The No. 6 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team will put it all on the line Saturday when it faces NCAA Regional Final host and third-seeded Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. The winner will advance to the 2025 NCAA Frozen Four at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis, Minn. The puck is scheduled to drop in Lynah Rink at 3:00 p.m.


FINDING IT IN THE FIRST ROUND: UMD earned its fourth-straight win in the NCAA First Round Thursday night against the Sacred Heart University, and now stays unbeaten in four possible first round games. Not only are the Bulldogs unbeaten in the opening NCAA Tournament game since the tournament field expanded to 11, UMD has conceded just a single goal. The Bulldogs have now outscored their opponents 13-1.

UMD's six goals Thursday blows past its previous NCAA First Round record of four, set against Harvard in 2022. The Bulldogs 58 shots is a NCAA First Round program high, surpassing the 49 UMD put up against UConn in 2024. All-time, he Bulldogs are averaging 41 shots a game in the NCAA First Round.

POINT(S) TAKEN, FIRST ROUND EDITION: UMD had a whopping five players log two points on Thursday against the Pioneers. 

The Bulldogs have now had nine players in four NCAA First Round games that have logged two or more points, including four players in four games score two or more goals. Danielle Burgen and Olivia Mobley netted two Thursday night, while Taylor Stewart scored twice against Clarkson University in 2023. Gabbie Hughes owns a program-best hat trick in a first round skate -- the current PWHL star struck for three goals against Harvard in 2022.

ROOKIE TO ROOKIE IN THE TOURNEY: Cailtlin Kraemer became the first rookie since Pernilla Winberg did it in 2009 against the University of New Hampshire in Durham to score multiple points in her freshman NCAA Tournament debut. Kraemer had two primary assists in the second period against Sacred Heart -- matching Winberg, who also had two assists in UMD's 4-1 NCAA Quarterfinal win on March 14, 2009.

Kraemer is the eighth true freshman at UMD to have registered two or more points in their NCAA postseason debut as a first-year player.

UMD IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT: UMD is in its fifth-straight NCAA Tournament -- the second longest postseason run in program history. It trails only the seven straight appearances between 2005-2011.

All-time, the Bulldogs are 22-10 in the NCAA postseason, and 9-6 in Regional Final/Quarterfinal games. UMD owns the third most NCAA tourney wins in all of the NCAA at 22.

In just the fourth season of the expanded NCAA field (where UMD has made the tourney every time), the NCAA now hosts a regional instead of a single quarterfinal that the top-3 seeded teams host. The NCAA didn't adopt a quarterfinal game until the 2004-05 season, and prior to that, UMD had played in and won the first three NCAA titles in 2001, 2002 and 2003, going a perfect 6-0 in the NCAA postseason.

UMD has now made 16 NCAA Tournament appearances, the third most in NCAA history. The Bulldogs have reached the NCAA Frozen Four nine times as a program, including twice in the last five seasons. With seven NCAA Championship game appearances, including the 2022 title tilt, UMD owns the third most NCAA titles in the NCAA with five (2010, 2008, 2003, 2002, 2011), and the only NCAA title three-peat in NCAA Division I history.

UMD IN THE NCAA REGIONAL FINALS/QUARTERFINALS: All-time, UMD is 7-5 in the NCAA Regional Final or Quarterfinals. The Bulldogs are 2-1 over the previous three seasons in the game to reach the NCAA Frozen Four. Here is UMD's all-time results in those games:

March 16, 2024 - at Ohio State 0-9 Loss*

March 11, 2023 - at Minnesota 0-3 Loss*

March 12, 2022 - at Minnesota 2-1 Win*

March 15, 2021 - vs Colgate 1-0 OT Win

March 11, 2017 - vs. Minnesota 0-1 Loss

March 12, 2011 - at Wisconsin 1-2 Loss

March 13, 2010 - vs. New Hampshire 2-1 Win

March 14, 2009 - at New Hampshire 4-1 Win

March 15, 2008 - vs. Mercyhurst 5-4 Win

March   9, 2007 - at Mercyhurst 3-2 OT Win

March 11, 2006 - at St. Lawrence 0-1 Loss

March 18, 2005 - vs. St. Lawrence 2-3 OT Loss

*NCAA Regional Game

SCHU'S NO STRANGER TO THE UMD POSTSEASON: While Thursday marked first-year head coach Laura Schuler's first NCAA Tourney win at the helm of the Bulldogs, this is her sixth NCAA Tournament as a member of UMD's coaching staff. Schuler has been a part of the last four NCAA Tournament appearances (2022, 2023, 2024), as well as in 2010 and 2011 for a grand total of six. Schuler has also been a part of three NCAA Frozen Fours at UMD (2022, 2010, 2009), which includes two NCAA title tilts (2022 and 2010). 

UMD has won one NCAA title with Schuler as an assistant coach -- ironically against Cornell University in 2010.

BULLDOGS AGAINST THE TOURNAMENT FIELD: UMD may not have skated against Sacred Heart of Cornell University  this season, but it has played 15 games against the 2025 NCAA Tournament field with a record of 3-10-1 prior to the game on Thursday

.  

Olivia Wallin and Clara Van Wieren each have eight points in those 15 games -- Wallin with five goals and three assists, while Van Wieren has three goals and five assists. Three players scored three goals -- Olivia Mobley, Caitlin Kraemer and Grace Sadura.

Eve Gascon backstopped 14-of-the-15 games UMD skated against Tournament teams, and posted a .939 saves percentage. The sophomore netminder also averaged 36.7 saves a game in those 14 games.

13-of-15 games came against WCHA opponents, and 10 of the 15 games were decided either way by just a single game, with one overtime skate. Three goals against were on empty Bulldog nets , while 10 came on power plays. UMD averaged just 1.67 goals a game while allowing 2.93.

The Bulldogs averaged 26.8 shots a game against NCAA teams -- below the 32.4 it averaged all season. Those opposing teams averaged 40.4 shots on goal -- for more than the 29.6 over the entire season.

Notably, UMD averaged 9.47 minutes of penalty minutes, while their opponents only averaged 6.53.

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT: This marks the fifth NCAA Tournament appearances for graduate forward Clara Van Wieren and fifth-year defenseman Nina Jobst-Smith, are the first-ever UMD players to have skated in five NCAA Tournaments. Five other players are skating in their fourth NCAA Tournaments – Hanna Baskin, Mary Kate O'Brien, Jenna Lawry and Brenna Fuhrman. As a program, UMD now has 26 total players in program history who have skated in four – or more – consecutive NCAA Tournaments.

In all, UMD has 13 returning players that have skated in at least one NCAA Tournament, in addition to Olivia Mobley, who earned a title with Ohio State University last season and was on two previous Quinnipiac University NCAA Tournament teams (2022, 2023).

TOURNAMENT TOUCH: Clara Van Wieren leads UMD with four points (1g, 3a) in 11  NCAA Tournament games, while Olivia Wallin now has three assists in three tournament skates. 

Four players logged two points Thursday night -- Danielle Burgen (2g), Olivia Mobley (2g), Van Wieren (1g, 1a), Wallin (2a) and Caitlin Kraemer (2a).

Eve Gascon joined another exclusive club Thursday night -- the sophomore goaltender becomes the seventh goaltender to have ever won two or more games in the NCAA Tournament. 

Gascon is also one of just three UMD goaltenders to have recorded a shutout in an NCAA Tournament game. Kim Martin did it in the 2008 NCAA title game (4-0 over Wisconsin, while Emma Soderberg owns a program-record three NCAA postseason shutouts.

UMD VS CORNELL IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT: The two sides have met just once in the NCAA postseason -- in the 2010 national championship game in Minneapolis, Minn. inside Ridder Arena. The triple-overtime thriller was won by the Bulldogs 3-2 with just 34 seconds left in the third extra frame by freshman Jessica Wong to clinch UMD's fifth NCAA title.

Current UMD head coach Laura Schuler was in her first season as an assistant for the Bulldogs, who outshot the Big Red 64-51 in the game and had two second period goals from forward Emmanuelle Blais and Jaime Rasmussen. Jenny Harss made 49 stops in net for the Bulldogs, who were outshot in regulation 30-28 but dialed up the scoring attempts in overtime to outshot Cornell 36-21, including 10-4 in the second ot and 14-6 in the third overtime frame.

UMD vs Cornell All-Time (3-0)

Nov. 22, 2014 2-0 Win Home

Nov. 21, 2014 7-2 Win Home

Mar. 21, 2010 3-2 OT3 Win Neutral*

*NCAA Championship

THE SERIES: The Bulldogs and Big Red have met just three times in program history, where UMD owns a 3-0 series record. 

Their last meeting, however, was a decade ago on Nov. 21-22, 2014 in Duluth, Minn. at AMSOIL Arena. That series included current assistant coach Ashleigh Brykaliuk, who was a sophomore that season for the Bulldogs.

In the one and only series between the two programs in 2014, UMD posted wins of 7-2 and 2-0. UMD used four third period goals to blow open the game en route to a 7-2 triumph in game one.  13 players recorded at least a point and seven had two or more.  Blueliner Sidney Morin led the Bulldogs with a goal and two assists for a team-high three points, while Zoe Hickel added two goals.  UMD was 50% on the power play, going 3-of-6.

The following night, the Bulldogs scored twice in the first six minutes of the second period to secure their ninth-straight victory. Brykaliuk had a short handed goal at 1:04 of the second stanza, while Hickel added her third tally of the series at 5:49.  Kayla Black earned the shutout.

UMD AGAINST THE ECAC: Overall, the Bulldog program has played 74 games against the ECAC (known as the Eastern College Athletic Conference until 2004 and the ECAC Hockey League until 2007, it is now just referred to as the ECAC), and owns an overall record of 44-21-6 all-time.

The home conference of the Red Raiders, the Bulldogs did skate against one ECAC foe this past season, a series split in Hamilton, NY against Colgate University. UMD split with Colgate 3-2 in game one Friday and suffered a 3-2 loss Saturday.

In game one, despite having outshelled the Raiders 16-6 in the opening period, UMD's first goal of the game came at the 5:58 mark of the second period on Colgate's power play. Redshirt junior forward Mary Kate O'Brien jumped on a Raider miscommunication at their own blueline and the result was O'Brien skating in from the Bulldogs blueline before going to her backhand to beat Colgate goaltender Hannah Murphy five-hole for the 1-0 lead.

But the Raiders didn't stay rattled for long, connecting for their own power play goal just 52 seconds later, and after 40 minutes of play, UMD trailed the Raiders with one frame left.

After an early Colgate penalty put the Bulldogs on the power play in the third, junior defenseman Tova Henderson hammered home a rebound from O'Brien on the back post to knot the game at 2-2. Then at 12:43 of the stanza, graduate forward Clara Van Wieren shoveled in a blocked shot from Nina Jobst-Smith to break the game 3-2 in favor of the Bulldogs – the eventual game-winner and Van Wieren's second tally of the season.

On Friday night, the Bulldogs held Colgate scoreless in 5-of-6 of their extra skater attempts, and sophomore goaltender Eve Gascon had 25 saves, including eight in the third period to earn her third win of the season. UMD outshot Colgate 32-27 in the skate.

In game two, the Bulldogs got on the board first, behind Van Wieren's second tally in as many games. an early 1-0 lead at 9:13 of the first period,

Colgate equalized on the power play at 13:10, and a second power play goal by Colgate at 18:02 of the second period gave the Raiders the same lead it had Friday night heading into the third period of play. 

The Bulldogs found themselves trailing by a goal after the first 40 minutes of play for a third-straight game. But for the first time in three games, UMD couldn't mount a complete comeback. Wallin made it a one-goal contest 5:55 into the period on a power play snipe tally, but the Bulldogs would come no closer, forced to leave Hamilton with the series split.

Gascon made 33 saves for UMD, but the Raiders were lethal on their power play, successful in two-of-four attempts and five-of-nine on the weekend. The Bulldogs again outshot Colgate 44-36.

LAST TIME OUT, NCAA FIRST ROUND: Behind an NCAA First Round program record of six goals, including two from Danielle Burgen and Olivia Mobley, UMD ignited with three goals in the second period and two in the third to stay unbeaten in its four all-time first round games.

Clara Van Wieren got the scoring ball rolling 13:06 into the first period, fresh on to the ice after serving a penalty, the graduate forward swept into the top of the slot and was spotted by Olivia Wallin on the right wall. Wallin hit Van Wieren, who gathered the puck and beat Pioneer goaltender Carly Greene for the lone goal of the first period.

After outshooting SHU 19-6 in the opening frame, the dam started to crack on the Pioneers 6:43 in the second period. That crack came in the form of Burgen, who trailed into the zone and one-timed a blast from the top of the right circle to double the Bulldogs lead.

UMD finally broke the game open with two goals 16 seconds apart late in the period, starting with a Mobley tip off a Wallin shot at 19:41 that was followed by another Caitlin Kraemer to Burgen connection with three seconds to spare before the second intermission to go up 4-0.

Grace Sadura made it a program NCAA First Round five goals for the Bulldogs 8:37 into the third period, finishing off passing play with Jenna Lawry to run the score to 5-0.

SHU's Kate Helgeson finally did something no player has done against UMD in four previous first round postseason games – she scored a goal at 10:09 to make it a 5-1 game. But Mobley iced the goal cake with 35.3 seconds left in the skate, tipping in her second goal of the game, this time from point shot a Devyn Millwater.

Eve Gascon earned the second NCAA Tournament win of her career, becoming the seventh UMD goaltender to record two or more NCAA postseason wins. The sophomore made 11 saves, while Pioneer netminder Carly Greene was stellar in her NCAA Tournament debut with 52 saves. The Bulldogs outshot SHU 58-12 and kept the Pioneers scoreless in four power play attempts.

NOTES FROM THE SACRED HEART FIRST ROUND GAME: UMD is now 1-0 all time against SHU and 5-0 against NEWHA opponents.

--Five players had two or points in the skate – Danielle Burgen (2g), Olivia Mobley (2g), Caitlin Kraemer (2a), Clara Van Wieren (1g,1a) and Olivia Wallin (2a).

VAN WIEREN'S A GAMER: Graduate forward Clara Van Wieren tied UMD's all-time games played record Thursday when she became just the second player in program history to have skated in 173 games, tying former captain and current PWHL star Mannon McMahon, who ran up 173 career games in a row from 2019-24.

SADURA CAN SCORE: Grace Sadura has now scored a goal in each of her last three games. The sophomore winger has already scored a career-best six goals this season -- with half coming over her last three games.

SAVING UP: Eve Gascon has recorded six games with 40+ saves so far this season. Gascon has the most 40+ save games in a season so far since household name Maddie Rooney compiled seven over the 2018-19 season. Rooney, who had a 30.9 saves per game average and .930 saves percentage, did so over 31 games that year. Gascon owns a 30.8 saves per game average and a .942 saves per game average through 29 contests this season.

In fact Gascon has recorded five 40+ save games in her last 13 outings, and four of those were 44 saves or more, and over the same span, has record seven games with 35 or more stops. Gascon set a personal record of 58 stops against Ohio State University on Jan. 18, and currently ranks seventh in the NCAA with a saves percentage or .942.

With a career saves percentage of .944 in 50 career games, Gascon's saves percentage as is would rank as the fourth best in WCHA history. It currently puts her first all-time among all UMD goaltenders -- just one ahead of Bulldog great Kim Martin with .943.

CAREER CHART CLIMBERS: Besides Eve Gascon's stamp already forming all over the Bulldogs career leader boards (1st - saves percentage .944, 7th saves --1,493, 5th -- goals against 1.76, 6th -- career shutouts 11 and 9th for career wins 25), UMD has other players making one last run at the record books before their career ends.

Fifth-year defenseman Nina Jobst-Smith now has the seventh most assists in history from the blueline (55), and is just one point shy of 10th place among all-time defenseman in scoring (13-55=68).

Graduate forward Clara Van Wieren is now 17th all-time in scoring for the Bulldogs with 55 goals and 69 assists for 124 points. 

NO SHORTHANDED PROBLEMS: 

Olivia Mobley is tied for the lead in the NCAA with four shorthanded goals, and the Bulldogs sit second in the NCAA. Mobley is the first Bulldog to score four shorthanded goals since Jenny Potter and Caroline Ouellette each had four during the 2003-04 season. In fact, Mobley tied a UMD program record in NCAA sanctioned play -- Maria Rooth had the all-time record of seven over the 1999-00 season, but it was not in NCAA play. In all, Mobley is just one of four players to score four or more shorthanded goals in a season -- Potter (twice, 2002-03, 2003-04) and Ouellette (2003-04).

UMD's seven shorthanded goals on the season is the most since the Bulldogs rang up seven over the 2010-11 and are tied for the fifth most shorthanded tallies in a season in program history. The Bulldog program has now three times had seven shorthanded goals in a season and has had seven or more five times. UMD's record is 12, set during the 1999-00 season.

CAREER YEARS: Seven Bulldogs have already gone in the books with career-best offensive seasons. Those players --

Mary Kate O'Brien (most points 24, most assists 18), Grace Sadura (most goals 6, assists 8, most points 14), Danielle Burgen (goals 7, assists 9, points 16), Hanna Baskin (21 assists, 22 points), Tova Henderson (points 20, assists 14 and goals 6), and Clara Van Wieren (17 goals, 39 points). 

Of note, Olivia Mobley's 19 goals has surpassed her career-collegiate season-high of 17 set her sophomore season at Quinnipiac in 2021-22. Fifth-year Olivia Wallin has also now set a career best for points in a season (40) and owns a career most 22 assists). Wallin leads UMD in scoring this season.

POWERED PLAY: UMD currently ranks ninth in the NCAA with a 25.0 power play conversion rate. The Bulldogs, who have recorded 23 power play goals so far, are led by rookie center Caitlin Kraemer, with seven power play goals. Kraemer has scored the most power play goals by a freshman since former Bulldog All-American, Olympian and current PWHL defenseman Ashton Bell rang up seven in 2017-18.

Along with Kraemer, Olivia Mobley has added four, while Olivia Wallin and Tova Henderson have added three.

ANOTHER 20+ WIN SEASON: The Bulldogs are in their 18th season out of a total of 26 with 20 triumphs. UMD has now had three-straight 20+ seasons and has 22 wins so far this season.