This Saturday, November 23 Grand Rapids native and Hibbing High School alum Adam Johnson will be honored as the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) men’s hockey team hosts their Adam Johnson Memorial Night. It will be a time to both mourn, and honor the former Bulldogs, whose life ended tragically last October.

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“Anytime you can celebrate his life and what he’s meant, the type of person he was, it’s a great opportunity,” UMD head coach Scott Sandelin said. “I’m glad that Herts (Jason Herter) will be in town too, because he was part of that. And I’m glad a lot of our alumni parents that know the Johnsons, and certainly Adam, are going to be back in town. So we just got to hopefully win a couple of games.”

That memorial game will be against Western Michigan University. Their associate head coach is Jason Herter, who served as an assistant coach to UMD (2011-2020) during Johnson’s time with the Bulldogs (2015-2017. Puck drop Saturday is at 5 p.m. at AMSOIL Arena.

UMD’s series opener against Western Michigan is Friday at 7 p.m. Head coach Sandelin said Max Plante could be ready to make his return from injury.