Ahead of his 1,000th career game at the helm of the University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey program, head coach Scott Sandelin repeatedly said all he wanted was a win. Friday night, UMD's longest tenured coach in program history got just that.

 

The No. 4/5 Bulldogs stayed perfect on Fridays, defeating Arizona State University 3-1 at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minn., their 10th win so far this season in the first game of a series.

 

"It was an interesting game, it was kind of helter-skelter I felt at times," said Sandelin after career win No. 483. "I thought the first period wasn't great, I thought our second period we got back to doing some better things. We have to clean up some things for tomorrow but I'll take the win, it's never easy to win in this league. That's a good hockey team and we have to get back at it tomorrow."

 

The Sun Devils lone goal of the entire game came at 17:00 of the first period from a Ty Nash finish. UMD would use its only power play of the game to draw even at 7:37 of the second period. Max Plante buried his sixth power play goal of the season from the high slot off a pass from down low from Callum Arnott for the 1-1 equalizer.

 

The Bulldogs would take the lead for good at 15:31 of the same frame on Kyle Gaffney's first goal in a UMD sweater. Gaffney drilled a feed from Hunter Anderson, who had been moved up to his line officially for the first time Friday. It paid off in the score column for the duo, who also gave Scout Truman his first assist at UMD after scoring eight-straight goals without a helper.

 

UMD's penalty kill showed why it finished the game ranked the fourth-best kill in the country for five critical minutes in the third period. Adam Kleber was called for a five minute major for  interference at the 13:49 mark, but not only did the Bulldogs hold ASU to just two shots over the five minutes, they had two shorthanded breakaway attempts from Max Plante and muted any chance of the Sun Devils attempt to draw even.

 

Daniel Shlaine then iced the game for UMD with a 200 foot empty net goal from the back boards, his third tally of the season with just 1:10 left to play in the third.

 

In all, UMD dominated the shot chart 39-17, holding ASU to just five shots in the entire third and first periods. Goaltender Adam Gajan made 16 for the Bulldogs, while his counterpart on the Sun Devil goal, Connor Hasley, had 36.


"It's really special, obviously I've only been a small time of his time here, it's crazy how long he's been here, a 1,000 games in college hockey is crazy," said UMD captain Joey Pierce after Friday's game when asked about Sandelin's milestone. "It's special that we got to be a part of it and unbelievable that we got a win. All he said was that he wanted a win and we were able to do that for him."

 

The Bulldogs (14-5-0, 7-4-0) will look to close out 2025 on a high note tomorrow when the puck drops against ASU at an earlier 5:07 p.m. game time.

BULLDOG NOTES: Scott Sandelin became the 27th head coach in D1 NCAA hockey history ever to reach the 1,000 career games milestone, and is just the fifth current head coach to coach in 1,000 or more games … Max Plante's goal puts him back in sole possession of the NCAA points lead with 29 (15g, 14a) … Plante also owns the second most goals in the country (15) and is tied for the fourth most power play goals (6) … UMD sits in second place in the NCAA with a power play conversion rate of 32.3 … only Notre Dame is higher at 32.6 … the Bulldogs penalty kill is ranked fourth in the NCAA with a 90.2 kill rate.