I've said before that a good team can overcome bad officiating. Today, UND proved me right. They absolutely dominated UW almost all game long.
Before I break things down, I'm going to give you my Weekend Three Stars:
Third Star: Chay Genoway (0g 3a) - Points aren't the only reason why he gets the 2nd Star. He was the icing on the cake of absolutely dominant defensive and offensive performance.
Second Star: Scott Gudbrandson - Looking back at where Gudbrandson came from (at one point he was in danger of losing his schollie at UW in a similar situation that former UW/current tUMD goaltender Aaron Crandall went through) and having watched him play last year.... Gudbrandson never has shown the capability of playing like he has this weekend. He was simply the ONLY UW player that came to play.
First Star: Aaron Dell - Almost 150 minutes of shutout time vs. UW. Can't argue with this.
Honorable Mentions: Jake Gardiner (seriously 40 minutes a game? Nuts), Derrick LaPoint (suck it haters), Corbin Knight, Jason Gregoire, Matt Frattin, and Danny Kristo
Next, to get it off my chest: UW got to see tonight just what we're complaining about when it comes to officiating... sorta.
Tonight, DShep and Hunt were consistent.... AWFUL. They managed to find every penalty UW committed all night and called most of them...some of them... it was hard to figure out their formula on which overt penalties they were going to call and which they'd let slide. At one point, Eaves whined and DShep found a way to put UND in the box. It mattered little because Craig Smith had a blackout when his brain shut down and he went berserk. Unfortunately for him (and lucky for Blood) the pesky net got in the way. Blood apparently laughed it off. UND was only really screwed over once when a sympathetic officiating crew decided to use the old version of the NHL rule about skaters in the crease to overturn Kristo's goal.
UPDATE: Ok, I watched some of the game on the Wisconsin Public Television reweb broadcast... I think that's what they called it. Anyways, I'm going to rescind what I said about Eaves convincing DShep to put UND in the box. Hennessey was wrong when he said that they invented a reason to put Trupp in the box. Trupp went to the box for Charging. It probably wasn't Charging, I'll grant TH that. However, Trupp left his skates to make the hit... to Craig Smith's head/shoulders area. This should have been a 2 minute minor for Contact to the Head- Roughing. It was definitely a penalty though. And about Craig Smith.... Seriously, I'm flabbergasted at his run of the UND net. He didn't try to check Dell. No one seems to have any clue on why in the world he did what he did. The net goes flying and ends up against the end boards upside down! What was he trying to accomplish? Dell didn't even move. He just flew by Dell and wham. Wow.
Also, saw the Kristo goal. And I'm now further enraged. That was a goal. NO DOUBT ABOUT IT. Rodwell's skate was CLEARLY in the crease, but it was nowhere near Gudmandson. Gudmandson would have had to skate up and to his left to run into Rodwell's skate... Kristo's shot came from Up and Right. So yeah, in order for it to be goaltender interference, Gudbrandson would have had to skate AWAY from the incoming shot. IF that's his idea of good goaltending, then I'll take away his second star status.
The WCHA is a lot like an NHRA Top Fuel Drag Race Team (Great schools, great coaches and players, great (for the most part) fans, great facilities) whose pit crewmembers in charge of the tires cannot seem to get to the track on time and when they do, always seem a bit lazy or uninspired. So, the league's race team could beat ANYONE in the amateur ranks but they keep on having blowouts off the starting line because there's no one to ensure tire quality. How's that analogy?
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Anyways, it is strange sitting here post game, post sweep. I thought that UW series now would be a split and the series vs UMD would be the sweep. Strike that, reverse it.
UND played like the hype surrounding this team expected them to play. UW looked slow, tired, uninspired.
Frattin scored first on a shot from the point.
Kristo scored seco... no, he didn't. Rodwell stepped in the crease and Sheptard overturned it.
UW scored next on the powerplay. John Ramage scored from the point. UW would end the game with the best PP percentage: 1 for 2.
UND would then score 3 unanswered goals, two in a row by Corbin Knight and the final one by Frattin.
Schultz would pot the final goal of the game when UND actually showed laziness.
I'll post the video if there is one that shows up.
