No matter how many players return to a team, every season is a little different, and every group has to learn how to win their way.
The UMD men and women are no different, especially considering they combine to ice 25 new players for the 2025-26 season.
That learning process continued last weekend. It will do so again this weekend.
Always learning.
9 THOUGHTS
1. The UMD men’s 3-1 start has featured some surprises. Most notably, the Bulldogs have — Saturday against Augustana notwithstanding — found ways to score at five-on-five. Of UMD’s 13 goals scored over its first three games, just one came with a manpower advantage.
Overall, head coach Scott Sandelin is mostly pleased with his team’s play. He noted the coaching staff thought Saturday’s overall performance was good, despite the 4-0 scoreline.
“Saturday, I thought we played a better game in a lot of ways, but we just didn’t score,” he said. “We made a couple of mistakes.
“We keep looking at some of the things that we went through in video in the morning and tried to get better at. I thought we did that. We took care of the puck better. I thought our exits, our breakouts were better. I’d like to see a little more second opportunities in the offensive zone.”
“It’s been a fun first four games, really enjoyed our group,” said associate coach Adam Krause. “Some imperfections along the way in the first four games, but a lot of really good things to be excited about. So that’s exciting.”
Of course, if a team has only scored one power play goal in four games — especially given the personnel UMD has at its disposal — it’s going to lead to some questions.
2. The power play isn’t a major concern yet. Not even close to that, actually. But the coaches are trying to dial in more on some of the details with that group.
Sandelin wasn’t putting the blame for Saturday’s loss on anyone, much less a power play that only had two chances. But it was a 1-0 game deep into the second period Saturday, and it’s not going to take a mathematician to figure out the difference a special teams goal could have made.
“If we score on one of the two power plays,” Sandelin said. “Right now that’s obviously not happening. So we’ve got to find a way to shoot more pucks and try and generate something off the power plays.”
Last Friday, Sandelin cracked that the power play “hasn’t quite heard from me yet. But if it continues, they will.”
Worth noting: Last year, the power play was slow-ish out of the gates, but by the time it had played nine games, it was clicking at over 25 percent.
They’ll figure it out.
3. About that five-on-three goal. Saturday’s game took a turn late in the second period. During an Augustana five-on-three, Zam Plante raced to a loose puck in the neutral zone and tried to lead a rush into the Vikings’ end. Ty Hanson joined the rush, but Zam’s shot missed the net and sprung the adversary on a three-on-one that former UWS Yellowjacket Colten Friesen converted to make it a 2-0 game right before intermission.
I had a chance this week to get a few different perspectives on the play.
Krause: “Obviously a very unique situation. You have a scoring chance during a five-on-three situation. Zam Plante taking the puck up the ice. You have Ty Hanson, another player on the ice. Both players extremely motivated to help the Bulldogs win. Both extremely competitive players. You have two guys that I would take in my corner any day of the week that are going to help UMD win a lot of hockey games. And at the end of the day, you have a player going for a shot and a guy trying to make it a two-on-one. Probably in that moment, got a little bit overzealous and the task at hand was probably getting that penalty killed off in a five on three situation versus trying to push for offense. So maybe from a game management standpoint, there’s a conversation there, but from a player standpoint, those players trying to make a difference in a hockey game, I’ll take those all day. I think if you have those type of players that are looking to make a difference, good things will happen more often than not.”
Sandelin: “Ty got a little rambunctious. I think there was another shorthanded chance later. He tried to get up and create a two on one as well. He tried to draw a penalty, but he didn’t get one. Those are situations, I’m not gonna fault those kids for that. I thought from where the shot was, was probably a little farther than, I would like to see him maybe hit the net and track it. Unfortunately, he didn’t and another player that got a little too rambunctious, led to a three on one and it’s the way it goes. Those are the chances you take. If you’re going to take some risks and chances, you’re going to get burned. But I don’t think I’d change it. Maybe a little bit less aggressive with maybe our second man. From what Zam did, I’m not gonna fault him at all.”
Zam Plante: “Yeah, it’s hard. Looking back at it, like it could be your best chance of the game to score. Not every day they give you a breakaway on a five on three. You got to take your opportunities. So it’s hard. Unfortunate what happened on the play, but I think it’s all in the right mindset. We’re trying to attack any chance we get, even if sometimes it screws us.”
Ultimately, not that it’s a competition, but I like Krause’s perspective here. I’ll take my chances with these guys. They’re smart players, and if there was a mistake on this play, it was a mistake made out of aggression. It’s much easier to coach that than the opposite.
4. For his part, Zam Plante — mostly working with his brother, Max — is really enjoying UMD’s new aggressive mindset on the kill.
“We kind of changed it around a little bit this year, you can probably tell watching,” he said. “We’ve been really aggressive and it’s fun trying to put the other team under pressure and not let them set up and make plays.”
Krause, who runs the penalty kill, also is enjoying what he’s seeing.
“I think it goes in with our team mentality. We wanted to get aggressive. I thought there was a lot of passive play last year. In our league and against power plays we play, you just can’t give those guys time. What we’re trying to teach as a whole on a five on five situation is let’s go after this thing. If players are going to beat us, if teams are going to beat us, they’re going to do it through pressure. They’re going to do it with good stick detail.”
It helps to have the kinds of players capable of executing in these situations.
“Players that have a competitive nature,” he said, “a drive, and still have good details when they’re playing at a high level and a high intensity. I thought it was a time where we could take an advantage of those players and be more aggressive. Again, if these teams are going to us, beat us through pressure.”
5. Another series against a hard-checking team from the CCHA looms this weekend, as UMD goes home and home with Highway 2 rival Bemidji State. The Beavers swept Alaska-Anchorage before losing twice in a home and home against St. Cloud State last week.
The Beavers have a lot of new faces, but longtime coach Tom Serratore isn’t changing much about the team’s ways on the ice, even if the names are a tad different.
“They’ve always had a good goaltending,” Sandelin said. “But they play well defensively. They don’t give you a lot of room and they compete extremely hard. They’re always a hard team to play against. That’s not going to change. They have better players. And I think offensively, forward-wise, they’ve got some older skilled players that certainly are a little more dangerous.”
Sandelin said UMD’s first two opponents have helped the Bulldogs become a better team, and he expects more of that this weekend.
“They’ve been hard games,” he said. “Alaska was a better team than they were last year. Augustana is a very hard-working, very structured team. Good goaltending. I think it just keeps getting harder and harder every weekend we play, which is good. I think you have to play in those games and you learn a little bit more about your team, certainly when the games are hard and competitive.”
“We’re a better hockey team every time we play Bemidji,” Krause said. “I think that’s the best compliment I can give. They’re extremely well coached, a staff that’s one of the most well respected in the country, consistent in how they play and their effort. You know what you’re going to get.”
Zam Plante knows what his team is getting into this weekend.
“They play hard,” he said of the Beavers. “There’s no easy teams in college hockey, right? Everybody plays really hard, and especially Bemidji. We learned that last year in the first game of the year. They come really hard, and we can learn from that and come out hard against them right away. I think we can really do well out there.”
6. The most heated rivalry in men’s college hockey renews this weekend in Grand Forks. After a year off, Minnesota and North Dakota will play Friday and Saturday.
The WCHA broke up in 2013. If there was any concern about what would happen to this legendary rivalry, those concerns have basically been alleviated. No, they haven’t played every year. But they’ve found their way back to each other more than once, and have done so again starting this weekend.
As Brad Schlossman notes, only 11 total players on the two rosters have experienced a head-to-head meeting, and the teams only took one year off. That’s how much turnover the Gophers and Fighting Hawks have incurred.
Not having four meetings in a season, two at each home venue, hasn’t dampened anyone’s spirit when it comes to these games. Not having the potential of a meeting in the conference tournament hasn’t, either.
(The only true negative, to me, is the fact they play so early in the season. Especially in a year like this, where you’d expect both teams are still trying to find themselves, at least to an extent. But they should be playing and I’m glad they are. It’s good for the game.)
With so many players on both teams getting a taste of this for the first time, it’s hard to predict how salty it will be on the ice. But it will be plenty loud in The Ralph this weekend, and it’s the hottest October ticket in the sport.
7. Lots of miles being put on by NCHC teams this weekend. Colorado College makes the long trek to Marquette for two games against Northern Michigan. Arizona State is in Sioux Falls to battle Augustana this weekend. Denver is in Missouri for a series against Lindenwood. Defending national champion Western Michigan plays two at UMass-Lowell.
North Dakota, as noted, is at home. UMD plays at home Saturday night. St. Cloud State is home for two games against Vermont, as the Huskies continue a strange odyssey that doesn’t see them leave Minnesota until Nov. 20-21 at Miami. Omaha and Miami have this weekend off.
(Quick nod to Miami, as second-year coach Anthony Noreen has the RedHawks and their 21(!) newcomers off to a 4-0 start, meaning they’ve already exceeded last year’s win total. We don’t know how good these non-conference adversaries are, but Ferris State has a win over Western Michigan on its record. It’s not a conclusion, mind you, but it should be a sign that there’s real progress happening in Oxford.)
8. The UMD women have every reason to be frustrated after the way last weekend went in Madison.
Up 3-2 late on Saturday, a major penalty gets called on freshman Rae Mayer after a Mark Johnson challenge. The Badgers tie the game with 21 seconds left, then win it 12 seconds later.
Then on Sunday, UMD takes 11 minor penalties, its most in a game since 2009. Wisconsin scores three times on eight power plays and wins 4-0.
(In a league like the WCHA, where the reputation is that it can be really hard to get a power play, you just don’t see the kind of tight whistle we saw in Madison Sunday.)
Head coach Laura Schuler said they’re focused on the positives while trying to learn from the series.
“We played toe to toe with them,” she said. “I think that game on Saturday should have been ours. Kudos to them for for getting a good call there at the end to put them up six on four. There are always lessons to learn in every opportunity that we have.
“When you looked at the play five on five, I thought that we were right there, right with them. Those are positives for us to continue to grow from and learn. I thought the energy this week so far has been really, really good. We know where we need to be better. And that’s, think the best thing about this team is no one’s shying away from the things that we need to be better at.”
9. Now, the well-traveled Bulldogs finally get to play at home. UMD faces Minnesota State this weekend at Amsoil Arena. The Mavericks are 5-1 overall after a home split against St. Thomas to kick off league play last weekend.
“They go hard,” Schuler said of the Mavericks. “They send two in hard on the four check and they have really good goaltending as well. For us though, no matter who we’re playing against, we really want to focus on our game and the details that are going to help us to be successful.”
“They’re a really good defensive team and I think we are as well so two good defensive teams,” senior Tova Henderson said. “It’s hard to score goals and it’s hard to get around and get in that crease and get goals. They’re just a really skilled team and fast team.”
And, yes, they are excited to finally play at home, especially the 13 newcomers who haven’t played at Amsoil Arena yet.
“It’s beyond exciting,” said senior defender Ashley Messier, in her first and only season at UMD after transferring from Cornell. “I’m really honored. I just can’t wait to get going here. It’s weird to think that we’ve been here for so long and I was here all summer skating and training, and it’s now almost the end of October and I’m finally getting to play a game. I think it hasn’t really hit me yet, but I’m really excited to see the support and the fans and the building.”
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Three games on the radio for you this weekend. We’ll hit the air from Bemidji at 6:30 Friday, then we’ll be at Amsoil Arena for both games of Saturday’s doubleheader. Women’s game at 2pm, coverage at 1:45pm, the men follow at 6pm (5:30 pregame).
Back pregame Friday with lines for the men against Bemidji State.
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