On an afternoon where the Bulldogs found themselves with a significant change to their line-up, it was the team's oldest players that stepped up and even made a little history.
With four goals between three of the team's oldest players, the No. 7 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team swept its way out of St. Cloud, Minn. with a 5-1 win over St. Cloud State University at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.
Tying their highest goals output of the season, the Bulldogs used their nationally third-ranked power play to open up scoring in the first period. Graduate student Maggie Flaherty skated up the wide boards through all three lines, cut across the extended goal line and then emerged in front of the net to tuck the puck past SCSU goaltender Sanni Ahola at 17:13.
Graduate senior Naomi Rogge made it a 2-0 game at 1:53 of the second period, scoring her 100th career point in the process. Rogge batted a puck off the ice that was headed for Ahola's glove, and just like that, the forward had secured her 53rd career goal and admission to UMD's 100 career point club as its 23rd member.
"You know, she's talking the whole time to her teammates throughout games always, but today really in particular about sticking to our game plan and continuing to play our game regardless of the score," said UMD head coach Maura Crowell about Rogge. "And I think that's how we stayed true to ourselves, you know, with people like her who have been around to have seen a lot with their experience, you know, calming the bench down when maybe we could get a little too high because we're playing so well. She tries to keep us grounded. It was really exciting to see her get that goal. I know she wanted that one, and to see the way her teammates responded to it's another special moment for our group, and I just love the way that they are so supportive of each other and genuinely excited for each other's successes."
The Bulldogs were far from done doing offensive damage, however, and Clara Van Wieren and Mannon McMahon kept the flood gates open 14:41 into frame. Nina Jobst-Smith's feed to Van Wieren stretched the ice, and Van Wieren held off a plethora of Huskies players with a spin before she fed a hard charging McMahon for the 3-0 lead.
Returning to her forward roots for the game in relief of Gabbie Hughes' absence, Ashton Bell put herself on the scoresheet in torching fashion. The fifth-year senior burned SCSU's defense before flipping the puck backhand over the shoulder of Ahola from the short side of the goal 36 seconds into the third period. The position convert stretched UMD's lead to 4-0, and it doubled as her 99th career point.
The Huskies pulled Ahola early in the third period on a power play and attempted to get on the board without their netminder for large swathes of frame. But those attempts finally backfired when Flaherty struck again, tossing a puck from the far end of the rink into SCSU's goal at 16:02 to ice the game for good at 5-0. The Huskies managed to score their first goal on the Bulldogs with 38 seconds left in the game to end UMD's scoreless streak on the weekend at 119:38, but it was futile. The Bulldogs earned their second Western Collegiate Hockey Association series sweep of the season and wrangled fourth place from SCSU in the league, having outscored the Huskies 7-1 in the process.
While the score sheet belonged to the upper class Bulldogs, the net belonged to a rookie. Hailey MacLeod picked up her first collegiate start Saturday, and had a shutout for 19:22 of the game. MacLeod was impressive, especially in the third period when the Huskies had a 6-on-5 or numbers up advantage for long periods of time, and turned in 18 saves in her first UMD active duty.
The Bulldogs (9-5-0, 5-5-0) will return to AMSOIL Arena next weekend to face Harvard University, a rematch of sorts for two teams that met in the 2022 NCAA Tournament First Round. The puck will drop at 6:00 p.m. Friday night before the Saturday matinee gets underway at 3:00 p.m.
BULLDOG NOTES: Maggie Flaherty's two-goal game was just the second of her career ... Naomi Rogge is UMD's 23rd member of the career point club, and the first Bulldog to reach the milestone since Anna Klein reached it last Dec. 3, 201 .. she becomes the second currently rostered player to hit 100 points – senior center Gabbie Hughes is the other … with 99 career points, Ashton Bell is poised to join Rogge … Bell would become just the third ever defensemen and the 24th player … the trio would be the first 100 point members to skate together in a season since Jessica Wong (also a forward to defense convert), Pernilla Winberg and Katie Wilson did it in 2012-13 – a decade ago.