Weekend Hindsight, Robert Morris Edition

This is a little late, but here were some of my observations from this weekend’s sweep over Robert Morris.

• Friday night became a battle of odd-man rushes and you didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out who was going to win that battle. There was no textbook “breakaway” with the possible exception being the shorthanded goal for Brett Hextall. However, several of the goals came on rushes where the speed of the Sioux forward(s) made the difference.
• UND was 3-for-9 this weekend on the power play, which coincides nicely with Hextall’s return. Hexy was only on the ice for one of those goals, however. UND was 2 for its last 23 without Hextall in the lineup.
• RMU coach Derek Schooley was fairly adamant after the game as well as later that night on Twitter that the game was a lot closer than the score showed and that they aren’t usually that kind of team. As it turns out, he was right. It was kind of amazing watching Robert Morris succeed in plugging up UND’s high-powered offense Saturday despite no indication of that Friday. UND had 3 fewer shots and (I thought) a lot fewer quality scoring chances.
• I made this comment a few times after watching that game: It was the type of game where you expect UND’s depth to prevail. But that never happened. The third line (Derek Rodwell, Mario Lamoureux, and Joe Gleason) had some very nice shifts but they never got one to go.
• Strange though it may seem, I thought that Matt Frattin had a bad game Saturday. Well, he had a bad first 50 minutes. His line (with Evan Trupp and Brad Malone) seemed out of sync with each other and never really had a shift where they had everything set up (other than power plays). And then with five minutes left they put together a gritty shift and Frattin could not be denied.
• Trupp’s goal should have counted, but the explanation given to coach Dave Hakstol was that there was not enough evidence to overturn the call on the ice, which was no goal. As clock operator Erik Martinson pointed out on the way down to ice level, the Ralph has only the overhead camera available for referees to see. Other arenas such as Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis and Magness Arena in Denver have other angles available, and it’s only a matter of getting the money to have the extra angles here, too. Replays showed that the puck crossed the line before the whistle blew and before the green light indicating a stoppage of play came on.
• Trupp’s non-goal was set up by a brilliant and patient move by Danny Kristo, who entered the zone with a blaze of speed but would have had a tough go to the net since there were at least three defenders already set up. Instead of forcing it, Kristo circled back to the point and let the team get itself positioned.
• Knight watch: Corban Knight went 17-4 on faceoffs and is now batting .635. UND was actually 41-18 on faceoffs Saturday and just 35-27 on Friday.
• Stats are of course incomplete, but from the data available to me, UND has not lost the faceoff battle in any of their games this season. I’ll try and dig up data for the games I’m missing but even with the games I’m missing it might have only happened once or twice, if at all.