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When UMD resumes WCHA Women’s play, it will be for a rematch against Minnesota and goaltender Emma Soderberg will get another chance to upset the Gophers next Monday and Tuesday. Photos by John Gilbert.

Here we go, hurtling right on into New Year’s Eve and then New Year’s Day — and a whole new year! Hard to believe after all the things that have plagued us through 2020 that we can be so full of hope for 2021, but that’s our nature.

Thankfully, our favorite college hockey team will get a chance to actually play at home, but the UMD Bulldogs have had their schedule juggled, and a home-and-home series against St. Cloud State will now just be a road trip series, with games Saturday and Sunday (Jan. 2 & 3) at St. Cloud, with Saturday’s 6 p.m. game followed by a 4 p.m. Sunday game, also at the Herb Brooks Hockey Center.

It’s OK, because they’ll make up the difference with a series at AMSOIL Arena next Friday and Saturday (Jan. 8 & 9), also taking on St. Cloud State in games at 7:30 and 6 p.m., respectively.

It’s going to seem odd watching the teams go at it, but then, maybe not. The only way we could see them in the opening pod at Omaha was to watch on NCHC-TV — at least for those who could get it. I registered, paid, and could not get any of the games on our big-screen TV set, although I was able to fiddled around and get parts of some games on my iPad, and/or my new iPhone 11. But I wasn’t paying the tariff to see the games on small and smaller screens, so we’re still renegotiating my situation. But since watching on TV was the only way to see the pod games, seeing them that way once they get to AMSOIL won’t seem all that strange.

The beauty of the NCHC is the parity was the first-week surprise of the pod, going 5-0-1 with the tie being a shootout victory provided by Nick Swaney’s bullseye blast from 25 feet when everybody else was deking and working in close. UMD goaltender Ryan Fanti proved he’s capable of stepping in for the graduated Hunter Shepherd with a classic poke check while stopping all three North Dakota shots.

My feeling is that the Bulldogs will score more this season, certainly missing top gun Scoitt Perunovich, but gaining some experience up front from the likes of Swaney, Cole Koepke, Kobe Roth, Tanner Laderoute, and the Cates brothers, Noah and Jackson, while Jesse Jacques may be a sniper in disguise, and Koby Bender may just keep scoring. The defense looks solid, too, with the addition of freshmen Wyatt Kaiser and Darian Gotz, ably stepping in alongside veterans Louie Roehl, Matt Anderson, Hunter Lellig and transfer Matt Cairns.

At Omaha, the Bulldogs were 5-0-1 and then ran into trouble and finished 5-2-2, which allowed North Dakota to sneak ahead and take first place. St. Cloud State, meanwhile, climbed up and is tied with UMD at 5-2-2, which puts extra emphasis on the first four games of the “second half” where UMD and St. Cloud play four in a row.

The UMD women have the firepower to move into contention, but they need to prove they can beat Minnesota and Wisconsin, and their second half opens with a series Monday, Jan. 4 at 6:07 p.m. and Tuesday, Jan. 5 at 5:07 p.m. at Ridder Arena. Losing two close ones to the Gophers at AMSOIL was impressive, but beating the Gophers, on their ice, would be pretty convincing.

Hockey will also help relieve the sting of watching the Vikings fall out of contention for a playoff spot in the NFL. The Minnesota Wild will try to prove they deserve the loyalty that so far has not been substantiated by the management in their dealing away of favorites Eric Staal, Mikko Koivu, Luke Kunin and Devan Dubnyk. The Wild’s No. 1 draft pick, Marco Rossi, was allowed to go play in the World Junior tournament for his native Austria, but it may not have done him or his team much good. Austria lost 11-0 and the U.S. outshot them 73-10.

The Bulldogs women stand 4-2 after goaltender Emma Soderberg led a sweep over St. Cloud State at AMSOIL Arena.

The Vikings, meanwhile, finish their schedule with a game against Detroit, which is hurting with injuries, but will probably summon their best to face their divisional foe in Detroit. The Vikings last chance to make the playoffs as a wild card entry was snuffed 52-33 by New Orleans, as Alvin Kamara ran for six touchdowns in the game that was close for a quarter, then saw the Saints steadily pull away to a rout. It was 24-14 by halftime, and when the Vikings pulled closer at 31-27 after three quarters, the Saints put up three more touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

Kamara’s six touchdowns tied the all-time pro football record of six, established by Ernie Nevers on November 28, 1929. Think about that. Nevers made his historic 6-TD performance for the Chicago Cardinals, after he was obtained when the Duluth Eskimos gave up the idea of being called the Ernie Nevers Eskimos and playing all their games on the road, because they couldn’t make any money at old Athletic Park in Duluth’s West End.

I met Ernie Nevers when he came back to Duluth for a celebration with other former Eskimos, including my dad, Wally Gilbert, who rushed home from the Brooklyn Dodgers season to play for the Eskimos. Wally Gilbert carried the ball, passed the ball, punted and drop-kicked field goals for the Eskimos, and Nevers, who was born in Willow River and got to know future Eskimos manager Ole Haugsrud while attending Superior Central High School,performed those same feats at Stanford and then with the Eskimos. Interesting little twist on history, because the Vikings, and their Swiss-cheese defense, contributed greatly to Kamara tying that Ernie Nevers record.

There are problems with the cohesiveness of quarterback Kirk Cousins and the Vikings. Maybe it’s a system thing, or a coaching thing. There was one play where a receiver went out and flared to the right, while replays showed Adam Thielen cutting behind that receiver and crossing the field right to left. Cousins tried to force a pass into triple coverage by the right sideline, and even the announcers, who spent much of the first half defending Cousins against the critics, pointed out how open Thielen was. “But Cousins wanted to go to the right, so he did,” Troy Aikman said. Yes, and the ability of a quarterback to check off and find a receiver that can gain a first down is invaluable.

In the playoffs now, my pick is still going to be the Seattle Seahawks. Russell Wilson is the perfect quarterback and has a fleet of speedy receivers, while the Seahawks defense has solidified into a fearsome outfit that might be good enough to carry the club all the way.

The Kansas City Chiefs, defending Super Bowl champs, have Pat Mahomes running the show, and while he has tremendous skill, he won Sunday on a bad day 17-14 over the Atlanta Falcons. When it was done, Mahomes was interviewed onTV and when asked about why the Chiefs offense seemed to be misfiring most of the night, Mahomes said, “We just weren’t clicking, and most of that is on me. I was not making good reads or good decisions. I’ve got to be better than that.”

Makes you like Mahomes even more. He was off his game, but he blamed nobody else but himself. And he was right.

In the NHL, the Nashville Predators signed a couple of familiar names. They signed Mikhail Granlund to a one-year contract for $3.75 million, and Erik Haula, former Gopher, to a one-year deal for $1.75 million. Both could be assets in leading the Predators back from an off season — a really disappointing year, but in a curtailed season where a lot of things went wrong for a lot of teams.

The bowl games will pick up this week, but several of them already have been cancelled because of more difficulties coping with COVID-19. Iowa and Missouri, for example. The game is cancelled by pandemic.

But there’s always next year. And for all of us, next year is here!