Partial Bulldog Roster Competes With National Champions
Nov. 7, 2000
THE GAMES: The University of Minnesota-Duluth women's hockey team will travel to Minneapolis, MN to take on the University of Minnesota on Friday (Nov. 10) at 7:05 p.m. and Saturday at 7:05 p.m. at Mariucci Arena in their first meeting of the season.
THE RECORDS: UMD is 7-1-0 overall and 5-1-0 in the WCHA, after playing three WCHA and one non-conference series. UMD swept St. Lawrence University, Bemidji State University and MSU-Mankato, splitting series with the University of Wisconsin.
The 2000 National Champions, the Golden Gophers are 6-2-0 overall (5-1-0 WCHA) after losing 4-2 against Ohio State University (Oct. 22) and falling in over time, 3-2, to Brown University last weekend (Nov. 4)
MISSING DOGS: UMD will face Minnesota without the team's top six international players. Gone to the Four Nations Cup (Salt Lake City) to play for their national teams are Bulldogs number one goaltender Tuula Puputti (Team Finland), Swedish forwards Maria Rooth and Erika Holst, Finnish forwards Hanne Sikio and Sanna Peura and Finnish defenseman Satu Kiipeli.
COACH MILLER ABOUT THE SERIES: "We are heading in to the weekend with a roster that is small in number and short on experience, but big on heart and work ethic. Although we will be missing our number one goalie and five other international players, the remaining players are embracing the opportunity to step up and play much larger role. We have prepared a game plan, which utilizes the strengths of our personnel available to play."
THE SERIES: Friday's game will be the seventh meeting of these two schools in collegiate competition.
BULLDOGS vs. GOPHERS: After playing two WCHA series and two non-conference games in last season UMD is 3-2-1 against Minnesota.
The Bulldogs swept the Gophers in their first WCHA meeting (Dec. 3-4, 1999), winning 5-4 and 1-0 at the Gophers home games at Mariucci Arena. In UMD's home series (Feb. 11-12, 2000) at the Pioneer Hall, the Gophers won Friday's game 4-3 and on Saturday rivalry ended in a 2-2 tie, after overtime.
Teams met again in the WCHA Playoff Tournament final game (March 4, 2000) in Bloomington Ice Garden, MN, where the Bulldogs took over the Gophers with 2-0 win. With the victory UMD took the WCHA Championship title and advanced to the AWCHA (American Women's College Hockey Alliance) National Championship Tournament.
Teams met the last time (March 24, 2000) in the National Championship Tournament (Boston, MA), where the Gophers won, 3-2, advancing to the National Championship final game.
COACH MILLER: Shannon Miller, the 1999-2000 WCHA Coach of the Year, returns for her second year as head coach after leading UMD to a 25-5-3 record and a berth in the Final Four. Her career and UMD record is 32-6-3.
Miller, 36, has spent the greater part of the 1990's as a coach with the Canadian Hockey Association. She directed Canada to a silver medal in women' s ice hockey at the 1998 Winter Olympic Games. Prior to her stint with Canada at the last Olympics in Nagano, Japan, Miller was the head coach of Canada's national team which captured a fourth consecutive gold medal at the 1997 Women's World Ice Hockey Championships. She also coached Canada to gold-medal finishes at both the 1995 and 1996 Pacific Rim Championships as later, she well as the Three Nations Cup tournament in 1996. Miller launched her national coaching career as an assistant with the Alberta Women's Hockey Team (18 and under) in 1989 and two years later was part of a club, which captured a gold medal in the first-ever ice hockey competition for women in the Canada Winter Games. In 1992 and 1994 she served as an assistant coach for Canada's gold-medal winning World Championship teams.
A native of Melfort, Saskatchewan, Miller competed in four Canadian National Championships as a player (1982-85) before retiring in 1989. She holds a bachelor's degree in physical education from the University of Saskatchewan (1985) and from 1988-96 was employed as a police officer in Calgary, Alberta. She's been a volunteer member of the Canadian Hockey Association Female Council, president of the Southern Alberta Women's Hockey League and chairperson of the Saskatchewan Female Hockey League in addition to refereeing hockey three years (1982-85) at the collegiate level. After the 1998 Olympics, Miller was given the prestigious Canadian Advancement of Women in Sport Award, for her groundbreaking successes for female sports in Canada.
Miller is also serving on the first ever NCAA women's hockey committee, which plan to organize and operate the women's Final Four. Joining Miller on the coaching staff are Stacy Wilson, Shawna Davidson and Manon Rheaume as a volunteer goalie coach.
COACH HALLDORSON: On Oct. 23, 1996, Laura Halldorson was named the head coach at the University of Minnesota and was tasked with building the women' s hockey program from scratch.
On March 25, 2000, she led the Golden Gophers to the American Women's College Hockey Alliance National Championship, the first national championship in the history of Minnesota women's athletics.
Halldorson (Princeton, 1985) established herself at Colby College, where she led the White Mules, one of only two non-Division I schools at the time in the 12-team Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference, to a 12-9-1 overall record in 1995-96, earning ECAC Co-Coach of the Year honors as well as being named the New England Hockey Writers' Coach of the Year.
Halldorson, a native of Plymouth, MN was instrumental in the development of the ECAC women's hockey league and served as chair of the ECAC Women's Ice Hockey Committee and President of the Women's Hockey Coaches Association from 1991 to 1994. By the end of her first season, with the Golden Gophers Halldorson was named the first American Hockey Coaches Association Women's Coach of the Year.
At the national level, she was the assistant coach for the gold medal-winning team at the 1998 USA Hockey Women's Festival and served as assistant coach for the U.S. Women's Select Team that competed in the Three Nations Cup in Finland in 1998. Halldorson was a head coach at the 1999 USA Hockey Women's Festival and was an assistant coach for the national under-22 team in 1999. She served as an assistant coach of the U.S. Junior National Team in 1995 and worked with the USA Hockey's girls' and women's national development camps from 1991-99.
THE BROADCAST: This season all Bulldogs games will be broadcast on 9 Lite-FM (95.7 FM). The play-by-play announcer is Tom Hansen with former Bulldog forward Erin Nagurski providing the color commentary.
All Bulldog radio broadcasts during the 2000-2001 season will be available on the Internet at:www.96litefm.com/events.htm
LAST WEEKEND: In their third home series (Nov.3-4) UMD swept MSU-Mankato with two shutouts, winning 7-0 on Friday and 6-0 on Saturday.
Minnesota faced Brown University on Saturday (Nov. 4), falling in overtime 3-2 at Bears. On Monday (Nov. 6) the Gophers got their first non-conference victory of this season, beating Harvard University 3-2. Game was played on Monday due to the malfunction of both zamboni's at Harvard's Bright Hockey Center.
BULLDOGS BITS: UMD took advantage of MSU-Mankato's penalties, scoring four power play goals and two 4-on-4 goals in last Friday night's 7-0 win ... Jenny Hempel (3-3=6) started UMD 's scoring with her first power play goal of the season ... freshman defenseman Satu Kiipeli (3-8=11) had four assists in the game ... two of UMD's goals were marked by Hanne Sikio (9-8=17) and other goals were scored by Maria Rooth (10-10=20), Joanne Eustace, PPG (4-3=7) , Sanna Peura, PPG (7-6=13), Erika Holst, PPG (6-8=14) ... on Saturday UMD forward Maria Rooth had two goals and one assist ... Last week' s WCHA Rookie of the Week, Sanna Peura had also two goals ... Peura is now on a five game goal-scoring streak with Hanne Sikio, who scored UMD's last goal in the game . Satu Kiipeli tallied three assists in Saturday game, totaling seven assist against the Mavericks . Kiipeli leads the conference in defenseman scoring (3-8=11) . leading the league in overall scoring is UMD's Maria Rooth (10-10=20)
Bulldog goalie Tuula Puputti leads the league in save percentage (.921) and winning persentage (.875) and also has the lowest goals against average (1.73) in the WCHA.
HONORED BULLDOGS: After strong offensive and defensive performance against MSU-Mankato, freshman defenseman Satu Kiipeli (Oulu, Finland) was selected as the Rookie of the Week (Nov. 7) in the WCHA.
A week earlier the Bulldogs freshman forward Sanna Peura (Jyvaskyla, Finland) was named as the Rookie of the Week (Oct. 30) in the WCHA, after recording a pair of two-point games against the Bemidji State University.
UP NEXT: Following this weekend's games (Nov. 17-18), the Bulldogs will host
St. Cloud University in the league series at the DECC (Duluth Entertainment
and Convention Center).
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