The No. 6 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team didn't advance out of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association's Final Faceoff semifinals Friday afternoon, but luckily for the Bulldogs, their postseason run is just beginning.

The top-seeded University of Wisconsin defeated UMD 3-1 at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minn. in the Bulldogs first WCHA postseason game in their home rink in 13 seasons. The Bulldogs scored the game's first goal but were unable to push through a second, their third-straight game against the Badgers with just a single goal.

"I think it just kind of showed us the potential that we have like that third period, the way that we played, I think we could just take that into the next couple of days here," said UMD's lone goal scorer Grace Sadura. "That's kind of what we need to do, there were a  lot of good plays and a lot of good opportunities there so if we can just build off of that and just take confidence from tha, I think as a team we will be in a good place."

Sadura turned her home rink on its head a mere 2:56 into the first period with an end to end solo drive around a multitude of Badgers that ended with the puck sneaking past UW goaltender Ava McNaughton on the Bulldogs very first shot of the game.

That lead was short lived until the 6:31 mark when UW's Kelly Gorhatenko shot deflected off a UMD player and past Eve Gascon to draw the contest even at 1-1. That score would hold for the rest of the frame, despite a 16-3 shots on goal advantage for the Badgers.

Wisconsin took a 2-1 lead at 15:11 of the second on Caroline Harvey's 16th goal of the season, which eventually would hold as the game-winner. 

The Bulldogs pushed back hard in the third period and had more shots on goal for most of the 20 minutes, but UMD couldn't offensively find the answer. Before the Bulldogs were able to pull Gascon to chase a one goal deficit, it was 3-1 on a UW goal scored at 18:56 to ice it the top-seed.

Gascon made 39 saves, one shy of her 6th game with 40 or more stops, and her 11th with 35 or more. McNaughton had 21 for the Badgers, who outshot UMD 42-23 in the game. Neither team landed a power play goal – the Bulldogs were scoreless in one chance while UW was scoreless in two.

" Obviously we'll take the day off tomorrow, probably take the next two days off, just to rejuvenate and recover and then get back at it," said UMD head coach Laura Schuler."I think there's a couple of things as a staff that we've already been talking about, how to tweak this week to make sure that we continue to peak when we need to peak, so we're gonna implement some of those things into our practices, and then we're just we're just so excited to be a part of this national tournament. Our girls have worked so hard all season, I couldn't be more proud of them. ?And we still have lots to show."

The Bulldogs (21-13-2) will find out at 10:30 a.m. Sunday from the live NCAA selection show on ESPN+ where they will head for their 16th NCAA Tournament appearance.