No. 9 Minnesota Duluth took Round 1 of the top-10 tilt in Houghton this weekend, winning Friday over No. 4 Michigan Tech, 3-1, at John MacInnes Student Ice Arena.
Here are my thumbs up and thumbs down from the game, followed by my three stars of the game.
Thumbs up to the the Bulldogs power play
The box score tonight didn’t do the Bulldogs power play units justice. In fact, it’s a big, fat, dirty, rotten, stinking, no-good, filthy liar.
UMD’s power play was exceptional, despite technically finishing 1-for-5 on the night. Of those five chances, two were less than 25 seconds long. They were the result of Michigan Tech taking penalties shortly after UMD put them on the advantage. So take away the two mini-power plays and UMD is 1-for-3. Even that stat doesn’t do the power play justice.
“The power play tonight had some good opportunities,” UMD sophomore center Dominic Toninato said. “We were snapping the puck around, getting some good shots. That’s what you need out of the power play. You need some momentum and even if you don’t score, you got to get that momentum going.”
A better number to me is 2-for-3 for the UMD power play. The Bulldogs didn’t score on their first chance in the first period, but they generated five shots on goal and stole the momentum from Tech. That’s a win for UMD. The second power play, also in the first, resulted in Toninato scoring. The third full power play for UMD was in the second period. That chance generated two shots on goal. You can’t win them all, as Tech has learned, but even that advantage was strong for UMD.
It was a near perfect night for the Bulldogs power play. If they play that way again, they’ll return to Duluth with a sweep of Tech, and probably more than just one goal.
“You’re not always going to score on them, but the main focus is to get some momentum going,” Toninato said. “I think after every power play, we came out the next shift and had a good one and kept rolling.”
Thumbs down to UMD’s slow start in the second period
Like the rout of Colorado College on Saturday, I’m struggling to find much wrong with the Bulldogs win on Friday. I’m sure coach Scott Sandelin will do better than I can.
My low point Friday was the start of the second period. UMD took a penalty 26 seconds into the period and was outshot 5-1 in the first five-plus minutes. The Bulldogs had scored a key goal in the final two minutes of the first period, and failed to build on that goal. It took a penalty by Tech while the Huskies were on the power play and a goal by junior wing Austin Farley to give the momentum back to UMD.
Matt’s Three Stars
