The Gophers made it look easy against #5 BC on Sunday.
The top ranked Gophers (0-0-0 B1G, 5-0-1 Overall) and the #5 Boston College Eagles (0-0-0 Hockey East, 2-2-1 Overall) played a rare afternoon game at Mariucci Arena today, in the second of their two game series in Minneapolis. Unlike Friday night’s 3-3 tie, which was a back and forth battle, today’s game was all Gophers, start to finish, as they dominated the Eagle’s on their way to a 6-1 win.
Here is what I saw:
- Similar to Friday night, the Gophers got a couple of scores on the board early, scoring two goals in a smidge over five minutes of play. Unlike Friday night, though, they never relinquished that lead.
- I’m always amazed at Tom Serratore’s ability to deliver a bit hit, at high speed, and rarely get called for a charge. There’s a fine line, and he has a good feel for it. He’ll happily admit he’s one of the ditch diggers on the team. He works hard every shift, and does a lot of the dirty work that makes the team better. He goes into the corner, he throws his body around, and he blocks shots. A great example of his sacrifice for the team today, was blocking a shot, and despite being in obvious pain afterwards, got back to his feet and threw himself in front of another shot. You’ve got to have mental toughness to do that.
- It’s been well documented in the media, since he was still at Apple Valley High School, Hudson Fasching is a real nice kid with a big heart. But, from the perspective of a Gopher fan, it’s nice to see that he can have a mean streak in him when he needs it. He’s not dirty, just tough. He’s real strong on his skates, and highly skilled. When he hits, his body position is perfect. He’s going to be fun to watch this season…and hopefully for seasons to come (FINGERS CROSSED!).
- Mike Reilly is damn good. Kid is solid defensively, and has and will contribute on offense as well. His confidence with the puck is comforting, especially after some up and down play last season. For me, there’s not that worry I had last year anytime he was paired with Brady Skjei. I couldn’t help but cringe, and question Don Lucia’s logic, seeing those guys out there together.
- Gophers are playing unselfishly, and smart. Example, an intelligent play by Nate Condon in the first period. During a Gophers Penalty Kill, the PK unit had been stuck out on the ice for a long time, and were obviously tiring. Condon was able to pick up the puck in front of his net, and skated it all the way across ice to near the Gopher bench, before dumping it in. It allowed the Gophers to execute a flawless and easy four player switch, and kill valuable time. These are the little things that will help them to win games.
- I think we’ll see that Condon’s speed is going to be the difference in a couple of games this year. It seems like he gets at least one breakaway, or near breakaway every game, usually on the Penalty Kill. He got one late in the game tonight, and got checked brutally into the net for the effort. Fortunately, he was OK after being down for a while. He’s gonna feel that tomorrow morning, though.
- One very nice problem that the Gophers have had this season… It’s been difficult to pick one or two guys that stood out during a game. Everyone is contributing.
Here are the post game comments:
Boston College Head Coach Jerry York:
Regarding the game…. “I thought when you looked at the game, the four goal first period by Minnesota was clearly the catalyst to the game. But there were like five chances they had in that period. And the chances were unbelievable chances. There was absolutely no chance for (Brian) Billett (BC Goaltender). It was shelf, off the crossbar, and they earned it. Four quality chances in the first period, and they cashed in on all four. And that set the tone for the game. I told our club, we played some really good hockey, but we didn’t match them for a full sixty minutes. I thought we created good chances, and played good defense, but our breakdowns were really taken advantage of by the Gophers. The play where the Defenseman (Michael) Brodzinski joined was just a terrific play. They were good tonight. I thought the kid in goal (Adam Wilcox) made some good saves, especially the glove, and especially in the first thirty minutes of the game. I thought we had some really good chances, but he was quick with the glove. They’re the best team we’ve played. We’ve played some good teams, but I think this is the best team. They make good plays, they really do. They make good plays… and their goaltender. So, it’s a pretty good club they have. They earned it, too. We had some defensive miscues, but you still have to take advantage of them. And they create those”
Minnesota Head Coach Don Lucia:
Regarding the game…. “It started out great for us, obviously, when you score four goals in the first period. Our defense, who did a very good all weekend long, got involved offensively. We had some nice plays off the rush to score some goals. And you know if you’ve got a four to nothing lead you should feel pretty good, but we also know that BC’s got some offensive abilities, so I don’t think I felt really safe until we got that fifth goal in the third period. But, I think the game was closer than the score, but Adam (Wilcox) made a couple of real timely saves during the course of the game to keep the lead like we had it. I thought Adam was sharp, I thought we had a good sound game. It wasn’t the racehorse game like Friday, it was a little more patient game. Really happy with how our defense played this weekend. They (BC) probably had the same number of chances in the first, but Adam (Wilcox) made a couple of saves, and we had some good snipes. (Seth) Ambroz shot was bar and in, and Mikey Reilly’s was a great shot. We had a great breakout of (Taylor) Cammarata to (Justin) Kloos to (Nate) Condon with their speed generated through the neutral zone, and Nate (Condon) made a nice play. The guys made plays, and that’s really what we wanted them to do. We didn’t give them two on one’s and three on two’s, and that helps. I thought our wedge play was better in the offensive zone. I think the fans enjoyed the style of the play. For the most part, there was nothing after the whistle. It was just two elite programs going after each other and playing up tempo hockey. I still hear a lot of buzz from Friday’s game, that it’s one of the best games they’ve seen in years here. Today didn’t have quite that same pace to it, nor did I expect it. As coaches, we wanted to tone down how wide open that thing was. But, you know, we’re in the entertainment business. We want to put on a good show for the fans, and they loved it. It was a good weekend for us, and win or lose, we evaluate it and move forward“
Regarding this game versus Friday nights game…. “It was a different type of game. It wasn’t the frenetic transition back and forth, and I think there was a little more structure to both teams play today. We got a little puck luck tonight. Some went in, especially early on. Our guys did a good job of supporting the rush, and making a couple of good plays off the rush tonight”
Regarding injuries…. “After Bisch (Jake Bischoff) got hurt on Thursday, he played today. He tested it out in warm-up, and not having (Jake) Parenteau, we needed that sixth defenseman based on how much ice time the guys had on Friday. (Jake) Parenteau got dinged. He skated yesterday, and he didn’t feel quite right. He’s sore, but we’ve got a week off, so I anticipate that he’ll be fine”
Regarding BC’s Goaltender Brian Billett…. “You know what, I give him a lot of credit. He played very well. Even the shots we scored on, I mean, they were good shots. I mean, (Seth) Ambroz scores on the rebound, and the other ones were good shots. That’s going to happen sometimes”
Regarding the season so far…. “Well, we were tested plenty. I mean, it was a good October for us. We were able to play at home, and obviously the competition stepped up this weekend. It’s a long season. We’ve got a couple of nicks right now, so the week off comes at a good time for us. Hopefully we get everybody healthy and ready to go before we head to South Bend. We’re going to see a completely different style next games we play. A little bit smaller rink, and a team that’s very structured, and very good defensively. It’ll be a whole new challenge for us. We’ve got a difficult November, with the teams we have that month. So, we close a chapter on October, and put those wins in the bank that help you in the end, and hopefully we continue to learn and grow as a team. There’s a lot of good teams right now. We won a couple of games this weekend…that’s all that it means. We have to continue to work to get better. I think there’s some areas of our game that we can improve on. And we have to. Because everybody gets better as the year goes on. Hopefully we can stay healthy and keep moving forward. We knew our Freshman were going to have to come in and contribute, there wasn’t any question about that. And they’ve done that. We lost three of our six defenseman that played a lions share last year. I think the new guys have done a pretty nice job, and Justin Holl had a seamless transition back. Having Adam (Wilcox) to cover for a couple of mistakes helps. We’ve got a pretty good group now, and there’s competition internally to play, and I think that helps too. I think our specialty play is a work in progress, so we’ve gotta get better in those areas. We’ll just try to keep improving, and getting better at what we do”
Mike Reilly:
Regarding this game versus Friday nights game…. “It was basically identical starts, and last night we kind of let off the gas a little bit, and they got three quick ones. We knew they were a team that could score in bunches like that. We gotta keep the foot on the gas, and keep going, and got a fourth eventually. It was great going into the second period like that, and we had great momentum going”
Regarding the Defense getting involved in the Offense…. “We want to have mobile defenseman like that. We practice for it and jump into the play as a fourth guy. You can see how (Michael) Brodzinski and (Brady) Skjei come in late like that. We pride ourselves on that, and obviously want to play from the defensive zone all the way to the offensive zone, be jumping, and be mobile”
Regarding missing Jake Paranteau…. “It was a little bit different. It’s tough to lose a great player like that. I’ve been his defensive partner the first four or five games. We’ve gotta adjust a little bit, and (Jake) Bischoff came in and played great. We’re just happy with the result”
Regarding playing in front of Adam Wilcox…. “He was on today, definitely. He made some big time saves and kept us in the game. That’s what he’s there for. Every game we hold him to a standard like that. He’s the backbone of the game. We’re happy with how he played, and it shows in the result”
Seth Ambroz:
Regarding the game…. “This was a great team we played. We just happened to come out on top today, and away with a win. I feel like Friday night, we started off two-zero, and kinda thought, hey, this might be a little bit easier than we thought. With Boston College, that’s never the case. Tonight, we really focused on staying with our game plan, not sitting back, keep coming, and hopefully get the next one, which we did. Biggest goal, I felt, was (Brady) Skjei’s, you know, putting that four spot up. We knew in the second that they were going to come out firing on all cylinders, and they scored. We were sitting on our heals, and didn’t play too well in the second period. Then in the third period, we were able to put one in, which kind of sealed the deal, which is nice. And then it was nice to see (Jake) Bischoff get his first too. It was our mindset the second night around, having to learn from the first night, just to be focused throughout”
Regarding the game on Friday…. “That was probably one of the funnest games I’ve ever been a part of. The whole building was into it, and the back and forth… that was a great game of hockey. It was a lot of fun to be a part of. I really enjoy playing tough teams like that, and they’re always one of the top teams every year. It brings out our best effort, and shows us where we’re at as a team”
Regarding his goal…. “This time it actually required a little bit of skill, I guess. I was happy to see it go in the net. I have to give a lot of credit to Christian Isackson and Tom Serratore. Those two guys work their bags off for us, and I was just the one to get the lucky bounce, and be on the receiving end. Those two played really well, which was nice to see, and it was nice to put the puck in“
Regarding the season so far…. “It’s really nice getting everyone contributing, especially those D (Defense). We’ve been working the corners, and getting the puck up high, which Tommy (Serratore) did tonight. It’s really nice being able to get production from every line. It’s really nice getting scoring throughout, which we’ve been able to do so far this year. I mean, we’re playing good. The young guys are really stepping up, and we’re playing fast. It’s college hockey, and anyone can beat anyone. It just depends on the night, and who’s playing well, and who’s not. Right now we’re playing with a little bit of swagger, which is good. We’ve got a lot of confidence in our Freshmen, and our D are really contributing well. We’re playing well. We’ve just gotta get through this bye week, and have a good week off, and really come back to it the same. Boston College was a huge test for us, which was great to see where we’re at as a team. I think we had a good month of October, but the schedule doesn’t get much easier. We play Notre Dame, and we’ve got Minnesota State coming up too. There’s a lot of good teams out there, and it’s still early in the year. We’ve got to keep our momentum going, and our confidence high. It’s nice having Wilcox back there too. He’s playing out of his head, which is great. You can never doubt him. He gives us a chance to win every night”
Regarding Nate Condon…. “Nate’s going to come in night in and night out and give a good effort. He’s our captain for a reason. He’s able to get the guys going, and lead by example”
Next up for the Gophers is a weekend off before heading to South Bend, Indiana for a weekend series against Notre Dame on 11/8 & 11/9. Game time is 7:00 PM (Central) on Friday, and 6:05 PM on Saturday. The games will be broadcast on NBC Sports Network.