#5 UMD Prepares for Home Opener Against Arizona State

Puck drop is set for 6 PM on Saturday.

DULUTH, Minn.- The UMD men’s hockey team will drop the puck for the first time this weekend when they welcome in Arizona State into Amsoil Arena.

It’s a mixture of old and new faces for the Bulldogs this year.

But more so new as UMD will have 12 new incomers on the roster.

After a couple weeks of practice, head coach Scott Sandelin is pleased with how his team is meshing. However, there is one thing he would like to see more out from some of his young talent.

“I really like our young players. I like the attitude around our group right now. I think Luke and Quinny and Tanner have done a really good job as our captains. But I think our guys have been practicing hard. If there’s been one fault as a group, it’s not very vocal. It drives me nuts but I want to get them to talk more,” said Sandelin.

One of Sandelin’s leaders Tanner Laderoute will man the C this upcoming season. He says it’s important the Bulldogs start off strong this weekend.

“It’s such a short season being in the NCAA compared to juniors or anything like that. So every game means so much, especially the out of conference games that mean so much to pairwise. You want to be in that top ten range coming into the season if you want to be in that tournament. So both teams coming into that game wanting to win super bad. I know they want to come in and knock us off and prove that they are a good team,” said Laderoute.

Puck drop is set for 6 PM on Saturday.