It's the final weekend of the regular season for the University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey team, who will travel to St. Cloud, Minn. to face St. Cloud State University at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center. The Friday-Saturday series will get underway at 7:30 p.m. Friday, while Saturday's puck drop is scheduled for 6:00 p.m.


CATCH THE CAPTAIN: Dominic James has now scored 12 goals this season, rolling right past his previous season high of 10 set in his sophomore year (2022-23). In all, James leads the Bulldogs with 26 points, just two shy of the career high of 28 the put up in 2022-23.

ON THE LINE IN EXTRA TIME: The Bulldogs have skated into overtime in four of their last six games, and have not won a game in regulation since Jan. 24 against the University of Denver, a 4-3 triumph. With both games against Miami into OT last weekend and both games against Arizona State University back on Feb. 14-15, UMD went 2-0-2 in those four skates and is 2-3-3 overall when the Bulldogs play in OT.

THE SERIES: With seventh place in the NCHC on the line this weekend, the Bulldogs need just one point from the Huskies to stay in seventh place. 

UMD enters the weekend with an all-time record against the Huskies of 67-83-11, and will put a four-game winning streak on the line against SCSU on the line.

Since 2013-14, the programs have evened out with a record of 27-27-3, while since then, UMD is just 11-15-2 on the road against the Huskies.

More recently, the Bulldogs have scored four or more goals against the Huskies in four of their last five games. Over their last five games, UMD is averaging 4.40 goals a game while SCSU has averaged 3.00.

Top-5 UMD Players vs St Cloud State

Dominic James GP=15 G=5 A=9 P=14

Owen Gallatin GP=19 G=7 A=5 P=12

Aaron Pionk GP=6 G=1 A=8 P=9

Kyle Bettens GP=13 G=2 A=5 P=7

Aiden Dubinsky GP=11 G=1 A=4 P=5

Adam Gajan 2-0 .951SV% 1 SHO

Last 10 Games, UMD vs St. Cloud St.  (5-5-0)

Jan. 11, 2025 UMD 5, SCSU 2

Jan. 10, 2025 UMD 2, SCSU 0

Mar. 9, 2024 UMD 4, SCSU 2

Mar. 8, 2024 UMD 6, SCSU 5 OT

Nov. 18, 2023 UMD 5, SCSU 6

Nov. 17, 2023 UMD 1, SCSU 2

Mar. 12, 2023 UMD 1, SCSU 3*

Mar. 11, 2023 UMD 5, SCSU 1*

Mar. 10, 2023 UMD 1, SCSU 3*

Mar. 4, 2023 UMD 3, SCSU 4 OT

*NCHC Tournament Quarterfinals

UMD swept St. Cloud State back on Jan. 10-11 at AMSOIL by scores of 2-0 Friday night and 5-2.

On Friday night, Max Plante broke the scoreless stalemate 16:42 into the second period, a tipped down a shot from sophomore blueliner Aaron Pionk from the left point.

UMD – which outshot the Huskies in every period – withstood some late charges, in no short thanks to Klayton Knapp, who used every inch of his 6-2 frame to keep SCSU at bay. The Bulldogs finally got some breathing room in the final minute of the third period on a quick wrister from Owen Gallatin from the left boards that found the empty net, sealing the 2-0 win at 19:33.

Knapp made 28 saves in his first collegiate shutout and UMD outshot SCSU 34-28 overall in the contest. 

In game two, UMD took the game's first lead 12:57 into the opening period and never surrounded it. Jayson Shaugabay buried a cross-slot pass from M. Plante for the first goal game. A slew of goals over a 10 minutes span upended the second period, and it began with Adam Kleber's first collegiate goal, a shot from the right point that hit traffic and fluttered up and in at 7:00. 

Dominic James followed Kleber's tally with one of his own just 1:28 later, holding on to the puck on an odd man rush for his 10th goal of the season in what would eventually be the game-winning goal for UMD.

The Huskies finally broke through on  Knapp 12 seconds later, ending a shutout streak for Knapp that had lasted for 88:40 minutes to make it a 3-1 game. St. Cloud St. then struck again on its power play at 12:52, pulling within a single goal for what would be the final time on the night.

On its own power play at the 17:00 mark, the Bulldogs retook the two goal lead when Plante, from the extended goal line, banked it off the SCSU goaltender. It was Plante's second goal of the weekend and fourth-straight skate with a score. 

Arguably the biggest moment of the entire weekend came 4:36 into the third period. Having moved up to forward to fill in for players who had left the game, junior alternate captain Joey Pierce finally scored his first UMD goal 83 games into his college career.

Knapp made 20 saves on 22 SCSU shots, while each team scored a power play goal – UMD was 1-of-6 in the game, while the Huskies were 1-of-4, and were held scoreless by the Bulldogs in three extra skater attempts in the third period. 

NOTABLE: Max Plante and Aaron Pionk led all UMD scorers on that weekend with three points -- Plante had two goals and an assist, while Pionk had three assists).

--Four of UMD's six goals on the weekend were scored by freshman, including two by M. Plante.

--Klayton Knapp posted a 1.00 GAA in the last series and a whopping .960 saves percentage. Adam Gajan was injured and not available to play that weekend.

--UMD had 12 players register at least a point in Saturday's contest.

EXTRA NOTES ON UMD-SCSU: The two sides have met eight times in NCHC Tournament play -- UMD is 4-4 in those games. Two of those matchups came in NCHC Championship games in 2016 and 2019.

--The Bulldogs are 1-of-8 on their power play this season against SCSU.

--UMD outshot SCSU 60-50, and outscored the Huskies 7-2 in their opening series.

--The Huskies have scored the least amount of goals in the NCHC -- 70.

LAST TIME OUT: UMD earned four points from Miami (Ohio) last weekend in its AMSOIL Arena season finale with a 3-2 overtime win Friday night before settling for a 1-1 tie and shootout win Saturday.

The Bulldogs needed a win Friday night  and after 62:02 of action, they got it.

The RedHawks opened the scoring at 8:01 on a breakaway finish from Max Dukovac. But less than three minutes later, Braden Fischer popped his fifth goal of the season off a Ty Hanson rebound to equalize at 11:47.

Less than two minutes later and 1:19 into a Miami five-minute major for kneeing, the Bulldogs struck again. This time it was Callum Arnott, who called his own name and shoveled the puck into the twine off a pass from Max Plante for the 2-1 lead at 13:39.

That score would hold until deep into third period when Miami's Ryan Sullivan found the equalizer at 15:24 of the third, a goal that would stand to force overtime and handed each team one point in the NCHC standings.

It took just 2:02 of overtime for the Bulldogs to break through on the scoreboard. Plante picked up his second helper of the night after he carried the puck across the RedHawk blueline and flipped the puck over to his left to a hard charging Jack Smith. Smith backhanded the puck past netminder Bruno Bruveris off the far post to seal the second league point and 3-2 win all at once.

Adam Gajan, in his 15th start of the season, had 25 saves for the Bulldogs en route to his sixth collegiate win. Bruveris had 38 stops for the RedHawks, who went 0-of-2 on their power play and were outshot by UMD 41-27. The Bulldogs went 1-of-4 with an extra skater on the night.

On Saturday, it looked like the Bulldogs might pull a page out their senior script early when captain Dominic James put the Bulldogs ahead at 7:36 of the first period. Anthony Menghini skated into the zone, and after skating through the left circle, dropped the puck behind him to James. James' shot deflected off a RedHawk defenseman and past goaltender Bruno Bruveris to put the Bulldogs up 1-0.

But less than five minutes later, senior defenseman Owen Gallatin was called for kneeing and sent to the box for a five minute major. The Bulldogs killed off the extended penalty, and despite being out shot 8-5 in the frame still owned a one goal lead.

A scoreless second period protected that one goal advantage for UMD, but at 8:59 of the third period, the RedHawks equalized on a tally from Casper Nassen. Unfortunately for both teams – or fortunately, depending on what side of the ice the puck was on, both goaltenders made 26 saves in the game. Miami had the third period shots on goal edge of 6-5, and the Bulldogs with the overtime 6-4 upper hand.

After each team was awarded a point and the game officially went into the record book as a tie, the two sides rode their goaltenders in a nine round shootout. Max Plante landed UMD's first of two goals in the third round, but Nassen responded to keep the shootout alive. Six rounds later, sophomore defenseman Aaron Pionk finally scored, and Gajan made his eighth shootout save to help the Bulldogs pick up their second point of the night.

Gajan's 26 saves were matched by Bruveris' 26 for the RedHawks. UMD and Miami each landed 27 shots on goal in the game, and both teams were scoreless in two power play attempts.

NOTES FROM THE MIAMI SERIES: UMD is now unbeaten in its last eight games against the RedHawks and now 19-2-3 at home against their NCHC foes. All-time, the Bulldogs are 35-7-5.

--UMD finishes the season 3-0-1 against the RedHawks, and outscored them 16-5 in those four skates. The Bulldogs landed 129 shots on goal to just 95 by Miami.

--Dominic James led all scorers against Miami with six points (2g, 4a), while Anthony Menghini logged the most goals (3).

--Adam Gajan played in all four games against the RedHawks, and turned in a 1.21 GAA and .947 saves percentage.

BULLDOG NOTES: 

--The Bulldogs two shutouts so far this season is the most a squad has posted since it put up seven over the 2021-22 season.

--Klayton Knapp's shutout streak of 88:40 minutes is the longest of the season so far for the Bulldogs. 

JAMES IS A GAMER: Senior center Dominic James skated in his 100th game as a Bulldog in Omaha on Feb. 7, becoming the fourth current UMD player to reach the 100 career game mark. He now sits at 107 career games.

LIKE FATHER LIKE SON: Max Plante passed his father Derek Plante's rookie output from the 1989-90 season last weekend againt the RedHawks. The senior Plante had 21 points (10 g, 11a) over 28 games, while the younger Plante has 22 points (7g, 15a) over 19 games skated.

Plante will have some work to do if he wants to catch his dad in the points per game column -- Derek Plante averaged a mind-bending 1.58 points per game over his career, putting up 219 points over 138 points from 1989-93 -- the second highest points per game total in UMD history.

Currently, the middle Plante son owns a 1.16 ppg average through 19 games.

PLAYING WITH POWER: Overall, UMD has scored 25 power play goals on the season in 32 games.

Two players have more than five power play goals so far this season -- freshman forward Jayson Shaugabay, who has a team-high six, while Dominic James owns five.

Shaugabay is ranked fourth in the NCHC for power play goals this season.

IRONMAN: Senior defenseman Owen Gallatin has skated in 148 consecutive games ahead of this weekend. The fourth-year blueliner has never missed a game over his college career.

FRESHMAN FRUITION: The Bulldogs rookie class has been as good as advertised.

42 of UMD's 86 goals so far this season have been scored by its 11 rookies, and three of the Bulldogs top five goal scorers are freshman. 

Jayson Shaugabay has 23 points (10g, 13a) through 30 games and has the second most points and goals by a Bulldog this season. 

Other Bulldog rookies in the top-5 are  Max Plante (19 GP) 23 points (7g, 15a) and Zam Plante (29 GP) 17 points (5g, 12a).

Ty Hanson, a freshman defenseman, is sitting on 13 points (4g, 9a), while Blake Bechen (5g, 4a), as well as Callum Arnott (6g, 3a) both own nine points. Harper Bentz (2g, 6a) has eight points.

PLANTE AND SHAUGABAY'S SCOREBOOK: With 23 points, both Jayson Shaugabay and Max Plante each have 23 points so far this season With (10g, 13a) through his first 32 games, Shaugabay joins Plante (7g, 16a) as two of just four rookies in the past seven seasons to record 23 or more points. Ben Steeves had a freshman haul of 28 (21g, 7a) in 2022-23, and prior to that, Noah Cates was the last rookie with 23 or more points (9g, 14a for 23 points) in 2018-19.

Over the past decade (2014-15 or more recent), an additional three players have notched 23 or more points as a rookie -- Scott Perunovich (11-25=36) and Mikey Anderson (5-18=23) in 2017-18 and Joey Anderson (12-24=36) in 2016-17.