The No. 6 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team traded its top-five nationally ranked defense for a little offensive flare, and the result Friday night at AMSOIL Arena was a dominant 8-1 triumph over Bemidji State University.

 

The Bulldogs scored early and often, ringing up their second-highest scoring output of the season behind four players that recorded three or more points and six that compiled two or more, while a total of 11 different players got on the score sheet. Junior defenseman Nina Jobst-Smith, the reigning Western Collegiate Hockey Association's Defender of the Week led all scorers with four points (1g, 3a), while Anneke Linser (1g, 2a), Mannon McMahon (3a) and Gabbie Hughes (1g, 2a) all contributed three points in the game.

 

The red-hot Bulldogs – who have matched their previous season long unbeaten streak of six games – unloaded three goals in the first period without mercy. The first came less than a minute into the frame when junior Clara Van Wieren stripped a BSU player along the boards, skated through the left circle and backhanded the puck in at 57 seconds.  UMD doubled that lead at 12:02, after Mannon McMahon found a streaking Taylor Anderson who had just been let out of the penalty box, and Anderson did the rest, burying the breakaway. Maggie Flaherty's blast from the point at 17:04 of the period stretched UMD's lead to 3-0, and from there the Bulldogs offensive was relentless.

 

Gabbie Hughes popped one in from a bent knee at 8:23 of the second period, and Anderson struck again midway through the frame to push the Bulldogs up 5-0. Sophomore Jenna Lawry arguably had the highlight of the night after she scored a brilliant first collegiate goal. Lawry banked a Jobst-Smith rebound off the back of BSU goaltender Hannah Hogenson at 18:42 to ignite UMD's bench and give the Bulldogs a 6-0 lead after 40 minutes of action.

Jenna Lawry scores her first goal as a Bulldog!! pic.twitter.com/LJoKL5SvdL

— UMD Women's Hockey (@UMDWHockey) January 14, 2023

The third period began with a Beaver goal that deflected in and past Hailey MacLeod at 3:05, but the Bulldogs again answered. Linser scored her third goal in as many games at the 12:29 mark, and Jobst-Smith ran her game point tally to four with her fourth goal of the season with just 48 seconds left in the third period to stamp the 8-1 win and the three WCHA points firmly in UMD's column.

The Bulldogs, who are now just seven points behind third place Wisconsin in the WCHA standings, got 11 saves from the rookie MacLeod, who made her fourth start of the season in net. UMD held the BSU power play scoreless in three attempts, and has not given up a man advantage goal in its last three games (and just one total in its last 11 games and 36 penalty kills). Hogenson had 29 stops for the Beavers, who were outshot 37-12 and fell to 4-18-1 overall and 1-16-0 in the WCHA.

 

"I thought the crowd tonight was outstanding, so fun to see so many girls hockey players in the building," said UMD head coach Maura Crowell. "And you know that's what it's all about. We want those kids to be future Bulldogs, and so we put on a great performance, and you know, I think it's really inspiring for our players to remember what it was like being the little girl in the stands and just getting started with hockey, or however many years they might be in, but it's a it's an inspiration for our players just as much as it is for for the girls that came."

UMD and BSU will hit the ice Saturday in game two of the series that will get underway at 3:00 p.m.

 

BULLDOG NOTES: UMD posted the seventh-highest attendance and highest since 2013 Friday night, with at least 2,765 fans inside of AMSOIL … Nina Jobst-Smith's four points ties Gabbie Hughes and Ashton Bell for the most points in a single game so far this season … Hughes had four (1g, 3a) on Nov. 19, while Bell had four (2g, 2a) against St. Thomas on Dec. 9 … Anneke Linser continued her career season with her third-consecutive game with a goal and a point haul of three goals and three assists over her last three games, a 2.00 points per game average … Hughes inched closer to the heralded 200 point mark with her three points Friday night … with 78 career goals and 120 assists, Hughes is sitting at 198 points … the graduate senior moved into a tie for fourth place for career assists with Hanne Sikio … Hughes reached 30 points for the season against BSU, the fourth time the center has scored 30 or more points in her five-year career … Maggie Flaherty is now just one point from tying the top-10 all-time scoring defenseman at UMD … Flaherty has 64 career points (15g, 49a).