After a week off the University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team returns to the ice for its final regular season match up of the 2005-2006 season. The Bulldogs will be traveling to Mankato, Minn. for a series with Minnesota State University, Mankato on Feb. 24-25. Friday's contest will start at 7:07 p.m., with the puck dropping at 3:07 p.m. on Saturday.

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UMD Bulldog Women's Hockey Game Notes vs. Minnesota State (Feb. 24-25, 2006)



THE RECORDS: UMD moved its record to 19-7-2 overall and 17-7-2 in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association after a split with the University of North Dakota on Feb. 10-11. The Mavericks are now 11-18-3 overall and 8-16-2 in league play after dropping two games to the University of Wisconsin last weekend.

MAVERICK NOTES: Minnesota State is headed by fifth year head coach Jeff Vizenor. Vizenor has complied a 50-99-18 record with the Mavericks and a 84-112-23 record in his seven years as a head coach. Leading the offensive charge for Minnesota State is rookie F Maggie Fischer. Fischer has tallied 22 points (15-7=22). The next highest total on the team is 15 from sophomore F Kristina Bunker. The net has been occupied for the most part by sophomore Britni Kehler. Kehler has 10-11-2 record with a .925 saves percentage and a 2.37 goals against average.

THE SERIES: This weekend will be the 28th and 29th meetings between the Bulldogs and the Mavericks. The all-time series currently stands at 24-2-1 in favor of the Bulldogs. In their last meeting at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center UMD sent the Mavericks home with 1-4 and 1-5 losses. The last meetings at All Seasons Arena were back on Oct. 22-23, 2004. The Bulldogs won the first game 2-0 and then skated to a tie on Saturday 3-3. The series with the Mavericks has historically been one of the most penalized. Last season at the DECC the teams set all the NCAA records for individual team and combined team penalties and penalty minutes in a single game.

AGAINST MINNESOTA STATE: Junior F Allison Lehrke had her best weekend of the 2005-2006 campaign as she netted four points, including her first career short-handed goal in the 5-1 win on Dec. 3. Junior D Ashley Waggoner recorded her first goal in a Bulldogs uniform the same day. It was a record breaking weekend for UMD goaltender Riitta Schaublin as she set the Bulldog record for career wins (45) on Dec. 3. Freshman F Melissa Roy earned her first career point on Dec. 2 with an assist. Rookie F Sara O'Toole had the best weekend of her short career in the last series with the Mavericks tallying three points.

OUTSTANDING OLYMPIANS: Four former members of the Bulldogs earned medals at the 2006 Winter Olympics. Caroline Ouellette won her second gold medal with Team Canada; Maria Rooth and Erika Holst from Team Sweden added a silver medal to their bronze from 2002; and Jenny Potter finished her collection of medals with the bronze for Team USA. Current freshman F Mari Pehkonen (Finland) and Michaela Lanzl (Germany) finished just off the medal stand with Finland taking fourth and Germany fifth in the tournament.

LOOK BACK AT NORTH DAKOTA: The last outing for the Bulldogs was an up and down weekend. In the first game of the series with North Dakota UMD scored eight goals, the most of the season and the first time since Jan. 7, 2005, but then fell for the first time in team history to North Dakota 0-2 the second night. On Friday, Feb. 10 three forwards, Tawni Mattila, Myriam Trepanier, and Noemie Marin, netted two goals. Mattila scored the first two of the game just 1:29 apart and earned her sixth game-winner of the season (currently good for No. 2 in the nation). Trepanier's goals were the first of her career, while sophomore F Karine Demeule added her first goal of the season to the tally. Netminder Schaublin recorded her 12th career and third season shutout.

PATTY KAZMAIER APPROACHING: On Friday, Feb. 24 USA Hockey will announce the Top-10 Finalists for the 2006 Patty Kazmaier Award. Fans are still able to vote at the UMD Athletic Office and at the WCHA Playoff games on March 3-5. The ballots will be available at UMD until March 14. Fans are allowed to vote for their top three choices once a day.

RANKINGS: The Bulldogs, who had moved down to No. 6 after the series split with North Dakota, moved up to No. 5 in this weeks polls. UMD is joined by Wisconsin (No. 3), the University of Minnesota (No. 4), and St. Cloud State (No. 9) as the representatives from the WCHA.

ON THE AIR: For the seventh year, you can hear all the action for the Bulldogs home and away games live. This weekend the games will be covered on 710 AM (WDSM). Tom Hansen will be handling the play-by-play duties for his sixth season, the longest of any women’s hockey play-by-play announcer in the country. The broadcast can be heard via the internet at: www.umdbulldogs.com. Click on the “Bulldogs on the Air” link. Follow the link to WARP radio and enter in the call letter “WDSM,” then hit “Go.” Finally, click the “Click Here to Listen” link.

BULLDOG BITS: This is the first time since the 2001-2002 season that UMD will finish the regular season on the road...all three seasons that the Bulldogs have finished the season on the road it has been against the Mavericks...this will be the fourth time in seven seasons that UMD ends the WCHA portion of the campaign against Minnesota State...Schaublin currently ranks No. 1 in the nation in saves percentage (.941), sixth in goals against average (1.57), and seventh in winning percentage (.704)...Marin is fifth in the country in points per game (1.46) and fourth in goals per game (0.83)...five members of the 2005-2006 team were named WCHA Scholar Athletes...juniors Rachael Bertram, Jessica Koizumi, Noemie Marin, Riitta Schaublin, and Suvi Vacker received their awards before the Feb. 11 game.