The University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team will spend the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in Burlington, Vermont. The Bulldogs will take part in the Windjammer Classic and faces No. 2 Colgate University at Gutterson Fieldhouse on Friday at 4:00 p.m. ET. UMD will then face-off against either the University of Vermont or Rochester Institute of Technology Saturday, with time and opponent dependent on UMD's result Friday and the result of Catamount/Tiger game.
THE SERIES: The Bulldogs have never faced Colgate in their program history. The Raiders play in the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a league that UMD is 33-11-4 against and 3-1 over the three-year Maura Crowell era.
While UMD hasn't played an ECAC opponent this season, Colgate did host Western Collegiate Hockey Association member St. Cloud State University on Oct. 6-7. The Raiders swept the Huskies by scores of 3-0 and 5-0. The Bulldogs have also hosted SCSU this season, sweeping the Huskies in their own right by scores of 3-2 and 4-2. St. Cloud State is the only common opponent the two programs have.
Like Colgate, UMD has also never hit the ice with either possible Saturday opponent -- the University of Vermont and Rochester Institute of Technology. Vermont currenlt has an overall record of 5-9-1, and 3-6-1 in the Hockey East. The Bulldogs are 6-6-1 all-time against Hockey East opponent and were swept by Hockey East member Boston College by scores of 4-3 and 4-1 back on Oct. 5-6 in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
RIT is 4-9-1 overall this season, and 1-5-0 in College Hockey America. All-time, UMD is 11-2-1 against CHA rivals, and opened the 2017-18 season with a series sweep of CHA member Penn State University on Sept. 29-30 by scores of1-0 and 3-0.
LAST TIME OUT: UMD earned its third series sweep of the season and secured fourth place in the WCHA with two wins against Minnesota State University, Mankato last weekend at AMSOIL Arena.
Friday night, the Bulldogs held the Mavericks off for 2-1 triumph on a second period goal by sophmore defenseman Jalyn Elmes and the eventual game-winner by rookie forward Naomi Rogge 42 seconds into the third period. UMD outshot MSU 31-16 in the skate.
Junior Emma Yanko scored two second period goals on Saturday afternoon -- including the game-winner -- to help lift the Bulldog over the Mavericks 3-2. Senior forward Katerina Mrázová scored an equalizing goal at 17:55 of the first period, before adding a second assist on Yanko's first goal at 1:48 of the second period. Bulldog goaltender Jessica Convery had 26 saves, and MSU outshot UMD 28-27 in the game.
NOTES FROM THE MINNESOTA STATE SERIES: UMD is now 64-7-4 all-time against the Mavericks, and has won 11-of-12 of its games against MSU.
--The Mavericks became only the second team so far this season to outshot UMD Saturday by the narrow margin of one shot (28-27). Previously only Bemidji State Univeristy had outshot UMD, and did so in all three games the Beavers and Bulldogs have played. UMD is 2-2 against those teams that have had the edge on the shot chart.
--Four different players scored goals for the Bulldogs, who posted five overall on the weekend. 10 different players posted points on those same five tallies.
--UMD picked up just a single penalty in each contest, and continues to own the fewest penalty minutes in the nation at 4.3 minutes a game.
A QUICK GLANCE AT THE RAIDERS: Unlike the Bulldogs underclassmen scoring surge, Colgate's top-three scorers are upperclassmen. Junior forwards Jessie Eldridge (8-8=16) and Shae Labbe (8-7=15) rank first and second in overall points, while senior defenseman Lauren Wildfang has one goal and 13 helpers for 14 points in 14 games. In all, eight players have notched 11 or more points in the Raiders first 14 games.
Colgate has evenly split its goaltending duties, with both Liz Auby and Julia Vandyk having played in seven games. Auby is 6-1 with a 1.57 GAA, while Vandyk is 7-0 with 1 .14 GAA.
The Raiders are led by Greg Fargo, who in his sixth season at the helm of the Raiders is 85-89-17 overall.
BULLDOG NOTES: Emma Yanko's two-goal game last Saturday was the first of her UMD career. Prior to the 2017-18 season, Yanko had only posted one assist in two seasons. This season Yanko has already notched three goals including one game-winner...UMD's leading scorer, rookie forward Naomi Rogge's scoring streak ended at six games Saturday...Rogge has posted four goals and three assists for seven points in the last seven games, and leads the Bulldogs with seven goals and six assists for 13 points in 15 games...Rogge ranks 13 in the NCAA among all freshman scorers...Rookie forward Ashton Bell is tied for second with nine points (6g, 3a) with sophomore defenseman Jalyn Elmes, who also has nine points on four goals and five assists...Elmes ranks fifth in the WCHA among all blueliner scorers and first with a league-best two game-winning goals from the backline.
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Video: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/vermont/
Live Stats: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/vermont/stats.htm?eventId=388452&streamType=video
