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#3 Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs 2 @ #19 Michigan Tech Huskies 1

F Cole Koepke, UMD: 0-0-0, E, 0 PIM, 5 SOG
Season Totals: 3 GP, 0-1-1, E, 0 PIM

The top-ranked Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs dropped to #3 after a tie and a loss last weekend to the Golden Gophers but took care of business Friday night on the road against the Huskies at Michigan Tech. Bolt prospect Cole Koepke launched a game-high five shots at Tech netminder Devin Kero (undrafted) but came up empty on the scoresheet. Bulldog goalie Hunter Shepard stopped 31 of 32 Tech shots, who were pressing for the equalizer in the 3rd. These two teams will tangle again Saturday night to complete the weekend series.

#10 Denver Pioneers 4 @ Air Force Falcons 1

F Cole Guttman, DEN: 1-0-1, +2, 2 PIM, 2 SOG, 5/11 FO
Season Totals: 1 GP, 1-0-1, +2, 2 PIM

Lightning prospect Cole Guttman notched his first collegiate goal on a feed by Norwegian Emilio Pettersen (CGY, 2018 6th round pick) at 4:24 of the 3rd for the Pioneers final score of the game. Petterson had a goal and two assists to lead Denver over the Falcons in their 2018-19 season opener. The Pioneer victory was the first for new Denver head coach David Carle, the youngest in the NCAA ranks and former Lightning draft pick in 2008. Pioneer goaltender Devin Cooley (undrafted) allowed just one goal on 22 shots. Denver returns home Saturday to face off against the Chargers of the University of Alabama-Huntsville.

RIT Tigers 1 @ UMass-Lowell River Hawks 2

F Ryan Lohin, UML: 0-1-1, -1, 0 PIM, 3 SOG, 10/16 FO
Season Totals: 0 GP, 0-0-0, E, 0 PIM

The River Hawks scored two 3rd period power-play goals to overcome a late 2nd period 1-0 deficit and win their 2018-19 season opener against the Rochester Institute of Technology. Lightning prospect Ryan Lohin tallied a helper on the first power play marker that tied the game and was 63% on draws. UMass-Lowell goalie Tyler Wall (NYR, 2016 6th round pick) stopped 24 of 25 shots, keeping the River Hawks in the game until the power play stole the two points. These two teams are set to rematch Saturday night for the UMass-Lowell Homecoming celebration.

#5 St. Cloud State Huskies 3 @ Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks 2

D Nick Perbix, STC: 0-0-0, +1, 2 PIM, 0 SOG
Season Totals: 1 GP, 0-0-0, +1, 2 PIM

Patrick Newell (undrafted) scored twice and added an assist and Sam Hentges (MIN, 2018 7th round pick) tallied a pair of helpers as Nick Perbix and the 5th-ranked St. Cloud Huskies kicked off their 2018-19 campaign with a 3-2 victory over the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. After falling behind 1-0 to the Nanooks in the 1st, St. Cloud scored the next three to put the game out of reach. The teams complete their weekend two-game series Saturday night.

New Hampshire Wildcats 1 @ Colgate Raiders 2

G Ty Taylor, UNH: did not play

UNH goalie Mike Robinson (SJS, 2015 3rd round pick) made 28 saves on 30 shots, but it wasn’t enough to hold off a 3rd period two-goal Raider rally to hand the Wildcats a loss in their 2018-19 season opener. These teams resume the weekend series Saturday night.

*USCHO poll used for rankings

Quebec Major Junior Hockey League

Baie-Comeau Drakkar 6 @ Quebec Remparts 2

C/W Gabriel Fortier, BC: 0-1-1, E, 0 PIM, 0 SOG, 5/11 FO, 1 Hit
Season Totals: 10 GP, 4-9-13, +10, 7 PIM
17-18 Totals: 66 GP, 26-33-59, -11, 59 PIM

Fortier was held scoreless and shotless for the second time in two nights, but unlike Thursday’s 7-1 loss to the Volts, the Drakkar got the win Friday.

Ontario Hockey League

Kitchener Rangers 1 @ Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds 4

C Alexey Lipanov, KIT: 0-0-0, -1, 0 PIM
Season Totals: 1 GP, 0-0-0, -1, 0 PIM
17-18 Totals (BAR, SBY): 55 GP, 14-25-39, -14, 10 PIM

Lipanov made his season and Kitchener debuts Friday night after receiving his release to play earlier in the week. Arizona first-rounder Barret Hayton, who was re-assigned to the Soo earlier this week, had a goal and an assist for the Greyhounds. Lipanov wore No. 10 for the Rangers.

Lightning see the script flipped on them from opening night.

VAN-4
TB-1

Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed 2 goals on 26 shots for the loss. I've got no complaints about Vasiy's sharpness through two games.

First Period
16:36 TB Point (1), (Gourde, Coburn)

Second Period
NO SCORING

Third Period
11:07 VAN Pettersson (4), (Pouliot, Stecher)
12:17 VAN Boeser (1), (unassisted)
18:48 VAN Virtanen (2), (unassisted)(EN)
19:52 VAN Granlund (1), (Virtanen)(EN)

Mathieu Joseph was the game's third star.

The Lightning had a much better effort overall in this one relative to opening night as far as their possession game goes, but they paid the price for letting a team hang around. The urgency they showed at even strength early in the game subsided to some very complacent efforts on the power play and their failure to put the game away when they had chances to with the man advantage bit them. Vancouver gets a puck luck goal off a guy's leg and another goal off a Killorn turnover and a game that should've been a win evaporates into an ugly loss. It's a frustrating reversal of what happened against the Panthers.

Someone put an APB out for Stamkos and Kucherov. Stick their mugs on a milk carton. There's no excuse for players that talented to have done so little in the first two games of the season. Indeed, tonight I thought the bottom two lines were generally much better than the top two lines, and that's not a sustainable formula. Complacency is poison, and going through the motions, especially on the power play, is intolerable.

Joseph was -2 with 2 penalty minutes, 5 shots, and 1 hit in 13:53. He was all over the rink tonight and it feels like once he gets one point, the dam is going to break and he's going to get a handful pretty quickly thereafter.

Anthony Cirelli was -2 with 2 penalty minutes, 4 shots, and 1 hit in 14:01. He was also 50% on 14 draws. His line with Joseph was the best Lightning line tonight and unfortunately, it wasn't reflected in the ending stat line.

Adam Erne was -1 with 1 shot, 2 hits, and 1 blocked shot in 9:16. The fourth line was skating and hitting pretty well. Just couldn't get enough pucks into the blender in front of Nilsson to generate more scoring chances.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.

Rochester shows urgency in doubling up Syracuse.

SYR-3
ROC-6

Eddie Pasquale allowed 6 goals on 33 shots for the loss.

First Period
13:02 ROC O'Regan (1), (Nylander, Redmond)(PP)
19:59 SYR Barre-Boulet (2), (Cernak, Dumont)(PP)

Second Period
7:05 ROC Smith (2), (Criscuolo)(SH)
9:42 ROC Criscuolo (1), (Smith)
12:06 ROC Redmond (1), (Pilut, Olofsson)(PP)
12:52 SYR Tammela (1), (Brassart)

Third Period
2:55 ROC Pilut (2), (Olofsson, Redmond)(PP)
7:18 ROC Olofsson (1), (O'Regan, Dougherty)
19:44 SYR Yan (1), (Volkov, Masin)

It's probably not crazy to suggest that Rochester needed this game more given they were trying to avoid an 0-3 start to their campaign. Syracuse gave themselves a chance by getting it within a two goal deficit at the Second Intermission, but another power play goal by Rochester put the game into garbage time pretty quickly.

So far so good with Alex Barre-Boulet, at least.

Box score from TheAHL.com.

#1 Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs 4 @ #13 Minnesota Gophers 7

F Cole Koepke, UMD: 0-1-1, E, 0 PIM, 2 SOG
Season Totals: 2 GP, 0-1-1, E, 0 PIM

D Ryan Zuhlsdorf, MINN: 0-1-1, +1, 0 PIM, 1 SOG
Season Totals: 2 GP, 0-1-1, +1, 0 PIM
’17-‘18 Totals: 38 GP, 0-9-9, +1, 40 PIM

F Sammy Walker, MINN: 1-0-1, +1, 0 PIM, 2 SOG
Season Totals: 2 GP, 1-0-1, +1, 0 PIM

A night after drawing to a 1-1 tie, offensive fireworks erupted as these two in-state rivals combined for 11 goals Sunday night with the Golden Gophers knocking off top-ranked Minnesota-Duluth by a score of 7-4. Sammy Walker notched his first collegiate goal late in the 2nd period to give Minnesota a 4-2 lead. Ryan Zuhlsdorf scored his first point of the season, helping set up the second of Brannon McManus’ (undrafted) two goals as part of a Minnesota three goal 1st period. Meanwhile, Cole Koepke tallied his first collegiate point for the Bulldogs when he set up the first of two 3rd period Jackson Cates goals that cut the Gopher lead to 6-3.

Down 3-0 at the first intermission, UMD’s Noah Cates (PHI, 2017 5th round pick) and Mikey Anderson (LAK, 2017 4th round pick) each scored for the Bulldogs to shave the margin to 3-2 before Walker and Rem Pitlick (NAS, 2016 3rd round pick) restored the Gopher three-goal lead prior to the end of the 2nd period. In the 3rd frame, the two teams each traded a pair of markers, including Minnesota’s Sampo Ranta (COL, 2018 3rd round pick) notching his second goal in as many nights.

Zuhlsdorf and Walker and the rest of the Golden Gophers will play an exhibition next Saturday against the USA U18 team, while Koepke and his Bulldogs will take on a two-game weekend series against Michigan Tech.

Acadia Axemen 3 @ UMass-Lowell River Hawks 4 (Exhibition)

F Ryan Lohin, UML: 1-1-2, -2, 0 PIM, 4 SOG, 6/14 FO
Season Totals: 0 GP, 0-0-0, E, 0 PIM

Lightning prospect and UMass-Lowell junior co-captain Ryan Lohin tipped in the game-winning power play goal with about four minutes remaining in regulation as the River Hawks came from behind to defeat Acadia in exhibition play Sunday afternoon. Lohin also assisted on a Colin O’Neill (undrafted) power play marker that opened the scoring in the 1st period.

Former Bolt prospect Cristiano DiGiacinto set up former Oilers prospect Jackson Houck for a power play goal to knot the score at 1-1. The Axemen also got goals from Jack Flaman (undrafted) and Owen MacDonald (undrafted), while Lowell got tallies from Chris Schutz (undrafted) and Charlie Levesque (undrafted).

Lohin and the River Hawks open their 2018-19 NCAA campaign next weekend with a pair of games against the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Mt. Royal Cougars 2 @ #6 St. Cloud State Huskies 6 (Exhibition)

D Nick Perbix, STC: 0-1-1, +2, 0 PIM, 1 SOG
Season Totals: 0 GP, 0-0-0, E, 0 PIM

Nick Perbix made his collegiate debut Sunday night for the St. Cloud State Huskies, assisting on a game opening power play marker in the 1st, as St. Cloud defeated the Mt. Royal Cougars in exhibition play. The Huskies were led by two goals from Nick Poehling (undrafted) and a pair of assists from brother Ryan Poehling (MTL, 2017 1st round pick). St. Cloud kicks off their 2018-19 NCAA season next weekend against the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.

*USCHO poll used for rankings

#13 Minnesota Gophers 1 @ #1 Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs 1

F Cole Koepke, UMD: 0-0-0, E, 0 PIM, 2 SOG, 0/2 FO
Season Totals: 1 GP, 0-0-0, E, 0 PIM

D Ryan Zuhlsdorf, MINN: 0-0-0, E, 0 PIM, 0 SOG, 0/1 FO
Season Totals: 1 GP, 0-0-0, E, 0 PIM
’17-‘18 Totals: 38 GP, 0-9-9, +1, 40 PIM

F Sammy Walker, MINN: 0-0-0, E, 0 PIM, 2 SOG
Season Totals: 1 GP, 0-0-0, E, 0 PIM

The top-ranked Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs opened the 2018-19 campaign against in-state rival Minnesota Golden Gophers Saturday night in the first half of a home-and-home series that featured three Lightning prospects, two of which made their NCAA debuts as freshmen. The two teams battled to a 1-1 tie per new NCAA rules for non-conference contests that remain unsettled after a 5-minute 5-on-5 overtime session.

Freshman Gophers forward Sampo Ranta (COL, 2018 3rd round pick) notched his first collegiate goal in the 1st period with assists from senior Thomas Novak (NAS, 2015 3rd round pick) and Walker's former teammate at Edina High School defenseman Clayton Phillips (PIT, 2017 3rd round pick). Ranta was teammates with both Walker and Koepke at Sioux City last year, where Koepke edged the Finnish winger as the Musketeers scoring leader.

After a scoreless 2nd period, Peter Kreiger (undrafted) knotted the game on a power-play marker early in the 3rd. Bulldog forwards Koby Roth (undrafted) and Riley Tufte (DAL, 2016 1st round pick) helped set up the game-tying goal. These two teams will square off in St. Paul Sunday afternoon to complete the season series.

Alberta Golden Bears 4 @ #9 Denver Pioneers 6 (Exhibition)

F Cole Guttman, DEN: 0-3-3, +2, 2 PIM, 4 SOG, 6/12 FO
Season Totals: 0 GP, 0-0-0, E, 0 PIM

Lightning prospect Cole Guttman notched three assists and was 50% on draws in exhibition play Saturday night making his freshman NCAA debut for the ninth-ranked University of Denver Pioneers against the visiting Golden Bears from the University of Alberta. Guttman assisted on the first two goals of the game, one a power play marker by Norwegian Emilio Pettersen (CGY, 2018 6th round pick), before setting up the 3-3 equalizer just prior to the end of the 2nd period. Pettersen scored twice for the Pioneers with Denver also getting tallies from Jarid Lukosevicius (undrafted), Michael Davies (undrafted), Jaakko Heikkinen (undrafted), and Ryan Barrow (undrafted). After falling behind 2-0 in the 1st period, Alberta responded with three straight to take a brief 3-2 lead in the 2nd behind a pair of goals from Steven Owre (undrafted). The Golden Bears also got scores from Riley Keiser (undrafted) and Luke Philp (undrafted). Denver opens its 2018-19 NCAA campaign next weekend against the Air Force Academy and the University of Alabama-Huntsville.

*USCHO poll used for rankings

Quebec Major Junior Hockey League

Halifax Mooseheads 2 @ Baie-Comeau Drakkar 3

C/W Gabriel Fortier, BC: 0-1-1, +1, 0 PIM, 3 SOG, 10/20 FO, 3 Hits, *Third Star*
Season Totals: 8 GP, 4-8-12, +11, 7 PIM
17-18 Totals: 66 GP, 26-33-59, -11, 59 PIM

Fortier had an assist on a Yaroslav Alexeyev (undrafted) goal in the final two minutes of regulation to help the Drakkar to a 3-2 win over the visiting Mooseheads. Fortier, B-C’s captain, was given the game’s third star for the effort. Chicago pick Alexis Gravel was first star for Halifax, stopping 37 of 40 shots.

Ontario Hockey League

Kitchener Rangers 4 @ Sarnia Sting 3

C Alexey Lipanov, KIT: Did not play
17-18 Totals (BAR, SBY): 55 GP, 14-25-39, -14, 10 PIM

Lipanov is waiting on paperwork to be completed to make him eligible for OHL play this year. On Saturday, his teammates beat Steven Stamkos’s former team, 4-3. Rickard Hugg (undrafted) had a hat trick for Kitchener.

Opening night Vasilarceny as the Lightning continue to torment PantherNation.

FLA-1
TB-2 (SO)

Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed just 1 goal on 43 shots and 2 of 2 shooters in the penalty shot session for the SO victory. The Lightning could've easily been down 3 or 4 goals coming out of a particularly terrible looking opening frame were it not for how sharp Andrei was from the word "go".

First Period
5:58 FLA MacDonald (1), (Trocheck, Huburdeau)

Second Period
NO SCORING

Third Period
10:45 TB Cirelli (1), (McDonagh)(SH)

Overtime
NO SCORING

Shootout
FLA- NONE
TB- Miller, Kucherov

Vasilevskiy and Anthony Cirelli were the game's first and second stars.

That was ugly as sin, but I'll take it. The Lightning looked rusty, out of sync, and just plain bad for the first 20 minutes of tonight's contest and were frankly lucky not to get blown out of their own barn. Vasilevskiy held them in it and they got progressively better over the course of the contest, but there were still far too many mental errors and old Lightning bugaboos for my taste. Turnovers. Players passing out of shooting opportunities in prime real estate around the slot and circles. Penalties in bad situations. It wasn't good. Chalk it up to the weirdness of opening night, but unless you're wearing #88, you shouldn't be happy with how you played tonight. They'll be no shortage of film for Jon Cooper to point to to teach them up after tonight's near debacle that thankfully wasn't.

If there was one silver lining, I think it was the team's response coming out of the First Intermission. I'm a little squeamish about the lack of changes to this roster and the potential for staleness that plagued this team two seasons ago when they missed the playoffs. I didn't get that complacency vibe from the team tonight. They knew they stepped in it in the First Period and they showed some resolve to try to correct their habits immediately. That's good to see from a team that now has to get back to the regular season grind of systematically trying to get 12 points every 10 game segment of the season. It's a grind that requires leadership and mental toughness, and they showed some of that tonight even though they didn't have their A (or even their C) game for a good portion of the night.

Mathieu Joseph was -1 with 2 shots and 3 hits in 13:50. Looked a hot runny mess in the First Period, like most of his teammates, and then got a lot better from there on out. Thought for sure he was going to score on one shift in the Second Period.

Anthony Cirelli had the big SH goal and 2 shots and 1 hit in 15:15 and was 57% on 14 draws. Played a good game and got rewarded for it with some puck luck on his goal.

Adam Erne had 2 hits and 1 blocked shot in 8:32. Mixed it up physically at times, but didn't have a ton of ice time to be more impactful with.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.

Crunch come out of opening night number one with a Boulet.

SYR-3
HER-2

Eddie Pasquale allowed 2 goals on 32 shots for the victory.

First Period
3:45 HER O'Brien (1), (Williams, Barber)
7:49 SYR Verhaeghe (1), (Barre-Boulet, Volkov)(PP)
19:03 HER Sgarbossa (1), (Barber, Williams)

Second Period
14:02 SYR Raddysh (1), (Andreoff, Colton)

Third Period
5:26 SYR Barre-Boulet (1), (Foote, Dumont)(PP)

Alex Barre-Boulet was the game's first star. He and Taylor Raddysh celebrated their first pro goals tonight while fellow rookie Ross Colton notched his first pro point.

Quality outcome against a really quality opponent to open the campaign.

Box score from TheAHL.com.

On Friday, the Syracuse Crunch announced their 24 player roster for their Saturday night season-opening tilt against the Bears in Hershey. The roster includes goaltenders Eddie Pasquale and Connor Ingram, along with defensemen Hubert Labrie, Matthew Spencer, Cameron Gaunce, Cal Foote, Dominik Masin, Erik Cernak, and Oleg Sosunov. The forward corps includes Dennis Yan, Alex Barre-Boulet, Boris Katchouk, Andy Andreoff, Otto Somppi, Jonne Tammela, Taylor Raddysh, Brady Brassart, Troy Bourke, Carter Verhaeghe, Colton Ross, Gabriel Dumont, Mitchell Stephens, Alexander Volkov, and Olivier Archambault.

Not listed on the opening roster are defensemen Daniel Walcott and Ben Thomas, and forwards Michael Bournival, Alexey Lipanov, and Kevin Lynch. Lipanov was returned to juniors to the Kitchener Rangers, who recently acquired his OHL rights from Sudbury.