An appearance in the NCAA Frozen Four last April -- its first in almost two decades -- capped off a remarkable and rewarding year for the University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey team and that has created a marked increase in season ticket purchases for the upcoming 2004-05 season.

To date, season ticket sales for the general public are up almost 15 percent from 2003-04 and, during the past years, UMD has added over 450 new season ticket holders. That doesn't include student season tickets, which showed an increase of a whopping 87 percent between 2002-03 and 2003-04.

\"These are certainly encouraging numbers, considering our biggest rush for season tickets has traditionally occurred in September,\" said Sue MacDonald, UMD's Coordinator of Business and Ticket Sales. \"We have already sold about 135 more season ticket packages than we expected to this year and anticipate increasing our student season ticket base by about 28 percent.

\"All in all, this is the best back-to-back increases we've had with season tickets since the 1983-84 and 1984-85 seasons.\"

Season ticket can be purchased by calling the UMD Athletic Ticket Office at 726-8595 or via e-mail at: tickets@d.umn.edu. UMD student season tickets go on sale on Sept. 21 while single-game tickets for all 2004-05 Bulldog home games will be available Oct. 4 at UMD, the DECC Ticket Office and all Ticketmaster locations.