The University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team returns to college hockey's grandest stage Sunday where the eighth-seeded Bulldogs will face top-seeded Ohio State University in an all-Western Collegiate Hockey Association showdown for NCAA National Championship at Pegula Ice Arena in University Park, Pa. The game gets underway at 4:00 p.m. ET, and will be broadcast on ESPNU (and the ESPN app) TSN.ca (and the TSN app), as well as broadcast on national radio through Westwood One Sports and XM.
A RETURN TO THE TOP: Sunday will mark UMD's first NCAA title game in 12 years -- since 2010 -- the year of its last championship. In all, this will be UMD's seventh title tilt appearance where the program is an impressive 5-1.
BACK WHERE THEY BELONG!: UMD is back-to-back into the NCAA Frozen Four for the first time since the Bulldogs did it four seasons in a row -- 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. In fact, as a program, UMD has returned to the Frozen Four in back-to-back seasons multiple times, starting with its three NCAA three-peat title run in 2001, 2002 and 2003.
SODERBERG IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT: Emma Soderberg has now cemented herself as one of the best UMD goaltenders statistically ever in the NCAA postseason. The senior owns a record of 4-1, with two shutouts -- the only Bulldog netminder to own two shutouts (and one of only two to have earned one). The Jarved, Sweden native has made 184 saves on 188 shots -- allowing just four goals in five games -- and has tied a UMD program record for NCAA wins, as well as NCAA games played between the pipes (five). Soderberg has played 365 minutes in between the pipes, and over that span, has a 0.66 goals against average and .979 saves percentage - both program NCAA Tournament highs.
In this NCAA Tournament run alone, Soderberg's allowed just two goals on 112 shots for a 0.55 GAA, and a saves percentage of .982 in UMD's three wins. Soderberg's 110 stops are 13 shy of the all-time NCAA Tournament record of 123 set by Cornell's Amanda Mazzotta in 2010. Soderberg already owns the program record for most saves in the NCAA Tournament, and currently has the second-most in NCAA history.
THE GREAT GIGUERE IN THE POSTSEASON: Élizabeth Giguère is an NCAA Tournament legend. The fifth-year senior recorded the primary game-winning assist in UMD's win Friday, which brings her to a whopping nine points in the NCAA tourney play over her five-year career. That includes a mind-bending four game-winning goals in addition to three game-winning assists. All told, Giguère has seven game-winning points, which includes two game-winning goals and a game-winning assist in the NCAA Frozen Four. Giguère is averaging 1.12 ppg over her NCAA tourney career, and 1.66 in this current UMD run.
UMD IN THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP: The Bulldogs return to the title game for the first time since winning it all in 2010 in a triple overtime thriller against Cornell. UMD also won titles in 2008, 2003, 2002 and 2001 -- the first-ever NCAA sanctioned championship in women's Division I hockey.
This is the Bulldogs ninth overall Frozen Four appearance (third most in the NCAA) and second in consecutive years in over a decade (2022, 2021, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2003, 2002, 2001) Overall, UMD has earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament (or right into the NCAA Frozen Four (2001, 2002, 20003) for 13 times in its history.
The Bulldogs are 12-3 all-time in the Frozen Four, the third most wins in NCAA history.
UMD owns the NCAA's best Frozen Four winning percentage at .800 after Friday's win. A win Sunday by the Bulldogs would tie UMD's program for an NCAA-best six titles with both Minnesota and Wisconson.
While Bulldog head coach Maura Crowell coached in an NCAA title game as an assistant coach with Harvard, this is her first championship game at the helm of the Bulldogs. In back-to-back trips, Crowell is 1-1 in the Frozen Four so far and 4-2 overall in the NCAA Tournament.
A look at UMD in the NCAA Championship-- (UMD is 5-1 in the title game)
March 21, 2010 -- UMD 3, Cornell 2 3OT at Ridder Arena, Minneapolis, MN
March 22, 2008 -- UMD 4, Wisconsin 0 at The DECC, Duluth, MN
March 18, 2007 -- Wisconsin 4, UMD 1 in Lake Placid, NY
March 23, 2003 -- UMD 4, Harvard 3 2OT at The DECC, Duluth, MN
March 24, 2002 -- UMD 3, Brown 2 in Durham, NH
March 25, 2001 -- UMD 4, St. Lawrence 2 at Mariucci Arena, Minneapolis, MN
Of note, Élizabeth Giguère is one of two players on either roster to have played in a NCAA title game. Teagan Grant of Ohio State, a Wisconsin transfer, is the other. Giguère led Clarkson to a national title in 2018, while Grant was a defenseman on the Badgers 2021 title team.
THE BULLDOGS-BUCKEYES SERIES: There are 103 all-time meetings between the Bulldogs and Buckeyes but not a single one has been in the NCAA Tournament. UMD owns a 73-22-8 all-time advantage, but over the last 10 meetings, the two programs have drawn fairly even with the Bulldogs 6-5-1 against OSU.
Over the past season, that parity was a trademark, with both series for UMD splits and neither team able to grab the sweep. The Bulldogs scored nine goals against the Buckeys in those four games compared to OSU's 11, only a two goal difference despite the Buckeyes, on average, outshooting UMD 37.5 to 25.5.
In their last series in Columbus, Ohio back on Jan. 21-22, UMD, in sophomore goaltender Jojo Chobak's first-ever collegiate start, shutout the Buckeyes 1-0. OSU then won the second skate 3-1 in the second game.
In the first game (Jan. 21), senior defenseman Kylie Hanley rang her fourth goal of the season from the blueline with just ovwer 31 seconds remaining in the game to knock off the previously unbeaten at home Buckeyes 1-0. UMD outshot OSU 28-27, but the real story was sophomore Chobak, who shutdown the Buckeyes with a shutout in her first collegiate start.
In game two Saturday, McKenzie Hewett was the lone Bulldog to get on the board, but UMD suffered a 3-1 setback for the series split. Chobak made 38 saves in the game in her second career start. OSU outshot UMD 41-19 in the contest.
Prior to January's series, OSU had beem averaging 5.45 goals a game -- UMD held the Buckeyes to just a 1.50 goals per game average in the series.
The Bulldogs do have a connection to the Buckeye Bench -- former UMD captain Zoe Hickel is an assistant for OSU. The championship game will also make history as the first game to ever featrure all women coaching staffs on both sides of the glass.
LAST TIME OUT: The Bulldogs knocked out third-seeded Northeastern Friday night, using double overtime to defeat the the Huskies 2-1 to advance to the championship.
It took 98:15 minutes to find the game's finish, but it was in the opening minutes of the second period that the Huskies scored their lone goal of the afternoon. Emma Soderberg made the initial save, but Soderberg was left with a scrum in the crease and Skylar Irving found the loose puck to give NU the 1-0 at 3:35 of the frame.
UMD's defense bent but never broke through the rest of the second period. After a total of 20 NU shots in the first two periods, including 12 in the second period, the Bulldogs were about to flip the ice and set the stage for their new decade of postseason magic in the third period.
Senior Taylor Anderson – who scored against the Huskies last season in the Frozen Four semifinals – reclaimed those heroics at 10:05 of the third. After McKenzie Hewett kicked the puck into the slot to keep it alive, an NU player poked it right to Anderson on the bottom of the circle. Anderson's one-timer beat Aerin Frankel stick-side and drew UMD even at 1-1, capping off a shooting spree by a Bulldog squad that had pummeled the Huskies 12-6 in the final period of regulation.
It would take a little over 38 extra minutes and an overtime resurface for Naomi Rogge to end the thriller. Élizabeth Giguère crossed over the blueline and fed the puck across to Rogge between the circles, and with one move, Rogge ripped the puck past Frankel to send UMD into its seventh-ever NCAA title game at 18:15 of the second overtime.
Soderberg, just a month removed from starring for Sweden in the 2022 Winter Olympics, was unflappable, and made a career-high 46 saves. The senior netminder is now 4-1 in the NCAA Tournament, and has logged 365 minutes between the pipes while allowing just four goals in five games for a 0.66 goals against average in the NCAA postseason.
NOTES FROM THE FROZEN FOUR SEMIFINAL: Élizabeth Giguère, who had the primary assist on the game-winning goal Friday, is currently on nine-game scoring-streak, with 14 points (3g, 11a) over that span, while Hughes has notched points in her last six of her last seven games, with nine points (5g, 4a) over that stretch.
--Taylor Anderson has now scored a goal in back-to-back Frozen Fours. The last player to land that feat? Defenseman Jaime Rasmussen, who scored a goal in the 2009 Frozen Four semifinal and then scored another one in the 2010 NCAA Championship game.
--Three Bulldogs are averaging at least a point a game so far in the NCAA Tournament -- Giguère 1.66 ppg on five assists, Gabbie Hughes 1.33 on four goals, senior forward McKenzie Hewett 1.00 ppg on a goal and two assists. Hewett had assists on both goals Friday night in the semifinal win.
Two other players have post two points in three games -- Naomi Rogge (1g, 1a) and senior winger Anna Klein (2a).
MORE NCAA TOURNAMENT NOTES: Gabbie Hughes joined UMD legend Maria Rooth as the only two players in program history to score a hat trick in the NCAA Tournament Rooth also netted one against Harvard in the NCAA Frozen Four semifinals on March 23, 2001, a 6-3 Bulldog victory (en route to the program's first NCAA title).
--Hughes has the only natural NCAA postseason hat trick in program history, and her four goals in the NCAA First Round/Regional Final ties her for the most-ever goals scored in the pre-Frozen Four part of the NCAA Tournament. Hughes is one of seven players ever in NCAA Regional history to net a hat trick.
--Emma Soderberg now has two of the three UMD program NCAA Tournament shutouts. In addition to Soderberg's two, Kim Martin has the other, a 4-0 triumph over the University of Wisconsin in the NCAA Championship game back on March 22, 2008 at the DECC.
--Elizabeth Giguere and Hughes also joined quite the club against Harvard in the First Round of the NCAA's with three points in a game (Hughes 3g, Giguere 3a). They became the eighth and ninth UMD players to compile three or more points in an NCAA game. It's actually been done 10 times -- Emmanuelle Blais managed it twice in her career.
