Pregame Blog: Minnesota vs Union Line Combinations, UMD Loss & More

Eight is not great when it comes to Minnesota's losing streak against its in-state neighbor 150 miles north.

Minnesota Duluth's Parker Mackay scored 1:45 into overtime to hand the visiting Gophers a season-opening 4-3 loss in the Ice Breaker tournament. It's the eighth straight defeat to UMD dating back to October 2014.

"It sucks to say, but right now the numbers don't lie. They got our number these last few years. We were really hoping to change that tonight," Tyler Sheehy said after Friday's loss. "We tried to play with a chip on our shoulders. That was something that has been going on these past few years. We weren't able to come out on top tonight." 

Minnesota now faces Union today in the tournament consolation game.

As a reminder, today's game is NOT on television in the Twin Cities. Here's why. I'm in Duluth and you can follow me on Twitter @gopherstate.

The Dutchmen (0-2-0) and Gophers (0-1-0) have not met since the 2014 NCAA championship game. Unfortunately, neither team has a player who participated in that contest between the two best teams that season (maybe two of the top three if you want to put BC and Johnny Gaudreau in the mix). There's not too much on the line as far as revenge goes.

Going back to last night, two things stand out about Minnesota's defeat.

First, the Gophers started extremely slow. Every player and head coach Don Lucia postgame brought up the fact UMD outshot the team 10-1 in the opening 10 minutes. They weren't wrong. Facing an inexperienced Bulldogs defense and goaltender, Minnesota didn't test them until it was too late. There was little flow or chemistry and players would get too cute with passes.

Instead, it was Eric Schierhorn who at times kept the team in the game, making 40 saves.

Head coach Don Lucia was blunt in his assessment.

"I thought our key guys, older guys, kind of struggled tonight. That was my biggest takeaway, that was probably my biggest surprise. Some of our forwards up front that have a lot of experience didn't play confidently with the puck, threw it away at times," said Lucia. "I think they'll do better tomorrow."

Second, the Gophers held a pair of leads that lasted less than three minutes combined. It seems to be a running pattern with Minnesota against the Bulldogs. Every time the Gophers worked their butts off to score or kill a penalty, of which there were plenty in some classic October hockey, there was an almost immediate letdown. Jack Ramsey and the team had barely stopped celebrating his go-ahead goal when the Gophers were ahead no more.

"It felt good, obviously, individually it's cool and fun to get one goal, but there's no good feeling after the game. All that matters is the team winning," Ramsey said.

I can think of a few other instances during the losing streak where Minnesota gave up a next shift goal to the Bulldogs. It almost defines the losing streak to me.

There was also one big positive Friday night. Besides Ramsey, who I was happy to see get rewarded after coming close time and time again towards the end of last season, it was great to see Tommy Novak officially get a goal in his return from ACL surgery in January. Even better was who set it up.

The play was set up by Novak's juniors linemate Sheehy.

"I was real pumped for him," Sheehy said. "Any time you miss that much of hockey or you're out for that many months, it's pretty cool to see him back and not really miss too much. He just got back into the swing of things and I'm real pumped for him to get the goal there."

The two played together at Waterloo (along with Brock Boeser), but have rarely been on the same line at Minnesota. They will be again today, however.

Lines are below. Minnesota will serve as the home team.

Line Combinations

While Minnesota makes a couple shifts in its forward lines, the only personnel change is Joey Marooney coming in for freshman Brannon McManus. Jack Ramsey takes McManus' place on a line with Brent Gates Jr. and Mike Szmatula. Joey Marooney slides in to Ramsey's spot.

The order seems to be in acknowledgement of the "trench line" (normally fourth) placed first due to them being one of the better ones Friday. The first line in Friday's game, meanwhile, is fourth and the second line was placed third.

Union made two personnel changes from yesterday's 6-3 loss. (You can read the story here.) Ryan Burton is in for Brendan Taylor. On defense, Greg Campbell is in for Connor Light with all three pairings new.

University of Minnesota

Forwards:
Ryan Norman (#23) - Darian Romanko (#26) - Joey Marooney (#12)
Rem Pitlick (#15) - Casey Mittelstadt (#21) - Scott Reedy (#19)
Brent Gates Jr. (#10) - Mike Szmatula (#9) - Jack Ramsey (#16)
Leon Bristedt (#18) - Tommy Novak (#17) - Tyler Sheehy (#22)

Defense:
Steve Johnson (#4) - Jack Glover (#3)
Ryan Lindgren (#5) - Jack Sadek (#2)
Ryan Zuhlsdorf (#20) - Tyler Nanne (#29)

Goaltenders:
Eric Schierhorn (#37)
Brock Kautz (#1)
Nick Lehr (#34)

Union College

Forwards:

Parker Foo (#28) - Cole Maier (#17) - Luc Brown (#16)
Sean Harrison (#29) - Ryan Burton (#10) - Josh Kosack (#26)
Sebastian Vidmar (#27) - Brett Supinski (#18) - Anthony Rinaldi (#8)

Ryan Scarfo (#9) - Ryan Walker (#25) - Jack Adams (#15)

Defense

Vas Koilas (#5) - Brandon Estes (#7)

Greg Campbell (#20) - Ben Newhouse (#6)
Joseph Campolieto (#4) - J.C. Brassard (#14)

Goaltenders

Jake Kupsky (#1)

Darion Hanson (#34)