UMD Women Win Ice Breaker

NSO – NEWS RELEASE

The University of Minnesota Duluth women’s hockey team left little doubt Saturday night who the best team at the Ice Breaker Tournament was.

The Bulldogs picked up their second win in as many games, defeating Colgate University 3-1 at the Buffalo Harbor Center in Buffalo, N.Y. to stake their claim as the Ice Breaker Tournament champions and improve to 5-3-0 overall.

UMD outscored its opponents 7-2 on the weekend, and sophomore Gabbie Hughes figured in almost half of those goals.  Hughes — with a penchant this season for scoring UMD’s first goal of the game — did just that Saturday to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead 16:02 into the first period.

After finding herself in all alone on Raider goaltender Liz Auby, Kasundra Betinol made it a 2-0 game after the rookie forward roofed her second goal of the tournament 10:11 into the second period.  Betinol was assisted by defenseman Maggie Flaherty, her first helper of the season.

Colgate drew within one at 10:04 of the third period, even landing a power play with 1:12 left in regulation.  Junior defenseman convert Ashton Bell had other ideas, however, and put UMD up 3-1 with a short-handed goal after a length-long shot hit the back of the empty Raider net at 18:53 to secure the win.  Bell’s second goal of the year was assisted by Sydney Brodt, her sixth assist (and tenth point) in eight games.

The Bulldogs, fittingly, landed three players on the Ice Break All-Tournament team — Hughes (3g), Betinol (2g) and goaltender Maddie Rooney, who made 52 saves on 54 shots faced on the weekend.  Rooney had 22 saves in Saturday’s win, and UMD held the Raiders scoreless in three power play attempts.  The Bulldogs outshot Colgate 27-23, and Auby had 24 saves for the Raiders, who fall to 5-3-1 overall.

Gabbie Hughes might have missed the Bulldogs last game, but Hughes was impossible to  miss Friday afternoon at the Buffalo Harbor Center, in Buffalo, N.Y.

The sophomore center netted two goals for the University of Minnesota Duluth women’s hockey team to help secure a 4-1 win over Mercyhurst University in the first game of the Ice Breaker Tournament.  In addition to Hughes, UMD’s penalty kill unit and goaltender Maddie Rooney all but slammed the door on the Lakers, who had nine power plays in the game, but only connected on their first one.

Mercyhurst’s lone tally of the game came midway through the first period, but Hughes’ first goal 43 seconds before the first intermission pulled UMD even.  At 7:17 of the second period, Hughes struck again — this time unassisted — to give the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead on her sixth goal of the season. Rookie forward Kasundra Betinol netted the first goal of her Bulldog career at 15:59 to stretch UMD’s advantage to 3-1 after 40 minutes of play.

After a third period with seven penalties called between both squads — including four against the Bulldogs — UMD’s Anneke Linser iced the victory cake with 37 seconds left in the contest for the 4-1 final.

Rooney — named the game’s first star for her efforts — had 30 saves against the Lakers.  Kennedy Blair made 27 stops for Mercyhurst, who falls to 4-2-0 overall.