The 2025-26 season came to a close Thursday night in Columbus, Ohio for the No. 10 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team after the Bulldogs were defeated by No. Yale University 1-0 inside OSU Ice Rink in the NCAA Regional Semifinals.

"I'm super proud of our group, proud of our girls, proud of what we did this year," said UMD head coach Laura Schuler. "It's obviously not the outcome that we wanted, but to get to this point, you know, to be one of the top teams in the country, only 11 teams get to be here, and that's something to be really, really proud of. I thought our players pushed today, they played hard. Yale, obviously played a really, really good game against us and congratulations to them on advancing."

Neither team got on the board in the first period despite two power plays for Yale and a hefty 15-6 shots on goal advantage for YU.

UMD started to flip its offensive effort in the second period, and outshot Yale 16-15, boosted by a power play – its only one of the game – at the 13:13 mark, but it was YU that broke through at 16:15 on a shot from the point from Molly Boyle that beat Bulldog goaltender Eve Gascon to go ahead 1-0.

The third period was a frenzied finish for UMD, who again outshot Yale 15-9 in the frame and where neither side saw a whistle for six and a half long minutes from the 11:10 mark until 17:40. Finally a Bulldog icing call prevented a UMD sub and forced a timeout call by Schuler to give the Bulldogs a chance to breathe and change and organize for one final rush. But despite a plethora of good chances by UMD, it couldn't break through on Bulldog goaltender Samson Frey.

Cailtin Kraemer had a game-high eight shots, while Rae Mayer, Thea Johansson and Mary Kate O'Brien each had four. Gascon had another brilliant NCAA Tournament game, making 36 saves – a NCAA postseason high effort for the junior.

"She has been tremendous for us all season," said UMD junior forward and alternate captain Grace Sadura when asked about Gascon's performance. "I mean, she's just a brick wall, and she makes saves that she's not supposed to make, she makes saves that she's supposed to make, like she really does it all. She's just a brick wall back there and it just sucks, we couldn't do better for her."

The loss marks the first for the Bulldog program in an NCAA Regional Semifinal after UMD had won their first four games under the expanded NCAA Tournament format that began in 2022. All-time, UMD falls to 22-12 in the NCAA postseason.

UMD finishes the season 20-15-3 overall and will lose seven seniors off its roster – O'Brien, Tova Henderson, Danielle Burgen, Thea Johansson, Krista Parkkonen, Devyn Millwater and Ashley Messier.

"I couldn't be more proud of our student athletes and also just so proud of all seven seniors that we had and what they what they did to help us to get here, all the work that they put in over the years to help us be the program that we are today," said Schuler. "They've left a tremendous legacy, and we will definitely honor that as we go forward. Again, just so proud of our team."