UMD honors 2019 men’s hockey team
Head coach Scott Sandelin addressing the crowd. Photo by Drew Smith
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story had a quote stating the national championship was “unremarkable,” though the source meant “unbelievable.”
UMD held a championship celebration for the hockey team on Tuesday night to celebrate a second straight national championship and a third straight Frozen Four appearance.
The celebration took place in Romano Gymnasium where fans from all over came to show their support as they cheered on the Bulldogs for the last time this season.
Fans were also given the opportunity to take pictures with the three national championship trophies from 2011, 2018 and 2019. Plus, if you were willing to wait in the line that stretched from the Romano Lobby all the way back to the front desk of the Sports and Health Center, you could get autographs from the players.
The ceremony was kicked off by the hockey PA announcer Howie Leathers. Leathers read off all the awards and records that the team obtained this past year. Here are just a few of them:
One out of three teams to repeat in the past 47 years (UMD, Denver, Minnesota)
29 wins in the regular season (2nd most in school history)
27-12 in the NCAA Hockey Tournament (the best winning percentage in the country at .692)
3 title in this decade (most in the country)
Head Coach Scott Sandelin improves his all time NCAA Tournament record to 21-6 (best winning percentage among active coaches and 3rd among all-time coaches)
Shortly after, head coach Scott Sandelin took the microphone and spent most of his time thanking everyone behind the scenes that makes everything possible.
Senior Captain Parker Mackay. Photo by Drew Smith
“For me as a head coach, you are only as good as the people around you and we got some tremendous people in our program,” said Sandelin.
Sandelin praised the team for playing one of the best games they played all season last Saturday night, and also mentioned that he has been blessed with great captains over the years which includes the 2019 Frozen Four Most Outstanding Player Parker Mackay.
Mackay was the last person to speak and was really adamant about thanking the fans who showed up in Buffalo and the ones who tore down Canal Park back in Duluth.
Mackay finds it unbelievable to have come back to Duluth and repeat as national champions.
Looking forward to next season, the Bulldogs will be going for their third straight national championship, something that hasn’t been done since the University of Michigan did it in 1951-1953.