THE GAMES: The University of Minnesota-Duluth’s quest for the 2011-12 Western Collegiate Hockey Association regular season championship hits a pivotal point this Friday and Saturday (Feb. 10-11) as the Bulldogs will play host to the University of North Dakota in a two-game league series. The puck drops at 7:07 p.m. both nights at AMSOIL Arena (6,726). THE RECORDS: The defending NCAA champion Bulldogs, who are unbeaten in 21 of their last 24 outings (17-3-4), own an 18-6-4 overall record and a 12-5-3 WCHA mark (second place) while North Dakota, which has dropped three of its last 15 engagements (11-3-1), are 15-10-2 in all games and 11-9-0 in league play (tied for fifth place with Michigan Tech University and the University of Nebraska Omaha). HOW THEY RANK: Here is how the UMD and North Dakota stacked up in the latest USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls as well as the PairWise rankings: USCHO.com USA Today PairWise UMD 3rd 3rd 5th UND 16th 15th 15th(t) ON THE AIR: The two Bulldogs-North Dakota clashes will be carried locally on 94X (94.1/104.3 FM) with Bruce Ciskie handling the play-by-play. The broadcast can also be heard on KQ 105.5 in Grand Rapids/Hibbing and KQ 106.7 in Ely/Virginia as part of the Bulldog Radio Network and is available on the internet at: www.fan1490.com. In addition, My9 (KBJR DT 6.2/KRII DT 11.9) will televise both ends of this weekend’s series. Veteran sports anchor Tom Hansen and former Bulldog puck standout Judd Medak will serve as the on-air talent. My9, which is scheduled to carry 20 games during the 2011-12 regular season, is also available locally on Charter and Mediacom cable. The telecast will be videostreammed as well and can be viewed for a fee through America ONE at www.b2tv.com. CBS Sports Network will also broadcast Friday’s game with Ben Holden, Dave Starman and Shireen Saski serving as the on-air talent. THE COACHES: The runnerup for the 2010-11 Spencer Penrose Award (American Hockey Coaches Association NCAA Division I Coach of the Year) and recipient of that honor in 2003-04, Scott Sandelin is in his 12th season behind the UMD bench where he has compiled a 210-206-56 overall record -- including an 88-46-19 mark (a .637 winning percentage) since the 2008-09 opener. Besides capturing the school’s first NCAA championship one year ago and rolling up the team’s best overall record in 19 years (26-10-6), his Bulldogs have posted three consecutive 22-plus win seasons, and advanced to three NCAA tournaments (2004, 2009 and 2011), two Frozen Fours (2004 and 2011) and six of the past nine WCHA Final Five events. In March 2009, UMD became the first play-in game participant to ever claim the Final Five title and, later that spring, strung together a school-record six-game postseason winning streak before it fell to Miami University 2-1 in the NCAA West Regional final. Eight years ago, Sandelin, 47, turned UMD into a NCAA Frozen Four participant for the first time in nearly a generation, marshaling his troops to their most victories (they were 28-13-4 overall) and highest WCHA finish (second place on a 19-7-2 mark) since 1992-93. For his efforts, the Hibbing, Minn., native was chosen the WCHA Coach of the Year as well as the national coach of the year by both insidecollegehockey.com and uscho.com. In 2002-03, Sandelin’s Bulldogs went 22-15-5 overall and captured fifth place in the WCHA with a 14-10-4 mark while experiencing the greatest one-season turnaround of any league club that winter. One year earlier, he guided UMD to a 13-24-1 record in all games -- nearly doubling the number of victories from the previous season (7-28-4). Sandelin officially signed on as a member of the Bulldog staff on March 31, 2000 following six years of assistant coaching deployment at North Dakota. Prior to joining the Fighting Sioux (who won two NCAA titles during his tenure), Sandelin spent the 1993-94 season as the head coach of the Fargo-Moorhead Junior Kings of the Junior Elite Hockey League after working in that same capacity (and doubling as general manager) the previous winter with the American Hockey Association’s Fargo-Moorhead Express. He capped off his four-year playing career at North Dakota in 1985-86 by being named one of 10 finalists for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award. An All-WCHA first team pick and an All-American second team selection as a senior, Sandelin went on to play seven years of professional hockey, which included National Hockey League stints with the Montreal Canadiens (1986-88), Philadelphia Flyers (1990-91) and Minnesota North Stars (1991-92). Sandelin, one of just two current WCHA coaches to do time in the NHL, was the Montreal Canadiens’ second-round pick in the 1982 NHL draft (40th choice overall). He served as Team USA’s head coach at the 2005 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championships, directing that club to a fourth-place finish, and was an assistant coach for the U.S. at that same event this winter. Dave Hakstol (North Dakota, 1996) is in his seventh season at North Dakota and has a 202-103--29 record to show for it, including a 14-5-2 career mark against UMD. Hakstol, who succeeded Scott Sandelin as a North Dakota assistant coach in the summer of 2000, has led his troops to five NCAA Frozen Four appearances (2005-08 and 2011), two WCHA regular season championships (2011 and 2009) and three WCHA Final Five tournament titles (2010-11 and 2006). Hakstol patrolled the blueline for 107 games during a four-year career at North Dakota (1989-92) and captained the club as a senior. He went on to skate for a two seasons each with the Indianapolis Ice (1992-94) and the Minnesota Moose (1994-96) of the International Hockey League before being appointed head coach of the United States Hockey League’s Sioux City Musketeers. Hakstol spent four seasons with that franchise and landed the USHL’s Coach of the Year award in 1997-98. THE RIVALRY: This weekend’s series will mark the 218th and 219th meetings ever between North Dakota and UMD. North Dakota holds a 134-74-9 lead in the all-time series, which began on Nov. 26, 1954 at the old Duluth Curling Club, and has won six of its last eight engagements with the Bulldogs. One year ago, the two long-time rivals split a two-game set in Grand Forks, N.D. on Nov. 5-6 before North Dakota spoiled AMSOIL Arena’s grand opening party on Dec. 30 by rolling to a 5-0 non-conference triumph over UMD. LAST WEEKEND: The Bulldogs traded wins with the University of Alaska Anchorage last weekend, dumping the host Seawolves 4-1 on Friday before falling 3-2 the next night. Sophomore right winger J.T. Brown scored four times in the opener and commenced the scoring for UMD Saturday to complete a five-goal weekend. Senior center Travis Oleksuk assisted on all four of Brown’s goals on Friday then helped set up the Bulldogs’ final goal of the series. North Dakota has been idle since toppling the University of Wisconsin twice (5-3 and 4-2) on Jan. 27-28 in Grand Forks. THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN SPEAKING: Center Jack Connolly has been entrusted with team captaincy responsibilities for the 2011-12 season while a pair of other seniors -- defenseman Brady Lamb and center Travis Oleksuk -- are serving as the team’s two active assistant captains. HOBEY BAKER FOURSOME FRIDAY: Since the Hobey Baker Memorial Award was established in 1980-81, no school in the country has produced more recipients than UMD and this Friday night, those four Bulldogs winners -- Tom Kurvers, Bill Watson, Chris Marinucci and Junior Lessard -- will be recognized during a first-intermission ceremony at AMSOIL Arena. THE OLD ONE-TWO PUNCH: The Bulldogs continue to pace the nation in goals with an average of 3.75 per night and are also the second best team in the WCHA at preventing them (2.46 gpg). In addition, UMD possesses three of the nation’s top 10 point producers in Jack Connolly (third with 42 points) and Travis Oleksuk and J.T. Brown (tied for ninth with 37 points). IRON JACK: When he hits the ice for the first time Friday night at AMSOIL Arena, senior center Jack Connolly will established a new UMD record for consecutive games played with 154. That’s one more appearance than the previous record holder, Jeff Scissons, made between 1996-2000. Connolly picked up an assist in both ends of the Alaska Anchorage series to boost his scoring harvest to a WCHA-leading 42 points. A finalist for the 2010-11 Hobey Baker Memorial Award and this year’s Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award, Connolly now ranks fourth nationally in assists (27) and tops the WCHA in power play scoring (19 points). For his career, Connolly has racked up 61 goals and 118 assists for 179 points, which puts him in sole possession of 12th place (11 points behind the No. 11 occupant, Bill Oleksuk, the father of current UMD senior center Travis Oleksuk) on UMD’s all-time scoring charts. Those 179 lifetime points are 31 more than the next closest active NCAA skater (Colgate University’s Austin Smith). And talk about consistency when it comes to offensive contributions: Since the start of his sophomore season, Connolly has been held pointless for more than one game in a row only twice (two weeks ago when he was blanked in both ends of the Michigan Tech series, which terminated his school single-season record 22-game scoring streak and on Jan. 23 and Jan. 29, 2010). The nation’s top returning scorer from a year ago (he finished third in the NCAA with a career-high 59 points), Connolly was a member of both the All-WCHA first team and WCHA All-Academic Team the past two winters and is just the second two-time All-American the Bulldogs have ever had in their lineup (defenseman Norm Maciver, in 1985-86, was the other). ACTIVE NCAA CAREER SCORING LEADERS Player (Yr, School) GP G A TP 1. Jack Connolly (Sr., UMD) 153 61 118 179 2. Austin Smith (Sr., Colgate) 142 73 75 148 3. Brian Flynn (Sr., Maine) 140 65 82 147 4. Brian O’ Neill (Sr., Yale) 126 63 82 145 5. Spencer Abbott (Sr., Maine) 139 48 83 131 6. Cameron Burt (Sr., RIT) 136 41 87 128 7. Kelly Zajac (Sr., Union) 147 36 85 121 8. Chris Connolly (Sr., Boston U.)# 140 34 81 115 9. David Vollaroni (Sr., Lowell) 136 39 68 107 Justin Schultz (Jr., Wisconsin) 112 36 71 107 #Jack Connolly’s older brother EIGHT WAS GREAT: After holding down the No. 1 spot in the uscho.com poll since Dec. 5, the Bulldogs dropped to third in the latest rankings. That eight-week run marked the longest stretch a Bulldog club had ever resided atop any national poll. (They enjoyed three-week stays as the nation’s top dog in both 2010-11 and in 1985-86). WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU?: Right winger J.T. Brown was selected the Red Baron® WCHA Offensive Player of the Week after racking up five goals, including four in one night, last weekend in Anchorage. The reigning NCAA Frozen Four Most Outstanding Player accounted for all of UMD’s scoring in a 4-1 triumph Friday, registering a natural hat trick in the opening 19:10 of play before adding a fourth goal (one shy of the school’s single-season record) with 4:26 to go in regulation. The following night in a 3-2 setback, Brown got the Bulldogs on the board at 9:26 of the third period with his 16th goal of the season, tying his rookie year total. He’s now the first Bulldog to collect two hat tricks in the same season (he scored three times at Nebraska-Omaha last month) since MacGregor Sharp did it in 2008-09. Brown, a 2010-11 WCHA All-Rookie Team selection, currently paces the nation in plus-minus rating (+27) and occupies the No. 5 spot (along with Travis Oleksuk) on the WCHA scoring list with 37 points. He’s has also put a team-best 122 shots on goal this winter -- 25 more than the next closest Bulldog (defenseman Brady Lamb). THAT’S A PLUS: In addition to Brown, three other Bulldogs rank among the top 12 leaders nationally in plus-minus rating -- senior center Travis Oleksuk, second at +23), senior defenseman Scott Kishel (tied for sixth at +19) and senior center Jack Connolly (tied for 10th at +17). IN NEED OF A POWER SURGE: UMD was mired in a 0-for-21 power play drought (which encompassed six games) before J.T. Brown tallied with the man advantage in the third period Friday night in Anchorage. The Bulldogs have connected on just three of their last 34 power player chances and that rough patch has dropped the Bulldogs to 32nd among 58 NCAA I schools in power play efficiency (18.7 percent). On the flip side, they rank a mere 46th in killing penalties (78.1 percent). THE “REIT” STUFF: Senior goaltender Kenny Reiter, a three-time WCHA Defensive Player of the Week honoree already this winter, owns the fifth best winning percentage in the country to date (.731 off a 17-5-4 record) and has logged the seventh most minutes of any NCAA puckstopper (1535:57). The Pittsburgh, Pa., native, who has made 23 straight WCHA starts going back to last year, also currently ranks fourth in the WCHA in goals against average (2.30) and is eighth in saves percentage (.914). Reiter, a three-time WCHA Scholar-Athlete Award recipient who earlier this season set a team record for consecutive shutout minutes (166:45 from Nov. 4-12) , is now 46-22-9 for his career with the with Bulldogs. That translates into a .656 winning percentage, the second best figure in club history behind All-American Rick Kosti’s .753 mark (60-18-2 between 1983-85). He also holds a share of the team record (with All-American Alex Stalock, 2006-09) for career shutouts with nine and is tied for fifth all-time in victories. Going back to the start of the 2011 NCAA postseason, Reiter has suffered just five losses in 30 appearances (21-5-4). Reiter’s current career 2.32 goals against average and .914 saves percentage are the best two marks ever compiled by a Bulldog. The 2011 NCAA East Regional Most Outstanding Player, he backstopped the Bulldogs to their first national title last April while turning in the third best single-season goals against average (2.30) and saves percentage (.914) in team history. REITER’S CAREER SHUTOUTS Date Opponent Score Saves 11/11/11 Alaska Anchorage 5-0 27 11/5/11 @Denver 4-0 29 10/29/11 Bemidji State 1-0 23 3/25/11 Union College# 2-0 32 1/21/11 @Michigan Tech 5-0 14 1/14/11 Wisconsin 2-0 22 3/14/10 Colorado College* 4-0 25 1/30/10 Wisconsin 4-0 28 1/2/10 Mercyhurst+ 6-0 26 #NCAA East Regional (Bridgeport, Conn.) *WCHA Playoffs +in Burlington, Vt. MAKING THEIR POINT ON THE POINT: UMD has gotten more offensive production out of its defensemen (70 points on 14 goals and 56 assists) than all but four blueline crews in the entire country (the University of Michigan with 83, Minnesota with 76 and Wisconsin with 75, and St. Cloud State with 72). A trio of Bulldogs currently rank among the top 13 scoring defensemen in the WCHA -- senior assistant team captain Brady Lamb (tied for seventh with 19 points) and senior Scott Kishel (tied for 11th with 17 points) and junior Wade Bergman (13th with 16 points). Kishel, arguably one of the leading candidates for the WCHA’s mythical Most Improved Player Award, has established personal highs for goals (three) and assists (14) after coming into the year with 11 total career points -- all assists. The Montreal Canadien draftee skated in just seven games all of last winter (he was a healthy scratch in the other 35 outings) and had just one point to show for it. Bergman, who has also established career bests for points (16) and assists (14) this winter, is now a +27 for his career. That’s third only to Jack Connolly’s +52 figure and J.T. Brown’s +29 mark among active UMD pucksters. HOME, SWEET HOME: UMD is averaging 6,410 spectators a night during its first full season at AMSOIL Arena. Only six other schools in the country -- the University of Wisconsin (11,531), North Dakota (11,267), the University of Minnesota (9,446), Nebraska-Omaha (7,468), Colorado College (6,939), Boston College (6,493) -- have drawn more. Since moving into that new $80-million, 6,726-seat downtown facility on Dec. 30, 2010, UMD has rolled up a 14-8-3 record there (9-4-1 in 2011-12). ROAD, SWEET ROAD: The Bulldogs, who had their school-record 15-game road unbeaten streak snapped by Nebraska-Omaha last month, have compiled a 13-2-3 mark away from Duluth since the start of the 2011 NCAA playoffs (9-2-3 this winter). They’ve also dropped just seven of their 37 road outings over the past two seasons, going 23-7-7 (.716). A ROOKIE ON THE RISE: Left winger Caleb Herbert has produced the seventh highest scoring yield (24 points on 10 goals and 14 assists) of any NCAA rookie at the moment. The Bloomington, Minn., product is one of 14 Bulldogs who has taken part in all 28 games to date. LEAD ‘DOGS: Since the 2010-11 opener, UMD is 30-1-3 (10-0-2 this winter) when taking a lead into the final period of play with the lone loss coming at the hands of Bemidji State University at the WCHA Final Five last March. FOR THE RECORD II: Since joining the WCHA ranks in 1965-66, only four other UMD clubs have produced a better winning percentage through 20 games of league play than the 2011-12 Bulldogs. Year Record Pct. Next Two WCHA Games 1983-84* 14-4-2 .750 W/T vs. North Dakota 1985-86 14-5-1 .725 W/L vs. North Dakota 1984-85* 14-5-1 .725 W/L at Boston College 2010-11 13-4-3 .725 T/W vs. Minnesota 2011-12 12-5-3 .675 vs. North Dakota 1992-93* 13-6-1 .675 W/W vs. Minnesota *Went on to win the WCHA regular season title PLENTY OF SENIOR MOMENTS: UMD continues to sport the highest-scoring senior class in the NCAA. The seven Bulldogs in the group, including goaltender Kenny Reiter (two assists) and left winger Cody Danberg, who has been out of action with injuries since the 2011-12 opener, have combined to produce 40 goals and 83 assists for 123 points. BOMBS AWAY: The Bulldogs have outshot the opposition in all but six of their 28 games this season and rank second the entire nation with a 35.8 shots per game average. GET SHORTIE: The Bulldogs have scored the fewest handed goals (one) of any WCHA club in 2011-12, but have also given up just two of their own. Only one other league outfit, Michigan Tech (one), has done a better job in that department. FREE HOCKEY: The Bulldogs are now unbeaten in 32 of their last 36 overtime games (13-4-19, 0-1-4 in 2011-12) stretching back to the start of the 2008-09 season. A school-record 15 of UMD’s 42 engagements last winter (35.7 percent) required an extra session, and UMD was 7-2-6 in those. The seven sudden-death victories also eclipsed the previous club standard of five set in 1984-85. Senior center Travis Oleksuk leads all active Bulldogs in career overtime goals with three and assisted on Kyle Schmidt’s sudden-death score in UMD’s 3-2 win over Michigan in the 2011 NCAA Frozen Four title game. Player OT Goals Travis Oleksuk 3 J.T. Brown 1 Jack Connolly 1 Cody Danberg 1 A RECORD RUN: UMD’s 17-game unbeaten streak, which came to an end on Jan. 14 at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, was three games better than the previous team record set between Jan. 2-Feb. 21, 2004. (The Bulldogs, who went 13-0-1 during that torrid stretch, proceeded to earn a berth in the NCAA Frozen Four later that same season.) OH-OH!: The 5-0 setback to Michigan Tech two weeks ago snapped the Bulldogs’ nine-game home unbeaten streak (they were 8-0-1 going back to a 5-4 setback to Minnesota on Oct. 15) and was their first loss by a shut out in 105 WCHA games. The last club to hold UMD scoreless in league play was North Dakota, which skated off with a 2-0 triumph on March 1, 2008 in Duluth. ONE CLASS ACT: Senior center Jack Connolly is one of 10 NCAA Division I hockey players -- and the lone representative from the WCHA --- who has been chosen as finalists for the 2011-12 Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award. The award is presented annually to an NCAA I athlete in 10 sports (men’s hockey, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, men’s lacrosse, softball, football, men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball) based on achievement in the “Four C’s” -- classroom, character, community and competition. Connolly, who is UMD’s second Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award top 10 finalist (left winger Andrew Carroll was the first in 2008-09), maintains a 3.30 cumulative grade point average as a communication major and will graduate this May. BULLDOG BITS: The Bulldogs have not swept North Dakota in Duluth since current UMD assistant coach Derek Plante captained them to a pair of victories (5-2 and 6-5) on Nov. 6-7, 1992) ....Both junior left winger Mike Seidel and senior right winger David Grun took part in their 100th career game last Saturday night in Anchorage. Seidel commemorated that milestone by bagging his career-high 10th goal of the season in the 3-2 setback to the Seawolves. Over the past two seasons, the Bulldogs are unbeaten in 28 of the 30 outings Seidel has marked in the points column (24-2-4) ... In their four losses thus far in 2011-12, the Bulldogs have connected on just four of their 29 power play opportunities (13.7 percent) while the opposition is a sizzling 11-for-24 (45.8 percent) with the man advantage ... After going his first two seasons -- 74 games worth -- without a goal, junior right winger Keegan Flaherty has scored five times in 2011-12 and has the Bulldogs’ lone shorthanded tally to date (Dec. 2 at Michigan Tech -- the only shortie the Huskies have allowed this season ... Senior center Jack Connolly paces the 2011-12 Bulldogs in home scoring with 20 points (nine goals and 11 assists) while J.T. Brown is next with 17 points ... In nine lifetime road appearances, sophomore goaltender Aaron Crandall is 6-2-1 with a 2.31 goals against average and a .914 saves percentage -- a noticeable contrast to his home numbers (6-2-0, 3.43 and .857 in nine outings). He and his younger brother, rookie left winger Justin Crandall, are the first siblings to play together for the Bulldogs in 11 season ... The three-game losing streak which the Bulldogs extinguished at Providence College earlier this season was their longest slump since Feb. 19-26, 2010 when they also dropped three straight outings, including a pair to North Dakota. UMD was one of just two teams in the entire country (Boston College was the other) who went through the entire 2010-11 season without suffering any back-to-back losses ... The 2011-12 active UMD roster (junior center Aaron Jamnick, a transfer from Providence College, has to sit out all of this season per NCAA rules) consists of seven seniors, six juniors, five sophomores, and seven freshmen ... Sophomore defenseman Tim Smith is the first UMD newcomer with previous Division I experience (Providence College in 2009) since Jesse Unkelsbay, who joined UMD as junior in 2002-03 following two years at Alaska Anchorage ... When rookie defenseman Derik Johnson took his first shift back in October against Minnesota, it completed the ninth father-son combination to play for the Bulldogs. Derik’s father, Jim Johnson, also patrolled the UMD blueline and during his senior season in 1984-85 served as team captain before going on to enjoy a 13-year National Hockey League career. (He currently is an assistant coach with the Washington Capitals). The father of senior center Travis Oleksuk -- Bill Oleksuk -- also played for the Bulldogs and captained UMD in 1981-82. He’s currently the school’s 11th all-time leading scorer ... Five Bulldogs -- seniors Scott Kishel and Brady Lamb, juniors Wade Bergman and Drew Olson, and freshman Chris Casto -- have manned the point in all 28 games to date while the team’s other three defensemen -- redshirted freshman Luke McManus (10 games), rookie Derik Johnson (nine games), and sophomore Tim Smith (nine games) have split time filling the remaining slot ... UMD posted a 6-1-1 non-conference record in 2011-12 for a .813 wining percentage. The last time a Bulldog club turned in a better mark was in 1995-96 (4-0-0) ... The Bulldogs have butted heads with North Dakota on more occasions (217) during its 68-year history than all but two opponents -- Michigan Tech (220) and Minnesota (218) ... UMD has won its last six game which were nationally-televised games (2-0-0 this season) going back to the 2011 NCAA East regionals. NEXT UP: The Bulldogs will hit the road for a pair of WCHA assignments on Feb. 17-18 against Minnesota State University-Mankato, a club they swept earlier this season in Duluth (5-2 and 7-3 on Nov. 18-19).
