Bulldogs Race to Hockey Sweep over Gophers

Home Looks Sweet as UMD Women Hit Road

John Gilbert

Kasimir Kaskisuo wasn’t exactly bored last Saturday night at AMSOIL Arena, although he said he would have liked things to be a bit busier.  Kaskisuo, UMD’s sophomore sensation in goal, shut out Minnesota 3-0 to thrill a record home crowd of 7,569 fans and complete a home-and-home weekend sweep.

The sweep of UMD’s longest-standing rival was almost anticlimactic, as the Bulldogs bounced back from a last-minute loss at Bemidji State the previous week to whip the Gophers 3-1 Friday at Mariucci Arena, then jumped ahead 2-0 while outshooting Minnesota 17-2 in a lopsided first period Saturday.

Dominic Toninato and Karson Kuhlman scored the first-period goals, and Jared Thomas put a backhander off the right pipe and in at 1:10 of the second period. Other than that, the Bulldogs pretty well coasted in, outshooting Minnesota 32-21.
Twenty-one saves isn’t exactly a night off for a goaltender, even in a shutout, but it was difficult to recall any of those 21 shots being what insiders like to call “Grade A.” With a half-dozen freshmen in their lineup, the Gophers seemed to lack any semblance of the intensity that used to be the feature attraction whenever UMD and the Gophers played. At this juncture, UMD is ranked No. 5 in the country at 2-1, while Minnesota is tied for 19th and 20th at 0-3. The Gophers will undoubtedly improve throughout the upcoming Big Ten season, but it was also difficult to recall any Gopher team in the last couple of decades that was so devoid of inspiration.

As a matter of fact, trailing 3-0 in the closing minutes, it was easy to anticipate coach Don Lucia pulling freshman goaltender Eric Schierhorn for a desperation attempt to break the shutout. Instead, Schierhorn stayed between the pipes, and the Gophers actually retreated to throw the puck back and forth in the security of their own zone -- a rare example of capitulation.

“I was just trying to build our game,” said Lucia. “We want to install a certain work ethic. UMD has got a good, veteran team, and they played with good rhythm; we were not getting to the net and not getting good chances.”

Always respectful, Kaskisuo didn’t want to put down the Gophers in any way.

“We know it’s a big weekend whenever we play the Gophers,” Kaz said. “Everybody’s cheering, and they’ve got a lot of good skaters, so you’ve got to keep focused. It might be better for us to play a fast team, because we’re fast, too.”

 As for the 21 shots, with few of them memorable as legitimate threats, Kaskisuo acknowledged: “I would like more shots, just more rhythm instead of having long breaks between shots.”
It didn’t take long for Kaskisuo to figure out this UMD-Gopher hockey rivalry, although all he has seen in games betwen the two is an exhibition loss followed by four UMD victories last year, when he was a freshman, and now a sweep, for UMD’s sixth straight victory in the series. Last season, on November 14, Kaskisuo stepped into the nets at Mariucci Arena and blanked the Gophers -- the first time UMD had shut out Minnesota at Mariucci since the 1972-73 season. That’s 43 seasons ago!

UMD coach Scott Sandelin was asked if anything ever gets better than beating the Gophers. “Yeah,” he said, “winning the national championship.”

He also suggested that teams better be prepared for Bemidji State to be a tough foe, under coach Tom Serratore. “At Bemidji, we had a good first period, but their goaltending was good,” Sandelin said. “Tommy’s team is ‘way better. They have four lines who can play, and some strong defensemen who can also play. They’ve going to be a handful for anybody.”

Against the Gophers, UMD’s experience provided a large edge. Last year, Toninato centered captain Adam Krauss and Alex Iafallo, and with Krauss graduated, Sandelin put Adam Johnson, a skilled freshman from Hibbing by way of the U.S. junior league, into that left wing slot on the top line. Tony Cameranesi centers fellow-senior Austin Farley and sophomore Kuhlman on the second line; Sophomore Thomas centers junior Kyle Osterberg and senior Austyn Young on the third unit; and senior Cal Decowski centers another senior in Charlie Sampair and freshman Parker Mackay on the fourth line.

On defense, freshman Neal Pionk made his presence felt paired with senior captain Andy Welinski, while juniors Carson Soucy and Willie Raskob made up the second pair and senior Willie Corrin partnered with 6-foot-6 junior Brenden Kotyk.

At one point in Saturday’s game, Gopher junior Taylor Cammarata challenged Kotyk in a brief shoving match in front of the Bulldog net. Cammarata is 5-7, almost exactly a full foot shorter than Kotyk. That may have been a perfect analogy of the difference in stature of the two teams, but it also provided some close-up entertainment for Kaskisuo, while he waited patiently for more shots.


Minnesota State-Mankato gave the UMD women’s hockey team a competitive battle, but only for part of both games last weekend. When it was over, UMD had presented new coach Maura Crowell with a 4-2, 4-0 sweep in the Bulldogs first two games at home this season.
MSU-Mankato also had a new coach -- former UMD star John Harrington, in his first season coaching women. It’s possible that neither coach was fully aware of the history between the two programs: In 69 games, UMD has won 59, with Mankato winning 6 and the teams tying 4.
“We have to grow a little, and learn to play with a little more confidence,” said Harrington.
From UMD’s standpoint, starting with six games on the road meant great relief to be playing at home at AMSOIL. Never mind if their foe might have been encased in a fragile defeatist mindset.
The Bulldogs celebration had to be a quick one this week, because the schedule takes a nasty turn now. This weekend, UMD plays at No. 1 Minnesota Friday and Saturday, then after two weeks off, the Bulldogs return home to face No. 3 Wisconsin on November 13-14. The following week, UMD goes to No. 7 North Dakota.
 Regardless, nobody can take away the home-opening sweep, although MSU-Mankato was prepared to go from the start, only to be defused by a couple of early penalties.
Katie McGovern banged the puck past goaltender Brianna Quade at 4:47 of the first period on power play, but after recording the first 10 shots of the game and establishing an 18-4 edge in shots in the first period, the game stayed 1-0 until the third period. UMD had a 29-10 shot advantage at the second intermission, but it wasn’t until 1:44 of the third when another power play gave Lara Stalder the chance to blast a 20-foot slapshot in from the left circle to make it 2-0.
Amanda Conway got one back for the Mavericks, leaving UMD with an uneasy 2-1 lead until Morgan Morse jammed in a ricochet off the end boards and Catherine Daoust scored with a screened shot, a minute and a half apart in the third period. Emily Antony’s last-minute power-play goal cut it to 4-2, but UMD outshot the Mavs 41-12.
“It was nice to get home and win a game,” said a beaming Crowell after the first game. “Mankato played a strong game. They clogged the middle and forced us to the outside. I thought Maddie Rooney made some big saves in goal for us. Now we’ve got to go for the sweep.”
Coming back to play an afternoon Saturday rematch, the Bulldogs again had the upper hand in puck possession, but the Mavericks played stronger from the start, including a scoreless first period. Maria Lindh and Michele Cava each scored two goals, one each in the second and third periods, and UMD outshot Mankato 34-14.
Maddie Rooney, continuing to play in place of the injured Kayla Black, was flawless. The freshman from Andover made a lot of headlines for her high school career of “overload training” when she was an outstanding netminder for the boys team.

Suspended  Or Not
The controversy over the seventh-inning circus in the American League’s playoff series added an interesting twist from an NFL ruling last Sunday. In the baseball game, an oddity happened when the catcher’s throw hit the batter’s bat and the ricochet went up the third baseline. The umpire waved “dead ball” immediately, as a runner tried to score to break a 2-2 tie in the seventh inning.
After a lengthy review, the officials determined that the batter had not interfered, and went beyond that to rule that the plate umpire should not have declared the ball dead and suspended play. Incredibly, they allowed the run to score -- despite the judgement call that the ball was dead!
For those following such trivia, fast-forward to NFL Sunday, when a runner trying for the end zone was grabbed and thrown down at about the 2 yard line. As he went down, the ball-carrier may have landed on his rear end on the turf, or he might have actually landed on the leg of an opponent. He reacted as though he landed on the leg, and bounced up and ran into the end zone for a touchdown. However, it was disallowed and the ball was placed at the 2 for one simple reason: The officials had blown the whistle, causing the play to end, and they explained that correct or not, a whistle stops play and nothing more can occur.
Maybe it’s time to rein in the baseball video review system before they start appealing balls and strikes.