International hockey is the flavor of the moment.
While the NHL season goes on pause for the 4 Nations Faceoff, the PWHL is back after a pause for the latest unnecessary Rivalry Series, and two UMD women’s standout defenders have returned from helping their respective countries qualify for the 2026 Olympics.
Doubleheaders this weekend at Amsoil Arena for the last time this season. Lots to preview, sit back and enjoy.
9 THOUGHTS
1. UMD could be on the verge of adding two more Olympians to a growing list. Defenders Nina Jobst-Smith (Germany) and Ida Karlsson (Sweden) were with their national teams last week, with both teams winning their way to Italy 2026 on Sunday morning our time.
Sweden had a bit of an easier time than Germany did. The Swedes blew through Norway, the Netherlands, and Denmark by a 16-0 aggregate while outshooting the three adversaries 190-31.
Germany, meanwhile, had to sweat it out in its group finale against Hungary. Jobst-Smith set up Luisa Welcke’s eventual game-winner early in the third, but the hosts couldn’t build on a 2-1 lead. With the goalie out for Hungary at the end of regulation, the visitors scored, but replay confirmed time expired first, and Germany held on 2-1 to qualify for the Olympics.
“I personally didn’t think it was a goal,” Jobst-Smith said of the game-ending sequence. “I heard the buzzer go as that pass made it to the slot. And even our goalie was saying she let the puck in because the game was over. Like she thought the game was over too. So it was a little scary for me. I think the whole group kind of erupted, but I just stood there waiting on the refs to call it a no goal.”
(I was watching on my phone as we headed home from Nebraska Sunday, and can confirm that the whole group did indeed erupt. It was the oddest of scenes, as Germany celebrated qualifying for the Olympics and a couple Hungarian players celebrated what they hoped was an overtime-forcing goal.)
Both Germany and Sweden will play in Group B at the Games next winter. Rosters won’t be set until December, but both Jobst-Smith and Karlsson are hopeful.
(It sounds like the plan — at least as of now — will be for no country to centralize its players for the Olympics, something the United States and Canada have both done for their women’s teams in the past. That would mean that any active UMD players, and Karlsson will be a junior next season, would be lost to selection camps for a time in December, and then again for the Olympics themselves if they make their nations’ teams.)
2. Both Jobst-Smith and Karlsson talked glowingly about their experiences last week.
“It was a lot of fun,” Jobst-Smith said. “We came into the tournament as the favorites, so just being able to handle that pressure, it was such a fun week. Obviously you don’t want to miss any games here, but just it’s always an honor to represent your country.”
Fans at both venues were really into the games, banging drums, chanting, and cheering their countries on as they qualified.
“It was a bit of a bigger arena, so they only fill one side, but you could definitely hear them cheering us on,” Karlsson said. “The game wasn’t really as close as Germany, so I think we could breathe out and chill a bit more than in Germany.”
UMD alum Jenny Harss was a coach for Germany’s team after they missed out on the Olympics four years ago, Harss’ last go as a player (she had COVID and missed a bunch of qualifying).
“And that was obviously pretty emotional because you want to take a person, a player like that to the Olympics,” Jobst-Smith recalled. “And as a younger player, you’re fighting for those older girls. That was obviously a hard pill to swallow. But I think now it’s super sweet having her on the coaching staff. And we all have kind of pulled through and been able to do that for her a second time now.
“When I had the opportunity to play with her for a few years, she was just a really respectable leader and she sets the standard really high. And I think as a coach, she does the same thing. She’s easy to talk to, but also knows when our team needs to lock it in and kind of brings everything we need from that off ice perspective. So we’re really lucky to have her.”
3. While Jobst-Smith and Karlsson were away, their Bulldog teammates locked in defensively and swept Bemidji State with back-to-back shutout wins. Now they get two key defenders back, and both players are ready to help with the Bulldogs’ playoff push.
It was a continuation of what we saw from UMD against Wisconsin the previous weekend, as the Bulldogs held the high-powered Badgers to just four goals in two games.
“They have done a great job,” coach Laura Schuler said. “One thing about our team is they are students of the game. They’re constantly wanting to learn. They’re constantly wanting to do video. They want to be better than they were the day before. And when you have that kind of commitment, I think good things happen. And I think we saw the fruits of our labor this weekend by not allowing any goals against. And so we definitely have taken a step defensively. And we’ve got to continue that moving forward.”
“I think that’s something we talked about all season too,” senior goalie Tindra Holm said. “That’s part of the Bulldog identity. We know we might not have like the top skill that some other teams might have. So we know that for us to win, we can definitely do it, but it’s going to take a lot of discipline and good defense.”
Staying locked in will be a huge key going forward for the Bulldogs. Minnesota State is in Duluth this weekend, followed by a trip to Minnesota and likely a home playoff series before UMD hosts the WCHA Final Faceoff March 7-8 at Amsoil Arena.
“They are they are a really good fast hockey team,” Schuler said of the Mavericks. “So we have to be ready to bring it and we’re excited. We’re excited with where our game is at right now.”
4. No points for the UMD men in Nebraska last weekend, but head coach Scott Sandelin liked much of what he saw.
Yeah, the penalty kill had a bad weekend, and UMD was too loose defensively at times. But Omaha goalie Simon Latkoczy also saved close to seven goals above expected over the two-game series (UMD scored three goals on 9.7 expected for the series), robbing Bulldogs blind left and right, especially Max Plante, who had 14 shots on goal over the two games and somehow found paydirt as many times as I did.
“Ran into a hot goalie,” Sandelin said. “Needed to bear down a little more on the chances, but created a lot. Penalty kill need had a bad weekend. But a lot of good things, too, right? So score a little bit more. Probably especially offensively, we created a lot of chances, certainly. obviously, Zam (Plante) and those guys did their thing, you know, but Latkoczy was good for them and they capitalized on their power place. That was the difference in the weekend.”
“I thought we created a lot of chances,” freshman forward Jayson Shaugabay said. “I think Zam and Max both had like 15 plus shots (he’s close 😁). They were shooting everything and it just wasn’t going in. We were playing really well. I think our whole line could have had eight points each last weekend.”
5. Coming out of the weekend, Sandelin seemed more irritated at the way Friday played out than he did Saturday. Friday was a 1-1 game after two periods, and Sandelin mentioned in our pregame chat Saturday that they talked before the third about the importance of having a good period and taking advantage of the opportunity at hand.
With three veteran forwards and two veteran defensemen on the ice, UMD instead conceded 13 seconds into the third period, wobbled for a bit after that, and ended up losing 4-1.
“I think there’s been a lot of growth in our team,” Sandelin said, “but that’s one area we got to get over that hump. You have to understand how the game’s going. Friday, we had an opportunity to take a step or just play a little bit better. And I think we would have beat Omaha Friday. But instead, we didn’t do that. We kind of played, nice hockey. Nice hockey doesn’t win.
“You gotta have that killer instinct. You gotta have a feel for how games are going. You have to react accordingly. I felt we just kinda let them hang around.”
6. Sandelin was emphatic on Wednesday that his team needs to play more consistently hard.
“It’s a hard game,” he said. “It’s competing, it’s battling. If you kinda wanna do it, you’re not gonna win. If you wanna do it, that doesn’t guarantee a win, but it gives you a better chance. There’s battles all over the rink. There’s a mindset you have to have when you play every shift. And if you don’t have that, and you kinda pick and choose when you wanna play hard, that usually bodes to winning and losing in the same consequence.”
That said, he also insisted that UMD is progressing, despite what the Bulldogs’ record may indicate.
“I don’t feel like we took a step back last week. I didn’t at all. And I would be honest if I felt like we did, I thought we actually took some steps forward in some areas, but maybe some other areas weren’t as good as they needed to be. If you don’t have urgency this time of the year, you shouldn’t be playing. I mean, this is the best time. Down the stretch. You can sit and feel sorry for yourself because you didn’t win two games last week. Got to get over it. It’s like, that’s a surefire way to lose two more. You got to fight through it. So it goes back to what I was saying. You got to have a feel. You got to fight through stuff. Nothing’s easy. I don’t want to keep repeating myself, but you gotta stick together, you gotta fight through stuff, and if you don’t do it, you’re guaranteed you won’t win. I guarantee you that.”
7. Don’t be surprised if UMD’s forward lines look a little different this weekend. I’m not going to list out what I saw at practice for a multitude of reasons, including the fact that what we saw Wednesday is not at all guaranteed to be what we see on the weekend.
But Sandelin and staff are working diligently on what is best for the team going forward.
Obviously, Plante – Plante – Shaugabay has been dynamic and explosive. But that can’t be the only line that’s a consistent offensive threat. Can the offense be better spread out if those players aren’t all playing on the same line?
It’s the age-old question for coaches. Hell, even Mike Connolly, Jack Connolly, and Justin Fontaine spent time apart in 2010-11. Not much, but it happened!
“We know what certain guys can do, but we need to create more balance, and maybe that’s better for our team,” Sandelin said. “Don’t know until you try. Hopefully it is. I think it can be, as long as guys embrace that, as long as guys are okay with it, not worried about who they’re playing with, just play. We’ll see how it goes. I know the one thing the power play with those guys isn’t changing.”
And the Bulldogs know they can go back to that freshman line at any point.
8. UMD hosts Arizona State this weekend. The Sun Devils are in their first year in the NCHC, and they’re knocking on the door of home ice in the first round of the playoffs, right in the thick of the race for the Penrose Cup title.
Head coach Greg Powers knows there’s plenty of work to go, but he’s very proud of what his group has accomplished so far.
“I’m proud of our guys,” he said. “We knew we had a talented group on paper, it was just how to bring it together.”
ASU lost its first three NCHC games — swept at Colorado College, then the Sun Devils lost their home NCHC debut on a late Omaha goal — but beat the Mavericks the next night and swept Denver the following weekend in Denver.
“You look at the CC series,” Powers said, “our first ever (NCHC) game on the road, we’re up by a goal and they get one with like a minute left in regulation, and we lose in overtime. We double them in shots the next night and kind of get Kaidan Mbereko’d. At that point it was frustrating because we were really unhealthy to start the year, not getting the results, not able to score a lot.
“But our guys stuck with it. They believed in what our plan was and what the process needed to be. Then we went up to Denver and we’re able to put it all together and get the results that we desired. Really haven’t looked back since.”
The Sun Devils swept UMD in Tempe to close out UMD’s first half in early December. Arizona State held on for a 5-3 Friday win before escaping with a 3-2 overtime win for the sweep.
“I thought we should have beat them twice in Arizona,” Sandelin said. “Now we get them here, we get another chance at them. Obviously they’ve added a pretty good player in (Cruz) Lucius who wasn’t there earlier, another good offensive player. Obviously had a really good series against Denver last weekend (the Pioneers and Sun Devils traded overtime wins in Tempe).
“They’re trying to win the league title. We’ve got to play our game for 60 minutes. We can’t have undisciplined penalties. We got to play tight defense. And we got to start scoring on some opportunities and get more balanced scoring.”
Powers was asked about that December series and didn’t exactly disagree with Sandelin.
“They’re just so much better than the record,” Powers said. “We exited that series against Duluth, felt very fortunate to get five (points). I felt they outplayed us, especially the second night. I think they’re really good. They’ve got a lot of really talented young players. I don’t think they’re a team that anyone’s gonna want to meet in the playoffs. They can beat anybody on any given night, for whatever reason it just hasn’t happened as much as they probably feel like it should. Look at their weekend last weekend. It looked on film like they were the better team over the course of the weekend and Omaha’s goalie was tremendous.”
9. NCHC-leading Western Michigan is home to face Omaha this weekend. The Broncos enter the weekend having killed off the last 40 opponent power plays going back to Nov. 22 at UMD, when Zam Plante scored a power play goal for UMD. WMU still hasn’t lost a league game in regulation. Omaha is coming off the sweep of UMD, and the Mavericks’ power play got hot at UMD’s expense last weekend.
Rivalry weekend for North Dakota and Denver, this time in Colorado. The Pioneers swept UND in Grand Forks during the first half, but the Fighting Hawks seem to have put some things together. UND needs more consistency in its game, but wins like Saturday’s over Colorado College make it seem like things are heading in the right direction. Denver allowed ten goals last weekend at Arizona State, blowing two-goal leads in each game. That seems quite uncharacteristic for DU, so we’ll see if they can rebound with a better defensive weekend.
Also, Miami returns from a bye to visit Colorado College. The Tigers have found some wins after a a tough stretch, but still sit in sixth place and are 33rd in the PairWise. To get back to the NCAAs, CC will probably need to run the table in March.
Locally this weekend, a big weekend across the bridge, where the UWS men have a chance to clinch the WIAC regular season title on home ice. The 11th-ranked Yellowjackets are unbeaten in 15 straight (14-0-1) as they host No. 10 UW-Stevens Point. UWS leads UWSP by three points in the league standings, so a win by any means will give Superior its first league regular season title since tying for it with UW-Stout in 2011. Either way, the Yellowjackets will get a bye in the first round of the WIAC playoffs. 7pm games Friday and Saturday at Wessman Arena.
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Doubleheaders both Friday and Saturday from Amsoil Arena. 2:45pm pregame Friday for the women and Minnesota State, then 6:30 for the men against Arizona State. Saturday’s women’s game starts at 1pm to accommodate — you guessed it — TV. 6pm start for the men.
Back between games Friday with the men’s line charts.
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