Three Plantes on one line is UMD's best idea of the weekend

Scott Sandelin made Victor Plante a promise: if his two older brothers were still in Duluth when he got there, the three of them would start Game 1 on the same line.

Friday night at AMSOIL Arena against Long Island, Sandelin pays up, and I think it's the smartest promise any coach in the country has made this fall.

This isn't a family photo opportunity dressed up as a lineup decision. Max Plante won the Hobey Baker last season with 52 points and a team-high 26 goals. Zam had 51 points and comes into the opener riding a seven-game scoring streak, which makes him the hottest returning forward in the building.

Put your two best forwards together, add the freshman who grew up chasing them, and the coaching staff doesn't need a whiteboard, or much of a practice plan, to explain the assignment.

"We all think and play a bit the same way and just try to make plays all the time," Zam said.

Max put it even simpler. "It's easy communication for us because not a lot is said out loud," he said.

The Ferda number: UMD opens No. 5 in the USCHO preseason poll with 737 points and zero first-place votes. Denver, Michigan, Michigan State and North Dakota all got at least two. That's the Bulldogs' whole season in one line: respected everywhere, trusted by nobody to finish on top.

The family arithmetic is the entertaining part. Their dad, Derek Plante, still holds UMD's career scoring rate at 1.58 points a game, with 219 points in 138 games from 1989 to 1993. Max sits at 80 points in 63 games, 1.26 a game. Close, not there yet.

Detroit drafted Max and Victor at the same spot, No. 47, two years apart. Either Detroit's amateur scouting department has a very particular type, or it's the best coincidence in recent draft history. Zam's rights belong to Pittsburgh.

Rivalry file: there isn't one, because UMD and LIU have never played each other, and that's exactly what makes it a fair test. Long Island gets an opening-night education in a genuine college barn, and UMD has to show last year's 24 wins and regional final weren't the peak.

There's a coaching subplot, too: Sandelin, the only active Division I coach with three national titles, opens his 27th season seven wins shy of 500 at UMD. A sweep this weekend gets him to five.

Kessler's read: the line works because none of the three has to explain anything to the other two. My call is a goal with all three Plantes on the scoresheet before Saturday's final horn.

Puck drop is 7:07 p.m. Central on Friday and 6:07 on Saturday, on NCHC.tv and My9. The game page has the live score.