UMD Bulldogs "ALLETE" Moments: Classroom
Throughout this year, UMD Athletics is partnering with Minnesota Power, ALLETE to highlight the Bulldogs accomplishments in the 3 C's: Classroom, Competition, Community. 

After offensively crippling the NCAA's highest scoring team, two University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey player were honored by the Western Collegiate Hockey Association Monday.

Emma Soderberg was named the WCHA's Goaltender of the Week, while Nina Jobst-Smith earned the WCHA's Defender of the Week for their efforts towards a Bulldog series sweep of then the No. 2 University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisc. over the weekend by scores of 3-1 and 1-0.

Soderberg -- who earns her third weekly honor of the season -- was outstanding for the Bulldogs, backstopping UMD to a series sweep despite facing a league-most 73 shots and making a WCHA-best 72 saves in 119:54 of action. The Jarved, Sweden product allowed just one goal Saturday and posted a shutout against the nation's top scoring team, her fifth clean sheet of the season. With 44 saves Saturday, Soderberg fell just two stops short of tying her career best, and it was the fifth time Soderberg has posted 40 or more saves in a game over her career. Soderberg's fifth shutout of the season also tied her for the fifth-most in a season by a UMD goaltender (she also had five shutouts in a season in 2021-22, and had six in 2020-21.  A graduate student, 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, and has now taken over sole possession of the sixth spot all-time for UMD netminders. 

Jobst-Smith led a defensive core that held the nation's highest scoring team to a single goal over the weekend, all while leading the WCHA in blocked shots with six -- a three blocks a game average. Jobst-Smith had a primary assist on the game-sealing goal in Saturday's 3-1 win, and helped keep Wisconsin 0-of-5 on its power play in the series sweep. Jobst-Smith already has a career-best 14 points on three goals and 11 assists. After UMD allowed a goal at 8:42 of the first period to the Badgers Saturday, Jobst-Smith, Soderberg and the rest of the Bulldogs defensive core ran off 111:18 minute of scoreless hockey through the end of Sunday's skate. This marks the second time this season Jobst-Smith has earned the league's award for top defender.

UMD will host its first action at AMSOIL Arena this weekend when it welcomes Bemidji State University for a Friday-Saturday series.  Friday's game gets underway at 6:00 p.m.

About Minnesota Power, ALLETE:
Our bold vision centers on our commitment to climate, customers and communities. We're a clean-energy leader under our EnergyForward strategy, already delivering 50% renewable energy ahead of all other Minnesota utilities. Now we're doubling down on that with a vision to deliver 100% carbon-free energy to customers reliably and affordably by 2050. Learn more at: https://www.mnpower.com/CarbonFreeEnergyVision