MINNEAPOLIS – Senior Katerina Mrazova scored twice in the third period, including the tying power-play goal with less than five minutes remaining in regulation, to lead visiting Minnesota-Duluth to a shootout win over Minnesota.
“When the game was almost out of hand is when we woke up,” UMD coach Maura Crowell said.
The Bulldogs (9-10-1, 5-7-1-1 WCHA) hadn’t done much offensively through 40 minutes, generating only 11 shots, but after Grace Zumwinkle put Minnesota (14-5-2, 9-4-2-0 WCHA) ahead 2-0, UMD struck three times over the final 15 minutes of the period to force the 3-3 tie.
“I think that’s a good indication that we have a bunch of kids that are going to work all the way through,” Crowell said. “A well-earned shootout win.”
Zumwinkle’s goal came on a feed from Taylor Wente, returning the favor after she’d made the pass on Wente’s first-period goal, and was the result of a Bulldog defenseman falling behind her own net.
“We’ve had goals scored on us,” Crowell said. “We’ve had fluky things happen. We’ve been in a lot of spots, and I think the good part of that is that when it happens later in the season, you manage it a little bit better.”
Zumwinkle, who finished with a three-point game, is developing some evident chemistry with Wente.
“We played on the U-18 team together,” Zumwinkle said. “We were actually roommates.”
When Caitlin Reilly buried the rebound of a Zumwinkle blast at 6:48 to make the score 3-1, UMD stormed back, led by Mrazova.
“The way that she plays when she’s locked in, like she has been, she changes the way that way that we can play out there,” Crowell said.
After Ashton Bell scored on a rush to cut the lead to 3-2, the Bulldogs tying goal came on one of their few chances with the player advantage.
“Credit their kill; their kill was phenomenal tonight,” Crowell said. “The pressure that they put on us, we hardly had the puck at all. One or two passes finally clicked, we got the puck in the middle of the ice, and a pretty finish at the end. I still think their kill was better than our power play, even though we scored that critical goal there.”
In the shootout, Emily Brown scored for Minnesota in the second round, but Mrazova answered immediately. Ryleigh Houston, who had three assists, won it in the fifth round.
“Being up two goals twice in the third, you’ve got to find a way to win that hockey game,” coach Brad Frost said. “I thought our team competed their butts off for pretty close to 50 minutes of the game.”
The Bulldogs deserve credit for the swing.
“They started taking a few more chances offensively, and as we saw, it paid off for them,” Frost said.
