UMD men’s hockey opening 2023 with home & home series with Bemidji State

The University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) men’s hockey team had a chance to shake off some holiday rust last weekend taking down St. Thomas University 2-1 in an exhibition game.

The Bulldogs said during a press conference Wednesday they weren’t completely satisified with that performance, but after another week of practice they feel ready for regulation action with Bemidji State University this weekend.

“They play similar to us it’s a lot of chip and chase, forechecks, they don’t give you much time and space in the neutral zone and offensive zone,” senior forward Luke Loheit said. “I think that’s what we’ve been talking about all week is just getting used to that ground game and trying to dominate below the tops of circles in both ends.”

“If we’re not going to be scoring lots of goals we have to defend well,” head coach Scott Sandelin added. “We have to play disciplined. There’s been a lot of good things we’ve been doing even leading up to the break, and Saturday was no different. There were some good things and there were some things that I didin’t really like, we’ve got to develop that consistency.”

UMD opens the home-and-home series on the road Friday at 7:07pm, then will host the finale Saturday at 6:07 p.m. at AMSOIL Arena.