Plenty to discuss this week, as the UMD women begin a critical stretch of conference games in their quest to hold on to a top-four spot in the PairWise, while the UMD men look to start the 2025 portion of their NCHC schedule strong against a longtime rival.
Oh, and it’s Ice Breaker weekend, combined with a visit from Sophie’s Squad on Saturday.
Go time.
9 THOUGHTS
1. For UMD hockey as a whole, this has become a very important weekend. Whoever had the smarts to combine Hockey Hits Back with the Ice Breaker was, frankly, a damn genius. That’s what we have this weekend, as the nice people from Sophie’s Squad make their fourth annual stop at Amsoil Arena, hanging out for both ends of a Saturday doubleheader for the third time.
By now, most of you know about how Sophie’s Squad began. What you might not realize is that — two years after Gabbie Hughes’ graduation — this organization is still a big part of UMD. Not only is the organization setting up shop at the hockey games Saturday, but they will also be up at Romano Gym for the UMD basketball doubleheader against — you guessed it — St. Cloud State.
Sophie’s Squad has done amazing work in a short amount of time, and UMD’s players are doing what they can to keep delivering the message, even as Hughes grows her game in the PWHL with the Ottawa Charge (the unofficial parent club of the Bulldogs, now with five alums on the roster).
“The girls before me have been such an inspiration, everything that they’ve done in the community,” graduate co-captain Clara Van Wieren said last week. “Ashton Bell was also amazing with community service. She was always on the ice with young kids. So I think just kind of seeing how they carried themselves and what they did for the community has inspired us older girls to carry ourselves in a similar way.”
Senior Hanna Baskin agreed this week when asked about the importance of UMD’s players carrying on the Sophie’s Squad tradition.
“Gabbie is just such an inspiration with bringing that to us and spearheading that whole organization with Sophie’s squad and then Clara and I and other girls on our team,” Baskin said. She cited Grace Sadura and Mary Kate O’Brien as key people on the team in helping carry that torch, adding “it’s important so that it stays within our team, that we stay involved, and we stay these voices in the community because we have a big impact on what other people think and see.”
It’s also Ice Breaker weekend in Duluth. The Aspirus St. Luke’s Ice Breaker Tournament is one of the biggest girls hockey events in the state, featuring 70 teams and over 1,000 players from 10U to 15U, both A and B levels. All players and coaches get free admission to the UMD games against St. Cloud State, and families can buy discounted tickets. These are among the most enjoyable atmospheres of the season, as the kids have seemingly boundless energy and use it to cheer on the home team, the visitors, or sometimes both. 😁
This is a great opportunity for Sophie’s Squad to get its very important message in front of a great target audience: Young athletes.
“There’s going to be a lot of little athletes out there cheering us on,” said UMD coach Laura Schuler, “and the importance for them that mental health is really important and let’s not hide it, let’s talk about it and so the more the more open we can be about that the better. It’s a really exciting weekend because we’re going to have so many youngsters in here and they’re going to be able to hear those messages.”
In addition, Schuler said UMD players will be volunteering at tournament games on Sunday, many on hand for the various championship games and trophy presentations.
2. In an odd scheduling quirk, UMD and St. Cloud State will face each other for a second straight WCHA series. The teams met in St. Cloud Dec. 6-7, with UMD taking five of six points by virtue of a Friday shootout win followed by a Saturday regulation win.
In the Saturday win, UMD scored all three of its goals in the third period to rally from a 1-0 deficit. The Bulldogs outshot SCSU 14-5 in that final frame, easily their best 20 minutes of the weekend.
Asked this week about how to bottle that period this weekend, Schuler lamented what she termed some over-coaching.
“My fault as a coach, I got our team thinking too much,” she said, somewhat echoing comments she made Dec. 11 as the holiday break was beginning. “It’s really important that we play simple hockey, take what’s being given. Don’t try to force things. I think that was the one thing that we talked about going into that third period. Everything’s about your energy and what you bring to the ice and our team did a fantastic job of that so we need to carry that into this weekend.”
“I think if we channel what we brought in the third period of the second game for an entire 60 minutes, we’re going to be just fine,” O’Brien said. “We need to go out and we need to set the tone right away. St. Cloud always gives us a really hard and intense weekend. They throw everything they have at us and we need to expect that and we need to throw it right back. We can’t sit around and wait. We fell behind in both of those games (in December). So if we go out and we start strong and we make them chase us, I think we’ll have a lot more success.”
For his part, St. Cloud State coach Brian Idalski liked how his team played that weekend, noting that SCSU played from ahead for much of the series.
“We did a good job of playing with the lead for big stretches,” he said, “but that third period (Saturday) I thought we got a little panicky and they definitely had a little more poise in crunch time than we did. Playing with the lead will be big for us again, but we have to be better about closing it out once we get it, and having a little more confidence in that situation.”
3. Both teams have played since that series, but only UMD’s games counted. SCSU played an outdoor exhibition last weekend with St. Thomas, while UMD swept Syracuse last Thursday and Friday at home.
“Everyone strives to have practice as game-like as possible,” Idalski said, “but the reality is nothing simulates a game like playing a game and playing against a different opponent. It was great just to play against somebody else a little bit before we get into what is a super big weekend for both our clubs.”
Schuler was pleased with UMD’s games out of break.
“When I take a look at our team, video and our chances and the opportunities, we had some really good quality looks at net,” Schuler said of the Syracuse games, won 6-1 and 2-1 by UMD. “Our team found a way to still win. That’s what good teams do, and that’s exactly what our players did. Super proud of them to be able to take both games this past weekend.”
Friday’s game was won thanks to a third-period bull rush by freshman forward Caitlin Kraemer. I asked Schuler about this play.
“I saw some really good defensive hockey take place right before that,” she said (typical coach, right? 😂). “Mary Kate O’Brien was the first back into our zone and she was so quick on the puck to be able to create puck possession and she made a fantastic play. I think it was up to Burgs (Danielle Burgen) who then got it up to Kramer and she just put on the jets and was able to walk around their D and take it to net. It was an unbelievable goal and a really good demonstration of Caitlin Kraemer’s excellence in terms of her speed, her strength, and her ability to bury pucks.”
“Our coaches harp on taking care of the defensive side of the puck,” O’Brien said. “So we did that first. The puck kind of popped to me. And I tried to make a good play on the breakout, getting back quick. So I just kind of dished it to Burgs. And we had close support. So it makes it so much easier when you have five foot passes to make, rather than trying to make these long, elaborate plays. I kind of bumped it to Burgs. And then she gave it to Kraemer and I think our line is pretty speedy so I think we use that to our strength really well. Kraemer is so good at just like dropping her shoulder and beating the D wide and that’s what she did. She’s got a nose for the net so she had that opportunity and she finishes.”
4. Schuler and Idalski have been around women’s hockey for a long time. I asked them about the adjustments necessary for an 18-year-old like Kraemer (and every other freshman in women’s hockey, basically) to play the game, and has it become harder for freshmen to make that jump?
It’s valid, of course, because women’s hockey doesn’t have a junior level where players can bake for a year or two after high school if necessary.
“I’m a firm believer you don’t win with first year players,” Idalski said. He said the large cluster of fifth years in the sport has made this a more difficult jump for players coming in out of high school. “I remember years back, if you were playing two lines, you had a good club. And when that third line went on, everyone would hold their breath a little bit, especially against the top teams. Nowadays, you can play four lines. They can at least defend, compete, skate. They’re significantly stronger.”
“I think back to when I played, and wow what a difference,” Schuler said. “So, absolutely (it’s more difficult now). But then you have young players like Caitlyn Kraemer, who’s already so strong and powerful. With some players, I think that gap is a little bit tighter compared to other players. But for the most part, I think when people come into our league, it’s about adjusting to the pace and learning how to train and how to become stronger and all of those things that will help them to adjust. So there’s usually a pretty big adjustment. For some people, that adjustment is a little bit more narrow when you’re gifted from a physical standpoint.”
5. Two UMD freshmen came home from Canada this week with gold medals. And free Chipotle.
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Max Plante and Adam Kleber played in the World Juniors over the holidays, and Teddy Stiga’s overtime winner Sunday gave them a shiny gold medal to bring home, along with a tremendous experience, both on and off the ice.
Especially when Stiga scored the golden goal.
“I think the craziest part about it is me and him were just talking about it two days prior about how he’d never scored an overtime goal,” Plante said. “So he goes out there and he’s kind of streaking up the wall. And I’m sitting on the bench. And as soon as he got the breakaway, I put my leg over, just hoping he’d score. As soon as he scored, I think me and Kleebs (Kleber) were some of the first ones that touched him, but obviously just an unbelievable moment. It’s so hard to just remember exactly what happened because you kind of black out just because you’re so excited.”
“I just saw him get that breakaway and kind of similar to Max, I’m like putting my leg over and kind of hopefully thinking about taking my chin strap off,” Kleber said. “He put it in and everything kind of went silent or whatever in your head and you’re like, oh my gosh, this is it, we’re jumping over the boards, this is what we worked for. And then suddenly you come back to life and you’re just celebrating with your boys.”
Both understood the pressure host Canada was under, but neither was shedding many tears for their rivals going out of the tournament in the quarterfinals.
“They lost in the quarterfinals last year,” said Kleber. “I think they wanted to have a better year this year, and especially in their home country too. So there probably was a lot of pressure on them, but I guess we don’t really think too much of that. We’re just focusing on ourselves, and I’m glad we were able to take the gold.”
St. Cloud State head coach Brett Larson, an assistant for Team USA, expanded on that point. The pressure is just as crazy as it seems from afar.
“You turn on their version of SportsCenter (TSN’s SportsCentre) and the first half hour every night was all about World Juniors. That country lives through that tournament, it’s huge. There’s just so much pressure that they have to deal with up there, it’s really amazing.”
6. Both Plante and Kleber were back at practice by Wednesday, and they are expected to be in the lineup this weekend against St. Cloud State. UMD coach Scott Sandelin, while lauding the job both players did in adapting to their roles in the tournament and doing what they could to help the team, said the Bulldogs’ staff would monitor both players to make sure they were good to go for weekend games.
“We’ll see how they’re feeling moving forward,” Sandelin said. “It’s a lot different when you’re playing in North America. You’re (not) dealing with time changes. Still, there’s a lot of emotions in those games, which are mentally draining. It’s a grind of a tournament. It’s a lot more of the emotion than probably the physical. They’ll be fine. We’ll see how they’re feeling. A lot of it’s checking in with them and if they need some time off or a day off next week or whatever, we’ll give them a day off.”
As Sandelin said, it’s certainly a different animal to have the games in Ottawa versus Europe, as they were last year. The time change isn’t nearly as drastic to adjust from. It also helps to have the tournament wrapped up on Sunday. I remember after the U.S. won gold in 2017, and then-freshman forward Joey Anderson got back from Montreal after basically being up all night, with UMD readying for a game against Colorado College. Anderson was held out of the lineup so he could rest, returning the next night.
7. Sandelin hinted that Max and Zam Plante were set to reunite this week with classmate Jayson Shaugabay. In Max Plante’s absence, Harper Bentz played with Zam Plante and Shaugabay, and that line showed a similar ability to keep plays alive in the offensive third.
Sandelin talked about the work they do with their sticks, then dropped a whopper of a comparison. Sandelin isn’t one to do this type of thing willy-nilly, so everyone who supports UMD hockey should take notice of his words.
“They’re a good small area players,” Sandelin said. “They can make plays in small areas. They hunt pucks. Zam’s stick, Shaug’s stick, they’re really good. They disrupt a lot of plays because they have good stick detail and they pressure pucks and they support each other well. I still think that needs to get tweaked a little bit, but you gotta let them play the way they play, right?
“They have great hockey instincts. They’re going to try things. They’re going to make plays that aren’t going to work, but their intentions with usually what they’re trying to do all the time (are good). It reminds me a lot of Connolly-Connolly-Fontaine when I had those three together. Three of the best small area players. They think differently. When they get pucks, their thought process is already ahead of it. They’re going to try and look for each other, put pucks where they feel guys are going to be. And that group, we haven’t seen a lot of Max with them. So hopefully you will. And what they did the first game, they can keep doing that. I don’t think they won’t. I mean, certainly teams are going to pay attention to them, but they’re competitors and they’ll find a way.”
Yes, these guys are freshmen. But Sandelin didn’t compare them to the Jack Connolly line that helped UMD to a national title in 2011 for no reason. Those were special players.
8. After a good start Friday, UMD faded and needed an outstanding game from freshman goalie Klayton Knapp to salvage a tie against Alaska. Saturday was a different story, as it was Alaska goalie Nicholas Grabko who kept his team in the game long enough for the Nanooks to win in overtime.
“Well, it was a hell of a lot better,” Sandelin said of Saturday versus Friday. “We couldn’t get much worse.
“Our compete level was high. When you compete and you’re willing to compete and work harder than we did on Friday, you’re going to have more success. And I thought we defended better. We closed people out. Wasn’t perfect, but it was way better. We possessed the puck because we defended harder. We just didn’t score. We have to bear down on chances. their goalie was good, but I had zero issue with how we played on Saturday. I was very disappointed with how we played the last 45 or 50 minutes on Friday.”
I asked Sandelin if he felt the Bulldogs generated enough quality scoring chances and just got, well, goalie’d.
“We still gotta get better second chances around there,” Sandelin said of the net front. “I think we’ve got to get to the net a little bit more. But teams defend differently all the time. Everybody collapses and everybody plays tight areas, so you’ve got to be willing to go into those areas.
“We’re going to keep working on some things that hopefully keep getting it better. But we did enough to win a game and if we could play defensively closer to that moving forward, I like our chances of being in games and giving ourselves a chance to win.”
9. The NCHC returns with a busy weekend out of break. Just don’t tell Western Michigan, as the Broncos are on bye.
North Dakota plays two at Arizona State. Sounds like Cameron Berg is back for North Dakota, while Wisconsin transfer Cruz Lucius will make his ASU debut after missing the first half of the season.
Miami visits Denver, where Zeev Buium and David Carle return with gold medals. DU split with Maine last weekend in its return to play, while Miami has been off since Dec. 7, which feels like about six months ago even though it’s only one.
Colorado College tries to bounce back this weekend at Omaha. The Tigers were swept at home last weekend by Augustana, as the Vikings continue a nice second Division I season (they did this without coach Garrett Raboin, who was also on the U.S. WJC staff). CC is just 2-7-1 in its last ten games, and from a distance it appears the offense has dried up a bit. The Tigers have scored zero, one, or two goals in eight of their last ten games, and even with Kaidan Mbereko in goal, it’s going to be hard to win a lot of games that way.
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We’ve got all four UMD hockey games for you on the radio this weekend.
Women’s game Friday at 3pm, 2:45pm pregame. Men will follow at 7pm, 6:30pm pregame. One hour earlier for both on Saturday.
Follow me on BlueSky for the women’s line combinations pregame. I’ll post a quick blog between games with the men’s lines.
Enjoy!
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