UMD ousted from WCHA semifinals, turns page to NCAA tourney – Duluth News Tribune

DULUTH — A change of venue to Amsoil Arena

couldn’t change Minnesota Duluth’s fortunes in the WCHA Final Faceoff semifinals

as the No. 6-ranked Bulldogs lost 3-1 to No. 1-ranked Wisconsin on Friday.

It was UMD’s seventh consecutive loss in seven seasons in the league semifinals with the program’s last WCHA Final Faceoff win coming in 2017 over Minnesota at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis, where the previous nine tournaments were held.

“The group came out with a lot of compete tonight,” UMD fifth-year senior co-captain Nina Jobst-Smith said. “We had a lot of pride playing in front of our fans and playing in Duluth. I think that’s a huge advantage for the home team and we really took that. I would want nothing more than my final game in Amsoil to be in front of the crowd we had tonight.”

The WCHA regular-season champion Badgers will go for a league postseason title against No. 4 Minnesota at 2:02 p.m. Saturday in Duluth. The Gophers beat Ohio State 6-2 in the second semifinal of the day.

Despite the loss, the Bulldogs are a lock for the 2025 NCAA tournament, likely as the No. 6 overall seed taking on the No. 11 overall seed, which will be the champion of the New England Women’s Hockey Alliance. If Minnesota beats Wisconsin on Saturday, those two teams would head to Minneapolis and Ridder Arena next week for a three-team regional hosted by the Gophers.

The 2025 NCAA tournament selection show is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. on Sunday.

“It’s really important when you play talented teams, and no matter who we face moving forward is going to be a talented team,” Bulldogs coach Laura Schuler said. “We’ve got to make sure that we think defense first and the offense always comes when you play good, strong, solid defensive hockey from the get go.”

Sophomore Grace Sadura gave the Bulldogs an early lead. The third-line winger scored on UMD’s first shot on goal just shy of the three-minute mark. UMD wouldn’t get another shot on the Badgers’ net until there was 9:07 left in the period.

It was only Sadura’s fifth goal of the season but four of those five have come since Jan. 31 and two in the last two games. Sadura’s first goal of the season came on Oct. 12 in a 5-1 loss at Wisconsin.

Sadura, who has three goals in five games against the Badgers this year, said she’s been playing with a boost of confidence.

“My linemates are also playing really well, so that obviously helps,” Sadura said. “It’s more of a team thing, too. I feel like we’ve had a really good second half. With playoff hockey, there’s a lot more emotion. You want to get those wins for the team and do whatever you can to help the team win. I feel like that’s been it for me.”

The Bulldogs have scored first in three straight games against Wisconsin and lost all three. UMD led 1-0 in both of its 2-1 losses to Wisconsin during the regular season on Jan. 31-Feb. 1 at Amsoil Arena, with the Jan. 31 loss coming in overtime.

Freshman defenseman Emma Venusio, junior defenseman Caroline Harvey and sophomore wing Kelly Gorbatenko scored for Wisconsin, with a shot by sophomore defenseman Laney Potter bouncing in off the chest of Gorbatenko less than four minutes after Sadura scored.

Badgers coach Mark Johnson said Friday’s game resembled the series played between the two teams around a month ago in Duluth.

“They are sound defensively,” Johnson said of the Bulldogs, while also giving kudos to the hosts’ goalie, Eve Gascon. “They make it challenging to get pucks to the net. Today, of the three games, we probably had more opportunities in this game than we did in the previous two. That was a good sign.”

Gascon finished with 39 saves for the Bulldogs. The All-WCHA first-team goaltender and WCHA Goaltender of the Year stopped 15 in the opening period to keep the Badgers from running away with the game early.

“Eve Gascon played unbelievable for us, holy smokes,” Schuler said. “She is such a world-class athlete and person. So happy she is part of this program. She played outstanding for us again tonight.”

Badgers sophomore goalie Ava McNaughton, a second-team selection, made 21 saves.

Schuler wanted more power plays. The Bulldogs only got one, with 6:16 left in the game, after the Badgers got power plays in the first period and early in the third. Neither team scored on the power play, with UMD outshooting Wisconsin 2-1 on the advantages.

“I would like to see more power plays,” Schuler said when asked about the team’s lone opportunity in the third. “There was a few missed calls, but overall it was a good reffed game. I would have liked to see a couple more that were pretty obvious.”

According to the News Tribune’s notes, there were between two and three possible penalties not called on Wisconsin.

The Bulldogs need to embrace what they are good at. That was Schuler’s message to her team after the game. UMD was outshot 30-12 in the first two periods, including 16-3 in the first. UMD had eight shots on goal to the Badgers’ six in the opening 10:30 of the third, with shot attempts 16-7 in favor of the Bulldogs.

“Hard-fought battle. I’m proud of our girls,” Schuler said. “I really liked our third period. Moving forward, we have to be a team that embraces what we’re good at and we’re really good in the (defensive) zone. Once we settled into that, we started to create opportunities. I thought that was really reflective of our play in the third period.”

UMD wasn’t the only team that couldn’t hold a lead Friday. The Buckeyes jumped on top 2-0 in the opening 9:23 of the second semifinal, only to give up two goals to the Gophers in the closing six minutes of the first period.

Minnesota then tacked on two more in the second and third periods, including an empty-net goal after OSU pulled its goaltender for an extra attacker with 5:24 left, down by three.

“We couldn’t dig ourselves out of a hole that we put ourselves into,” Buckeyes coach Nadine Muzerall said. “The disappointing thing is we quit. I didn’t appreciate it because we did embarrass OSU and who we are and what we represent. If we’re going to lose, we’re going to fight if we lose. We’ll take it on the chin, but we never quit and we did that tonight.”

The power play got the Gophers into the game. Redshirt senior wing Abbey Murphy and senior center Ella Huber tied the game at 2-2 with power play goals. Both advantages were set up via penalties on Ohio State junior defenseman Emma Peschel that came less than five minutes apart.

Minnesota finished 2-for-4 on the power play Friday.

“Obviously very, very happy we’re moving on, really proud of our group, especially after getting down two goals there early,” Gophers coach Brad Frost said. “To fight back the way we did, the power play was buzzing there to get us back into it. To get that two goal lead there in the second going into the third was huge.”

Minnesota’s penalty kill came to play Friday, as well. The Gophers killed off back-to-back penalties on Chloe Primerano and Huber that came within 31 seconds of each other early in the third period, including a lengthy 1:29 two-person advantage for the Buckeyes, who finished 0-for-3 on the power play.

Minnesota was still only leading by two at the time.

“Honestly, I got so much energy from that 5-on-3,” said Murphy, who got her second goal after those kills. “The game was not over and they still could have came back with that. Our PK was absolutely killer. The momentum we got from that was insane. That was the moment I was like, ‘Hell yeah.’”

Minnesota Duluth 1-0-0—1
Wisconsin 1-1-1—3
First period
1. UMD, Grace Sadura (Jenna Lawry, Nina Jobst-Smith), 2:56
2. UW, Kelly Gorbatenko (Laney Potter, Casey Hall), 6:21
Second period 
3. UW, Caroline Harvey (Casey O’Brien, Laila Edwards), 15:11
Third period
4. UW, Emma Venusio (Harvey), 18:56
Saves — Eve Gason, UMD, 39; Ava McNaughton, UW, 21.
Power play — UMD 0-1; UW 0-2. Penalties — UMD 2-4; UW 1-2.

Minnesota 2-2-2—6
Ohio State 2-0-0—2
First period
1. OSU, Jocelyn Amos (Joy Dunne, Emma Peschel), 2:04
2. OSU, Dunne (Makenna Webster, Sara Swiderski), 9:23
3. MN, Abbey Murphy (Sydney Morrow, Emma Kreisz), 14:05 (pp)
4. MN, Ella Huber (Murphy, Chloe Primerano), 18:52 (pp)
Second period 
5. MN, Audrey Wethington (Natalie Mlynkova), 7:51
6. MN, Ava Lindsay (Peyton Hemp, Maggie Nickolson), 11:47
Third period
7. MN, Murphy (Huber, Josefin Bouveng), 8:21
8. MN, Primerano, 16:39 (en)
Saves — Hannah Clark, MN, 22; Amanda Thiele, OSU, 15.
Power play — MN 2-4; OSU 0-3. Penalties — MN 4-8; OSU 5-10.