Dogs Lose 2-1 at Wisconsin

Badger goaltender Jesse Vetter improved to 9-0-1 on the season, while Kim Martin is now 4-4-1, after UMD dropped today's game in Madison 2-1 to the Badgers. Saara Tuominen scored her 5th goal of the season for UMD, but Wisconsin's Brooke Ammerman scored her 11th of the season for the game winner in the second period.

Both teams took four penalties each, which is a VERY small number between these two teams. Ammerman's goal was scored on the powerplay, while UMD didn't score on their powerplay opportunities.

Dogs SWEEP Mankato!

Elin Holmlov scored a Hat Trick, and Pernilla Winberg assisted on all three of Holmlov's goals to lead UMD to a second straight 5-1 victory over Minnesota-State Mankato. UMD even scored TWO powerplay goals, going 2-6 on the man-advantage.

Mankato came out better tonight, putting 25 shots on Kim Martin, only scoring on a powerplay in the third period.

Next up is Wisconsin, in Madison, Halloween afternoon (2 pm) and Saturday morning (11 am.)

Dogs Dominate, Beat Mankato 5-1

UMD held Mankato to 15 shots total (4 in 1st 9 in 2nd 2 in 3rd) despite being shorthanded 6 times, while getting 48 shots themselves (19-16-13) and defeated Mankato 5-1 at the Decc.

UMD finally came out and played THEIR complete game, which in the past few years hasn't included much powerplay efficiency (0-7 again tonight.) THIS game looked like the UMD team we're accustomed to seeing; they cycled the puck in both zones and completed passes.

The only Mankato goal (by Nina Tikkinen) came on a powerplay five seconds after faceoff that UMD lost in front of Kim Martin.

Jenni Asserholt scored her first career UMD goal, while Elin Holmlov scored her first of the season. Having her (Holmlov) healthy and on the ice is a big deal for this team.

Saara Tuominen and Tawni Mattila each scored their fourth goals of the season and Laura Fridfinnson scored her third of the season. Heidi Pelttari skated as a forward tonight skating mostly with Mattila and Pernilla Winberg, and picked up two assists. Sara O'Toole also picked up two assists.

Click the blog title to see the complete box score.

News Tribune Mankato Series Preview

Click the blog title to go view the complete article...

The Minnesota Duluth women’s hockey team isn’t hitting the panic button.

After dropping three of their past four games, the Bulldogs — 2-3-1 overall and 0-3-1 in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association — are below .500 for just the second time in school history and the first time since starting the 2003-04 season with a pair of losses to Minnesota State-Mankato.

UMD, coming off a 1-1 tie (2-1 shootout loss) and 3-2 loss at St. Cloud State, hosts the Mavericks in a WCHA series at 7:07 p.m. today and Saturday at the DECC. The Bulldogs also were swept at home by Minnesota on Oct. 10-11.

But UMD coach Shannon Miller is confident the Bulldogs can return to form.

“We’ve got 10 new people in the mix, with staff and players, so there’s a big learning curve,” Miller said. “I think that everyone, including the experienced people, is learning some lessons.

UMD Gives Up Late Goal, Drops to 0-3-1 in WCHA Play

UMD got down 2-0, tied the game at 2 in the third period, but gave up a powerplay goal with 7 seconds left to give St. Cloud State a win and a tie(shootout win) on the weekend. UMD is now 0-3-1 in WCHA play. Click the blog title to see the box score from the game.

Next weekend UMD hosts Minnesota-State Mankato at the DECC, both games at 7:07.

UMD & St. Cloud State Tie 1-1, SCSU WIns A Shootout 2-1

Click the title to go view the box score from today's game at the National Hockey Center.

Emmanuelle Blais scored shorthanded for UMD and Brita Schroeder tied the game 4+1/2 minutes later (both in the third period) and the game stayed tied 1 for the remainder. As has been the trend the last few years, UMD's powerplay was shut out in 10 attempts, BUT their penalty kill was great, killing off 12 of 13 powerplays.

I didn't attend the game and can't imagine how sloppy this game with 23 powerplays between the two teams was.

News Tribune SCSU Series Preview

Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State begin a two-game Western Collegiate Hockey Association women’s series today, each in search of its first league victory this season.

Click the blog title to go read the entire article, which is free for one week of it's publishing, and free to register to read.

Gopher Dominate, Sweep UMD 2-0

UMD came out slow again and was never able to really gain any momentum, dropping the second game of the series 2-0 to Minnesota. UMD was 0-10 on the power play which will not work against the best teams in the league. UMD's team speed didn't seem to be there at all tonight.

Jocelyne Lamoureux and her sister Monique pretty much dominated UMD all weekend, and the duo each scored a goal tonight and assisted on the others' goal. In 4 Gopher games this season they have 11 points (3 goals 8 assists) between them. The pre-season voters may want to re-think their pre-season rookie of the year pick.

Elin Holmlov didn't play tonight, most likely due to her recurring back problems.

I wanted to come up with something good out of the weekend's series, but right now I'm not sure what the Dogs might have done right.

Next up, St. Cloud State, who just were swept by North Dakota, at the National Hockey Center 2 PM Friday and 5 pm Saturday.

Gopher Salvage Overtime Victory With 25 Seconds Left

Minnesota out-skated and dominated UMD for most of the first 40 minutes of play, and UMD woke up to carry the third period to tie the game at 3-3. UMD has a bunch of chances on a final powerplay to end the third and start overtime, but didn't finish. Minnesota did finish on their opportunity on the powerplay in overtime, scoring with 25 seconds left on the clock for the 4-3 win.

News Tribune Gopher Series Story

Another banner season for No.1-ranked UMD women's hockey?

The Western Collegiate Hockey Association season opener between rivals Minnesota and Minnesota Duluth will have added excitement.

The host Bulldogs (2-0) will raise their fourth NCAA Division I championship banner before tonight’s game and will start league play against the Gophers (1-1) for the first time since the 2001-02 season.

Click the blog title to go read the entire story!

This Year's New Faces

With the first home series only 2 days away, UMD has 5 Freshman on this year's roster.

Courtesy of umdbulldogs.com roster, the Freshman biographies:

#11 Kacy Ambrosz

BEFORE UMD: Wrapped up a stellar career at New Prague High School by netting 47 goals and adding 34 assists for 81 points as a senior during the 2007-08 season...a four-time All-State honorable mention selection, Amboz was also selected twice to the All-Metro Third Team, and four times garned All-Conference honors...14 times struck for two or more goals an outing, and notched at least a tally in 22 of 24 games a season ago as a Trojan...ran up a tab of 379 career points at New Prague...was a five year starter on the Trojans softball team as a pitcher and catcher...older brother Matt plays hockey for the University of Nebraska Omaha.

#20 Torri Shelafoe

BEFORE UMD: Led Forest Lake Senior High School with 16 goals and 15 assists during her senior season in 2007-2008...captained the Rangers and was a Metro All-Conference selection her final season, while picking up the Ranger Award...a three-year starter at Forest Lake, she was named an All-Conference honorable mention during her junior season...brother Ryan plays hockey at Hamline University.

#29 Justine Fisher

BEFORE UMD: A 2008 graduate of Dakota Ridge High School, Fisher played three seasons for the Colorado Select organization...helped captain the team to a third place finish at the national tournament during 2007-2008 winter...was selected to the USA Hockey National Development Camp for four straight years (2007, 2006, 2005, 2004)

#31 Lana Steck

BEFORE UMD: Backstopped the St. Vital Victorias AA, a team she played on from 2003 to present, prior to suiting up for the Maroon and Gold...helped Team Manitoba's U-17 squad to a silver medal in the Canada Winter Games in Whitehorse, Yukon in 2007...nominated for the Calm Air Junior Team of the Year Award...graduated in 2007 from College Jeanne-Sauve...participated in Afrique 2007 and was selected to receive the prestigious Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award...also an outstanding soccer player, playing on an elite team that placed fourth and fifth in back to back national titles.

#51 Pernilla Winberg

BEFORE UMD: Perhaps best known in the United States as the player who scored the winning goal in the shootout against Team USA during the 2006 Olympics semi-final game...was Team Sweden’s youngest national team player during the last Winter Olympics and has been a pillar on her national squad since the 2002-2003 season...tallied a goal and three assists in five outings while in Turin in 2006, and has helped Team Sweden win two bronze medals in the IHIF World Championships (2005 and 2007), including leading Sweden with five goals and three assists in 2007...has picked up four gold medals in European Womens Championship Cup play (2008, 2007, 2006, 2005)...was named the best forward by the European Womens Championship Cup in 2008 after notching seven goals and three assists...led Team Sweden with six goals and two assists in three games in the 2005 European Womens Championship Cup.

#84 Jenni Asserholt

BEFORE UMD: A Team Sweden assistant captain, she has been on the Swedish blueline since 2003...earned an Olympic Silver Medal in 2006 with Sweden in Turin, Italy, and picked up two World Championship bronzes in 2007 and 2005...has suited up in 81 games for Team Sweden in her career, and picked up 50 minutes worth of penalties during 2007-2008 for Sweden in 16 national team skates...played for Linkopings HC last season, registering four goals and four assists in 14 regular season contests...dished three assists in four play-off games for the club last winter.

Click on the blog title to go view the roster with complete profiles as well as the players' media guide photos!

Dogs Sweet Niagara University With 6-1 Win

Tawni Mattila scored twice(giving her 3 in 2 days), and Kim Martin allowed just one goal in finishing the sweep of Niagara University! Heidi Pelttari had 2 assists, and Tuominen, Blais, and Fridfinnson all scored their second goal in as many days.

Check out the Box Score from Collegehockeystats.net

Bring on the Goofs ;)

UMD Wins Season Debut 6-2

Click on the blog title to read the collegehockeystats.net box score from the first game of the season!

Pernilla Winberg scored her first NCAA goal (and added an assist)...and UMD came back from 2 early Niagara goals to win 6-2.

Laura Fridfinnson also had a goal and an assist, and Jocelyne Larocque had two assists.

News Tribune Kim Martin Article

Kim Martin will stay in Sweden NEXT season, to focus on the 2010 Olympics.. the News Tribune article reports, Click the blog title to go read the article. If you haven't, register for FREE to view any article within 7 days of it's printing on the News Tribune's website

Niagara Series on B2TV.COM

There is a small ($6.99?? per game, but Im not positive) charge, OR you can buy the Minnesota Duluth season pass for $75 and watch all the UMD men's AND women's hockey games that are broadcast over the net. There are nearly 50 games between the two teams so that's a good deal if you can't be there.

Click the blog title to check it out.

UMDBulldogs.com Niagara and Season Preview

Click on the title to go read the complete article from UMDBulldogs.com

"We are very proud to be the defending national champions as we start a new season with some new people, new goals and new energy," said Miller this week. "The returners have done a great job building this team to the point we are at, but also realize the hardest road is still ahead. We are all very proud to represent UMD and the city of Duluth and will take great pride in doing everything we can to defend our title."

Niagara Series Radio

According to Niagara University's sports website, PurpleEagles.com you can hear their home women's hockey games on their website, so hopefully this information is correct and those who want to try and listen to this weekend's season opening games can do so!

They also mention that you can hear games through yahoo sports college broadcast, but that is a pay service, but you can always go there if you want to pay a little bit.

I'll be trying out the purpleeagles.com version Saturday if it's available, and won't be home Friday to give information if there is indeed a radio broadcast.

Of course, if for some odd reason Tom Hansen travels to Niagara Falls to cover the game for DULUTH radio (I doubt it since they didn't do the much more important St. Lawrence series last season) you can go to warpradio.com to see if it's being covered by our local station instead. The link is to the 710 AM WDSM and good for games that we KNOW they're broadcasting.

WCHA.com League Preview, UMD Preseason Favorite

CLICK the blog title to go to WCHA.COM!

League Coaches Pick Minnesota Duluth to Repeat as WCHA Women's Champion in 2008-09 as Conference Marks 10th Anniversary Season

Minnesota, Wisconsin are coaches' choice to finish second; Minnesota's Gigi Marvin is pre-season WCHA MVP; UMD's Pernilla Winberg is coaches' choice as pre-season WCHA Rookie of Year; Regular season commences weekend of Sept. 27-29 as Wisconsin hosts Quinnipiac while seven teams host exhibitions

Sept. 23, 2008

Complete Release in PDF Format

MADISON, Wis. - The University of Minnesota Duluth, which swept the national championship, the regular season championship and the WCHA FINAL FACE-OFF title in a memorable streak last season, is the pre-season choice to repeat as Western Collegiate Hockey Association champions in 2008-09, according to league coaches.

This the tenth season of WCHA women's play and league teams have won the national championship every season, including the inaugural campaign of 1999-2000. The Bulldogs kept the WCHA's national title streak alive in 2007-08 when they won their fourth national title by defeating two-time defending champion Wisconsin, 4-0, on their home ice in Duluth in the NCAA title game. The victory capped a memorable season for UMD, which went 33-4-1 and also scored an overtime victory over Wisconsin to win the title of the newly-renamed WCHA FINAL FACE-OFF, the league playoff championships.

The Bulldogs received five first-place votes and a total of 47 points in the pre-season poll (the eight league coaches couldn't vote for their own team). They edged Minnesota, which grabbed two first-place votes, and Wisconsin, which had one first place vote, and had a total of 41 points. UMD, Wisconsin and Minnesota were ranked first through third in the national USA Today/US Hockey Magazine preseason college hockey poll as well.

Ohio State rounds out the top four followed by St. Cloud State, Minnesota State, North Dakota and Bemidji State.

For the second straight season, league-member coaches have picked Minnesota senior forward Gigi Marvin as the pre-season most valuable player. Four other players - Wisconsin forwards Meghan Duggan and Erika Lawler plus Minnesota Duluth goaltender Kim Martin, a Patty Kazmaier finalist last year, and teammate Haley Irwin, the forward who led the league in scoring with 60 points last season - also received votes for preseason MVP.

Minnesota Duluth's Pernilla Winberg, a forward from Sweden who was Martin's teammate on the silver medalist Swedish Olympic team in 2006, was voted the league's pre-season rookie of the year. She received half the votes from the eight coaches. Minnesota forward Jocelyne Lamoureux, Ohio State forward Natalie Spooner, and Wisconsin forward Carolyne Prevost also each received a vote.

The opening weekend of the 2008-09 campaign will occur Friday and Saturday, Sept. 26-27, when Wisconsin hosts Quinnipiac for a pair of regular season games at the Kohl Center in Madison and four other WCHA-member teams play exhibition games. On Friday, Bemidji State hosts University of Manitoba, Ohio State hosts Wilfrid Laurier University, Minnesota entertains the University of Saskatchewan, and Minnesota State hosts the Minnesota Whitecaps. On Saturday, exhibition games have Univ. of Saskatchewan at St. Cloud State, North Dakota hosting University of Manitoba, and the U.S. Women's Select Team at Bemidji State. Then on Sunday, Sept. 29, the U.S. Women's Select Team will play at Minnesota.

The battle for the 2008-09 WCHA regular season championship will again consist of a 28-game schedule for each of the league's eight clubs, with each team playing the other seven four times - twice at home and twice on the road. The opening weekend of league competition - October 10-11 - will have defending national champion and WCHA champion Minnesota Duluth hosting Minnesota, the league runner-up last year, St. Cloud State at North Dakota, and Wisconsin at Ohio State. Minnesota State opens WCHA play at North Dakota on Oct. 17-18 and that same weekend Bemidji State opens league play at home against Wisconsin on Oct. 17. The series concludes on Oct. 18 when the Badgers and Beavers will play in the first ever U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame women's game in Eveleth, Minn.

The 2008-09 regular season will conclude the weekend of Feb. 20-22.

The conference's post-season championship tournament will open the weekend of February 27-March 1 (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) with a first round, best-of-three series format at campus sites. The No. 1 seeded team will host the No. 8 seed, the No. 2 seed will host the No. 7 seed, the No. 3 seed will host the No. 6 seed, and the No. 4 seed will host the No. 5 seed. The four first-round winners will then advance to the 2009 WCHA FINAL FACE-OFF at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis, Minn., on Saturday and Sunday, March 7-8. On Saturday, there will be two semi-final match-ups at 1:07 pm CT and 4:07 pm CT, with the championship game set for Sunday at 1:07 pm CT.

Following two weeks of WCHA playoffs, the NCAA Women's Division 1 championship tournament will commence the weekend of March 13-15 at regional sites (TBA), followed by the 2008 NCAA Women's Frozen Four, to be held March 20-22 at Boston, Mass.

Commissioner Sara Martin said the WCHA is the first women's conference to officially re-introduce the shootout to college hockey, after the option was installed recently by the rules committee. The Central Collegiate Hockey Association also recently announcd plans to use the shootout in it's men's game and Hockey East previously had installed a shootout in the mid-90s, and is among the conferences considering re-instituting it. The men's WCHA has no plans to use the shootout.

An NHL-style three-player shootout will be used to determine a winner for all WCHA games tied after regulation and five-minute overtime.

The NCAA rules and ice hockey committees have allowed conferences the ability to implement this tie-breaker protocol so that every regular-season league game will have a winner while preserving the integrity of the national rankings. Games decided by a shootout will still be considered ties for NCAA purposes so there will be no effect on NCAA records for the purposes of the Pairwise and determining the NCAA tournament field. Bonus points awarded will impact the conference standings only.

The WCHA has also approved the following point system for regular-season play; two (2) points for a win in regulation or overtime, one (1) point for each school if the game is tied at the conclusion of the five-minute overtime period and one (1) point is awarded to the team who wins the shootout. Overtime will continue to be played similar to regulation time with five skaters for each team (penalties excepted).

Team Photos, etc

In updating and re-formatting the layout of this blog, I now have room and the ability to post pictures below the blog entry. Scroll down to the bottom of the page below an entry and one in a while I'll add a new picture there. Right now the small picture is the team receiving their National Championship t-shirts and hats after the game, and the large picture below is obviously, the team saluting the DECC crowd after their Championship win.

Those who've been to this blog multiple times will recognize it as a full version of the cropped photo I previously had in the blog's title bar. THIS full photo is a much better representation of the team. If you have a photo you'd like to submit, use the link above to send it.

Layout Changes

I'm making a few layout changes to this blog to hopefully improve some of the look of it. There won't be any down time and the only thing people may notice is maybe a color change here or there, and three columns instead of two as before.