The No. 6 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team wasted no time finding its offensive Friday night at AMSOIL Arena, and the result was a 4-1 triumph over St. Cloud State University.

The Bulldogs, who haven't scored more than two goals in a game since the last time they tangled with the Huskies back in early December, netted three Western Collegiate Hockey Association points in the win.  While the Bulldogs defense has been spotlighted heavily over the past month, it was the offensive that sparked UMD early in the opening period.

Senior winger Anna Klein started the UMD scoring spree 4:05 into the contest with a shorthanded goal that trickled up and over SCSU goaltender Emma Polusny. The Bulldogs stretched that lead to 2-0 at 12:51 when Anneke Linser buried a left-to-right rebound from Mannon McMahon. 

Gabbie Hughes extended UMD's scoring early in the second period with her second goal of the season after shoveling home a give-and-go from Linser that had started outside of the Huskies zone.  Hughes' goal, which also credited Klein with an assist, happened at 6:48 of the second and pushed the Bulldogs to a 3-0 lead.  St. Cloud State's Taylor Lind managed to tip a puck past Emma Soderberg with less than a second remaining in the stanza, and after 40 minutes of play, UMD held a 3-1 advantage over SCSU.

The Bulldogs would again flex some offensive muscle in the third period, spurred on by rookie Clara Van Wieren's sixth goal of the season. Van Wieren buried a cross-crease feed from Kylie Hanley at 5:07 to lift UMD 4-1 over the Huskies.

Sodberg finished the game with 20 saves for UMD, while SCSU's Polusny had 45 for the Huskies, who fall to 3-10-1.

The Bulldogs (7-4-0) will look for their second sweep of the Huskies tomorrow afternoon at 3:07 p.m. at AMSOIL.

BULLDOG NOTES:  Emma Soderberg continues to lead the WCHA in with a goals against average of 1.03 and a saves percentage of .959...both statistics also rank her second in the NCAA among goalies that have played more than 50% of their teams games...with a goal Friday night, Anna Klein is now tied for third in the NCAA with eight goals.