UMD hockey has hectic start, football calm

UMD's Sam Pitz reached the ball into the end zone for the touchdown that gave the Bulldogs a 14-0 lead Saturday, en route to beating Mary 46-0. Photos by John Gilbert.

It seemed like we spent a year inside AMSOIL Arena last weekend, although actually it was more like two days. Two long days.

The attraction was the official opening of the UMD women’s WCHA hockey season, and a pair of disappointing losses by 5-2 and 2-0 scores against powerful Ohio State, and both games were followed by the first two official, though exhibition, games for the UMD men, in which the Bulldogs tied Northern Michigan 5-5, and beat them in a six-player shootout, then got away from the Wildcats 8-5 to extend their undefeated start.

Without going over all the details, we’ll just skim the highlights, while also offering thanks for a respite Saturday noon up at Malosky Stadium where predicted foul weather never showed up, but the Bulldog offense and defense certainly did — hammering the University of Mary Marauders 46-0 in a game that was 32-0 at halftime.

Sophomore quarterback Kyle Walljasper threw three touchdown passes and ran for another — and took the most of the rest of the day off, after piling up the stats by halftime. After going 8-12 for 96 yards and the three TDs, Walljasper turned the reins over to fellow-sophomore Jason Eggers, who was 8-13 for 80 more yards and one touchdown. Jaylen McKnight ran 8 times for 98 yards, but a rookie named Ben Vallafskey got a chance to fill in for some injuries to the running backs and carried 15 times in the second half for a 120-yard debut.

The Bulldogs, bouncing back as expected after losing their first game, at Wayne State the previous Saturday, stand 6-1 and trail only Minnesota State Mankato and Augustana and are tied with Bemidji State for third in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.

At AMSOIL, the women’s WCHA opening series was the more significant, but the rebuilding Bulldogs were mostly observers of the speedy Buckeyes, who showed why they are right up there with Wisconsin as league favorites.

UMD did get an early jump, on a judicious line change made at the 3-minute mark for a face-off in the right corner of the Buckeye zone. The third line got the call and went out for the draw, and at 3:07, Katie Davis went to the crease and knocked in a rebound for a 1-0 lead. Ohio State came back for a 5-2 victory, with the margin determined by defenseman Hadley Hardmetz, who scored a hat trick from the right point, including a final goal into an empty net.

The highlight of the weekend for the women was that instead of coming out full of fire for the second game, they came out flat — flat enough to be outshot 17-2 in the first period. Still it took two power-play goals on an overlapping major penalty to Nina Jobst-Smith early in the second period to overcome Eve Gascon’s brilliant goaltending.

Within a couple minutes, the shot tally was 26-2 for Ohio State, and UMD coach Maura Crowell took the unusual strategy to hold her two top centers, Mannon McMahon and Clara Van Wieren, and Jobst-Smith back from going to the dressing room to deliver part of a lecture on the importance of working hard. She saved the rest of the lecture for the dressing room and for a loud bench discussion during a time out. Amazingly, it brought a response in the third period.

The Bulldogs, outshot 31-7 after two periods, suddenly turned up their intensity and began hustling and battling with the physical Buckeyes. In the final tally, UMD lost 2-0, but the inspiring news is that they proved to themselves that they CAN compete with the big dogs of the WCHA.

The Buckeyes have 11 players who transferred to Columbus for this season, bolstering their roster for another run at the NCAA championship game, where they lost to Wisconsin for the title. Crowell said she thought her team played much better Saturday night, while the cynics among us were unsure of that. Crowell admonished us that we can’t just go by the shot count on the scoreboard, where OSU held a 42-16 advantage — for a two-game total margin of 78-18.

Nevertheless, sending out an assortment of lines that had never played together was not detrimental, indicating that Crowell should feel free to experiment, going forward. The men’s highlights were easier to distinguish. The first game was one that no coach could enjoy, but the fans might count it among the wild highlights of the season. UMD skated to a 3-0 lead in the first period, with a goal from old-reliable sophomore Ben Steeves and first-goals for Luke Bast and Kyle Betten. I

In the second period, the Bulldogs allowed the Wildcats to score three straight and tie it 3-3. Tanner Latsch got his first of three for the game, but by then it had turned into a seeming competition between referees to see who could call the most penalties. Steve got his second to regain the lead at 4-3, but the Wildcats flew past to tie it again and gain a 5-4 lead. It was left to Anthony Menghini to score with 2:58 left for a 5-5 tie.

That led to overtime, and then a shootout, similar to the previous week’s 2-2 tie with Michigan Tech. And, like against Tech, UMD won the shootout, but not until the sixth round, when Matthew Perkins scored to win a game that counts as a tie.

The second game was more frustrating to watch, because the officials duplicated their first-game effort and called another 15 penalties — 9 against UMD and 6 against Northern Michigan. Steeves again got UMD’s first goal but this time it only tied a first-minute goal by Andre Ghantous at 0:21. Cole Spicer made it 2-1, then Biondi put a Wildcat over the boards with a great check, dumping him fully into the camera cubicle between the benches. As he tried to scramble to his feet, another player cleverly came off the bench to join the game.

The officials caught him, though and issued a penalty for too many men on the ice and an illegal substitution. Loheit scored on that power play, and Gallatin, Menghini and Steeves added goals, with Northern’s power play countering for goals by Latsch and Mitch Deeistra.

Steeves scored again for a 6-3 UMD lead after two periods, and Blake Biondi’s third-period power-play tally made it 7-3 before one final rally, including Latch’s third goal, cut it to 7-5, but Connor McMenamin scored into an empty net for the Bulldogs to clinch the 8-5 free-for-all.

The actual penalty circus began Friday before the game, when the Wildcats, who were playing their first game of the year, didn’t get off the ice promptly enough, causing them to be late for the protocol of the opening ceremonies, which earned a minor penalty. That was just the start.

The UMD women go to Mankato for another WCHA series this weekend, while the UMD men stay at home to face Bemidji State Friday night, then make the trip to Bemidji Saturday for the nonconference rematch.

Freshman fourth-liner Anthony Menghini (16) scored to lift UMD into a 5-5 tie with Northern Michigan Friday, before Bulldogs won in a shootout.

Freshman UMD center Matthew Perkins beat Northern Michigan goalie Beni Harasz for the winning goal in the sixth round of Friday's shootout.

Blake Biondi sent a power-play rebound toward the net in Saturday's 8-5 special-teams specialty victory over Northern Michigan.

UMD women's coach Maura Crowell kept her three leaders - defenseman Nina Jobst-Smith, Clara Van Wieren, and Mannon McMahon - on the bench to discuss the inept first two periods Saturday night in the 2-0 loss to Ohio State.