The No. 6 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team will hit the road one last time in 2023 this weekend to travel to St. Cloud, Minn. to face No. 8 St. Cloud State University in the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center. The Western Collegiate Hockey Association series will get underway at 6:00 p.m. Friday night before wrapping up the first part of the 2023-24 season Saturday at 3:00 p.m.


RUNNING TO THE RANKED: The Bulldogs are in the midst of a four-week stretch of top-8 teams -- eight games in all against pollster foes.

So far, UMD is 2-3-1 over that span, but the Bulldogs are coming off another strong weekend, this time against then No. 2 Wisconsin in Madison, where the Bulldogs split and earned a 3-2 win on Sunday. That split comes a week after UMD went unbeaten agaist then No. 2 Colgate at home, with a 3-0 win and 1-1 overtime tie.

Wisconsin marked the second-straight series for UMD against a No. 2 squad.

PENALTY KILLERS: The Bulldogs have kept opponents scoreless on their last 17 power plays, a sum that includes eight successful penalty kills against the Badgers last weekend. In fact, the last power play goal scored against UMD was back on Nov. 17 -- five games ago.  The Bulldogs currently own the nation's fifth-best power play with a 90.0 success rate, which also sits UMD second in the WCHA.

SHUT IT DOWN: While UMD has the fifth most team shutouts in the NCAA (5), its opponent this weekend, St. Cloud State, enters the series tied for the most in the nation at eight. 

GOALTENDING GALORE: The Bulldogs may have one of the best goaltending tandems in all of the NCAA between sophomore and reigning WCHA Goaltender of the month Hailey MacLeod and freshman Ève Gascon.

MacLeod, who has gone 2-0-1 against the second-ranked team in the nation in back-to-back weekends owns the NCAA's highest saves percentage of .968, and has the nation's fourth lowest GAA of 0.84. With two shutouts, MacLeod is still undefeated so far this season with a record of 6-0-2, and even more remarkably, over her career. In two seasons at UMD, MacLeod now has a 11-0-2 record.

Gascon has already earned both WCHA Goaltender and WCHA Rookie of the Week honors, and currently sits seventh in the NCAA with three shutouts. Coming off a career-high 48 saves against Wisconsin last Friday night, Gascon also a .946 saves percentage the ninth nighest in the NCAA and 13th lowest with a GAA (1.67).

Gascon has already tied the third most shutouts recorded by a Bulldog freshman goaltender. With three shutouts, Gascon is in rare company, and trails only Jennifer Harss, who had five shutouts as a rookie in 2009-10 and Kayla Black, who turned in four during the 2011-12 season.

Gascon has tied both Kim Martin (three shutouts in 2006-07) and Tuula Puputti (three in 1999-00). Martin piled up her three shutouts immediately -- the eventual All-American racked up three clean sheets in her first four starts at UMD.

  UMD and St. Cloud met six times last season after they squared off in the first round of the WCHA postseason on Feb. 24-25 at AMSOIL. The Bulldogs owned the Huskies for a 5-0-1 overall record, including a shootout win in the sole tie. 

All-time, UMD is 81-14-9 against St. Cloud, and is unbeaten in its last 18 games with the Huskies and 16-0-2 over that span, going back to Nov. 1, 2019. The Bulldogs out scored St. Cloud 16-3 last season and post three shutouts. Overall, UMD averaged 2.67 goals per game while holding the Huskies to 0.50 gpg, and averaged 34.5 shots a game while keeping SCSU to a 19.3 average.

In the last meeting on Feb. 24-25,  in game one, UMD defeated the Huskies 1-0 behind a late third period power play goal from Maggie Flaherty. The play, which began from goaltender Emma Soderberg leaving the puck for Flaherty ended after the graduate senior defenseman skated end to end and sniped the game-winner at 17:26.  Soderberg, who had 23 saves in the game, picked up her first career assist on the goal.

Game two was a 5-1 blowout for the Bulldogs on Saturday, propelled by a three-goal second period. The UMD was led by Naomi Rogge's two goals and Kylie Hanley's game-high three points (1g, 2a), and extended their current unbeaten streak to an impressive eight games in the process.

Hanley, Mary Kate O'Brien and Taylor Anderson all contributed goals in the second period before Rogge bookended the scoring with an empty-net goal at 17:51 of the third. Soderberg made 23 saves in the game.

UMD vs. St. Cloud St. - 81-14-9 All-Time

(Last 10 games)

Feb. 25, 2023 5-1 Win Home*

Feb. 24, 2023 1-0 Win Home*

Feb. 11, 2023 2-0 Win Home

Feb. 10, 2023 1-1 Tie Home (SW)

Nov. 12, 2022 5-1 Win Away

Nov. 11, 2022 2-0 Win Away

Feb. 19, 2022 4-3 Win Home

Feb. 18, 2022 3-0 Win Home

Feb. 15, 2022 1-1 Tie OT SOL AWAY

Feb. 1, 2022 5-1 Win Away

*WCHA Quarterfinals

LAST TIME OUT: The Bulldogs split with the then No. 2 University of Wisconsin last weekend in Madison.

On Saturday night, Ève Gascon 48 saves on the 51 shots he faced in her first-ever action in LaBahn Arena, but it was enough for UMD, which fell 3-0.
 

Sunday the Bulldogs again got outstanding netminding  between the pipes, this time from Hailey MacLeod, who had 42 saves, including 10 in the first six minutes of the game UMD was on its penalty kill.

Clara Van Wieren shattered that scoreless tie a mere 1:15 into the third period and the Bulldogs tacked on another tally at the 5:13 mark courtesy of Mannon McMahon to make it a 2-0 UMD advantage. The Badgers finally snuck one past MacLeod at 7:33 to draw within one, but the Bulldogs again struck for their third goal of the afternoon.

That goal came from Jenna Lawry, who stuffed the puck through for her third of the season – would also serve as the eventual game-winner for the junior forward, the first of her career.

UMD's defense did the rest, outlasting a late Badger power play in the final three minutes that Wisconsin turned into a 6-on-4. The Badgers did finally put one past MacLeod with 3.7 seconds left in the period, but it was no matter for the Bulldogs, who have taken four of their last six games against Wisconsin in Madison.

NOTES FROM THE WISCONSIN SERIES: While the series moves to 37-60-15 all-time, UMD is now 5-3 in its last eight games against the Badgers and 4-2 in its last six games (over the past three seasons) in Madison.

--UMD's penalty kill unit, currently ranked fifth in the country with a 90.0 success rate,  kept Wisconsin scoreless on its power play in the game (0-of-6) and over the weekend (0-of-8).

--With Sunday's win – Hailey MacLeod's  second over a No. 2 side in nine days – the netminder stays unbeaten on the season with a 6-0-1 record. In fact, MacLeod is unbeaten over her Bulldog career, a record that is now 11-0-2 in two seasons. MacLeod's 42 saves were also a career-high for the goaltender, who is 2-0-1 against top-2 teams in the past week and a half.