Bulldog Insider

When all is said and done he will have covered eight teams in 20 games in 16 days.

From the NCHC Pod in Omaha, college hockey analyst and member of the Midco broadcast team Dave Starman joins us on the podcast this week.

With so many teams and so many games, Starman talks about the effects of "Pod Fog," how much tea (with honey) he has consumed, the importance of not repeating a tie/shirt combo and what goes into preparing to call games for such a condensed schedule.

In the rapid-fire round, Starman also shares his opinion on whether or not the conference and the NCAA should consider a pod setup for the postseason.

The Bulldog Insider is co-hosted by Duluth News Tribune sports reporter Matt Wellens and My9 television voice of Bulldog hockey Zach Schneider. Episodes are edited and produced by Duluth News Tribune multimedia producer Samantha Erkkila.

All episodes are being recorded remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

You can find more Bulldog hockey coverage at duluthnewstribune.com.

Play in Omaha is well underway and by now we all know who started in goal for the first game of the post-Hunter Shepard era.

Sophomore Ryan Fanti got the start in the Bulldogs' first three games of the season at Baxter Arena in the NCHC Omaha Pod. The goaltender from Thunder Bay who had an incredible 17 save second period against Denver, and then made some huge saves on Sunday to secure the win over Miami, joins the podcast to talk about his first collegiate start in net, the internal competition between goalies and what his experience has been like in the pod so far.

The Bulldog Insider is co-hosted by Duluth News Tribune sports reporter Matt Wellens and My9 television voice of Bulldog hockey Zach Schneider. Episodes are edited and produced by Duluth News Tribune multimedia producer Samantha Erkkila.

All episodes are being recorded remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

You can find more Bulldog hockey coverage at duluthnewstribune.com.

The last time we talked to former UMD captain Parker Mackay he was hoisting a national championship trophy over his head at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York.

Now the two-time national champion is living in Graz, Austria where he is playing this season with the Graz 99ers of the ICE Hockey League, the top tier in Austria.

Ten games into the season, he and a few of his teammates tested positive for COVID-19 resulting in the entire team shutting down play for two weeks. We caught up with Mackay recently to see how he is recovering and what his experience was like with the virus.

The Bulldog Insider is co-hosted by Duluth News Tribune sports reporter Matt Wellens and My9 television voice of Bulldog hockey Zach Schneider. Episodes are edited and produced by Duluth News Tribune multimedia producer Samantha Erkkila.

All episodes are being recorded remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

You can find more Bulldog hockey coverage at duluthnewstribune.com.

The still defending national champions are just a few days away from boarding a couple of buses and traveling to Omaha, Nebraska, where they will play 10 games in 19 days as part of the NCHC pod.

UMD opens play on December 2 against Denver. This week we preview their season with senior defensemen Louie Roehl and Matt Anderson.

"It's definitely going to be fun. There's nothing better than playing hockey, right?" said Anderson. "And that's all we are going to do for 20 days. We're going to play a game, relax a little bit and then play another game."

The Bulldog Insider is co-hosted by Duluth News Tribune sports reporter Matt Wellens and My9 television voice of Bulldog hockey Zach Schneider. Episodes are edited and produced by Duluth News Tribune multimedia producer Samantha Erkkila.

All episodes are being recorded remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

You can find more Bulldog hockey coverage at duluthnewstribune.com.

The UMD women's hockey team has its first game of the 2020-21 season in reach. We catch up with senior captains McKenzie Revering and Anna Klein to see how the team is feeling knowing their extended preseason is coming to an end and competition against other teams is on the horizon.

And with the NCAA granting all student-athletes this season an extra year of eligibility because of COVID-19, we see if either of them is considering taking advantage of that extra year.

The Bulldog Insider is co-hosted by Duluth News Tribune sports reporter Matt Wellens and My9 television voice of Bulldog hockey Zach Schneider. Episodes are edited and produced by Duluth News Tribune multimedia producer Samantha Erkkila.

All episodes are being recorded remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

You can find more Bulldog hockey coverage at duluthnewstribune.com.

Former Bulldog and Duluth native Andy Welinski has some recent experience in bubbles, hubs, pods, whatever you want to call them. He was with the Philadelphia Flyers this fall in Toronto during the Flyers' run to the Eastern Conference final.

Welinski, who is back with the Anaheim Ducks organization after signing a one-year deal with them this offseason, shares what his experience was like in a hub as the Bulldogs prepare to travel to Omaha for three weeks to start their season.

The Bulldog Insider is co-hosted by Duluth News Tribune sports reporter Matt Wellens and My9 television voice of Bulldog hockey Zach Schneider. Episodes are edited and produced by Duluth News Tribune multimedia producer Samantha Erkkila.

All episodes are being recorded remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

You can find more Bulldog hockey coverage, including the 2020-2021 game schedules, at duluthnewstribune.com.

Sidney Morin and Lara Stalder were both seniors on a memorable 2016-17 Bulldogs squad that made a NCAA tournament run. Both are now in their fourth season in the Swedish Women's Hockey League, which has really become a popular destination for UMD alumni as of late.

The Bulldog Insider is co-hosted by Duluth News Tribune sports reporter Matt Wellens and My9 television voice of Bulldog hockey Zach Schneider. Episodes are edited and produced by Duluth News Tribune multimedia producer Samantha Erkkila.

All episodes are being recorded remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

You can find more Bulldog hockey coverage at duluthnewstribune.com.

In the Season 3 opener of the Bulldog Insider we talk with UMD hockey captains Noah Cates and Ashton Bell about how they've had to adapt to new restrictions and how they're leading their teammates through a 2020-21 season overshadowed by COVID-19.

The Bulldog Insider is co-hosted by Duluth News Tribune sports reporter Matt Wellens and My9 television voice of Bulldog hockey Zach Schneider. Episodes are edited and produced by Duluth News Tribune multimedia producer Samantha Erkkila.

All episodes are being recorded remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

You can find more Bulldog hockey coverage at duluthnewstribune.com.

News Tribune hockey reporter and host of the Bulldog Insider Podcast caught up with UMD freshman forward Blake Biondi of Hermantown, over Zoom on Monday, Oct. 5, to discuss the NHL draft and how his first year of college has been going amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

While we still don't have a set start date for Season 3 of this podcast, we will be bringing you player interviews and other updates. You can also view Zoom video interviews with players and possibly coaches at duluthnewstribune.com.

Hey Bulldog Insider listeners. While we take a hiatus from the college hockey season we wanted you to know about another Duluth News Tribune podcast you might be interested in.

One hundred years ago, on June 15, 1920, three black circus workers, Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie, were wrongfully accused of sexual assault and murdered by a mob. In this six-part series, the News Tribune will look back at one of Duluth, Minnesota's dark moments in history, a time when an estimated 10,000 people participated in or were witness to a hate crime — then didn't talk about it again publicly for more than 60 years.

The Duluth Lynchings is produced by the Duluth News Tribune's Christa Lawler and Samantha Erkkila, with reporting by newsroom staff. The first episode airs Thursday, May 14, but you can listen to the trailer here first.