News Tribune Mankato Friday Game Article

College women's hockey: Penalty kill leads UMD to victory
Andy Greder Duluth News Tribune
Published Saturday, November 24, 2007
The Minnesota Duluth women’s hockey team took its NCAA-leading penalty-kill unit to the next level Friday night against Minnesota State-Mankato.

The Bulldogs entered the Western Collegiate Hockey Association game at the DECC with successful penalty kills in 58 of 61 chances, with one short-handed goal.

Junior forward Tawni Mattila of Duluth changed that when she scored a short-handed goal off an Iya Gavrilova pass, and the Bulldogs beat the Mavericks 3-1 before 524 spectators.

“We talk about being aggressive and taking advantage of opportunities when they present themselves on penalty kill,” UMD coach Shannon Miller said. “I thought we had three or four good opportunities and were able to capitalize on one.”

UMD (9-3-1, 8-3 WCHA) killed all five Mankato power plays Friday.

“We like to pressure and not let them do what they want,” junior forward Sara O’Toole said. “The intensity on penalty kill has to match power play. That is what we did [Friday].”

Sophomore center Saara Tuominen scored the game-winning goal on a power play at 11:40 in the second period, and O’Toole added another power-play goal at 9:10 in the third.

The Mavericks (4-6-1, 4-4-1) scored first when defender Jodi Helminen slipped a shot past UMD sophomore goalie Kim Martin.

“That first goal was kind of harsh,” O’Toole said. “There weren’t too many shots. [Mankato] got a lucky bounce and got one in. We weren’t down; we knew it was a long game.”

The Bulldogs outshot the Mavericks 15-9 in the first period and went into the locker room tied 1-1.

“We had an idea of what we wanted to attack,” Mavericks coach Jeff Vizenor said. “We were able to do it early. Then they got the short-handed goal and they gain momentum from those things. They got stronger and we got more tentative.”

UMD began to roll with a 13-2 shot advantage in the second period and a 13-8 edge in the third. Martin finished with 18 saves and Mankato goalie Britni Kehler had 38 stops.

With UMD up 2-1 in the second period, Miller encouraged the Bulldogs to continue the pressure.

“I was telling them to play with some urgency,” Miller said. “We need to learn, as a young team, a sense of urgency.”

Miller’s call for aggressive play was in part to letdowns in the second game of recent series. Last week against Minnesota, the Bulldogs won the first game 5-0 on Nov. 17 and lost 3-0 the next day.

“Before the game, we said we need to be focused on [Friday’s] game the same as [Saturday’s],” said Tuominen, a captain from Ylojarvi, Finland, who is the second-leading scorer in the WCHA with seven goals and 11 assists. “I think you’ll see a better team [today].”

The Bulldogs and Mavericks finish the series at 7:07 p.m. today at the DECC.