Behind Eve Gascon's 10th shutout of the season, the No. 9 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team took care of business in the opening game of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association's First Round, closing the door on No. 14 Minnesota State University, Mankato 2-0 at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minn.

Gascon's shutout also pushed her into sole possession of second all-time in career shutouts at UMD – the junior netminder now has 21 – just two shy of the program record of 23 held currently by Emma Soderberg.

"When Eve comes up with those, they're big momentum saves, you know, because like I said, she's so composed in the net, sometimes she makes those saves look easy, but it just electrifies," said UMD head coach Laura Schuler." That's why I call her electric, she electrifies our whole bench and now it's like, okay, now we go. ?Now we go. Now we have possession and throttle down. ?Really happy with our group today,I thought we played really connected, smart hockey, and that's what we were looking for."

While Gascon saved all 23 shots she faced, the Bulldog's rookie class again brought the scoring, which was started by Madi Burr at 7:11 of the second period. Burr kept the puck on a 3-on-1 zone entry and unloaded it over the shoulder of MSU goaltender Hailey Hansen for the one and only goal UMD would end up needing.

But the Bulldogs weren't done, and at 7:50 of the third, Molly Cole one-timed a pass from Zoey Krock from the extended goal line to make it a 2-0 game – more than enough offense for UMD squad that hasn't allowed more than two goals in their last seven games – and has posted four shutouts over their last six skates. On Cole's goal, rookie Linnea Natt och Dag also go her first point as a Bulldog on the secondary assist.

Burr and Cole's scoring combo run has been an impressive one – one or both of the freshman forwards have scored a goal in eight of UMD's last 10 games – a run that the Bulldogs have posted a 8-2 run over.

UMD outshot the Mavericks in every period and finished with a 45-23 shot on goal advantage – the Bulldogs fourth most shots on goal of the season and most since 57 against Harvard University on Jan. 2. Both teams were scoreless in two power play attempts, and Hanson had 43 saves for MSU, who falls to 15-18-2 on the season.

The Bulldogs (20-12-3) will try and closeout the best-of-three series tomorrow at AMSOIL. The puck is scheduled to drop at 1:00 p.m.

BULLDOG NOTES: UMD has now won 20 or more games for five-straight seasons, going back to the COVID-19 shortened season of 2020-21 where UMD only played 19 games in total … Eve Gascon's shutout was the second WCHA postseason shutout of her career and third total postseason shutout … Gascon's other WCHA postseason clean sheet came against St. Cloud State her freshman season, a 2-0 win at AMSOIL on March 2, 2024 … the Bulldogs as a program are now 39-10 all-time in WCHA quarterfinal playoff games.