The No. 4 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team will be holiday hosts this weekend when they welcome the University of Vermont to AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minn. for a Friday-Saturday series. Both games will have $1.00 tickets at the gate, with Friday night's game set to get underway at 6:00 p.m. and Saturday scheduled for a 3:00 p.m. puck drop.


GASCON, HENDERSON AND KRAEMER NAMED TO CANADA EURO HOCKEY ROSTER: On Tuesday, Hockey Canada has announced three UMD players have been named to the 23-player roster with Canada's National Women's Development Team as part of the Women's Euro Hockey Tour that will take place on Dec. 11-15 in Tampere, Finland.

Sophomore goaltender Eve Gascon is one of three goaltenders named to the team, junior blueliner Tova Henderson one of seven defensemen, and freshman center Caitlin Kraemer one of 13 forwards. 

Gascon and Kraemer were both named to Canada's National Women's Development Team for its three-game series against the United States that took place from August 14-17 at Canada Games Park in Thorold, Ontario. Kraemer is also one of seven players who won gold at the 2023 U18 Women's Worlds in Östersund, Sweden, and one of three that won bronze at the 2024 edition of the tournament in Zug, Switzerland. Henderson is one of seven players that captured gold at the 2022 IIHF U18 Women's World Championship in Madison, Wisconsin.

The trio isn't the only Bulldog who will be in Finland -- sophomore defenseman Ida Karlsson is expected to be named to the Swedish National Team and compete in the mid-December tournament.

WALLIN'S HISTORY TRICK: Senior forward Olivia Wallin reached the career 100 point mark in a big way last Friday -- burying a hat trick -- the second of her collegiate career and first as a Bulldog -- as the milestone mark. Wallin, who now sits at 49 goals and 52 assists for 101 collegiate points. 

Wallin became the fourth Bulldog transfer to own 100 or more points, joining the ranks of current teammate Olivia Mobley (48g, 72a, 121 points), Elizabeth Giguere (121g, 174a, 295 points -- 62 of which came over the 2021-22 season), and Jenny Potter, who played her first collegiate season at Minnesota (30g, 33a, 63 points) before running up a UMD program record for career points of 256 (108g, 148a) for a whopping 319 points over her combined collegiate career.

HOT ON THE CENTURY MARK: While Olivia Wallin reached it first, graduate forward Clara Van Wieren is sitting right at 99 points for her Bulldog career heading into the holiday weekend (43g, 56a in 149 games). Van Wieren is set to become the 25th player that has had 100 or more points over their career only in a UMD sweater.

In all, heading into the weekend, UMD has had a total of 27 players skate through the program that have compiled 100 or more points over their collegiate hockey carere.

When Van Wieren joins Wallin and Olivia Mobley, they will become the first trio

trio of 100 career point players since  Ashton Bell, Naomi Rogge and Gabbie Hughes in 2022-23. The season before that (2021-22), Hughes joined Elizabeth Giguere and Anna Klein, another trio of Bulldogs in the club.. In all, UMD has had three or more players on a team with 100 or more points nine times prior to start of this season.

ONES TO WATCH: UMD has a few other players currently stalking the record books or ready to imprint in them.

Clara Van Wieren and Nina Jobst-Smith have long already made their mark, having now skate in the fourth most consecutive games in program history (149). The iron duo are also now just four games away from the 10th spot for games played all-time -- 153 -- currently owned by their former teammate Maggie Flaherty and Sarah Murray.

Jobst-Smith, who has 44 career assists as a defenseman, is now just four shy of entering UMD's career list for helpers by a blueliner.

With a win last Friday, Eve Gascon now is tied for the ninth most goaltender wins in program history with 16. Two former netminders each have 16 career wins in a tie for ninth -- Amanda Tapp and Gascon's former teammate, Hailey MacLeod.

THE SERIES: Once. That is how many times UMD and Vermont have met over their all-time histories.

That one and only time came Nov. 25, 2017 in the Windjammer Classic in Burlington, Vermont, a 2-1 win for the Bulldogs that crowned them the Windjammer Classic Champions. 

In that game, Emma Yanko tipped in a shot from Jalyn Elmes for the game-winner in with just 1:38 remaining in regulation to defeat the Catamounts. Goaltender Jessica Convery had 25 saves for the Bulldogs.

Although the two sides have only tangled once, UMD owns a 25-8-4 against Hockey Easy opponents, the conference Vermont belongs to. 

UMD's last HEA opponent came last March in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament on March 14, 2024, a double-overtime thriller against the University  of Connecticut that the Bulldogs escaped from 1-0. UMD outshot the Huskies 49-33 in that high stakes skate.

In fact, the Bulldogs have only played an Hockey East foe over the past two seasons, and prior to UMD's run in with UConn, it had faced Northeastern University in the 2022 NCAA Frozen Four -- (a 2-1 win on March 18, 2022.

LAST TIME OUT: The Bulldogs swept Bemidji State 8-1 last Friday before shutting out the Beavers 2-0 on Saturday.

Olivia Wallin's outstanding Friday was the highlight of an offensive day for UMD that saw six players besides Wallin notch two points, including junior defenseman Tova Henderson, who scored twice and both Mary Kate O'Brien and Olivia Mobley, who each added a goal and an assist. The eight goal outburst was the most by the Bulldogs since they rung up the Beavers on Jan. 13, 2023, a 8-0 win for UMD.

UMD wasted no time getting on the board, and it took just 27 ticks into the first period for Wallin to bury a rebound to grab the 1-0 lead. After a dominant 13-4 shots on goal advantage in the frame, the Bulldogs bookended the effort with a snipe from the left point from blueliner Henderson. 

The Beavers pulled within a single goal at 5:25 of the second period, but the Bulldogs responded less than three minutes later with two goals just over a minute apart  Danielle Burgen tracked down the rebound and backhanded it past BSU netminder Kaitlin Groess at the 8:21 mark. Wallin then tracked down a puck behind the beaver net and popped it inside the post for her second tally of the game and 4-1 extension on the Beavers.

The third period floodgates opened for UMD from there, and it began with O'Brien smooth handling goal a mere 1:01 into the frame. 45 seconds later, Mobley cleaned up a Brenna Fuhrman shot for her sixth goal of the season and 6-1 Bulldog lead – a goal that Wallin had the secondary assist on, the 99th point of her collegiate career.

Wallin's piece of history came in a big way at the 15:20 mark, and it came from a pass to Wallin hard charging into the slot from Jenna Lawry. Lawry found a hard charging Wallin in the slot, and Wallin did the rest, sneaking the puck through on her forehand to net the biggest goal so far of her career – and give UMD a 7-1 lead in the process. 

Henderson put a cap on the four-goal period for the Bulldogs at 19:14 for the 8-1 final, the first two-goal game of the blueliner's career.

UMD outshot the Beavers 45-21 in the skate, and Eve Gascon got the win in between the pipes with 20 saves.

On Saturday, UMD's 2-0 shutout, Henderson entered the contest with a goal count (four) that had already surpassed her previous two seasons (two), but after netting two in Friday's contest, the junior defenseman wasn't done yet. Henderson opened the scoring for the Bulldogs 12:47 into the first period, the recipient of a heads up play by Burgen to push the puck across the slot to Henderson open on the doorstep. Henderson one-timed it past BSU's Eva Filippova for her fifth goal of the season to give UMD a 1-0 lead in the first.

The Bulldogs doubled that goal count midway through the second period when Wallin found Mobley at mid ice, and Mobley did the rest, using an odd-man rush to create enough space to snipe it over Flippova's right shoulder. Mobley's sixth of the season at 8:18 also handed Wallin her whopping fifth point on the weekend (3g, 2a), and after 40 minutes of play, UMD was up on the Beavers 2-0.

From there, the Bulldogs still outshot BSU 12-4 in the third period, and the defense kept any serious threats to the second shutout of Tindra Holm's UMD career at bay. Holm made all 12 saves on shots she faced, and the Bulldogs outshot BSU 39-12 in the contest, and UMD was 1-of-1 on the lone power play attempt it had on the weekend. 

NOTES ON THE BSU SERIES: UMD has a 15-game winning streak against the Beavers that dates back to Jan. 23, 2021, which includes nine shutouts, entering the weekend. All-time, the Bulldog program are now an impressive 94-22-1against BSU.

--In fact, UMD's fifth-year seniors have lost just once against BSU in 16 career meetings all-time -- on Jan. 22, 2021 (1-0 loss in Bemidji). The next day they started the now 15-game winning streak.

--UMD is 21-7-1 at home over the past decade against the Beavers. Over that same decade, the Bulldogs have outscored them 162-79.

--In their last six games, the Beavers scored just two goals, and in fact have scored just four against UMD in their last 10 games. The Bulldogs also put up five or more goals in nine of the 15 consecutive wins against BSU.

--12 UMD players logged at least a point against BSU Friday afternoon.

--Friday's hat trick was the second hat trick of Wallin's collegiate career -- she previously had one while at Penn State against Long Island University. Wallin is the first player to notch a hat trick for the Bulldogs since Reece Hunt recorded one last season against St. Thomas on Feb. 9, 2024, and the first player since Ashton Bell to hit the 100 point mark. Bell hit it on Nov. 18, 2022. Wallin's also the first Bulldog to score four points in a game since Hunt had four against St. Cloud State on March 1, 2024 (1g, 3a)

-- Saturday's clean sheet was the 19th of Tindra Holm's entire collegiate career. UMD now has three shutouts this season, and Holm has two of them.

--Tova Henderson is now on a three-game scoring streak, complete with three goals and an assist. 

--Wallin led all scorers on the weekend with three goals and two assists for five points.

BULLDOG EXTRAS: UMD enters the weekend unbeaten by teams not ranked in the top-10 with a record of 5-0-1.

--UMD is 5-0 when it has the lead after two periods of play, and its 5-0 when it holds team to one or fewer goals in a game.