North Dakota Stops UMD

Women’s college hockey doesn’t get much better than it did Friday night at AMSOIL Arena.

Although the No. 6 University of Minnesota Duluth suffered its first loss in six games to the University of North Dakota by a score of 1-0, the final result was up for grabs until the final buzzer sounded.  The Bulldogs, outshot 23-15 in the first two periods of play, stormed back to shell UND 15-6 in the third period and draw the shots to an even 30 apiece for each team for the game.

The lone goal of the contest came at 11:07 of the second period, when Josefine Jakobsen beat UMD netminder Kayla Black over her glove from the opposite circle.  Jakobsen’s goal broke UMD’s 206 minute shutout streak that dated back to Jan. 11, and left the Bulldogs staring down their first deficit since Jan. 10.

Effort was in no short supply by the Bulldogs in the final period, where UMD put up 34 of its total 56 shots.  After pulling Black with 1:51 remaining, UMD’s pressure was relentless, but UND’s goaltender Shelby Amsley-Benzie earned every second of her third shutout on the season with 30 saves.  Bulldog netminder Black had 29 saves for UMD, and both teams were scoreless on the very rare power plays they had — North Dakota had two in the contest, while UMD had just one.  North Dakota’s 30 shots on goal were the most the Bulldogs had allowed since Dec. 5 against Ohio State that resulted in a 2-2 tie and 33 shots from the Buckeyes.

“We played great in the first and third periods, and in the third period outshot them 15-6 and really had them on their heels and had the momentum,” said head coach Shannon Miller after the game.  “I feel we had better quality scoring chances than North Dakota did but we couldn’t get a bounce, and we lost the game in the second period because they got it deep and we didn’t and it cost us the game.”

With an overall record now of 17-7-3 and a Western Collegiate Hockey Association mark of 12-7-2, UMD stays ahead of UND by four points in the WCHA standings in third place.  The two squads will put the wraps on their series tomorrow night at 6:07 p.m.