Minnesota Duluth can secure an NCHC quarterfinal series March 13-15 at Amsoil Arena with two wins this weekend in Kalamazoo, Mich.
The Bulldogs, second in the NCHC standings, take on third-place Western Michigan at 6:05 p.m. CT Friday and Saturday at Lawson Arena. UMD currently leads fifth-place St. Cloud State by 13 points with six games remaining in the regular season.
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The Huskies swept the Bulldogs in mid-January in St. Cloud, but since then UMD has won five of its last six games, including four straight before last weekend鈥檚 bye.
鈥淲e鈥檝e seen some better things in the last month, but we still have a long way to go,鈥� said coach Scott Sandelin, whose Bulldogs close the regular season against SCSU on March 6-7 in Duluth. 鈥淭here's areas that we've got to keep getting better at. It's no different than any other year. This year there's probably a little bit more. You can sit here and say we had a good run 鈥� we went 5-1, which is important 鈥� but this is the homestretch here. We've got to dial it up another level.鈥�
The Broncos, who are seven on up St. Cloud and also are looking to lock up a home-ice series with some wins and some help this weekend, sit six points back of the Bulldogs.
Western mustered just two points in its last series with UMD on Jan. 10-11 in Duluth 鈥� losing 6-3 on Friday and winning a shootout after a 3-3 tie on Saturday. Since then the Broncos have gone 8-1-1, including a home sweep of St. Cloud State via a pair of 6-2 wins just a week after the Bulldogs were stymied by SCSU 2-1 and 2-0.
Broncos coach Andy Murray said during his weekly press conference he likes how his team matches up with this year鈥檚 Bulldogs, who he considers stronger than the previous two teams that won back-to-back national championships.
鈥淚 think their team this year is better,鈥� Murray said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e bigger, they鈥檙e faster and they still have the defensive corps with (Scott) Perunovich on the blue line with 110 points it seems.鈥�
That was an exaggeration, of course, by Murray.
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Perunovich, the junior defenseman from Hibbing, has 33 points going into this weekend via four goals and 29 assists. He ranks third nationally among defenseman in scoring and is first in assists.
Perunovich does have 98 career points (18 goals, 80 assists), tying him with Beau Geisler (2000-04) for sixth on UMD鈥檚 all-time scoring list for defensemen. Two points this weekend would make Perunovich the 58th Bulldog to reach the century mark and the first defenseman to do so since three-time All-American Norm Maciver in 1984-85.
Bulldog Bites
In addition to Perunovich, Murray highlighted goaltender Hunter Shepard as a reason the Bulldogs have only gotten stronger. That鈥檚 no surprise considering how solid the senior from Cohasset has been against the Broncos, posting a 1.59 goals against average and .937 save percentage in 11 games against WMU. He鈥檚 6-3-2 against Western with four shutouts.
The Bulldogs remain fourth overall in following the bye weekend and their projected destination for the time being remains unchanged 鈥� the top-seed in Loveland, Colo. with host and fifth overall seed Denver.
The Broncos have moved themselves on the very inside edge of the bubble at No. 15 in the Pairwise. They were 30th after the loss and tie at UMD last month.
The Bulldogs are guaranteed to finish with a .500 record or better in NCHC play this season, making the seventh time in the league鈥檚 seven seasons that鈥檚 happened. UMD has finished above .500 in conference play in all but the NCHC鈥檚 inaugural season.
