Bulldog Blanking

Only two teams now remain in the quest for the Broadmoor Trophy after Denver and UMD each dispatched their foes with a shutout victory. The last time UMD won the Broadmoor Trophy was in 1985. Denver won last year’s WCHA Final Five.

Last night’s game was well played by both UMD and UND, but was highlighted by a superb effort by Alex Stalock in the UMD net. UMD continued stymie the opposing teams’ power play and scored on their own special teams chances. Macgregor Sharp got UMD off to an early lead with a shorthanded goal scored right in front of us. If you didn’t see the goal, find it on youtube. The flickertails goalie Brad Eidsness played the puck behind the net leaving for teammate to play, only for Sharp to get there first and put it into an empty net. At this point the Xcel Energy center went quite and all of the fans wearing green knew what was going to happen the rest of the night.

I expect a great game tonight between UMD and Denver as both goalies are playing great. For UMD to win they need to capitalize on the power play and continue to be rock solid on the penalty kill. I would expect a pro-UMD crowd at the X, which should feed UMD some additional energy.

The win solidified a UMD NCAA berth as they are currently tied for 11th in the pairwise and coupled with the outcomes from other games UMTC has moved up to 14th in the pairwise. Now it is wait and see where they will be playing. Go ‘Dogs.