No. 8-ranked Minnesota Duluth routed Colorado College 7-2 at Amsoil Arena on Saturday to complete a weekend sweep of the Tigers and move into a tie with Miami for first place in the NCHC.
Here are my thumbs up and thumbs down from the game, followed by my three stars of the game.
Thumbs up to the Iafallo-Toninato-Krause line
It was nice to see the band back together this weekend at Amsoil, and by band, I mean the Bulldogs’ top line of sophomore wing Alex Iafallo, sophomore center Dominic Toninato and senior wing Adam Krause.
The captain returned to the Bulldogs’ top line late in the third period on Friday and the trio produced the game-tying goal with under three minutes to play with Krause and Toninato assisting Iafallo. Saturday, Krause assisted Toninato in the second period and Krause scored unassisted in the third period. Iafallo wasn’t credited with any points, but was still a big part of all three goals, trust me.
The line finished plus-2, and probably could have been plus-3 or 4 had a few other chances went in. As long as those three stay healthy, I don’t see any reason UMD should break up the top line again this year.
Thumbs down to … a four-minute stretch in the third period for UMD?
Colorado College may be a 3-9 team that is winless after six NCHC games, but they sure don’t play that way. It’s a team that never gave up all weekend, even when things were not going any where near their way.
The Tigers scored twice in a span of 2:19 in the third period to pull within one goal. UMD quickly squashed the rally 2:06 later by going ahead 5-2, then piled on just in case the Tigers tried to mount another comeback.
I wouldn’t advise many teams spot the Tigers two goals like UMD did on Friday or to allow them to cut your four-goal margin to two with over 12 minutes to play in the third period, but UMD survived it.
And that’s my thumbs down from a 7-2 game. How about we just call it a thumb down. It wasn’t worth the energy to move both thumbs.
Matt’s Three Stars
