UMD falls short of Ice Breaker title with 4-3 loss to Michigan Tech
Written by Austin Rush | Archived Nov. 10, 2020
UMD defenseman Nick Wolfe avoids contact with a Tech player
The University of Minnesota Duluth falls to Michigan Tech University 4-3 in the Ice Breaker championship game.
UMD, who got off to a hot start tonight with the games first two goals coming from sophomores Riley Tufte(39 seconds into the opening period) and Nick Wolff may have gotten a little too comfortable with their early lead.
Penalties haunted the Bulldogs tonight as they had seven of them. The Huskies capitalized on three of them two of which came in the first period to tie things up a two apiece. The Bulldogs found themselves having to defend an early 5-on-3 man advantage in the first period and failing on both penalty kill attempts.
Senior defenseman Mark Auk and sophomore forward Raymond Brice scored 62 seconds apart to even the contest.
Both teams would trade blows in the middle frame but it was the even strength strike from freshman forward Justin Misiak that would seal the victory and tournament win for the Huskies.
"We learned a little bit about ourselves this weekend," said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin. "Obviously we had a good emotional first game big win and I thought we came out well. Maybe we thought it was going to be a little easy after getting a couple goals but I liked our energy and then I thought we had a let up at the end of the period and thought it was kind of sloppy."
UMD poured on 36 shots to Tech’s 17 in the contest but had little answer for junior goaltender Patrick Munson after their third and final goal.
"Obviously you want to win but give them credit, they battled, they capitalized and got the win but I liked some of the things I saw tonight," Sandelin said.
The Bulldogs will hit the road next Friday night to take on the Beavers of Bemidji State then return home on Saturday to complete the home and home series with their Western Collegiate Hockey Association opponent.
Photo courtesy of Terry Norton