Off a 2-0 win Friday, we'll see if UMD can secure the sweep while clearly fighting through illness, which is not at all atypical of a hockey team this time of year. (Trust me, it's going around big-time. I've already had COVID since the Arizona trip and am using my ninja skillz to avoid the latest rush of viruses as mu...

Nine weekends. Eight series. 16 games. All in NCHC play. This is the stretch that will teach us so much about this UMD team. No, eighth place on a nine-team table is not what anyone had been hoping to see this season. But the opportunity exists now to change that. UMD can put itself within striking distance of the midp...

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 S...

UMD head coach Scott Sandelin minced few words when talking about Friday's game with Matt Wellens of the Duluth News Tribune. "I liked our first 10-12 minutes," Sandelin told Wellens postgame. "After that, we weren't a very good hockey team. We weren't. They were the better team. Knapper got us a tie.&qu...

Off a strong performance Tuesday night in Bemidji, UMD will try to keep the good vibes going, but the challenge faced from Alaska this weekend is a stiff one. Since starting the season 0-4 with sweeps by Penn State (home) and Michigan Tech (road), Alaska has picked up at least one win or draw each weekend. They split a...

Lots to get to here this week, with the UMD men starting their second half with a win before ringing in the new year on a Highway 2 bus ride, and now both UMD teams are starting multi-weekend homestands below a new video board at Amsoil Arena. But the news to start is not great. 9 THOUGHTS 1. Will Francis' cancer has r...

BEMIDJI, Minn. -- Let's just all hope the snow that wasn't forecasted stops so I don't regret cancelling that hotel room. (Not that I can't get another one.) Anyway, Happy New Year to all. No better way to ring in 2025, in my opinion. Bulldogs and Beavers. Max Plante and Adam Kleber are in Ottawa, and we hope they stay...

Is this on? What day is it? Anyway, hope everyone has enjoyed this holiday season. I'm currently on the tenth of 12 straight days not going into the office, and I've put this off long enough. It's time to do something that's kind of work-related. Thanks for reading. Plenty to get to here. 9 THOUGHTS 1. The first half d...

TEMPE, Ariz. -- What's been a weird first half of the season closes out here in sunny, warm Arizona, as UMD faces Arizona State to wrap up this series and play for the last time before Christmas. A 24-day break begins for the Bulldogs once this game concludes, a break that will take us up to a New Year's Eve trip to Be...

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Tough loss for UMD Friday night, 5-3 at Arizona State. It was a game where the Bulldogs appeared to have control of big chunks of five-on-five play, but couldn't cash in at any point to get a lead. Oh, and with one goalie watching the game injured, UMD lost another goalie to an injury that looked not ve...

TEMPE, Ariz. -- First off, a couple pictures from our guided tour of Mullett Arena earlier Friday. More on my BlueSky account. Thanks to Paige Shacklett of Arizona State for getting that set up for Matt Wellens, my son Hunter, and me. Apologies for the weirdness of the layout here, as I am not a pro at this and it show...

POOLSIDE in TEMPE, Ariz. -- Traveling around the country covering a college hockey team is a fun job, no complaints. But when you hop a bird and land in Phoenix, followed by a short bus ride to Tempe and the campus of Arizona State University, well the job becomes a bit cooler. Been here only a few hours of daylight, a...

Friday was one of those nights. UMD controlled large chunks of the game's five-on-five play, but Western goalie Cameron Rowe was outstanding, and the Bulldogs struggled to finish some glorious scoring chances. Meanwhile, it felt like every UMD turnover or coverage breakdown led to a goal. Defenseman Joey Pierce was eje...

For UMD, this is a significant weekend. The Bulldogs have shown clear and obvious signs of improvement, especially over the last three games. Western Michigan -- both in terms of its overall talent and its frenetic style -- is a different kind of challenge than the Bulldogs have seen to this point. As Scott Sandelin po...

For the second time this season, the UMD men's and women's teams are home on the same weekend for series. (If you're wondering, there are either three or four more such weekends, counting the first weekend of January -- when the women play Thursday-Friday and the men Friday-Saturday -- and depending on if the women are...

OXFORD, Ohio -- UMD coach Scott Sandelin has talked a lot about this team needing to learn how to win. The younger players are learning everything at this level, the older players -- to be blunt -- mostly haven't won here. Yet. It's why I asked about Joe Molenaar's presence on the team. Four years at St. Cloud State, f...

OXFORD, Ohio -- When a strong start didn't lead to any notable offense or goals for UMD Friday, the Bulldogs slowly began to struggle to generate the same kind of offensive push. UMD's bottom six forwards helped turn a nothing period into a two-goal lead late, and the Bulldogs rode that momentum to a 5-0 win over Miami...

OXFORD, Ohio -- A key stretch of games begins here for UMD. After playing legitimate national title contenders in Minnesota and North Dakota over a three-series homestand (and we needn't speak any further of the results), the Bulldogs now play their next 11 games against teams that range from "legitimate NCAA Tour...

OXFORD, Ohio -- If the start to this season feels awfully familiar to you despite this mostly unfamiliar roster, you're not hallucinating. Thanks to illness and injuries, UMD was never able to field its full and preferred lineup. Even if you remove Will Francis (cancer recurrence) and Dominic James (surgery on an upper...

One of the more disappointing aspects of Friday's 7-3 North Dakota win was the way the game played out. UMD started strong, dominating the first 100 seconds-plus of the first period and generating a breakaway chance for Anthony Menghini. The sophomore forward tallied his first career hat trick Friday, but none of those...