They had their No. 1 ranked Golden Gopher hockey team, playing the “lowly” No. 13 UMD Bulldogs, and while the Gopher folks say they knew it would be a tough series, they had no idea how tough. UMD swept both games in the home-and-home series, following up a stunning 3-0 victory in Mariucci Arena Friday with an equally stunning 2-1 triumph at AMSOIL Arena Saturday night.
The Bulldogs struck virtually off the opening faceoff in both games, and Kasimir Kaskisuo was near flawless in nets, yielding just one goal -- the unheralded UMD freshman from Finland by way of the Minnesota Wilderness outdueling Minnesota All-American Adam Wilcox.
UMD, which started inconsistently, has now rattled off five straight victories, against elite teams that include Miami of Ohio, St. Cloud State, and Minnesota. For good measure, the Bulldogs women went to St. Cloud State to resume play after a fall break, and swept 6-1 and 1-0 games from the Huskies.
With football, volleyball and both men’s and women’s hockey all collaborating on such a glorious, all-victorious weekend, the pinnacle was when the Bulldogs hockey men drove down Interstate 35 and stunned the No. 1 rated Golden Gophers 3-0 Friday night, registering another major achievement for the National Collegiate Hockey Conference against the publicity-rich but elite-team-poor Big Ten. An even bigger blow was issued Saturday in AMSOIL Arena, when the Bulldogs pounced on the Gophers at the start for the second night in a row, and led 2-0 before taking their collective foot off the pedal in the third period before holding off the Gophers 2-1.
The sweep will thrust UMD and the NCHC into the hierarchy of even the tradition-bound minds of the voters on the U.S. College Hockey Online rating poll. Cooler heads already had prevailed by the statistical evidence of the Pairwise computer analysis. In the polls, the Gophers were No. 1 and UMD 13th, but in the Pairwise, Minnesota had dropped to second and UMD already was No. 8.
The Bulldogs outplayed the Gophers virtually every shift of the game, getting an early power play, and capitalizing on it when Austin Farley scored at 2:07. UMD outshot Minnesota 15-1 at one point in the opening period, and the Gophers never got untracked. Dan Molenaar scored midway through the second period, and Dominic Toninato scored another power-play goal midway through the third, as UMD outshot Minnesota 38-17.
In the rematch, Toninato went to the net and banged in Alex Iafallo’s hard pass from the right boards at 0:28 to again give UMD an early 1-0 again. Karson Kuhlmam, a freshman who hails from Esko and played at Cloquet, continued to show a determination to get to the net, and deflected Willie Raskob’s center-point shot up and into the right edge for a power-play goal late in the first period and it was 2-0 as a reward for outshooting the Gophers 15-5 in the session.
Strangely, UMD had the perfect opportunity to put the game out of reach with two more power plays in the second period, but seemed instead to shift into neutral. Suddenly the passes were off target and the tempo slowed from dominant to manageable in the scoreless second period. Sure enough, midway through the third period, the Gophers had what looked like a harmless rush, but Molenaar stumbled just as Leon Bristedt carried across the blueline, and as he sprawled, Bristedt rushed up the right side and put a shot through Kaskisuo a moment before tripped and going airborne over a sliding defenseman.
   Suddenly, a game and a half of domination meant nothing, and the Gophers pressed to te finish. Kaskisuo came away yielding one goal in two games, and Wilcox gave up five.
“That’s a pretty high-powered offense there,” said Wilcox. “We wanted to get the first goal, but that didn’t happen. I like playing in this environment, though. It keeps things lively.”
UMD coach Scott Sandelin said he didn’t think his Bulldogs let up so much as the Gophers turned up the intensity. In reality, the Gophers did get more intense, but it happened after UMD stopped forcing play at the other end. Kaskisuo, who played so well, missed one long shot when Seth Ambroz carried to the blue line and cut loose, but the shot clanked off the left post. Also, when Matt Rau got free for a point blank try from his favorite spot, just to the right of the crease, somehow the puck didn’t go in, and Rau ended up pointless for the weekend. Sandelin was asked if that meant Kaskisuo was one of those goalies who, when he fails to make a big save, gets a break and the puck doesn’t go in.
“I don’t care,” he said. “Just so the puck doesn’t go in.”
Minnesota coach Don Lucia said: “They played well, both nights. We’re in a little bit of a dry spell right now. Our ‘compete’ level was much better tonight than in the first game. The effort was there. But we missed covering a center off the draw 30 seconds into the game and it cost us. We had some guys who played extremely well, but their goalie played well.”
It doesn’t ease up. UMD now goes to Nebraska-Omaha, comes home to face Colorado College, then heads for Houghton, where Michigan Tech is undefeated.

UMD’s Volleyball Run is Legendary Stuff

t no longer matters how fantastic UMD’s volleyball season has been. As of Thursday night, the Bulldogs are only as good as their next match -- which happens to be Thursday at Romano Gym against Arkansas State.
Nevertheless, it is the perfect time to recount this unbelievable season. The Duluth News Tribune reported that the team is “off to their best start in school history,” but it’s time the paper realizes that this is the end of the season, not the start. More accurately, this is the best start, best middle, and best end to any season. Consider that UMD lost its seventh match of the season, to top-rated Tampa, in the Colorado Premier Tournament on September 13. The Bulldogs haven’t lost since, and they’ll take a 31-1 record into the Central Regional.
Not that it was easy. The Bulldogs seemed to breeze to their current streak of 25 straight victories, but No. 25 was a tough one, against Wayne State in the Northern Sun tournament final last Saturday afternoon. It’s been said repeatedly that UMD has used superb balance, with different hitters seeming to lead the team game after game. But it’s been the hitters who have been the big story. Until the Wayne State match.
The Wildcats had knocked off seven-time national champ Concordia in the semifinals, and they threw a suffocating blocking style that harnessed UMD’s big hitters in the first set. Time after time, UMD would get the dig, make the set, and execute the kill attempt, only to have Wayne State blockers keep the kill from getting over the net. UMD trailed throughout most of the match, catching up at 11-11, 12-12, going ahead 13-12, then falling behind again until gaining a 21-20 lead.
At that point, after a strategic time out or two, coach Jim Boos coaxed his players to adjust into a similar, shot-blocking style. It worked, and the Bulldogs got a couple key kills from Sydnie Mauch to escape with a 25-21 first-set victory.
In the second set, UMD came out and won 25-15, and rarely have the Bulldogs ever scored so much on blocked shots, eclipsing the effectiveness of their usual offensive fireworks. Mariah Scharf, who generally leads the team in kills, had only three in the first set, and none from her left outside hitter’s station in the second set, finally finishing with six for the match.
“When we played Wayne the last time, we went five sets, and we had a total of seven blocks,” said Boos. “Tonight we had nine blocked shots in the second set alone. We didn’t really change much, we just executed a few things better. Our servers did a good job, and out blockers did a great job.

“Blocking is not really
our strength.”

But it was Saturday. It was so effective that Wayne State tried to adjust to free up its hitters against UMD’s blocks. The Wildcats even tried to set players 10 feet back of the net, but that fouled up the trajectory of their kills.
UMD kept up the defensive attack in the third set, springing to a lead of 10-2, and even though Wayne State made a couple of charges, the Bulldogs broke from 15-8 to 20-8 behind Kelly Madison’s serves, and won the third set 25-10 to sweep the match.
Afterward, Ashley Hinsch talked to some family members on the court. Hinsch, a junior from Zumbrota, MN., seems to be the team’s tension-breaker, as well as its assist star. “You’ve got to have fun out there,” Hinsch said, as she tried to stand still while a trainer attached an ice bag to her knee and another one on her back. “It’s not as much fun if everybody’s tense.”
Setters rarely get the headlines, but they can’t escape the praise of their coaches. “Ashley Hinsch did a really good job, with 42 assists,” said Boos. “She has a great knack for sensing where good chances are coming from.”
The Bulldogs take their icebags and that 31-1 record into the Central Regional, where they will be joined by fellow-Northern Sun rivals Wayne State, the NSIC tournament runner-up; Concordia of St. Paul, the regular-season runner-up; and Southwest Minnesota State. Mid-America champ Central Missouri, Nebraska-Kearney, Washburn University, and Great American tournament winner Arkansas Tech fill out the field at Romano Gym.
And just maybe meeting that challenge with a sparkling blocking array gives the Bulldogs a new weapon for their arsenal as they head into the regional. “Wayne gave us a really good match,” said Monica Turner, whose 11 kills were second to Maddy Siroin’s 13. “But we like to battle.”
 
Time to Celebrate, Not Suffer
     
Sports fans in the Twin Cities may be suffering with the disastrous Vikings 21-13 loss to the eminently beatable Chicago Bears in Chicago, which followed by one day the 31-24 loss University of Minnesota football team was handed by Ohio State. We, up here in Polar Vortex Land, could sympathize with our Southern cousins, except we were too busy contributing to their dismay in the midst of a spectacular weekend that couldn’t have been more impressive.
While the Bulldogs swept the home-and-home hockey series with Minnesota, and UMD’s women’s hockey team swept two games at St. Cloud State, and its volleyball team won the Northern Sun tournament, UMD’s football team was off in Minot, finishing a perfect 11-0 regular season with a 56-0 romp over Minot State. For good measure, St. Scholastica also finished undefeated as UMAC champion and heads off to the Division 3 regional tournament, where new coach Kurt Ramler runs smack into the St. John’s outfit that Ramler once quarterbacked to maintain its powerhouse stature.
But consider UMD’s classy response to an unexplained insult from Super Region Three’s football committee. Ranked No. 2 in the nation among Division 2 programs, the Bulldogs were previously ranked No. 1 in the region. They dropped to second, behind Minnesota State-Mankato, and we were told it was because they weren’t playing opponents that were highly regarded, even though they went to Crookston and won 77-3. They were, in fact, dropped to third, behind Ouachita Baptist in the region. UMD came home and whipped Mary 53-35, and held their ground. Then it was off to Minot, for a 56-0 romp, and waited to see where they’d be ranked in the final regional toll.
The focal point is that the top two teams in the region get byes, while the next four teams square off, with those two winners advancing to play the bye teams. Incredibly, UMD was dropped from No. 3 to No. 4 in the regional committee’s final assessment. While winning its last three games by a combined 189-38, UMD dropped out of the top two, then the top three, and wound up fourth. Apparently it’s UMD’s fault that Crookston and Minot are weak.
So instead of a bye, UMD will play in the quarterfinals at 1 p.m. Saturday, and instead of being No. 3 and facing No. 6, the Bulldogs are No. 4 and will face No. 5 -- the defending national champion and perennial power Northwest Missouri State, which is co-champion of the Mid-American conference at 10-1.
The other quite astonishing thing the regional guys did was to vault Ouachita Baptist from No. 2 to No. 1, ahead of MSU-Mankato. Ouachita Baptist  (10-0) must be great, but are they good enough to pass both UMD and MSU-Mankato while they, too, were winning? Does it mean the same committee that had Ouachita Baptist third behind UMD and Mankato suddenly found great knowledge now that the season is over? UMD and Northwest Missouri State collide at 1 p.m. at Malosky Stadium, with the winner getting to go to Arkadelphia, Arkansas, to face No. 1 Ouachita Baptist next week. Pittsburg State from the Mid-American is No. 3, at 10-1, and will be host to Harding University, 9-1, from the Great American, with that winner advancing to play at Mankato to complete the Super Regional Three pairings.
UMD won the D-2 national championship in 2008, Northwest Missouri State won in 2009, followed by UMD again in 2010, and Northwest Missouri in 2013. Should be quite a battle Saturday, and it will, for sure, be the last chance to see a fantastic UMD team on home turf.