DULUTH — The second half of the 2025-26 Minnesota Duluth hockey season is underway following a busy holiday break of international tournaments and travel.
The UMD women are back in the United States following
a trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland for the Friendship Series
, while the UMD men are all back together again following the
and
Both teams are in action at Amsoil Arena this weekend with the women hosting Wisconsin in WCHA play at 3 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday, and the men entertaining Lindenwood in a nonconference series at 7:07 p.m. Friday and 6:07 p.m. Saturday.
The Bulldog Insiders — KDAL’s Bruce Ciskie, Zach Schneider of My 9 Sports and the News Tribune’s Matt Wellens — answered audience questions in this week’s episode about hockey in Ireland and what to expect from the Bulldogs in the second half.
Below are edited excerpts from the second half of this week’s episode featuring a few select questions and answers from the insiders about the men’s team. Check out this week’s podcast for Matt’s thoughts on the Ireland trip with questions from Bruce, Zach and the audience.
Matt Wellens: We had a lot of questions about Saturdays. I really hope we don’t have to talk about this in the second half. Noah on Twitter asks, “What does this team need to do to get out of their Saturday night slump in the second half?”
Bruce Ciskie: Win. Oh, I’m sorry, did you want a real answer? Play better.
Wellens: They haven’t played bad on Saturdays.
Ciskie:
We went through some of the numbers, right?
Even-strength shots on goal, expected goals, power play — everything is down. It’s not down, all of it, a ton,
but it’s down on Saturday versus Friday.
At even strength, they’re getting outshot on average on Saturdays. They are badly outshooting their adversaries on Fridays. And it’s the same team.
I get why there’s some consternation out there,
but I think I said this the last time you had me on:
They’re in a position right now that if they split every series the rest of the year, they’re going to be probably a No. 2 and maybe even a No. 1 seed for the NCAA tournament. I don’t think I’d be too concerned.
Yeah, it’d be nice to see them play a little better on Saturday, but as long as we’re winning on Friday, I’ll take my chances.
Zach Schneider: It’s funny how quickly you can forget what’s happened, right? The past couple years, we’ve talked about how quickly we forgot how successful they were with the run of the championships and the NCAA tournaments. Now this year it feels like how quickly we forgot how miserable we were at the break the last two or three years with this team.
They’re sitting
Yeah, they’ve let some games go that we think they could have maybe won on some Saturdays, but they’ve also won some games on Fridays that they easily could have let go in the other direction.
I don’t know how you complain about the first half that they’ve had. It just feels like a classic case of, we got to find something to be upset about. I hope they can win on Saturdays, but if they keep winning Fridays and losing Saturdays and they stay in the (NCAA) tournament field, I guess that’s just what it is and hopefully they get a Friday-Sunday regional.
I don’t know what to say. … I don’t know. To sit at the break with where this team is and find something negative to say just feels like a stretch.
Wellens: DuluthBulldogsHockeytownUSA on Twitter asks, “Let’s go Bulldogs, who do you have for the Hobey?” We all have Max Plante for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award, right?
Ciskie: I have Gavin McKenna.
Wellens: You have Gavin McKenna?
Ciskie: Just kidding, I have Max Plante. I did that for Hunter (Ciskie) in case he’s watching.
Wellens: We’re going to turn this question into, “Do we think Max Plante can win the Hobey?”
I was curious, could the World Juniors impact the Hobey Baker Award voting and perceptions and the race? No, it shouldn’t, but I thought that it could. I thought if Cole Hutson had a really good World Juniors, or if Gavin McKenna could have a really good World Juniors …
USA forward Max Plante (26) celebrates after scoring a goal against Finland on Dec. 23 at Amsoil Arena in Duluth.
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group file photo
The Hobey is always interesting because it’s just what are the priorities of this Hobey committee? The common trap that committees get caught in is, who is the best NHL prospect? Who’s going to be the No. 1 draft pick in the next draft? Sometimes they forget that there’s already guys who’ve been drafted and they get too focused on the next draft, and turn it into a referendum on who should be the No. 1 pick. Who’s going to have the best NHL career instead of who’s having the best college career?
I don’t think anyone at the World Juniors — in part because of injuries — was able to establish themselves as a frontrunner going into the second half. So I think we reset, and as of mid-December, Max Plante was the favorite.
College Hockey News has their statistical formula
that they like to use to compare players for the Hobey, and Max is at the top of that. I think he’s got a good chance if he keeps up what he did in the first half.
Ciskie: If he has a second half like his first half, another 30 points, I think he’s almost a shoo-in. Now, it’s not that easy. I understand.
Schneider: Yeah, and it depends on what other guys do, too, right? If somebody gets hot and has a great second half. He’s in a great position. If he repeats his first half, he’s probably one of, if not the front-runner.
Check out the full episode for more from Matt, Zach and Bruce on Max Plante’s Hobey Baker Award chances, and what to know if you’re going to visit Ireland and Northern Ireland with the UMD men in November. You can find the Bulldog Insider Podcast at
DuluthNewsTribune.com/BulldogInsider
, and on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Thursday throughout the UMD men’s and women’s hockey season.