"Who’s on First?"– a classic vaudeville routine made famous by Abbott and Costello — is being played out in the WCHA as "Who’s in First?" As of Saturday morning, Denver and St. Cloud State had replaced Minnesota Duluth at the top of the league following Friday’s games.
UMD had been at the top for two weeks, but lost to Wisconsin 5-2 at the DECC, as four of five road teams won to open weekend series. Other games were St. Cloud State winning 5-4 at Colorado College, Denver winning 2-0 at North Dakota, Minnesota winning 7-4 at Alaska Anchorage; while homestanding Michigan Tech broke a 15-game winless streak with a 4-1 win over Minnesota State-Mankato.
The WCHA standings now show: Denver and St. Cloud State tied for first with 26 points, UMD and Wisconsin tied for thrid with 25 and Colorado College fifth with 23. That’s five teams separated by three points. Right behind are North Dakota in sixth with 19 and Minnesota seventh with 18. Remaining as the tightest race that anyone can remember this late in the season.
The PairWise Rankings here are WCHA top-heavy — No. 1 Denver (tied with Miami of Ohio), No. 3 Wisconsin, No. 4 St. Cloud State (tied with Bemidji State), No. 8 UMD (tied with Massachusetts), No. 12 North Dakota, No. 16 Colorado College, No. 21 Minnesota.
Here are some highlights from the five series, including three matching the league’s top six teams:
In Grand Forks, N.D., the Denver Pioneers scored twice in the game’s first four minutes and proceeded to shut down North Dakota. Joe Colborne and Tyler Ruegsegger had seven-strength Denver goals and Marc Cheverie made 33 saves for his sixth shutout of the season. North Dakota went 0-9 on power plays and is in the midst of a 0-28 streak. Aaron Dell started in goal for North Dakota and was replaced after the first pereiod. The Sioux led 33-20 in shots on goal.
"We obviously want to be more disciplined, especially on the road, but the penalty killers were great," Cheverie told the Denver Post. "Guys were blocking shots, sacrificing their bodies. It’s just a huge win after a disappointing weekend at Wisconsin."
In Colorado Springs, Colo., the hottest team in Division I continued to roll. St. Cloud State scored three third-period goals, two from red-hot freshman right winger David Eddy, to break from a 2-2 tie and win a ninth straight game. The Huskies are 12-1-1 the past 14 games. Bill Sweatt gave Colorado FCollege a 3-2 lead in the first 19 seconds of the third, but Eddy answered 30 seconds later. Jared Festler got the game winner about midway through the final period. St. Cloud State goalie Dan Dunn is 10-2. Sweatt had two goals for Colorado College, now 2-6 the last eight games.
“In our league, (the standings) doesn’t matter until really the last week of the year,” St. Cloud State coach Motzko told the St. Cloud Times. “There’s just too tough of competition to ever think about that stuff. Really, you just have to get through, survive your weekends, get some stuff done on the road and do well at home, and when the dust settles if you have a shot at the end, you kind of talk about it. But we’ll never breathe a word of that now.”
In Houghton, Mich. (where UMD travels next weekend), Michigan Tech scored three first-period goals on the way to snapping that 0-14-1 streak. Malcolm Gwilliam had two goals for the Huskies and Brett Olson of Superior had the game-winner for his 13th goal of the season. Mankato has now lost five straight.
“We’ve worked really hard. “They guys have stuck with it. There’s been a ton of adversity and we’ve talked at length about wanting to keep moving forward," Michigan Tech coach Jamie Russell told the Houghton Mining Gazette.
“It’s not so much [losing to Michigan Tech], it’s that we’re frustrated with losing,” Mankato coach Troy Jutting, after a lengthy post-game team meeting, told the Mankato Free Press. “It doesn’t matter if it’s that team or someone else.”
In Anchorage, Alaska, the Minnsota Gophers came up with their most goals this sesason (7), going 3-of-5 on power plays, adding a shorthander, and getting two goals each from Jordan Schroeder and Mike Carman, the game winner from Zach Budish, and one from Patrick White. Minnesota trailed 2-1 in the first, then got three goals in the second period. Anchorage is 0-6 in WCHA Friday home games and have been outscored 32-10.
"It’s obviously nice to bury some goals,’ Budish told the Anchorage Daily News.
And at the DECC, Wisconsin broke from a 2-2 first-period and scored the game’s final three goals and is 7-1-3 the last two months. Here’s a Wisconsin State Journal look at the game:
Andy Baggot, Wisconsin State Journal
DULUTH, Minn. — It’s said that misery loves company, which brings us to how Aaron Bendickson and John Mitchell rolled into their Friday night.
Bendickson, a senior center, had gone 11 games without a goal for the University of Wisconsin men’s hockey team, a stretch in which the noted playmaker produced one lonely assist.
Mitchell, a senior left winger, had gone eight games without a conversion, a run in which the noted goal-scorer had generated a measly 13 shots.
The struggling linemates had sunnier mind-sets after the second-ranked Badgers put together a dominating 5-2 victory over Minnesota-Duluth before a crowd of 5,1270 at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center.
Mitchell accounted for a unique power-play goal in the first period, while Bendickson came through with an empty-net conversion, two assists and was a demon on faceoffs as UW knocked the Bulldogs from their perch atop the Western Collegiate Hockey Association heading into Saturday night’s series finale.
The two clubs sit one point behind Denver and St. Cloud State and two points ahead of Colorado College in what is shaping up to be an epic, unprecedented chase for the MacNaughton Cup.
Sophomore defenseman Jake Gardiner, junior defenseman Brendan Smith and senior center Blake Geoffrion also provided goals for the Badgers, while junior goaltender Scott Gudmandson was credited with 17 saves.
Bendickson, whose week began with a scary on-campus scooter accident that caused him to miss a day of practice, said he was well aware that his production has been off of late.
"You always know that in the back of your mind," he said after collecting his fourth goal of the season. "But the more you think about it, the more you struggle making it happen. You’ve just got to keep playing and grinding."
For his part, Mitchell seemed oblivious to the fact he hadn’t scored since collecting two goals on Dec. 5 against Michigan Tech.
"Now that I think about it, it’s been seven or eight games," he said with a small smile. "I just came in with the mind-set to keep playing the way I’ve been playing."
The goal by Mitchell — he has five now, one season after sharing the team lead with 15 — erased a 1-0 deficit and was set up by an ingenious pass by freshman right winger Craig Smith.
Smith came out of the right corner and purposely angled a pass off the metal base of the goal right to Mitchell, who was waiting alone in the slot. Mitchell snapped off a wrist shot that beat goaltender Kenny Reiter (47 saves).
"It’s one of those tidbits we work on," UW coach Mike Eaves said.
"We practice little plays like that to ourselves, just in tight traffic," Mitchell said. "Today it worked."
The game was in doubt until the Badgers (15-6-4 overall, 11-5-3 with 25 points in the WCHA) scored twice in the final 1 minute, 22 seconds, but there is strong evidence to suggest this was a one-sided encounter.
Start with an overwhelming 52-19 advantage in shots, which represents the fewest registered by the ninth-ranked Bulldogs (16-10-1, 12-6-1, 25 points) this season.
Then there was a 50-23 edge in faceoffs won, which featured stellar showings by Geoffrion (22-9) and Bendickson (14-2).
UW also shut out the third-best power play in the nation on seven tries and limited the dynamic line of left winger Mike Connolly, center Jack Connolly and right winger Justin Fontaine to a combined three shots and a minus-6 rating.
"We didn’t generate much," Duluth coach Scott Sandelin said.
The Bulldogs came into the night converting 28.7 percent of their power plays in league games. The Connolly-Connolly-Fontaine unit made up the top three scoring lines in the WCHA.
Eaves said the penalty-killing effort could be traced to the work of assistant coaches Mark Osiecki and Kevin Patrick, as well as a scout team that mimicked Duluth very well in drills.
"The guys worked as a unit out there," Eaves said, "and Oz and KP did a nice job of going over that this week and making sure we had a feel for what they’re doing."
The Bulldogs rarely got their power play set up because UW pressured them all over the ice.
"That’s what we like to do," Bendickson said. "Get up ice, put pressure on them and not let them get in the zone. You never want to give them time and space."
Eaves noted that it’s tough to see the game from the visiting bench at the DECC.
"Oz and I joked about it," he said. "We’ll see the game really for the first time tomorrow (on video)."
They’re going to like a lot of what they see.
