The No. 4/5 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team team fell 4-0 Friday night at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minn. to the No. 3 University of Minnesota in a contest that did not remotely reflect the final score.

"It was a back and forth hockey game, and I think we had our chances, and especially in the second period," said UMD head coach Laura Schuler. "I really liked our second, you know, the way that we played in the second. Unfortunately, we didn't capitalize on the chances we had and they did, and you know, that's sometimes hockey. There's stuff we'll look at for tomorrow and we'll address it in order to get better, but there's also things that I thought we did well with, and games like that are only going to make us better."

After a scoreless first period, the Gophers scored two goals in the opening 3:43 of the second frame. The second goal was the most concerning of all – it cost the Bulldogs junior goaltender Eve Gascon, who was forced to leave the game after suffering an upper body injury. 

Enter rookie goaltender Sophia Villanueva, who impressed early and helped put UMD on the offensive initially. But despite putting an even 13 shots on goal with the Gophers in the period, it was Minnesota, after calling a timeout to settle its squad, that tacked on a goal at the 12:30 mark and took the 3-0 lead into the second intermission.

The Gophers added a final power play goal at 15:42 to wrap up the game's scoring. Minnesota outshot UMD 36-24 in the game and held the Bulldogs scoreless in just two power play attempts while the Gophers went 1-of-2.

Gascon had 16 goals before she was forced to leave the game, while Villanueva also had 16 in her Bulldog debut. Hannah Clark had 24 for Minnesota, who improved to 8-1-0 and 4-1-0 in the Western Collegiate Hockey Conference.

The Bulldogs (6-3-0, 2-3-0) will look to salvage the series tomorrow afternoon at AMSOIL Arena. The puck is scheduled to drop at 3:02 p.m.