MEMORABLE UMD HOCKEY MOMENTS
December 10, 1930. Duluth State Teacher’s College announces that intercollegiate ice hockey will be added to the institution’s varsity sports program. January 13, 1931. DSTC bows to Duluth Central High School 3-0 at the Duluth Amphitheater in the club’s first varsity hockey game. Subsequently, the fledgling team drops all three of its contests in its inaugural campaign. Head Coach Frank Kovach, who also helped start both the Bulldog intercollegiate football and men’s basketball programs that same year, awards 15 varsity letters. February 27, 1932. DSTC wins its first intercollegiate hockey game with a 3-2 decision over Two Harbors High School at the Duluth Amphitheater. June 10, 1946. Following a 14-year absence, ice hockey is reinstated as a varsity sport by adminstrative officials at Duluth State Teacher’s College. February 24, 1949. Goaltender Norm Thompson and the Bulldogs shut out Carleton College 3-0 in Duluth to close out the year with a 7-0-0 overall record for their only unbeaten, untied season in history. June 27, 1949. After two seasons playing as an independent, UMD is accepted into the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. December 13, 1957. UMD dumps visiting Michigan Tech University 5-3 for its first triumph over an NCAA Division I institution. February 18, 1959. Junior center Orest Wojcichowsky nets 10 points (four goals and six assists) against Concordia College in what would stand as a UMD (pre-NCAA Division I) single-game record. The Bulldogs win the MIAC confrontation 16-0 at the Duluth Curling Club. February 15, 1961. In its final game as members of the MIAC, UMD blanks Augsburg College 19-0 at the Duluth Curling Club. The victory was the Bulldogs’ 56th straight in league play and assured UMD of its sixth consecutive MIAC title.
The Bulldogs played in the cozy confines of the Duluth Curling Club from the early 1950s through the 1965-66 season ... to construction delays with the facility (it wouldn’t officially open until July 1966), the national event is later switched to Williams Arena in Minneapolis. The Duluth Arena, however, would eventually host the NCAA Championships in both 1968 and 1981. April 3, 1965. UMD Provost Raymond Darland announces that the Bulldogs will officially become the eighth team in the prestigious WCHA beginning with the 196566 season. The Bulldogs join Minnesota, North Dakota, Colorado College, Denver, Michigan Tech, Michigan State and Michigan in the newly-expanded circuit. February 11, 1966. The Bulldogs end their 14-game winless WCHA streak by clipping North Dakota 3-2 in overtime in Grand Forks, ND, for the school’s first league victory.
February 18, 1966. The Bulldogs take to the Duluth Curling Club ice sheet for a final time, falling 8-3 to the University of Michigan. A gathering of just over 2,000 spectators witness the finale. March 13, 1966. Senior defenseman Bob Hill is among six players selected to 196566 AHCA All-American first team -- the first Bulldog to ever earn such a distinction. November 19, 1966. In the inaugural game at the newly-constructed Duluth Arena, All-American senior center Keith “Huffer” Christiansen, who later that year would be named the WCHA’s Most Valuable Player, collects a school-record six assists to help propel the Bulldogs past Minnesota 8-1 before a sellout crowd of 5,700.
August 10, 1961. UMD abandons the MIAC in hopes of establishing itself as a legitimate big-time college hockey school. The University officially elects to compete as a Division I independent and releases a 1961-62 schedule which features engagements against Western Collegiate Hockey Association powers such as the University of Minnesota, Michigan Tech, Michigan State University, and the University of Denver. December 19, 1964. In what was then an NCAA Division I single-game record, senior goaltender Bill Halbrehder makes 77 saves in the Bulldogs’ 6-5 overtime loss to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
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March 20, 1965. The 1966 NCAA Division I Ice Hockey Tournament and the accompanying American Hockey Coaches Association Convention is awarded to the city of Duluth and its new $6.1 million Arena-Auditorium Complex. But due
... before christening the Duluth Arena (which later became known as the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center) on Nov. 19, 1966