Duluth hosted the Adam Johnson Memorial Night on Saturday for the game against Western Michigan. Johnson, a Hibbing native and former Bulldog, tragically lost his life just over a year ago after sustaining a neck injury while playing for the Nottingham Panthers in the Elite Ice Hockey League in the United Kingdom.

Amsoil Arena and sponsors around the Duluth area held many different activities before and throughout the game, including silent auctions, memorial t-shirts for the first 1,000 attendees, a pregame video tribute and more. 

Bulldog players wore specially made jerseys during warmups, with each one displaying the last name “Johnson” with a number seven under it. Western Michigan players displayed a “AJ” sticker on the back of their helmets as well. 

The Dogs’ Last Action

Duluth traveled to Miami, OH last weekend for a two-game series against the Redhawks. Duluth was able to take both games, outscoring the opponent 12-2 in the two games and improving their record to 5-6-0 overall. 

The Bulldogs were led by senior Dominic James, racking up five points over the weekend while freshmen Zam Plante and Jayson Shaugabay both had three points as well. The two wins were much needed for the Bulldogs before heading back to Amsoil Arena. 

Friday 

First Period

Duluth started the game with a spark from freshmen Max Plante. Plante suffered a wrist injury in the first game of the year, putting him on the bench for Bulldogs’ previous games until Friday. 

His older brother spoke on the impact Max had. 

“Max was relentless, he's got a drive to be the best player every night and you could see it tonight,” said Zam Plante. 

That energy was held by Plante and some of his Bulldog teammates throughout the first couple minutes and got a chance to get their first tally when Western Michigan’s Zach Nehring went to the box for five minutes for slew footing. 

But the Broncos had other plans. Owen Michaels took the puck from a UMD player and skated the distance, shooting the puck over the glove of Adam Gajan to break open the scoring while being short handed. 

A couple minutes later, Zam found a bouncing puck out front on a one timer by Aaron Pionk, but wasn't able to put it home. 

The battle continued around the net and just a couple of seconds later, Zam didn't miss twice, as he buried a second opportunity, on a beautiful pass from his brother Max. The chemistry of the Plante’s showed in the first game back. 

Halfway through the period, Duluth was doing a good job of keeping the puck out of their zone, only allowing one shot on goal, while getting 10 of their own. Other than the short handed goal, Duluth was dominating the period. 

At the 15:22 mark, UMD’s Joey Pierce committed a major penalty for contact to the head — Jayson Shaugabay served the five minutes for the Bulldogs. 

Duluth captain James along with other teammates were able to make a couple of key blocks on shots during the penalty kill and made it to the end the period without letting in another goal.

After one, Duluth led the Broncos in shots on goal, 12-4, with the game tied 1-1. 

Second Period

Duluth was able to kill the last 22 seconds of the major penalty to start the second period. The next couple of minutes in the period was back and forth, with both teams not able to get many good opportunities. 

The Broncos got the first goal of the period when Garret Szydlowski picked up a loose puck in front of the net and scored on a backhand shot that made it through the five hole of Gajan. 

The first good look of the period for UMD came from James when he made a swift move around a defender but couldn't light the lamp. A couple of minutes later, the Broncos committed their second penalty of the game at the 6:08 mark.

Duluth did not produce much in the powerplay period, getting three shots, with one of them ringing the crossbar off a shot from Ty Hanson. 

Just under two minutes after killing the penalty, Western Michigan cashed in to take their second lead of the game. Two Bronco’s players were batting the airborn puck around and eventually smacked it out of the air and into the net. 

Duluth was still dominating in shots but Western Michigan struck again on a powerplay goal at the 17:30 mark. Before the period ended, Duluth had what looked like a goal but the play was whistled dead and deemed a no-goal after review. 

After two, Duluth still led the Broncos in SOG, 21-16, but trailed 1-4. 

Third Period

Duluth continued to see high effort from certain players on the team to start the third period, hoping to get the first goal in order to keep the game from getting out of hand. Anthony Mnghini being one of those players, flying around, sending pucks towards the net. 

Five minutes into the period, Duluth had six shots to Western Michigan’s one. A trend that has been followed throughout the game held true again. Finally, UMD was able to cash in on one of their many shots. It was Zam Plante again, this time on a pass from Harper Bentz.

This spark of hope didn’t last long when Ethan Wolthers scored his second of the game for the Broncos to push their lead back to three. At the 11:32 mark, Duluth had another chance to score when they were given a power play, but were not able to score. 

Duluth continued to press and force pucks to the net, but Western Michigan’s Cameron Rowe continued to show his dominance in the game. 

The Bulldog’s ended up pulling their goaltender with just over three minutes left in hopes to chip away at the Broncos lead. They couldn't do so and ultimately lost 5-2. 

Saturday

First period

Duluth welcomed the Broncos back into Amsoil Arena less than 24 hours later in hopes to get the split on the weekend. The first half of period one stayed pretty clean.

This didn't last long — UMD committed a tripping penalty at the 11:11 mark. The Dog’s were able to kill off the powerplay, only allowing one shot on goal in the two-minute period. This was really the only action seen in the first. 

Joe Molenaar was able to block three shots throughout the period, helping ease the amount of shots for Gajan to face. Six different UMD players had shots on goal.

At the end of the period, Western Michigan went to the penalty box for goaltender interference, giving UMD a chance to score on the powerplay to start the second period. 

After one, UMD was out shot 6-16, while being tied 0-0. 

Second Period

Duluth looked to capitalize on the two minute minor they were given at the end of the first period. They were not able to convert on the powerplay and made it worse by committing a tripping penalty just 24 seconds later. 

The Bulldogs were able to kill it off with a series of blocked shots and clears only to put themselves in the box again. This time it was Dubinsky for cross checking. Western Michigan was caught in a bad change just a minute later, causing a too many men penalty. 

Neither team was able to convert on their power play opportunities and that kept the game scoreless.

Duluth was able to get the first goal of the game at the 12:25 mark. Hanson provided the Bulldogs with the lead when he picked up a loose puck and sent it into chaos in front of the net, before it found its way to the back of the net. The pass came from Jack Smith and Molenaar. 

With just around six minutes left in the period, Duluth had a costly mistake when Carter Loney went to the box for a contact to the head penalty. The Bulldogs hoped to kill the five minutes with minimal damage.

UMD was able to do so for the first half but Western Michigan was able to convert on two goals before Loney was able to get out of the penalty box. Broncos captain Tim Washe was responsible for a goal and an assist in those two tallies. 

No more goals to end the second period, while Duluth still trailed in shots on goal 20-27, while trailing 1-2. 

Third Period

Duluth was not able to convert on an early interference penalty committed by the Broncos. They struggled to get the puck into the zone, not getting a shot on goal in the powerplay. 

At the 5:54 mark, Western Michigan took a bigger lead than they already had when Washe picked up his second goal and third point of the night on a pass from Ethan Wolthers

Halfway through the period, Max Plante and Western Michigan's Tristan Lemyre got into a scuffle, exchanging shoves and punches before ultimately receiving two minutes each for roughing. No goals allowed in the 4 on 4 period. 

Western Michigan punched in another goal at the 15:17 mark to push their lead to three. 

The Broncos didn't quite close the door on this game when they had another undisciplined too many men penalty at the 15:52 mark. This gave Duluth one last chance to get back into the game. Unfortunately, UMD couldn’t convert on the opportunity. 

“We’ve got to get back to work. Two games left in a couple weeks… and we got to find a way to get a couple of wins going into break,” said head coach Scott Sandelin 

The game ended 4-1 with UMD trailing in shots, 33-36. Duluth will see their next action on Friday, Dec. 6, and Saturday, Dec. 7, where they will travel to Tempe, Arizona, to take on the Arizona State University Sun Devils.