UMHSEL Opens Week 2 with a 3-3 tie
MAP goalie Will Swanson battles Mpls/St. Paul's Luke Manning
Tuesday night at the New Hope Arena, the UMHSEL started Week 2 of play. MAP, 3-0 and unbeaten in league play, tied Mpls/St. Paul Magazine 3-3 in tight hotly contested game. The Magaziners forced MAP to come from a 3-1 deficit, scoring two late third period goals to tie the game and preserve MAP’s unbeaten record. The two teams will now travel to Wausau WI for two weekend games that will complete their second weekend of play.
Mpls/St. Paul Magaziner Dylan Gast looks for the puck to come out of the corner in the opening minutes of the Tuesday's game.
Period 1: MAP adjust lines
The MAP bench had to scramble to replace their center on their top scoring line and to adjust their remaining lines. Each team skates four lines in the UMHSEL in rotation except with player are scratched. It took most of the first period for the MAP offense to settle in. During that time, the Magaziners brought pressure to the MAP defense often beating the defenders wide in the MAP zone. Still the MAP team held on through the first 10 minutes of play until they drew a penalty. Twenty seconds into the Mpls/St. Paul power play, the Magaziners moved the puck from right to left to defenseman Wyatt Newpower/White Bear Lake in the lower left slot. Newpower’s shot trickled through Will Swanson’s pads for the score. Mpls led 1-0 at the end of the first period. Cade Gleekel/Benilde-St. Margaret’s and Luke Ranallo/Hill-Murray got the assists.
Period 2: Magaziners build a lead
The first minutes of the second period was wide open with both teams pushing the attack into the other’s zone, but neither could sustain possession until the 15 minute mark. With five gone in the period, Mpls/St. Paul took control of the puck in MAP zone. For over a minute, the Magaziners moved the puck quickly around the perimeter forcing MAP into a defensive box setting up a shot by a defenseman on the left point. MAP’s Will Blake, playing the left corner on the box, blocked the shot from the point. The puck rebounded into neutral ice and Blake beat the Mpls/St. Paul defender to the puck. Blake soloed into the Magaziners’ zone straight down the slot beating goalie Jake Begley/Hill-Murray with a hard shot cutting to the goalies’ left. Blake’s unassisted score tied the game 1-1.
Magaziner Cade Gleekel's (#6) one-timer is stopped by MAP goalie Will Johnson.
Period 2 (continued)
A minute later MAP picked up a slashing penalty putting the Magaziners on the power play. Mpls set up in the MAP zone. For the next 90 seconds, the Mpls/St. Paul team again moved the puck around the perimeter controlling play inside the MAP zone. This time the shot went to Isaac Johnson/Anoka. Johnson ended up with the puck at the top left faceoff circle and found a gap in the MAP defense. He made a quick move towards the net and fired a hard shot beating Swanson’s glove hitting the left upper corner of the net. Luke Notemann/Blaine got the assist on the power play score. Mpls/St. Paul led again 2-1.
Following that goal, the MAP defense started to scramble. Their goaltender was getting pressure. A timeout was called and after that timeout, the MAP defense settled. Over the next seven minutes of play both teams up their tempo. The game started to get physical.
Mpls/St. Paul's Isaac Johnson/Anoka scores this second period goal to put the Magaziners up 2-1.
Period 3: Things looked ragged or do they?
The Magaziners opened the third period playing with confidence. They had MAP backed up at the end of the third period and continued to pressure MAP in the MAP zone. The MAP forwards missed one good scoring opportunity early when a shot on net ending up sliding to the weak side with MAP forward there to knock it in to an open net. There play looked ragged at times, but players were tired and tired players start to lose sight of their own teammates with the two teams jerseys being so similar. It caused for some confusion on the ice and gave the period an appearance of raggedness.
Gradually, the pressure started to shift towards the Mpls/St. Paul zone. With seven minutes left in the period, the Mappers started to press inside the Magaziners’ zone. After working hard for over 54 minutes of play to build a 3-1 lead, in the space of 30 seconds with five minutes left on the clock, the Magaziners lost the lead. MAP scored twice.
The Ben Meyers/Delano line with wings Zach Sitarz/Andover and Tyler Nyman/Centennial got the first goal. Ben Meyers scored off a strong rush that had the three forwards converging on Magaziner goalie Begley. Meyers got the score; Sitarz and Nyman got the assists. On the faceoff at center ice following the score, MAP’s Gleekel beat the Magaziner defense along the left boards, cut slightly into the left faceoff circle and blistered a hard shot on the Mpls/St. Paul net. Gleekel’s shot beat Begely’s glove by a fraction of a second to tie the game 3-3 and end the scoring. It was an evenly played game and the goaltending made the difference. MAP goalie Will Swanson stopped 31 of 34 Magaziner shots; Jake Begley stopped 30-33 MAP shots. In a hard fought game, the goalies tied.
MAP's Chase Ellingson (right #8) watches his puck go by the goalies' glove. The puck can be seen just above the tip of the glove as it moves past the left post.
Ellingson shot has cleared goalie Jake Begley's glove as Begley just misses the save. The time between these two pictures in less than a tenth of a second. What is amazing is that Begley eyes can be seen focused on the puck and rest is a blur.
What is Next?
MAP remains unbeaten and on top of the UMHSEL standings. The Mappers will be traveling to Wausau WI next Saturday to play the Chicago Fury. This will be the Fury’s fourth game of the season. They are currently 1-1-1 after splitting a two game series with the Milwaukee Jr. Admirals and tying the Chicago Mission. Sunday, MAP will play Team Wisconsin. The Magaziners also travel to Wausau. They will play Team Wisconsin Saturday and the Chicago Fury Sunday.
Notes:
1.Fatigue set in the third period: Starting their third intense period of hockey, both teams were still going all out; but some observers would think that the play was a little shoddy. It was not. With fatigue and the quick reaction needed to sustain high levels of play, players tend to react to uniform colors. It was a visual thing. So when one Magaziner started to check his own teammate, he was reacting to the situation. Perhaps the worst example of confusing a teammate for the opponent or the opponent for a teammate came halfway through the third period when a MAP forward broke cleanly to the net off the right boards while his teammates changed shift. A Mpls defenseman in the left crease reacted to the situation. He assumed because the front view of the Mpls/St. Paul uniform is very similar to the MAP uniform, that it was MAP player and skated up ice expecting a typical breakout pass. Instead, the MAP forward, surprised to see what happened, recovered and attacked the net but couldn’t score. The league needs to solve the jersey problem. There are only six teams to worry about. There are more than six colors.
2. MAP adjusts offensive lines on the fly: Wayzata senior Mark Senden was scratched for Tuesday’s game. Senden centered MAP’s top scoring line with Ellingson and Murray at wings. Ryan Peterson/Duluth East stepped in, but that still caused some juggling of forwards on the bench and took away some of the edge in MAP’s offense Tuesday night. The nature of fall hockey is that often the Minnesota teams (and to certain extent Team Wisconsin) have to constantly juggle lineups during the game as players often have conflicts. Teams like the Colorado Rampage, the Chicago Fury, Shattuck/St. Mary’s and the USA U17 are teams are not just fall (or before) teams; they are looking at a season long schedule that is bent on doing well in post season play.
3. Mpls/St. Paul sets up Stillwater: The Mpls roster has six Stillwater players on the team (goalie Josh Benson, defenseman Jesse Bjugstad, Noah Cates, Jackson Cates, Luke Manning, and Simon Sagissor). After some of the Stillwater players on the Magaziner roster missed the first game of the season, they came back with a good game last night and seemed to be in synch with each other. Manning skated on the first line out last night (with Notermann and Garin); the two Cates were teamed with Sagissor were the second line off the bench last night and played an aggressive game. With Cade Gleekel and Dylan Gast lines coming off the bench after the first two, the emergence of the all Stillwater line makes the Magaziners scary. But the potential emerging of the Stillwater players showing improvement at such a high level in the UMHSEL league really makes “Stillwater high schoolers” scarier in the coming season.
4. Garin just gets stronger, taller, and more mature
Mspl's Will Garin/Holy Family Catholic fires this shot on the MAP goalie. It is fun to watch the players develop. Garin is looking good and is eligible for the first time in the 2016 NHL Draft. He was drafted in the first round of the USHL last May.