Saturday Gopher preview Umdbulldogs.com

The University of Minnesota Duluth will travel to Minneapolis, Minn., this weekend to take part in the WCHA Championship tournament. The Bulldogs will face the University of Minnesota at Ridder Arena on Saturday (March 3) at 4:07 p.m. with the winner advancing to Sunday's championship game. UMD is the home team while the Gophers will be the visiting squad.

THE RECORDS: Minnesota Duluth takes a 22-9-4 record into its WCHA semifinal game against Minnesota on Saturday. The Bulldogs won two games of the best-of-three first round playoff series against St. Cloud State University to get to this point. UMD defeated SCSU 4-3 last Friday before falling to the Huskies 3-1 on Saturday and bouncing back for a commanding 5-1 win on Sunday to advance to the next round. The Gophers advanced to the semifinals with a 5-1 and 4-1 win over Bemidji State University in its first round match up last weekend.

BULLDOG NOTES: Senior captain Noemie Marin is tied for No. 1 in the WCHA in point scoring for this season's league playoffs. She has two goals and four assists for six points in three games. Marin has a team leading 48 points (23 goals and 25 assists) in 35 contests this season. Freshman forward Saara Tuominen is second on the team with 35 points, having scored 11 goals and 24 assists, the team lead for assists. Freshman forward Emmanuelle Blais has four points in the WCHA playoffs. The Bulldogs have six players with 22 or more points this season, and six players with 13 or more goals. Freshman goaltender Kim Martin has a 1.38 goals against average and .950 saves percentage heading into this Saturday's game. She is 11-5-2 on the season and earned her first playoff win in a Bulldog uniform in the all important game three of last weekend's series against St. Cloud State. Senior goalie Riitta Schaublin is 11-4-2 on the season with a 1.75 gaa. In four games against the Gophers this season, Marin has a total of three goals and five assists for eight points while freshman Elin Holmlov has two goals and four assists for six points in four games. Emmanuelle Blais has a team-leading four goals against Minnesota this season.

GOPHER NOTES: Sophomore forward Gigi Marvin enters Saturday's playoff game against UMD as the Gophers' leading point scorer with 37 points. She has 17 goals and 20 assists in 33 contests. Junior forward Bobbi Ross has 33 points on the season having scored 18 goals (team-leading) and 15 assists in 32 games. Sophomore defenseman Melanie Gagnon has a team-leading 22 assists while the Gophers have eight players in double-digits for assists. Minnesota also has nine players with 21 or more points on the season. In this season's WCHA playoffs, Ross is tied for No. 1 in the league in points scored with six in two games. She has three goals and three assists. Brittany Francis is No. 3 in the conference with five playoff points.

SERIES: Minnesota Duluth is 15-18-4 in the all-time series against the Gophers, representing the only series in which the Bulldogs trail in. Both teams have met four times this year with the Gophers sweeping the first series and UMD sweeping the second series.

PATTY KAZMAIER AWARD TOP 10 FINALIST: Senior captain Noemie Marin added to her already impressive career highlights when she was named a top 10 finalist for the 2007 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award by the USA Hockey Foundation. The Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award recognizes the accomplishments of the most outstanding player in Division I women’s hockey each season. The winner of the 2007 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award being named at a brunch ceremony on March 17, in conjunction with the NCAA Women’s Frozen Four, in Lake Placid, N.Y.

ON THE AIR: For the eighth year, you can hear all the action for the Bulldogs home and away games live. This weekend the games will be covered on AM 610 (KDAL). Tom Hansen will be handling the play-by-play duties for his seventh season, the longest of any women’s hockey play-by-play announcer in the country. The broadcast can be heard via the internet at: www.umdbulldogs.com. Click on the “Bulldogs on the Air” link. Follow the link to WARP radio and enter in the call letter “WDSM,” then hit “Go.” Finally, click the “Click Here to Listen” link.