{"id":145915,"date":"2024-03-13T14:00:34","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T19:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/?p=145915"},"modified":"2024-03-13T07:49:51","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T12:49:51","slug":"this-week-in-nchc-hockey-confident-minnesota-duluth-squad-facing-denver-in-nchc-playoffs-looking-to-go-grind-it-out-like-we-always-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2024\/03\/13\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-confident-minnesota-duluth-squad-facing-denver-in-nchc-playoffs-looking-to-go-grind-it-out-like-we-always-do\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in NCHC Hockey: Confident Minnesota Duluth squad facing Denver in NCHC playoffs, looking to ‘go grind it out like we always do’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Minnesota Duluth swept St. Cloud State last weekend to end the regular season (photo: Dave Harwig).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Looking back through our 2023-24 NCHC season preview<\/strong><\/a>, I wrote the following about Minnesota Duluth, before picking the Bulldogs to finish fifth in the league:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are only four freshmen, and I like the level of continuity this squad has now, only a year after there was a lot to replace. The issue is that, although I see an improved UMD team this season, much if not all of the rest of the conference is going to be better, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The truth in that statement will have been forgotten about by the fact that UMD finished seventh. When those words were being written, though, back at the start of October, there was no way of knowing just what all would ail coach Scott Sandelin\u2019s squad.<\/p>\n

Injuries have affected the Bulldogs (12-18-5 overall, 8-14-2 NCHC), as did sophomore forward Cole Spicer being ruled academically ineligible for the second semester. More recently, UMD was on a 0-7-1 slide heading into last week\u2019s last games of the regular season, at home to 18th-ranked St. Cloud State. But the Bulldogs took both games, 6-5 in overtime on Friday and 4-2 on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hung in there all weekend, and I give our guys a lot of credit because it\u2019s been a rough year and we\u2019ve been in a lot of close games but haven\u2019t found a way to win a lot of those,\u201d Sandelin said. \u201cThis weekend was very similar to that, except that we found ways to win those games. We haven\u2019t won a lot in our last six, seven, eight games, but I\u2019ve been proud of our effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sophomore goaltender Zach Sandy got a win in his first collegiate start Friday, on a night when UMD twice erased two-goal deficits. Ben Steeves, the Bulldogs\u2019 leading scorer this season, bagged two goals and got the winner with seven seconds left in overtime, 15 seconds after UMD went on a very late power play. That was his 13th goal of the season where the Bulldogs were skating a man up.<\/p>\n

They got the win despite losing another forward, sophomore center Jack Smith, to an injury in the first period. Joey Pierce moved into that role, as he had a few times earlier in this season.<\/p>\n

UMD then honored seven of its players Saturday for Senior Night. One of them, graduate student Matthew Thiessen, made a career-high 52 saves in the Bulldogs\u2019 4-2 victory. St. Cloud erased a 2-0 deficit from the second period, but Aiden Dubinsky scored the eventual game-winner with 8:37 left, and Luke Loheit added an empty-netter just before the final horn sounded. Steeves set up the winning goal, and Thiessen had the second assist on Loheit\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Thiessen told gathered media after the game that the series against SCSU showed what these Bulldogs are capable of. Speaking on Tuesday, ahead of the Bulldogs\u2019 trip to face second-seeded Denver in the first round of the NCHC playoffs, Sandelin agreed with that statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been in a ton of games,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had 14 overtime games and have been either tied, behind by a goal, ahead by a goal and then at times we\u2019ve shot ourselves in the foot with little detail things that are so important in tight games. Turnovers that lead to goals, bad penalties, missed faceoff assignments, those kinds of things, but we\u2019ve been right there.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully this last weekend gave our guys a little bit more belief that, \u2018Hey, we can win games if we stick with it and do the right things.\u2019 Obviously, we have a tough task ahead of us this weekend, but we\u2019ll go grind it out like we always do.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur fourth- and fifth-year guys have been factors, and we need those guys,\u201d Sandelin continued. \u201cWe\u2019re missing some key guys, and those guys really stepped up, but every player is important and they\u2019ve had great value for their program. We\u2019re going to lean on those guys, and we need them to be good for us here this weekend and hopefully beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looking back through our 2023-24 NCHC season preview, I wrote the following about Minnesota Duluth, before picking the Bulldogs to finish fifth in the league: \u201cThere are only four freshmen, and I like the level of continuity this squad has now, only a year after there was a lot to replace. The issue is that, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":145916,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[812],"coauthors":[810],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThis Week in NCHC Hockey: Confident Minnesota Duluth squad facing Denver in NCHC playoffs, looking to 'go grind it out like we always do' - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Looking back through our 2023-24 NCHC season preview, I wrote the following about Minnesota Duluth, before picking the Bulldogs to finish fifth in the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145915\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This Week in NCHC Hockey: Confident Minnesota Duluth squad facing Denver in NCHC playoffs, looking to 'go grind it out like we always do' - 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