SCSU Series Preview

THE SERIES: UMD holds a 30-6-1 all-time lead over the Huskies, including a 16-1 tab at the DECC (and 18-2 overall in Duluth). The Huskies one and only win at the DECC, (they beat the Bulldogs at Mars Lakeview Arena last year on Feb. 24, 2006 3-1 in the first round of the WCHA Playoffs) was Feb. 24, 2002, when St. Cloud State handed UMD a 3-0 defeat on its home ice.

The Bulldogs and Huskies (16-11-5) opened the 2007-08 season in St. Cloud to the Maroon and Gold's favor, posting two shutouts to sweep its first WCHA team of the season. UMD picked up a 3-0 victory on Oct. 5th, and then blanked St. Cloud State on Oct. 6th by a tally of 8-0. Nine Bulldogs registered a point in the series, with sophomore Saara Tuominen notching two goals and three assists. Goaltender Kim Martin, who was named the WCHA Defensive Player of the Week following her stellar performance in St. Cloud, made 61 saves in 119:27 minutes of action.

LAST WEEKEND: UMD (25-4-1, 22-4-0) was idle over the weekend.

THE COACHES: Shannon Miller, who currently is the only coach in the WCHA to have racked-up 225 wins and has never won fewer than 20 games in a season, is in her ninth season behind the Bulldog bench.

As the only head coach UMD has ever employed, Miller has amassed an impressive overall record of 225-61-25 and has led the Bulldogs to six NCAA playoff appearances and three straight NCAA Championship titles (2001, 2002 and 2003). She has led UMD into four NCAA Frozen Four berths, including the 2007 NCAA Championship game. No other hockey program in the country has won three consecutive NCAA titles.

For her efforts, Miller was named the 2000 and 2003 Western Collegiate Hockey Association Coach of the Year and the 2003 American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA) Women’s Division I Coach of the Year. Along with the incredible NCAA runs, her Bulldogs have captured two WCHA regular season titles (2000 and 2003) and three WCHA playoff titles (2000, 2001 and 2003).

During Miller’s time at the Bulldog helm, UMD has produced eight first-team All-Americans, 11 Patty Kazmaier Award Finalists, two WCHA Players of the Year, three WCHA Student-Athletes of the year and one CoSIDA Academic All-American.

St. Cloud State is led by second-year head coach Jeff Giesen. Giesen has tallied a 28-27-12 mark in two seasons behind the Husky bench, and is 1-9-0 in ten outings against the Bulldogs.


A MATTER OF RECORDS: The Bulldogs are on the verge of erasing a few of their past program records. UMD already rewrote the books earlier in the season when they rolled through the opening four games of the year without allowing a goal for the first time in program history. The Maroon and Gold then tallied a school-best 16-game winning streak from Nov. 24rd through Feb. 2nd, and tied a 1999-00 mark for most WCHA series swept in regular season play with 10.

One Bulldog victory this weekend would set a new UMD record for most WCHA wins in a year. The current record of 22 was set during the 2004-05 season. A Bulldog sweep would tie a school all-time high of 27 regular triumphs in a year, as well as set the new program benchmark for most WCHA series swept in a season (11).

THE CAPTAIN RETURNS: Sophomore captain forward Saara Tuominen, who last suited up for the Bulldogs on Dec. 15, will return to the ice this weekend in a UMD jersey. Tuominen, who was leading the Bulldogs in scoring when she was injured in the European Air Canada Cup the first week in January, had scored 30 points (11g, 19a) in just 20 games this season.

WHO WILL BE CROWNED THE CHAMPS? The Bulldogs hold an advantage heading into the last weekend of regular season WCHA play. With a one point lead over Minnesota, a UMD series sweep would assure the title champions would be crowned in Duluth Sunday, no matter what the result of the Badger-Gopher showdown in Minneapolis. A UMD split would complicate matters, through, and would force the Bulldogs to rely on a Wisconsin-Minnesota series split. A UMD split and a Gopher sweep would result in a Minnesota regular season WCHA title.

The Bulldogs have twice been hailed the WCHA Regular Season Champions (2003 and 2001) in their nine-year history, but have never raised the trophy in Duluth.

SNIPERS AND STREAKERS: Three Bulldogs are in individual races for the 2007-08 WCHA Scoring and Goaltending Championships. The two awards are based on conference games only, and players must have competed in a minimum of 33% of their team's minutes.

Freshman forward Haley Irwin is currently on top of the league scoring race with 39 points (15g, 24a). Right behind Irwin is Minnesota's Gigi Marvin, who is sitting at 37 points, with Bulldog freshman forward Iya Gavrilova in third with 34.

Gavrilova still has a 14-game scoring streak intact, while Irwin is joined by fellow freshman forward Laura Fridfinnson in the midst of seven-game scoring tabs in their own right.

Between the WCHA pipes, netminder Kim Martin trails only Wisconsin's Jessie Vetter (1.38, 1439:26) in the goaltending race. Martin owns a 1.46 goals against average in 1187:48 minutes of action.

Martin, who now has 33 wins in 47 appearances for her career, is ranked No. 2 in the NCAA with a .952 save percentage, allowing just 33 goals in 655 shots against her.

NATIONALLY SPEAKING: Freshman forward Iya Gavrilova just edges out Haley Irwin in the national statistics as the sixth ranked scorer in the country with 1.58 points per game (Irwin is ranked 7th with 1.46). Gavrilova and Irwin are the No. 1 and 2 rookie scorers in the nation with 41 points each.

The Bulldogs as a whole own the No. 3 scoring offense in the NCAA and the leading scoring attack in the WCHA, averaging 4.03 goals a contest. UMD is also the second ranked penalty kill in the nation, having deflated 138-of-149 of opponents power-play attempts for a 92.6 success rate.

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