Armed with a five-game winning streak, the University of Minnesota Duluth will engage in its final National Collegiate Hockey Conference road activity of 2014 this Friday and Saturday (Nov. 21-22) when the Bulldogs take on the University of Nebraska Omaha. The puck drops at 7:37 p.m. Friday and 7:07 p.m. the following night at the CenturyLink Center (15,959).

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THE RECORDS: UMD is 8-4-0 overall and 4-2-0-0 in the NCHC (good for a share of first place with Miami University) while Omaha, which is unbeaten in its last six outings (5-0-1), owns a 6-1-1 record in all games to go with a 2-0-0-0 NCHC mark (fifth place).

HOW THEY RANK: Here is how UMD and Omaha stacked up in the latest USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls:

    USCHO.com    USA Today    
UMD    No. 8    No. 8    
UNO    No. 13    No. 13    

ON THE AIR: The two Bulldog-Maverick clashes will be carried on 94X (94.1/104.3 FM) with Bruce Ciskie on the call. The broadcast can also be heard on KQ 105.5 FM in Grand Rapids/Hibbing; KQ 106.7 FM in Ely/Virginia; Red Zone Sports Radio 1350 AM in Pine City; and KKIN-AM 930 in Atkin as part of the Bulldog Radio Network and at: 94xrocks.com.

In addition, both ends of this weekend's series will be aired locally on My9 TV and videostreammed at: www.nchc.tv/umd.

THE COACH: The runnerup for the 2010-11 Spencer Penrose Award (American Hockey Coaches Association NCAA Division I Coach of the Year) and recipient of that honor in 2003-04, Scott Sandelin is in his 15th season behind the UMD bench where he has compiled a 255-249-67 overall record -- including a 133-89-30 mark (for a .587 winning percentage) since the 2008-08 opener. Besides capturing the school's first NCAA championship four years ago, his Bulldogs have won 22 or more games in four of the last six seasons while advancing to four NCAA tournaments (2004, 2009, 2011 and 2012), two Frozen Fours (2004 and 2011) and seven of 11 Western Collegiate Hockey Association Final Five playoff events between 2002-13. He has also helped produce a pair of Hobey Baker Memorial Award winners (Jack Connolly in 2011-12 and Junior Lessard in 2003-04), six NCAA All-Americans and 17 different All-WCHA selections. In addition, Sandelin has seen 16 of his UMD pupils go on to do time in the National Hockey League and one take part in the Winter Olympic Games (Justin Faulk for Team USA in last winter). During the course of the 2011-12 season, the Bulldogs set a team record by going unbeaten in 17 straight games and were ranked first in both major weekly polls (USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine for a program-best nine consecutive weeks. In March 2009, UMD became the first play-in game participant to ever claim the Final Five title and, later that spring, strung together a school-record six-game postseason winning streak before it fell to Miami University 2-1 in the NCAA West Regional final. Nine years ago, Sandelin, 50, 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) since 1992-93. 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 charges 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 member 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 with the Bulldogs on March 31, 2000 following six years of assistant coaching deployment at North Dakota (which won two NCAA titles during his tenure). Prior to that, 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-American second team selection and All-WCHA first team pick as a senior, Sandelin went on to play professionally for seven years, 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 active National Collegiate Hockey Conference coaches to do time in the NHL (Denver's Jim Montgomery is the other), 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, directing that club to a fourth-place finish, and was an assistant coach for the U.S. entry at that same event in 2011-12.

THE RIVALRY: UMD and Omaha will collide the 18th and 19th times ever this weekend. The Bulldogs hold an 11-6-0 lead in the all-time series, which began on Dec. 5, 1997 at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center, and are 5-4-0 lifetime in Omaha. UMD won three of its four games with the Mavericks one year ago, posting a sweep in Omaha (3-1 and 3-2 on Jan. 10-11) and splitting a two-game set at AMSOIL Arena in the 2013-14 regular season finales (an 8-2 win and a 4-1 loss on March 7-8).

LAST WEEKEND: The Bulldogs took a brief "break" from NCHC play and did something no UMD club had been able to do in almost 11 years -- sweep the University of Minnesota. UMD scored once each period and rookie goaltender Kasimir Kaskisuo turned aside all 17 shots the host Gophers sent his way en route to a 3-0 triumph on Friday then held off their long-time intrastate rivals 2-1 the following evening at AMSOIL Arena. Sophomore center Dominic Toninato and freshman right winger Karson Kuhlman each had first-period goals in the series finale for the Bulldogs, who outshot Minnesota 35-24 on the night and 72-42 over the weekend.

Omaha also came away with a pair of non-conference triumphs, besting Ohio State 4-1 on Friday and 4-3 on Saturday in Columbus, Ohio. Freshman center Avery Peterson scored twice and assisted on two other goals in the sweep to lead the Mavericks offensively.

NCHC FORECAST: In the 2014-15 NCHC Preseason Media Poll, UMD was projected for a fifth-place finish in the second-year circuit while North Dakota received top billing among the conference's eight schools with 181 points and 12 first-place votes. North Dakota was followed by Miami (167 pts.; nine first-place votes), defending NCHC regular season champion St. Cloud State (151 pts. and the remaining four first-place votes), Denver (117 pts.), UMD (112 pts.), the University of Nebraska-Omaha (73 pts.), Western Michigan University (67 pts.), and Colorado College (32 pts.).

AYE, AYE, CAPTAIN: For the second straight season, Adam Krause has been entrusted with the Bulldogs' captaincy duties (he shared that role with the since-graduated Joe Basaraba in 2013-14) while fellow senior right winger Justin Crandall and junior defenseman Andy Welinski are serving as assistant captains.

THEY'VE HAD THEIR NUMBER: UMD has won five of its last six engagements against Omaha with the lone defeat (4-1) coming in the two teams' last confrontation (March 8, 2014 in Duluth.)

ON A ROLL: The Bulldogs' current five-game winning streak is their longest since they pieced together seven consecutive triumphs together between Nov. 5-Dec. 3, 2011 (that was a start of a 12-game unbeaten run for UMD). Only two schools in the country (Michigan Tech University with 10 and Quinnipiac University with six) have longer active victory runs than the Bulldogs.

WHERE PUCKS GO TO DIE: Rookie Kasimir Kaskisuo was named the NCHC Goalie of the Week after allowing just one goal and making 41 saves in UMD's two-game sweep of Minnesota last weekend. His shutout Friday was the Bulldogs' fourth ever against the Gophers and their first in Minneapolis since Feb. 23, 1973. In Kaskisuo's last five appearances, he is 5-0-0 with a 1.39 goals against average and a .949 saves percentage. Kaskisuo, who has now made nine consecutive starts, has given up just 11 even-strength goals in 10 outings thus far and will come into the weekend sporting the NCHC's second best saves percentage (.931) and fourth best goals against mark (2.01). The Vantaa, Finland, native is the sixth European to enlist his services with the Bulldogs and first non-North American to play for 15th-year head coach Scott Sandelin. The five previous Europeans include goalie Nicklas Axelsson (Sweden, 1993-95), winger Pasi Korhonen (Finland; 1999-2000), winger Sergei Petrov (Russia, 1993-97), defenseman Roman Sindelar (Czechoslovakia; 1984-86) and center Max Wikman (Sweden, 1995-97).

ROAD, SWEET ROAD: Since the start of the 2013-14 season, the Bulldogs are 16-7-1 away from Duluth and 8-13-3 at home. UMD is 5-1-0 on the road this year -- outscoring the opposition 21-9 in the process -- and has won five straight in someone else's building since commencing the season with a 4-3 setback to Minnesota at the Ice Breaker Tournament in Notre Dame, Ind., on Oct. 10.

TOP 'DOG: Sophomore center Dominic Toninato continues to reside among the NCAA leaders in a bevy of statistical categories including goals (tied for first with nine -- two more than his entire rookie-year harvest), plus-minus rating (tied for 10th at +9), shooting percentage (12th at .269 -- the second best mark in the NCHC) and points (tied for 16th with 13). Toninato, the first NCHC Offensive Player of the Week honoree for 2014-15, also leads the nation in penalties with 12, is tied for seventh in penalty minutes (35) and is one of just five NCAA skaters to score shorthanded twice.

SUPER SOPHS: UMD possesses the nation's highest-scoring sophomore class in the country (they share that top billing with the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, as its eight, second-year players have combined for 17 goals and 29 assists for 46 points.

SOMETHING SPECIAL: The Bulldog specialty teams certainly have gotten a workout this season. UMD has had more power play opportunities (68) than any other NCAA I unit and has been shorthanded on 56 occasions (the third most in the county). The Bulldogs currently rank first in the nation in both power play goals (14), power play assists (31) and power play points (45) and are second in shorthanded goals (5). Eleven different Bulldogs have a power play goal to their 2014-15 credit, including junior left winger Austin Farley, sophomore left winger Alex Iafallo and junior defenseman Andy Welinski, who each have three. In addition, UMD, which tops the nation in both penalties (80) and penalty minutes (234), have converted on the power at least once in 11 of their 12 games to date (they went 0-for-3 on Nov. 8 in St. Cloud).

SHOOTOUT STATS: The Bulldogs have won both of their lifetime NCHC shootouts, defeating visiting Denver 2-1 in four rounds on Jan. 18, 2014 and Colorado College 1-0 in three rounds on Feb. 8, 2014 at AMSOIL Arena. The following are shootout statistics for current Bulldogs (no 2014-15 Bulldog goaltender has ever been taken part in a shootout).

Player	Att.	Made	Missed	Pct.
Alex Iafallo	2	1	1	.500
Cal Decowski	1	0	1	.000
Kyle Osterberg	1	0	1	.000
Andy Welinski	1	0	1	.000

BULLDOG BITS: The Bulldogs have been victorious in just two of their last 14 games that have gone into overtime, going 2-4-8 with the two victories coming at the expense of St. Cloud State last Friday (3-2) and Minnesota State University-Mankato (5-4 in the opening round of the North Star College Cup in St. Paul on Jan. 24, 2014). Sophomore left winger Alex Iafallo and junior center Cal Decowski are the only two active Bulldogs with an overtime goal to their collegiate credit

 • The Bulldogs have drawn first blood in 20 of their 24 victories the last two seasons (and are 6-1-0 when when they've done so in 2014-15). On the other hand, they've won just four times (4-15-2) when the opposition has taken a 1-0 lead during that same stretch.

• Junior Andy Welinski owns the best plus-minus rating (+12) of any NCHC combatant and ranks third nationally in that department. He's also tied for the NCHC lead in points for a defenseman (eights), paces all league skaters in blocks (24) and is one of only five blueliners in the country to collect a shorthanded goal this season. Collectively, UMD's eight-member back end corps has combined to rack up eight goals this year -- after mustering just five (all of which came from Welinski) during the 2013-14 season -- and 24 points. That's the 10th highest total in the country for a blueline corps.

• UMD's 2014-15 schedule has so far included games exclusively against teams that reside in the top 25 spots in the most recent USCHO.com Poll: No. 4 Minnesota (2-1), No. 7 Miami (1-1), No. 9 Minnesota State University-Mankato (1-1), No. 10 Denver (1-1), No. 16 St. Cloud State (2-0) and No. 25 Notre Dame (1-0).

• Tony Cameranesi has scored more of his career points against Omaha (12, which tops all active Bulldogs) than any other opponent. The same goes for fellow junior forward Austin Farley (10 pts.). Both Tony Cameranesi and Andy Welinski have taken part in all 86 games since joining the UMD program two years ago.

• The five shorthanded goals UMD has generated this year are one more than their entire 2013-14 output. The school single-season record for shorties is 12 set by the 1992-93 Bulldogs, who were captained by current UMD assistant coach Derek Plante (who scored four times that year while his team was a man down).

• Among NCHC defensemen, Carson Soucy currently is 11th in scoring  with six points (a career-high two goals and four assists) and is tied for fourth in plus-minus rating (+6). The only Bulldog ever to be drafted by the Minnesota Wild, Soucy owns the best career plus-minus rating (+13) of any active Bulldog. Fellow sophomore Willie Raskob shares the league lead (along with three others) in power play points for a defenseman.

• The Bulldogs have outscored the opposition 14-6 in the third period this season.

• Alex Iafallo, who trails only Dominic Toninato on the 2014-15 UMD scoring charts (11 points), is tied for 12th nationally in assists (a Bulldog-best nine).

• Going back to a 5-4 home loss to Minnesota on Oct. 15, 2011, the Bulldogs are unbeaten in the 46 of the 47 games that they've struck for more than three goals (41-1-5). The sole setback during that stretch was inflicted by Minnesota State-Mankato earlier this season (5-4 in overtime on Oct. 17).

•Bulldog junior defenseman Willie Corrin is the nephew of Omaha head coach Dean Blais. During Blais's first six years of head coaching duty at North Dakota, one of his assistant coaches was current Bulldog bench boss Scott Sandelin.

• The last time the Bulldogs overcame a second-intermission deficit to win was on Nov. 10, 2010 when they erased a 2-1 Michigan Tech advantage by scoring four goals in the final 20 minutes to upend the Huskies 5-3. UMD is 0-43-3 in that situation since then.

• Dominic Toninato, who has collected 10 of his team-leading 13 points on the road this season, is part of the 10th father-son combination to skate for the Bulldogs (his dad, Jim Toninato, was a UMD forward between 1982-86). Senior defenseman Derik Johnson, the oldest 2014-15 Bulldog (he'll celebrate his 25th birthday this February), is the son of Jim Johnson, another UMD hockey alumnus (1981-85) and now an assistant coach with the NHL's San Jose Sharks.

• Both UMD's 40 goals and 383 shots thus far are bettered by only three other NCAA clubs.

• Junior center Cal Decowski, who collected a pair of assists in Friday's 3-0 win at Minnesota, has points in five of the past seven games.

• Of the eight NCHC head coaches, only one (Miami's Enrico Blasi with 16 seasons) has been behind the bench at his current school longer than Scott Sandelin (15 years).

• Sophomore defenseman Dan Molenaar picked up his first collegiate goal (in his 18th career game) at Minnesota this past Friday night.

• Last Saturday's 2-1 takedown of Minnesota came before the largest crowd in AMSOIL Arena history (7,424). The previous record was 7,009 set on Feb. 22, 2014 against North Dakota.

• Senior right winger Adam Krause, who is UMD's ninth multi-year captain and first since 2008-09 (left winger Andrew Carroll), has bypassed the past three weekends while nursing a wrist injury which incurred against Denver on Oct. 25 and is sidelined indefinitely. The 2013-14 NCHC Scholar-Athlete Team honoree had taken shifts in each of the previous 94 games -- the longest active ironman streak on the club at the time -- going back to his freshman year.

• For the first time in 48 years, the UMD roster is devoid of any player who skated (as a Bulldog) at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center. The $80-million, 6,756-seat AMSOIL Arena officially opened its doors for business and became the Bulldogs home on Dec. 30, 2010.

• The Bulldogs blocked a 2014-15 single-game high 24 shots in Saturday's 2-1 win over Minnesota.

• Prior to last weekend, the Bulldogs hadn't swept Minnesota since Feb. 13-14, 2004.

• UMD is the only NCHC member with two shutouts this season.

• The 10 shots Austin Farley put on target two weeks ago against Denver earlier this season (Oct. 24) were the most by a Bulldog in a regulation game in over two years (J.T. Brown also had 10 vs. Colorado College on Feb. 25, 2012).

UP NEXT: The Bulldogs will be idle Thanksgiving weekend before returning to the ice on Dec. 5-6 to host Colorado College in the only two regular season meetings between the two clubs.