ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Jamie Kenyon scored twice in the first period and Kayla Black made 24 saves as Minnesota-Duluth triumphed 2-1 at St. Cloud State Friday afternoon.
The Bulldogs (8-8-3, 6-6-3-2 WCHA) earned their first regulation win in the season series. The Huskies (3-13-3, 2-9-2-1 WCHA) claimed the earlier series in Duluth with a win and a shootout loss.
Both teams had trouble controlling a puck that spent much of the first period bouncing crazily. Ten minutes into the game, shots were two apiece, but eventually the Bulldogs took advantage of a bounce to score the game’s first goal.
As the puck caromed around in front of the goal, Hanna Brodt inadvertently directed it by her goaltender with her skate.
“We had five heads looking different ways and then it goes in off our skate,” SCSU coach Jeff Giesen said.
“It was just a scrum at the net,” UMD coach Shannon Miller added.
Miller said she had emphasized to her players in a video session that those were the type of goals they needed to get.
“You’ve got to shoot, battle and scrum, scrum, scrum,” Miller said. “Get the ugly goals. That’s one thing my team doesn’t do enough of. We look for pretty goals.”
Kenyon was credited with the goal and the assists went to Sidney Morin and Hannah Bramm.
Kenyon scored a much prettier goal a couple of minutes later, taking a drop pass from Jenna McParland and snapping it over the shoulder of Julie Friend.
“Kenyon makes a great play on the second one,” Giesen said. “Pretty good shot top-shelf there.”
Bramm also earned an assist, having sent McParland into the zone.
“We spent a lot of the rest of the game on [the penalty kill],” Miller said. “On big ice, that’s difficult to do. You get tired.”
The Bulldogs were assessed six penalties to just two on the hosts.
“Our PK was good and our goaltender was good as well, and she’s a big part of PK,” Miller said.
“We never got anything set up to get any kind of flow going on it,” Giesen said.
Neither team was able to capitalize on the power play until SCSU had a late opportunity when McParland went off for tripping with 1:49 to play and opted to pull Friend for an extra attacker. With the advantage of six skaters versus four, Molli Mott scored with 52 seconds remaining to bring the score to 2-1. Julia Gilbert and Skye Kelly had the helpers.
UMD successfully kept the puck in the Huskies’ zone off of the ensuing faceoff and by the time Friend was able to get to the bench once more, the clock wound down on SCSU’s hopes.
The teams conclude their first halves with a rematch on Saturday at 3:07 CST.
