Re: North Star College Cup: Minnesota State, UMD, Minnesota & Bemidji State
Turnovers, D lapses in front, poor zone breakouts, poor puck support, poor passing, poor transition, average goaltending, not enough SOG and the list goes on...as the Gophers faltered in nearly every aspect of arguably their biggest game of their season tonight, losing 4-2 to an energized Mavericks team who played like they had something to prove. Mankato set the pace early and came storming out of the gate creating 12 grade A scoring chances in the first period alone vs only 2 for the Gophers. That trend would continue throughout the game as the Mavs kept the Gophers out of the paint denying shot opportunities on Williams all night with a heavy dose of forecheck and blocked shots.
Offensively, the Golden Gophers looked totally out of sync tonight, failing to setup with puck support in the Mavericks zone, and relying mainly on perimeter shots that were often blocked or deflected wide. Defensively, they allowed pucks to get behind them and surrendered the paint to the Mavs far too often and IMO that was the difference in the game.
The Mavs played like a #1 team tonight streaking up and down the ice with a good speed and transition game and were very physical on the walls. Bryce Gervais and Matt Leitner were the offensive stars of the game picking Wilcox's pocket, who was off his game. Boyd, Rau, Kloos, Fasching were Gopher players expected to step up and generate offense, but finished with only 5 SOG total. Ambroz had a chance to narrow the game to 4-3 with a penalty shot with 1:13 remaining, but made one of the worst looking dekes I've ever seen that probably drew a chuckle from Williams when made the routine stop.
Overall, the Mavs outplayed the Gophers all game tonight and are the obvious favorite to capture the North Star College Cup Championship tomorrow night. Meanwhile the Gophers will need to rebound quickly from their disappointing effort to face UMD tomorrow afternoon with a chance to gain a "little" traction in the PWR. As expected this loss dropped them further into the pairwise basement. A loss tomorrow will most likely ice their chances for a tournament berth unless they win the B1G tourney. Plain and simple the Gophers sucked tonight as a team.
