After the longest regular season home stand in program history (10 games over nearly two months), the University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team will hit the road again this weekend when it heads to Mankato, Minn. to face Minnesota State University. The Bulldogs, who swept the Mavericks earlier this season in the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center, will face-off against MSU Friday night at 7:07 p.m., and then again on Saturday afternoon at 3:07 p.m. at All Seasons Arena.
UMD VS MINNESOTA STATE NOTES
THE SERIES: The Bulldogs own a 33-3-3 all-time record against the Mavericks, including a 6-0 record in their last six outings. UMD swept MSU earlier in the season and was 4-0 against the Mavericks last year. The Bulldogs have scored 30 goals against MSU in their last six skates.
UMD swept the Mavericks by duplicate scores of 5-1 on Oct. 24-25 at the DECC. In the first game (Oct. 24), Laura Fridfinnson, Saara Tuominen and Tawni Mattila each had a goal and an assist, while Elin Holmlov and Jenni Asserholt added a goal to lift UMD over MSU 5-1. Asserholt's goal was the first goal of her Bulldog career.
The next night (Oct. 25), Holmlov put on a scoring clinic for the DECC faithful by racking up her first collegiate hat-trick to lead the Bulldogs to another 5-1 triumph over the Mavericks. In Holmlov's scoring spree, she set a UMD record for the fastest goal to start a game when she struck just :14 seconds into play. Rookie forward Pernilla Winberg assisted on all four of Holmlov's tallies in the series, and the four goal weekend gave Holmlov WCHA Offensive Player of the Week honors for her effort against the Mavericks.
UMD is 14-2-2 against MSU in Mankato, and has not lost a game there since Oct. 10-11 2003, the only time in program history the Mavericks have swept UMD.
LAST WEEK: The No. 3 Bulldogs (13-6-3, 8-5-3 WCHA) unseated previously unbeaten No. 1 Wisconsin by defeating the Badgers 4-0 Saturday night and then earning the league 3-3 tie before winning a 2-0 shootout. Sophomore Laura Fridfinnson registered two goals while goaltender Kim Martin made a season-high 31 saves to shutout Wisconsin for the second time in two seasons by the score of 4-0. UMD returned the next afternoon to earn a 3-3 tie with two goals and an assist tagged to junior forward Elin Holmlov. The Maroon and Gold then earned its first shootout victory of the season in the first ever WCHA women's shootout held at the DECC, as Sara O'Toole and Fridfinnson buried their attempts and Martin kept out any Badger efforts. UMD's 2-0 shootout stomp gave them a grand total of four points on the weekend, cementing the Bulldogs into third place in the league.
The Mavericks (6-12-2, 3-11-2) were swept by Bemidji State last weekend in Bemidji, Minn. by the scores of 2-1 and 4-1. The losses extend MSU'S winless streak to 10 games (0-9-1 since Nov. 14).
MARTIN EARNS WCHA DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK HONOR: How good a is a rested and healthy Kim Martin? Just ask the University of Wisconsin.
Netminder Martin was named the WCHA Defensive Player of the Week Wednesday after shutting down the NCAA's leading offense and helping the Bulldogs knock the Badgers out of the No. 1 ranking last weekend by sweeping their league rivals.
The junior from Stockholm, Sweden, shut out Wisconsin for the second time in two years last Saturday, anchoring UMD to a 4-0 triumph Saturday over the visiting Badgers. Martin, a finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award last season and an assistant team captain, made a season-high 31 saves in the game on Jan. 10 and withstood seven Wisconsin power-play attempts to earn Toyota Player of the Game honors.
Martin then collected 34 saves in last Sunday's (Jan. 11) 3-3 overtime tie against the Badgers, and then dismissed both Wisconsin skaters she faced in the first WCHA shootout to be held at the DECC in history, a 2-0 UMD effort. In all, Martin turned away 65 of 68 shots on goal in the series for a .956 saves percentage and posted five shoutout periods, including a 5:00 overtime period. The shutout on Jan. 10 was Martin's second in as many games and No. 11 at UMD, and the victory leaves her just 12 shy of tying the Bulldog record for wins in a career (65), currently held by Riitta Schaublin. Martin has a career record at UMD of 53-17-6
On the 2008-09 season, Martin owns a 11-6-3 overall record, a 1.74 goals-against average and a .932 saves percentage in over 1172:56 of action.
TUOMINEN MAKES HER MARK: It took just 89 games for junior forward Saara Tuominen to etch her name into the UMD record books with some of the greatest players ever to don the Bulldog jersey.
Tuominen became the eighth player in UMD history to reach the 100 career-point plateau Sunday afternoon with an assist on the Bulldogs' first goal of the game. The native of Ylojarvi, Finland and 2006 Olympian has 32 goals to accompany 68 assists over her career. Tuominen has 17 (10g, 7a) points so far this season, including four power-play tallies.
HOLMLOV ON DOORSTEP OF 100: Like her junior classmate Saara Tuominen, Elin Holmlov is about to pen her name into Bulldog scoring history.
Just one week after Tuominen hit the mark, Holmlov has situated herself to do the same. A product of Knivsta, Sweden, Holmlov --- who has 16 goals and 15 assists for 31 points in just 18 skates this season--- has now run up a career tab of 98 points (42g, 56a) in 85 outings. Tied for No. 9 on UMD career scoring list with Joanne Eustace and 98 points, Holmlov is set to become the ninth player in program history to notch 100 career points.
The soon to be 100-point tandem of Holmlov and Tuominen are the first pair since Jessica Koizumi and Noemie Marin to hit the century mark. Koizumi and Marin reached the milestone during the 2005-06 season, their junior season.
A PEEK AT THE BULLDOG SCORING STREAKS: UMD has four players currently on scoring streaks of some kind, but one of those players currently has tied a career-high.
Junior forward/defenseman Heidi Pelttari has tied a career-best scoring streak. Pelttari, which has now reached a scoring string of three straight games for a fourth time in her career, has tallied a point in her last three outings.
While blueliner Jaime Rasmussen and forward Saara Tuominen have eached picked up points in their last two skates, sophomore forward Haley Irwin leads UMD with a season-long scoring run of eight games. Though Irwin is only half-way to her career-high of 16 consecutive games with a point set last season, the Thunder Bay, Ontario, native has registered a point in all eight games since Nov. 28.
The ten points (6g, 4a) that Irwin has racked up have also served to slow down another statistic. With 30 penalties in 22 games, Irwin has been sent to the box more than any other Bulldog this season. Prior to her current scoring spree, Irwin had been sentenced to 25 of those infractions in her first 14 skates. But over the last eight games, Irwin has not only found the back of the net every time out, she has stayed away from the penalty box. She has been whistled just four times during her season-high scoring run.
THEY HELD THE HOMESTEAD: UMD's contest against MSU on Friday, Jan. 16, will mark the first time since Nov. 15 that the Bulldogs have played outside of the confines of the DECC.
After the longest-regular season home stand in program history, 10 games over nearly two months, UMD posted a 7-2-1 record on its beloved ice. Even more impressively, the Bulldogs were undefeated against nationally ranked opponents over this span, sweeping then No. 3 Dartmouth Nov. 28-29, and virtually sweeping then No. 1 Wisconsin last weekend to go 3-0-1. Overall, the Bulldogs are 9-4-1 in the DECC this season.
NATIONALLY SPEAKING: The Bulldogs have a handful of players ranked in the NCAA's top-ten in various categories. Junior forward Elin Holmlov, who continues to lead the Bulldogs in scoring, is ranked No. 5 in the nation with a points per game average of 1.72 (16-15=31) through 18 skates. Holmlov is also ranked No. 7 in goals per game (0.89 on 16 goals in 18 games).
Sophomore defenseman Jocelyne Larocque is the No. 3 ranked blueliner in the NCAA with an average of 0.90 points per game (2-16=18) in 20 contests. Rookie forward Pernilla Winberg sits in the No. 9 slot among all freshman in scoring with a 1.05 points per game average. Winberg has notched 23 points (6g, 17a) in 22 games.
BULLDOG NOTES: Junior forward Emmanuelle Blais will be out another 1-2 weeks with a stress fracrure in her foot...The Bulldogs have now played in four overtime games this season, and all four have come in WCHA play...UMD has yet to notch an extra-time goal, and is 0-1-3 with the extra five minutes of action...The Bulldogs have now skated in three WCHA shootouts, winning 1-of-3...Sara O'Toole and Laura Fridfinnson have each scored one shootout goal, with both tallies coming against the Badgers last Sunday...UMD continues to prefer third period play, scoring 30 of its 76 goals in the final period...The Bulldogs have also allowed more goals against in the the third period (16 of 40 total)...Junior defenseman Jaime Rasmussen is just one point shy of tying her career-best for points in a season (13)...She currently has scored five goals and added seven assists for 12 points...Elin Holmlov leads all UMD-players with a plus/minus rating of +18...Eight players have a plus/minus rating of +11 or better...Haley Iriwin leads the Bulldogs with 149 shots...Pernilla Winberg is second with 85...Nine Bulldogs have scored 12 or more points so far this season, with seven or more players having registered 17 or more.
A GLIMPSE OF THE MAVERICKS: Minnesota State, whose head coach Jeff Vizenor stepped aside just one week ago, is currently caught in the second longest winless streak in school history. The Mavericks are 0-9-1 since Nov. 14.
Junior forward Christina Lee leads MSU with 21 points (9g, 12a), while the Mavericks have had balanced scoring all season with eight players with 10 or more points. Senior forward Maggie Fisher leads the current MSU squad in points against UMD with seven goals and one assist in 14 outings.
The Mavericks are 5-4-1 at home in All Seasons Arena season.
THE BULLDOGS HEAD COACH: No coach in NCAA women's hockey history has had more success in the NCAA Frozen Four than UMD head coach Shannon Miller, now in her tenth season behind the Bulldog bench in 2008-09 after winning a fourth NCAA title with UMD in 2008.
Miller has an NCAA-best nine Frozen Four wins to accompany her NCAA-record four national titles. Her coaching portfolio also boasts an NCAA-high of eleven tournament wins.
As the only head coach UMD has ever employed, Miller has amassed an impressive overall record of 247-67-28 and has led the Bulldogs to seven NCAA playoff appearances and four NCAA Championship titles, including three straight (2001, 2002 and 2003). She has led UMD into five NCAA Frozen Four berths, including the last two NCAA Championship games in both 2007 and 2008. No other hockey program in the country has won four titles, let alone three consecutive NCAA titles.
For her efforts, Miller was named the 2000 and 2003 Western Collegiate Hockey Association Coach of the Year and the 2003 American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA) Women's Division I Coach of the Year. Along with the incredible NCAA runs, her Bulldogs have captured three WCHA regular season titles (2008, 2003, 2000) and four WCHA playoff titles (2008, 2003, 2001, 2000).
During Miller's time at the Bulldog helm, UMD has produced nine first-team All-Americans, 12 Patty Kazmaier Award Finalists, two WCHA Players of the Year, three WCHA Student-Athletes of the year and one CoSIDA Academic All-American.
ON THE AIR: The Bulldogs will be over the radio air on KDAL 610 AM with Tom Hansen both Friday and Saturday, with the pre-game show kicking-off 15 minutes prior to each game. The game can also be seen live with a free video feed courtsey of Minnesota State women's hockey. To view this feed, simply direct your browser to http://www.msumavericks.com/broadcast.php. Find the women's hockey game and the link will appear at the stated preview time. Video is provided by All Pro Media.
