Freddy's Three Thoughts of the Game:
1. Reiter not wrong: The game hinged on the first period in which the Mavericks did everything right except score. They outshot the defending national champions 21-9 but trailed 1-0 at intermission, thanks to Kenny Reiter, who is off to a great start to the season. Reiter appeared to have found some good puck at times, notably when it looked like he left his net open a couple of times, but he made some key saves, too.
2. Cupboard not bare: If you thought the defending champs would take a step back without the likes of Justin Fontaine, Mike Connolly and Justin Faulk around anymore, well, think again. Besides Reiter, Jack Connolly (one goal, one assist), Travis Oleksuk (one goal) and J.T. Brown (one goal, one assist) are still around and are racking up the points. Connolly has 19 points this season, and during his four-year career now has 17 points in nine games against MSU. Oleksuk scored his WCHA-leading 12th-goal of the season. Freshman forward Caleb Herbert is also emerging. He scored two of UMD's first three goals and assisted on a later goal.
3. Put in on the board: Eriah Hayes and Adam Mueller scored third-period goals for the Mavericks. Hayes' 4x3 power-play goal made it 3-1, but Connolly scored just 90 seconds later, sapping almost all momentum away from MSU. Mueller had a snipe over Reiter's glove with about 7 minutes left to make it 5-2. Defenseman Joe Schiller and forward Michael Dorr each assisted on both MSU goals.
Deep thought: A quick report on Duluth's new Amsoil Arena (I'll be writing more down the line) ... They did it right with this mini-X — open concourses, nice suites, huge club/VIP area. Even though it is a city arena (like the Verizon Wireless Center), everything is UMD, UMD, UMD — maroon and gold seats, Bulldog-themed ads by Verizon and others all over the building. The hockey team has its own private area with coaches offices, locker and training rooms and player areas. Not sure what the rent is, but it was done first class.
Quote of the night: "This league is ver good and we'res hort our two best guys back there. (Tyler Elbrecht and Cameron Cooper) are our two most-experienced (defensemen), they're two leaders and they're two veterans back there." — Troy Jutting on Cooper's game-day scratch due to injury.
Note: More on Cooper below in Friday's earlier post, but he will not play on Saturday.
Around the WCHA: St. Cloud State 4, Minnesota 3 ... Denver 7, Nebraska-Omaha 3 ... Colorado College 4, Wisconsin 2 ... Alaska Anchorage 3, Michigan Tech 1
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