No.20 UMD is seeking urgency in next NCHC series

DULUTH, MN. (Northern News Now) - On Wednesday at the UMD hockey press conference, head coach Scott Sandelin said, “Welcome to the NCHC!” The Bulldogs opened up league play at Colorado College this past weekend and battled through some early adversity.

Friday’s game marked UMD’s third time dropping games in three-plus goal shutout losses so far this season including their 5-0 loss to the Tigers on Friday. Luckily for the Bulldogs, they re-wrote their narrative come Saturday leaving the west coast with a 3-1 victory in game 2.

There’s plenty of hockey to still play with NCHC competition just underway and when Sandelin was asked on Wednesday about Saturday’s outcome, he wasn’t shy in responding saying, “I don’t know what direction we’re going in. I’ll be honest with you. I don’t. It’s been inconsistent and it shouldn’t take 5-0 losses and 6-0 losses to get their attention. You got to be prepared to play hard, to compete, execute and be a hard team to play against. Now Saturday, did we play harder? Yes. Was it perfect? No.”

Senior captain Tanner Laderoute added, “There’s a difference between getting embarrassed on a Friday and winning a game on Saturday, so I just think we were so much harder on every zone, whether that be boxing out in the d-zone or being hard and closing on plays or getting to the net on those, I think it’s so huge.”

UMD welcomes an NCHC opponent this weekend with Omaha. Puck drops at 7 pm on Friday and 6 pm on Saturday. Both of these games will be broadcasted on our My9 Sports Network.

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