UMD Sweeps Sioux, Hosts Sioux in WCHA 1st Round

UMD sweeps North Dakota, and Mankato sweeps Ohio State, forcing UMD to now beat North Dakota twice more in the best of 3 first round playoff series at the DECC Friday/Saturday, and if necessary Sunday.

Johanna Ellison picked up both wins, including a 3-0 shutout on Saturday evening. UMD's six goals were scored by six different players on the weekend.

UMD Beats Ohio State 4-1

Sara O'Toole had a goal and an assist, as did Haley Irwin and Jamie Rasmussen, while Elin Holmlov scored a goal in the 4-1 victory over OSU. Joceleyne Larocque had two assists, and Johanna Ellison won another game, stopping 12 of 13 shots faced for UMD.

After it became a 4-1 UMD lead, they tried to let OSU back into the game, taking 4 straight penalties from the 10 minute mark of the third period.

Sara Murray, Myriam Trepanier, Tawni Mattila, and Johanna Ellison received WCHA Scholar Athlete Awards after the game.

Heidi Pelttari Named WCHA Defensive Player of the Week

Click the blog title to go read the full press release from WCHA.COM

WCHA Defensive Player of the Week • Heidi Pelttari, Jr., D, Minnesota Duluth
Junior Heidi Pelttari, who has played at forward for the University of Minnesota Duluth most of the season, took a step back into her previous role on the blueline last weekend in the Bulldogs’ two-game conference road series sweep of Bemidji State.
A native of Tampere, Finland, Pelttari had one assist in last Friday’s (Feb. 6) 3-2 win over the host Beavers, with her helper coming on teammate Laura Fridfinnson’s game-winning goal at 5:22 of the second period. Then in game two of the weekend series last Saturday (Feb. 7), Pelttari dished out four assists to help propel the Bulldogs to a 9-0 shutout victory over Bemidji State. Pelttari’s four assists in that game marks a career-high for the multi-positioned player, who played defenseman all weekend. In addition to her five-assist series, Pelttari also put three shots on goal and earned a +2 plus/minus rating as UMD blanked BSU on all 10 of their weekend power-play opportunities.
Through 30 games this season, Pelttari has two goals and 18 assists for 20 points, ranking her fourth in scoring overall among WCHA defensemen..
Also nominated were: Alyssa Grogan, G, UM; Paige Thunder, G, MSU; Shannon Reilly, D, OSU; and Rachel Bible, D, UW.

Dogs Beat Bemidji 3-2

I forgot it was a 2 pm game.. DOH! I went for a 2 hour walk along a bunch of snowmobile trails through the woods with the nice weather and spaced out the early game as it turns out did a lot of people who were at the men's game who would have normally listened. A win is a win at this point in the season, but the 1 for 8 powerplay is NOT a good thing.

Interesting to read the lines that Shannon Miller came up with with Rasmussen out...

First line of Tuominen centering Blais and Friddy, which drops Winberg to the third line with Olson and Mattila. I like Blais and Friddy on the same line with a good play-making center who likes to go get the puck in the corners. They usually only were on the ice together(all 3 of the) as the second powerplay previously.

Irwin's line with O'Toole and Holmlov paid off big with O'Toole and Irwin each scoring and assisting on the others goal.

Jamie Rasmussen Out For Series With Bemidji State

The News Tribune reports that Jamie Rasmussen is out for this weekend's BSU series with a concussion, and Heidi Pelttari will drop back to her defense spot to fill that hole.

Click the link to view the News Tribune series preview!