What happens when a team graduates six seniors, loses five players to the Olympics (which included 53.3 percent of goals from a season ago), misses an All-American defenseman for the first 22 games of the year and has the most freshmen on its roster since the program began in 1999? If it's the 2009-2010 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team, it wins the 2010 NCAA title.
The Bulldogs proved there was no obstacle too big for a program whose tradition of success literally knows no bounds. For an NCAA-record fifth time, head coach Shannon Miller's squad took home the trophy in just 10 NCAA sanctioned seasons, cementing UMD's status as the most potent program in NCAA Division I women's hockey.
With a high learning curve and very few expectations, UMD started the season picked by the WCHA coaches to finish third, and the first national rankings pegged the Bulldogs at No. 6 after their opening series split against Robert Morris at the DECC. Making things sticky for a program that is used to charging out of the gate, UMD started the season 3-3 in its first six games, going .500 for just the second time in program history. Through their first six skates, the Bulldogs averaged 2.33 goals per game, but allowed 2.50. The net scoring difference marked the first time in program history that UMD had been negative (-0.17) on its scoring margin.
In fact, UMD would lose seven of its first 20 games, and after tying Bemidji State at the DECC 2-2 on Dec. 13 (and then losing the extra league point in the ensuing shootout); the Bulldogs took a 13-7-2 record into the Christmas break.
Little did UMD know that its fortunes were about to change with the arrival of the month of January. Ranked No. 7 in the nation and tied for second-place in the WCHA with Wisconsin, (but a mere two points ahead of BSU and nine behind first-place Minnesota), the Bulldogs hosted the Badgers on Jan. 16-17 to kick-off the second-half of the season. Perhaps aided by junior defenseman Jocelyne Larocque's decision to return to the team after being cut late from Team Canada's Olympic squad, UMD swept fifth-ranked Wisconsin 5-3 and 2-1 to secure second-place in the league standings with 25 points – seven points behind the first-place Gophers.
The Bulldogs lost senior captain Saara Tuominen and rookie blueliner Mariia Posa on Jan. 23 to the Finnish Olympic Team, just hours after UMD swept Minnesota State in Mankato and bumped up the Maroon and Gold's then unbeaten streak to seven games since its loss to Wisconsin back on Dec. 4 in Madison. Undaunted, the team that had seven current players on Olympic teams in Vancouver and eight more that had formerly worn the Bulldog or coached for it, UMD rattled off five-straight wins in Tuomien's and Posa's absences, including a sweep of then ranked No. 1 Minnesota on Feb. 5-6 in Duluth. The Bulldogs' sweep over the Gophers pulled UMD within just three points of first-place in the league, and with four games remaining in the regular season for both squads, UMD grabbed six points with three-of-four wins, while the Gophers picked up just three points down the final stretch. The Bulldogs play without their Olympians, winning seven of the eight contests Tuominen and Posa were missing for, secured UMD a share of the 2010 WCHA Regular Season title, the fourth in Bulldog program history.
Tuominen and Posa landed in Duluth on Friday, Feb. 26, just four hours before UMD began its WCHA-Playoff run and not even 24 hours after the two had won Olympic bronze medals with Team Finland. The Bulldogs rolled over North Dakota on in the first-round series, outscoring the Sioux 10-3 in both contests. As the No. 1 seed in the WCHA Final Face-Off tournament, UMD next faced surprising Bemidji State in the league semifinals on March 6 at Ridder Arena. The Bulldogs offensively exploded against the Beavers, netting seven goals in their 7-3 win, securing a showdown with the very team they had split the regular season conference title with – Minnesota.
The Bulldogs stole the WCHA Final Face-Off crown from the Gophers on March 7, (after also taking over their home bench) in Minnesota's home rink of Ridder, 3-2 to claim the program's fifth WCHA Playoff title. Senior forward Emmanuelle Blais – UMD's leading scorer all season long – was named the WCHA Final Face-Off's Most Valuable Player after leading all scorers with 11 points (seven goals, four assists) in just four outings. Blais, who was also a Patty Kazmaier Top-10 Finalist and All-WCHA First Team selection, had helped UMD average 5.00 goals a game in their four WCHA playoff skates, scoring 20 tallies over nine days.
UMD entered its NCAA Regional Quarterfinal date with New Hampshire with a 15-1-0 record in its last 16 games. Saddled with the No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament, the Bulldogs had gone 2-0 against the No. 7 Wildcats over the past two seasons, including having knocked out UNH in Durham, NH the season before in the regional contest. Despite some youthful nerves, UMD prevailed with a 2-1 victory at the DECC, which featured an irony-dipped goal by January addition Larocque. The game-winning goal, scored by rookie forward Jessica Wong, not only provided some invaluable foreshadowing for the Bulldogs, but it punched their fourth-straight ticket to an NCAA Frozen Four in as many years.
“We played nervous but we played well enough to win,” said Miller shortly after the New Hampshire game. “We played a lot better last Sunday, but that said, I think we will play a lot better next weekend.”
Facing Minnesota for the first time ever in an NCAA postseason game, UMD – again using the Gopher's home bench in Ridder Arena as the NCAA Frozen Four tournament's higher seed – defeated its in-state rival 3-2, the fourth time it had knocked off Minnesota during the season. The win not only landed UMD in its third NCAA Frozen Four championship game in four seasons, but also gave the Bulldogs just their second four-win season against the Gophers in program history.
Slated to go head-to-head with Frozen Four first-timer Cornell in the title tilt on March 21, UMD, despite its steep postseason tradition, felt no pressure to be the favorite. In fact, despite having eight players with championship rings from the 2007-08 season, the Bulldogs still had 11 players who had never even played in a national title game, and nine who had never skated in an NCAA Frozen Four. Regardless of the title game's outcome, a team that had exceeded every expectation during the 2009-2010 season would be holding the trophy when it was all said and done.
The Bulldogs responded in the title game to their first deficit in eight skates, netting two goals in the third period to go ahead of the Big Red 2-1. But Cornell tied the game late in regulation, and both teams would have to dig deep to wear the crown. After playing in an NCAA championship game and NCAA Frozen Four contest record 119:26 minutes, freshman Jessica Wong tipped a shot from junior blueliner Tara Gray with just 34 seconds remaining in the third overtime to give UMD its fifth program title and second in just three years. The exhausted, and all-season long overachieving Bulldogs, were now the 2010 NCAA champions.
“In the beginning of the year, I believed we could get in the top-eight and win a regional game to get to the Frozen Four, but I never talked beyond that,” said Miller after the marathon championship duel. “I can't believe how much better they got from January until the end of the season, they just blew me away. I just told them in the locker room tonight that they are the most special team I have ever coached. I have coached at the World Championships, I have coached in the Olympics, and I have coached four other national championship teams. There is no question they are the most special team I have ever coached.”
UMD's Frozen Four was capped off with Blais – who had been shutout of the Kazamier's Top-3 list prior to the start of the NCAA tournament – selection as the 2010 NCAA Frozen Four's Most Valuable Player. Blais had netted three goals and added an assist for four points in just two Frozen Four contests, scoring in six of the playoffs seven games for a total of 16 points (10 goals, six assists) in the postseason.
For just the third time in program history, a UMD team had won more than 30 games (31, to be exact), and had lost just one contest during the entire second-half of the season. Blais -- A RBK First Team All-American selection -- recorded a blistering 65 points – the most by a UMD player since the 2004-05 season. Blais averaged 1.59 points per game in her 41 outings, and increased that to a mind-bending 2.28 points per game postseason average, including a 1. 42 goals per skate average in seven postseason contests. The Bulldogs averaged 3.40 goals a game as a squad, and had five players score 30 or more points (including three with more than 40 points). Rookie goaltender Jennifer Harss stopped a UMD single-season record of 1, 138 saves over 39 games, and posted a 1.25 goals against average in the NCAA postseason, averaging 33 saves a game for a .952 saves percentage.
Five players were named to All-WCHA Teams, including Blais and Jaime Rasmussen (First Team), Laura Fridfinnson (Second Team), Harss (Third Team) and Katie Wilson (All-Rookie). Sarah Murray earned her third-straight WCHA Scholar Athlete award, while eight players garnered All-WCHA Academic Team selections (Blais, Fridfinnson, Rasmussen, Murray, Tuominen, Lana Steck and Kirsti Hakala). In addition to Blais earning the WCHA Final Face-Off MVP honors, she was joined on the All-Tournament team by Fridfinnson, Rasmussen and Harss. Last but not least, two other players picked up NCAA 2010 Frozen Four honors in addition to Blais – Fridfinnson, and game-winning goal-scorer Wong.
UMD's advancement to the NCAA title game was beyond anything that had been expected for the Bulldogs in what was suppose to be a filler of a season, but let this be a lesson to anyone doubting the Bulldogs. The recipe for success is sometimes mistaken for the recipe of mediocrity – but the difference is in the unwritten. UMD proved it was the best team in the nation – for a fifth time – with a recipe that might not have looked like championship material on paper.
"I think yeah, we were definitely underdogs going into this season, it was a gift month by month,” said senior Tuominen after collecting her second major award in a month. “For us we had a really young team and nobody expected us to win, but we did."
Against all rational odds, the Bulldogs made the hockey world believe in them once again -- something the 2010 NCAA champions must have been doing all along.
