I’d say “Welcome back,” but I don’t know if you went anywhere.
Hope your holidays were swell, whether you took in any of the large gobs of hockey being played or not. Either way, we do hope you plan on making your way down to Amsoil Arena Friday and Saturday, as for the first time this season (!), the UMD men and women have home series on the same weekend.
We’ll take some small peeks backward, but there’s also a lot worth looking ahead to. Pack a lunch.
9 THOUGHTS
1. It was a rewarding trip overseas for the UMD women’s hockey team. Laura Schuler took the Bulldogs to Belfast for the first-ever four-team Friendship Series event at SSE Arena.
“It was a surreal experience, one of a kind,” UMD senior forward and captain Mary Kate O’Brien said this week. “And to do it with the team was so cool. Those are your best friends. So you get to make lifelong memories. And I think it was a great step in the right direction in terms of just additional bonding. It was really cool to experience a new place and new culture and it was I’m sure very cool for our Europeans to finally be the ones to not have to fight the jet lag.”
O’Brien singled out the Bulldogs’ time with Experience Gaelic Games in Dublin, where players learned the ins and outs of Ireland’s national sports, Gaelic football and hurling.
“One thing in particular that stood out to us is that like you can represent your county and you don’t get paid,” she said. “There’s no like trades or anything like that. You are born into your certain county and you play for them. You play for simply just the pride of where you come from. That’s something that we really took to heat. When you come to play at UMD, aside from NIL opportunities, you don’t get paid to play here. There’s not in season trades or contract negotiations. It’s just playing for the pride of the Bulldog. And that was something that really, really stuck with us.”
“I know that our student athletes take pride in playing for the Bulldogs in this community and our university every single day,” said head coach Laura Schuler. “As do myself and the staff here. We are so proud to represent UMD in this community and so it was just such a powerful experience overall just getting to do all those things. I was really excited for our entire team to have that opportunity.”
2. The trip was awesome, by all accounts, but the hockey didn’t go marvelously for UMD. The Bulldogs had to rally from 2-0 down Friday to get into overtime 2-2 against unranked Harvard, before the Crimson picked up the win late in overtime.
UMD then had a go-ahead goal wiped away after a ten-minute video review Saturday and never recovered, falling 3-1 to then-No. 8 Quinnipiac.
“We played two really good hockey games,” Schuler said. “The first game I think we had 57 shots on net and just couldn’t bury one. We were doing the right thing thing. The second game, I thought we played even a better game and it was just one of those things where we can’t find the back of the net. That’s how hockey is. But I’m so proud of our girls and how they did play and how they represented themselves and our team, our university, and this amazing community.”
“Something that we always say is that like you either win or you learn or both,” O’Brien said. “And so I think like we’ve had a lot of those moments throughout the year so far. Something that we can always say about our group is that we get every team’s best. And I think that has never been a question.
“It can be frustrating and stuff, but we would rather that we would rather see teams at their best. Because then later on we can say we’re battle tested. This past weekend wasn’t what we would have liked. If anything, it’s a learning experience and a wake-up call for us.”
3. The challenges don’t end for the Bulldogs. The losses last weekend have placed UMD squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble, but there’s still time to get back in a better spot in the NPI.
O’Brien volunteered the “u” word in our conversation, saying last weekend’s results should give the Bulldogs “that extra spark of urgency.”
And they get a heck of a test right out of the gates, with No. 1 Wisconsin, the defending national champions, visiting Amsoil Arena for two games. It’s a Badgers team that features four U.S. Olympians in Laila Edwards, KK Harvey, Ava MacNaughton, and Kirsten Simms, along with freshman forward Adéla Šapovalivová being named to the Czechia roster.
“I think it’s a huge opportunity for us to make a statement,” O’Brien said. “We’re all feeling very fired up about what happened in Ireland. I think that that should be fuel to our fire for us to be mad, but to be mad together and to take it out on the Badgers this weekend. And what better team to do it than the number one team in the country and to really make a statement of what we’re capable of.”
The Bulldogs might be on the tournament bubble, but they’ve got plenty of chances to make that statement in the second half. Wisconsin this week, St. Cloud State next weekend at home. Ohio State and Minnesota on the road coming up, along with a trip to Mankato to face another bubble team in Minnesota State (a Maverick team that, thanks to a sweep of Minnesota before break, is right now the last team into the NCAA field if the season ended today, which it does not).
Harvard is the only team ranked outside the NCAA field to own a win over UMD this season. If the Bulldogs keep that number at one and can find a way to win one game against one of the WCHA juggernauts down the stretch, it will help their position tremendously.
4. Down the hall of Amsoil Arena, the UMD men are also preparing for the second half, one that starts Friday against Lindenwood. Sophomore forward Max Plante, injured at the World Juniors, is expected to play this weekend. That wasn’t a certainty after the U.S. lost its quarterfinal game in overtime to Finland on Friday night. Plante returned to Duluth, and head coach Scott Sandelin said he’s been feeling progressively better.
“Feeling good,” Plante said Wednesday after I asked him the hard-hitting “How are you feeling?” question (hey, school taught me a lot, what can I say?). “Last couple of days I started to feel better. So I’m excited to get back. I think we’re going have big second half, so I’m excited.”
I’m sure Sandelin is thrilled to not have to fight to keep his best player off the ice for recovery-based reasons.
As for the Bulldogs’ other players who were active over break, sophomore goalie Adam Gajan, forward Zam Plante (both at the Spengler Cup), and sophomore defenseman Adam Kleber (World Juniors) are all practicing this week.
Sandelin said they gave Kleber a couple days with his family to “decompress” after the World Juniors, and he rejoined the team for practice on Tuesday.
“We’ll see how that goes,” Sandelin said. “It’s nice that we’re not traveling, obviously. But if he needs some time, I think he’ll be fine. I think yesterday was probably getting back on, like it’s probably a little heavy, but he looked good today.”
(While Sandelin didn’t exactly commit to Kleber playing at his normal workload this weekend, I would be surprised if he sat out. Maybe they’ll watch his minutes, but I suspect he’ll be out there.)
5. At 14-6 going into 2026, there’s no reason for UMD to panic about anything, but there’s also no reason to relax.
“Play better defensively,” Sandelin said when asked about second-half priorities. “I think we got a little loose at the end (of the first half). I think that showed even in the exhibition, we got to be stronger defensively. It’s got to start there. Teams are going to get better and goals are harder to come by. That’s one thing you can do, tighten up defensively. It’s not just your D zone. It’s all three zones.
“Offensively, need some production from more guys. I think we saw it at bits and pieces during the first half, but we need some guys to hopefully grow in the second half.
“We need to be a harder team to play against. We’re not going to be this overly physical (team), run guys through the wall, but we can pressure and be harder to play against. But ultimately for me, you got to really dig in. And that can mean a lot of things to people, but you got to really kind of embrace the grind, embrace the hardness. You start playing in our league in the second half, everybody’s a better hockey team. The intensity goes up.”
UMD captain Joey Pierce went into a bit more detail on the defensive side of things.
“The exhibition games are always a little different,” he said, referencing Friday’s 4-0 win over Manitoba, “but I didn’t think we were great around our net. They had some shifts where they kind of worked us in our own zone for longer than we would have hoped. And so I think just ending plays early and creating good defense, and that’s going to create the best offense.”
6. When it comes to offense, things are only going to get more difficult as we work through the second half. It’s probably something you’re going to read about 100 times between now and whenever the season ends. Teams play tighter, and it becomes harder to score at five-on-five.
UMD regularly has outshot and outchanced its adversaries at five-on-five, but is it doing enough to generate offense at level manpower?
“I still like to see a little more consistency,” Sandelin said. “I think we got to be harder at the net. We got to the net a little bit more, arrive on time there. But just possessing pucks, I harped on them. We were throwing pucks, trying to make hard plays. If we can possess pucks and make the plays that we need to, but we also need to get to the net. We need to get to the inside of the ice. We gotta play inside the dot lines and we gotta get pucks and bodies there at some point. So it’s a little bit of a combination. I think we’re getting closer.”
“I think it’s just growing as it goes,” Max Plante said. “Maybe maintaining more time in the offensive zone. I think we’re just gonna keep working on it.”
Sandelin has talked UMD being more simple and direct with its game. Obviously, the Plante line is going to do Plante line things on occasion, and we’re all going to be wowed by them. But even that line could stand to simplify a few things and sometimes just get the puck to the front of the net.
7. The Bulldogs will meet Lindenwood for the first time ever this weekend. The Lions moved from club to varsity status at the Division I level four years ago, and are on their third head coach since the transition.
It’s longtime Division I assistant Keith Fisher, who played two years of hockey at Hibbing Community College back in the day. He put in two years as a graduate assistant at St. Cloud State before long stints on staffs at Princeton and Penn State. Fisher worked with current Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky at Princeton, then moved when Gadowsky got the job starting up the Penn State program. For perspective, the duo was on Princeton’s staff when UMD pulled off the Miracle at Mariucci NCAA regional win over the Tigers in 2009.
Fisher was hired at Lindenwood in June after Bill Muckalt replaced the fired Joe Shawan at Michigan Tech. He said he didn’t even meet his team in person until they got started with practices.
“The kids aren’t here for summer school,” he said. “So literally I didn’t meet the team in person until we were in the first team meeting, at the end of August. Those first two weeks of practice, you’re out there and I don’t know who’s who. I’m trying to figure out, what number is on this guy’s helmet? Who was that? And for the players, it’s hard, too. We’re doing all new drills, all new terminology, kind of doing things my way and learning how to do things my way. There were growing pains both ways early on, but I think we got through them those first six weeks.”
The Lions are 9-9 with a home win over Denver and two overtime losses to Miami, so they’re not unfamiliar with the NCHC. Lindenwood has lost four of five since a 5-2 win over Long Island on Nov. 28.
Fisher envisions a team that plays similar to the style we see from his old stomping grounds at Penn State, a program known for a bit more of a wide-open game.
“I want to play a fast style, quick transition and get pucks to the net,” Fisher said (well no duh, the Lions had 75 shots on goal in Saturday’s close loss to Canisius). “When we built the program at Penn State, you kind of got to manufacture some offense and we need to get a little tougher defensively. That we’ve been working on. But I want to play fast.
“I don’t want to trade opportunities with Duluth because I know the offensive firepower that they have, but hopefully we can shut teams down in our end, create some transition, increase some scoring chances on the other end.”
Pierce said his crew doesn’t want to get into a racehorse game with Lindenwood, or anyone else, really.
“We don’t practice that way,” he said. “We don’t want to play that way. We definitely want to stay away from that game. And so I think we want to play fast still and jump on chances when they’re there. But we don’t want to be giving up a bunch going our way when we don’t have to.”
8. The NCHC is a busy bee in the first full weekend of action of 2026. League leading North Dakota heads to Colorado College for two games at Ed Robson Arena. I don’t want to make any big pronouncements about the rest of the season ahead, but this is a big weekend for the Tigers, should they desire a chance to play a playoff series at home in March. Colorado College trails fourth-place Western Michigan by seven points in the standings. The Penrose might be a pipe dream, but CC can still make a play for the top four by having a good weekend against the league leaders.
Also in Colorado, Denver hosts Western Michigan. The Pioneers picked up a sweep in Kalamazoo in November, so they clinch the head-to-head tiebreaker with one point this weekend. But this Western team has figured a few things out. William Whitelaw is on a tear, and the Broncos are playing much better defense in front of Hampton Slukynsky. Remember, the first Denver series came right after the season-ending injury to Joona Vaisanen, and WMU needed to adjust a bit to his loss. It appears they’ve done that, and the Broncos are going to be a tough out in the second half.
The other league series sends Miami to Arizona State. The RedHawks are clearly improved, yet still sit at the bottom of the table. Arizona State’s dynamic top line (Cullen Potter, Bennett Schimek, and Cruz Lucius) are still playing well after accounting for six goals in that 6-3 win over UMD on Dec. 13, but with Jack Beck now out for the season, ASU’s depth will be tested big-time going forward.
9. Obviously, we can’t close out without talking about Hoagie. UMD’s volunteer assistant for over four decades, the 65-year-old Dale “Hoagie” Haagenson has been hospitalized since Christmas after suffering a medical event.
Hoagie has been on the minds of so many people, both in the building now and anyone who’s worked here previously, so many alumni, as well.
Duluth Northern Stars hockey coach Ali Randall set up a Caring Bridge to keep folks updated on Hoagie’s recovery process, which will be a long one. Please check in often. Also, if you’re someone who’s gotten to know Hoagie at all, or you just want to offer some support, there are ways to do that in various posts on the site.
(I do want to emphasize something that was mentioned in the first couple posts. There is no official fundraising campaign as of yet. Please stay tuned for more info on that.)
Hoagie was a fixture on my radio show when I was using the old-school call-in format, something I nixed many years ago (mostly because I didn’t have anyone available to screen calls and I got tired of people taking advantage of that). So I got to know him a bit before we ever met face-to-face.
I talked to both Pierce and O’Brien about Hoagie this week, and they both referenced how he has “no bad days,” and how important a lesson that should be for everyone.
Pierce was emotional as he described what Hoagie means to him and the Bulldog program.
“It’s cliche, but he’s everything. I remember him coming along to Hermantown High School games. Chad Huttel (UMD alum, current Hermantown assistant) and the assistant coaches who played here would bring him with.
“I’m used to picking him up in the morning and bringing him to the rink. There’s clearly a big piece of our team that’s missing right now, which is too bad. Luckily, we’ve been able to go see him a couple of times here. It’s tough for our locker room, I think, for sure. But I hope that we can use it as something to rally around. I know everyone’s thinking about him and praying for him. He’s everything. And we definitely, we miss him.”
“He is the main example of what it means to bleed maroon and gold,” O’Brien said, “and to just do everything for our program. He really is the heart and soul of our program … it’s something that we’re keeping with us and something that we’re playing for him right now.”
Hoagie, I know you’re out there. We love you, we’re thinking about you and pulling hard for you.
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Four games this weekend for you on the radio. On air, streaming, you name it. We’ll hit the air at 2:45 Friday, 1:45 Saturday. An hour and change in between as we get ready for the men’s game and have our pregame meeting with Sandelin.
If you’re going to either game Saturday, Sophie’s Squad will be there. It’s a central part of both programs now, thanks to the work of Gabbie Hughes and her family (and an army of supporters). Please take some time to familiarize yourself with their work by stopping by their table just inside the main concourse. These are wonderful people with a mission that’s so much more important than anything happening on the ice.
Fun weekend, join us if you’re not going to be at the rink!
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