The University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team swept Harvard University Saturday afternoon behind a 9-0 offensive outburst at AMSOIL Arena. The Bulldogs, who moved to 4-0 against non-conference teams, had four points from Gabbie Hughes (1g, 3a), three points from Anneke Linser (1g, 2a), two goals from Maggie Flaherty, and eight players post multiple point games.

In a game littered with firsts for a handful of UMD players, it was graduate senior defenseman Maggie Flaherty that netted the Bulldogs first two goals.  Flaherty drove to the net just 2:48 into the game to record her first, and buried a power play goal at 13:40 to put UMD up 2-0 after the first 20 minutes. 

Sophomore Mary Kate O'Brien buried an Ashton Bell rebound at 2:46 of the second period, and just over a minute later freshman Danielle Burgen scored to make it a 4-0 game.  Both goals were collegiate firsts for O'Brien and Burgen.  Hughes struck for her 75th career goal at 10:41 making it a 5-0 game – one of just nine UMD players ever to score 75 or more goals over a career.

The Bulldogs kept rolling in the third, with Kylie Hanley scoring at 6:04 to give freshman goaltender Hailey Macleod her first assist. That was followed by goals from Naomi Rogge, Anneke Linser and Katie Davis, who rounded out the 9-0 final with her second goal on the weekend with just 12 seconds left in the final period.

Macleod, making her second start for UMD in a week, got what she was denied last weekend in St. Cloud – her first collegiate shutout. The rookie netminder made 15 saves in her second win, and helped raise UMD's team shutout total to six on the season.  Alex Pellicci made 44 saves for Harvard in net – the Crimson were outshot 51-15 in the game.

"We've been really focusing on playing for sixty minutes the last couple of weeks, and I think everyone was just staying hungry like yesterday," said Flaherty. "We had a lot of pucks laying in the crease, and we're not really stomping on it much, so today I think we really focused on stomping on pucks and just getting a lot more hungry in the crease. It was getting more quality shots, not so much in the Harvard logo, but it's more pick your head up, and I think it worked out today.

UMD, 11-5-0, will take a week off from outside competition next weekend before hosting No. 1 Ohio State University at AMSOIL Arena on Dec. 2-3.

BULLDOG NOTES: Head coach Maura Crowell is now 8-1 against Harvard, while the UMD program is 17-5-1 all-time … UMD is 8-0 since its last loss against the Crimson way back on Nov. 27, 2015 … UMD has given up just one goal in its last four games ... Gabbie Hughes not only moved into a tie for ninth in all-time goals with Laura Fridfinnson with 75, she also tied Maria Rooth for fifth all-time in assists with 113 … in the five games Hughes has played against Harvard in less than a year, Hughes has compiled eight goals and seven assists for 15 points … Anneke Linser had two multiple point games in the series – with two goals Friday night, she had another goal Saturday with two assists for three goals and two assists on the weekend.