One day after clinching a first round Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoff berth, the University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team showed no sign of letting up.  

The second-ranked Bulldogs shut out Ohio State University 3-0 Saturday at AMSOIL Arena, earning their sixth series sweep of the season and an impressive 5-0-1 record in the new year.

UMD's opening goal came at 7:52 of the first period, the result of some OSU misfortune off a failed clearance from goaltender Kassidy Sauve along the boards.  Lara Stalder connected with Linnea Hedin in the slot, and Hedin's one-timer beat Sauve to put the Bulldogs up 1-0.

Ashleigh Brykaliuk scored UMD's second goal on the power play 4:39 into the second period, a deflection courtesy of a Sidney Morin shot from the opposite circle. With the goal, Brykaliuk became just the second UMD player ever to run a scoring streak to 17 games (10g, 14a).  Only Hanne Sikio has recorded a longer scoring spree as Bulldog during the 1999-00 season, a 23-game streak where the Finnish Olympian tallied 17 goals and 31 assists for 48 points.

Down 2-0 late in the third period, the Buckeyes pulled Sauve in an attempt to find the answer to UMD goaltender Maddie Rooney.  The move backfired at the 16:06 mark, when Stalder stripped an OSU player of the puck at UMD's blueline and fired a shot from inside the redline into the wide open goal for the 3-0 lead.  Stalder's tally — her second of the skate (1g, 1a) also iced the sweep for UMD, who is now 18-4-4 and 14-4-3 in the WCHA.

"Really proud of the way we closed that one out," said head coach Maura Crowell.  "We definitely had to overcome some adversity with the 5-on-3 that we killed off in the last 10 minutes, as well as the 6-on-5 when they pulled their goalie with five minutes to go.  At that point, it was a really close game at 2-0, so I'm really proud of the way our team came together and got it done."

The Bulldogs outshot the Buckeyes 32-18 and gave Rooney her fourth shutout of the season and the sixth of her career.  The regular season sweep of four games for UMD over OSU is the first for the program since the 2008-09 season, though the Bulldogs went went 3-0-1 in 2014-15 and 2015-16 and 2-0-2 in 2013-14.

UMD will continue its four-game homestand next Friday and Saturday against the University of North Dakota.  Both games are set for 3:07 p.m.

BULLDOG NOTES: While Ashleigh Brykaliuk owns the teams longest current scoring streak, Lara Stalder has now recorded a point in her last seven outings … Stalder has nine goals and eight assists over that span for 17 points — and has turned in multiple-point games in six of those seven skates … Katherine McGovern also has a five-game scoring streak intact, with five goals and three assists for eight points in those last five games.