The University of Minnesota Duluth will undertake its first two road assignments of the young 2016-17 season this Friday and Saturday (Oct. 7-8) when the Bulldogs pay a visit to Lowell, Mass., for a two-game non-conference series with the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. Opening faceoff is set for 6:15 p.m. (CT) Friday and 6 p.m. the following night at the Tsongas Center (6,003).

(Complete Release)

THE RECORDS: UMD, which is off to a 2-0-0 start this season, went 19-16-5 overall last winter and 11-10-3 in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (fourth place), advanced to the NCAA Northeast Regional final for the second year in a row and was ranked No. 9 in the final USCHO.com Poll. UMass-Lowell, which makes its 2016-17 regular season debut Friday, posted a 25-10-5 record in all games and placed fourth in the final Hockey East standings with a 12-6-4 mark. The Red Hawks' season ended with a 4-1 setback to Quinnipiac University in the East Regional title game last March.

HOW THEY RANK: Here is how the Bulldogs and River Hawks stacked up in the first USCHO.com Poll and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Poll of 2016-17.

       uscho.com    USA Today    
UMD    No. 6         No. 5    
UML    No. 8          No. 7    
        
ON THE AIR: The two UMD-UMass Lowell clashes will be carried live on 92.1 FM The Fan with Bruce Ciskie handling the play-by-play responsibilities. The broadcast can also be heard on KQ 105.5 FM in Grand Rapids/Hibbing, Minn. and KQ 106.7 FM in Ely/Virginia, Minn., as part of the Bulldog Radio Network and at: 921thefan.com or free via the iHeartRadio app.

Both ends of this weekend's series will also be videostreammed on: www.goriverhawks.tv

THE RIVALRY: This weekend's series will mark the 16th and 17th meetings ever between UMD and UMass Lowell. The Bulldogs hold a commanding 11-3-1 lead in the all-time series, which began on Jan. 4, 1985 a the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center and are 5-1-0 lifetime against the River Hawks away from Duluth (that includes a 4-1-0 mark in Lowell, a 2-1 victory in the opening round of the Shillelagh Tournament in Hoffman Estates, Ill., on Jan. 2, 2009) and a 3-0  Marine Midland Bank Holiday Tournament title game setback on Jan. 3, 1999 in Troy, N.Y.). The two clubs squared off for the first time in seven seasons one year ago (Oct. 30-31) at AMSOIL Arena and traded wins in UMD's 2015-16 home debuts. The Bulldogs prevailed 2-1 in the opener (outshooting the River Hawks 40-27 in the process) before falling 6-3 the next night.

LAST WEEK: UMD got its 73rd year of intercollegiate hockey off to a rousing start by sweeping No. 17 Michigan Tech University in Duluth. The Bulldogs got goals from six different players and a 21-save shutout performance from rookie goaltender Hunter Miska en route to a 6-0 triumph on Saturday and then rallied to upend their long-time rivals 4-3 in the series finale, with senior left winger Alex Iafallo potting the game-winner with 15.6 seconds to go in regulation. Sophomore defenseman Neal Pionk was the lone Bulldog to turn in a multi-point night Sunday as he scored once and picked up the primary assist on Iafallo's tally.

UMass-Lowell throttled Prince Edward Island University 7-0 Sunday afternoon in a home exhibition matchup. Junior forward John Edwardh figured in on three goals, scoring once and adding two assists while three River Hawk goalies (Sean Cleary, Chris Hernberg and Tyler Wall) collectively made 12 saves while each seeing one period of activity.

THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN SPEAKING: Senior center Dominic Toninato is serving as UMD's team captain during the 2016-17 season while the trio of senior defensemen Brenden Kotyk and Carson Soucy, and junior right winger Karson Kuhlman are sharing the assistant captaincy duties.

OUT OF THE GATE: UMD is off to its first 2-0-0 start since the 2001-02 (Scott Sandelin's second year behind the Bulldog bench) when it captured the Maverick Stampede title by downing host Nebraska-Omaha (5-2) and the University of Michigan (3-2) on back-to-back days.

OUT OF THE GATE II: Prior to this past weekend, the last time the Bulldogs posted a season-opening series sweep of one opponent was back on Oct. 13-14, 1995 when they downed Ferris State University twice (3-0 and 5-3) in Duluth.

OUT OF THE GATE III: UMD hasn't found itself sitting at 3-0-0 since it kicked off the 1989-90 season with eight consecutive victories (a school record to start a new year).

DANDY DEBUT: Not only did rookie netminder Hunter Miska secure a win in his first collegiate appearance last Saturday night -- but he held the opposition scoreless in doing so. The last Bulldog to debut with a shutout was current UMD volunteer goalie coach Brant Nicklin, who made 12 saves in a 3-0 takedown of visiting Army on Oct. 12, 1996. Miska, the reigning USA Hockey Goalie of the Year, also manned the UMD net in its series-clinching 4-3 triumph Saturday, finishing the weekend with a .929 saves percentage (39 stops on 42 shots) and also was credited with one assist (on Saturday). Entering the 2016-17 season, not one of the UMD's three goalies -- Miska, Nick Deery and Hunter Shepard -- had ever appeared in a regular season collegiate game. The last time the Bulldogs sported nothing but freshmen netminders on their roster was in 1985-86. Miska and Shepard joined the UMD program this season while Deery was redshirted as a first-year Bulldog freshman one year ago. Deery did play the entire third period of UMD's 6-1 exhibition victory over visiting Lakehead University on Oct. 4, 2015 and stopped all four shots the Thunderwolves sent his way.

IT'S IN THE BOOKS: Besides Miska, four other Bulldog newcomers got their first taste of NCAA I activity last weekend -- right winger Joey Anderson (both games), left winger Jade Miller (two games) and defensemen Jarod Hilderman (Friday) and Nick Wolff (Saturday).

SPREADING THE WEALTH: Of the 21 Bulldogs who accrued ice time against Michigan Tech, 18 marked in the scoring column. That group included sophomore defenseman Neal Pionk (a team-leading three points on one goal and two assists) and junior left winger Blake Young and freshman left winger Jade Miller, who both picked up their first collegiate goals in Friday's 6-0 victory. That was Young's 32nd career appearance. Eight Bulldogs collected at least a point in both ends of the Michigan Tech series -- Pionk, Young, freshman right winger Joey Anderson, sophomore right winger Billy Exell, sophomore center Adam Johnson, sophomore right winger Parker Mackay, senior left winger Kyle Osterberg and junior center Jared Thomas,

HANG ON: Since falling to host Miami University 4-3 in overtime on Feb. 21, 2015, the Bulldogs are 17-0-0 when taking a lead into the third period. They were 14-0-0 in that situation last winter and 1-0-0 thus far in 2016-17.

BULLDOG BITS: Senior defenseman Willie Raskob had a goal and an assist in the series opener with Michigan Tech to extend his personal scoring streak to five games (going back to last year) before being held pointless the next night. That leaves senior left winger Alex Iafallo (three games) with UMD's longest active scoring streak ... Prior to this year, the earliest date that the Bulldogs had ever started a season on was Oct. 4, which they did against the University of North Dakota in the 2003 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game in Grand Forks, N.D. ... Sophomore right winger Parker Mackay turned in his first two-point night (one goal and one assists) as a Bulldog Saturday against Michigan Tech ... Scott Sandelin is in his 17th season presiding over the UMD puck program. That's the second longest continuous tenure of any NCHC head coach. (Enrico Blassi is entering his 18th year at Miami). Of all-time UMD bench bosses, only Mike Sertich (18 years between 1982-2000) served longer than Sandelin ... UMD has now posted six wins in a row at home going back to last March ... Senior center Dominic Toninato is the second straight Duluth East High School alumnus to serve as the Bulldogs' team captain. Two-time All-NCHC second team defenseman Andy Welinski handled that responsibility in 2015-16 ... Karson Kuhlman has skated all 82 games the last three seasons -- the only current Bulldog who can make that claim ... There is almost seven years age difference separating the oldest (senior defenseman Brenden Kotyk, who turned 25 last Aug. 27) and youngest (freshman winger Joey Anderson, whose 19th birthday doesn't come up until June 19) Bulldogs ... Going back to a 5-4 loss to visiting Minnesota on Oct. 15, 2011, the Bulldogs are unbeaten in 64 of the 65 games they've struck for more than three goals (58-1-5). The sole setback during that stretch was inflicted by Minnesota State-Mankato on Oct. 17, 2014 in Duluth (5-4 in overtime) ... There have been 11 father-son combination who have done time with the Bulldogs, with the most latest addition being sophomore forward Adam Johnson, whose dad (Davey Johnson), was a four-year letterman and captained the Bulldogs as a senior center in 1980-81. Senior center Dominic Toninato also followed in his father's footsteps to UMD (Jim Toninato, 1982-86) as did assistant coach and former Bulldog defenseman Brett Larson (Robert Larson, 1968-69) ... The Bulldogs gave up on average of 25.62 shots per night last winter -- an all-time program best and the seventh fewest in the country. UMD ranked fifth nationally in shots on goal (34.52 per game, the fourth best total in team history) and third in shot differential (+8.90, which is No. 2 all-time for a Bulldog club), but was 50th among the 60 NCAA I clubs in shot percentage (.077) ... UMD ranked second nationally in regular season strength of schedule last winter after topping the country in that department the previous two years.

UP NEXT: UMD will return to AMSOIL Arena to host the University of Notre Dame in a pair of non-conference clashes on Oct. 14-15.