It’s been just days since the Bulldog hockey family lost one of their own in Adam Johnson over the weekend.

His passing is one both the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) women’s and men’s teams have been mourning, but they’re making sure his memory lives on through the love they all share: hockey.

“We just talked about really enjoying being here. Enjoying being at the rink, enjoying being on the ice and and lacing up our skates every day because you never know,” men’s captain Luke Loheit said. “Glorifying him and glorifying his life through our work this week, and the rest of the year. So we’re going to continue to do that and continue to think about him with whatever we do.”

The UMD men’s team be honoring him during their big home-and-home weekend series with the Minnesota Gophers. They’ll be sporting ‘AJ’ stickers, and sharing a video tribue at Saturday’s home game.

Part of honoring Adam, the team said, will be by playing their best version of Bulldog hockey as they renew a University of Minnesota system rivarly with the Gophers after taking a season off.

“Be a little different than playing in the Olympic sized rink that we’re used to there which is always, I thought, an advantage for them. But it’ll be nice to play on a smaller sheet,” head coach Scott Sandelin said, referencing the Gophers’ new, smaller rink size.

He added, “it’s another great challenge for our team. A team that plays a lot different than Cornell, the puck possession and a little more of a finesse team.”

UMD visits a sold-out Mariucci Arena boasting 10,000 fans on Friday, then hosts the Gophers at a packed AMSOIL Arena Saturday. Both puck drops are at 7 p.m..