A much-anticipated midseason move into a new facility and the University of Minnesota Duluth's final eight games in the 44-year old Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center are among the highlights of the 2010-11 Bulldog men's hockey schedule, which was officially released today.
The Bulldogs will launch their 67th year of intercollegiate competition -- and 50th season as a member of the NCAA Division I ranks -- on Oct. 8 with a road engagement against Lake Superior State University before taking on host Northern Michigan University, which qualified for the NCAA tournament this past March, the next evening in another Superior Cup matchup. One week later (Oct. 15-16), Hockey East combatant Providence College is slated to visit the DECC for UMD's 2010-11 home debuts and the University of Alaska Anchorage will be in town the following weekend, marking the start of the Bulldogs' 28-game Western Collegiate Hockey Association slate.
UMD will host two more series at the DECC -- Nov. 12-13 vs. Michigan Tech University and Dec. 3-4 against defending WCHA regular season champion Denver -- until it christens its new $70-million, 6,800-seat arena on Dec. 30 by facing the University of North Dakota in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game. The remainder of the Bulldogs' home schedule includes clashes with 2010 NCAA Frozen Four runnerup the University of Wisconsin (Jan. 14-15), the University of Minnesota (Feb. 4-5), St. Cloud State University (Feb. 11-12), the University of Nebraska-Omaha ( March 4-5), which, along with Bemidji State University, will join the WCHA fold this season, and the U.S. Under-18 Team (exhibition game on Jan. 8).
The 2010-11 Bulldogs are slated to play Michigan Tech, Minnesota and Wisconsin four times next winter and the eight other WCHA schools twice each.
"I can't think of a better way to open our new building then to do so against our biggest rivals in North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and St. Cloud State," said head coach Scott Sandelin, who will embark on his 11th season behind the UMD bench this fall. "But, at the same time, that means we'll have an extremely challenging second half to deal with."
UMD closed out 2009-10 with a 22-17-1 overall record -- their second straight 22-win season -- and tied for fourth place in the WCHA at 16-11-1 (their best conference mark in six years). The Bulldogs, who held down the No. 14 spot in the final uscho.com poll, also advanced to the WCHA Final Five tournament for the fifth time in eight seasons.
