The University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey team settled for a 1-1 tie Saturday night at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minn. against Miami University (Ohio) before outlasting the RedHawks in a nine-round shootout to pick up the extra National Collegiate Hockey Conference point.
The Bulldogs skate away on the weekend, their last at home of the season, with four points across two overtime games.
"It wasn't our best, but I want to give them credit, too," said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin.?"I thought they played hard, I know they're trying to win there, but you know, they competed and they played hard all weekend, and they made it hard for us. So we have to do the same thing if we want to give ourselves a chance moving forward, you have to play hard, you have to compete hard, and you have to execute better. ?Hopefully we can have a good week and do that next weekend before it really matters."
It looked like the Bulldogs might pull a page out their senior script early when captain Dominic James put the Bulldogs ahead at 7:36 of the first period. Anthony Menghini skated into the zone, and after skating through the left circle, dropped the puck behind him to James. James' shot deflected off a RedHawk defenseman and past goaltender Bruno Bruveris to put the Bulldogs up 1-0.
But less than five minutes later, senior defenseman Owen Gallatin was called for kneeing and sent to the box for a five minute major. The Bulldogs killed off the extended penalty, and despite being out shot 8-5 in the frame still owned a one goal lead.
A scoreless second period protected that one goal advantage for UMD, but at 8:59 of the third period, the RedHawks equalized on a tally from Casper Nassen. Unfortunately for both teams – or fortunately, depending on what side of the ice the puck was on, both goaltenders made 26 saves in the game. Miami had the third period shots on goal edge of 6-5, and the Bulldogs with the overtime 6-4 upper hand.
After each team was awarded a point and the game officially went into the record book as a tie, the two sides rode their goaltenders in a nine round shootout. Max Plante landed UMD's first of two goals in the third round, but Nassen responded to keep the shootout alive. Six rounds later, sophomore defenseman Aaron Pionk finally scored, and Adam Gajan made his eighth shootout save to help the Bulldogs pick up their second point of the night.
Gajan's 26 saves were matched by Bruveris' 26 for the RedHawks. UMD and Miami each landed 27 shots on goal in the game, and both teams were scoreless in two power play attempts.
UMD, 12-17-3 overall and 8-12-2 in NCHC play, will wrap up the 2024-25 regular season at St. Cloud State University next weekend.
BULLDOG NOTES: UMD is now 2-3-3 in overtime games this season, and 2-1 in league shootouts … the Bulldogs have not won a game in regulation since defeating the University of Denver 4-3 back on Jan. 24 at AMSOIL … the shootout was the first of Adam Gajan's career … the freshman goaltender stopped eight of nine shooters … Dominic James has now scored 12 goals this season, rolling right past his previous season high of 10 set in his sophomore year (2022-23) … in all, James now has 26 points, just two shy of the career high of 28 he put up in 2022-23 .. UMD honored its six seniors prior to the game - forward Joe Molenaar, defenseman Luke Bast, defenseman Will Francis, forward Carter Loney, defenseman Owen Gallatin and James.
