The No. 6 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team stumbled in St. Cloud, Minn. Saturday, falling to No. 8 St. Cloud State University 5-1 at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.
The Bulldogs, who outshot the Huskies 36-29 in the game, including 27-15 in the final two periods, struggled to solve SCSU goaltender Sanni Ahola who had 35 stops against UMD.
The Huskies got on the board 15:28 into the first period, and then added two goals late in the second period at 14:13 and again at 15:34, a shorthanded tally that stretched the SCSU lead to 3-0.
Awarded a power play at 15:07 of the third period, the Bulldogs pulled goaltender Hailey MacLeod to make it a 6-on-4 advantage and cashed it in when Reece Hunt's shot deflected off a SCSU player for the graduate's eighth goal of the season, with assists to Tova Henderson and Mannon McMahon.
UMD, which continued to play without a goaltender after Hunt's tally, pushed their offense but couldn't get another by Ahola. The Huskies netted two empty net goals 37 seconds apart to close out the frame and push their goal total to five for the skate.
 "We never quit, we pushed, but sometimes when you're pushing, you forget your structure and that opens up some things going the other way," said UMD head coach
Maura Crowell. "We gave it everything we had, you know, tried to pull the goalie, tried to do some different things, situations that we're not super comfortable in because you're not in those spots a lot. So I think it's a big learning experience for us this weekend, and coming away with the two points last night is really important, because when we look at ourselves we didn't play our best hockey this weekend, and everybody in that locker room knows it."
MacLeod made 24 saves for UMD in the first loss of her collegiate career, but the Bulldogs held the Huskies scoreless in three power play attempts for a total of six in the series. In all, UMD has now killed 23-straight penalty kills dating back to Nov. 17.
UMD will take a 11-6-1 overall and 8-6-0 WCHA record into the holiday break, and will return to face its fifth-straight top-10 opponent when it travels to No. 7 Quinnipiac University on Jan. 5-6.
