Going into the season, UMD men’s hockey coach Scott Sandelin talked a couple times about the importance of turning Amsoil Arena into a tough place for teams to come in and play the Bulldogs.
UMD was just .500 at home over the previous two seasons, and while it’s always important to win on the road, it’s equally if not more important to have a home building be one teams dread going into.
Through a three-game sample, UMD is just 2-1, but the Bulldogs have mostly played well in those three games. Now that the NCHC season has begun, we’ll see how the mission is carried out going forward.
And it really gets going now, with the Bulldogs set to play on home ice the next two weekends.
9 THOUGHTS
1. We should just get used to UMD’s top line drawing comparisons to a group that played here 15 years ago.
To be fair, it was first brought up by Sandelin himself.
Speaking to reporters before the second half of the NCHC season started last January, Sandelin volunteered for the first time the idea that UMD’s top line (Zam Plante centering Max Plante and Jayson Shauagabay, if you’ve been living under a rock) was similar to Jack Connolly, Mike Connolly, and Justin Fontaine, a group that was mostly together for UMD’s first national championship season of 2010-11.
Jan. 8, to be precise. Because of Max’s first-half injury and subsequent absence at the World Juniors, the trio had played exactly three (3) games when Sandelin went there.
“They have great hockey instincts,” he said back then. “They’re going to try things. They’re going to make plays that aren’t going to work, but their intentions (are good). It reminds me a lot of Connelly, Fontaine when I had those three together. Three of the best small area players possessing pucks. They think differently. When they get pucks, their thought process is already ahead of it. They’re going to try and look for each other.”
2. Eighth-year St. Cloud State head coach Brett Larson knows that comparison well. He was on the UMD bench as an assistant coach when the so-called FCC Line (I believe that was a Jess Myers copyright) was tearing through the WCHA.
North Dakota found a measure of success on Saturday night by being physical against that top line. Larson said that isn’t the single recipe for success defending a top-tier forward group.
“You know how many guys I saw try to take runs at Jack Connolly, and Mike Connolly, and Justin Fontaine?,” he said. “Sometimes it’s the stupidest thing you can do.”
On the two lines, Larson said “I think there are a lot of similarities there, and we’re gonna need to shut them down the best we can.”
Sandelin joked “That was a long time ago” when asked if he remembers how teams tried (and usually failed) to check the Connolly line.
“I’ve talked to Zam and Max and Shaugs,” Sandelin said. I said there’s going to be games where teams are going to nullify you for two, two and a half periods, but they have that ability to make a play or two plays and change the game.
“That was Jack. Like there were games I remember with Jack, sometimes you didn’t know he was out there and all of a sudden he makes one or two plays and he ends up with two goals or a goal and assist and they’re important plays, right? Mikey had that toughness. Fonz (Fontaine) was more of a goal scorer, but they just complimented each other, but they had that ability.”
3. No disrespect to his linemates, but Max Plante is the engine of this hockey team, and if he’s not at the top of your wayyyyyy too early Hobey Baker lists, you’re doing it wrong. The nine goals and 19 points he has in ten games doesn’t tell nearly enough of the story. Neither does his plus-13 rating, which leads the country.
(I know. I just cited plus-minus in the year 2025. I’m only partly sorry.)
The NCHC Forward of the Month for October? We’re just getting started.
Max Plante has 47 career points in 33 games. UMD is still working on this one as we work on this blog, so watch my socials and listen to the games this weekend for more detail. But you’re going to need to go back at least 30 years to find a Bulldog player who gets to 50 points faster than Max is about to.
Scott Perunovich didn’t do it. Neither Connolly got there this fast. At last check, research was being done to see if either Mike Peluso or Derek Plante got there in the 1990s. If neither one did, we’re going back to Mike Sertich’s legendary teams of the 1980s and guys like Bill Watson or Brett Hull to find the last one to get there this fast.
4. Sandelin was asked at his weekly media conference about the impact Max Plante is making, the stamp he’s putting on this team. It’s hard to imagine him being more effusive in his praise.
“So you think we missed him last year in 10 games? You see what kind of player he is, but his determination in how he plays the game is some of the best I’ve ever seen. He wants to be in those big moments. The guys that I think are your best players want to be in those moments. They want to make that difference. Every shift. And there’s guys that talk about it and then there’s guys that go do it. And he’s a guy that does it.
“That’s why he’s having the success. Because he’s very determined, he’s a really good hockey player, he’s kind of got that fearlessness to him. There’s times I think he’s gonna kill himself. Puts himself in some spots. I did not like the hit that they had on him on Friday night. I thought it was a dangerous hit, but that wasn’t his fault. But his determination is second to none in my opinion, which separates him.”
Have I mentioned that Max Plante is 19 years old?
5. Top line love aside, Sandelin wants to be clear that he does not believe he has a one-line team.
“I know that’s the talk. They’re only a one line team. I don’t agree with that, but right now it is because of the start those guys have had, and that’s okay. I’m okay with that. I’m not breaking them up. I know that.”
Yes, they’ve combined for 19 of UMD’s 37 goals, 51 of the 96 total points accumulated so far. But the UMD staff still believes the second line of Kyle Gaffney, Scout Truman, and Callum Arnott is going to pop. Their possession numbers and shot totals make it seem almost inevitable.
“One of the things my dad always told me is that you’re getting chances,” Arnott said of the line’s “stick with it” mantra. “That’s how the game works. Eventually it will come. You just got to stick with it and keep doing the little things right.”
After missing Saturday while battling illness, freshman forward Ryan Zaremba is good to go for this week, and it makes sense that UMD would reunite the all-freshman line of Zaremba, Daniel Shlaine, and Hunter Anderson after a tough go on Friday. If they don’t, expect sophomore Blake Bechen to figure into whatever that third line looks like.
6. Two weeks ago, Sandelin talked about the hill “getting steeper,” referring to consecutive road series against Minnesota and North Dakota.
The Bulldogs went 3-1 to come home at 8-2 through ten games.
“We were in a position to make it four, but we ran into a pretty good team,” Sandelin said of Saturday’s 5-1 loss to North Dakota. “I think defensively, probably the last three games, we’ve seen some things that we haven’t seen much of early.
“North Dakota, especially their ‘D’ involvement, we knew that going in. You know that the (Jake) Livanvage and (Keaton) Verhoeff and (Abram) Wiebe are going to go, they show up on tape a lot, especially down there (in the offensive zone).
“I thought we didn’t win enough battles. Kind of got out of maybe what we were doing earlier and we need a little bit more support with the first battle. The structure doesn’t change in how you would need to play down there. Sometimes you need two on one, not just one on one. And sometimes it’s easier said than done. So we’re just kind of focusing on that.”
7. Larson loved how his team played last weekend against defending national champion Western Michigan. The Huskies were lethal on the power play, perfect on the kill, and generated high-danger scoring chances on Western goalie Hampton Slukynsky all weekend long.
“That was the biggest task for us obviously,” he said, “no disrespect to any of the other teams we played. Honestly, I think we were shocked by the speed. I thought it took us a while to adjust to that type of pace, but once we did I thought we settled in and played played four and a half periods of really good hockey.”
Sophomore forward Austin Burnevik already has ten goals and 14 points in ten games. Junior captain Tyson Gross has ten assists and 13 points.
“He really put in the work this summer,” Larson said of Burnevik. “His skating has really improved. That’s always kind of been the knock on him. He put in a ton of work. He’s reaping the rewards for it. He’s a better five-on-five player. He’s creating more chances. Five-on-five, he’s helped turn a young line with two freshmen and a sophomore into a really good line that we’re really counting on early here. And his all-around game has just gotten a lot better. He’s more confident. He’s contributing in more ways than just a shooter.”
On Gross, Larson said “he’s a really complete player. He’s that guy that you can play in any situation, 200 feet, always compete, low maintenance, just comes to the rink every day trying to get better. I think that really that really carries through the team. The way he handles himself, he handles himself like a pro and he plays that way. He plays like a veteran pro player that just does all the little things right. Maybe sometimes you don’t notice him all the time. He’s not the flashiest, but he’s really efficient in his game and he’s really productive.”
8. St. Cloud State’s strong start didn’t come without a significant loss. Freshman defenseman Tanner Henricks was lost long-term to a lower-body injury in Friday’s game after taking a check to the head from Western Michigan’s Ty Henricks, his brother.
SCSU lost goalie Isak Posch long term to an injury after a freak off-ice accident last year. They lost defenseman Dylan Anhorn long term to an injury after a freak off-ice accident a couple years ago. Before the 2022 NCHC playoffs, set to host UMD in the first round, the Huskies lost goalie David Hrenak to an illness that he was not able to return from. The Bulldogs swept St. Cloud State that weekend, went on to win the NCHC title, and St. Cloud lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Does Larson need to burn some incense or have a seance of some description?
“Just as important is Tanner Henricks is such a great kid,” Larson said of his team’s latest shot of bad luck. “I know he was a lock to make that World Junior team. It’s not close. He was a huge piece to the puzzle for us. Always trying to look at the positives, I guess. Let’s hope our team can continue to get better. And boy, what a nice piece to add in February to make a run, to have a guy like Tanner Henricks coming back in your lineup.
“We’ve all got to step it up just a little bit, but you’re right, it’s been a tough run through some of that. I don’t know, I’m always a big believer in luck or bounces in games that they always eventually even out. And we’re hoping we’re going to get some breaks here to even some of that stuff out at some point.”
9. Busy weekend in the NCHC, including a Frozen Four rematch in Kalamazoo, where Western Michigan hosts Denver. The Broncos have played a strong schedule to this point, and they’re likely to be a contender again, but Western has some things to sort through.
The numbers aren’t always perfect, but they tell us that Slukynsky is facing a lot of high-quality shots. College Hockey News has over 38 percent of the shots he’s seen classified as “high danger,” with Slukynsky sporting a save percentage of .803 on those shots (he’s at .883 overall). Around the NCHC, that number (38.1 percent) is high. Arizona State, Colorado College, Denver, Miami, UMD, and St. Cloud State are all around or under 30 percent. Omaha is exceptionally high — over 50 percent (!) — while North Dakota’s numbers are similar to Western’s.
(Gibson Homer has seen 40 percent of the shots he’s faced come in the high-danger area, and his .778 save percentage on those shots is a big part of why he’s at .870 so far this season.)
If Western can’t stop bleeding chances like this, it could be a tougher season for them than any of us thought going in.
Elsewhere, Colorado College heads south to face Arizona State, while North Dakota travels to Omaha. Miami has the weekend off.
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6:30 pregame Friday, 5:30 Saturday.
Back pregame with lines and more stuff.
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