The No. 8 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team will travel to Mendota Heights this weekend to face the University of St. Thomas in a Western Collegiate Hockey Association series. The Friday-Saturday series gets underway in the St. Thomas Ice Arena at 6:00 p.m. each night.


All-Time Record: UMD leads 9-0-1
Last Meeting: Nov. 4. 2023 (4-0 Win, Home)
Last Series: Nov. 3-4, 2023 (Swept, Home)
First Meeting: Oct. 23, 2021 (3-0 Win, Away)
Last Season: 3-0-1 
Record this Year: 2-0
Last 10 Meetings: 9-0-1

THE SERIES: UMD has dominated St. Thomas in the first 10 meetings between them with a record of 9-0-1. UMD has out scored the Tommies 44-6, and has never allowed UST to score more than a goal against it. Four of the 10 games were Bulldog shutouts.

UMD swept the Tommies at AMSOIL on Nov. 3-4 by scores of 3-1 and 4-0. 

On Friday night, Reece Hunt scored two goals and Olivia Wallin added two assists to beat UST 3-1. The Bulldogs scored two goals in the first period (Hunt and McMahon), and outshot the Tommies 35-24. Hailey McLeod made 34 saves for UMD.

In game two, the Bulldogs turned in a shutout, 4-0 performance. UMD scored three goals in the second period just 2:30 apart to put the game out of reach for UST. Hunt led all scorers with three assists, while UMD outshot the Tommies 31-28. Ève Gascon got the shutout in goal with 28 stops.

Overall, Hunt posted a five-point weekend against the Tommies with two goals and three assists to lead all scorers.

UMD vs. St. Thomas - 

9-0-1 All-Time

Nov. 4,  2023 4-0 Win Home

Nov. 3,  2023 3-1 Win Home

Jan. 22, 2023 5-1 Win Away

Jan. 21, 2023 3-0 Win Away

Dec. 10, 2022 1-1 OT Tie (SOL) Home

Dec.  9, 2022 8-1 Win Home

Feb. 12, 2022 8-1 Win Home

Feb. 11, 2022 7-1 Win Home

Oct. 24, 2022 7-0 Win Away

Oct. 23, 2022 3-0 Win Away

LAST TIME OUT: The Bulldogs swept Minnesota State University, Mankato last weekend at AMSOIL by scores of 3-0 and 2-1.

Friday night, Danielle Burgen led the Bulldogs with two goals, one in each of the first two periods of play to bookend a goal by Mannon McMahon in the first.

Both Burgren and McMahon (1g, 1a) had two points on the night, while sophomore goaltender Hailey MacLeod earned her fourth shutout of the season with saves on all 16 shots she faced.

Saturday afternoon, UMD had two power play goals from Olivia Wallin in the first period and one from Clara Van Wieren in the third to beat the Mavericks 2-1. Rookie netminder Ève Gascon made 28 saves in the contest

NOTES FROM THE MINNESOTA STATE SERIES:  UMD is now 89-9-10 all time against the Mavericks. The Bulldogs are now unbeaten in their last eight games against the MSU and improve to 4-0 over the regular season against the Mavericks. UMD outscored the Mavericks 12-3 in those four games

--The Bulldogs went 3-of-5 on their power play in the series. Three different players (Walling, Van Wieren and Burgen all had power play tallies.)

--UMD scored in the first period and carried a lead at the first intermission in both games last weekend. The Bulldogs are 11-1-0 when they lead after the first period.

MACLEOD AND GASCON NAMED SEMIFINALISTS FOR GOALIE OF THE YEAR: UMD goaltenders sophomore Hailey MacLeod and freshman Ève Gascon have been named semifinalists for the Women's Hockey Goalie of the Year Award, sponsored by the Women's Hockey Commissioners Association.

MacLeod and Gascon are two of 11 players that advanced out the initial group of 27, and are two of the four Western Collegiate Hockey Association netminders on the semifinal list. Only one other school -- Colgate -- has a goaltender duo out of the 11, and they are by far the youngest players in the group. The duo also has faced four teams ranked in the top-5 in scoring a total of 12 times -- making their numbers even more impressive.

MacLeod -- the lone sophomore out of the 11 -- currently ranks second in the NCAA with a saves percentage of .953, and sits fourth with a goals against average of 1.23. The WCHA's November Goaltender of the Month, MacLeod has four shutouts, including one against top-tier Colgate back on Nov. 24. The Abbotsford, B.C. native had a career-high 42 saves in UMD's 3-2 win against Wisconsin back on Dec. 3 and currently owns a record of  8-4-1 against one of the nation's toughest schedules. In fact, MacLeod owns a 1.60 GAA against four of the NCAA's top-5 scoring teams -- three of which are averaging more than five goals a game.

The only freshman to make the cut, Gascon owns the sixth-best saves percentage in the NCAA of .946, and a a 1,66 GAA. With four shutouts, the Mascouche, Quebec product already is in a tie for the second most clean sheets by a rookie, and currently owns a record of 7-7-1. Gascon earned to the WCHA's Goaltender of the Week on Nov. 6 after gloving the WCHA's Rookie of the Week accolade on Oct. 23.

The award, which has only existed since 2021, has had at least one Bulldog neminder as a semifinalist now in three of the past four seasons. Emma Soderberg was named one of three finalists in 2023, and was a top-8 semifinalist in 2021.

THEY'VE GOT THE POWER (PLAY): UMD has revived its power play, and has netted four goals with an extra skater over its past three games. It marks the Bulldogs longest power play goal streak of the season.

Clara Van Wieren leads all UMD players with four power play tallies.

BURGEN'S BURNING UP: Sophomore forward Danielle Burgen has now notched at least a point in her last four games (4g, 1a), the longest scoring streak of her young career.

ROOKIE ASSISTS: Freshman defenseman Ida Karlsson has now dished out 11 assists this season in 28 games. Karlsson joins just two other rookie defenseman in the last 10 years to register 10 or more assists in her rookie season.

Maggie Flaherty had 16 helpers in 35 skates as a rookie in 2018-19, while Lara Stalder had 18 assists in 28 games in her lone season as a blueliner.

MCMAHON STREAKS ON: Graduate senior Mannon McMahon has now played the third most consecutive games in program history. 

The forward has skated in 162 straight-games to date behind former teammates Ashton Bell at No. 2 with 164, and Anna Klein, who owns a program-best 165 consecutive games played. 

UMD's all-time games played record was set last season by Naomi Rogge, and stands at 168 games. McMahon is currently ranked sixth all-time -- 6 games behind Rogge.

MACLEOD BY THE (CAREER)  NUMBERS: Sophomore Hailey MacLeod has played 21 games in two seasons as a Bulldog netminder, but her early numbers are impressive. 

MacLeod currently owns two-top career UMD goaltending marks -- a saves percentage of.949. and a goals against average of 1.16.

MacLeod also has the second best career GAA  among all NCAA goaltenders (1.16),  and although her current saves percentage would rank her second (.949), she has not yet made the threshold of saves (700) to qualify.

MCMAHON FACES OFF: Graduate center Mannon McMahon ranks first in the WCHA and fifth in all of the NCAA with 374 face-off wins.

Overall, McMahon is 374-278 (and all but one player ahead of her has played at least three more games than McMahon.)