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St. Cloud State University
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Duluth pounds SCSU
Defending NCAA champ UMD sweeps by women's hockey team.
By Ben Birnell
Published:
Monday, February 10, 2003
Media Credit: Blair Schlichte
SCSU senior Amanda Mathison steers away from UMD forward Michelle McAteer Friday at the National Hockey Center. The Bulldogs beat the Huskies 10-3, and 7-4 on Saturday.
The last time that the SCSU women's hockey team met the defending national champion University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs, it was just before the holiday season and the Bulldogs had lit up the Huskies for 19 goals.
Coupled with that, UMD's Jenny Potter and Erika Holst were prime-time players, scoring 20 points combined.
Now, flash forward to the present. St. Cloud was starting to look like a different team. Against North Dakota the weekend before, the Huskies rifled 52 shots on-goal in a 6-0 win. It looked as though the hockey gods were starting to bless SCSU with a little good luck going into the final stretch run of the season.
Only one thing stood in the way of SCSU's chances of making the WCHA Final Five, short-handed UMD. Head coach Jason Lesteberg and company went into the weekend hoping to gain ground on Ohio State for the fifth spot in the WCHA, but as the weekend came to an end, no ground was gained as UMD bested the Huskies 10-3, and 7-4 in a two-game sweep.
This time it was Caroline Ouellette's turn to shine for UMD. The sophomore defenseman scored nine points on the weekend, including her third consecutive hat trick to lead the Bulldogs to victory.
Friday night's game began with a bang as UMD's Tricia Guest put the visiting Bulldogs up 1-0 at the 5:34 mark. Then, Ouellette would tally her first goal of the weekend at 12:05 to put her team up 2-0. The UMD-dominated first period would see a third unanswered goal by Amelia Hradsky.
Duluth came out still firing on all cylinders in the second. Just 13 seconds in, Ouellette pumped in her 20th goal of the season to put UMD up 4-0.
SCSU sophomore Melanie Pudsey answered back at 3:20 to cut UMD's lead to three. But, Bulldog senior Jenny Hempel would put her team up 5-1 with a power play goal at 7:40.
At 12:29, SCSU's Krista Simonson scored on a breakaway that was initially stopped by UMD goaltender Shannon Kasparek. Her momentum carried her and the puck just past the goal line for the score.
The third period would be home to five UMD goals as Ouellette completed her third career hat trick, and Jenny Potter scored two goals to put the game out of reach. Captain Kobi Kawamoto had the only goal for the period, and the only SCSU power play goal of the night. She took a hard slap shot from the blue line, found the net and banked the puck off the left post for the score.
Lesteberg said his team could have made a game of it, but said at other times they dropped off the puck and let UMD skate by them.
"We had stretches where we played great," Lesteberg said. "But, it looked like we were sagging back and letting them attack the zone. We just lost too many one-on-one battles. They'd have the puck, lose it, get it back and still be attacking."
With the win, UMD head coach Shannon Miller picked up her 100th career win, but downplayed it. She credited the win to the seniors who had been in the program since it began four years ago.
"Tonight was a big night for our team," Miller said. "We dedicated tonight's win to the veterans. Everyone is talking about me getting my 100th win, which is a small part of it, but it's really about the seniors on the team. They got their 100th win. I think it's absolutely incredible and everyone contributed to it."
Miller was also happy with the play of Ouellette.
"It's her first year with our team," she said. "It generally takes a player the first part of the season to kind of get a feel for what's going on. I think she now feels comfortable where she is."
Ouellette said it was her teammates, and the little things that opened up for her that have put her on a tear lately.
"What's fun about this team is everyone tries to help out everyone else," she said. "It just worked well for me tonight. I just hope I have some left for next weekend."
Saturday's game was a different story, but with the same outcome. The Huskies played tough against UMD in spurts, but other times played off the Bulldogs again.
UMD pumped two goals in the first period to take a 2-0 lead. UMD added a third goal in the second period before SCSU freshman Katie Hauge scored on a nice breakaway feeding the puck under a sprawling Kasparek. The Bulldogs scored three more unanswered goals in the second to go up 6-1. It looked as though the game would be a repeat of the day before.
However, the third period was a different story. St. Cloud stormed out and almost made a game out of their five-goal deficit.
Abby Cooper notched her seventh goal of the year at 4:28 to cut UMD's lead to four. Senior Amanda Mathison pumped in her first goal of the season on a slap shot from the middle to cut the UMD lead to three. Then, the Huskies would add a fourth goal by freshman standout Ashley Stewart to cut the score to 6-4 with seven minutes remaining.
With 1:05 left, Lesteberg pulled goaltender Laura Gieselman. But the move backfired and UMD's Rooth netted the seventh goal of the game for her team. That closed the lid on SCSU's comeback.
"We just have to realize that we need to play 60 minutes," Lesteberg said. "We kind of got lackadaisical in the second period and they took advantage of it."
