The University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team will play its final home series of the 2015-16 season this weekend when the Bulldogs hosts the No. 3 University of Minnesota at AMSOIL Arena.  Friday night, (7:07 p.m. start time) UMD Stores will give away pucks to the first 250 fans in attendance.  Saturday, the Bulldogs will show their appreciation on-ice for their three seniors following the 4:07 p.m. game.

THE SERIES: UMD is 24-45-7 all-time against Minnesota and 0-9-1 in their last 10 outings.  The Bulldogs were swept by the then No. 1 Gophers earlier in the season on Oct. 23-24 by scores of 5-2 and 6-1.

UMD was swept by the Gophers by scores of 5-2 and 6-1, but the scoreboard was no indication of the contests, especially the Bulldogs 5-2 effort on Oct. 23.

The Bulldogs held then top-scoring Minnesota scoreless for the first 40 minutes of the opening game, taking a 2-0 lead into the second intermission.  The Gophers finally solved UMD's freshman goaltender Maddie Rooney with help from two power play tallies to break the game open at 4-2 before adding an empty-net score with 1:07 remaining in the contest.  Rooney made 43 stops in the skate, a career-high.

With a goal and an assist in the earlier series, junior forwad Ashleigh Brykaliuk now owns the most points (1g, 3a) against the Gophers in 12 games.

LAST TIME OUT:  UMD recorded its fourth sweep of the season last weekend, defeating MSU 3-2 in overtime Friday before downing the Mavericks 5-2 Saturday in Mankato.  

Senior forward Michela Cava scored all three of UMD's goals Friday night, with her first collegiate hat-trick punctuated as the game-winner in overtime with 1:06 remaining in the contest. The Bulldogs scored two first period goals but allowed two MSU tallies in the third period and were outshot 21-7 in the final two periods.

Cava scored a short-handed goal Saturday, but it was her linemate Ashleigh Brykaliuk's turn to net three goals.  Brykaliuk scored a goal in the second period and two in the third period — including the game-winner — to help UMD seal the 5-2 win.  UMD had has many shots in the third period — 22 — as it had in the first two, and outshot MSU 44-21 in the game.

Kayla Black manned the pipes in both games for the Bulldogs, making a total of 41 saves en route to picking up career wins 51 and 52.

NOTES FROM THE MINNESOTA STATE SERIES:  The Bulldogs have won 10-straight games against MSU dating back to the 2012-13 season, and are 61-6-4 all-time against the Mavericks.  UMD's 61 wins against MSU is the second most wins it has against any program in its 17-year history (the Bulldogs have 62 against Bemidji State).

--Michela Cava and Ashleigh Brykaliuk's back-to-back hat-tricks were the first back-to-back three goal games by UMD players since Caroline Ouellette and Noemie Marin pulled off the feat on  Feb. 5-6, 2005.  In all, UMD has had different players notch a hat-trick in back-to-back games on five occassions in program history.

--Three players had five point weekends for UMD, along with Brykaliuk (3g, 2a) and Cava (4g, 1a), Lara Stalder had three assists Friday night along with a goal and assist Saturday (1g, 4a).

BULLDOG NOTES:  Ashleigh Brykaliuk, who leads UMD with 39 points in 30 games, ranks 16th in the NCAA with a 1.30 points per game average.  Lara Stalder ranks 24th with a 1.17.  Michela Cava sits 22 with 16 goals in those same 30 games, while Brykaliuk also ranks 12th with 25 assists.  Stalder has sixth power play goals, the sixth most in the nation.

--Brykaliuk, Stalder and Cava — who now has a UMD best 16 goals — all currently own four game scoring streaks.  Brykaliuk has compiled five goals and three assists for eight points over that span, while Stalder has rung up one goal and eight assists for nine points.  Cava has six goals and two assists in her last four skates.

--Minnesota enters the weekend No. 3 in the nation and will mark the 19th and 20th games UMD has hit the ice against a team ranked in the top-eight.  The Bulldogs are 2-16-0 against ranked teams so far this season.

CHART WATCH:  With 92 career points, junior forward Ashleigh Brykaliuk is now within striking distance of UMD's 100-point club.  With 41 goals and 51 assists, Brykaliuk is eight points shy of becoming the Bulldogs 19th member of the century career points club.  No Bulldog has hit the 100 point mark since 2012-13, when then seniors Jessica Wong (122 career points), Katie Wilson (102 career points) and Pernilla Winberg (111 career points) all reached the plateau. 

The last junior to reach the mark was Audrey Courney, who joined the club in 2011-12.

Junior defenseman Sidney Morin is now tied for 10th in career goals by a defenseman.  Morin has notched 11 tallies, including four so far this season, in 103 skates.  Morin is currently tied with former All-American Julianne Vasichek, who netted 11 in 124 games.

SENIOR SALUTE: Goaltender Kayla Black owns the UMD career record for shutouts in a career (20), single-season shutouts (9), career saves (2,824), games played (116) and assists (5).  One of only five WCHA goaltenders to reach the 20 shutout career mark, Black was a 2014-15 WCHA Scholar Athlete and WCHA All-Academic Team member.  She was both a 2012-13 All-WCHA Third Team and 2012-13 WCHA All-Rookie Team selections.  With 53 career wins, she ranks fourth all-time among Bulldog goaltenders, just four shy of the No. 3 spot.

Forward Michela Cava joined the Bulldogs last season as a junior and has compiled 19 goals and 18 assists for 37 points in 62 skates.  This year she currently ranks No. 22 in the NCAA with 16 goals in 30 games, and just last Friday night posted her first collegiate hat-trick, scoring all three goals, including the overtime game-winner, in UMD's 3-2 win over Minnesota State.  Cava ran up a career-best six game scoring streak from Dec. 4 to Jan. 10, recording four goals and six assists for 10 points over that span.  She has nine games with two or more points so far this season.

Goaltender Karissa Grapp has manned the pipes 18 times for the Bulldogs in her career, including four times this season.  The chemical engineering major has earned a 2.33 goals against average and a .917 saves percentage over those 18 games.  Grapp has a total of 242 saves, with 95 of those stops this season in four games.  Registered a career-high GAA of 1.84 a season ago in six games.

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