The No. 9/10 University Minnesota Duluth women's hockey retook the narrative and the result Saturday afternoon inside AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minn., shutting down the University of St. Thomas 3-0 to earn the Western Collegiate Hockey Association series split.
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The win doubled as the first of rookie goaltender Marilou Grenier, who also picked up the first shutout of her young career and UMD's third shutout of the season as a team.
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After a scoreless first period, Molly Cole put the Bulldogs up 1-0 after the sophomore buried a rebound from the point from Renee Lapointe on a delayed penalty call on the Tommies. The goal, which came at the 13:46 mark, dished out assists to two freshmen – Lapointe's first point as a Bulldog, and Edit Danielsson's second point of the series on the secondary assist.
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Despite being outshot 19-14 in the final 40 minutes of play, UMD never budged, and finally got some breathing room at 18:17 of the third when Zoey Krock sprung Rae Mayer for the empty net goal to make it 2-0. 1:03 later, Krock again picked up a primary assist – her second of the night – when she dished off to Josie St. Martin for the UST back-breaker goal and 3-0 lead.
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Grenier had 24 saves for UMD, who was just edged 24-23 in shots on goal. UST's Dani Strom had 20 stops in the game for the Tommies, who fall to 3-3, 1-1 with the loss.Â
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"My teammates were really great in front of me and we played our best game yet," said Grenier after picking up the clean sheet. "As a goalie when the players make it easy for you, it's easy to make the saves, so I am super grateful for them. We talked about boxing out on our defense, it's something we struggled with a little bit last night but today the defense was amazing. I could see every shot really easily and could keep the rebounds."
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The Bulldogs (4-2-0, 1-1-0) will head to Bemidji State University next weekend for another WCHA battle. The Friday-Saturday series will get underway at 6:00 p.m. Friday night.
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BULLDOG NOTES: Zoey Krock's two point afternoon was the third multiple point game of her career … Josie St. Martin has now scored three goals over her last three games … Marilou Grenier had a 58 save weekend against the Tommies … both UMD's leading scorer Caitlin Kraemer and goaltender Eve Gascon were unavailable for the game due to Team Canada camp duties.
