For the first time in over a half century, the University of Minnesota Duluth is taking its men's hockey show north of the border.
The Bulldogs will ring in 2015 with a two-game exhibition series against Lakehead University this Friday and Saturday (Jan. 2-3) at the historic Fort Williams Gardens in Thunder Bay, Ont. The puck drops at 6:30 p.m. (CT) both nights and each of the two games will be carried on the Bulldog Radio Network and can be heard
here. The Bulldogs last paid a visit to Canada on Dec. 26, 1964 when they battled the Port Arthur North Stars to a 6-6 tie in Port Arthur, Ontario (which is now known as Thunder Bay.) This weekend will also mark the first time a UMD club has ventured outside of the United States since the Buldogs split a two-game exhibition series with Russia's Junior Red Army team in Leningrad and Moscow back in December 1984.
UMD is 33-3-2 lifetime versus Canadian universities and 12-0-0 against Lakehead University. That includes a 4-2 triumph earlier this year (Oct. 6) at AMSOIL Arena. In that victory, the Bulldogs struck three times in a six-minute span late in the third period to overcome a 2-1 deficit and shade the Thunderwolves 4-2 at AMSOIL Arena. UMD got goals from four different players -- senior right winger
Justin Crandall (who picked up the eventual game-winner and also had an assist), freshman right winger
Brett Boehm, junior left winger
Austin Farley, and sophomore left winger
Alex Iafallo (an empty netter) -- and outshot the Thunderwolves 61-21 on the night.Â
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"They're a better team than they were a few months ago and so are we," said
Scott Sandelin, who is 15-1-0 in exhibition bouts during his 15-year head coaching tenure with that lone loss coming to U.S. National Under-18 Team (2-1) on Dec. 14, 2007 in Duluth. "I think it will be a competitive series and should help get us ready for next weekend."
UMD enters the New Year with a 12-6-0 overall record and holding down a share of first place in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference standings at 7-3-0. Lakehead University, which has been idle since Nov. 29, is 7-12-3 in all games and is sixth in the 10-team OUA with a 6-9-2 mark. The Bulldogs closed out the first half of its 2014-15 regular season schedule three weeks ago (Dec. 12-13) by trading non-conference wins with then-No. 4 Michigan Tech University. UMD took the opener 3-1 before the host Huskies pulled out a 4-3 victory the following evening by scoring the game-winning goal with just 18.4 seconds remaining in regulation.
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The Bulldogs, who were ranked seventh in the latest USCHO.com poll, will resume NCHC warfare on Jan. 9-10 at the University of North Dakota.
Scott Sandelin Weekly Presser (Dec. 31)Â
