It will be win and go home for the No. 7 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team Saturday when they face the No. 2 University of Minnesota in the NCAA Regional Final at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis, Minn. The Bulldogs and Gophers, who met just one year ago in the exact scenario, will meet for a fifth time this season and third time at Ridder.
Date: March 11, 2023, 2:00 p.m. Saturday
Site: Ridder Arena (3, 400) Minneapolis, Minn.
UMD: 26-9-3
Minnesota: 29-5-3
Video: B1G+ (free livestream)
Live Stats: gophersports.com
IT'S TOURNAMENT TIME!: UMD's third-straight NCAA Tournament is the fourth NCAA Tournament Team of head coach Maura Crowell's eight-season tenure. Crowell and Co. are 3-1 in the First Round/Quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament, and 5-3 in all NCAA Tournament games.
Thursday marked the 20th program win for the Bulldogs in the NCAA Tournament -- the third most in the NCAA. Overall, UMD has made the fourth-most NCAA appearances of any other team in the NCAA with 14.
All-time, the Bulldogs are now 8-4 in NCAA Regional/Quarterfinal games, and 19-7 in all NCAA Tournament skates.
NO SCORE SODERBERG: Only four goaltenders have won more games in the NCAA Tournament than Emma Soderberg, who earned the fifth of her career Thursday. Soderberg's 12th shutout of the season is the 11th most ever by a goaltender in NCAA history in a single season, and the senior netminder now has 23 shutouts over her career. The win Thursday was also Soderberg's 20th of the season, marking just ninth time a UMD netminder has recorded 20 or wins, and moves her into a four-way tie for the sixth most wins in a season.
Soderberg, who just last season set the NCAA Tournament record for saves (146), is perfect in NCAA Tournament opening games with a 3-0, 0.00 GAA after now not having given up a single goal in those games. In fact, in four career NCAA Regional/Quarterfinal games, Soderberg has allowed just one goal -- to Minnesota last season in the Regional Final.
HOW LOW CAN THE BULLDOGS GO?: The Bulldogs rank first in the NCAA with 14 shutouts -- a program record. UMD sits second in the nation with a 1.32 goals against average (both double as the best in the WCHA). That goals against average, if it stands at the end of the season, would be the lowest in program history, topping the 1.48 mark set in 2007-08, which is also the 18th lowest GAA in WCHA history. UMD's current mark of 1.32 would check in as the 14th lowest in the WCHA's tenure.
UMD IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT: UMD is in its third-straight NCAA Tournament since the program ran up seven straight appearances between 2005-2011.
All-time, the Bulldogs are 19-7 in the NCAA postseason, and 8-4 in Regional Final/Quarterfinal games. With just one season in the expanded tournament under their belt, the Bulldogs are 3-0 in regional NCAA tournament games after defeating Clarkson 2-0 on Thursday and winning both games at Ridder Arena one season ago.
In just the second season of the expanded NCAA field, the NCAA now hosts a regional instead of a single quarterfinal that the top-3 seeded teams host. The NCAA didn't adopt a quarterfinal game until the 2004-05 season, and prior to that, UMD had played in and won the first three NCAA titles in 2001, 2002 and 2003, going a perfect 6-0 in the NCAA postseason.
CURRENT BULLDOGS IN THE BOOK - UMD'S NCAA TOURNAMENT MARKS: Emma Soderberg has been brilliant in the NCAA Tournament, and owns a 5-2 record to prove it. After shutting out Clarkson on Thursday, Clarkson has now posted a clean sheet in every opening NCAA Tourney game of her career (Clarkson 2-0, 2022 Harvard 4-0, and 2021 Colgate 1-0, overtime.) She is one of just four goaltenders in NCAA history to have recorded three or more NCAA Tournament shutouts, and she is tied for the third most.
Last season, Soderberg had a program-tying three wins in a single NCAA tournmanet. The Jarved, Sweden native posted a NCAA Tournament record 146 saves over four games and 277:38 of action to help backstop the Bulldogs into their first NCAA Championship game in 12 seasons. Soderberg went 3-1, including one shutout in the NCAA postseason, and had a 1.08 goals against average, in addition to a .957 saves percentage. For her NCAA Frozen Four heroics, which included a career-high 46 saves in double-overtime in the semifinal win.
--Last season in the NCAA First Round on March 10, 2022, Gabbie Hughes joined UMD legend Maria Rooth as the only two players in program history to score a hat trick in the NCAA Tournament Against Harvard. Rooth also netted one against Harvard in the NCAA Frozen Four semifinals on March 23, 2001, a 6-3 Bulldog victory (en route to the program's first NCAA title).
--Hughes has the only natural NCAA postseason hat trick in program history.
--Hughes is also just one of nine UMD players with three points in a single NCAA game (3g). It's actually been done 10 total times -- Emmanuelle Blais managed it twice in her career.
--Two UMD players have scored game-winning overtime tallies in the NCAA Tournament -- Ashton Bell against Colgate in the 2021 NCAA Quarterfinal to send the Bulldogs to the 2021 NCAA Frozen Four, and Naomi Rogge, who sent UMD into the NCAA title game a season ago.
--Graduate senior forward Taylor Anderson holds the distinction as the only player in program history to have scored goals in back-to-back Frozen Fours.
THE BULLDOGS AND GOPHERS IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT: Despite meeting in 11 WCHA postseason games, UMD and Minnesota have met three times in the NCAA postseason - and only twice in an NCAA Quarterfinal/Regional Final. All-time, UMD is 2-1 against the Gophers in the NCAA postseason and 1-1 in the NCAA Regional Finals/Quarterfinals game.
UMD and Minnesota met in the NCAA Regional Final just one season ago, under very similar conditions. The then No. 9 Bulldogs upset the No. 2 seeded Gophers 2-1 at Ridder Arena to advance to their second NCAA Frozen Four in as many seasons.
UMD vs Minnesota (2-1)
NCAA Tournament History
March 12, 2022 -- NCAA Regional Final
Ridder Arena (Minneapolis, Minn.)
UMD 2, Minnesota 1
March 11, 2017 - NCAA Quarterfinal
AMSOIL Arena (Duluth, Minn.)
UMD 0, Minnesota 1
March 19, 2010 - NCAA Semifinals
Minneapolis, Minn. (Ridder Arena)
UMD 3, Minnesota 2
Two of the three NCAA postseason meetings have been held at Ridder, where the Bulldogs are 2-0 all-time in the NCAA against Minnesota.
Last season, in the Regional Final, Minnesota took advantage of a power play midway through the first period on a goal from Abigail Boreen, the Bulldogs were skate for skate with the Gophers and even with 10 shots apiece after 20 minutes.
UMD equalized at 14:46 of the second period on a blast from Manoon McMahon that snuck past Minnesota netminder Lauren Bench to draw the Bulldogs even at 1-1. The goal was the lone tally of the period, setting the table for an epic third period and another notch between two storied programs.
Enter Gabbie Hughes, who fired it past Bench from the circle to push UMD into the lead, and then followed it with a jersey tug and a celebration that foreshadowed how the game would end.
Emma Soderberg was brilliant for the Bulldogs in net, and made 37 saves in the game.
The first Bulldogs-Gophers NCAA match-up game at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis, Minn. was on March 19, 2010, a 3-2 NCAA Frozen Four semifinal win for UMD. Both Emmanuelle Blais (2g, 1a) and Laura Fridfinnson (1g, 2a) had three points for the Bulldogs in the win, while then freshman goaltender Jennifer Harss had 27 saves for UMD.
THE BULLDOGS AND GOPHERS OVER THE REGULAR SEASON: The two sides met last at the end of January in a series that UMD's line-up was altered due to injuries. The Gophers swept UMD over the regular season in both series and all four games, and the Bulldogs were outscored in thos games 15-9, though one was an empty net strike for Minnesota.
Despite UMD's record against the Gophers in the regular season, one statistic stands out -- the Bulldogs were a blistering 5-of-13 on their power play against Minnesota for an impressive 38.5 conversion rate.
LAST TIME OUT, NCAA FIRST ROUND:
Behind two goals from senior defenseman Taylor Stewart, the Bulldogs defeated No. 9 Clarkson University Thursday at Ridder Arena to advance to their second NCAA Regional Final in as many years.
Despite not getting a shot on goal until the 5:02 mark of the first period, UMD made up for it when Stewart scored off a long rebound at 5:59. After outshooting the Golden Knights 13-7 in the frame, the Bulldogs had almost half of the second period on a power play, but could not break through CU's tough penalty kill.
UMD thought they had a goal from Mary Kate O'Brien early in the third period that was disallowed after review, but just moments later, Stewart ripped a shot as a Golden Knight penalty expired off a cleared puck to double up on the Bulldogs lead at 3:23.
Stewart was the only offense UMD would need Thursday night, and for a third straight season, graduate goaltender Emma Soderberg started off an NCAA Tournament with a shutout, the third NCAA postseason clean sheet of her career. Soderberg becomes the first-ever goaltender to record three shutouts in NCAA Regional/Quarterfinal games, and is just the fourth goaltender ever to record three NCAA Tournament shutouts in a career – in fact just two goaltenders have recorded more than Soderberg.
UMD was 1-of-6 on its power play and outshot the Golden Knights 27-16. MIchelle Pasiechynk had 25 stops for Clarkson, who ended the season with a record of 29-11-2.
NOTES FROM THE CLARKSON NCAA FIRST ROUND: The Bulldogs improve to 2-4 against the Golden Knights all-time, and are now 3-0 in their opening NCAA Tournament games over the past three seasons.
--Emma Soderberg is a perfect 3-0 without having given up a single goal in NCAA Tournament opening games with three shutouts.
--UMD is unbeaten and unscored on in its last three NCAA First Round/Quarterfinal games.
--Graduate senior Taylor Anderson has now logged a point in her last three NCAA Tournament skates after dishing an assist Thursday. Anderson recorded an assist in the NCAA Championship game last season, and scored a goal in the NCAA Frozen Four semifinal two days earlier on March 18, 2022.
--Kylie Hanley is on a three-games scoring streak, having posted five points (1g, 4a) over that span. All three of those games have come against nationally ranked opponents.
SPECIAL TEAM SPECIALISTS: UMD currently ranks fourth in the NCAA with a power play percentage of 26.1, and have the fifth-most power play goals in the NCAA with 29. The Bulldogs also rank first in the WCHA and eighth in the nation in penalty kill percentage, which sits at 88.5, and the Bulldogs have allowed just two goals on its penalty kill over its past 18 games.
