Bulldog Insider

This week on the Bulldog Insider Podcast, UMD fifth-year senior wing Reece Hunt joins the podcast fresh off her homecoming to Bemidji State. Hunt transferred to the Bulldogs this year after playing four seasons for the Beavers. She played her first game at Sanford Center last Friday as an opponent, and scored the game-winning goal for UMD in the 2-1 victory. Hunt provides a unique and honest asses...

This week on the Bulldog Insider Podcast, former Bulldogs captains Gabbie Hughes and Ashton Bell share what life has been like since both were drafted by Ottawa in the inaugural Professional Women's Hockey League draft last month. The PWHL is set to open training camps for all six teams in mid-November while the first season will get underway in January. How are they preparing in the meantime for...

This week on the Bulldog Insider Podcast, we take a stop in Cohasset, Minnesota, instead of just passing through on U.S. Highway 2 like we usually do. UMD senior goaltender and Cohasset native Zach Stejskal joins the podcast to tell us about the little town outside Grand Rapids that has produced a couple of quality goaltenders for the Bulldogs. Also the hometown of Hunter Shepard, Stejskal describ...

If you could design a third jersey for the Minnesota Duluth men's and women's hockey teams, what would it look like? We asked UMD women's hockey seniors Clara Van Wieren and Nina Jobst-Smith what they would like to see in a third jersey, and both came up with very different, but very unique designs. Their team has plenty of experience with third and special edition jerseys over the years. Also in...

UMD senior forward Blake Biondi of Hermantown joins the Bulldog Insider Podcast this week to discuss his return from double shoulder surgery and what needs to happen for the UMD offense to succeed. After missing the second half of his junior season in 2022-23 due to shoulder injuries, Hermantown native Blake Biondi is back with the Bulldogs for his senior season in 2023-24, ready to score goals an...

The Bulldog Insider Podcast returns for its sixth season to preview the upcoming 2023-24 Minnesota Duluth men's and women's hockey seasons. The voice of the Bulldogs on KDAL, Bruce Ciskie, joins Matt Wellens of the News Tribune and Zach Schneider of My 9 Sports to dive into what lies ahead for the Bulldogs as the programs get ready for their season openers the first weekend of October at Amsoil Ar...

Welcome to Part II of the two-part, two-episode season 5 finale of the Bulldog Insider Podcast. The voice of the Bulldogs on KDAL, Bruce Ciskie, joins Matt Wellens of the News Tribune and Zach Schneider of My 9 Sports to help up wrap up the 2022-23 men's and women's hockey seasons, as well as to look ahead to 2023-24. In Part II, the "Bulldog Insiders" answer questions sent in from listeners that...

Welcome to Part I of the two-part, two-episode season 5 finale of the Bulldog Insider Podcast. The voice of the Bulldogs on KDAL, Bruce Ciskie, joins Matt Wellens of the News Tribune and Zach Schneider of My 9 Sports to help up wrap up the 2022-23 men's and women's hockey seasons, as well as to look ahead to 2023-24. Matt, Zach and Bruce started recording this episode just minutes after news broke...

This week on the Bulldog Insider Podcast, we go behind the scenes of college hockey's Frozen Fours with Mark Bedics, the NCAA associate director of championships and alliances. Bedics previously worked as a media coordinator for the NCAA's Men's Frozen Four from 2002 to 2021. Now he's on the operations side of planning, organizing and putting on events like this week's NCAA Women's Frozen Four at...

Minnesota Duluth fifth-year senior defenseman Derek Daschke has been through the recruiting process more than most. He initially committed to Western Michigan when he was 15 years old, but a shakeup of the coaching staff caused him to reopen his recruitment. He briefly committed to Omaha before de-committing, again because of a coaching shakeup. Daschke finally landed at Miami, where he played for...

This week on the Bulldog Insider Podcast, we get to know Minnesota Duluth's two-time Hockey Humanitarian Award top-five finalist Gabbie Hughes from the perspective of her parents, Miki and Terry Hughes. Like their daughter, Miki and Terry are co-founders and active members of Sophie's Squad, an organization that has brought mental health awareness to the forefront of hockey in Minnesota. Miki and...

This week on the Bulldog Insider Podcast, Minnesota Duluth fifth-year senior forwards Tanner Laderoute and Jesse Jacques reflect on college careers that began with a national championship back in 2018-19 before being interrupted by a global pandemic in the spring of 2020. The last Bulldogs on the roster with NCAA championship rings, Laderoute and Jacques are now charged with passing down their kno...

When Ashton Bell arrived on the Minnesota Duluth campus in the fall of 2017, she was a forward. A year later, Emma Soderberg arrived as the Bulldogs backup goaltender. Bell eventually transitioned to defenseman while Soderberg took over the starting role at UMD as a junior. Both were Olympians a year ago in Beijing, with Soderberg starting in net for Sweden and Bell winning a gold medal with Canad...

Bulldogs junior defenseman Wyatt Kaiser joins the podcast this week to talk about his 2022-23 season, and share some of his cooking skills. Wyatt Kaiser's junior season at Minnesota Duluth has been different from his freshmand and sophomore seasons in many, many ways. It's his first full college season without any pandemic restrictions. It's the first season in which he's the veteran Bulldog on th...

A lot of people go to college for seven years. They're called doctors. However, few get to be part of a college hockey program for six years. Around Duluth, that person is known as Naomi Rogge. Rogge earned the status of sixth-year senior after missing her entire junior season with a knee injury and by playing through the 2021-22 COVID-19 season. She committed to the Bulldogs in the summer of 2015...

After appearing in just 21 games over three seasons at Maine, one would expect "playing time" would be at the top of the list for a NHL-drafted goaltender like Matthew Thiessen when it came time to pick a new team for 2022-23. It wasn't. Informed he was no longer part of the rebuilding Black Bears' plans moving forward, the 2018 seventh-round pick of the Vancouver Canucks told the Bulldog Insider...

Duluth and Amsoil Arena will be hosting the 2023 NCAA Women's Frozen Four in March, bringing hockey fans from across the country to the Twin Ports. The last time Minnesota Duluth hosted the Frozen Four was in 2012, so this week on the Bulldog Insider Podcast, we began work on a fan guide with two veteran Bulldogs. UMD fifth-year senior forwards Kylie Hanley and Anneke Linser — who hope to be parti...

The Minnesota Duluth men's hockey team will be spending a significant time on the road the next two weeks, literally, busing to Omaha this week and North Dakota the following week. The Bulldogs already made one jaunt down U.S. Highway 2 to Bemidji State and back last weekend.   One Bulldog who is used to long bus rides is freshman wing Ben Steeves, who played the previous two seasons in the United...

Bob Nygaard was the sports information director at Minnesota Duluth for over three decades, helping the Bulldogs men's hockey program win a historic six Hobey Baker Memorial Awards during his time. Prior to the men's series finale against Bemidji State at 6:07 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 7, the press box at Amsoil Arena will be named in Nygaard's honor. Nygaard joined the Bulldog Insider Podcast this w...

The Bulldog Insider Podcast returns this week from its holiday hiatus to preview the second half of the 2022-23 season, while also looking back at the first half of the year. Duluth News Tribune sports reporter Matt Wellens and My9 television voice of Bulldog hockey Zach Schneider are joined by the radio voice of UMD hockey on KDAL, Bruce Ciskie, to answer questions, such as: Have the Bulldogs met...

When Scott Sandelin had an opening on his staff back in 2020, former Ferris State Bulldogs captain Cody Chupp jumped at the chance to interview to become an assistant coach for the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs. The job went to Derek Plante, but four years later, Chupp got another crack at the job after Plante left to rejoin the Chicago Blackhawks organization. Chupp joined Sandelin's staff in August...

After missing much of the second half of the 2021-22 season — including the NCAA tournament, Frozen Four and national championship game — with a season-ending knee injury, Minnesota Duluth fifth-year senior defenseman Maggie Flaherty has done the exact opposite of easing back into the Bulldogs' lineup. Flaherty is having herself a career-season at UMD with seven goals in 16 games. That's tied with...

After retiring from professional hockey early in his career due to injuries, former Minnesota Duluth captain Parker Mackay was looking to get into coaching. He even landed a job in the Alberta Junior Hockey League before getting a call asking if he'd be interesting in scouting for an NHL team. Now Mackay — who led the Bulldogs to back-to-back national championships in 2018 and 2019 — is in his sec...

A year ago this month, Minnesota Duluth goaltender Zach Stejskal went public with his diagnosis of testicular cancer. It triggered not only a wave of support for the Cohasset native, but a surge in donations for the Bulldogs' Movember campaign, which raises funds and awareness for men's physical and mental health issues. Stejskal is now cancer free, and leading a new group of Bulldogs goaltenders...

This week on the Bulldog Insider Podcast, we're talking about the state of women's professional hockey. And unlike previous years, we didn't have to Zoom with players from seven time zones away to do so. A flood of players — from the U.S., Canada and Europe — have returned from European leagues to play in the Premier Hockey Federation this season, including a number of Minnesota Duluth alumni. The...