It's become a rivalry as heated as any other in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, but Friday afternoon at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minn., the recent series stayed tilted in favor of the No. 4 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team.

The Bulldogs shut down and shutout No. 8/9 St. Cloud State University 3-0, staying unbeaten against the Huskies through three games so far this season, unbeaten in their last seven meetings against SCSU and unbeaten in their last nine games of the season.

"I think one thing for us that's really important, we've got to learn how to protect a lead," said Schuler. "When you're up by three like that, we've got to continue to put the puck in behind them, get the puck deep, and it's not about scoring then, it's more about, let's not let them, you know, be able to pull their goalie. ?We've got to be better there and we talked about that, as well as controlled emotions. We have got to stay out of the box because they're a good team and they're gonna come back and we saw that. So that's going to be really important for us to learn and grow from going forward. ?But really happy with our game, probably 50 minutes of our game. I was really, really happy because we stuck to the game plan and I thought we just did so many things well."

After a scoreless first period, fifth-senior Olivia Mobley revived her scoring role against the Huskies with an outside drive to the left side of the net, pushing the puck under SCSU goaltender Emilia Kyrkko at the 15:24 mark for the game's first lead.

UMD wasn't done, however. Caitlin Kraemer collected a Huskie puck off the board, and the freshman fed Ida Karlsson on the point. Karlsson's wrist shot snuck through traffic with six seconds left in the frame, and the Bulldogs suddenly owned a 2-0 goals advantage after 40 minutes of play.

The Huskies never went away in the third, but it was sophomore goaltender Eve Gascon's time to shine, stopping all eight shots she faced. After Olivia Wallin walked in an empty-netter with 1:52 left in the third, St. Cloud St. thought they had finally broken through on Gascon not once, but twice. But the first goal, challenged by UMD head coach Laura Schuer, was called off – the goal was scored by a forward moving SCSU arm. The second, with just two seconds left, was challenged again by Schuler, and again Schuler and Co. prevailed, this time for goaltender interference that didn't allow Gascon to get across the goal for the save.

"You're always hoping that the goal will be called off," said Gascon."Of course I was happy with it, but it was also nice to have a fair game. Having goals that are not goals is always hard, but we just have to know how close a game out."

UMD outshot the Huskies 34-24 in the game, but Gascon stopped all 24 shots she faced for her third shutout of the season. Kyrkko had 31 saves for St. Cloud St., who falls to 10-7-4 overall and 5-7-3 in WCHA play.

The Bulldogs (14-5-2, 9-4-2) will drop the puck on game two of the series tomorrow afternoon with a 2:07 p.m. start.

BULLDOG NOTES: UMD is now 2-0-1-1 against the Huskies this season … Eve Gascon now has 10 career shutouts at UMD, just one shy from Jennifer Harss and her 11 shutouts for 6th all-time ... Olivia Mobley has scored in all three of her showdowns against SCSU and leads UMD with three goals in three games … the Bulldogs have scored three goals against the Huskies in two of their three skates … UMD is holding SCSU to fewer than 25 shots a game so far this season.