University of Minnesota Athletics
#2 WOMEN'S HOCKEY TEAM FACES #1 DARTMOUTH
12/5/2000 12:00:00 AM | Athletics
Second-ranked Minnesota closes out the 2000 portion of its schedule with a pair of games at top-ranked Dartmouth. The two top- ranked teams in the country faceoff at 1 p.m. EST Saturday and Sunday at Thompson Arena in Hanover, N.H.
Gophers Rout Beavers Twice, Hit WCHA Mid-Season With Three Point Lead
Minnesota reached the halfway point in its WCHA schedule with a three-point lead after defeating Bemidji State 9-1 and 8-4 at home over the weekend.
The Gophers got seven goals Friday from the line of senior left wing Nadine Muzerall (Mississauga, Ontario/Kimball Union Academy), junior right wing Tracy Engstrom (Willmar, Minn./Willmar) and frosh center La Toya Clarke (Pickering, Ontario/Dunbarton Secondary). Both Muzerall and Clarke recorded hat tricks in the game while Engstrom had four points.
The Beavers got the game's first goal, nine minutes, 55 seconds into the opening period, but Muzerall scored twice and senior Courtney Kennedy (Woburn, Mass./Buckingham, Browne & Nichols) made it 3-1 before the end of the period. Engstrom's short-handed goal midway through the second period made it 4-1 and Minnesota got five goals in the final period, including three from Clarke and one each from Muzerall and sophomore Ronda Curtin (Roseville, Minn./Roseville Area).
Saturday's game saw the Gophers jump out to a 5-0 lead before Bemidji State scored three straight goals to cut the lead to two. Muzerall and Clarke scored early in the third period to regain the five-goal margin and senior Kris Scholz (Hugo, Minn./Stillwater Area) notched her second of the game with 3:07 to play to close out the scoring.
Dartmouth Gets Weekend Off After Suffering Only Blemish on Record
The Big Green has been idle since a Nov. 25-26 homestand which saw them defeat Cornell 9-3 before tying St. Lawrence 2-2, ending a nine- game winning streak. Dartmouth's 8-0-1 record has made them a unanimous number one in both national polls.
Jennifer Wiehn recorded a hat trick in the win over Cornell and the Big Green got two goals from Kristin King and Kim McCullough while outshooting the Big Red 50-30. Liz Macri and Carly Haggard scored Dartmouth's goals the next day as the Big Green came from two goals down to forge a tie, running their unbeaten streak to 10 games.
Balance has been the key for Dartmouth offensively, with eight forwards recording at least two goals through the team's first nine games. Defensively, the Big Green is limiting opponents to just over 21 shots per game while posting a 1.87 goals against average.
The Fab Four
Since forming together for the first time in a 4-0 win over Duluth on Nov. 10, the Fab Four Line of left wing Nadine Muzerall, center La Toya Clarke, and right wing Tracy Engstrom, so named because of their jersey numbers - 4, 14 and 24 - has combined for 18 goals and 32 points in six games.
Minnesota has gone 5-0-1 in those six games with the line collecting four game-winning goals. They also have six power-play and one short-handed goal with Muzerall leading the charge. She has 10 goals, including two hat tricks. Of those 10 goals, three have come on the power play and she has three game-winning goals and one game-tying goal.
The Buzz on Muzz
After being named the WCHA Player of the Week for her performance against Wisconsin, Nov. 24-25, Nadine Muzerall stepped up her game another notch, garnering four goals and seven points over the weekend against Bemidji State.
After missing four consecutive games early in the season, she has goals in six of eight games with eight goals and 11 points in her last four games. Chosen as Sports Illustrated for Women's preseason national player of the year, Muzerall had just one goal and three points in her first three games but has had five multiple-point games since.
Engstrom Tops Season Point Total in Weekend Series
Co-captain Tracy Engstrom snapped out of her scoring funk over the weekend. Entering the two-game series with just six points in 12 games, she proceeded to tally seven points.
Last year, Engstrom scored 23 goals and 53 points in 39 games. She capped off her season with the game-winning goal in a 3-2 semifinal win over Minnesota-Duluth at the American Women's College Hockey Alliance National Championship.
Isn't it Ironic?
With three assists in the third period of Friday's 9-1 win, senior Emily Buchholz (Waupun, Wis./Waupun) tied a school record, shared by nine other players, for assists in a period.
Ironically, her defense partner, frosh Bethany Petersen (Bloomington, Minn./Bloomington Jefferson), also had three assists in a period one week earlier, in a 5-2 win at Wisconsin, Nov. 24.
It Feels Like the First Time
Frosh Kelsey Bills (Carstairs, Alberta/Hugh Sutherland) collected her first collegiate goal over the weekend. Her first marker came at 8:55 of the opening period in Saturday's 8-4 win.
Gophers' Point Production Balanced
With Tracy Engstrom and defense Emily Buchholz and Bethany Petersen reaching the 10-point plateau for the season, Minnesota has a national-best nine players in double figures in points this season.
Last season, Minnesota had a school-record 13 players score at least 10 points.
Gopher Players Sweep League Honors
For the second week in a row, Minnesota sports the WCHA's player and rookie of the week in Tracy Engstrom and La Toya Clarke.
The Player of the Week Award is the first league award for Engstrom, who scored a short-handed and a power-play goal over the weekend while adding five assists.
Clarke earned the league's Rookie of the Week Award for the second time. She had a hat trick Friday and tallied five points on the weekend. She also received the award following the Gophers' series sweep of St. Cloud State, Oct. 14-15, to open the season.
Last week, Nadine Muzerall and Bethany Petersen were named player and rookie of the week. Senior Ambria Thomas (Fairbanks, Alaska/West Valley) was named the league player of the week Nov. 13.
Natural Born Killers
After giving up seven goals on 27 power-play opportunities to start the season, Minnesota has successfully killed 33 of its opponents' last 35 chances, including 14 in a row.
Besides going five-for-five on the penalty kill over the weekend, Minnesota scored its first short-handed goal of the season.
Turning the Power On
With a three-for-five effort on the power play over the weekend, Minnesota has converted nine of its last 20 chances, giving the Gophers a 29.5 percent success rate on the season to rank second nationally.
Clean as a Whistle
For the first time in school history, Minnesota was not whistled for a penalty in a game as the Gophers went 60 minutes Saturday without sending anyone to the penalty box.
Shooting Gallery
Saturday, Minnesota recorded its second-highest shot totals for a period and game in school history as the Gophers peppered Bemidji State goalie Bre Dedrickson with 66 shots, 32 of which came in the final period.
The school record for shots in a game (72) and period (34) came in a 10-0 win at Augsburg, Feb. 13, 1999.
When Last We Met
Minnesota recorded a pair of late-game victories in defeating Dartmouth 5-4 and 4-3 at Mariucci Arena in the teams' only previous meeting, Dec. 11-12, 1999.
Game one of the series saw Minnesota score four second-period goals but needed Courtney Kennedy's rebound goal with 10.1 seconds remaining in the game to pull out a 5-4 win.
The series finale saw the Gophers outshoot their guests 41-24 but only a pair of third-period goals, the second by Ronda Curtin with 1:50 left in the game, enabled them to come away with the victory.
Winny Brodt and junior Laura Slominski (Burnsville, Minn./ Burnsville) paced the offense for Minnesota. Brodt recorded seven points on nine Gopher goals while Slominski had a goal and five points on the weekend.
The Series
Last year's meeting was the first between Minnesota and Dartmouth, with the Gophers winning both games.
Next Up
Minnesota is off until after the start of the new year. The Gophers return to action for a pair of games, Jan. 6-7, against non- conference foes Mercyhurst and Niagara.
The Mercyhurst game, scheduled for 2:05 p.m., will be broadcast live on Midwest Sports Channel. The Niagara contest is slated for a 1:05 p.m. faceoff.
