The University of Minnesota Duluth will launch its 67th year of intercollegiate hockey this Friday and Saturday (Oct. 8-9) when the Bulldogs take on a pair of Central Collegiate Hockey Association clubs from Michigan's Upper Peninsula as part of the fourth annual Superior Cup series. UMD and Lake Superior State will tangle on Friday at 6:07 p.m. (CST) at Taffy Abel Arena (4,000 capacity) in Sault Ste. Marie before heading to Marquette the following night for a 6:35 p.m. clash with Northern Michigan University at the Berry Events Center (3,902) on the NMU campus.
THE RECORDS: The Bulldogs were 22-17-1 in all games one year ago and tied for fourth place (with the University of North Dakota) in the WCHA standings at 16-11-1. Lake Superior State went 15-18-5 overall and 10-15-2 in CCHA play (10th place) while Northern Michigan was 20-13-8 and 13-9-6 (4th place).
HOW THEY RANK: Here is how the Bulldogs, Lakers and Wildcats stack up in the latest uscho.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls.
uscho.com USA Today
UMD 8th 9th
LSSU NR NR
NMU RV RV
ON THE AIR: Both of this weekend's games will be carried locally on 94X (94.1/104.3 FM) with Bruce Ciskie handling the play-by-play assignment. The broadcast can also be heard on KQ 105.5 in Grand Rapids/Hibbing and KQ 106.7 in Ely/Virginia as part of the Bulldog Radio Network and can be accessed on the internet at: www.fan1490.com.
In addition, the two Superior Cup games will be webstreamed live and be available on a pay-per-view basis through B2 Networks at: www.b2livetv.com.
THE COACH: The 2003-04 American Hockey Coaches Association NCAA Division I Coach of the Year (Spencer Penrose Award), Scott Sandelin is beginning his 11th season behind the UMD bench where he has compiled a 166-189-46 overall record -- including a 44-29-9 mark the past two winters. In addition to posting back-to-back 22-win seasons, his Bulldogs have advanced to five of the past eight WCHA Final Five tournaments and, in March 2009, became the first play-in game participant to win it all in that event's history. UMD also strung together a school-record six-game postseason winning streak in 2008-09 until it fell to Miami University 2-1 in the NCAA West Regional final. Six years ago, Sandelin, 46, 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 that winter. 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 following six years of assistant coaching deployment 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 National Hockey League, 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 72-91-30 record. He enjoyed perhaps his most productive year in 2006-07, 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 0-1-2 in his three confrontations with UMD.
Walt Kyle is in his ninth season as Northern Michigan's head hockey coach and has a 161-134-34 record to show for it, including a 1-4-0 mark against UMD. Kyle, who has led the Wildcats to six 20-win seasons and seven CCHA Championship Tournament appearances during the past eight winters, succeeded Scott Sandelin as the head coach of the U.S. National Junior Team. Prior to his arrival at Northern Michigan, Kyle was an assistant coach with the NHL'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 Anaheim Ducks (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 earned a berth in the NCAA Frozen Four. (The 1981 national championship was held at the DECC).
THE SERIES: UMD and Lake Superior State have collided 14 times previously, including in each of the last three season openers. The Bulldogs are 7-3-4 all-time versus the Lakers since the two clubs first butted heads on Nov. 27, 1971 in Duluth and unbeaten (1-0-2) in the last three meetings.
Saturday night's game will mark the 70th meeting ever between the Bulldogs and Wildcats. Northern Michigan holds a razor-thin 33-32-4 lead in the all-time series which began on Nov. 27, 1981 in Marquette, but have won just once (3-1 on Oct. 11, 2009 at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center) in their last five confrontations with their one-time WCHA rivals.
THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN SPEAKING: Senior defenseman Mike Montgomery has been entrusted with team captaincy responsibilities for 2010-11 while All-American junior center Jack Connolly and junior left winger Mike Connolly will serve as alternate captains.
THEIR CUP RUNNETH OVER: UMD has won at least a share of all three Superior Cups, winning the outright title in 2007 and 2008 (going 1-0-1 both years) and tying for the 2009 honor with the other three clubs -- Lake Superior State, Michigan Tech University and Northern Michigan.
ABOUT THE BULLDOGS: Head coach Scott Sandelin and his staff have plenty of reasons to be excited about what lies ahead for UMD in 2010-11 as the Bulldogs return the nucleus (some 20 letterwinners in all) from last winter's club that went 22-17-1 overall and 16-11-1 in Western Collegiate Hockey Association play, and will christen their new home -- the $70 million, 6,732-seat AMSOIL Arena – - on Dec. 30. Some five 20-plus point producer are back from a year ago, including junior center Jack Connolly, who was the WCHA coaches' choice as the league's preseason Player of the Year. Connolly led UMD in scoring with 49 (18 goals 31 assists) and plus-minus rating at plus-eight a year ago en route to earning All-America second team and All-WCHA first team acclaim. He will open the season centering what the folks at insidecollegehockey.com called the “FCC Line” (they can't be regulated) featuring senior Justin Fontaine at the right wing and junior Mike Connolly on his left side. Fontaine, a two-time All-WCHA second team selection, topped the 2009-10 Bulldogs in goals with 21 to go with 25 assists and, for the second year in a row, came within two points of winning the WCHA scoring race. Connolly, meanwhile, became just the second Bulldog since a fellow named Brett Hull (1984-86) to begin his collegiate career with two back-to-back 40-point seasons, racking up 14 goals and 26 assists. Other holdovers forwards UMD returns include senior Kyle Schmidt (11-2=13) and Cody Danberg, who will be out until at least Christmas after undergoing offseason knee surgery, junior Travis Oleksuk (10-14=24) and David Grun (6-5=11), and sophomores Mike Seidel, Keegan Flaherty, Jake Hendrickson, and Dan DeLisle. In addition, the promising rookie forward trio of Joe Basaraba (Shattuck-St. Mary's), J.T. Brown (Waterloo of the United States Hockey League) and Max Tardy (Tri-City/USHL) all could have immediate impacts.
Senior team captain Mike Montgomery and junior Brady Lamb, two of the more underrated defensemen in the WCHA last season, anchor a blueline crew which is long on grit, experience and talent. Lamb quarterbacked the potent Bulldog power play unit as a sophomore, tallying six times from the point with the man advantage and collecting a career-high 24 points overall. Montgomery, likewise, attained a person-best in the scoring department last winter (17 points on two goals and 15 assists). Joining the tandem will be the likes of fifth-year senior Trent Palm, who received a medical hardship in 2009-10 (hip), senior Chad Huttel, junior Scott Kishel, and sophomores Wade Bergman, Dylan Olsen and Drew Olson. The addition of rookies Justin Faulk, a second-round NHL draft pick last summer and who starred with U.S. Under-18 National Team in 2009-10 and Luke McManus (Tri-City) should only make the Bulldogs' last line of defense that much deeper.
The Bulldogs' recipe for success has always included high end proficiency between the pipes and that's exactly what Kenny Reiter delivered last year following basically two full seasons of game-day inactivity. The junior from Pittsburgh, Pa. crafted a 13-10-0 record in 25 appearances and placed fourth among his WCHA goaltending brethren in overall goals against average (2.58), third in shut outs (three) and sixth in saves percentage (.912). He'll be backed up by a pair of skilled, but untested commodities in redshirted freshman Aaron Crandall and rookie Christian Gaffy (Forest Lake High School).
POWER SURGE: UMD owned the third most efficient power play the country last winter (23.0 percent) after finishing fourth among all NCAA I clubs the previous winter in that department. The Bulldogs scored at least one power play goal in 32 of their 40 outings last season and were just 1-7-0 when they failed to do so.
BULLDOG BITS: Sophomore center Jack Connolly paced the 2009-10 Bulldogs in road scoring (17 points) while 39 of his 49 overall points contributed to UMD wins ... The Bulldogs haven't been shut out in the regular season since dropping a 2-0 decision to North Dakota on March 1, 2008 in Duluth, but have been blanked twice since then in the WCHA playoffs by Denver (1-0 on March 15, 2008) and North Dakota (2-0 on March 15, 2010). Prior to the loss to the Fighting Sioux last March at the WCHA Final Five tournament -- which ended the Bulldogs' season -- UMD had gone 82 straight games without being held scoreless ... Junior Brady Lamb, who closed out 2009-10 by picking up a point in six of the final nine games, ranked second among all WCHA defensemen in goals last winter with a personal-high 11 .. ... The Bulldogs were a whopping 21-2-1 when they scored three or more times in 2009-10 (the two losses both came at home -- 5-4 in overtime to Bemidji State University on Jan. 23 and 5-3 to Colorado College on March 13) ... All 11 of senior left winger Kyle Schmidt's goals last season were registered in even strength situations ... UMD posted five regular sweeps one year ago -- its most since 2003-04 (9) ... Junior left winger Mike Connolly is the only current Bulldog who is averaging who is averaging a point a game or better for his career (82 points in 81 outings) ... Since falling 2-1 in overtime to North Dakota on March 2, 2008, UMD has dropped just one of its 16 extra session games (7-1-9) and was 4-1-1 in that situation this year. The 16 wins the Bulldogs registered in WCHA play were their most since they went 19-7-2 while placing second in the 2003-04 WCHA standings ... This Friday will mark just the second visit UMD has ever made to Sault Ste. Marie (the first came two years ago).
UP NEXT: The Bulldogs will make their 2009-10 home debuts on Oct. 15-16 by hosting Providence College in a pair of non-conference engagements. After that, UMD will play only three more series at the venerable DECC, its home since 1966, before relocating to AMSOIL Arena.
