Minnesota Duluth lost 4-3 at Northern Michigan on Friday in nonconference play at the Berry Events Center in Marquette. Game 2 is Saturday at 6:07 p.m. in Marquette.
Below are my thumbs up and thumbs down from Friday’s game, plus my three stars of the night.
Thumbs up to UMD scoring a trio of goals
It was great to see the Bulldogs get three goals Friday, for them to battle back and take a pair of leads and for UMD to do all of that against a pretty darn good goaltender.
NMU freshman Atte Tolvanen — one of three European goaltenders dressing for the Wildcats this season — came into the night with a 2.27 goals against average and .932 save percentage. He’s only given up four or more goals on three occasions this season.
He’s been solid and was again Friday, stopping 36 of the 39 shots he faced. Three goals should have been enough for UMD.
Thumbs down to UMD’s power play
Two missed opportunities cost UMD a win or tie Friday night in Marquette.
The first was the wide open net Tolvanen provided the Bulldogs during a power play in the third period. The Bulldogs couldn’t even get a shot off and there was plenty of time to do so.
The second was the final 30 seconds of regulation. UMD was given a 5-on-3 advantage via an NMU penalty and an empty net. The Bulldogs got two shots off. Both came late with time running out. One missed the net. The other was blocked.
If there was ever a time to end the 0-for-29 power play drought, that was it, and UMD blew it.
“I thought our urgency wasn’t very good and our execution wasn’t very good,” UMD coach Scott Sandelin said of the final 30 seconds. “I thought we made a couple bad passes which broke everything down and I didn’t think we had the urgency and we never got set up for what we were doing because of a couple bad passes.”
Matt’s Three Stars
2. NMU freshman goaltender Atte Tolvanen: He stopped 36 of UMD’s 39 shots to give his team a shot at victory Friday.
2. NMU junior defenseman Brock Maschmeyer: The most important goal may have been the one by Maschmeyer at 1:59 of the third period. It came 26 seconds after UMD had taken the lead.
1. NMU sophomore wing Robbie Payne: He scored twice for the Wildcats, tying the game at 2-2 late in the second period and scoring the game-winner on the power play with under 5 minutes to play.