Behind Eve Gascon's second-straight shutout and eighth of the season, the No. 10 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team blanked the University of St. Thomas 3-0 at AMOSIL Arena in Duluth, Minn. Friday night.

The Bulldogs – currently in the midst of a three-game winning streak – used their special teams once again to score goals, with a power play goal in the second period from Mary Kate O'Brien and a shorthanded tally from Caitlin Kraemer in the third. It marked the second-consecutive game UMD notched both a power play and a shorthanded goal. 

"I thought Eve had a spectacular game tonight,?they're a great team, and she was just so poised back there," said UMD head coach Laura Schuler. "She was again just solid for us. I mean, we are so lucky she is a Bulldog and, you know, just so happy for her to be able to earn that shutout because she played really well tonight and fought hard. And I was so proud of that top line.?I really like their connectedness tonight. They were finding each other and playing so selfless and they really led the charge tonight. Obviously Kramer's shorthanded goal, that was huge for us. As a coach it's such a special moment to be able to sit back on the bench and just watch them  do their thing, I thought that's what they did. They led the charge and our whole team followed."

O'Brien broke the scoreless game at 5:53 of the second period with a power play goal that trickled in from the circle for her third of the season. That score would hold until Kraemer corralled a rebound of Gascon's pad, played it off the boards to herself and skated the length of the ice and buried her second shorthanded goal of the year and 14th overall at 2:50 of the third period to put UMD up 2-0.

Madi Burr put the game on ice with her third goal in two games with an empty netter at 18:11 of the third period, and the Bulldog defense did the rest, securing Gascon's eighth shutout of the season on 24 shots.

UMD outshot the Tommies 35-24 in the contest and went 1-of-2 on its power play while holding UST scoreless in two shorthanded attempts.

The Bulldogs (16-12-3, 12-10-3) will honor their seven seniors tomorrow afternoon in their final regular season game of the season. The puck is set to drop at 3:02 p.m.

BULLDOG NOTES: Eve Gascon now has 19 career shutouts, just one shy of the second most career shutouts in UMD program history … Gascon is now just one of three players ever to post eight or more shutouts in a single season at UMD and now sits all alone in the third … Gascon has not allowed a goal in her last 134:04 of action and has had two-straight shutouts for a third time this season … Caitlin Kraemer has posted back-to-back two point games with a shorthanded point in each of those skates … Kraemer also had a shorthanded assist against BSU last Saturday … Madi Burr has three goals over her last two games and four points over those same skates (3g, 1a).