Emmanuelle Blais Playing U22 For Canada

Emmanuelle Blais is taking part in the Canadian U22 (Under-22 yrs old) 3 game series against Team USA's U22 at Lake Placid Thursday Friday and Sunday. I can't find a Team USA roster yet, but probably will be able to find one online Thursday if not before the first game after it.

50 Days

Continuing my countdown to the UMD season opener in St. Cloud, it's 50 days until the drop of the puck on the 07-08 hockey season!

Gopher's Women's Coach Resigns

ESPN.COM Reports:

Minnesota women's hockey coach resigns with three titles

MINNEAPOLIS -- Minnesota women's hockey coach Laura Halldorson is leaving after guiding the Golden Gophers to three national titles in 11 years.

Assistant Brad Frost will be the interim coach next season, with a search for a permanent coach coming after the season, athletic director Joel Maturi said Friday.

"Laura put Minnesota women's hockey on the map,'' Maturi said. "She started with a blank slate and built a national championship program.''

Halldorson was hired in 1996 and was the only coach of the Gophers' women's hockey team. The school said she had been considering this move for some time because of the demands.

"This job has been extremely time consuming, and now it will be nice to have more time to spend with family and friends,'' Halldorson said.

Minnesota won titles in 2000, 2004 and 2005. She was two years into a three-year contract extension awarded after the 2005 championship.

The Gophers lost to Wisconsin 3-0 in the NCAA women's championship in 2006. They finished last season 23-12-1.

Halldorson previously coached seven years at Colby College. Her overall record is 337-142-31. After 10 seasons at Minnesota -- the Gophers didn't play in 1996 -- she was 278-67-22.

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Gophersports.com article WITH a Halldorson statement.

07-08 Roster Released

The 07-08 roster has been released, I'm posting it without the hometowns because of space requirements in the blog... Click the blog title to go view it with their hometowns

1 Lana Steck G 5-6 Fr
3 Jocelyne Larocque D 5-6 Fr
7 Jessica Hawkins F 5-5 Jr
9 Tawni Mattila F 5-6 Jr
10 Chantal Larocque F 5-4 Fr
12 Haley Irwin F Fr
13 Tara Gray D Fr
14 Libby Guzzo F 5-7 Fr
15 Erin Olson F 5-9 Jr
17 Samantha Hough F 5-7 Jr
19 Laura Fridfinnson F 5-8 Fr
21 Sara O'Toole F 5-5 Jr
22 Sarah Murray D 5-3 So
23 Saara Tuominen F 5-6 So
24 Amie Meyer G 5-8 Jr
26 Heidi Pelttari D 5-5 So
30 Kim Martin G 5-5 So
47 Emmanuelle Blais F 5-4 So
48 Karine Demeule F 5-9 Sr
72 Elin Holmlov F 5-9 So
81 Myriam Trepanier D 5-8 Jr
88 Jaime Rasmussen D 5-8 So

58 Days Until Season Starts

Now that we're within 2 months of the first game of the season, I figured it's not too early to start a countdown to October 5/6 opening series in St. Cloud. Go Dogs!

07-08 schedule

Click the link for the UMDBulldogs.com website.

Oct 5 St. Cloud State* St. Cloud, MN 7:07 p.m.
Oct 6 St. Cloud State* St. Cloud, MN 7:07 p.m.
Oct 13 Bemidji State * Duluth, MN 3:37 p.m.
Oct 14 Bemidji State * Duluth, MN 3:07 p.m.
Oct 20 Mercyhurst Duluth, MN 3:37 p.m.
Oct 21 Mercyhurst Duluth, MN 3:07 p.m.
Oct 26 Minnesota* Minneapolis, MN 6:07 p.m.
Oct 27 Minnesota* Minneapolis, MN 3:07 p.m.
Nov 3 North Dakota* Grand Forks, ND 2:07 p.m.
Nov 4 North Dakota* Grand Forks, ND 2:07 p.m.
Nov 17 Minnesota* Duluth, MN 3:37 p.m.
Nov 18 Minnesota* Duluth, MN 3:07 p.m.
Nov 23 MSU-Mankato* Duluth, MN 7:07 p.m.
Nov 24 MSU-Mankato* Duluth, MN 7:07 p.m.
Nov 30 Wisconsin* Madison, WI 2:07 p.m.
Dec 1 Wisconsin* Madison, WI 2:07 p.m.
Dec 8 Ohio State* Duluth, MN 3:37 p.m.
Dec 9 Ohio State* Duluth, MN 3:07 p.m.
Dec 14 St. Lawrence Canton, NY 6:00 p.m.
Dec 15 St. Lawrence Canton, NY 6:00 p.m.
Jan 11 MSU-Mankato* Mankato, MN 7:07 p.m.
Jan 12 MSU-Mankato* Mankato, MN 7:07 p.m.
Jan 18 Bemidji State* Bemidji, MN 7:07 p.m.
Jan 19 Bemidji State* Bemidji, MN 2:07 p.m.
Jan 25 North Dakota* Duluth, MN 7:07 p.m.
Jan 26 North Dakota* Duluth, MN 7:07 p.m.
Feb 1 Ohio State* Columbus, OH 6:07 p.m.
Feb 2 Ohio State* Columbus, OH 3:07 p.m.
Feb 8 Wisconsin * Duluth, MN 7:07 p.m.
Feb 9 Wisconsin* Duluth, MN 7:07 p.m.
Feb 23 St. Cloud State* Duluth, MN 3:07 p.m.
Feb 24 St. Cloud State* (Senior Day) Duluth, MN 3:07 p.m.
Feb 29 WCHA Playoffs (First Round) TBA 3:07 p.m.
Mar 1 WCHA Playoffs (First Round) TBA 3:07 p.m.
Mar 2 WCHA Playoffs (First Round) TBA 3:07 p.m.
Mar 8 WCHA Playoff Championships Duluth, MN TBA
Mar 9 WCHA Playoff Championships Duluth, MN TBA
Mar 15 NCAA Regional TBA 3:07 p.m.
Mar 20 NCAA Frozen Four Duluth, MN TBA
Mar 22 NCAA Frozen Four Duluth, MN TBA