Looks like third place in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association may belong to the Bulldogs for some time.
The No. 7 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team swept St. Cloud State University with a 3-2 victory Sunday afternoon at AMSOIL Arena. The sweep — the Bulldogs fifth of the season — puts them four points in front of Ohio State in the WCHA standings with a record of 15-6-3 and 10-6-2-2.
"Exciting finish to the game, but we are happy to have the six points from the weekend," said head coach Shannon Miller. "I thought we sprinted hard, battled hard and I thought we played well today from our goaltender on out. I think it should have been 4-1 at the end of the game instead of 3-2, but other than that, I thought we played really smart and worked hard and it was a good game."
The Bulldogs trailed at the 9:47 mark of the first period after Molly Illikainen scored on the power play to take the lead for the Huskies. But that lead — the only one SCSU would own for the rest of the contest, evaporated at 14:14 when Meghan Huertas snuck a backhanded pass from Katerina Mrázová through the five-hole of Huskies goaltender Julie Friend.
Sophomore center Lara Stalder would score her second goal in as many games at 10:14 of the second period, a blast from the high slot that beat Friend high and over her glove side to give UMD the 2-1 advantage.
The Bulldogs would tack on a third early in final period and just seconds into their third power play when Ashleigh Brykaliuk shoveled the puck from the low right circle past Friend for the 3-1 score at 2:56. Brykaliuk was threaded the pass from Zoe Hickel — who extended her scoring streak to five games with the helper — and Sidney Morin, who finished with two assists on the day.
SCSU pulled Friend with over three minutes left to play late in the third stanza, and UMD thought it was en route to its fourth goal with less than a minute remaining in the skate when Mrázovå got behind the Huskies defensive line. Mrázovå was hauled down by two SCSU players on their blueline, but there was no call, and the Huskies scored just moments later with the extra skater at 19:33 to make it 3-2.
UMD outshot SCSU 26-22 in the game including 15-8 in the second period, and was 1-of-3 on its power play while holding the Huskies to one goal in five attempts. Junior net minder Kayla Black made 20 saves in the game, while her counterpart Friend turned in 23 for SCSU.
The Bulldogs will hit the road for the first time in 2015 next weekend as they travel to Mankato, Minn. to face Minnesota State University, Mankato. The Friday-Saturday series has start times slated for 7:07 p.m. on both nights.
BULLDOG NOTES: Along with Sidney Morin, Meghan Huertas also had two points in the game with an assist to accompany her goal … Sunday's game was Morin's second game this season with two or more points … Morin recorded three points against Cornell (1g, 2a) back on Nov. 11 … With 12 points, Morin is just three shy of her rookie output of 15 (5g, 10a), but has already tied her freshmen number of assists (10) … Zoe Hickel's assist is her fifth point in five games, owning two goals and three helpers over that span, which dates back to Dec. 6.
