UMD women sweep, Saints trip UWS 1-0 in OT

John Gilbert

Saint Scholastica freshman Gracie Chapman, left, scored her first college goal at 1:07 of overtime, for the Saints first victory, 1-0 against UWS. Photos by John Gilbert.

It was a courteously gentle sound inside AMSOIL Arena before Friday’s UMD game against Vermont, unusual for a hockey rink where the sounds are familiar and raucous. 

Women’s hockey, unfortunately, doesn’t draw the full-house crowds of the men, although UMD does better than most other women’s teams, and there was a solid group of fans seated just under the press box. After each of the Vermont starters’ names was announced over the public address system, those fans greeted them with polite applause.

Of course, the cheering for each UMD player, following the overblown but regular highlight film of Bulldog achievements, was much louder. The same thing accompanied the Saturday afternoon rematch, as the Bulldogs, ranked No. 4 in the country, swept the Catamounts 4-0 and 9-1, amid a number of statistical highlights.  

They weren’t the only game in town this past week, because there also was the usual renewal of the intense Division III rivalry between St. Scholastica and Wisconsin-Superior. 
Always a heated confrontation regardless of the sport, or gender, this one was one for the ages, as previously winless Saint Scholastica found a way to edge the Yellowjackets 1-0 in sudden-death overtime.

UWS's Anna Scherling dives for the puck in the crease as CSS goaltender Makenzie Cole holds firm, and defenseman Taylor Leonard offers help.

The game, at Mars-Lakeview Arena, raged back and forth with both teams getting some scoring chances but too impatient to finish any of them off, which made goaltenders Makenzie Cole of the Saints and Molly Black of UWS the chance to shine. And both did. 

Saint Scholastica was winless to start the season, at 0-7 to the Yellowjackets 4-4-1 coming in, but the drought ended abruptly for CSS.

Just 1:07 into the 3-on-3 overtime, the Saints blocked the puck free in the offensive zone. UWS had a chance to clear, but Taylor Leonard on the right point blocked it, and the puck came off her skate right to the goal-mouth, where Gracie Chapman was stationed and made a slick move to deposit the puck behind Black. It was her first goal, and the Saints first win of what has been a frustrating start to the season.

“We don’t have a lot of natural goal-scorers,” said Saints coach Julianne Vasichek, who played defense on two of UMD’s NCAA championship teams under Shannon Miller. “But we’ve brought in a good crop with basic skills who I think will be able to help us in the future. And we’re getting better. This week we play at Hamline Friday and again back here on Saturday.”

The Saints and their parents and fans gave the team a rousing backdrop of support and they poured off the bench as though they had won more than just the Bridge Battle. But that was enough to earn much more than “polite applause.”

Back at AMSOIL, the support given Vermont was mainly because six of the Catamounts were from Minnesota. And even though they came to Duluth with a 3-11-2 record, 2-7 in Hockey East, they knew their underdog status against UMD’s 8-5-1, 7-4-1 in the WCHA. 

The Catamounts played hard and put up a good showing, but while the Bulldogs were counting all their statistical plateaus, Vermont had been shut out in four of their most recent five games.

That became five out of six when Danielle Burgen, Clara Van Wieren, Ida Karlsson and Olivia Mobley scored goals, and amid a 34-19 edge in shots, Eve Gascon had the shutout. It was Mobley’s 50th collegiate goal, and Van Wieren’s goal was her 100th point at UMD.

“I was so happy, but I had no idea it was my 50th goal,” said Mobley, who transferred to UMD for her fifth year after playing at Quinnipiac and then Ohio State. 

Van Wieren, the captain, pays closer attention to such facts, and while she knew she had reached the 100-point plateau, she gave credit to her teammates. 

“It just shows how amazing this program is,” Van Wieren said.

There was an unfortunate incident in the first game. UMD freshman Caitlin Kraemer, probably the fastest skater on the team and the second-line center, came racing into the offensive zone with three Vermont defenders retreating. Kraemer isolated the defenseman on the left side of the group, and as she got to her, she tried to switch backhand to forehand, just as the defenseman — Hailey Elkos, a sophomore from Osseo-Park Center — tried to lift Kraemer’s stickblade. The result was that Kraemer’s stickblade caught Elkos up near the neck and she went down. No penalty was called, but after reviewing the video, the officials called a 5-minute major penalty on Kraemer. UMD killed it, and went on to get the shutout.

UMD's Olivia Wallin was thwarted by Vermont goaltender Jane Gervais and defenseman Kyla Bent in UMD's first-game 9-1 victory.

The next day, the Bulldogs started strong, with third-line wing Zoey Krock, a freshman from Pittsburgh, scoring her first collegiate goal at 3:57m then Van  Wieren scored 17 seconds later. 

Later in the first period, two UMD forwards — Mary Kate O’Brien and Grace Sadura — collided at center-ice. O’Brien was hurt and had to be helped off. Coach Laura Schuler juggled forwards, putting sophomore Payton Holloway in for O’Brien. Almost immediately, Kraemer passed to Burgen, who passed to Holloway and she scored her first goal for UMD in her second season.

With a 4-0 lead after one period, UMD made it 7-1 in the second, with Kraemer scoring twice, once short-handed, and she scored again in the third period for a hat trick and two assists. 

After getting penalized three times in the first game, Kraemer said, “It feels good to contribute to the team in a different way than just helping them get a high penalty-kill percentage.” 

She had scored frequently early in the season but hadn’t gotten a goal in six games before her hat trick.
Tundra Holm played goal in the second game for UMD and with a 4-0 lead, lost her shutout to open the second period. In an ironic twist, Hailey Elkos, who appeared might not play after her neck injury in Game 1, played and got the goal with a power-play shot that ricocheted off the back upper strut of the goal and came out so fast that played continued until it could be reviewed at the next whistle.

Minnesotans in Vermont’s lineup were co-captains Alaina Tanski from Hermantown and Maddy Skelton from Isanti, plus Ezre Oien from Owatonna, and defensemen Josie Hemp from Chanhassen, Anna Podein from Benilde, and Elkos from Brooklyn Park. They deserved at least the polite applause.
UMD plays at St. Cloud State this weekend.