Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. It’s good to be back in a normal routine, and a busy month awaits the UMD men. The Bulldogs returned from sabbatical last week, reconvening last Tuesday for practice and then beating St. Thomas 2-1 in an exhibition game Saturday afternoon.
Now, a heck of an important stretch begins for UMD. I have resisted for months the calls of people to harp on the PairWise, but it’s now after January 1, and it’s probably a decent time to start keeping an eye on it. UMD sits at 35th right now, which sounds really bad (it isn’t great), but it’s up from a low point of (I think) 42nd not long before break. When you consider that no more than the top 15 will get in on Selection Sunday (one spot reserved for the Atlantic Hockey champion), 35th is very suboptimal.
However, this isn’t over. The Bulldogs close non-conference play with a home and home against old friend Bemidji State this weekend. Win that series, and UMD is likely to move up significantly. Then the Bulldogs return to NCHC play with back to back road series against Omaha and North Dakota. Come out of that with a winning record, and suddenly UMD could find itself on the edge of the tournament bubble.
The NCHC playoffs, which UMD has won three times in eight opportunities, give everyone a chance to make the dance. But the Bulldogs aren’t necessarily done with at-large potential.
They do, in fairness, need to do something they haven’t done all year, though, and that’s generate consistently positive results.
UMD has swept two series — Cornell and Arizona State — with only the Cornell sweep including regulation wins. The Bulldogs split four straight league series, needing overtime to get its win against Omaha, before losing twice in overtime to Denver.
So asking for more wins in a short period of time is asking a lot. But it’s not impossible. Remember, that 2017-18 team we’ve referenced a few times started league play 2-7, yet won enough in the second half to earn home ice in the first round of the NCHC playoffs.
What will it take? Well, I’m glad you asked.
8 THOUGHTS
1. UMD coach Scott Sandelin — still off the ice for practices after a knee procedure he had at the beginning of the break — has touched on a couple major topics.
Offense is a big one. UMD didn’t score a ton last season, and that lack of dynamic offense really hurt the Bulldogs a few times as the season went on. What I didn’t expect to see was UMD’s scoring average go down over the first half of the season. After averaging 2.6 goals per game last year, UMD is at 2.33 through 18 games.
While it has shown signs of life at times offensively, UMD was blanked four times in 18 games and there has not been a notable jump in its goals per game average since conference play started.
The other topic Sandelin has brought up is discipline. UMD is the second-most penalized team in the NCHC at over 13 minutes per game (tied for 13th nationally). Part of that is the fact the Bulldogs have been whistled for five major penalties through 18 games, many of which came with game misconducts that artifically inflate the PIM total.
Sandelin has talked about the two going hand in hand, the idea that if UMD can do more with the puck offensively, it will be in better position to draw some penalties and get more power plays, an area where opponents are averaging a half a power play per game more than UMD so far (76 total to 67).
2. The Bulldogs have gotten very little internal competition through the first half, thanks to a slew of injuries and illnesses, and that isn’t going to change anytime soon.
“We need to get healthy,” Sandelin said, both going into the break and this week. He had to say it again because UMD is still not healthy. Defenseman Will Francis is trending in the right direction, but while Sandelin didn’t rule him out for Bemidji State, he conceded it’s more likely Francis — who was injured Dec. 10 against Denver — will return next weekend in Omaha. Francis was practicing last week and this week, but I sense that he isn’t fully back and hasn’t taken contact yet. He had started getting into a groove before his injury, so hopefully he’s able to get back soon and pick up where he left off.
Forward Jack Smith, who was injured in the second period of the exhibition game when he got tangled up with a St. Thomas player during a post-whistle scrum, is out this weekend. No word on his status beyond that, but Smith’s injury leaves UMD with only 12 healthy forwards. Junior Blake Biondi is undergoing surgery on both shoulders and will miss the rest of the season, while sophomore Kyler Kleven is still working his way back from a preseason injury. Kleven is skating and ramping up, but it will be some time still.
I asked Sandelin about internal competition, something he was excited to see when the season started but something that has fizzled to an extent with all the absences. He indicated that UMD will be down to 12 forwards “for probably a couple of weeks,” leaving some hope that either Smith could return or Kleven could debut before too terribly long.
“Some guys are gonna get opportunities to play,” Sandelin said Wednesday. “Whether it’s up in the lineup, maybe it’s a penalty kill, maybe it is eventually on a power play, but I think our young players are going to gain a lot of experience. We need our older guys to be our best players first, it doesn’t matter. We need that experience. We need those guys to be consistent. We need some of those guys to start producing. We can’t have just be okay, we need to overachieve a little bit. And like I told the young guys, you’ve all played. It’s still a freshman year but you kind of know what college hockey is. It’s gonna get tougher, but we’ll get it.”
Senior forward Luke Loheit took a different angle when I asked him about internal competition.
“Guys like me, Dom (James), Quinn (Olson), and Tanner (Laderoute) and Ben Steeves, and guys who have been relied on in a lot of situations this year, that’s where it comes on us to go out for a day like practice today and say ‘We’re gonna compete in every drill, be hard to play against in every single drill no matter what the drill is, we’re gonna finish pucks and execute and we’re gonna talk.’
“We’re going to create that sense of compete each day. It’s something that, even in the past couple of years, there’s been situations where guys know, and I think competition’s great. And if we can create that each day, it’s super important. We can do it through our energy.”
Sandelin did also say the coaches could run shorter practices and even take days off to keep guys fresh, which would — in turn — encourage the harder compete in practice that Loheit talks about being so important.
3. Sandelin also discussed UMD’s faceoff struggles as we head into the second half. The Bulldogs are 43rd in Division I and seventh in the NCHC at 48.3 percent on the season, but there have been some encouraging signs as of late.
Since the Western Michigan series Nov. 18-19, an admittedly small sample size of six games or one-third of the first half of the season, UMD is at 49.5 percent on draws, with Dominic James (58 percent), Jesse Jacques (55 percent), and Carter Loney (50 percent on the nose) all at 50/50 or better (and James missed one game while playing another at less than full strength due to illness). Those three will be UMD’s primary draw-takers as long as Smith is out, with Cole Spicer (48 percent for the season and over 50 percent since NCHC play started) joining in.
“Our faceoffs can get better,” he said. “We need to be 50-plus percent. I’d like to see us at 55 percent, not upper 40s.”
It’s obvious that UMD’s centers have worked at this. They aren’t where Sandelin wants them, but as league play has gotten going, there’s no doubt they’ve made strides. Those strides need to continue in the second half. The faceoff stat can be overrated, with an excessive amount of responsibility put on the center when the play usually comes down to other forwards doing their job to win possession. But as we saw in the USA-Canada World Juniors semifinal, faceoffs can be vital. Canada’s first three goals all came off faceoff wins, two in the USA zone and one in the Canada zone that started a rush up the rink to score. There were other warts in the Americans’ game that night, but losing faceoffs clean in key situations was a huge problem.
4. Bemidji State is the final non-conference adversary UMD will face this season. With a .500 mark in non-league games so far, the already-discussed PairWise implications are obvious. And Bemidji State is, well, Bemidji State.
“They’re probably, every year, one of the hardest-working teams in the country,” said Sandelin. “If you’re not willing to match that, or out-do them, in that department, you’re already behind. Last year we faced them they were going through some new goaltenders. Those guys have experience now. (Mattias) Sholl’s been playing. They didn’t lose a ton of players. They lost some guys up front, but their back end is intact and they’re a team that doesn’t give you a lot but they pressure. They’re a hard-checking team, they get to the net. They defend well. We’ve got to be ready to play. It’s always a tough building to win.”
Loheit has tried to prepare his teammates for hockey’s version of a trench war.
“They don’t give you much time and space in the neutral zone and offensive zone,” said Loheit. “So I think that’s what we’ve been talking about all week, getting used to that ground game and trying to dominate below the tops of circles.”
Sholl is the reigning CCHA Goaltender of the Month, with a .922 save percentage on the season. The Beavers are led defensively by Sholl and three minutes-munching defensemen, including Will Zmolek, who won CCHA Defenseman of the Month in December.
5. Beavers coach Tom Serratore, while pleased with his team’s first half, has no illusions.
“Sometimes you’re living right, sometimes you’re not,” he said. “There’s a small margin for error, but I’m going to give us a strong passing grade because our record is pretty good. I’m also a realist and realize, too, that it’s been tight every game.”
Bemidji has played eight overtime games so far (3-1-4 record). The Beavers lead the CCHA at the midway point, even though they’ve only played 12 of 28 league games (.694 points percentage).
Sholl (with goaltending partner Gavin Enright, and Serratore says we will see both of them this weekend) and the defense are the main cogs. Bemidji State is only averaging 2.83 goals per game, not exactly lighting up the scoreboard, with no one on the roster scoring more than sophomore Alexander Lundman’s seven.
Joining the big, rangy, tough Zmolek on that BSU blue line are seniors Elias Rosen and Kyle Looft, and Serratore isn’t afraid to throw big minutes at the three.
“They’ve been great,” said Serratore. “We lean heavily on them. I would think Will Zmolek has to be leading the country in minutes, if not top two, top three. Those guys are logging 25, 26 minutes a game. We’re really playing those senior defensemen a lot. We’re leaning on them. A big part of our success is attributed to those guys, they’re hard to play against, seasoned veterans, and they’ve got the right mentality.”
6. The World Juniors wrapped up Thursday with two awesome medal games. The United States took bronze, beating Sweden 8-7 in overtime in an absolutely crazy game. Ex-Gopher Chaz Lucius finished with a hat trick, including the winning goal on a very weird play.
Game winner in OT and a hat trick for Chaz Lucius. @usahockey wins bronze! #WorldJuniors@ManitobaMoose @NHLJets pic.twitter.com/Avq1hhOOCq
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) January 5, 2023
Canada had beaten the U.S. in the semifinal round, and the Canadians took a second straight gold on home soil Thursday night thanks to a 3-2 overtime win over Czechia. The Czechs trailed 2-0 into the third period before two quick goals tied the game. Coyotes draft pick Dylan Guenther scored the extra-time winner for Canada.
Great tournament, with some fun teams. Really enjoyed watching Czechia compete, and they got their first medal in 17 years. Slovakia, led by UMD recruit Adam Gajan in goal, gave Canada all it could handle in a classic quarterfinal game. The U.S. team was flawed, but had some big-time high-end talent up front that was a treat to watch with the puck. Without the puck, well, we won’t talk about that as much. 
(The U.S. will host this tournament again in 2026. Reports the last couple days have Minneapolis interested in a bid. I just hope whoever is working on that bid doesn’t forget about their friends 150-ish miles north. Amsoil Arena would be a GREAT World Juniors secondary venue.)
7. As UMD returns home Saturday, it will honor a great figure in the school’s history. Bob Nygaard spent 37 years at UMD, serving as sports information director and eventually as the assistant athletic director for communications.
Bob left UMD in 2020, and will return to Amsoil Arena Saturday as the press box is named in his honor.
“Knew a lot about UMD athletics, a lot of things in our program,” said Sandelin of Nygaard, who organized promotional campaigns for all six UMD Hobey Baker Award winners. “Just a good person, and it’s a great honor for him.”
“Very touching,” said Nygaard, who will be on hand with his family for a pregame ceremony. “You can’t help but feel humbled and honored. I do think it’s one of the ultimate honors to be remembered that way. Spent a lot of time in that press box. Was the home away from home for many a winter night.”
Bob is a dear friend, someone I’ve had the honor of working closely with and traveling with many times over the years. He’s an absolute encyclopedia of UMD knowledge, unlike anyone I’ve ever come across. And he was always able to help with the most mundane stats questions during games. Trust me, it helps to have a research department on hand.
While this is an overdue honor, Nygaard notes the pandemic affected everyone’s ability to come together for this sooner.
Better late than never.
8. The Gazelle Group, which promotes the Kwik Trip Holiday Faceoff, Wisconsin’s new holiday tournament in Milwaukee (which UMD is playing in next season, by the way), has apparently started working on the concept of a college hockey NIT. The NIT, if you don’t know, is a national postseason basketball tournament that takes teams that didn’t get NCAA invites. That 32-team tournament is played on campus sites until they get to the final four, which was traditionally contested at Madison Square Garden.
According to friend of the show Brad Schlossman, the idea could soon come to college hockey.
The Gazelle Group is proposing an eight-team, single-elimination tournament at campus sites. It is the same group that puts on the College Basketball Invitational.
…
The quarterfinals would be played the same weekend as the NCAA regionals. The semifinals would be played during the week in between the regionals and Frozen Four. The championship would be played on the Friday between the NCAA semifinals and championship game.
One can appreciate people wanting to grow college hockey. And this idea is not without merit. The lure of campus sites for games gives you a chance to see your favorite team a couple more times, and it gives the event a chance to draw some fans.
However, as Schlossman notes in his piece, which I encourage you to look at, players looking to turn pro are not likely to stick around to play in a second-tier postseason tournament. Some of those players will get a chance to play in the NHL, potentially in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They will want to focus on that. Other players will be looking to jump into the transfer portal and find a better situation, and coaches will want to start looking at the next season and what their roster will look like. Maybe do some last-minute recruiting with junior teams in their postseasons.
Maybe this is something that would work, but I have serious doubts.
6:30 pregame Friday from Bemidji, 5:30 Saturday from Amsoil. Hope you can join us on KDAL!
