With no disrespect meant to anyone, the UMD men’s hockey team is going to learn an awful lot about itself in the next three weekends before its final bye of the regular season.
Home versus Western Michigan, at Denver, and then back home for North Dakota. The rest of the NCHC’s top four is lined up for the Bulldogs to gauge their progress against.
It all starts with Western this weekend.
9 THOUGHTS
1. After Adam Gajan struggled Friday against St. Cloud State, sophomore Ethan Dahlmeir got the nod Saturday. He played well as the Bulldogs picked up the win and series split, which was a good sign for a number of reasons. Gajan has a save percentage of .829 over his last three starts, going back to Dec. 13 against Arizona State, allowing 13 goals on 7.9 expected goals. As I wrote before Saturday’s game, UMD badly needs him to get back to the form he displayed for most of the first half, and hopefully this will be looked at as just a hiccup in a fine season.
But in the meantime, there’s a chance we see more from Dahlmeir. The Miami transfer is getting the net while Gajan is at the Olympics, meaning he will play the North Dakota games Feb. 6-7 and then two weeks later against his former team. Dahlmeir spoke at Wednesday’s weekly UMD media conference, which your humble correspondent was unable to attend due to the Twins Caravan (thanks to everyone who attended at Elite Sports Complex, by the way).
Outside of a third-period appearance against North Dakota on Nov. 1 in Grand Forks, Dahlmeir has been sitting quite a bit, not starting until the exhibition against Manitoba Jan. 2. He’s gotten the nod the last two Saturdays.
“(Practice) isn’t the same as games,” he said. “You’re getting the same shots and everything, but it’s not really comparable to a game type experience, playing in front of all the fans and everything. So I had to get my nerves under me a little bit. I was a little nervous against Lindenwood. It was good to get in for half the game against Manitoba to kind of get a little bit of that out of the way. But at the end of the day, that was an exhibition game.”
2. Before the season, UMD coach Scott Sandelin eluded to a goalie dynamic he wasn’t thrilled with last year.
“I think last year there might have been some maybe not great dynamics at times, but you know, they’re all competitive,” he said on Sept. 30 in our preseason conversation.
On Wednesday, Sandelin went into slightly more detail.
“There was some stubbornness in some parts of the group,” he said. “It wasn’t healthy, healthy as it should be. Brant’s (Nicklin, UMD’s goalie coach) usually really, really good at making them all feel very important and valued and supportive of each other, which has always been his strength, which helps them all get better. Last year, I think we didn’t quite have that supportiveness all year long. It was a little bit more of a selfish mentality, which didn’t help anybody.
“This year, I think the group is very supportive of each other. And I think they care about the other successes and they push each other. That’s kind of how it’s always been. So last year was a little bit of a one off for me.”
Dahlmeir talked about the dynamic between the three, with freshman Cole Sheffield also in his first year at UMD.
“I think our dynamic is probably the best goalie group I’ve been a part of,” he said. “Sheff does a great job keeping us together. And same with Guy-o (Gajan’s pretty widely-used nickname), we try to get together every once in a while. We went golfing yesterday at the golf simulator. That went pretty good.”
3. Sandelin said freshman defenseman Grayden Siepmann has been skating and is probable to play this weekend against Western Michigan.
“I’m hoping there’s a good chance,” the head coach said.
Siepmann was hit in or near the head during the Jan. 9 game against Lindenwood, left the game early, and has not played in three games since.
“I think he was playing really well,” Sandelin said of Siepmann’s play before the injury. “He’s gotten better since he’s gotten here. Good power play guy. He’s good at getting pucks out, and I just think his adjustment to college hockey has been good. He’s continued to get better. He’s got good offensive instincts. Just a good puck mover. Obviously skating is really good.”
Jake Toll played in the last three games after rotating as the seventh defenseman with Riley Bodnarchuk for most of the season up to this point. Brady Cleveland also saw some elevated minutes, with Adam Kleber taking Siepmann’s spot on UMD’s second power play unit.
4. It’s a rematch with a now red-hot Western Michigan team this weekend. The Broncos got an overtime goal from William Whitelaw to beat UMD 3-2 on Dec. 6 in Kalamazoo, and they’re 6-0 since returning from holiday break. Western beat Boston College and Wisconsin to win the Kwik Trip Holiday Faceoff, then swept Notre Dame and Denver before taking last weekend off.
In these seven straight that Western has won, the Broncos have outscored their adversaries 30-9. And they’ve done it without two of their top four defensemen, Joona Vaisanen and Cole Crusberg-Roseen, both out for the season. Helps that sophomore goalie Hampton Slukynsky has figured a lot of things out, posting a .938 save percentage over his last ten starts.
“He’s been playing world-class in our net,” Western coach Pat Ferschweiler said this week. “We’ve also scored goals. So the combination of scoring a whole bunch and having your goalie play like the future NHL player that he certainly is has led to our success for sure.”
Ferschweiler credited defensemen Samuel Sjolund and Theo Wallberg, among others, for stepping up with the injuries around them, but it doesn’t stop there.
“I think it’s more been a collective,” he said, “as a team, including our forwards tracking extremely well, trying to make life easier on the D. And then of course, again, Hampton being just out of his mind in a great way.”
“They’re good from the net out,” Sandelin said of the Broncos. “They’re missing a couple key defensemen. Obviously, one wasn’t playing when we were playing them earlier. They lost another one. But their forward group plays with pace. They’re obviously, like I said, great in transition, harder at the net. They make it tough getting through the neutral zone. They pressure. They don’t give you a lot of room. They’re a confident group that I think has gotten better and better and better as the year’s gone on. And part of that is they won last year and a lot of guys know what it takes to win.”
5. To no one’s surprise, UMD nominated the maximum of three players for the 2026 Hobey Baker Award. And it’s probably not shocking that the three are Max Plante, Zam Plante, and Ty Hanson.
Max Plante had two points in Saturday’s comeback win over St. Cloud State, including his 20th goal of the season 12 seconds in. Zam Plante scored the tying and eventual game-winning goals in the third period. Hanson has been UMD’s top minutes guy, playing the power play and penalty kill and taking up key minutes late in games as well as being a point-per-game guy.
You can vote here once per day as the fan vote started this week. The Hobey Baker people will whittle this list down to a top ten, which the selection committee will vote on the winner from.
Barring unforeseen circumstances, you can expect Max and Zam Plante, at the minimum, to be in that top ten.
And, yes, UMD is ready to put on a full-court press to promote these guys and try to bring home the seventh Hobey Baker Award winner in program history.
6. Sandelin was effusive Wednesday in his praise of the Plantes’ linemate, Jayson Shaugabay, who had four points Saturday and has 11 points (two goals and nine assists) in four games since break.
“He’s played great for us,” Sandelin said. “He doesn’t maybe get all the accolades, but he’s an elite player. He’s an elite offensive mind. I think he’s had a tremendous year. It’s been very consistent. He’s doing what he’s great at. He thinks the game a step ahead. Those three together play so well off each other, whether it’s five on five or on the power play. He’s … I don’t even want to say quietly. He’s just been good.”
Shaugabay has said he models his game after Tampa Bay Lightning superstar Nikita Kucherov, and while he’s won his share of individual honors in the NHL, Kucherov’s game is similarly quiet. You watch, you think he’s in check, then you look at the scoresheet and he has three points.
Even more encouraging to me is that Shaugabay has 13 shots on goal over the four games since break. He had 31 in UMD’s first 20 games, and it’s not like he is bad at it or something. Far from it, and the more he shows he can shoot the puck, the more dangerous he and his linemates become when you see what else they have shown they can do.
7. It’s a busy weekend around the NCHC, with only Miami taking the weekend off (and given the winter storm that appears in line to drop a bunch of snow on Oxford and cripple travel all over the nation’s midsection, what a weekend for the RedHawks to not play).
First-place North Dakota heads to Tempe to battle (what’s left of) Arizona State. Already down No. 2 center Jack Beck, Arizona State coach Greg Powers confirmed this week that No. 1 pivot Cullen Potter is having surgery on an upper body injury suffered two weekends ago against Miami, and he will not play again this season. Tough blow to a Sun Devils team that needs to get points every weekend as it tries to put pressure on teams like Denver, UMD, and Western for a top four spot. North Dakota is coming off a Saturday loss to Denver, but the Fighting Hawks are a strong 8-2 on the road this season and will try to get back on a roll in the desert.
St. Cloud State plays two games this weekend at Denver. The Huskies need more consistent play out of their second line, which features Verner Miettinen centering Barrett Hall and Gavyn Thoreson. They were really good in the second period of Saturday’s game against UMD, with players from that trio having a hand in all three goals the Huskies scored. If they can do that more often, it takes pressure off Tyson Gross’ line, which is going to see a lot of defensive attention, especially on the road where the adversary can dictate matchups. Denver, meanwhile, was winless in six (0-5-1) before beating UND Saturday in Grand Forks, a win that allowed the Pioneers to move back into 11th in the NPI and (at least for now) off the bubble.
The other league series sees Colorado College make the trek to Omaha for two games. This series matches up top senior goalies Kaidan Mbereko and Simon Latkoczy as these teams try to climb out of the bottom of the league. They enter the weekend tied for eighth, with CC holding two games in hand.
8. For the fourth time in five years, the UMD women’s hockey team has a player nominated for the prestigious Hockey Humanitarian Award.
Gabbie Hughes was nominated in 2022 before winning the award in 2023 for her work on Sophie’s Squad. Clara Van Wieren earned a nomination last year, and now Sadura this year.
While topping the 100-game mark in a UMD uniform, Sadura (bilingual in English and Mandarin Chinese) also is an exemplary student, and she’s taken great pride in her and her team’s volunteerism.
Sadura serves as UMD’s volunteer coordinator, so every request to the team goes through her. Many of them are filled personally by the junior forward. Highlighting that is UMD’s work with 7 Stars Ranch in Duluth.
“They do a lot of work with veterans and youth,” Sadura said, shouting out founder JoLynn McDonald. “They always have stuff for us to do. It’s just deeper than the animals and it’s just something that’s a really cool experience, a really fun opportunity.”
Sadura’s work is far from done with 7 Stars Ranch.
“I’m co-president of the DEI Council for the Student Athletes here at UMD,” she added. “And we do a lot of initiatives just trying to bring people in the community together, whether it’s a movie night associated with different heritages, just so you can learn. We also did the clothing drive. We’re in the works of doing kind of a partnership with the Multicultural Center right now and just kind of getting everybody together to do a little bit of culture and conversation, just a safe place to ask questions.”
She’s also part of the Green Bandana Project, a campus initiative toward mental health awareness.
UMD coach Laura Schuler calls Sadura “the connector” on the team.
“She epitomizes what it means to be selfless,” Schuler said. “She’s always putting her teammates first. She’s our volunteer coordinator for our team and arranges so many volunteer efforts for our team. Last year our team won the Impact Award for our volunteer service and Grace is a big reason why we were able to do that. ah And so she’s kind of continued the amazing history of excellence on in terms of community service work for us.
Sadura is one of two Minnesota-based players on the list of 12 finalists for this award, joined by Minnesota State senior goalie Alex Tracy.
9. As for last weekend, there’s no sugarcoating that taking only one of six points against St. Cloud State was not what UMD was hoping for or, frankly, needed. The Bulldogs remain firmly on the NCAA bubble as they head to Mankato this weekend to battle Minnesota State.
Schuler talked about the need to simply her team’s game a little bit, and she said the players have put in the work this week to forge ahead after a tough go on home ice.
“We’re a team that definitely prides ourself on our structure,” she said, “and we’re just going to try to simplify things so that we’re not thinking as much. We’ve had a great week of practice. I have been impressed with how our team has approached this week in terms of being a pro, their habits on the ice, and just executing the small things that we’ve been talking about. There’s been a lot of great energy. We feel really good. And so I’m excited about going into this weekend.”
The second-year UMD coach threw herself under the bus, to an extent.
“I probably have put too much on them in terms of tactics and structure,” she said, “and now is the time for me to just sit back and allow them to be able to play the game that I know that they can play.”
Schuler also confirmed that Swedish Olympians Ida Karlsson and Thea Johansson will be leaving after this weekend to join the national team ahead of the Olympics. They will return after the women’s tournament wraps up next month.
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Should be two good games at Amsoil this weekend. Join us at 6:30pm Friday, 5:30pm Saturday. Back pregame with lines and more. Enjoy!
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