Anyone who has followed University of Minnesota Duluth hockey over the years would be hard-pressed to recall a first period as bizzare as the one the Bulldogs experienced Friday night.
During the first 20 minutes of play, not one, but two Bulldogs (defensemen Jay Rosehill and Neil Petruic) received five-minute major and game misconduct penalties for checking from behind. In all, UMD spent over half (10 minutes and 51 seconds) of that opening period shorthanded. The University of Vermont took advantage of the situation by scoring two power play goals during that stretch and went on to nip the previously unbeaten and No. 1-ranked Bulldogs 3-2 before a crowd of 4,653 at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center.
The Catamounts outshot the Bulldogs 15-5 en route to taking a 2-0 lead into the first intermission and then went up 3-0 on a power play goal by Scott Mifsud at the 3:48 mark of the second period. UMD senior center and NCAA scoring leader Evan Schwabe got UMD on the board 18 seconds later when he rapped in a rebound off a shot from defenseman Ryan Geris for his fifth goal of the season. Then, while UMD's Todd Smith was off for cross checking, freshman center Matt McKnight roofed a shot from 12 feet out which beat Vermont goaltender Joe Fallon and made it 3-2 with 14 seconds to go in that same period. It was the Bulldogs' fourth shorthanded goal of the year.
UMD (5-1-1 overall), which came into the game averaging 4.83 goals a night this season, was unable to get anything by Fallon the rest of the way, although it did hold a 9-5 shots on goal advantage and had three power play opportunities in final nine minutes of the third period.
For the game, UMD was 0 of 9 on the power play while the Catamounts (2-4-0 overall), were 3 of 11.
Senior Isaac Reichmuth made 30 saves for the Bulldogs, who lost for only the second time in eight lifetime meeting with Vermont. Fallon finished with 29 stops.
The two teams will wrap up their two-game non-conference series Saturday at 7:07 p.m.
Notes: Evan Schwabe has now collected at least one point in 13 of the last 14 games going back to last March ... UMD, which had just four defensemen left after Petruic's and Rosehill's early exits, moved right winger Josh Miskovich back to the point for several shifts. The Bulldog blueline corps was without the services of Tim Hambly, who is nursing a nagging back injury ... Both senior left wing Marco Peluso's and junior center Tim Stapleton's six-game scoring streaks came to and end Friday ... The Bulldogs have outscored their opponents 14-5 in second nights of series this season.
