Minnesota Gophers Recap vs the UMD Bulldogs – October 22nd, 2021

Posted on October 23, 2021 by

Minnesota Gopher Recap vs UMD Bulldogs - October 22nd, 2021

The Minnesota Gophers look to start a winning streak after a HUGE break last weekend gave them an Overtime victory at St. Cloud State, splitting the home & home series.

Through the first 4 games of the season, this 2021-22 Minnesota Gopher hockey team has shown their talent on the offensive end pretty much every game but their defense & the goaltending of Jack LaFontaine has not been pretty for the most part. They’ll have to get that shored up to beat the top teams in College Hockey.

Here’s how the teams lined up for the 1st game of this in-state battle home & home series that began at 3M Arena at Mariucci:

Minnesota Gophers

Starters in Gold!

University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs

For some reason, they didn’t post a line chart.

This is what they had in their most recent game:

1st Period Recap

The Bulldogs came out with a lot of energy and the Gophers didn’t appear ready for it and their lack of execution in really any aspect of the game cost them early as UMD scored twice in the first 12:03 of the game behind goals from  The Bulldogs controlled the majority of play for the first 15 minutes of the game.

It took until the 9:38 mark for the Gophers to get their first shot on goal and that came off a Bulldog pass that went off a Bulldog skate and went on goal. Their actual first shot didn’t come until the 8:27 mark. The Gophers started to find their game and even out the play at that point, too.

The Gophers then got a power play as Blake McLaughlin was hauled down when a pack went up in the air and Bulldog D Connor Kelley tried to reach it with his stick but his stick went under McLaughlin’s arm and he pulled him down when he tried to pull his stick back.

The Gophers SCORED on that Power Play when Mike Koster took a shot from the middle of the point through a bunch of bodies that got past Bulldog G Ryan Fanti. HUGE goal to get the Gophers on the board and to end a pretty bad period only down 1. 

2nd Period Recap

The Gophers came out with a lot more energy in the 2nd.

Coincidental minors ended up in 4-on-4 play and the Gophers had a Communication Breakdown that resulted in a wide open D Owen Gallatin in the slot for a one-timer that beat LaFontaine to his right on the ice for a 3-1 UMD lead.

The Gophers then may have been victimized by a non-call when Mike Koster was sent into the boards awkwardly and he never had the puck. The Gophers were able to clear the zone but D Wyatt Kaiser was able to keep possession after Gopher F Chaz Lucius tried to chip it past him off the boards. Kaiser then spun backwards to create space & passed it to Kobe Roth at the right boards just past the red line and Kaiser broke towards the offensive zone. He was pretty much all alone so he just took a good hard shot that went off LaFontaine’s mask and came out for a juicy rebound that Kaiser got to first as he followed his shot and he was able to score into the empty net for his first collegiate goal. Good for that Minnesota boy from Ham Lake.

Bad for the Minnesota Gophers but they just seemed to be watching the game instead of participating. There aren’t any seats on the ice for a very good reason. The spectators are outside the glass, boys! They were reacting to the play rather than reading and anticipating the play.

This Gopher team has the talent to come back from 3 goals down but not if they don’t compete and compete hard! There’s that old slogan about talent not working hard. The Motz couldn’t be happy at this point of the game & really, for the whole season so far. It’s only 5 games in but holy cow! Someone get them going!!!

Gopher Freshman F Matthew Knies scored with 2:06 remaining in the period and as it was happening, we thought, there’s a guy who could help turn this game around. He got in on the forecheck and made a play at the right half-wall going back towards the point rather than throw it back into the corner where his linemate Mason Nevers was but he made sure to get rid of the puck by sending it to the left half-wall so D Ben Brinkman could get to it. He then passed to Nevers coming around the back of the net. Nevers passed it to Brock Faber at the right point and he walked the line a little before passing it to Knies in the slot and he skated in a little before shooting a backhand that may have gone off of Ben Meyers then into the net. 4-2 Bulldogs

The Gophers ended the 2nd period in a good way just like they did the 1st. Did they make a game out of it in the 3rd?

3rd Period Recap

The Gophers again came out with more urgency & energy in the 3rd but there’s a reason the University of Minnesota-Duluth has been in 3 of the last 4 NCAA Ice Hockey Championship games and won 2 of them.

We don’t have the stats but we can’t imagine the Bulldogs have given up a lot of 2-goal leads in the 3rd period under Head Coach Scott Sandelin.***

The Gophers got a power play but took 2 penalties that look pretty weak and the Bulldogs scored 6 seconds into the 5-on-3 to make it 5-2. The Gophers did score shortly thereafter to get within 2 goals again.

The Gophers battled through the end of the game but as you’d expect, it was too little, too late.

Game Notes

*In the 2nd period: Analyst & former Gopher defenseman Ben Clymer said, “Doug Woog would not allow us to make backhand passes in practice, for real. He would lose his mind on you: ‘You guys aren’t good enough to make backhand passes!’”

He later added that he had made a full cross-ice backhand pass through the neutral zone while playing for Coach John Tortella and when he got back to the bench, Torts said, “Great Pass! Don’t ever do that again!”

**We’ve often thought the Gophers suffered when the WCHA disbanded because the Big Ten wanted to have their own Hockey Conference and tonight was a good example of that because the NCHC, which is mostly teams from the old WCHA, is a power Hockey Conference with St. Cloud State, the UMD Bulldogs, North Dakota, Denver, Colorado College, Omaha (all former WCHA teams), Miami (of Ohio) and Western Michigan. The WCHA was a great hockey conference because there weren’t any easy games. It was very competitive every weekend. It’s taken the Big Ten a while to reach that status but it does look like they’re getting close.

NCHC* Frozen Four Appearances

2014 – 1
2015 – 2
2016 – 2
2017 – 2
2018 – 1
2019 – 2
2021 – 2
Total – 12
*All Appearances are also former WCHA teams

B1G Frozen Four Appearances
2014 – 1 – Minnesota
2015 – 0
2016 – 0
2017 – 1 – Notre Dame
2018 – 2
2019 – 0
2021 – 0
Total – 4

***We looked it up on CollegeHockeyInc.com:

The UMD Bulldogs are 129-7-8 going into the 3rd period with a lead since they left the WCHA & joined the NCHC in the 2013-14 season:

2020-21 – 9-2-1
2019-20 – 18-1
2018-19 – 20-1
2017-18 – 23-0-1
2016-17 – 17-0-2
2015-16 – 14-0
2014-15 – 15-2-1
2013-14 – 13-1-3
Hopefully, tonight’s game will be a lot more competitive.

Next up: 

Thank you for reading! Bring The Clutter in the comments & on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram & LinkedIn.

And…as always…

Bring The Clutter Every Day in Every Way

This entry was posted in College Hockey, Gopher Hockey, Hockey In Minnesota and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.