The Bulldogs have officially started 2023 off with a bang.

The No. 8 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team swept the No. 2 University of Wisconsin with a 1-0 win Sunday afternoon, securing the first-ever series sweep for the Bulldog program at La Bahn Arena in Madison, Wisc. The sweep – just the sixth-ever by UMD against Wisconsin and fourth-ever in Madison, will assure the Bulldogs of three regular season wins against the Badgers for the first time since the 2007-08 season.

"It doesn't get much better than this, it's a tough place to play a really good team with a high flying offense," said UMD head coach Maura Crowell. "They pressured us and put us into tough spots all weekend long, but our team defense was locked in. So it started there, and it worked its way out, and I thought we just did a really good job of taking advantage of our opportunities offensively when we had them and you know bending, not breaking in the defensive zone when we got stuck and  across the board. Everybody played well, and I think it's extremely encouraging for the rest of the semester, and where our team can go."

A defensive battle by both sides, UMD's game-winning goal came at 7:47 of the third period, on Anneke Linser's second of the series and third point overall. The fifth-year senior took a feed from Gabbie Hughes over the blueline, and in the slot, half spun away from the Badger defenseman in an attempt to play the puck to Hughes, but the puck hit a UW skate. Linser corralled the puck and slid it between the pads of Badger goaltender Jane Gervais to give UMD the only goal it would need to hand Wisconsin a defeat at La Bahn for just the 18th time since the Arena opened in October of 2012.

Graduate student Emma Soderberg was brilliant again for the Bulldogs, stopping all 28 shots she faced en route to her fifth shutout of the season and 16th of her legend-building career. Over the series, Soderberg made 73 saves on 75 shots, and helped keep the Badgers power play scoreless in three attempts Sunday, and 0-of-5 on the weekend. Gervais had 25 stops for UW, who started the game after not playing Saturday. Wisconsin had the slight edge on shots on goal at 28-26, but entered the weekend averaging 43.7 a skate along with a NCAA-best 5.65 goals per game. The Badgers, who averaged 0.50 goals a game in the  series, fell to 16-5-1 overall and 12-3-1 in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.  

UMD (15-6-1, 9-6-1) is now 5-6 against top-10 opponents, and will host Bemidji State University next weekend at AMSOIL Arena in a Friday-Saturday series that gets underway Friday night at 6:00 p.m.

BULLDOG NOTES: Emma Soderberg's fifth shutout of the season ties her for the fifth-most in a season by a UMD goaltender (Soderberg also had five shutouts in a season in 2021-22, and had six in 2020-21) no goaltender in program history has had two, six shutout seasons … Soderberg also logged her 16th career shutout, tying her for the third-most in Bulldog history with fellow Sweden Olympian and UMD All-American Kim Martin … her 46th career win, Soderberg has now taken over sole possession of the sixth spot all-time for UMD netminders … After allowing a goal at 8:42 of the first period to the Badgers Saturday, the Bulldogs ran off 111:18 minute of scoreless hockey against the NCAA hightest-scoring squad … Anneke Linser led all scorers on the weekend with three points on three points (2g, 1a) … the fifth-year senior has scored three goals and added three assists for six points over her last five games … with an assist Sunday, Gabbie Hughes inched closer to the 200 career mark, and now sits at 195 (77g, 118a) career points … Naomi Rogge played in her 151st game Sunday, making her just the fourth-ever Bulldog to have played in 150 or more games … Rogge is tied with Laura Fridfinnson with 151 games for the fourth most career games played … UMD has swept Wisconsin just six times in program history … the Bulldogs have now swept the Badgers in Madison four times in program history (Nov. 30-Dec.1, 2007, Nov. 2-3, 2001 and Oct. 8-9, 1999) ... UMD was 0-15-2 at La Bahn Arena entering last season ... since the 2021-22 season, UMD has flipped their luck at La Bahn, going 3-1 in its last four games there.