University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey head coach Shannon Miller is chomping at the bit for her Bulldogs to hit the ice in 2012.  UMD, which starts up practice again on Jan. 3, survived an inconsistent  November to closeout the first half of the season winning five of their last six games.  The Bulldogs stormed back into fourth place in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association and improved to 11-8-1 overall and 8-7-1 and currently rank No. 8 in the all important PairWise rankings.

Miller recently sat down with umdbulldogs.com and reflected on the first half of the 2011 season and  what she hopes lies ahead for the Bulldogs in 2012.

Overall, is the first half of the season what you envisioned  back in September?   Are there any players that  stood out to you over the first 20 games? 

Our program has a history of over-achieving, and it's a reputation that we are very proud of. This season on the first half we have under-achieved. It's very disappointing. It's not the teams fault that three forwards from the Swedish national team are not in our line up as planned, however many of our forwards wanted more playing time and are now getting it. So now it's time to produce. Haley Irwin and Audrey Cournoyer have really stepped up but we need a lot more than that to work our way into the top four in the country.

Your squad is now back above .500 and right in the thick of the WCHA race.  Were you ever worried or did you know that your team could ride out that initial wave of early disappointments?

The WCHA is the toughest league in the county. If you're in the top four of the WCHA you are a strong team and in the pair wise be ranked in the top eight in the country. I hope we use this opportunity of tough competition each weekend to get better and better and work our way up to where we should be.

Any teams in the league impress you?

Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota have impressed me. Wisconsin has the most talent on paper out of anyone in the country. We know what we are getting from them. Minnesota and North Dakota also have quite a bit of talent but they have impressed me with their work ethic, focus and commitment to winning. These teams are serious about winning and are paying the price to do so.

You ended before the break on a three-game winning streak and things started to come together for the team. Can you detail that a bit? How important was it to have that success for the break and jump back into the top-four in the WCHA?

I would say we played very well in four of our last five games before Christmas break. We seemed to be more focused on what we needed to do and committed to following the game plan. This team certainly has potential, but starting the season short some offensive talent, we all knew we had to listen and work to win. I think that message has become more real to them now. I feel like they have a better understanding of what it is going to take to be successful.

What are your goals for the team from this day forward?  Have your expectations changed at all for March?

Our goal has remained constant. We want to earn the right to be one of the top four teams in the country competing in Duluth at the NCAA Frozen Four in March.