Despite missing having just 15 skaters again on Saturday night, the No. 12/13 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team pushed the No. 2 University of Minnesota to its limit, falling just short in a 3-2 loss at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minn.
Once again UMD entered the game down five players due to national team duties, including leading scorer Caitlin Kraemer and the NCAA's leading goaltender Eve Gascon, who are both with team Canada. Senior defenseman Ida Karlsson, as well as Team Finland's Paulina Salonen and Tuilli Tallinen were also absent from AMSOIL, currently in Europe with their respective teams.
Like Friday night, the Gophers found a way past UMD goaltender Marilou Grenier twice in the first period, but unlike game one, UMD netted a tally of its own in between Minnesota's goals.
After a Gopher goal at 15:39, rookie blueliner Renee Lapointe, not even 24 hours removed from her first collegiate goal, struck for her second of the series a minute and six seconds after Minnesota's first goal to equalize at 1-1.
The Gophers retook the lead 55 seconds later, and after 20 minutes of play, the Bulldogs trailed their instate rivals 2-1.
Minnesota took a 3-1 lead late in the second period when a UMD pokecheck landed right on the stick of Sloane Hartmetz.
UMD, short bench and all, pulled within to a single goal at 6:56 of the third period on a blast from Josie St. Martin from the point, her fourth goal of the year. The Bulldogs even outshot the Gophers 9-8 in the final frame, but for a second-straight night, UMD would fall just short of knocking off the nation's second ranked team.
Grenier had 30 saves for UMD to bring her total to 69 in the series. The Gophers just edged UMD in shots on goal 33-31, and neither team was successful on their power play – Minnesota went 0-of-1 and UMD 0-of-1.
The Bulldogs (6-4-0, 3-3-0) will have another week off from outside competition this week before traveling to Columbus, Ohio Nov. 13-14 to battle Ohio State University.
