The Bulldogs are pushing the race for second place in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association to the limit.

The No. 2 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team got back to its winning ways Friday night with a 2-1 triumph over St. Cloud State University at AMSOIL Arena.  With the win, the Bulldogs improve to 21-5-5 overall and 18-5-4 in the down to the wire race for second place in the WCHA.  UMD trails the No. 4 University of Minnesota by just three points with a game in hand.  The Gophers host the No. 1 University of Wisconsin this weekend in a Saturday-Sunday series.

"It was sort of a slow game for us, but at the same time, we found a way to get the win," said UMD head coach Maura Crowell.  "In this league, it's tough to beat any team on any night, so we will take the three points and hope to have a better performance tomorrow night."

UMD's first goal came just 4:18 into the opening stanza, a direct result of the reunion of Lara Stalder, Ashleigh Brykaliuk and Katherine McGovern on the Bulldogs top line.  Brykaliuk took a feed into the Huskies defensive zone and backhanded a pass to McGovern in the slot.  McGovern's finished the give-and-go to beat SCSU goaltender Janine Alder through the five-hole for the 1-0 lead.

With a 34-16 shots on goal advantage to start the third period, the Bulldogs finally solved Alder again with a power goal at the 6:40 mark.  Freshman Sydney Brody tracked down a rebound from Michelle Lowenhielm, and from her knees wide of the net, wrapped the puck around Alder to put UMD up 2-0.

The Huskies pulled their goalie with 2:44 remaining in the game and were rewarded with a goal with 26 seconds left to cut the Bulldog lead in half, but SCSU would get no closer.

UMD sophomore netminder Maddie Rooney made 28 saves for the Bulldogs, while Alder had 38 for the Huskies, who fall to 9-20-4 overall and 7-17-3 in the WCHA.  The Bulldogs outshot SCSU 40-29 in the contest and were perfect on both their penalty kill (2-of-2) and power play (1-of-1).

UMD will honor its six seniors Saturday afternoon following the conclusion of the series finale with St. Cloud State.  Game-time is set for 4:07 p.m.

BULLDOG NOTES:  UMD honored its program-record 10 WCHA Scholar Athletes following Friday's contest … With an assist Friday night, Lara Stalder now owns UMD's longest-scoring streak at 10 games … Over that span, Stalder has paced the Bulldogs with 11 goals and nine assists for 20 points …. If UMD sweeps St. Cloud State and Wisconsin sweeps Minnesota, UMD will be the No. 2 seed and finish second in the league by virtue of the third league tiebreaker of fewest conference losses … A single point by the Gophers and the Bulldogs will land in the third spot even with a sweep of the Huskies.