November 2, 2008
Duluth Showcases Its Special Teams at Xcel
Wins Minnesota College Hockey Showcase Game against St. Cloud State
CHN Staff Report
ST. PAUL, Minn. — It was created as Minnesota's answer to The Beanpot, the Boston tradition spanning over 50 years. Played at St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center and interwoven into the WCHA schedule, the "first round" was Saturday, pitting St. Cloud State against Minnesota-Duluth, and Minnesota vs. Minnesota State.
These were humble beginnings, with few people showing up for the SCSU-UMD opener, even though it was a Saturday afternoon.
"It was definitely similar to when we played last year in Albany [NCAA Tournament game] where there weren't very many people filling up the big building," said the Huskies' Nick Oslund, who scored SCSU's only goal, in the third, well after the game was decided (it was a 5-1 final for UMD). "You have to create your own environment and get yourself into it."
But still worth it, was the general consensus.
"There's a lot of pride in Minnesota hockey. It's definitely a good thing," Oslund said.
Said coach Bob Motzko, "This is a concept I want to see continue and we want to see it grow. We're in it so we want it to grow from our standpoint with our fans and alumni."
Otherwise, Motzko was not a happy camper. His team continues to struggle, and slipped to 3-4.
"Our team has been like a yoyo this season," Motzko said. "We came ready to play. We had a good week of practice and we thought we were building off last Saturday. We started the game well.
"We have some individuals playing very frustrated. They're not a coherent group right now. We need our leadership to step forward and steady the ship."
Particularly, stars like Ryan Lasch and Garrett Roe are having trouble scoring. They each scored in the opener against Mercyhurst, but Lasch hasn't scored since and Roe has just one, coming last week against Bemidji State.
"We get a 5-on-3 and there were some guys who did not look good and that's where the frustration comes from," Motzko said. "They're guys that in the past, have looked really good. They're kids, young guys trying to figure it out.
"The frustration; you see it start to mount during the game. We're imploding. During the 60 minutes we find ways to implode ourselves and we start to get frustrated. We let a bad pass and bad body language start to affect us."
Duluth, of course, saw things the opposite way, and has improved to 4-1-2. Five different players scored goals, including three on the power play.
"It's something we've been working on and our penalty kill's been struggling a little bit so that was nice to shut them down today," UMD's Matt Greer said. "Especially in this league, special teams is absolutely critical and tonight we won the battle; that was the key to the game."
Said Matt Kemp, who also scored, "Last year the big thing was we didn't score that much. It's was a frustrating year, especially at the end of the year we got shut out a lot. ... Pucks started going our way like we thought they would and we're burying them."
The penalty kill pleased coach Scott Sandelin more than the power play.
"Our penalty killing up until the last few games was pretty average. We tried to work a little harder on it and be aggressive in different areas, but it's hard sometimes in some of these games when you have to try and get everyone some ice time (trying to figure out matchups)," said Sandelin, referring to the increased penalty calls in the WCHA this season. "The bottom line is we all know penalty killing is goaltending and our goaltender (Alex Stalock) made some saves tonight, both on the power play and on the 5-on-5. He gave us an even better chance to win."
