UMD Bulldogs Having Problems Winning on Saturday’s

UMD men’s hockey team is good on the first night of series; they are 5-2-1. Then, comes game two.  The Bulldogs are 0-6-2. Not the perfect formula, but it is what it is, with a young UMD Men’s hockey team with nine freshmen on the roster.

They beat Bemidji State 4-2 on Friday night last week, with 6,366 fans at the game but in game two they lost 2-1 and scored in only the final minute of play.  6,490 fans were on hand for the second game.  It was the final home game of the UMD 2012 calendar season.  They will return to Amsoil Arena in January 2013.

Head Coach Scott Sandelin said, “It was a series we kind of expected. They are a very hard team to play against.  I thought they played better defensively on Saturday night but they still had a lot of opportunities early in the game. The difference being we didn’t finish, whereas the weekend before we did finish those opportunities against Michigan Tech.”

The Hibbing native was glad they got some points on the weekend.  He said, “We got points. Disappointed again that we didn’t close out a series when we won on Friday night, and we have to find a way to do that.”

The UMD men’s hockey team goes on their longest road trip of the year this week.  They play at Sullivan Arena on Friday night and against on Saturday.  The Friday night game starts at 10:07 pm Duluth time.

Last year against Anchorage the Bulldogs were (3-1).  UMD swept at home, 5-0, and 3-1 at Amsoil Arena.  They then moved to Anchorage in February and UMD won game 1,   4-1 but fell in game two, 3-2.

On this trip north, the Bulldogs will not be playing when they get back.  They will have final exams and then be on Christmas break.  Coach Sandelin thought that makes it a good time to go to Anchorage, not having to play a series the following weekend.

Sandelin said, “The bottom is that we have to go up there and play some of our best hockey to win and we have to get our guys in that frame of mind this week.  Like I said, it doesn’t matter who we are playing we got to get our guys ready to play.”

On the road, has also been a challenge for the team this year.  UMD is 2-4-2 away from Duluth and in away conference games they are just 1-3-1.