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| Sunday's faceoff between Minnesota and Merrimack (Photo: Nathan Wells) |
I spent some time at Ridder Arena last weekend, covering both of Minnesota's season-opening games against Merrimack. Being there first-hand and talking with players and coaches after the games, I thought it would be appropriate to give my thoughts as a whole.
The Gophers lost Friday 4-3 before winning 4-1. If you missed Friday's game recap, click here.
1. Give credit to Merrimack for executing their game plan Friday perfectly. The Warriors came into Friday's game with an eye to counter attack and expose Minnesota's aggressive defense. Plenty of teams try. Few succeed. No one had scored four goals against Minnesota at Ridder in nearly seven years and Merrimack's first three goals came against three different defensive pairings.
Merrimack, in its third year as program, is steps ahead of where it was in year 1 and building good habits that will suit them well in Hockey East. The Warriors got freshmen scoring, speedy forwards from players like Mikyla Grant-Mentis and Katelyn Rae, solid goaltending both days from two different goalies, and were defensively sound until the third period of Sunday's game. There's room to grow, but it's early October. You can say that for 34 other teams.
2. Above is Friday's first period shot chart. Merrimack (left) attempted 13 shots. 11 or 12 of them were high quality. Almost all came off of odd-man rushes, takeaways or transition plays. Minnesota (right), on the other hand, spent most of Friday and the first period of Saturday forced to the perimeter. Sunday's game followed a similar first period script.
While the Gophers had more possession and shot attempts, they were not quality ones.
3. Minnesota adjusted its defense for Sunday and were rewarded. The team was more conservative and limited odd-man rushes, something both senior co-captain Sydney Baldwin and head coach Brad Frost mentioned needed to change from Friday to Sunday.
The team looked at tape and found holes that could be patched against a speedy Merrimack team (and will need to against WCHA foes). Frost was happy with the effort.
"Overall our rush defense was much better, recognizing who we need to pick up on the back check, but also running the effort to pick those people up as well," he said after Sunday's win.
If it wasn't apparent the Gophers are going to miss Lee Stecklein (for my money the best defender in college hockey last season and one of the best in the world) and Megan Wolfe, Friday was a rude awakening. Chemistry takes time. I did think Badlwin and freshman Olivia Knowles seemed to work better as a pairing as the weekend continued. Fellow freshman Emily Brown also had some struggles Friday, giving away a couple chances and being on the short end of an odd man rush, before cutting those down Sunday.
4. If you missed it over the weekend, I wrote a blog post about Taylor Williamson being out indefinitely. Minnesota not having depth is nothing new. Losing Williamson already puts the team in an early season bind. When healthy, the team has 18 non-goalies in 12 forwards and 6 defenders. A couple players such as Sophie Skarzynski (who did last weekend) can switch between positions and fill gaps although it means the Gophers will be down to five defenders or 11 forwards for the time being.
5. No surprise but Grace Zumwinkle is the real deal. It wouldn't be hyperbole to say the WCHA Preseason Rookie of the Year was the best forward on the ice last weekend. In her three games (including the exhibition), Zumwinkle has scored three times in three different ways. The freshman scored off of a wrist shot that went over the goaltender's shoulder, a clapper of a slap shot, and a power play goal into an open net that gave Minnesota a 2-0 lead.
Of the three, the last was most impressive because she anticipated where the puck was going to be, following up on a broken play and being in the right place at the right time. It's a move you don't usually see from freshmen in college. Between that, having the confidence to stickhandle through traffic, her slapshot, and skating around like Jack Eichel or Connor McDavid looking for an opportunity to open, Zumwinkle is worth the price of admission.
6. Both of Minnesota's goaltending platoon members got a start, which was predetermined according to Frost. Of Sidney Peters and Alex Gulstene, the latter played better, only giving up 1 goal in 22 shots faced and picking up the win Sunday.
It seemed like Gulstene was more comfortable Sunday than in relief, making her biggest save in the game's opening two minutes. She agreed and credited it to better communication between her and the blue line.
"I felt we played a lot better (Sunday)," said Gulstene. "There was a lot more communication both ways, which definitely helped with making sure we had the back door covered and playing pucks behind the net too."
7. All four freshmen skaters picked up at least a point.
8. Redshirt junior Nicole Schammel got off to a slow start last season after transferring from Minnesota State and sitting out a year.
This time around she seemed ready to go, being the first one out on the ice Friday. By Sunday, she scored a pair of goals and an assist to lead Minnesota on the weekend with four points.
The Gophers will need to score by committee and get offense from its upperclassmen. Schammel, one of the upperclassmen Frost mentioned he wanted to see step up and lead the forwards, looked like that player despite being on the third line.
9. Minnesota's forward lines fluctuated a bit over the weekend with Zumwinkle working her way up to the top line, switching with Woken and Schammel going down to the third line for balance, and Williamson's injury.
10. One underrated moment from the weekend that might get overlooked is Brad Frost calling a timeout before the Gophers had a 51 second five-on-three advantage. It calmed down the team and turned what could be a game changer into a 2-0 lead.
Even if all didn't go to plan.
"We looked to do some sort of set play that they didn't run," Frost said, being honest. "We haven't done a lot of five-on-three in practice over the past couple weeks and felt like we should draw something up, make sure they know what we're doing. Then they did something different and scored."
While Merrimack got back and cut it to 2-1, it changed the game. Special teams was a work in progress (the two forward lines from Friday - Caitlin Reilly-Cara Piazza-Alex Woken and Nicole Schammel-Lindsay Agnew-Grace Zumwinkle being the first two forward PP units) and something to keep an eye on as the Gophers host Ohio State this weekend.
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