It will have been just 188 days when the puck drops Friday since the No. 5/6 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team last played a game, and the Bulldogs will be ready to do it all over again this weekend when they head to Erie, Pa. to face Mercyhurst University on Friday and Saturday. The beginning of a 10-day road trip for UMD that will encompass a total of four games, the Bulldogs and Lakers will drop the puck to start it all on it all Friday at 5:00 p.m. CDT in the Mercyhurst Ice Center.
WELCOME TO SEASON 27: UMD will begin its 27th season as a program and 26th as an NCAA Division I sport on Friday.
All-time, UMD is 579-274-80 with a .663 win percentage over its two and a half decades. The Bulldogs still own the third most NCAA titles in the nation (five), and are coming off their 16th NCAA Tournament appearance, including their fifth-straight.
Friday will mark the earliest start in program history for UMD, beating out last season that saw the Bulldogs open up against Ohio State University on Sept. 21-22.
UMD has won its opening season game for five-straight seasons, and is 16-2-2 on opening weekends over this past decade (dating back to the 2015-16 season).
SCHULER ERA GOES INTO SECOND SEASON: The Laure Schuler era enters its second season in 2025-26 after starting with a bang in 2024-25. Schuler helped guide the Bulldogs back into their fourth-straight NCAA Regional Final and landed an ACHA First Team All-American in goaltender Eve Gascon and the HCA Rookie of the Year in center Caitlin Kraemer. Schuler also had five seniors taken in the 2025 PWHL Draft, and currently had five rostered players vying for spots on their 2026 Olympic Teams (Gascon and Kraemer -- Canada, Ida Karlsson and Thea Johansson -- Sweden and Krista Parkkonen Finland).
NO WAY AROUND IT, BULLDOGS HAVE AN OLYMPIC WATCH: Arugably the biggest story following UMD around to start the season is what the roster will look like in the middle of it.
Five UMD players are currently in their Olympic pools for three different countries. Those five include Canadian junior goaltender Gascon, sophomore forward Kramer, Finnish senior defenseman Krista Parkkonen and Swedish junior defenseman Ida Karlsson and senior forward Thea Johansson.
UMD is no stranger to losing Olympic players in the middle of the season, and most recently, the Bulldogs were without Canadian defenseman Ashton Bell for all of the 2021-22 season and lost Swedish goaltender Emma Soderberg in February for those same Games. Before that, UMD lost U.S. goaltender Maddie Rooney for the 2017-18 season, and every prior season with an Olympic games has been marked with Bulldogs missing on the roster. But this may be the most currently rostered Bulldogs with a chance at Olympic spots from a single squad since UMD lost six to Olympic duty or centralization over the 2009-10 NCAA title winning season (which ironically, Laura Schuler was an assistant coach on).
In all, UMD has had 41 players skate in the Olympic games and had a head coach that has both skated and coached in the Olympic games (Schuler, Canada as a player in 1998 and as a head coach in 2018). Six former UMD assistants have played in the Olympic games and one former player has served as a head coach (Sarah Murray).
THE SERIES: UMD has faced the Lakers just seven times in program history, and owns a 5-1-1 all-time record against them.
The Bulldogs last faced Mercyhurst before any currently rostered players played college hockey -- on Oct. 25, 2019 in the Ice Breaker Tournament in Buffalo, NY. The result was a 4-1 win, with current PWHL star Gabbie Hughes scoring two of UMD's four goals and another PWHL star, Maddie Rooney, making 30 saves in the game.
Prior to that, UMD played Mercyhurst back on Oct. 30-31, 2009 in Erie, Penn., as series that UMD split with the then No. 1 Lakers by scores of 2-5 and 4-3. Before that, the Bulldgos and Mercyhurst had only clashed in one other series and twice in the postseason.
The two programs met on the ice of the DECC in Duluth, Minn. on March 15, 2008, in the 2008 NCAA Quarterfinal game, and UMD overcame three, one-goal deficits (and some youthful nerves) to outlast Mercyhurst 5-4. That Bulldog win was the second-straight setback UMD had dealt the Lakers in NCAA Quarterfinal play after knocking out Mercyhurst on March 9, 2007 3-2 in overtime to secure a trip to the 2007 NCAA Frozen Four.
UMD hosted the Lakers three times during that 2007-08 national championship season, including an early year match-up on Oct. 20-21, 2007 that the Bulldogs tied 1-1 in overtime, and then won the following day 3-1.
FROM LAKER TO BULLDOG: Senior forward Thea Johansson spent her previous three seasons of college hockey at Mercyhurst before transferring to the Bulldogs this summer.
The native of Ljungby, Sweden will begin her UMD career just six points shy of 100 collegiate points with 51 goals and 43 assists through 109 games previously with the Lakers. Johansson had a team-high 16 goals, while adding 12 assists for 28 points last season -- the second-straight season she led the Lakers in goals.
QUICK SEASON OVERVIEW: The Bulldogs return just 10 players off their 2024-25 roster, a team that went 22-15-2 and made it to the NCAA Regional Final one season ago. A roster, in fact, that watched five players taken in the 2025 PWHL Draft in June.
UMD returns less than half of the scoring it enjoyed too, with 54 of the 114 goals credited to players back in the maroon and gold.
But what it lacks in the overall number of returning players, it gains in tranfer portal talent and incoming freshman. Of the 13 newcombers to the Bulldogs, five are transfers, and at least three of them have spent the summer in national team camps or with their names on national camp rosters, including Olympic hopefuls defenseman Krista Parkkonen (Finland, Minnesota transfer) and forward Thea Johansson (Sweden, Mercyhurst transfer).
UMD's returners also saw a number of national team call-ups, including junior goaltender and All-American and Preseason All-WCHA selection Ève Gascon (Canada), sophomore center and national rookie of the year Cailin Kraemer (Canada) and junior defenseman Ida Karlsson (Sweden), and Mary Kate O'Brien (U.S.)
UP FRONT: While the Bulldogs did lose some offensive firepower, they not only retained plenty, they brought some in.
It may seem like you've been hear her name for years, but center Caitlin Kraemer is only a sophomore. UMD's second highest point getter (40) a season ago, Kraemer also returns having scored seven power play goals in 2024-25 -- a big reason why UMD's power play ranked in the top-10 all last season.
The Bulldogs also get back three players who had career-years offensively a year ago -- graduate forward Mary Kate O'Brien 25 points, inclduing 18 assists), junior forward Grace Sadura (14 points with six assists), and senior Danielle Burgen (16 points with seven goals).
Two transfers will also be on opponents offensive radars -- Thea Johansson, who enters the season just six points shy of 100 career points as a collegiate and Ohio State University transfer Josie St. Martin, who had five goals and five assists for the Buckeyes last season.
Freshman forward Rae Mayer, UMD's first-ever player from the state of Virginia, should also be up on fans offensive radars to start the season.
ON THE BLUELINE: Another position hit hard by graduation (and the draft), the Bulldogs return alternate captain and senior defenseman Tova Henderson, who worked her way up to being named a 2024-25 All-WCHA Second Team member. She skated in all 39 games for UMD last season, and compiled six goals and 14 assists for 20 points – all career best numbers.
Junior Ida Karlsson also returns for UMD after skating in 36 games for the Bulldogs, and scoring a career-best three goals and added four assists for seven points.
The transfer portal bolstered the Bulldogs secondary nicely, however, and UMD picked up two blueliners with immense collegiate experience in graduate Ashley Messier (Cornell) and Krista Parkkonen (Minnesota). The Bulldogs also landed the services of sophomore Kate Kosbud from the Gophers.
IN NET: Perhaps no player on UMD is better known than junior goaltender Eve Gascon, who returns for her third season after pocketing almost ever conference and national award available to her.
Already named to the Preseason All-WCHA Team, the ACHA First Team All-American averaged 29.8 saves a game and 12 times made 32 or more saves in a game last season. She had six games with 40 or more stops and finished the season with a .942 saves percentage -- a tie for the seventh highest in a season. Gascon's 896 saves also ranked as the 7th most saves in a single season in program history -- just one stop from the sixth slot. The Mascouche, Quebec product owned a 1.63 GAA and overall record of 15-14-1 with four shutouts in 1802:01 of action.
TOP DOGS: UMD has a new leadership core of the upcoming season -- graduate Mary Kate O'Brien, junior forward Grace Sadura and senior defenseman Tova Henderson. O'Brien will wear the "C" after serving as an alternate last season.
CAREER CHART CLIMBERS: Multiple players are headed towards career milestones this season and program high marks.
--Eve Gascon's all over the Bulldogs career leader boards (1st - saves percentage .944, 7th saves --1,513, 5th -- goals against 1.75, 6th -- career shutouts 11 and 9th for career wins 25) -- and she's only played two seasons.
--Senior forward Thea Johansson will begin her UMD career just six points shy of 100 collegiate points with 51 goals and 43 assists through 109 games previously with the Lakers.
--Captain Mary Kate O'Brien begins her final season having skated in 124 games for the Bulldogs. O'Brien will need to play in 33 games this season to crack the top-10 games played in program history.
