Saturday's news tribune Sioux game article

Noemie Marin scored twice and Elin Holmlov and Michaela Lanzl had two assists as the Minnesota Duluth women’s hockey team shut out North Dakota 4-0 Saturday in a Western Collegiate Hockey Association women’s game in front of 247 at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks, N.D.

The Bulldogs have not given up a goal to the Fighting Sioux since UMD’s 6-1 win Nov. 5, 2005.

The teams finish the series at 2:07 p.m. today. Freshman goalie Kim Martin is expected to start.

The seventh-ranked Bulldogs improve to 17-8-4 overall, 16-6-3 in the WCHA. North Dakota (3-26-2, 0-24-1 WCHA) is winless in conference play and has sealed the No. 8 seed for the WCHA playoffs. North Dakota faces Wisconsin, who secured the WCHA title last weekend when they took three points from the Bulldogs.

UMD senior goalie Riitta Schaublin had 19 saves before she was replaced by Amie Meyer in the third period. Meyer faced just one shot.

North Dakota freshman Brittany Kirkham had 34 saves in the loss.

The Bulldogs had a list of things to accomplish in Saturday’s game, and managed all but one.

“Our [penalty kill] set a goal to be at 100 percent. We set a goal for our power play to start scoring goals [Saturday] — which we didn’t,” UMD coach Shannon Miller said via telephone. “We set a goal to win 60-70 percent of our faceoffs, which we did. We set a goal to score two goals in the second period. We set some goals, We achieved them.”

UMD sophomore Tawni Mattila scored the game-winning goal, unassisted at 12:40 of the first.

Marin added a goal at 5:49 of the second and Demeule’s unassisted goal came at 12:09.

Marin scored the final goal — her 18th of the season — at 16:04 of the third period.

UMD was unable to score during seven power plays. The teams combined for 10 penalties in the final period.

The Fighting Sioux have been challenged offensively this season, and have been outscored 121-36 through 31 games.

UMD senior Jessica Koizumi, who sat the last series with an injury, played the entire game. She went from the third line to skating a regular shift on the second line and special teams.

The Bulldogs finish the regular season next weekend against Minnesota at Mars Lakeview Arena.