Gopher Hockey Notes – vs Notre Dame Irish – 1-7-2013

The Gopher Hockey team is ranked #1 in the nation!!! Their first matchup as the #1 team is with the 2nd-ranked team in the nation in the Notre Dame Irish and the Son of Don, Mario Lucia, among others. After dominating the former #1 team Boston College Eagles in an 8-1 win back on December 30th, the Minnesota Gophers can’t let up as every opponent from here on will bring their best game to try to beat them and the Irish has plenty of talent and team to win! They’re not ranked 2nd in the nation for nothing.

Line Chart – Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey

Left Wing – Center – Right Wing
Kyle Rau-7 – Nick Bjugstad-27 – Christian Isackson-26
Sam Warning-11 – Nate Condon-16 – Zach Budish-24
Tom Serratore-14 – Travis Boyd-22 – Seth Ambroz-17
Mike Reilly-5 – AJ Michaelson-15 – Justin Holl-12
Left Defenseman – Right Defenseman
Seth Helgeson-4 – Mark Alt-20
Jake Parenteau-6 – Ben Marshall-10
Brady Skjei-2 – Nate Schmidt-29
Goalie
Adam Wilcox-32
G-Mike Shibrowski-1

Scratches:  G-Ryan Coyne-31, G-Matt LaPrade-30, D-Blake Thompson-3(Transferred), F-Ryan Reilly-9, F-Chirstian Horn-18, F-Jared Larson-23

Injured: F-Erik Haula-19, F-Connor Reilly-21

Line Chart – Notre Dame Irish

 Left Wing – Center – Right Wing
Jeff Costello-11 – Anders Lee-9 – Bryan Rust-21
Mario Lucia-21 – T.J. Tynan-18 – Michael Voran-16
Nick Larson-17 – David Gerths-10 – Austin Wuthrich-27
Thomas Dipauli-14 – Steven Fogarty-26 – Peter Schneider-15
Left Defenseman – Right Defenseman
Shayne Taker-3 – Stephen Johns-28
Kevin Lind-25 – Robbie Russo-5
Eric Johnson-23 – Sam Calabrese-8
Goalie
Steven Summerhays-1
Mike Johnson-32

Scratches/Injured: G-Joe Rogers-31, D-Andy Ryan-6, D-Jared Beers-29, F-Sam Herr-12, F-Kevin Nugent-20

With Erik Haula out with a wrist injury, Christian Isackson moves up to RW on the #1 line and Nate Condon moves down to center the 2nd line. That opens up a spot for AJ Michaelson to get in the lineup centering the 4th line between GOLD MEDAL WINNER Mike Reilly & Justin Holl.

Let’s DROP THE CLUTTERPUCK!!!

1st Period

• GOAL! – Nate Condon from Zach Budish & Sam Warning at 1:21 of the 1st period – Sam Warning gets a loose puck along the left boards off a puck battle is won by Jake Parenteau knocking it away from T.J. Tynan. Warning quickly turns and heads up ice then makes a pass to the center of the Gopher blue line to Zach Budish. Budish carries the puck through the neutral zone and once he gets over the Irish blue line, he drops the puck to Nate Condon, and drives the net. Condon was right behind Budish then skated to the right of the zone getting the pass as he crossed the blue line, he skated to the top of the right circle and sent a snap shot to the upper left corner of the net past a screened Steven Summerhays in goal. GOPHERS 1-0!!!
  • Too much time and space given to Budish and Condon by Irish defenseman Kevin Lind and Robbie Russo. One of them needs to force Budish to make a play before the blue line and not just let him skate into their zone freely.
    • Russo turns and skates towards Budish but not enough to make him move the puck or dump it in or do anything he doesn’t want to.
    • Once Lind sees Russo coming towards Budish, he should step up and make a play on the puck or attempt a check on Budish.
    • Russo stays on Budish and when he sees Condon preparing to shoot, he gets out of the way (to not screen his goalie) but he doesn’t get in front of the shot or at least get in front of part of the net to block the shot from getting through.
    • Lind attempts to block the shot with the old put my legs together and hold my stick like a goaltender which only gives Condon a better lane to shoot the puck through!
  • Use the blue line as another defender! That is your “line” of defense!
  • Offensive players want time and space! That gives them the chance to handle the puck and/or find an open man for a pass. Why would you want to give them that chance?
• PENALTY – Peter Schneider for Boarding on Seth Ambroz at 5:13 of the 1st period – A loose puck comes to Seth Ambroz at the right half wall of the Gopher zone and Peter Schneider puts his arm into Ambroz’ back and gets two minutes for it!
• GOAL! – Sam Warning from Travis Boyd & Ben Marshall at 7:29 of the 1st period – After the penalty expires, Ben Marshall gets the puck at the point and just dumps the puck wide left of the net where Seth Ambroz is the first to it and passes it to Travis Boyd at the left half-wall. Boyd skates the puck towards the net and makes a backhand pass back to Ben Marshall for a one-time slapper that goes off Steven Summerhays right pad & rebounds right to Boyd. He tries to make a move around Summerhays but trips over his pads and a mad scramble for the puck ensues in front of Steven Summerhays that includes all 5 Irish players and 3 Gopher players. Boyd is down on the ice, Ambroz is knocked down, loses his stick (which is flung in the air by Tynan) and the puck comes loose to Shayne Taker. Taker tries to make a move around Sam Warning but Sam gets his stick in the way enough to steal the puck and shoots it into the upper left of the net. GOPHERS 2-0!!!
  • Hard to believe one Gopher player basically beat out 5 Irish players for the puck in that situation.
    • No way that should happen! GET THE PUCK and GET IT OUT!!!
  • If you get the puck in that situation, just get it out of the zone or throw it in the corner. Don’t try to make a move! Or at least don’t make a move that takes the puck toward the opposing player.
• PENALTY – T.J. Tynan for Hooking on Jake Parenteau at 9:56 of the 1st period – T.J. Tynan gets a little too aggressive on the forecheck (or back check) and puts his stick in front of Parenteau and holds him up enough for the official to call him for a penalty.
• PENALTY – Sam Warning for Interference on Austin Wuthrich at 12:14 of the 1st period – Sam Warning is skating through the neutral zone and Austin Wuthrich is back checking and they run into each other. Wuthrich falls down so the official gets Warning for the penalty.
  • Not sure that wasn’t just incidental contact as Warning just kept skating. He didn’t change direction to get in Wuthrich’s way and it appeared as if Wuthrich was trying to jump to get around Warning.
• GOAL! – Jeff Costello from Bryan Rust & Anders Lee at 14:31 of the 1st period – After the Gophers clear the zone, Stephen Johns flips the puck out to the center of the neutral zone. Anders Lee catches the puck and drops it to the ice and he swings at it to pass it to the left to Bryan Rust. He skates it into the center of the zone, tries to stick-handle to his forehand but the puck gets away from him and rolls/bounces to the right of the zone through Seth Helgeson, who can’t get enough of it to deflect it, to Jeff Costello and he’s able to get it on his stick and now has the speed to get around Helgeson and cut to the net, make a move to his forehand and get the puck on Adam Wilcox. The puck somehow gets through Wilcox and slowly goes across the goal line! IRISH 1-2!!!
  • Could that have been a hand pass by Anders Lee or did he actually get a piece of it when he swung at it? He may of barely got a piece of it.
  • When the puck gets through Helgeson, he panics and turns from skating backwards to forwards and reaches for the puck instead of just angling Costello off and forcing him to go behind the net or to make a pass.
    • Also, he reaches instead of moving his feet and goes for the puck instead of taking the body.
      • KEEP SKATING! You will always be in better position to make a play! If you reach and miss, you’re usually out of the play!
      • Take the body! It’s a much bigger target.
  • Sam Warning and Seth Ambroz weren’t in the greatest position to break up that play with both of them going for the puck in the same area of the ice.
  • The craziest thing about that play may be that the puck may have never been flat on the ice, always rolling or bouncing on edge!
    • The puck flipped to Anders Lee
    • Dropped to the ice, bounces to Bryan Rust
    • Rolls through Helgeson
    • Is on edge the whole time Costello has it on his stick and
    • somehow gets through Wilcox and
    • I’m wrong, it was flat when it slid across the goal line!
• PENALTY – Nate Condon for Holding on Jeff Costello at 16:54 of the 1st period – Nate Condon loses the puck as he tries to get around the Irish defense and, in frustration, grabs Jeff Costello and hauls him down and now he gets to think about it for a couple minutes in the sin bin!
  • Never a good penalty in the offensive zone!

2nd Period

• PENALTY – Nick Larson for Tripping on AJ Michaelson at 3:06 of the 2nd period – Nick Larson is in front of the Gopher net and a shot comes in from the point from Sam Calabrese. AJ Michaelson gets in front of the shot, catches the puck and as he drops it to the ice, Larson trips him up and gets the call for tripping from the official.
  • Bad penalty in the offensive zone but maybe a little bad luck that Michaelson fell down there.
• GOAL! – Christian Isackson from AJ Michaelson at 5:23 of the 2nd period – After the penalty expires, Travis Boyd just dumps the puck in right of the Irish zone (to Summerhays left) with Sam Warning in on the forecheck. Shayne Taker coasts to the puck and plays the puck around the right boards to Stephen Johns. Johns taps the puck back around the back boards but a little farther than he may have wanted to creating a loose puck for a second and enough time for AJ Michaelson to pressure him and force a turnover as they get past the net. Christian Isackson gets the puck and has enough time all alone in front of the net to fake a move to his forehand, move it back to his backhand and go Backhand Shelf with it for the goal! GOPHERS 3-1!!!
  • AJ Michaelson got his skate on the puck and may have kicked it in the direction of Isackson. Nice play if he did that on purpose. Heck! Nice play even if it was just a good bounce.
    • Always a good play to force the d-man to make a quicker play than he wants to. That forces mistakes as most defenseman don’t have the calm to make the smart play every time.
  • Tough to fault anyone for being out of position as the Irish are preparing to break out of the zone and then the puck is turned over.
  • You could say have a little more sense of urgency from the defense. Get the puck, make a quick play and force the opposition to work harder to defend you!
    • By coasting and playing lackadaisical, the Irish allowed the Gophers to get in on the forecheck and force a turnover that quickly turned into them being down by 2 goals again.
• PENALTY – Stephen Johns for Boarding on Kyle Rau at 6:51   of the 2nd period – Kyle Rau misses the net on a scoring chance and follows the puck around the right corner. As he gets to the right half-wall with the puck, he turns and Stephen Johns body checks him and the official calls boarding!
  • That’s not a good call! Even if its an elbow like Kevin Gorg thinks it is.
    • Gorg thinks the call is an elbow because Johns followed through high extending his arms so it looks like an elbow to him. Johns never touches Rau with his elbow.
    • It was a good physical play and looks rougher than it is because Johns at 6-4 and 233 pounds is a lot bigger player than Rau at 5-8 and 173 pounds.
      • Don’t follow through with your arms high! When you do, a good physical hit can look like a minor penalty to the officials.
• PENALTY – Kyle Rau for Interference on Stephen Johns at 9:02 of the 2nd period – Notre Dame gets a 2-on-1 with Mario Lucia on the right with the puck & Stephen Johns on his left. Kyle Rau back checks to take away the pass and interferes with Johns and the official gives Rau a 2-minute minor for it.
  • Kevin Gorg says “this is a good penalty” as it takes away a scoring chance. I’m not sure I agree with that completely because he might be able to take away the pass without taking a penalty but he did what he had to do to keep the Irish from getting a good chance to score.
    • There aren’t many “good” penalties. Somebody makes a mistake that results in a scoring chance so even though Rau takes a penalty to take a scoring chance away, someone else made the wrong play to give up the 2-on-1.
• PENALTY – Tom Serratore for Roughing Cross-Checking on Jeff Costello at 19:48 of the 2nd period – Tom Serratore comes in to finish a check on Jeff Costello and gets his hands up high on him.
  • He did have both hands on his stick so I can see why the official called a cross-check but it looks more like a roughing penalty to me.
  • Keep your hands down when you check!

3rd Period

• BIG SAVE! – Adam Wilcox on Bryan Rust at 3:20 of the 3rd period – Kevin Lind makes a poke check on Nick Bjugstad that gets past Zach Budish and Bryan Rust gets a breakaway. He makes a move and is bothered by a back checking Nate Schmidt as he does so he doesn’t get a good shot off. Adam Wilcox still had to make a save with the toe of his left skate keeping the score at 3-1!
  • Not sure if the shot would’ve gone wide but it was close.
• PENALTY – Shayne Taker for Interference on Seth Ambroz at 8:52 of the 3rd period – Off a face-off in the left of the Irish zone (Summerhays left), Seth Ambroz is on the left wing with Shayne Taker opposite him. The face-off is won by T.J. Tynan to the back wall so Ambroz is on the forecheck and Taker ends up knocking him down  with the puck nowhere near them.
• PENALTY – Michael Voran for Cross-Checking on Ben Marshall at 14:00 of the 3rd period – Michael Voran is going to the net to get open for a pass or a rebound and cross-checks Ben Marshall for no reason and gets to sit in the penalty box because of it.
  • Dumb penalty! Offensive zone! Needless play! ‘Nuff said!
• GOAL! (Empty-Net) – Zach Budish from Kyle Rau & Nate Condon at 19:45 of the 3rd period – With the goalie pulled, a one-time slap shot by Stephen Johns goes wide left and around the right corner. Nate Condon gets to the puck before Robbie Russo and banks it off the boards to Kyle Rau, who skates it to the blue line, passes it to Zach Budish and Budish puts it in the open net.

FINAL SCORE
Minnesota 4, Notre Dame 1

The Gophers jumped on the Irish early and never looked back as the Irish looked a little sluggish playing their first game in 24 days. It took Notre Dame half a period to get in some kind of flow going but even though they cut the lead to one at 2-1 by the end of the 1st period, they couldn’t get much going on offense to make a comeback against a deep Gopher hockey team.

The Gophers have a quick turnaround when they play Alaska-Anchorage in a 2-game series starting Friday at Mariucci! Both games will be televised. Friday’s game is on the Big Ten Network at 8pm CST and Saturday’s game is on FSN at 7pm CST.

Gopher Hockey Recap from GopherSports.com – No. 1 Gophers Get Hot Early in 4-1 Win Over No. 2/3 Notre Dame
Gopher Hockey Box Score from GopherSports.com – Minnesota-Notre Dame stats
Gopher Hockey Recap from UND.com – Second-Ranked Irish Fall To Top-Ranked Minnesota 4-1
Gopher Hockey Recap from Michael Russo of StarTribune.com – Gophers beat Notre Dame, now look to climb up the WCHA standings

Here’s a funny video from Gopher Hockey with former Gophers Keith Ballard & Paul Martin helping out their alma mater during the NHL Lockout!

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