The No. 5 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team left LaBahn Arena in Madison, Wisc. with a Western Collegiate Hockey Association split late Saturday night after a 5-1 setback to the No. 3/4 University of Wisconsin.
In a reversal of Friday night's 3-0 UMD blanking of the Badgers, UW uprooted the Bulldogs early in the second period with three unanswered goals – including two just 25 seconds apart to start the frame.
UW's Daryl Watts – who trades back and forth with the Bulldog fifth-year senior Elizabeth Giguere for the lead in almost every active player career point category in the NCAA – ended Jojo Chobak's 52 save streak and used a power play to score the game's first goal at 12:46 of the first period.
After Wisconsin struck just 34 seconds into the second period, Watts again scored at 1:02 to stretch the Badger lead to 3-0. Watts would cap her hat trick at 12:24, getting in behind UMD's power play line to give UW a 4-0.
Kailee Skinner finally got UMD on the board at 3:46 of the third period, tracking down a Mannon McMahon rebound and jamming it past Kennedy Blair for her second goal of the year. Skinner's goal cut UMD's deficit to 4-1, but Wisconsin scored as its power play expired at 8:03 to push the lead, and eventual final score, to 5-1.
While the scoreboard slanted for the Badgers, the shot chart did not. UW edged UMD in the final shots on goal count 29-27, and the Bulldogs and Badgers each had nine shots apiece in both the second and third period. UMD sophomore goaltender Chobak had 24 saves in the game for a total of 69 in the series.
" I think we have to tighten up some areas that we got exposed in open ice," said UMD head coach Maura Crowell after the game. "We will fix those things and we'll get better. We learn, you know, you come in here you beat a good team at home in front of their crowd on Friday night they're going to come at your hard on on Saturday, and they did so credit them with that and. I think, overall, it was a really good learning experience for us so we'll take those lessons and get better this week."
The Bulldogs will return to AMSOIL Arena next weekend to host St. Thomas University for the first time. Friday's game will get underway at 6:00 p.m., while Saturday's contest will drop the puck at 3:00 p.m.
BULLDOG NOTES: Sophomore forward Clara Van Wieren has scored at least a point in her last five skates … Van Wieren, who had the secondary assist on UMD's goal Saturday night, has two goals and three assists over that five game span.
