No. 7 UMD women to capitalize on split weekend with No. 1 Wisconsin

For the second straight weekend the 7th ranked University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) women’s hockey team will host a top ten team.

After splitting their series with the 6th ranked University of Minnesota Golden Gophers, the Bulldogs’ next challenge is number one University of Wisconsin-Madison.

This weekend’s matchup will mark a rematch of last season’s Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) conference championship where the Badgers came away with the title. The unique series offers a noon puck drop Friday and a 1pm finale Sunday, with UMD hoping to use the split to their advantage.

"Honestly I can’t tell you the last time, if ever, we’ve played a noon game, never on a Friday. So what I like about that is we wake up and play," head coach Maura Crowell said.

Having a day off between their two matches, UMD sophomore goalie Emma Soderberg said, "it’s more time to reset, like go back [and] look at the game, see what we liked about it, what we did not. We’re probably practicing on Saturday so we can adjust if we need, so it’s just more off time."

The Bulldogs head into the weekend 2-2 overall on the season.