Good morning Bulldogs fans!

After the UMD men's hockey team lost three-straight games to Western Michigan and Colorado College last month, Bulldogs coach Scott Sandelin said his team was in "a tough spot" to nab an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, despite almost all the national polls and prognosticators slotting the Bulldogs no lower than 13th.

This week, both national polls -- USCHO and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine -- have the Bulldogs at No. 9. The College Hockey News power rankings have UMD sitting 10th, while the writers of The Rink Live have UMD sitting between Nos. 9-11.

I personally have UMD at No. 9.

I thought Sandelin was maybe just trying to put his team's feet to the fire with his "tough spot" comment a few weeks back. His teams have responded well the past couple of seasons when their backs are against the wall.

However, after the NCAA women's tournament selection show on Sunday night, I think Sandelin might be on to something. Stick with me here.

Any and every legitimate women's hockey poll and prognosticator under the sun had the University of Minnesota making this year's NCAA women's hockey tournament. The Gophers were consistently ranked in the top five of the national polls, and still are this week.

Prognosticators, like myself, even had them ahead of UMD when comparing the four WCHA teams who were in contention to make the tournament. The Gophers had, after all, won both meetings against the Bulldogs this season.

But come Sunday night, not only were the Bulldogs ranked higher -- receiving a No. 5 seed -- the Gophers were also jumped by Hockey East's Boston College and Providence. Minnesota was left out of the field, UMD was in and Hockey East received a record three bids.

The snub has sparked a tremendous amount of controversy, in part because UMD Director of Athletics Josh Berlo was on the five-member committee, as well as Boston College coach Katie Crowley and Hockey East associate commissioner Kate McAfee. Conspiracy theories are flying all over the place.

The Pairwise rankings typically make the selection and seeding of an NCAA hockey tournament a robotic exercise, but with that system wiped out this year by a lack of nonconference games during the COVID-19 pandemic, human beings are left trying to make objective decisions on who the top eight teams are for the women and top 16 are for the men.

Human beings stink at being objective, which means there is going to be subjectivity in grading teams, in grading leagues and even with the interpretation of the criteria.

I'm going to use the UMD-Minnesota comparison as an example, even though -- based on UMD getting a No. 5 seed -- the showdown for the final spot was obviously between Minnesota being the fourth WCHA team, or Providence being the third Hockey East team in the field.

Everyone outside of the committee had the Gophers ahead of the Bulldogs because of Minnesota's 2-0 head-to-head record, strength of schedule (13 of 20 games against NCAA tournament teams compared to 7 of 17 for UMD) and number of quality wins (Minnesota 4, UMD 2).

The committee, however, didn't seem to value head-to-head results from November like everyone else did, the same with strength of schedule.

As for common opponents and quality wins, the committee must have felt the Bulldogs' 1-2 record against the Buckeyes and 1-1 record versus the Badgers beat out the Gophers' 2-4 record against Ohio State and 0-4-1 record vs. Wisconsin.

(But Providence's 0-4 record against No. 1 Northeastern was less worse than Minnesota's record vs. No. 2 Wisconsin ... go figure.)

While we may not like the committee's interpretation of the criteria, they have every right to interpret it their way. The NCAA has only listed criteria for selection, not defined it. It really is all subjective.

So let's circle back now to where we started with the selection of the men's tournament field, which will use the same criteria list the women did. Can we pull anything out of what happened on Sunday and apply it to what might happen on March 21 when the men's field is announced?

I'd say mostly no, as this is an entirely different group of people, who appear to have fewer conflicts of interest than the women's committee. For one, it has six members instead of five, and each conference only gets one member -- three from the eastern leagues and three from the west. Hockey East does not make up two-fifths of this committee. Four-fifths of the committee is not from eastern schools.

The only thing anyone can take from Sunday is to expect the unexpected. Unless a team wins its conference tournament and nabs that automatic qualifier, there are no locks and your fate will be out of your hands.

So yeah, the UMD men's hockey team is in a "tough spot" heading into the NCHC Frozen Faceoff. Almost everyone not named Boston College or North Dakota likely is.

THIS WEEK ON BULLDOG INSIDER:

Battling for ice time with Cloquet's Koby Bender

This week on the Bulldog Insider Podcast, we spend a lot of time talking about food again.

I know, it's happened a lot this season. We had no choice this week. We had to. Our guest, UMD men's hockey senior wing Koby Bender, hails from Cloquet and you can not talk about Cloquet without talking about Gordy's Hi-Hat, right?

Bender and producer Samantha Erkkila, a Cloquet resident, also give us suggestions for other places to hit up in Cloquet besides Gordy's, because you need variety in your life.

The meat of this podcast (food pun!) is talking to Bender about what it took for him to get from the Cloquet-Esko-Carlton Lumberjacks to the Bulldogs, and then once at UMD what it took for him to become a regular in the lineup and produce the way he's been as of late.

You can listen to this week's episode at DuluthNewsTribune.com, TheRinkLive.com, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also read excerpts from this week's episode here in the Bulldog Insider Q&A.

BONUS LISTENS

In addition to this week's Bulldog Insider Podcast, I also recorded a special episode of the Huskies Hockey Insider podcast with Mick Hatten of The Rink Live and Brad Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald. That can be found here.

Bulldogs fans should also check out this week's episode of The Rink Live podcast with legendary former Bulldogs coach Mike Sertich. It's honestly a crime I haven't had him on Bulldog Insider yet. He might be my first guest when we can start talking to people in person again. You can catch that podcast here.

WHAT'S AHEAD

Hitting the road with the Bulldogs

Last Saturday, the News Tribune hit the road to cover a Bulldogs hockey team for the first time in 371 days. Photographer Tyler Schank and I traveled to Minneapolis to cover the UMD women in the WCHA Final Faceoff.

That was our training-wheels trip. Now Clint Austin and I will be flying to Erie, Pennsylvania, for the NCAA women's hockey tournament to cover the UMD women out there as long as they're playing. Fifth-seeded UMD opens against No. 4 Colgate on Monday. The national championship is scheduled for next Saturday.

The Bulldogs' men will be in Grand Forks, North Dakota, at the NCHC Frozen Faceoff. They open against Western Michigan on Saturday. We're still going to have plenty of coverage of them as well as I'll continue to cover them virtually this weekend.

I won't be alone covering the UMD men. I have some terrific colleagues at The Rink Live and Grand Forks Herald in Mick Hatten and Brad Schlossman. They're two of the best writers in college hockey and they'll be assisting me with coverage of the Bulldogs in Grand Forks. The Herald will also be providing us with photos.

As you can probably imagine, following the Bulldogs during the postseason is a costly endeavor. Any fan that's done so knows what I'm talking about. It involves a lot of last-second booking of flights, hotels and rental cars, not to mention hours.

The News Tribune is planning to hit the road again in two weeks for the NCAA men's hockey regionals, and after that to the NCAA Frozen Four in Pittsburgh should the Bulldogs make it there.

If you appreciate our coverage of the Bulldogs during the regular season, if you like seeing us on the road covering the team, please consider a subscription to the Duluth News Tribune or The Rink Live if you can (The Rink Live is included in DNT subscriptions, FYI). And if you are already a subscriber, thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting our work.

I'll have an NCHC Frozen Faceoff preview coming Friday to DuluthNewsTribune.com and TheRinkLive.com and coverage will begin this weekend of the UMD women being back in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2016-17. Check out Follow, Watch, Listen below for all the ways you can catch the Bulldogs over the next week.

FOLLOW, WATCH, LISTEN

How to keep up with the Bulldogs in the postseason

Minnesota Duluth men at NCHC Frozen Faceoff

At Ralph Engelstad Arena, Grand Forks, North Dakota

Quarterfinals: UMD vs. Western Michigan

7:37 p.m. Saturday

Follow

Twitter: Follow News Tribune college hockey reporter Matt Wellens

Live Blog: The Rink Live provides updates throughout the game, starting an hour before puck drop.

Watch

Online streaming: NCHC.tv (subscription required)

TV: My 9 Sports

Listen

Radio: KDAL 610 AM/103.9 FM

Semifinals and championship

If the Bulldogs advance to the semifinals, they'll play at either 3:06 p.m. or 8:06 p.m. on Monday, March 15.
The NCHC Frozen Faceoff championship is scheduled for 7:37 p.m. on Tuesday, March 16

Follow

Twitter: Follow News Tribune college hockey reporter Matt Wellens

Live Blog: The Rink Live provides updates throughout the game, starting an hour before puck drop.

Watch

Online streaming: CBS Sports Network (subscription required)

TV: CBS Sports Network

Listen

Radio: KDAL 610 AM/103.9 FM

NCAA women's hockey quarterfinals

No. 5 Minnesota Duluth vs. No. 4 Colgate

6 p.m. Monday

At Erie Insurance Arena in Erie, Pennsylvania

Follow

Twitter: Follow News Tribune college hockey reporter Matt Wellens

Watch

Online streaming: NCAA.com (free)

TV: None

Listen

Radio: None

BALLOT REVEAL

Here is who Matt voted on his 2020-21 NCHC Awards ballot

The NCHC has been announcing its all-conference teams and individual awards this week, with just Herb Brooks Coach of the Year, NCHC Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, NCHC Senior Scholar-Athlete of the Year to go today.

The coaches initially nominate players from their teams for each award. There are no write-ins. Then all eight head coaches, plus one media member from each school, vote via a ballot provided by the league, providing first and second choices to help break ties. Coaches cannot vote for their own players. I am the media representative for the Bulldogs and for transparency sake, here is the ballot I submitted for 2020-21:

All-NCHC

Forwards

First: Jordan Kawaguchi, UND; Shane Pinto, UND; Nick Swaney, UMD

Second: Collin Adams, UND; Cole Koepke, UMD; Veeti Miettinen, SCSU

Defenseman

First: Ronnie Attard, WMU; Matt Kiersted, UND

Second: Jacob Bernard-Docker, UND; Nick Perbix, SCSU

Goaltender

First: Isaiah Saville, UNO

Second: Adam Scheel, UND

All-Rookie

Forwards

First: Riese Gaber, UND; Veeti Miettinen, SCSU; Carter Savoie, DU

Second: Matthew Barbolini, MU; Ty Glover, WMU; Matt Miller, UNO

Defenseman

First: Wyatt Kaiser, UMD; Antti Tuomisto, DU

Second: Aidan Fulp, WMU; Tyler Kleven, UND

Goaltender

First: Ludvig Persson, MU

Second: Dominic Basse, CC

Awards

Coach of the Year

First: Brad Berry, UND

Second: Mike Gabinet, UNO

Player of the Year

First: Shane Pinto, UND

Second: Nick Swaney, UMD

Rookie of the Year

First: Veeti Miettinen, SCSU

Second: Carter Savoie, DU

Goaltender of the Year

First: Isaiah Saville, UNO

Second: Adam Scheel, UND

Forward of the Year

First: Shane Pinto, UND

Second: Nick Swaney, UMD

Defensive Defenseman of the Year

First: Matt Kiersted, UND

Second: Jacob Bernard-Docker, UND

Offensive Defenseman of the Year

First: Ronnie Attard, WMU

Second: Matt Kiersted UND

Defensive Forward of the Year

First: Shane Pinto, UND

Second: Noah Cates, UMD