The University of Minnesota Duluth will continue on its diet of Western Collegiate Hockey Association competition this Friday and Saturday (Nov. 10-11) when the Bulldogs head to Houghton, Mich. for a two-game Western Collegiate Hockey Association series with Michigan Tech University. The puck drops at 6:05 p.m. (CST) both nights at the John J. MacInnes Student Ice Arena (4,200) on the Michigan Tech campus.

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UMD/MTUHockey


THE RECORDS: The Bulldogs are 2-4-2 overall this season and 1-4-1 in WCHA play (eighth place) while Michigan Tech sports a 5-3-0 record in all games and an even 2-2-0 WCHA mark (fifth place tie with Colorado College and the University of Denver).

HOW THEY RANK: Here is how UMD and Michigam Tech stack up in this week’s uscho.com/CSTV and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls:



uscho.com USA Today

UMD RV NR

MTU RV RV

ON THE AIR: All UMD games during the 2006-07 season are being carried by KDAL-Radio (610 AM) with Bruce Ciskie handling the play-by-play duties and former Bulldog right wing Judd Medak providing color commentary. The Duluth-based station is in its 47th consecutive year of airing the Bulldogs (which is believed to be the longest streak of its kind in college hockey). The broadcast can be heard as well via the internet at: www.umdbulldogs.com.

Saturday’s UMD-Michigan Tech matchup will be televised by WDIO-TV (Channels 10 and 13). Steve Jezierski and former Bulldog left wing Kraig Karakas will serve as the on-air talent for the ABC-TV affiliate, which is slated to carry 17 regular season games in 2006-07.

THE COACHES: The 2003-04 American Hockey Coaches Association NCAA Division I Coach of the Year (Spencer Penrose Award), Scott Sandelin is in his seventh year at UMD where he has compiled a 98-126-28 overall record -- including a 78-74-21 mark since the start of the 2002-03 season. Three years ago, Sandelin, 42, turned UMD into a NCAA Frozen Four participant for the first time in nearly a generation while directing his troops to their most victories (they were 28-13-4 overall) and highest WCHA finish (second place on a 19-7-2 mark) in 11 seasons. For his efforts, the Hibbing, Minn., native was chosen the WCHA Coach of the Year as well as the national coach of the year by both insidecollegehockey.com and uscho.com. In 2002-03, Sandelin’s Bulldogs went 22-15-5 overall and captured fifth place in the WCHA with a 14-10-4 mark while experiencing the greatest one-season turnaround of any league club. One year earlier, he directed UMD to a 13-24-1 record in all games-- nearly doubling the number of victories from the previous season (7-28-4). Sandelin officially signed on as a member of the Bulldog staff on March 31, 2000 after six years of assistant coaching duty at North Dakota. Prior to joining the Fighting Sioux (who won two NCAA titles during his tenure), Sandelin spent the 1993-94 season as the head coach of the Fargo-Moorhead Junior Kings of the Junior Elite Hockey League after working in that same capacity (and doubling as general manager) the previous winter with the American Hockey Association’s Fargo-Moorhead Express. He capped off his four-year playing career at North Dakota in 1985-86 by being named one of 10 finalists for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award. An All-WCHA first team pick and an All-American second team selection as a senior, Sandelin went on to play seven years of professional hockey, which included National Hockey League stints with the Montreal Canadiens (1986-88), Philadelphia Flyers (1990-91) and Minnesota North Stars (1991-92). Sandelin, one of just two current WCHA coaches to do time in the NHL, was the Montreal Canadiens’ second round pick in the 1982 NHL draft (40th choice overall). He served as Team USA’s head coach at the 2005 World Junior Hockey Championships in Grand Forks, N.D., where he directed that club to a fourth-place finish.

Jamie Russell (Michigan Tech, 1989) is in his fourth season of head coaching at his alma mater and has a 28-78-15 overall record to show for it (5-6-1 vs. UMD). He joined the Husky staff in 2003 after serving the previous four years as a Cornell University assistant coach. Prior to that, he spent five seasons in that same capacity at Ferris State University. A two-year letterwinner (defenseman) with the Huskies (1987-89), Russell played one season of professional hockey each in Sweden (Larjeveelan), the East Coast Hockey League (Winston-Salem) and the American Hockey League (Binghamton) before entering the coaching arena.

THE RIVALRY: This weekend’s series will mark the 195th and 196th meetings between UMD and Michigan Tech. The Huskies hold a 114-66-14 lead in the rivalry, which commenced on Dec. 31, 1952 at the old Duluth Curling Club. One year ago, UMD took three of four points from the Huskies in Houghton (a 6-3 win and 2-2 tie on Oct. 28-29) before being swept later that year at home (4-2 and 3-1 on Jan. 13-14).

LAST WEEK: The Bulldogs dropped a pair of 3-2 decisions to the University of Minnesota at the DECC to close out a four-game homestand. In the series opener, UMD spotted its interstate rivals a 3-0 lead before scoring twice (Bryan McGregor and Michael Gergen) in the third period. The Bulldogs trailed just 1-0 at the first intermission despite being down two men for over a fifth of the opening period. Freshman forward Jordan Fulton assisted on both Bulldog goals while netminder Alex Stalock turned aside 27 of 30 Gopher shots. On Saturday, goals by McGregor and sophomore left wing Mason Raymond put UMD up 2-1 late in the second period, but the Gophers rallied with a power play tally early in the third and another goal 49 seconds into overtime to complete the sweep -- its first over UMD in Duluth since the 1999-2000 season.

Michigan Tech was ambushed twice at WCHA rival Colorado College, falling 4-1 on Friday and 2-1 the following evening.

WHAT HOME ICE ADVANTAGE?: UMD is unbeaten in its last five visits to Houghton (4-0-1), but has been swept by the Huskies in each of the past two seasons at home.

MINUTES MUNCHER: In his last four appearances, freshman goaltender Alex Stalock has compiled a 2.50 goals against average and a .919 saves percentage while allowing just four even-strength goals. Stalock, who ranks fourth among all NCAA puckstoppers in minutes played (489:59), is the only goaltender UMD has used in all eight games to date. The last Bulldog to achieve that feat was sophomore Brant Nicklin, who played in every minute of UMD’s first eight outings of the 1997-98 season before splitting time in the ninth outing with senior Tony Gasparini.

TOUGH SLEDDING: Over the past three weekends, UMD butted heads with the three clubs that claimed the last five NCAA championships (then-No. 2 University of Wisconsin, No. 13 University of Denver and No. 2 Minnesota).

BULLDOG BITS: Saturday’s overtime loss to Minnesota was UMD’s first in its last 12 extra session games (4-1-7) going back to a 3-2 defeat to visiting Michigan Tech on Feb. 4, 2005 ... Senior right wing Bryan McGregor scored once each night during the Gopher series and has already collected as many games this year (two) as he did his entire junior season ... UMD currently sports the WCHA’s second most efficient power play unit (and the fifth best in the NCAA), connecting at a 25.0 percent clip which trails only Minnesota's 25.8 percent figure. The Bulldogs have scored at least once with the man advantage in each of their eight games thus far -- its longest such stretch since the middle of the 2001-02 season -- and all but seven of their 22 goals thus far have come on the power play ... Bulldog sophomore Matt Niskanen ranks first among WCHA defensemen (and sixth among all NCAA blueliners) in points per average (1.25) and second in scoring (10 points). Both of Niskanen’s two goals in 2006-07 and all but one of his eight assists have been recorded on the power play. Those nine power play points are tops among all WCHA players at the moment ... The Bulldogs have scored first in only two (at Wisconsin on Oct. 21 and vs. Minnesota last Saturday) of their eight engagements this season. They’ve also never held a lead after the first period and only twice at the second intermission ... Freshman forward Jordan Fulton assisted on three of the Bulldogs’ four goals last weekend against Minnesota to take over as UMD’s top scoring freshman (six points on one goal and five assists). Fulton, one of a dozen Bulldogs who’s skated in all eight games to date, has also racked up the team’s best plus-minus rating (+2) so far. He’ll enter Friday night’s matchup in Houghton armed with a three-game scoring streak ... UMD faced its first penalty shot in over 10 years (Feb. 10, 1996) midway through the third period Friday night when Minnesota’s Evan Kaufmann did the honors and was stopped by UMD goaltender Alex Stalock ... Josh Meyers has already established a career-high for goals this season with four. Meyers is currently third in the WCHA in power play points (6) as well as power play goals (4). All seven of Meyers’ goals as a collegian have come while UMD has had the man advantage ... The Bulldogs are mired in an eight-game WCHA road winless drought (0-7-1) dating back to last season ... Three of sophomore left wing Matt Greer’s five career points have come at the expense of Michigan Tech (one goal and two assists) ... The 25-player 2006-07 UMD roster consists of just four seniors and four juniors ... Sophomore left wing Andrew Carroll and junior center Matt McKnight are serving as the Bulldogs’ co-captains for 2006-07. Carroll becomes the first sophomore in 56 years to be entrusted with UMD captaincy responsibilities. ... UMD has not held an opponent scoreless at the DECC since Feb. 28, 1998 (a 7-0 blanking of North Dakota by Brant Nicklin) --- a stretch of 163 games -- but has posted six shut outs on the road during basically that same period of time. One of those whitewashes -- a 4-0 win over Michigan Tech on Dec. 6, 2003 -- was turned in by current Bulldog senior netminder Josh Johnson ... Since rallying with three goals in the third period to overcome a 1-0 deficit and defeat host St. Cloud State 3-1 on Nov. 27, 2004, the Bulldogs are 0-34-2 in games in which they have trailed after 40 minutes of play ... Senior center Jeff McFarland, whose scoring line in 2005-06 included a personal-high five assists, has now gone 93 games without a goal. His last tally came on Oct. 31, 2003 against the University of Alaska Anchorage ... Prior to last Saturday night, UMD was a perfect 13-0-0 the last 13 times it had taken a lead into the third period (it was last upended in that situation on Feb. 18, 2005 -- a 5-4 loss at Denver) ... Freshman defenseman Chase Ryan will celebrate his 20th birthday on Friday while sophomore defenseman Jason Garrison turns 22 this Monday.

ON DECK: The Bulldogs will return to the Upper Peninsula next Wednesday (Nov. 15) to face Northern Michigan University.

THE SCOTT SANDELIN SHOW: The Scott Sandelin show airs Wednesdays from Famous Dave’s in Duluth at 6 p.m. on KDAL-Radio. UMD play-by-play announcer Bruce Ciskie hosts the one-hour program, which can also be heard via the internet at umdbulldogs.com.

DQ CUP: Every regular season game played between the four WCHA schools from the state of Minnesota -- UMD, Minnesota, Minnesota State-Mankato and St. Cloud State -- will count in the 2006-07 DQ Cup competition. The team with the best winning percentage at the end of the year will be awarded the DQ Cup. For updated standings, log on to: www.dqcup.com