Wisconsin Blanks UMD Women

NSO – NEWS RELEASE

The University of Minnesota Duluth women’s hockey team certainly bent the No. 1 University of Wisconsin Friday afternoon, but unfortunately for the Bulldogs, the Badgers simply never broke.

UMD, mere centimeters from ending Wisconsin’s NCAA- record streak of nine-straight shutouts, fell to the Badgers 3-0 at AMSOIL Arena in its first game action in 20 days.  The Bulldogs, while now 4-7-0 overall and 2-5-0 in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, own the third strongest strength of schedule in the nation.  UMD has played their last three games against the top-ranked teams in the country and seven of their first 11 games against teams ranked in the top-five or higher.

Wisconsin used a rebound late in the first period to sneak the puck past UMD goaltender Maddie Rooney at the 16:23 mark.  The goal came against a fierce UMD forecheck and left the Bulldogs trailing 1-0 into the first intermission.

The Badgers Erika Sowchuk tipped a shot from the point 6:14 into the second period to take the 2-0 lead, and that score was current when a UMD puck slipped past UW’s Ann-Renee Desbiens before it was finally cleared off the Badger goal line midway through the final period.  UW followed that close call up with their third goal of the night at 14:32, cementing game one of the series in favor of the Badgers.

UMD freshmen netminder Rooney made 34 saves on the afternoon, while her counterpart, Desbiens, turned away all 17 she faced.  With the shutout, Desbiens takes over the longest streak in NCAA history, having now kept the Badgers scoreless in over 500 minutes of action.

“I like the fight in our team”, said head coach Maura Crowell following the game.  ” Certain teams might get down after you lose and you have this schedule.  You can make a ton of excuses but they don’t.”

Both teams will hit the ice for game two of the series tomorrow afternoon at AMSOIL at 3:07 p.m.

zws