Junior Peyton Platter rushes to find the puck. Credit: Kieley Jacobson

Bulldog Men's Hockey opened this weekend with a two-game sweep against the University of Long Island. Both games saw exciting performances from the Bulldogs, giving fans much to look forward to this upcoming season.

The weekend started off by honoring Hobey Baker Award winner Max Plante with a short ceremony and a banner that now lives in Amsoil Arena. Plante is the 7th Bulldog to be honored with the award, making UMD the most successful college in the award.

Things started off great for the Bulldogs with recent St. Cloud State transfer Barrett Hall scoring his first goal as a Bulldog within 8 minutes of the period to put UMD on the board. Just a minute later, Adam Kleber was able to put another goal in with an assist from Ty Hanson to bring the Bulldogs to 2-0 in the first period.

The Sharks fought back hard in the second period, putting up two goals within minutes of each other to tie up the game at 2-2. The Bulldogs were left with less than half of a period to come up with a goal.

Hunter Anderson was able to fill the Bulldogs’ need for a goal, putting one in off a feed from Max Plante to push the Bulldogs back into the lead. The Bulldogs, desperate to create distance from LIU, rattled off three shots in under a minute, but were unsuccessful in getting any of them in.

LIU responded to this with the same strategy, but were able to get their third shot in, once again tying the game at 3-3.

The Bulldogs in ready position for a face-off. Credit: Kieley Jacobson

LIU kept going in the third period, scoring yet again within 3 minutes to create their first lead of the game. This lead was short-lived, however, as Jayson Shaughabay put one in for the Bulldogs just 18 seconds later, tying up the game for the third time.

Shaughabay’s goal gave the Bulldogs the second wind they needed, with Luke Bibby scoring his first collegiate goal at the 13:57 mark, followed by a power play goal by Callum Arnott just a minute later, bringing the Bulldogs up by two at 6-4.

Ty Hanson then came along with 20 seconds of gameplay left to seal the deal and bring the Bulldogs a 7-4 win against LIU.

“I think it's just trying to get to the net.” Sophomore forward Luke Bibby commented on the team's strategy going forward. “Get pucks and bodies to the net. It was kind of a sloppy game on our part. It was back and forth, so just trying to, you know, keep it simple.”

Junior Callum Arnott brings the puck down the ice. Credit: Kieley Jacobson

Game two was written in the record books before the crowd even had time to settle in their seats, with Barrett Hall scoring for the Bulldogs just 9 seconds into the first period. The fastest goal ever recorded in Bulldog history.

“Our goal was to come out hard, and you know, win the first five minutes of games, and that's exactly what we did.” Said Hall on his opening goal.

Another goal came about halfway through the period by Ryan Zaremba to bring the Bulldogs up 2.

The second period saw no scoring, but was instead a display of the Bulldogs’ defense, only allowing LIU to attempt 6 shots in comparison to the Bulldogs 17.

Grayden Siepmann brought the third goal for the Bulldogs off of a penalty shot at the 5-minute mark of the third period. Zam Plant was then able to get one off the backdoor in the 17th minute to bring the Bulldogs their final goal of the night with a 4-0 Bulldog win.

The Bulldogs will next be seen on October 9 as they take on Augustana University at 7:07 pm in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Bulldogs Come Out With a Bang to Open the Season