Hermantown Natives Koepke, Jacques Help UMD Men’s Hockey Stay Undefeated in the Pod

The two goals in regulation were scored by Hermantown natives Cole Koepke and Jesse Jacques.

OMAHA, Neb. – Last night, the UMD men’s hockey team stayed undefeated in the Omaha pod as they picked up the shootout win over top-ranked North Dakota.

The two goals in regulation were scored by Hermantown natives Cole Koepke and Jesse Jacques. Head coach Scott Sandelin spoke after the game about the former Hawks, especially what he wants to see out of Koepke for the remainder of the pod.

“He’s not always maybe getting shots, but the puck pressure he can put on with his feet because he can skate or putting defensemen on their heels because he can skate, those are things that are important to the game. We need Jesse. We need those guys to step up. They’re older players and we need those guys to contribute and be a factor on our team,” said Sandelin.

As for the game, it was another come from behind effort for UMD. In all five games, the Bulldogs have fell in a hole. But in the end, they’ve found different ways to get back in the win column.

“It’s a lot of confidence no matter what, whether it’s one or two goals late in the game. Yeah those guys are always going to step up. It’s huge. It’s a real good confidence-booster and as long as you have their back, you know they’re going to have yours at the end of the game,” said goalie Ryan Fanti.

“We still have a lot of work to do. We did a lot of good things today. Sandy will for sure talk to us to clean some things up. We got four games left to go and we’re looking to build every single game,” forward Nick Swaney said.

The Bulldogs will take on Denver Saturday at noon, followed by a showdown with Colorado College on Saturday.