As many as three games with a pair of 2009 Frozen Four Four participants, a New Year's Holiday Tournament in Vermont, and a first-ever regular home series with perennial Eastern Collegiate Hockey Association power Clarkson University are among the highlights of the 2009-10 University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey schedule, which was officially released today.
Following an Oct. 3 home exhibition clash with the University of British Columbia, the Bulldogs will commence their 66th year of intercollegiate competition and defense of their Superior Cup title on Oct. 9 by hosting Lake Superior State University. Two nights later, UMD will remain at the home for another Superior Cup battle with Northern Michigan University before making its 2008-09 Western Collegiate Hockey Association debuts against Minnesota State University-Mankato on Oct. 16-17 at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center.
The next weekend (Oct. 23-24) marks the the first road assignments for the Bulldogs as they'll set sail for St. Cloud, Minn, and a two-game league set versus St. Cloud State University. They'll close out the month with two Halloween weekend outings against Clarkson in the two clubs' first meetings since Dec. 27, 1997.
The Bulldogs' other non-conference activity includes a home-and- series with intrastate rival Bemidji State University on Jan. 22-23 and a visit to the Sheraton/TD Banknorth Catamount Cup in Burlington, Vt. Vermont, which like Bemidji State made it to the semifinal round of last April's NCAA Frozen Four, will host that four-team event. UMD will conclude its 38-game regular season schedule on March 5-6 at Alaska-Anchorage, one week after hosts the University of Minnesota in the last of its 19 regular season home clashes.
The 2009-10 Bulldogs are slated to play the nine other WCHA schools four times with the exception of defending WCHA regular season champion University of Denver (one home series only), St. Cloud State University (away only), the University of Wisconsin (home only) and Alaska Anchorage (road only). UMD's Feb. 5-6 series at Michigan Tech University will be part of the Huskies' annual Winter Carnival festivities.
"I'm hoping we can take advantage of the fact that we are home for six our first eight games and eight of our first 12," said head coach Scott Sandelin, who will embark on his 10th season behind the UMD bench this fall. "We've got a lot of tough series early which should help make us a stronger team once we reach the Christmas Break."
UMD closed out 2008-09 with a 22-13-8 overall record -- their best mark since 2003-04 when they went 28-13-4 and advanced to the NCAA Frozen Four -- and were 10-11-7 in the WCHA. In addition, the Buldlogs, who became the first play-in participant to win the WCHA Final Five championship in the 17-year existence of that event, also qualified for NCAA postseason play for the sixth time in school history.
2009-10 UMD Hockey Schedule
