WCHA Weekend: October 22-24

UMD Sweeps UAA 3-2 OT and 7-0

A good weekend of UMD hockey punctuated by Aaron Crandall’s first collegiate shutout in only his second start. To be even more specific, he has a 119:02 shutout streak going and again, he has only played in two games. That following a hard fought OT win for UMD Friday with Kenny Reiter in net.

So let us look into this goalie rotation the Bulldogs are currently using with Reiter on Friday and Crandall on Saturday.

In the last two Fridays, the Bulldogs have not been convincing in getting the aforementioned 3-2 OT win last Friday and pulling through for a 5-3 win October 15 where one goal was an empty netter. Both games Reiter played well, but needed every save to get the wins. It is good to have a seasoned veteran to backstop a very good team.

On the other hand, the last two Saturdays saw the Bulldogs crush the opponent 7-1 and 6-0 against Providence and UAA respectively. Both games were backstopped by Crandall. Did Crandall play well in the games? He must have to get scores like those. The real question is whether he is learning how to compete in the close games that will be prevalent in the WCHA season. Crandall is not new to hockey and he has played many games before his tenure at UMD, but it is accepted that the WCHA is “Tougher”…or is that just what we want to believe.

The bottom line is that Reiter has seemingly gotten the short end of the play in front of him. I don’t think that you can draw any conclusions about what that means about the team. It is just to point out an interesting trend and that UMD should rest easy, for now, that they have two quality goalies.

UMD Rankings. The Bulldogs hold #3 in all three rankings this week.

Mortal Sioux. The Sioux were swept this past weekend at Maine 7-3 and 4-2. It was Maine who last swept the Sioux in a non-conference series back in 2006 in Grand Forks.

First WCHA Win. At least for this season...UMTC Gophers pulled themselves of the mat to win a close game 2-1 against Saint Cloud State. That win Sunday afternoon prevented back to back home sweeps of the Gophers.