What do you do when the center of attention isn’t a huge fan of talking about himself?
You make him do it anyway.
If you know Scott Sandelin at all, you know he just isn’t someone who wants to talk about himself very much. Normally, this is where I’d take a shot at a guy like PJ Fleck, but I’ve grown and you’re on your own for that.
UMD hosts Arizona State this weekend. Friday will be Sandelin’s 1,000th game as UMD coach. For perspective, the late and legendary Mike Sertich coached 722 Bulldog games (his career spanned 825 games when you count his tenure at Michigan Tech).
Sandelin reflected a bit on his career this week ahead of a notable milestone.
9 THOUGHTS
1. The 26th year head coach is exceptionally grateful. Sandelin talked more about the people who’ve surrounded him over the years than he did himself. Chief among them was longtime college hockey head coach Dean Blais. Sandelin was on Blais’ North Dakota staff when he got the job at UMD.
“Dean gave me an opportunity,” Sandelin said. “Not only as a player, as a coach and wouldn’t be her without him.”
Asked what he remembered about meeting then-UMD athletic director Bob Corran, who was responsible for hiring Sertich’s replacement in 2000, Sandelin again talked about Blais.
“Dean pushed,” Sandelin said. “We had a lot of success at North Dakota, which helped. He let me grow there, too. And like I said, I wouldn’t be here without him giving me that opportunity and teaching me a lot of things and letting me grow as an assistant coach. He recruited me there, so we have a very special relationship. I’m sure he had a lot to do with it. If Bob talked to Dean, I gotta thank him too for being in my corner.”
2. Corran was inducted into the UMD Athletic Hall of Fame this past September. His tenure wasn’t long before he moved on to the University of Vermont, but it sure was impactful. Never mind everything he did to help get UMD’s fundraising going, or to — for lack of a better word — modernize things a bit in how the athletic department was run.
That’s all important, yes, but so is this: UMD has won ten team national championships in program history. All ten were won by coaches Corran hired. Sandelin in men’s hockey, Shannon Miller in women’s hockey, and Bob Nielson in football.
3. Sandelin saved his kindest words for his staff, many of whom have been around UMD a long time. Dr. Suz Hoppe, now UMD’s Assistant Athletic Director of Sports Medicine and Performances, has been around for two decades.
“Suz is one of the best athletic trainers I’ve ever been around,” Sandelin said. “We’ve been hiring interns over the years. We’ve had a lot of great ones. Just look at what she’s done with some of the people that have worked for her, the jobs they’ve gotten.”
Equipment manager Chris Garner is in his 18th season. “Kind of the old dust,” Sandelin joked.
Director of hockey operations Christian Koelling joined in 2008.
“CK does a lot of stuff,” Sandelin said. “That position’s grown. We hired him as a video guy. I think video is probably lower on the totem pole now because he’s doing so many of the administrative things and takes a lot of things off my plate and does a really good job, very organized.”
“Just very thankful to be around a lot of really good people that kind of deal with my s*** too,” Sandelin cracked.
“I’m very thankful for the staff. think that’s probably one of the things that I’ve gotten better at. You’ve got to hire people that are good fits. It’s no different than recruiting people that can complement your weaknesses.”
Of course, assistant equipment manager and UMD Athletic Hall of Famer Dale “Hoagie” Haagenson has outlasted them all.
“I told him he had a lifetime contract back when I got hired,” Sandelin said this week. “You know that story, right? When he hung up on me after I told him he’s got a lifetime contract. That’s all he needed to hear.”
4. Countless coaches I’ve had a chance to visit with over the years have praised Sandelin. Either it’s for his work as a coach, the kind of person he’s proven to be, or a combination of both.
This week’s adversary, Greg Powers, who is in his 18th season at Arizona State (11th at the Division I level), is no different.
“It’s beyond an honor just to even consider being a colleague of a guy like that,” Powers said this week. “I’ve got so much respect for Scottie and the program that he’s built, the person that he is, how he leads that program, how he operates it in every way is, he’s a model for all of us to follow. To say when I’m done, whenever that is, that I coached against guys like him, it’s going to be you know a huge honor.”
Sandelin is appreciative of those kind words from the coaching fraternity.
“It means probably more than anything,” he said. “I think winning and losing and all that stuff is how a lot of people measure coaches. But it goes way deeper than that to me. And that’s why I say it’s fun getting together with all of our guys at the (alumni) golf thing.
“Makes you feel pretty good that you had somewhat of an impact, maybe a positive impact on them.”
5. Zam Plante has a unique perspective on Sandelin. He and his brothers grew up around Amsoil Arena in a lot of ways, since father Derek was on the Bulldog staff for a lot of those years.
“He’s been fun on the bench this year,” Plante said of Sandelin. “He’s got some snarky comments which are fun to hear. Good to have him back there supporting us all the time.”
Asked for some stories, both Plante and Adam Gajan passed, not wanting to share something that probably shouldn’t be.
“I can think of some from last year, but I’ll probably keep those to myself,” Gajan said. “Obviously, we are winning (this year), so he’s in a better mood.”
“He still gets on us when he needs to,” Plante said. “He knows when’s the right time. He doesn’t just let us do whatever because we want some games, but he’s in a lot better mood than last year.”
6. Celebrating 1,000 games will go a lot better with a win on Friday. Arizona State comes in off a bye that followed two come-from-behind overtime wins over Ohio State in a non-conference series over Thanksgiving weekend in Tempe.
A much-younger Sun Devils team has taken some lumps in the first half, but Arizona State has found ways to win some important games long the way. Powers likes what he’s seeing.
“It’s been a brutal schedule,” he said, “but a young team that is now playing to our potential. We have skill, we have power, we know we’re capable, but it’s about being willing to do certain things to win hockey games
“We had a big win at North Dakota that really gave the young group confidence. We parlayed that into a split against a really good Denver team. It’s a confident group right now trending in the right direction.”
Cruz Lucius missed the first chunk of last season recovering from offseason surgery, but a healthy summer in 2025 put him in position to start his senior year strong. He’s done that, with a team-high ten goals through 16 games.
“He’s been unbelievable,” Powers said. “He’s such a talented kid. We always knew what he was, obviously. We have the youngest team we’ve ever had, and he’s taken a leadership role as a senior.”
7. Even with another Saturday loss, UMD did a lot of good things last weekend. A three-for-three night on the power play carried the Bulldogs to a 4-1 win on Friday, and Western found a way to get Game 2 in overtime on Saturday.
“They’re a good hockey team,” Sandelin said. “Four or six points on the road is good, especially in that building. We’ve been in a position two or three times where we lead going on the third. And it’s like I told the guys, this is why you play. And this is hopefully how over the course of the year you grow and you learn and you figure stuff out. And again, the good thing is we’re in those positions. We just got to find ways to close them out. Hopefully we’re going to continue to be in those. I’ll take those all the time. I’ll take being in those positions. I’ll take winning Friday and be in that position the rest of the year. Because that means we’re doing a lot of good things.”
Saturday’s game finished up with a long stretch without a whistle to end regulation. For the last 9:31 of regulation, there were just two whistles (both became media timeouts), and only two shot attempts, one by each team. Neither was on goal. It felt like both teams were playing for overtime, to an extent, but things happen so quickly in that building that nothing was certain.
“I felt like we were a little bit on our heels,” Sandelin said. “We weren’t pushing offensively. I kind of felt like we were hanging on a little bit. And we did hang on to get that point.”
8. Zam Plante and Gajan will be heading overseas in a bit more than a week. Both will play for the inaugural U.S. Collegiate Selects team at the Spengler Cup, a more than century-hold men’s hockey tournament held between Christmas and New Year’s in Davos, Switzerland.
Gajan, who is from Slovakia, is familiar with the area.
“It’s a very small town, but really beautiful,” he said. “Mountains everywhere around. My dad and my neighbor are coming.”
Derek Plante played in the Spengler Cup while with HC Davos in 2002.
“He said it’s one of the coolest hockey environments,” Zam Plante said. “It’s a small town, everybody’s there for hockey. He said it’s kind of similar to like a state tournament.”
(This isn’t faint praise. Derek Plante grew up in Cloquet and knows plenty about the state tournament.)
9. It’s a busy weekend of NCHC games to close out the league’s 2025 schedule this weekend. First-place Denver plays two at St. Cloud State. I mentioned last week that the Huskies really need to get points here before break, as their second-half schedule is fairly road-heavy. They got none last weekend against North Dakota, and now face a formidable Pioneers squad that has reloaded nicely and kicked off a shaky-ish start to their season.
North Dakota will be missing Canadian World Junior team candidates Cole Reschny and Keaton Verhoeff this weekend as the Fighting Hawks host Omaha. UND took two in Omaha earlier this season.
The other league series sees Colorado College head to Miami. The RedHawks are 10-6 overall, yes, but just 2-6 and last in the NCHC after getting swept in Denver last week. The Tigers have two games in hand on Miami after sitting idle last weekend, but CC is just two points up on the RedHawks in eighth. These are key points for both teams before break.
After William Whitelaw’s overtime goal rescued two points out of last weekend for Western Michigan, the Broncos start their holiday break a week earlier than everyone else. Western Michigan is off until it plays in the Kwik Trip Holiday Faceoff, Dec. 28-29 in Milwaukee.
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Reminders for this weekend: There is a lot going on in and near the DECC complex all weekend, chiefly Bentleyville at Bayfront Park and the Arrowhead Ice Fishing Show at the DECC arena itself. If that’s not enough, the Minnesota Ballet’s Nutcracker is this weekend at Symphony Hall.
We would love to see you here for the final home games of 2025, but please be mindful of all this stuff going on and give yourself plenty of time to get parked and into the building. UMD will mark Sandelin’s 1,000th game on Friday. It’s also the Teddy Bear Toss. I’ve done my part, I have two bags full of new teddy bears that I brought in here this week. Let’s overwhelm UMD with teddy bears and help all sorts of kids in the area have a great Christmas.
Saturday’s game starts at 5pm.
I’ll be back Friday pregame with the lines and a few more notes.
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