The University of Minnesota Duluth will launch its 65th season of intercollegiate men's hockey this Friday and Saturday (Oct. 10-11) when the Bulldogs take on a pair of Central Collegiate Hockey Association clubs from Michigan's Upper Peninsula as part as the second annual Superior Showcase. UMD and Lake Superior State University are set to tangle on Friday at 6:07 p.m. (CST) at the Taffey Abel Arena (4,000 capacity) in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. The following night the Bulldogs will head to Marquette, Mich. for a 6:35 matchup with Northern Michigan University at the Berry Events Center (3,902) on the NMU campus.
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THE RECORDS: The Bulldogs were 13-17-6 overall and placed eighth in the WCHA standings at 9-14-5 while Lake Superior State went 10-20-7 in all games and were 7-15--6 in CCHA play (10th place out of 12 teams). NMU, which like UMD and the Lakers will be making their 2008-09 regular season debut, sported an even 20-20-4 overall record and a 12-13-3 CCHA mark (sixth place).
HOW THEY RANK: Here is how the Bulldogs, Lakers and Wildcats stack up in this week's uscho.com/CSTV and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls:
uscho.com USA Today
UMD RV NR
LSSU NR NR
NMU 16th RV
ON THE AIR: This weekend's games will carried live by both KDAL (610 AM) and KHQG (102.FM, the “Hog”) with Bruce Ciskie handling the play-by-play. The broadcast can be heard as well via the internet at: www.umdbulldogs.com.
THE COACHES: The 2003-04 American Hockey Coaches Association NCAA Division I Coach of the Year (Spencer Penrose Award), Scott Sandelin is starting his ninth season at UMD where he has compiled a 122-160-37 overall record in addition to taking the Bulldogs to three of the last five WCHA Final Five tournaments. Four years ago, Sandelin, 43, turned UMD into a NCAA Frozen Four participant for the first time in nearly a generation, marshaling 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 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championships and directed that club to a fourth-place finish.
Jim Roque took over the head coaching duties at his alma mater in June 2005 and has since compiled a 46-53-17 record. Two seasons ago, his Lakers advanced to the semifinal round of the CCHA playoffs for the first time in 11 years before bowing out to the University of Notre Dame. Prior to being appointed to his current post, Roque had been an assistant coach at Lake Superior State (2001-05) and Clarkson University (1995-2001). He is 0-0-1 in his one career confrontation with UMD.
Walt Kyle is in his seventh season as Northern Michigan's head hockey coach and has a 122-104-21 record to show for it, including an 0-3-0 mark against UMD. Kyle, who has led the 'Cats to five 20-win seasons and five CCHA Championship Tournament appearances during the past six winters, succeeded Scott Sandelin as the head coach of the U.S. National Junior Team. (His 2006 club placed fourth at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship). Prior to signing on at Northern Michigan, Kyle was an assistant coach with the National Hockey League's New York Rangers for two years (2000-02) after serving as the coach of the American Hockey League's Hamilton Bulldogs from 1998-2000. Kyle's professional coaching resume also includes stints with the NHL's Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (1992-94), the AHL's Baltimore Bandits (1995-96), the International Hockey League's San Diego Gulls (1994-95) and the Western Hockey League's Seattle Thunderbirds (1992-94). Kyle was a two-time Northern Michigan letterman after transferring from Boston College and captained the 1980 and 1981 Wildcat teams that advanced to the NCAA Frozen Four.
THE SERIES: UMD and Lake Superior State have met 13 times previously, but only once since the 1993 NCAA playoffs. The two teams opened their respective 2007-08 seasons at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center (Oct 12) and skated to 2-2 overtime tie. UMD is 6-3-3 lifetime against Lake Superior State.
Saturday night's game will mark the 68th meeting between ever between the Bulldogs and Wildcats. NMU holds a razor-thin 32-31-4 lead in the all-time series which began on Nov. 27, 1981 in Marquette. The Bulldogs have been victorious in their last three clashes with NMU and that includes a 4-0 shut out last season (Oct. 13) in Duluth.
LAST WEEKEND: UMD tuned up for this weekend's 2008-09 openers by rolling past visiting Lakehead University 6-0 Sunday night, just one day after the Bulldogs had officially opened preseason camp. Matt Greer pumped in a pair of goals in the exhibition game victory while fellow senior left wing Michael Gergen scored once and assisted on another tally. Junior goaltender Alex Stalock, who worked the first two periods, and freshman Brady Hjelle each had 10 saves.
Northern Michigan skated off with a 4-1 exhibition win over the University of Toronto Sunday afternoon in Marquette.
THREE'S COMPANY: For only the second time in its 65-year history, UMD will utilize the services of three team captainsin 2008-09. The senior trio of left wing Andrew Carroll, an alternate team captain last winter and a co-captain as a sophomore, defenseman Josh Meyers and left wing Matt Greer have all been entrusted with that role in 2008-09.
BULLDOG BITS: The Bulldogs have never faced Lake Superior State on the Lakers' home ice ... UMD returns 19 letterwinners from a year ago, including four of its top five scorers in seniors MacGregor Sharp, Nick Kemp, Andrew Carroll and Josh Meyers. Sharp, who has skated in 114 of a possible 115 games with the Bulldogs, finished atop the 2007-08 UMD scoring charts with seven goals and a team-leading 10 assists for 17 points. That was the lowest total for a team scoring champion since 1952-53 when Ed Skelko closed out the year with seven goals and nine assists. In three career games against Northern Michigan, Sharp has struck for three goals (all on the power play) and two assists and has two game-winners to his credit as well ... Nine of the Bulldogs' 36 games last season went into overtime where UMD managed a 2-1-6 mark (with the lone setback coming to North Dakota on March 2). Those six ties were one short of the school single-season record set in 1990-91 ... Junior goaltender Alex Stalock will carry a string of 36 consecutive starts -- the second longest active streak in NCAA I hockey (behind Boston College sophomore John Muse, who has started 44 straight contests) -- into the 2008-09 season. One year ago, the South St. Paul. Minn. native became just the third UMD goaltender (NCAA I era) to ever start in every game during the course of a season. A three-time WCHA Defensive Player of the Week honoree in 2007-08, Stalock compiled a 2.35 goals against average one year ago and a .914 saves percentage, which both are the second best single-season marks ever turned in by a Bulldog. (Josh Johnson set both records -- 2.14 and .922 -- one year earlier). Back in mid-January of last year, the 2006-07 WCHA All-Rookie League pick and San Jose Sharks draftee set a UMD record by holding the opposition scoreless for a span of 137:37 ... Of the 11 original members of UMD's highly-touted 2005-06 freshmen class (the Red Line Report listed it as the nation's fourth best), seven still remain. Three of the departees signed on with National Hockey League organizations -- defenseman Jason Garrison (Florida Panthers last spring), left wing Mason Raymond (Vancouver in 2007) and defenseman Matt Niskanen (Dallas in 2007) ... The Bulldogs ranked fourth in the WCHA and were fifth among all NCAA schools in penalty killing efficiency at 88.5 percent one year ago. That broke the previous school record of 85.6 percent set back in 1997-98. Their power play efficiency, meanwhile dropped to 11.5 percent after clicking at a 21.6 percent -- the sixth best figure in the nation -- the previous winter ... Headlining a crop of seven promising UMD newcomers is center Jack Connolly, the reigning 2007-08 USA Hockey Junior Player of the Year Award winner. The Duluth native and 2007 Marshall School graduate was selected the 2008-09 WCHA Preseason Co-Rookie of the Year. Connolly, who was one of 53 participants in the 2008 U.S. National Junior Evaluation Camp this past August in Lake Placid, N.Y., captured a share of the United States Hockey League's regular scoring title in 2007-08 by racking up 72 points on 26 goals and 46 assists in 58 games with the Sioux Falls Stampede. For his efforts, he was named the USHL Rookie of the Year in addition to earning a spot on both the All-USHL First Team and USHL All-Rookie Team. Also making their Bulldog debuts this season are Brady Lamb, who was bestowed with the Alberta Junior Hockey League's Outstanding Defenseman Award in 2007-08 after he amassed a career-best 32 points with the Calgary Royals, and center Mike Connolly, who owned the best points per game average (1.78) in the entire AJHL in 2007-08 ... UMD was shut out a school-record six times during the 2007-08 season. That was once more than the previous mark set one year earlier ... After managing just one point (a goal at Northern Michigan) as a rookie, sophomore defenseman Trent Palm accumulated 10 points (two goals and eight assists) last winter en route to landing the Mike Sertich Award as UMD's Most Improved player. Palm was one of just four Bulldog veterans who set career highs for scoring last season, joining right wing Nick Kemp (15 points), defenseman Jason Garrison (14 points) and center Jordan Fulton (14 points) ... UMD held down a Top 20 rankng in the uscho.com weekly poll from Oct. 22 until the end of the regular season last winter, and moved up all the way to the No. 10 spot on Feb. 4 ... The 2007-08 Bulldogs reeled off more wins on the road (they were 7-9-1) than they did at home (6-6-5) -- the third time that happened in the past four seasons ... While the 74 goals the Bulldogs racked up last season were their fewest since 1967-68 (when UMD scored 71 times in eight less games), they also allowed the least amount of goals (91) in their 47 years of playing at the NCAA Division I level.
UP NEXT: UMD will open the home portion of its 2008-09 schedule by hosting Western Michigan University on Oct. 17-18 in the first meetings ever between the two teams.
