The University of Minnesota Duluth will make its final two appearances of 2006 this Friday and Saturday (Dec. 29-30) when the Bulldogs head to Columbus, Ohio, for the Ohio Hockey Classic. The four-team event will be held at the Nationwide Arena (18,500 capacity), the home of the National Hockey League’s Columbus Blue Jackets.

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UMD/Ohio Hockey Classic


THE SCHEDULE: The Bulldogs (4-12-3 overall and 2-10-2 in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association) and the Ohio State University (5-9-4 and 5-6-3 in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association-sixth place tie) will square off in one opening round game at 7:05 p.m. (CST) while Bowling Green State University (4-13-1; 2-10-0 CCHA-12th place) and CCHA-leading Miami University (14-5-1; 10-3-1) will collide in the other semifinal match that afternoon. The tournament championship and third place game is scheduled for the following day (Ohio State will play at 8:05 p.m. regardless of how they do on Friday).

HOW THEY RANK: Here is how UMD and the other three tournament entrants stack up in the latest uscho.com/CSTV and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls:



uscho.com USA Today

UMD NR NR

OSU NR NR

BGSU NR NR

MU 4 4

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 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.

THE COACH: 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 100-134-29 overall record in addition to taking the Bulldogs to three of the last four WCHA Final Five tournaments -- a claim only three other schools can make. 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 guided 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.

THE SERIES: The Bulldogs and Ohio State have met only two previous occasions -- on Dec. 19, 1979 in Duluth (a 6-1 Ohio State victory) and on Dec. 27, 1974 (a 3-3 tie at the St. Louis University Invitational).

UMD is 3-1-0 in its four lifetime confrontations with Bowling Green. The two clubs last butted heads on Jan. 2-3, 2004 when the host Bulldogs skated off with a pair of wins (6-1 and 5-4).

UMD and Miami have never met.

LAST TIME OUT: UMD has been idle since falling twice (3-1 and 6-3) at WCHA rival Minnesota State University-Mankato on Dec. 15-16. The Bulldogs, who held a 3-1 lead early in the second period before surrendering five unanswered goals in the 6-3 setback, got single points from 11 different players over the weekend

HO, HO, HO-CKEY: This marks the second straight year the Bulldogs will take part in a Christmas/New Year’s holiday tournament. One year ago (Dec. 27-28) at the Florida College Hockey Classic in Estero, Fla., UMD disposed of then-No. 9 ranked University of Maine 4-1 before skating to a 1-1 tie with No. 8 Cornell University in the title game. The Big Red were deemed the tournament champions after outscoring the Bulldogs 3-2 in a shootout.

TOURNEY TIDBIT: UMD has never been beaten in back-to-back games in any of the previous 28 regular season tournaments it has participated in during its 63-year history.

TOURNEY TIDBIT II: The last time the Bulldogs laid claim to a tournament title of any kind was in 2001-02 when they opened the season with victories over the University of Nebraska-Omaha (5-2) and the University of Michigan (3-2) to capture the Maverick Stampede championship in Omaha, Neb.

MORE POWER TO THEM: Sophomore defenseman Matt Niskanen, who has marked in the scoring column in four of the past five games, continues to pace the WCHA in power play points with 15. He also is third among league blueliners in overall scoring (18 points) and tied for second in goals (five). Sophomore left wing Mason Raymond, one of just seven Bulldogs to skate in all 19 games this season, shares the No. 1 spot (with Niskanen) on the UMD scoring charts with 18 points and also is second (behind Niskanen) in power play points among WCHA skaters with 14. Another second-year Bulldog, Josh Meyers, is tied for third in that department (12 power play points). All eight of Meyers’ goals as a collegian -- including his career-high five tallies in 2006-07 -- have come while UMD has had the man advantage.

SPEAKING OF POWER ... : The Bulldogs currently rank third among all WCHA schools and eighth in the NCAA ranks in power play efficiency, connecting at a 22.0 percent clip. UMD is 13-of-85 with the extra man in WCHA play this season (15.3 percent) and a whopping 13-of-32 against non-conference foes (40.6 percent).

THIRD PERIOD BLUES: UMD has been outscored 26-15 in the third period this year and those 26 overall goals are the most surrendered by any league team.

BULLDOG BITS: UMD, which sports an even 2-2-1 non-conference record in 2006-07, is unbeaten (5-0-1) in its last six matchups with CCHA competition. That includes a 6-4 win at Northern Michigan University earlier this season (Nov. 15) ... Eight of junior right wing Mike Curry’s nine points this season have been registered on the road. Curry and junior defenseman Travis Gawryletz are both a team-leading +4 on the year ... No less than 40 of the Bulldogs’ 50 goals (80.0 percent) and 109 of their 141 points (77.3 percent) have been produced by either sophomores or freshmen ... Left wing Drew Akins accounted for UMD’s lone score in the 3-1 loss at Minnesota State to boost his 2006-07 goal total to a team-leading seven. That’s the sixth best mark turned in by a WCHA freshman at the moment ... 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 0-39-2 in games in which they have trailed after 40 minutes of play ... Junior center Matt McKnight returned to the UMD lineup in Mankato after being sidelined with an injury (tricep) the past nine outings... Six of UMD’s 19 games this season have gone to overtime. The Bulldogs are 1-2-3 in those six outings and are unbeaten in 12 of their last 14 overtime affairs (4-2-8) ... Freshman Alex Stalock, who has racked up more minutes (1024:51) than any other WCHA netminder this season, set a Bulldog single-game record for penalties by a goaltender when he was assessed three minors on Dec. 16 in Mankato. Stalock was credited with his third assist of the year that evening as well ... The Bulldogs have posted just one win (7-4 at Alaska Anchorage on Dec. 2) in their last 14 WCHA road outings, going 1-11-2 during that stretch, and hasn’t swept a league opponent away from the DECC in its last 18 series since besting Michigan Tech twice (5-4 and 6-3) on Oct. 15-16, 2004 ... Sophomore center MacGregor Sharp has put more shots on goal (70) than any other 2006-07 Bulldog while freshman forward Drew Akins possesses the club’s best shooting percentage (.219) ... 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 166 games -- but has posted seven shut outs on the road during basically that same period of time. Two of those whitewashes came at the expense of Michigan Tech University in Houghton, Mich. (the 0-0 deadlock by Alex Stalock earlier this year and a 4-0 win on Dec. 6, 2003 by current Bulldog senior netminder Josh Johnson ... Sophomore right wing Nick Kemp will have to sit out this Friday’s engagement with Ohio State after receiving a game disqualification penalty at Minnesota State in UMD’s last outing ... Senior left wing Bryan McGregor scored UMD’s first goal on Dec. 16 against Minnesota State and then was later awarded a penalty shot -- the first by a Bulldog since Oct. 10, 2003 (Junior Lessard)-- which was turned aside by MSU goaltender Mike Zacharias. McGregor is one of 89 finalists for the NCAA Skills Challenge, which will be held in conjunction with the 2007 NCAA Frozen Four in St. Louis, Mo. The finalists were pared down from an original list of 181 players who ere nominated by their head coaches. From that list, the selection committee, consisting of NCAA staff, members of the NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Committee, representatives from the American Hockey Coaches Association, Nike Bauer Hockey employ and the six NCAA I men’s ice hockey conferences, will chose the 32 players who will compete in the second annual skills competition on April 6 at the Scottrade Center. The event will include puck control relay, fastest skater, hardest shot, rapid fire shooting, accuracy shooting and penalty shot contests ... The 25-player UMD roster for 2006-07 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 ... Freshman center Jordan Fulton has not marked in the scoring column since picking up an assist against the University of Minnesota on Nov. 4 -- a span of 11 games.

ON DECK: UMD will usher in the New Year by hosting Michigan Tech University in a two-game WCHA series on Jan. 5-6.

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 by logging on to: umdbulldogs.com.