Lady Dogs – Badgers Skate to Tie

NSO NEWS RELEASE

For the 23rd time in their 74 game history, the Bulldogs and Badger women’s hockey teams went into overtime, and for a 12th time, the two national poll heavyweights could not determine a winner.

The No. 6/7 University of Minnesota Duluth and the No. 3 University of Wisconsin played to a scoreless 0-0 tie at LaBahn Arena in Madison, Wisc. Friday night, the second consecutive tie the Bulldogs have logged in a week.  Despite dropping the Western Collegiate Hockey Assocation’s shootout in four rounds for the extra league point, UMD’s tie keeps the Bulldogs one point ahead of the University of North Dakota in third place in the WCHA’s current standings.

UMD junior goaltender Kayla Black was a brick wall between the pipes for the Bulldogs, stopping all 41 shots she faced — including two in the shootout —  for a season-high. The shutout was her ninth of the year, but more importantly, the 18th of her career, which now gives her the UMD career shutout record in just 94 games. The Bulldogs were outshot 41-23 in the contest, but had equally as many clean scoring chances as the Badgers.  Senior winger Zoe Hickel had a team-high five shots for UMD, and both squads were a perfect 3-of-3 on penalty kills.

With a tie in their pocket that bumps the Bulldogs into the No. 6 spot in the all-important PairWise rankings, UMD will again battle Wisconsin tomorrow evening in their second — and final regular season — game.  Opening face-off will drop at 7:37 p.m.

BULLDOG NOTES:  Kayla Black‘s 41 saves was a season-high, but not a career-high — Black made 46 as a freshman back on Feb. 23, 2013 in a 2-2 tie with North Dakota … UMD last played to a scoreless tie o Dec. 9, 2012 against Boston University .. The Bulldogs and Badgers had never played to a scoreless tie in their program history prior to Friday night … With the tie, UMD is now 2-5-2 against teams ranked in the top-10