Freddy's three thoughts of the game ...
1. Short bench: Minnesota State was already missing Rylan Galiardi, who was back in Mankato with an injury. Then, before the game, coach Troy Jutting scratched Mike Louwerse for poor play and gave freshman J.P. Burkemper his first night off. Freshman John McInnis was playing for just the third time this season, and Danny Heath, a freshman D, got moved up to center (he had been playing up front in practice since Galiardi went down) for his second collegiate game. Once Joe Schiller, Chase Grant and Zach Lehrke went out with injuries, that left a pretty small group of forwards to choose from during a one-goal game. "That's as short a bench as I've ever had as a coach," Jutting said. There was a lot of mixing and matching late in the game. Even senior D Kurt Davis played a couple of shifts as a forward.
2. Signs of life: The Mavericks scored two power-play goals in the game, just the second time in 10 games that they have gotten more than one goal with the man advantage. Davis and Eriah Hayes had the goals. Davis fired a slap shot from the center point, and Hayes deflected in a Sackrison shot from the wall. McInnis collected his first collegaite point on Hayes goal. However, UNO coach Dean Blais insisted that Hayes' goal was played with a high stick. It was reviewed -- twice! -- but the overhead camera angle could not confirm a high stick. "We have to get better technology all over the league," Blais said. Jutting said his power play still needs work. "I thought we did a better job with our puck movement at times," he said. "But there are still times when it makes you want to pull your hair out."
3. A little love: Blais had kind words for Minnesota State's play throughout the weekend, echoing words he often said when he was the coach at North Dakota. "Troy Jutting's teams play their hockey just like we do," the UNO coach said. "That's aggressive and honest. There's not one player on their team that cheats or looks for shortcuts." Blais also praised MSU freshmen Chase Grant and Corey Leivermann, both of whom played for Blais when they were with the Fargo Force of the USHL two seasons ago. Blais said Grant from a mucking, grinding player under him to a 30-goal scorer in his second year at Fargo. Leivermann "scored some outstanding goals for me and more last year." Later, "I was surprised with the year they had last year; I'm not surprised by the way they're playing in Mankato.
Read The Free Press story here. Read the Omaha World-Herald story here. See the box score here.
8 comments:
I hate to be a downer, but I was at Qwest Center last night, and had to painfully sit through one awful game. Even before the players got hurt, which certainly didn't help, Mankato looked slow, out of position, and on different pages from the start. It was awful.
I lost count of how many breakaways UNO had because our defensemen merely stood in place and looked back as UNO players burst across the blue line. They had odd-man rushes ALL NIGHT.
It'd be one thing if Mankato was giving up the odd-man chances because they had just finished off a quality scoring chance on the other end and were a step behind getting back. As it was, though, their offense was almost non-existent.
Louwerse needs to correct his penalty problems because the Mavs absolutely NEED him on the ice. Watching Heath and McInnis play forward for the last period and a half was brutal. I would have liked to see Burkemper out there also. That kid can play.
I realize part of the problem towards the end of the game was the loss of Grant, Lehrke, and Schiller. Still, that doesn't explain their flat-footed ineptitude the rest of the game.
I sure hope Grant (might be our best forward) and Lehrke are alright. We are seriously lacking talent up front, and we need those two and Louwerse on the ice ASAP.
I hope the showing by the purple Mavs this weekend was just a fluke, but I'm worried it wasn't. This squad seems to seriously be lacking across the board this year. It's too bad. I love the Mavs, but last night's game was simply...terrible.
Here's hoping a different team shows up against Denver next weekend.
One has to ask - "do the players buy into the coaches program"?
To many mental mistakes from the basics at this level. So what is wearing on these young mens minds?
Vet's making basic mistakes and playing way to many "minutes" per shift. 30-45 seconds and off the ice. Basic hockey philosophy that needs to be followed...
GO MAVS
Sam,
Here are the top 5 in PENALTIES Pen Min
5 Ben Youds 10 28
25 Eriah Hayes 10 18
28 Channing Boe 10 12
16 Tyler Elbrecht 10 8
11 Corey Leivermann 8 19
Mike Louwerse 2 for 4 minutes.
Problem?
Mankato,
The only reason I made the reference to Louwerse's penalty minute problems was because Shane referenced that as a reason he likely wasn't in the line-up on Saturday.
Shane had said something about Louwerse taking some bad penalties the night before.
To me, Mike is a guy that NEEDS to be on the ice every game. He's little, but his skills with the puck are arguably the best, by a long shot, on this year's roster. He has some serious skill and we need guys like that on the ice, badly.
Mankato,
I don't dispute that. The fact of the matter is, when your team lacks skill, guys like Louwerse need to be on the ice every game. It's as simple as that.
Sam,Louwerse had one bad penalty Friday night, not "some bad penalties". Shane probably made a mistake in his blog post. Imo 2 players from friday night's were going to sit saturday win or lose
I agree with you that Louwerse needs to stay in the line-up.
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