With the 2016-17 University of Minnesota Duluth regular season opener quickly approaching (like this Saturday night at AMSOIL Arena against Michigan Tech University), the folks at umdbulldogs.com thought this was as good a time as any to whet your appetite with these tasty puck nuggets:
 
73 – Years of intercollegiate competition for UMD hockey in 2016-17. The Bulldogs began play in 1930-31, but the sport was suspended from 1932-46. UMD  has been a member of the NCAA Division I ranks since the 1961-62 season.

50 – Bulldog hockey alums who have gone on to do time in the National Hockey League. Larry Wright was the first (Philadelphia in 1970-72) and Justin Fontaine is the latest (breaking in with the Minnesota Wild three years ago).

29 – Minimum number of regular season UMD games (out of a possible 34) that will be televised locally in 2016-17. My 9, which has been UMD's television home since the 2010-11 season, will air 22 of those outings.

25.62 – Shots the Bulldogs gave up on average per night last winter -- an all-time program best and the seventh fewest in the nation.

25 – Pick used by the Dallas Stars in the first round of last summer's National Hockey League Draft to land Bulldog rookie winger Riley Tufte. Tufte became the fourth UMD product to ever go in the opening round, joining Larry Wright (8th selection in 1971), Matt Niskanen (28th in 2005) and Dylan Olsen (28th in 2009). Another incoming freshman winger, Joey Anderson, was the third-round choice of the New Jersey Devils in that same draft, pushing UMD's all-time total of NHL draftees to 103.

17 – Seasons Scott Sandelin has presided 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 University). Of all-time UMD  bench bosses, only Mike Sertich (18 years between 1982-2000) served longer than Sandelin.

16 – Lettermen the Bulldogs retain from last season's club, which went 19-16-5 overall and 11-10-3 in the NCHC (fourth place), advanced to the Northeast Regional final for the second year in a row and were ranked No. 9 in the final USCHO.com poll. Nine of UMD's top 12 point producers from a year ago are back, including senior right winger Alex Iafallo and his 2015-16 linemate, senior center Dominic Toninato, who finished third and fourth, respectively, on the UMD scoring charts with 23 and 21 points. Toninato, who paced the Bulldogs in goals for the second straight winter (15), was followed by junior right winger Karson Kuhlman (12 goals and eight assists for a career high 20 points) while Adam Johnson (6-12=18) reigned as UMD's top scoring newcomer. Six battle-tested defensemen are also back, headlined by the likes of seniors Carson Soucy (3-9=12) and Willie Raskob (2-11=13) and sophomore Neal Pionk (4-13=17).

11 – Number of father-son combinations who have enlisted their services with the UMD program, 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).

10 – Schools besides UMD that failed to score at least once with the extra attacker last season.

7 – Seniors on the 2016-17 UMD roster. This is the first Bulldog senior class which has played exclusively in the NCHC. The exception in that group is Brenden Kotyk, who competed in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association as College of St. Scholastica freshman in 2012-13.

6.8 – Age difference in years between the oldest (senior defenseman Brenden Kotyk, who turned 25 last Aug. 27) and youngest (freshman winger Joey Anderson, whose 19th birthday comes up this June) Bulldogs.

5 – Hobey Baker Memorial Award winners UMD has produced, a number unmatched by any school in the country. That quintet includes center Jack Connolly (2011-12), winger Junior Lessard (2003-04), center/winger Chris Marinucci (1993-94), winger Bill Watson (1984-85) and defenseman Tom Kurvers (1983-84).

5 – Number of NCAA tournament berths the Bulldogs have earned since 2008-09 -- their most during any eight-year period in school history.

5 – NHL Draft picks on the 2016-17 UMD roster. That list includes Joey Anderson (New Jersey), Avery Peterson (Minnesota), Carson Soucy (Minnesota), Dominic Toninato (Toronto) and Riley Tufte (Dallas).

4 – Schools in the country that had a higher home attendance average (6,111 fans per night) than UMD last winter. The Bulldogs also set a single-game mark on Oct. 17, 2015, when 7,569 spectators jammed the 6,756-seat AMSOIL Arena to see the Bulldogs throttle arch-rival Minnesota. This year marks the sixth full season UMD will occupy AMSOIL Arena, which opened its doors for business on Dec. 30, 2010.

4 – Shorthanded goals senior center Dominic Toninato has scored during his Bulldog career. Of active NCAA I players, only the University of Maine's Blaine Byron and Boston College's Ryan Fitzgerald have more (each with five).

3 – NCAA transfers currently in the Bulldog program -- senior defenseman Brenden Kotyk (College of St. Scholastica) and junior forwards Avery Peterson (University of Nebraska Omaha) and Peter Krieger (University of Alaska). Peterson, who enrolled at UMD last January, will become eligible to play on Dec. 17 while Krieger must sit out the entire 2016-17 in accordance with NCAA transfer rules.

2 – Duluth East High School alumni who have captained the Bulldogs the past two seasons. Senior center Dominic Toninato is handling that role this winter, succeeding two-time All-NCHC second team defenseman Andy Welinski.

1 – NCAA I teams with a higher strength of schedule rating than UMD during the 2015-16 regular season. The Bulldogs topped the country in that department the previous two years.

0 – Active UMD goalies who have 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.

0 – Number of times the Bulldogs have commenced a regular season before Oct. 4. They faced host North Dakota on that date in the 2003 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game.