After 26 Western Collegiate Hockey Association games, it all comes down to two for the No. 3 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team in the race for the regular season crown. The Bulldogs are just two points out of first place, and would like to collect four more when they head to Bemidji, Minn. this weekend to take on Bemidji State University. The games, which will be held in the John S. Glass Fieldhouse, are set for 2:07 p.m. both Friday and Saturday afternoon.
UMD NOTES VS. BEMIDJI STATE
THE SERIES: Fourth-place BSU remains the only WCHA team that has never beaten UMD, and the Bulldogs will carry a 44-0-2 record against BSU all-time into the series this weekend. UMD picked up a 4-1 win over the Beavers back on Dec. 12, before earning a 2-2 tie with BSU on Dec. 13.
UMD used three third period goals during the Dec. 12 game at the DECC to overturn a 1-1 tie and make it a 4-1 game, with Emmanuelle Blais and Kacy Ambroz netting a goal and an assist each, and Laura Fridfinnson picking up two assists. But the Bulldogs would face a tough Zuzana Tomcikova in the second game (Dec. 13), who made 46 saves and helped the Beavers earn just their second tie with UMD in program history. The 2-2 tie -- which is what goes down in the record-books -- was followed by a shootout that was won by BSU. Rookies Gina Dodge and Mariia Posa scored for the Bulldogs in that contest.
LAST WEEK: UMD (22-8-2, 18-6-2) split with Ohio State at the DECC last weekend, fighting for a 5-4 overtime win Friday night before dropping a 6-3 setback Saturday, the first Bulldog loss in over two months.
Friday's game was yet another Bulldog come-from-behind win -- their fourth in their last six outings -- as UMD snuck by the Buckeyes 5-4 in overtime. Undefeated in five overtime games now this season, the Bulldogs received two goals from junior forward Laura Fridfinnson, including her fifth game-winner of the season and two assists from Emmanuelle Blais and Jessica Wong. Rookie netminder made Jennifer Harss made 41 saves, her third +40 stop contest of the season and second in three games. Harss also set UMD's single-season saves record during the game, surpassing redshirt Olympian Kim Martin's mark of 843 set during UMD's 2007-08 title run.
Saturday evening was a different story for the Bulldogs, and despite outshooting OSU 35-27, UMD suffered its first setback since Dec. 4 and in 12 games, dropping a 6-3 contest. With a chance to come into a tie with Minnesota for first-place in the WCHA, the Bulldogs allowed the most goals at the DECC since the 2003-04 season. In the loss, Blais picked up her third point of the series with a goal, and Wong her fourth point with another tally. Harss made 21 saves in the contest, while UMD went a sluggish 0-of-7 on the power-play, and was 1-of-15 over the weekend, compared to an OSU squad that went 5-of-11.
NOTES FROM THE OHIO STATE SERIES: The six goals UMD allowed last Saturday (Feb. 13), were the most conceded by the Bulldogs in the DECC since Harvard handed UMD a 7-2 loss back on Dec. 13, 2003.
It was the most goals surrendered, home or away, since Feb. 29, 2004, when Minnesota rang the Bulldogs up for seven goals in a 7-3 loss at Ridder Arena.
• Junior defenseman Jocelyne Larocque, having now played in just ten games for the Bulldogs since her Team Canada centralization, has recorded 18 penalties in those 10 skates, including five in the Ohio State series. Larocque is just three infactions behind UMD's current penalty leaders, Jaime Rasmussen and Katie Wilson, who each have 21 in 32 skates. Larocque posted the second-highest single-season penalties numbers a year ago, with 46 infractions for 100 minutes in 37 games. Only redshirt junior forward Haley Irwin has been called for more in a single season -- 48, to be exact -- set in 2008-09.
• Although Wilson's career-best scoring streak of 11 games was snapped Saturday, the rookie picked up six goals and eight assists for 14 points over that span. The Bulldogs longest scoring streaks are now currently owned by, Laura Fridfinnson with an eight-game scoring spree (8g. 8a), and Emmanuelle Blais sporting a six-game streak (4g, 6a).
• Head coach Shannon Miller picked up her 282st win Friday against OSU. Miller currently owns the third highest Division I coach winning percentage (.762) and ranks sixth all-time for wins with her 282 triumphs in just 390 outings in 11 seasons.
HARSS BACKSTOPS TO NEW RECORD: It's hard to imagine a freshman goaltender attempting to fill the void left by All-American and Olympian Kim Martin, but rookie Jennifer Harss is doing a pretty darn good job.
The freshman from Rieden, Germany, surpassed Martin's single-season saves mark of 843 stops last weekend and now has made an NCAA-high 881 saves in just 30 games. Martin, who set the record during UMD's 2007-08 title run, made 843 saves in 36 games. Harss, by comparison, topped the 843 mark in just 29 skates.
Harss -- a 2006 Olympian in her own right for Team Germany -- has made more saves (881) than any other player in the NCAA and currently owns the second most wins (20). She ranks ninth in the nation in both goals against average (2.18) and saves percentage (.931). Her current saves percentage would rank as the sixth-best in a season by a UMD netminder.
Harss' 20 wins put her in a tie for fourth for single-season wins by a goaltender, and her 881 saves already gives her the fifth most stops by a Bulldog backstop in program history.
GONE TO GO FOR THE GOLD: Already without five players due to Olympic commitments this season, the Bulldogs -- arguably the home to more Winter Olympians than any other NCAA program in history -- will be without two more for last time this season against Bemidji State.
Senior captain Saara Tuominen and freshman blueliner Mariia Posa will join Finland's 2010 Olympic Team this weekend ahead of the Winter Games. While Tuominen was a 2006 Olympian with Finland, Posa will be making her first appearance in the Olympic games after improving her stock from an alternate on Team Finland at the 2009 IIHF World Championship last spring.
Of course, the Bulldogs, who are already without five currently rostered players, will lose Tuominen and Posa for eight games. The two won't return until the Bulldogs' regular season has been wrapped up, but will be back for the first round of the WCHA playoffs.
Along with the seven current Bulldog players who will hit the ice in Vancouver, UMD has a total of 15 former players and coaches who will represent their respective Olympic teams, a number that no NCAA program in the country can compete with.
Of the 15 current and former Bulldog Olympians slated to skate in Vancouver, only three -- Posa, Haley Irwin and Elin Holmlov -- have not competed in the Olympic Games before.
In all, 22 current and former Bulldog players and coaches have been named to their countries respective Olympic teams since UMD began a program just 11 years ago.
KAZMAIER WORTHY: Senior forward Emmanuelle Blais and junior forward Laura Fridfinnson are both 2010 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award Nominees, it was announced officially Wednesday. Nominations for the award, which is presented by The USA Hockey Foundation, were made by NCAA Division I women's ice hockey head coaches.
The NCAA Division I women's ice hockey coaches will also select the top-10 finalists from among the group of 45, with the announcement taking place March 2. A 13-member selection committee will choose the three finalists (announced March 9), as well as the award recipient.
Blais and Fridfinnson are the No. 1 and No. 2 UMD scorers right now, and Fridfinnson is ranked 10th in the NCAA with a 1.41 points per game average to go with her 41 points scored through 30 games (18g, 23a). Blais is sitting at 13th in the NCAA with 1.34 ppg and a UMD-leading 43 points (18g, 25a). Blais is also ranked No. 7 for assists in the NCAA, and both Blais and Fridfinnson are ranked in the top- six for game-winning goals. Blais is in third, along with UMD rookie Katie Wilson with 6, and Fridfinnson is in sixth with five.
The Bulldogs are the only team in the NCAA who have won the NCAA title (four times, in fact), but have never had a Patty Kazmaier winner. UMD has had four different players named as Top-Three Finalists, including redshirt senior Kim Martin (2007-08), Riitta Schaublin (2005-06), Caroline Ouellette (2004-05), and Jenny Potter (2003-04 and 2002-03).
YOUNG GUNS: Of the 105 goals the Bulldogs have scored so far this season, 45 of them have come from the 2009-10 rookie class. With 15 goals scored by Katie Wilson, and 10 by Jessica Wong, these freshman are doing their part.
Of the seven rookie players that skate out, six have netted tallies for UMD this season, including four that have scored seven or more goals. Wilson, who currently has 34 points (15g, 19a), is five points shy of cracking the top-ten list for UMD's all-time scoring rookies.
A WIN-WIN SITUATION: UMD currently owns the fourth-best winning percentage in the NCAA this season, and second-best in the WCHA with a .719. Even more impressively, however, is that the Bulldogs are in their 11th-straight season with 20 or more wins.
In fact, UMD has only once posted a mere 20 wins in a season (2003-04), and while the current 2009-10 Bulldog squad has 22 victories so far, UMD has been held to 22 wins in an entire year just one time during the 2005-06 season. Of the Bulldogs 10 completed seasons as a NCAA program, UMD is averaging 26 wins a year, and owns a .762 winning percentage.
AN OFFENSIVE SECOND PERIOD: The Bulldogs have shown a preferance for scoring in the second period this season, netting 39 of their 105 tallies in the second stanza. By comparison, UMD has scored 28 goals in the first period and 32 in the final period of regulation.
The second period has also been more friendly to Bulldog opponents, with UMD allowing 30 of the 68 goals against scored in the second stanza. With a second period goals against average of a goal a game, UMD has allowed 19 goals in the first and third periods of play.
SENIOR SALUTE: Five players make up UMD's 2009-10 senior class -- Emmanuelle Blais, Sarah Murray, Jaime Rasmussen, Saara Tuominen and the recent addition of Kirsti Hakala. These seniors are part of one of the winningest classes in Bulldog history, with a combined record prior to this weekend's series of 106-32-9. They own three straight Frozen Four appearances, including two straight championship game skates, and a NCAA title in 2007-08, which included a record for most UMD wins in a season (34-4-1).
POTTER'S MOMENT: The first week of women's hockey in Vancouver has been a UMD coming-out party, of sorts. With highlights like current Bulldogs Haley Irwin scoring two goals in her first game for Canada, Pernilla Winberg netting four tallies for Sweden in her second skate, and Kim Martin grabbing a shutout in her opening duty between the pipes, the Maroon and Gold is being well represented.
But no Olympian has stood out more than fomer Bulldog and UMD's all-time leading scorer Jenny Potter, who after just two games has scored two hat-tricks and owns an Olympic-leading nine points (6g, 3a).
Playing in her fourth Winter Olympic Games at the age of 31, Potter, an Edina, Minn. native, became the first woman ever to record two, three-goal games in a single Olympic Winter Games after Tuesday's 12-0 win over Russia.
Potter also became the all-time U.S. Olympic Women's Ice Hockey Team career points leader on Sunday with 25 points, and her first-period goals, scored 3:39 apart, were the fastest two goals scored by an individual in U.S. Olympic Women's Ice Hockey Team history.
A GLIMPSE OF THE BEAVERS: Bemidji State is enjoying one of its most successful seasons in program history, and while UMD fights for first-place in the WCHA, BSU is trying to hold onto a WCHA first-round home series.
The Beavers have been without their star goaltender Zuzana Tomcikova -- who is currently playing for Slovakia in the 2010 Winter Olympics -- since Jan. 23, a 1-0 BSU win over Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio. Tomcikova owns a 1.97 goals against average through 22 games this season.
Junior forwards Erin Cody and Annie Bauerfield lead the Beavers in scoring, with Cody BSU's leading point grabber with 28 (17g, 11a), and Bauerfield with 21 (6g, 15).
WCHA TIE-BREAKING PROCEDURES FOR PLAYOFF SEEDING PURPOSES ONLY: In the event that UMD and Minnesota end up in a tie this weekend for the WCHA title, the following will occur:
Teams will be ranked by the number of points accumulated. If two teams are tied for first place, they will be declared co-WCHA champions.
In the event that ties are encountered in the determination of WCHA ranking or designation of home teams for playoff purposes, the following procedures will be used in the order given to break the ties:
a) If two or more teams are tied, head-to-head competition during the regular (conference) season will be used to break the tie.
b) If two or more teams are still tied after (a), the highest seed will go to the team with the most WCHA (conference) wins during the regular season.
c) If two or more teams played a four-game series during the regular season and the teams have the same win-loss records for those series and the same number of WCHA wins, the team having the least number of goals scored against it in the four-game series shall have the higher rank.
d) If two or more teams are still tied after applying the provisions of (a), (b) and (c), the team having the greatest ("winning margin¹ during the regular season will have the higher rank. Winning margin = WCHA goals for during the regular season minus WCHA goals against.
e) Games played against WCHA opponents in holiday tournaments will not be counted in the determinations.
f) Shootout wins used during the WCHA regular season will not be counted in the determinations. Shootout games will be recorded as a tie in the determinations.
FOLLOW SAARA TUOMINEN'S OLYMPIC EXPERIENCE ONLINE: UMD will lose captain and senior forward Saara Tuominen for the next four weeks to the Finnish Olympic Team, but Bulldog fans will be able to keep track of the Olympian through UMD's website.
The soon-to-be two-time WInter Olympian will be taking time out of her national team duties to blog about her experiences en route to and from Vancouver. While Tuominen won't return to the Bulldogs until the first round of the WCHA Playoffs at the end of February, she will be suiting up for Finland's Olympic team from Feb. 13-25.
Fans can follow Tuominen by clicking on the button on the top-right of the UMD women's hockey homepage.
BULLDOG OLYMPIC UPDATES AVAILABLE ON UMD WEBSITE: Follow your favorite current or former UMD Olympians through the link posted on the left side of the UMD women's homepage or by clicking here.
ON THE AIR: Fans can listen to the Bulldogs on WGEE 970 AM Friday and Saturday with Tom Hansen, who is in his tenth season covering play-by-play duties for the Maroon and Gold. Pre-game will begin 15 minutes before the puck drops.
