Before we get into the weekend to come, a quick salute to everyone who helped put together the celebration of life for Hoagie on Tuesday. Plenty of laughs, some tender moments, and a great idea to have one more stick salute with UMD’s current teams joined by alumni, staff, family, and friends of Hoags.
You can watch it in its entirety at your convenience. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll get a glimpse into why Hoagie was so loved.
(At the minimum, get into the speeches and catch former Duluth Huskies GM Craig Smith’s story about Hoagie, the old Huskies Kennel Club, and the night they served prime rib out there. Then make sure to stick around for St. Cloud State men’s coach Brett Larson and his classic apple pie story that I’m still in stitches over when I think about it.)
9 THOUGHTS
1. Amid heavy grief, both UMD teams handled their business on the road last weekend very well. I haven’t surveyed the teams or anything like that, but I know enough people who were in their 20s before they ever had to experience a difficult loss that it’s reasonable to assert that there are players in the UMD program who are going through this for the first time.
And grief is difficult. Even this loss, man, all I can do is go by my own experience, and it’s been a roller coaster of emotions over the last week and change. I can only imagine how this is for the players and staffs, many of whom were really tight with Hoagie.
But both teams went out on the road last week and played very well, making their old friend proud.
“Hoagie meant so much to our team and to our program and there was nobody more connected to this community, university and the hockey programs than was Hoagie,” UMD women’s hockey coach Laura Schuler said. “We talked about how important it is for us to be able to honor who he was and play just as connected, just as resilient with as much heart and passion that he brought to the rink each and every day.
“He’s inspired us ever since he’s been a part of this program. We allowed our whole team to just come together and embrace what he meant, to us and use that to help propel us.”
“Everyone grieves differently and everyone deals with it differently,” men’s coach Scott Sandelin said. “I think, especially for the guys that really knew Hoagie and what he meant, and even our new guys, they got to experience the first half with him, I they just kind of used it as a good rallying point. I don’t think a lot was said. I can’t speak for Joey and the leadership group, what they were saying in the room. I know we just talked briefly as a group, that our best way to honor him is try and go and win as many games as we can. And keep fighting and battling just like he did through his last couple months.”
2. Sandelin was very pleased with both games at Miami. The Bulldogs trailed 2-0 in the second period Friday before scoring five in a row. On Saturday, UMD killed three Miami power plays, then scored the game’s first goal right as their first power play ended before burying goals on their next two power play chances.
“It was much needed,” he said. “We’ve been in a lot of tight games that we haven’t won. I liked our Saturday game. I mean, I liked Friday, but I (really) liked Saturday. It just felt a little bit different, even though we started with having to kill three power plays. But the killers did a great job all weekend. Our power play was good. Dahly (goalie Ethan Dahlmeir) was good, and not in an easy building. It was very physical. It a hard fought series. Our guys stuck with it and got two big wins. One of our goals was to be in order to get home ice in playoffs.”
That goal is achieved. When Colorado College didn’t beat Western Michigan Saturday night, it allowed UMD to clinch home ice in the first round of the NCHC playoffs. There’s a caveat to this stat, because UMD qualified for home ice in 2020 (canceled playoffs) and 2021 (neutral site playoffs because of COVID), but the Bulldogs have not played a postseason game at Amsoil Arena since 2019.
- 3. UMD is a virtual lock to make its first NCAA Tournament since 2022. College Hockey News runs a probability matrix that simulates the remaining results this season, and it has UMD at 99.7 percent to make the NCAA Tournament.
Just don’t tell that to senior forward Kyle Gaffney. He was at Alaska in 2022-23, his freshman season there. The Nanooks won 22 games, had quality wins over the likes of Notre Dame and Denver, and missed the NCAA Tournament because Colgate came out of nowhere to win the ECAC playoff title.
“I won’t believe it until we get there because we had a similar situation my freshman year,” Gaffney said, as I winced at having opened up an old wound. “I’ll be happy once we get there. Having those odds right now, it’s nice to hear. But yeah, it’ll be nice once we get there.”
“The big goal coming in was, obviously, to win the championship,” fellow senior forward Scout Truman, a transfer from UMass-Lowell, said. “For myself personally, I guess it was always in the back of my mind that I’ve never played in the tournament. And that’s something that’s kind of, there’s some light at the end of the tunnel there. We got a good chance to secure a spot. So it’s exciting. I know we can do it. And I’m looking forward to getting there.”
For a team with just five seniors, it’s a great accomplishment. Senior forward Kyler Kovich, a graduate transfer from Cornell, is the only player on the team who has participated in the NCAA Tournament. While at Cornell, he made three in a row, including last year’s swan song for longtime coach Mike Schafer, where the Big Red had to win the ECAC playoff title to get in, then went on to upset top seed Michigan State at the Manchester Regional.
“I think I was in the regionals my last three years,” he said, “so I’ve had a decent amount of experience with it, it’s definitely trying to tell the young guys that it’s a different hockey atmosphere on the ice, off the ice. Playoffs is a completely new season, and everyone’s trying 95, 100 percent harder than you’ve experienced the entire season. So I think having conversation with those younger guys and kind of preparing them for essentially a new season is something that’s going to be important.”
4. Hunter Anderson had his best weekend to date, but his status for this weekend is up in the air. Sandelin noted the freshman forward is not injured, but is questionable for this weekend. He was not practicing on Wednesday.
It stings, especially for a second power play unit that had its best weekend of the season at Miami. That group struck four times, twice in each game, with Anderson responsible for two goals and four points in the series.
“He’s just an offensive threat just all the time,” Gaffney said (Gaffney centers the second power play unit, which included Anderson, Truman, Aaron Pionk, and Grayden Siepmann for the last few weeks). “He can make any pass he wants. And then he’s also got that crazy shot on him, just the crazy release. Any time he gets the puck, we’re confident in him.”
“That’s why it sucks if he can’t play,” Sandelin said, “because he’s been one of our hottest guys as far as scoring and obviously a threat on the power play. He’s starting to find his game a little bit too.”
Anderson, out of Manhattan Beach, Calif., is up to five goals and 16 points this season. He was named NCHC Rookie of the Week for his performance against the RedHawks.
5. The Bulldogs wrap up the regular season at home against Colorado College. It’s a Tigers team that has struggled to find consistent offense, despite strong analytics throughout most of the regular season.
“We really like this team,” said Tigers coach Kris Mayotte. “There are so many things that we do really well that we’re really excited about and we’re proud of the group for. And we just keep finding ourselves on the wrong side of it. Being close doesn’t really matter in this business.
“Our 22 NCHC games we’ve so far, 10 have gone to overtime. Unfortunately for us, we’ve been on the wrong side of those extra points quite a bit. On the flip side, we’ve lost five points this year to extra attackers, where we’ve given up a goal six on five. We’ve only gotten that extra point back once. It’s hard because I understand it’s a results business and obviously we’re in it and CC’s in this thing to win championships. So we don’t take consolation of being close. But at the same time, I think the quality of play that we’re able to go out and execute is is a good sign for such a young team.”
Colorado College has 13 freshmen, including defenseman Mats Lindgren, who joined at midseason from juniors and has made an immediate impact with five goals and nine points across 14 games.
“It certainly exceeded our expectations in terms of what he would be able to do,” Mayotte said of the Buffalo Sabres draft pick. “You never dial up 14 games and five goals for a D-man to start their career. I think it’s just his ability to manage pucks and to defend as well.”
The Tigers are led in goal by senior captain Kaidan Mbereko, who has a .913 save percentage, but has allowed just four goals on 93 shots in his last three starts (.957 save percentage, but only a 1-1-1 record, thus proving wins are not a goalie stat, kids).
“The attitude that he shows up to the rink with every day, the smile on his face paired with the competitiveness and the drive and the ambition to get better,” Mayotte said of Mbereko’s leadership attributes. “He just doesn’t leave any stone unturned. And so when you talk about program drivers, he certainly is. And he might be the best one that I’ve been around in terms of guys that’ll just be willing to put the weight of the program on their shoulders and do it every single day and show up every single day. I’m happy he’s kind of gotten back to himself a little bit here recently. Which is going to be key for us down the stretch if we’re going to have a chance to get on a run.”
6. UMD will try to inch closer to its best hockey again this weekend. Last weekend saw a very strong two game effort from the Bulldogs, their first six-point weekend of the NCHC season, and their first league sweep since Nov. 7-8 against St. Cloud State.
But there is more work to be done, should UMD hope to play deep into March or maybe even April.
“I hope our special teams keep excelling,” Sandelin said. “You’re going to need good goaltending. we know we have two guys that can do the job there that have played. Obviously, staying healthy. I think just you’ve got to be comfortable in the games that we’re going to be probably in. We’re not going to be a lot of high scoring games. We’ve got to be comfortable in tight games.
“The biggest thing is the mental toughness you need. You need to have mental toughness because not everything’s gonna go your way. Calls aren’t gonna go your way. Bounces aren’t gonna go your way. You’re gonna end up like we did Friday, where you’re playing a good game but you’re down 2-0. How do you deal with it? I think those are good situations and the way we came out of that hopefully helps.”
Sandelin reiterated that not all games are created equal, even when you get into the NCAA Tournament.
“I just think it’s how you approach every game and understanding the game, the game that you’re in. Some games down the stretch here could be wide open. Some are going to be fight for every inch. I think defensively we’ve been a pretty good team all year. You’ve got to focus on them when you don’t have the puck. And then offensively, I think we’ve done some things towards the last month or two that I think have helped us.”
Gaffney referenced the two goals UMD allowed to fall behind at Miami on Friday.
“I think just not giving up any easy goals for them,” he said. “The Miami weekend, I’d say Friday night, we just gave them those two goals it seemed like. It could have been a shutout for Ethan (Dahlmeir) and that would have been awesome for him. Being harder, mentally there at like all time is kind of what we ought to focus on.”
7. We still don’t know who UMD will face next weekend in the NCHC quarterfinals. Right now, it’s Larson and old friend St. Cloud State for a fifth postseason meeting (third quarterfinal series) in seven years. But the Huskies can’t help their standing this weekend, as they do not play. SCSU is five points up on Miami and Colorado College, both of whom do play.
CC, as we’ve said, is here in Duluth for the weekend, while Miami visits Omaha. If CC sweeps UMD, it passes St. Cloud State. If Miami takes at least five points from Omaha, the RedHawks would move ahead of the Huskies (Miami owns the head to head tiebreaker on SCSU, but SCSU has the tiebreaker on CC).
(Bruce, just tell us who UMD will play when we know.)
OK.
Also, the Penrose Cup is on the line this weekend. North Dakota leads Denver and Western Michigan by five points each as it heads to Kalamazoo this weekend. Denver hosts Arizona State. UND clinches the Penrose with a win of any kind at Western. Otherwise, it’s up for grabs, as is the top seed and home ice throughout the NCHC playoffs.
If that’s not enough drama, Miami and CC are at 25 points, Arizona State at 22, and Omaha at 21. Whichever team finishes with the fewest points after Saturday will see its season end, as the ninth-place team does not play on.
8. Grace Sadura is a Hockey Humanitarian Award finalist. The UMD junior forward joins Gabbie Hughes (2023 winner) and Zoe Hickel (2015 finalist) as women’s players to become finalists for this awesome award, one given every year to the sport’s finest citizen.
Schuler couldn’t be prouder.
“I am so proud of her,” she said. “Nobody more deserving than her. I think she exemplifies what it means to be a wonderful teammate. We talk about three C’s in excellence in the classroom, competition, and community, and she leads the way in what she does in terms of her volunteer work. She’s that person that is constantly thinking of others. She cares about everybody so much. She’s obviously one of our captains for a reason. Similar to Hoagie, she’s connected to everybody. I think Grace has a special ability to sense when people just need a little Grace time.”
The other four finalists are Boston College senior Kara Goulding, Middlebury College senior Meg Simon, Princeton senior Jaydon Sison, and Connecticut senior Ryan Tattle.
9. The UMD women face a must-win series to kick off the postseason this weekend. UMD will host Minnesota State for a best of three that starts Friday afternoon.
With the Bulldogs ninth in the NPI and the NCAA Tournament including just 11 teams, there is work to be done here. UMD needs to put its best foot forward and beat the Mavericks, preferably in two games. Holding firm in ninth place in the NPI is a bare minimum going forward, and even that means a small amount of sweat during the conference tournaments, hoping for no more than one upset winner (the NEWHA champion will be the 11th-ranked team).
“It’s always tough, always back and forth, a battle,” Schuler said. “We’re excited to play against them because they come at you really hard, and I feel like these last games that we played have prepared us for that, too. So a couple more practices here to get ready to just kind of sharpen sharpen our skill set and ready to go on Friday.”
Schuler laughed, but then was diplomatic, when asked if her team was excited to play someone else after three straight years of hosting St. Cloud State to open the postseason.
“No matter who we’re going to go up against, we’re just always excited to be in playoffs,” she said, “and to make sure that we took care of business to have home ice, I think is really important to be able to play in front of our fans.”
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We’ll have the men’s games on Northland News Radio this weekend. Coverage at 6:30pm Friday, 5:30pm Saturday.
Back pregame with lines and other notes.
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