out from his knees!
• GOAL! – Kyle Rau from Nick Bjugstad & Zach Budish & Ben Marshall at 13:25 of the 3rd period – A face-off is won by Nick Bjugstad that goes through Kyle Rau (who falls down) to Ben Marshall, who came in from the right point to get to the puck on the right half-wall. Zach Budish went to the right point and Ben Marshall passed it back to him. Budish takes a wrist shot as soon as he gets the puck. The shot is going wide but Jake Hendrickson sticks his skate out to try to block the shot but it goes off his skates and rebound through Nick Bjugstad’s skates and to Kyle Rau as he’s going to the net so he has nothing but an open net to shoot at so its GOPHERS 4-3!!!
• • I bet goalies get really frustrated when players try to block every shot! They can stop the majority of the shots from the point if they can see them so having more bodies in their line of sight to the puck is not going to help and deflections are a nightmare for a goalie because the puck could go anywhere and they won’t know what to do to try and stop it!
  • Kyle Rau falls down, gets up and goes to the net and gets a goal for it!
• PENALTY – Austin Farley for Boarding on Tom Serratore at 15:35 of the 3rd period – The puck hits Tom Serratore just outside the Bulldogs blue line and he doesn’t know where it is so he’s spinning around looking for the puck and he gets hit from behind by Austin Farley! Oops!
• • Probably not a good idea to try to drill a player who’s spinning around! Ya think!
• We miss some 22 seconds of the power play because FSN is in commercial! You can’t make it up!
• • Go ahead! Try to make up some scenario that FSN could do to screw up a hockey broadcast! Can you think of something worse than what they actually do?
• GOAL! (EMPTY NET) – Erik Haula Unassisted at 19:54 of the 3rd period – Wade Bergman gets the puck at the right point and tries to make a move with Nate Condon coming at him with speed so he loses the puck and Condon clears the zone but it hits the linesman allowing Zach Budish to force the puck deep in the Bulldog zone. Erik Haula sees the opportunity to be aggressive and gets the puck away from Andy Welinski and is able to backhand the puck into the open net. GOPHERS 5-3!!!

Final Score
Minnesota Gophers 5, UMD Bulldogs 3

Gopher Hockey Recap from GopherSports.com – Third Period Push Carries Gophers to 5-3 Win Over Bulldogs
Gopher Hockey Box Score from GopherSports.com – Minnesota-UMD Stats
Gopher Hockey Recap from UMDBulldogs.com – Minnesota Strikes Twice Late In The Third Period To Clip Bulldogs

In other WCHA College Hockey action tonight,
Home=”vs”, Away=”@”
Colorado College won vs St. Cloud State 4-3
and
Denver won vs North Dakota 5-4

In other College Hockey action,
Home=”vs”, Away=”@”
Air Force won @ RIT 5-3 – Minnesota Wild 2009 7th-round pick Anthony Hamburg scored the 1st goal of this game for RIT.
Michigan State won @ Alaska 1-0 – Minnesota Wild 2012 3rd-round pick John Draeger had the 2nd assist on the lone goal.

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