Welcome to 2023-24. Excited to get started, but before we do, a very important programming note.
Saturday’s men’s hockey game against Michigan Tech has been moved to KAT 98.9 because of Twins playoff baseball on KDAL. Long story, but basically our contract with the Twins stipulates their games can’t be shifted to a different station, so we have to move UMD to accommodate. You can stream the game here, or download KAT 98.9’s free mobile app.
UMD’s men’s and women’s teams both start up this weekend, jumping straight into the regular season. The women play two weekends after some teams started their seasons, while the men are playing the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game Saturday, which is the first day men’s hockey teams can have games.
We’ll cover both here.
8 THOUGHTS
1. The men had what Scott Sandelin called a “tough” September. The Bulldogs have been missing guys left and right, largely due to minor injuries, but of course UMD is also missing junior defenseman Will Francis, who announced a recurrence of cancer in August. The news on Francis has been positive to this point, and he is aiming for a return in time for the second half of the season in January.
Sandelin said junior forward Carter Loney was hurt in practice on Tuesday and was expected to miss Wednesday’s on-ice session. He also indicated that senior forward Blake Biondi had missed some time, but he was back on the ice Wednesday. Matt Wellens noted that junior Kyler Kleven, who missed all of last season after shoulder surgery, has missed time this preseason with an unrelated injury.
“It’s been weird,” said Sandelin at his preseason media availability, held prior to Wedneday’s practice. “We haven’t had 15 forwards since we started. None of them are out all year, which is good.”
It could lead to some mixing and matching on Saturday against Michigan Tech. That isn’t really out of the ordinary for the early season, as it’s not uncommon to see things that work in practice not work as well in actual games.
Does it add some degree of difficulty for a team that really wants to hit the ground running against a meaty non-conference schedule? Sure, but Sandelin’s never been one to turn down a challenge.
2. Both Sandelin and UMD captain Luke Loheit expressed a desire for a tougher preseason camp. Both believe the mission was accomplished, despite the day-to-day lineup uncertainties.
“The first few weeks have been intense,” Loheit said. “We’ve been pushing each other. We’ve been expecting a lot of each other each day. And that’s what the way it should be, right? It’s the way it should be every day. so obviously it’s been harder, it’s been a bigger test for us and I think a lot of guys have done well through it. There’s some guys that probably need to work a little more on certain things, but it’s good to realize that, it’s good to go through those tests.”
“There’s a lot of things you need to cover,” said Sandelin earlier in the preseason. “At the same time, I’ve liked their work ethic. Now it’s just trying to play the game with more composure, maybe a little less chaos.”
Loheit: “Sandy’s done a great job, the coaches have done a great job, and I’m feeling really confident going into this weekend.”
In talking separately to the coach and captain in the runup to 2023-24, I’ve been impressed with how in synch they seem to be when it comes to big-picture topics in the program, both in talking about last season and looking ahead to this, Loheit’s final season as a Bulldog.
3. Expect to see more of a “Scott Sandelin team” this season. The Bulldogs of 2022-23 didn’t always look like Bulldog teams of previous seasons. We’ve covered some of the topics already, including the fact UMD allowed its most shots on goal per game in almost 20 years, it was guilty of way too many slow starts and mid-game lulls, and the Bulldogs struggled to close out games the way they had before.
Those are just a few traits of what we think a “Scott Sandelin team” looks like. So I went straight to the man to see what he thinks those three words mean.
“That means we’re very competitive, hard to play against,” he said. “We make things hard on teams, which is the focus of this whole September, trying to get that mindset. I think our mindset last year wasn’t quite that consistently enough for me. I think we need to play with more puck pressure, more aggressiveness. Certainly, we’ve got to be better defensively, we’ve got to score more goals. But I think if we get those foundations of how we play and how we need to play, we can get that back to a more consistent level.”
Loheit has repeatedly preached the importance of the Bulldogs being hard to play against, something he thinks begins in practice. Matt Wellens asked Loheit about learning from past UMD captains, particularly Nick Wolff.
“The way you practice,” he said. “I remember going up against him in practice and did not matter what Wolfie did before the rink, after the rink, you know he’s going to come to practice, going balls to the wall.
“He was hard to play against in practice and that helped us in games. He played that same way in games. All those guys came to practice and competed every single day. So that’s, that’s a big thing I try to implement.”
Sandelin was blunt when it came to what is clearly a major component of this season. As deposed Chicago Bears coach Matt Nagy always printed on his play-calling sheet: BE YOU.
“We have to embrace what we are, said Sandelin. “And that’s a team that needs to work hard. We need to be better in some areas. Obviously, you guys have dissected that, through your off -season stuff (he reads our stuff! ). And quite frankly, you’re right in a lot of those areas, but we just have to be a team that plays for each other. It’s not about individuals, and it’s not about who you’re playing with. You have to bring your value and what you bring to the team every night. You can’t worry whether you’re up in a lineup or down in a lineup or not on a power play or whatever. If we get to that, we’re in trouble.”
4. There’s a lot of reason for optimism about UMD’s depth this season. If you’re reading this, well first off thank you, but also you’re probably a hardcore UMD fan. And if you are, you know full well that depth has been a hallmark of successful Bulldog teams. Fourth liner Max Tardy scored a goal in the 2011 national championship game. Fourth-line center Jared Thomas scored in both games of the 2018 Frozen Four. Third line center Jackson Cates scored the final goal of the 2019 title game, two nights after fourth-line wing Billy Exell scored the eventual game-winning goal in the semifinal.
This team has a chance to sport very good depth, and it starts in the middle of the ice. Dominic James and Carter Loney are likely to center UMD’s top two lines when healthy, but sophomores Cole Spicer and Jack Smith have both had strong preseasons after injury-riddled freshman campaigns.
“It seemed like when one got hurt, the other one played and then he was going and he got hurt,” said Sandelin of that freshman duo last year. “If they can stay healthy and get a full year, I’m looking to see what those guys can do.”
Freshman Matthew Perkins has already played right wing, left wing, and center in preseason, so the 2023 Clark Cup champion in Youngstown brings some real versatility to the UMD lineup.
The return of Biondi should bolster the top six, along with the addition of Penn State transfer Connor McMenamin. He’s the type of player who can move up and down the lineup, kill penalties, and even play on the power play. Sandelin called him a “Swiss Army knife” kind of player, and UMD’s seen plenty of them over the years.
5. On defense, North Dakota transfer Luke Bast has played on both the left and right side in preseason, and I’m excited to see who emerges on the left side to play the many, many, many minutes lost in the departures of Wyatt Kaiser and Derek Daschke.
Could Aaron Pionk be that kind of guy? You don’t have to read between the lines to realize Sandelin thinks so.
“I’m really excited about him, especially only playing a position for a short period of time,” said the head coach. “He’s got really good offensive instincts because he’s been a forward, but I think you saw it with his numbers in Waterloo. He’s got offensive ability. He’s gonna be good. There’s gonna be some stretches when you start playing that he’ll learn from but he’s got a good brain and he’ll figure out stuff quickly. I think he’s emerging here as one of our our top guys early. I don’t want to put all that pressure on him right now but it’s exciting to see where he’s gonna go. He’s 6 -1, he can skate, he’s got really good instincts.”
I’ve been doing this a long time, and there aren’t many players who have played zero college games and have earned this kind of praise from Sandelin. Oddly enough, his older brother (Neal, for those who don’t know) might very well be one of them.
6. Michigan Tech is the first of a long list of formidable adversaries UMD will face in its non-conference games this season. As usual, there are no cupcakes listed.
It starts with Tech at the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game Saturday night. Northern Michigan was picked right behind the Huskies in the CCHA preseason polls. Michigan Tech has made back-to-back NCAA Tournaments (we won’t talk about what happened when they got there), and seventh-year coach Joe Shawan returns a slew of talented forwards, along with a Hobey Baker finalist in goal.
Blake Pietila has 44 wins and 17 shutouts over his last two seasons, including 23 wins and ten doughnuts a year ago. He is over .920 for his college career. Basically, he’s only at Michigan Tech because he isn’t the prototypical 2023 goalie who is 6-4 and lanky.
“It’s his mental toughness, his ability to stay in the moment,” Shawan said when asked what makes Pietila so good. “His ability to have awareness of the environment, things like that, that make him the great player that he is. You see all these goaltenders nowadays that are 6 ‘4″, 6 ‘5″, 6 ‘3″, 6 ‘6″, massive size. Blake Pietila is six feet tall, he’s under 200 pounds, but he’s so in control that it just feels like, in terms of his fundamentals, it feels like there’s no wasted movement with this guy.”
Does this story sound familiar?
OUR SHEPARD. OUR MVP.
pic.twitter.com/30guxlcBVZ
— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) June 22, 2023
Just saying.
7. The UMD women kick things off this weekend as well, hosting Long Island Friday and Saturday. Even if you’re a fan of the Bulldogs, you might want to grab a program this weekend. Or text someone you know in the press box and ask them to sneak you out a line chart.
Maura Crowell not only starts her ninth season at UMD with two new assistant coaches (Emma Sobieck was hired as the third assistant coach after the NCAA officially began allowing them on July 1, and Justin Grant was brought on board after associate coach Laura Bellamy left to become the head coach at Harvard), but the roster has nine newcomers as well.
Six freshmen join three transfers in filling the void left by one of the best classes UMD has ever boasted. Obviously, no one is being asked to do what players like Gabbie Hughes, Ashton Bell, Maggie Flaherty, Naomi Rogge, and Emma Soderberg (among others) did. But those departures, if nothing else, make this a vastly different team in 2023-24.
Crowell has embraced the new-ness so far, talking about the fun she’s had getting back to basics, both with the new players and new coaches. She’s called her newcomers “sponges,” and she seems to really be enjoying what feels like even the most basic teaching.
“We talk about ‘Play Bulldog hockey,’ but what does that mean?,” she said this week. “It feels different. I think change is good and healthy for all of us. With so many new players, and the new coaches, I think it makes you a better coach, to just get back to the basics.”
Fifth year senior Mannon McMahon is back and will captain the team while starting out as the top line center.
“We’re very fortunate,” Crowell said of her leadership group, which includes seniors Clara Van Wieren and Nina Jobst-Smith. “Mannon has been groomed for this position for years, and she’s more than ready. She’s very welcoming, she’s caring, she’s intense. She loves our culture, she loves being a Bulldog. She’s an approachable leader, which is important.”
Soderberg’s departure means UMD will have a new No. 1 goaltender for the first time in a while. Freshman Eve Gascon is here from Quebec after what feels like forever, and she appears ready for her chance.
“She’s a world-class goaltender,” said Crowell. “She has a leg up on other freshman goaltenders I’ve seen in the past. She’s doing great.”
Sophomore Hailey MacLeod factors in there, too, after appearing in eight games last season.
With the Sharks in town this weekend and no exhibition game to warm up, Crowell is only worried about her group this weekend.
“I want us to focus on our habits,” she said. “Our style of play. Systems are going to be all over the place for a few games. You’re trying to learn on the fly instead of the controlled environment in practice. I want to see our habits, our style, our energy, our toughness.”
8. As part of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game Saturday, former UMD and Michigan Tech coach Mike Sertich will be presented with the Spirit of Life Award.
Sertich, who most recently was bestowed the honor of “Legend of College Hockey” in 2021 by the Hobey Baker Memorial Award Foundation, spent 18 years at UMD as the men’s hockey head coach from 1982-2000. The 1983-84 Spencer Penrose Award winner as the national coach of the year, Sertich led the Bulldogs to 350 wins, three WCHA regular season championships (1984, 1985, 1993), two WCHA postseason titles (1983, 1984), four NCAA tournament appearances (1983, 1984, 1985, 1993) and back-to-back NCAA Frozen Fours (1983, 1984), including the NCAA title game in 1984 that UMD lost in four overtimes to Bowling Green.
A 2005 inductee into UMD’s Hall of Fame, Sertich coached 11 All-Americans at UMD and 21 future NHL players. Most notably, he had six Hobey Baker Memorial Award finalists and three winners — Tom Kurvers in 1984, Bill Watson in 1985 and Chris Marinucci in 1994. Sertich was also a four-time winner of the WCHA Coach of the Year Award (1983, 1984,1985,1993).
In the fall of 2022, Sertich was diagnosed with cancer that as of a little over a month ago, appeared undetectable, according to a CaringBridge site run by his daughter Lori Sertich.
Due to the special nature of the award, the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Museum begins with a recommendation process followed by a careful review to identify a candidate whose serious life conditions or circumstances related to the game of hockey and connection to the hockey community warrant attention. Two primary categories represent the review process, including Category 1 – Life Threatening Health Conditions and Category 2 – Physical Injury With Permanent Disability.
Congrats to Sertie, who is an all-timer. Looking forward to seeing him.
Again, UMD football and hockey on Saturday will be on 98.9FM. The stream will be here and it’s free.
As for the blog, you can expect much of the same from previous years. I will be around most Mondays with a weekend recap, and most Thursdays with a weekend preview. I will also post a Friday recap a lot of weekends, but that one might be more sporadic, especially when UMD is at home. Most every game will have me back here before faceoff with line charts for both teams.
Back pregame with lines. We back!
