Turns out, the No. 4 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team has fully embraced the 2025 portion of its season already.

 

The Bulldogs used their first series of the new year to sweep Syracuse University with a hard fought 2-1 triumph Friday afternoon at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minn., extending UMD's current unbeaten streak to eight games strong.

 

"I think we had a lot of offensive chances today, we just didn't bury them and we faced a really good goaltender," said UMD head coach Laura Schuler. "Just look at our chances for, and there were some saves that their goalie made that I thought were just unbelievable. So you're thinking put some of those chances away and it's a different game, and I think we hit the post a couple times too. But shoutout to Caitlin Kraemer and Clara Van Wieren and the two we got because to me, that was really characteristic of how we want to play."

 

Clara Van Wieren, who entered Friday's game having scored in her last two games and five goals in her last five outings, stretched her current scoring streak to three games 4:39 into the first period. The graduate forward skated across the slot and backhanded through a rebound to give UMD's its first lead of the game.

 

The Orange capitalized on a power play at 11:30 to pull even with the Bulldogs and both sides were deadlocked at 1-1 after 20 minutes.

 

The second period presented multiple challenges for the Bulldogs, but the biggest was overcoming seven minutes of an Orange power plays in the middle of the frame after Hanna Baskin was called for a five minute major for contact to the head at 4:43. Less than a minute later after that penalty expired, Brenna Furhamn was called for interference, but UMD's penalty kill was in full force, allowing just a single shot in the five minute infraction and two total over the entire seven minutes.

 

Still tied up after two periods, the Bulldogs poured on the offense with a whopping 26 shots on goal in the final frame to Syracuse's three. But it took just 3:19 into the period for Caitlin Kraemer to call the game. Sprung at the redline up the left boards on a pass from Danielle Burgen, Kraemer drove to the net, crossed the crease and calmly backhanded the puck around Orange goaltender Allie Kelley for the eventual game-winner – the third of her career. That 2-1 score would be all UMD would need to finish 5-0-1 in non-conference play this season and keep the Bulldogs rolling, unbeaten in their last eight skates (7-0-1-1).

 

Tindra Holm earned the fourth win of her Bulldog career with 16 saves, while Kelley stood on her head for Syracuse, making 54 saves on 56 UMD shots.  The Orange are now 7-14-0 overall on the season.

 

The Bulldogs (13-5-2) return to AMSOIL one week from today to pick up Western Collegiate Hockey Association play against No. 8 St. Cloud State University in a Friday-Saturday series.  Game times are set for 3:07 p.m. Friday and 2:07 p.m. Saturday.

BULLDOG NOTES: UMD is now 2-0 all-time against the Orange … the Bulldogs are 15-3-1 all-time against Atlantic Hockey Association (AHA), the conference Syracuse is now a member of after College Hockey America (CHA) merged with them ahead of this season … Clara Van Wieren led all scorers with four points in the series (2g, 2a) … Both Cailtin Kraemer and Olivia Wallin finished with three points against the Orange … both had two goals and an assist … UMD's 56 shots is the most it put in a game since Oct. 6, 2023 against Tindra Holm and Long Island University.