U hockey: Tech coach not happy with split

Posted on December 3rd, 2007 – 3:14 PM
By Roman Augustoviz

“I thought we did a good job early of really overcoming a lot of adversity,” said Michigan Tech coach Jamie Russell, referring to the Huskies’ 3-1 loss to the U on Saturday.

“We score very early in the game and it is disallowed. They score shortly after that, so we are down 1-0. We battle back, we tie it up. We get a five-minute major called against us. We get through that with a big kill. But you are losing a forward that plays a lot of ice time. Now you are taking five minutes using your key guys taking up a lot of minutes. We did not have a whole lot left in the third period.”

The jumphis playershad late in Friday’s game was gone Saturday, Russell said. And he blamed it on the five-minute major.

The Gophers outshot Tech 13-2 in the period and outscored the Huskies 1-0.

Do you want to comment on the penalty? “No,” Russell said.

That’s coaches’ code for “the official made a bad call.”

Russell also said he was not satisfied with a series split. “No way, no way” he said. “You get Friday night’s win, you have two points in your back pocket. The game is 1-1. You are on the road. You have to find a way to win. If you want home ice in the [WCHA] playoffs, there is no way you are satisfiedcoming out of here with a split.

“You win Friday night, you better put the pedal to the metal. You wantto come out of here with four [points]. If you are happy with that — geezwe split — that’s not good enough.”

Huskies goalie Michael-Lee Teslak played a good game again, Russell said, adding: “He is very consistent in his play. He makes that first save. He is good with his rebounds. He is playing very, very well.”

Russell said he also was impressed with theGophers’ two goalies, Alex Kangas on Friday in a 3-2 Tech overtime victory and Jeff Frazee on Saturday.

“I thought both their goaltenders played well,” Russell said. “Ithought Kangas played well [Friday]. I feel bad for the kid. Hegets kind of a knucke ball on abounce for the winner. We put 30-some shots on him [Friday] night and we had some pretty good scoring chances and he made some big saves.

“I thought their goaltending was good all weekend.”

Kangas made a career-high 35 saves, Frazee had 18.

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