The No. 7/8 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team will face Harvard University for a fourth and fifth time in under a year this weekend when the Crimson pay a visit to AMSOIL Arena for the first time since 2015.


Date: November 18-19, 2022,  6:00 pm Friday, 3:00 pm Saturday

Site: AMSOIL Arena (6,600), Duluth, Minn.

           UMD: 9-5-0 (5-5-0)

      Harvard: 2-4-2 (2-4-2)

Video: https://www.bigtenplus.com/en-int/page/home

Live Stats: https://umdbulldogs.com/sidearmstats/whockey/summary

My9 (Saturday

ROGGE RINGS IN 100: Graduate senior Naomi Rogge became the program's 23rd player in program history to reach the 100 career point milestone last Saturday afternoon against St. Cloud State.  Rogge, who now has 53 goals and 47 assists in 143 games, is the first club member since Anna Klein reached the mark Dec. 2, 2021.

Rogge becomes the second currently rostered player to hit 100 points – senior center Gabbie Hughes is the other. With 99 career points, Ashton Bell is poised to join Rogge. Bell would become just the third-ever defensemen and the 24th player to reach the plateau, and the trio would be the first 100 point members to skate together in a season since Jessica Wong (also a forward to defense convert), Pernilla Winberg and Katie Wilson did it in 2012-13 – a decade ago.

POWER UP PLAY: The Bulldogs are arguably the NCAA's best team on the power play.  UMD ranks third the nation in power play percentage at 27.3, and have had twice as many power plays as the first place team.

No one in the nation has scored more power play goals, however. The Bulldogs lead the NCAA with 21 through their first 14 games, and have scored six power play goals in their last five games alone.

Ashton Bell is tied for second in the nation for power play goals (4), while Maggie Flaherty is tied for ninth with three, including one that was just scored last Saturday against St. Cloud State.

THE POWERED PLAY CAREER OF ASHTON BELL: No player in a decade has scored more goals on the power play for UMD than Ashton Bell, who has already rung up four so far this season.

The senior blueliner has 20 over her 139 games career so far -- the most by a Bulldog players since Haley Irwin finished her 134 game career with 20 in 2012. The last UMD player to notch more than 20 power plays in a career? Laura Fridfinnson, who posted 22 over 151 games from 2007-11.
 

THE SERIES: UMD is 15-5-1 all-time against Harvard after defeating the Crimson three times last season, including in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Ridder Arena back on March 10 (which also left UMD undefeated against Havard in NCAA play all-time, 3-0.)

In the NCAA First Round, the Bulldogs got a hat trick from Gabbie Hughes and a shutout from Emma Soderberg en route to a 4-0 stomping of Harvard University at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis, Minn.

Hughes struck 39 seconds into the first period and 25 seconds into the second period.  The senior center concluded the first-ever UMD natural hat trick in an NCAA game at 12:21 of the second period, extending the Bulldogs lead to 3-0.  Elizabeth Giguere had three assists, one on each of Hughes' tallies.

McKenzie Hewett rounded out the scoring at 6:34 of the third period, and Soderberg and the defensive core did the rest. The Bulldogs had the slight edge on shots on goal at 30-27, and held the Crimson scoreless on their lone power play. Soderberg had 27 saves in the game.

Notably, UMD outscored Harvard last season 13-5 in those three games, and averaged 4.33 goals against the Crimson on an average of 30.6 shots a game.  Harvard averaged 26 shots a game against the Bulldogs, but never scored more than three goals (Jan. 1) against UMD.

Hughes was remarkable against the Crimson last season, with a blistering seven goals and two assists for nine points and a 3.00 points per game average. In fact, in the five games Hughes scored two or more goals last season, three of them were against Harvard.

In the postseason, the Bulldogs as a program have an even wilder state -- UMD has never scored fewer than four goals against the Crimson in the NCAA postseason, and have averaged 4.66 goals per game in those contests. The Bulldogs are 3-0 all-time in NCAA play against Harvard.

The Bulldogs are also 6-1 against the Crimson with head coach Maura Crowell at the helm.

Prior to her arrival in Duluth, Crowell spent five seasons at Harvard, including as Harvard's associate head coach in 2014-15 after filling an interim head coaching role in 2013-14. She was a Crimson assistant coach from 2010-13. Bulldog associate head coach Laura Bellamy spent two seasons working as an assistant at her alma mater, Harvard. In 2014-15, Bellamy was an assistant for a Harvard club that reached the NCAA national title game and finished 27-6-3 overall after going 23-7-4 and securing an NCAA playoff berth the previous winter while Crowell was Harvard's interim head coach. Bellamy enjoyed a rewarding four-year goaltending career (2009-13) with the Crimson, posting a  60-25-7 record, a 1.82 goals against average, a .915 saves percentage and 19 shutouts (the second most in program history) in 95 liftetime appearances.

A QUICK LOOK AT THE CRIMSON: Harvard has played just eight games so far this season, posting a record of 2-4-2. The Bulldogs will mark the first non-ECAC action for the Crimson who lost to Colgate last Friday 5-4 before beating Cornell Saturday afternoon 2-0. Anne Bloomer leads Harvard with a team-high six goals and a total of nine points. Alex Pellicci has started all eight games for the Crimson in net so far with a 2.32 GAA.

At the helm of the Crimson is longtime head  coach Katey Stone, who is currently in her 28th season with 518 wins and six NCAA Frozen Four appearances.

LAST TIME OUT: UMD swept St. Cloud State last weekend in St. Cloud, Minn. by scores of 2-0 and 5-1.

Friday night, the Bulldogs scored early in the first period on goals by Clara Van Wieren (6:19) and Anneke Linser 11:54) to take a 2-0 lead, and UMD's defense -- one of the best in the nation -- did the rest. It held the Huskies to just 14 shots while posting 25, and helping Emma Soderberg to her third shutout of the season and 14 of her career.

Saturday afternoon, UMD dominated from start to finish, starting the game with a power play goal from Maggie Flaherty at 17:13 of the first period and five goals later, ending it with an empty-net goal from Flaherty at 16:02 of the third period. In between, UMD's Naomi Rogge became the program's 23rd member of the 100 point club just 1:53 into the second period to make it a 2-0 game. Mannon MacMahon added a goal at 14:41 and Ashton Bell backhanded one in just 36 seconds into the third period.  All told, the Bulldogs scored five unanswered goals and went more than 119 minutes in the series before they surrendered the one goal SCSU had all weekend at the end of the third period.

The contest was the first-ever game and start from freshman goaltender Hailey MacLeod, who made 18 saves in her debut and was 38 seconds from her first career clean sheet.

NOTES FROM THE ST. CLOUD STATE SERIES:  Unbeaten in their last 14 games with the Huskies, UMD is now 78-14-8 against St. Cloud State. The Bulldogs are 9-0-1 against the Huskies in their last 10 skates.

--While UMD outscored SCSU 7-1 in the series, UMD is averaging 4.40 goals against the Huskies in their last 10 outings.

--The Bulldogs played 119:22 minutes of scoreless hockey in a row on the weekend.  The last time UMD held an opponent to just one or fewer goals in a series was last Oct. 23-24, 2021 when the Bulldogs blanked St. Thomas by scores of 3-0 and 7-0 without allowing a single goal.  UMD posted a 0.50 GAA average on the weekend and held the Huskies to just 16.5 shots on goal a game.

--Friday's shutout was the team's fourth of the season (Emma Soderberg has played in all four but only stayed between the pipes for the full game in three of them).

EXPERIENCED APPLICANTS ONLY: The Bulldogs have a experienced ladden group of players, eight of whom have skated in 100 or more games and six that have played 130 or more.  Even more impressive, UMD boasts 18 players who have played in an NCAA Championship game and 12 that have skated in back-to-back NCAA Frozen Fours.

In that vein, UMD graduate senior goaltender Emma Soderberg, has now played the sixth-most minutes between the pipes in Bulldog history at 3739:17.

POINT TAKEN: Gabbie Hughes, who currently leads the Bulldogs with 16 points (3g, 13a), has also recorded points in 12 of her first 14 games.

Nina Jobst-Smith has tallied a point in five of her last six games, raising her game against ranked opponents -- the junior defenseman has two goals and five assists for seven points in UMD's last seven games, including six (2g, 4a) against top-3 ranked squads.

MIND YOUR MANNON: The speedy forward is coming off the best offensive season of her career after scoring four goals and 15 assists for 19 points last year in 40 games.

In just 14 outings, the senior has already registered more than half of her career-high from her junior campaign (12 points), and her five goals is already a career best.

WCHA BULLDOG BITS: After the Badgers, the Bulldogs own the lowest goals allowed per game average in the league at 1.71 ... UMD also owns the WCHA's second most dangerous power play at 27.3 (12-of-44) ... Ashton Bell ranks second in the WCHA with four power play goals ... Bell also third in the league with two game-winning goals ... Gabbie Hughes ranks seventh in the NCAA and second in the WCHA in face-off wins (148-122) ...  UMD ranks 12th in the NCAA with a 1.92 scoring margin, and  fourth in the WCHA.