The No. 6 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team will drop the puck on the 2024 portion of the current season when it travels to Camden, Conn. this weekend to face No. 6 Quinnipiac University. The Friday-Saturday series will get underway at the M & T Bank Arena at 5:00 p.m. Friday before wrapping up with game two at 2:00 p.m. Saturday.

 

THE SERIES: UMD and QU have met just three times in program history, a 1-2 record and edge that goes to the Bobcats.

All three games took place during the 2019 calendar year, including a series the two sides split at AMSOIL Arena on  Nov. 25-26, 2019, and last met at the Nutmeg Classic in Hamden, Conn. on Nov. 29, 2019, a 4-2 win for the Bobcats.

UMD vs. Quinnipiac - 3-0-0 All-Time

(Three games)

Nov. 29, 2019 2-4 Loss Away

Nov. 26, 2019 1-2 Loss Home

Nov. 25, 2019 3-1 Win Home

*Nutmeg Classic

The two sides have played two common opponents this season -- Colgate University and Long Island University. 

The Bulldogs swept LIU by combined scores of 10-0 in Duluth to open the season on Oct. 6-7, and then defeated Colgate 3-0 on Nov. 24 before settling for a 1-1 overtime tie on Nov. 25 at AMSOIL. In all, UMD went 3-0-1 against its common opponents with QU.

The Bobcats defeated LIU last Saturday 7-0 at home, but suffered a  4-1 loss against the Red Raiders on Nov. 18 on the road, bringing them to a 1-1 record against teams in common.

UMD VS THE ECAC: The Bobcats are members of the ECAC, a conference that UMD has  historically done well against. The Bulldogs enter the weekend with a 10-game unbeaten streak intact against the ECAC, and has outscored ECAC opponents 22-5 in their last six games over the past two seasons.  

Overall, the Bulldogs program has played 70 games against the ECAC (Known as the Eastern College Athletic Conference until 2004 and the ECAC Hockey League until 2007, it is now just referred to as the ECAC), and owns an overall record of 43-19-5 all-time.

RUNNING TO THE RANKED: The Bulldogs will wrap up a five-straight series against top-8 teams this weekend in Camden, Conn. -- 10 games in all against pollster foes.

So far, UMD is 3-4-1 over that span, and ended a split against now No. 7 St. Cloud State in St. Cloud, Minn. on Dec. 8-9.

Quinnipiac will mark the second nonconference team the Bulldogs have faced over the span that dates back to Nov. 17. UMD faced ECAC member Colgate on Nov. 24-25, earning a 3-0 win and a 1-1 overtime tie.

PENALTY KILLERS: The Bulldogs have kept opponents scoreless on their last 23 power plays, a sum that includes six successful penalty kills against the Huskies in their last action in December. In fact, the last power play goal scored against UMD was back on Nov. 17 -- seven games ago.  The Bulldogs currently own the nation's fifth-best power play with a 91.1 success rate, which also sits UMD second in the WCHA.

SHUT IT DOWN: UMD has the fifth most team shutouts in the NCAA (5), while its opponent this weekend, Quinnipiac, enters the series with four and in a seven-way tie for 7th.

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 posted a 2-0-1 against the second-ranked team in the nation in back-to-back weekends owns the NCAA's third-highest saves percentage of .959, and has the nation's fourth lowest GAA of 1.12. With two shutouts, MacLeod has a record of 6-1-2, and even more remarkably, over her career, owns just one loss. In two seasons at UMD, MacLeod now has a 11-1-2 record.

Gascon has already earned both WCHA Goaltender and WCHA Rookie of the Week honors, and currently is tied for eighth in the NCAA with three shutouts. Gascon had a career-high 48 saves against Wisconsinon Dec. 2,  and owns a .949 saves percentage -- the sixth nighest in the NCAA.

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.

LAST TIME OUT: The Bulldogs split with the then No. 8 St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minn. back on Dec. 8-9. 

In game one, UMD had a second period goal from Nina Jobst-Smith, while sophomore Tova Henderson delivered the game-winner 2:53 into overtime. Ève Gascon had 37 saves in the 2-1 win.

In game two, the Bulldogs fell behind and would never recover against the Huskies, who scored three goals by the midway point of the second period. Reece Hunt had UMD's lone tally, which cut the Bulldog deficit to 3-1 at 15:07 of the third period, but SCSU scored two empty net goals to run the score to 5-1.

NOTES FROM THE ST. CLOUD STATE SERIES: UMD is now 82-15-9 against the Huskies, who broke a 19-game unbeaten streak for the Bulldogs in the second game. UMD is 17-1-2 against SCSU over the two sides last 20 games, going back to Nov. 1, 2019.

--UMD's penalty kill unit, currently ranked fifth in the country with a 91.1 success rate,  kept the Huskies scoreless on its power play in the game over the weekend (0-of-6).

THE 550 CLUB: The Bulldogs as a program are currently sitting at 549 program wins heading into the first weekend of 2024.