Minnesota-Duluth’s all-star top line of Noemie Marin, Caroline Ouellette and Jessica Koizumi accounted for every goal in a 5-1 win over North Dakota, who dropped its fifth straight.
Marin led the way with three goals, and UMD (21-2-2, 19-2-2 WCHA) went 3-for-4 on the power play. With 27 goals and 20 assists this season, Marin has more than doubled her totals as a freshman a year ago.
“We have lots of fun out there and every game is a new challenge,” Marin said of her line. “We play hard and I think we see each other pretty well on the ice too.”
Ouellette scored a power-play goal and assisted on three to raise her season point total against North Dakota (7-17-3, 4-16-1) to 15. She ranks third nationally in points with 24 goals and 37 assists.
“We are very offensive oriented and we wanted to get it going from the start and today we were able to do that,” Ouellette said. “We get along off the ice as well as we do on the ice.”
Junior defenseman Krista McArthur had four assists in one of her best performances since missing the first half of this season.
Koizumi tallied the eventual game-winner that put UMD up 2-0 at 9:22 of the first period. She put in the rebound off an Ouellette shot when she was left alone on the side of the net. The goal was one of three for the Bulldogs that came off rebounds.
“You gotta be persistent if you’re gonna score goals,” said UMD coach Shannon Miller.
In addition to the Bulldogs’ power play success, they also killed all of five of their own penalties. Sophomore Riitta Schaublin, who stopped 19 of 20, led the way by stymieing a UND two-man advantage.
“Our penalty kill, I guess, is number one in the league right now, and so at 100 percent today, you gotta be happy with that,” Miller said. “We were down 5-on-3 and Riitta had to be there, and she made the saves she had to make.”.
The Fighting Sioux did finally get one by the Duluth goalie at 12:09 of the third when freshman Melissa Dianoski skated around the net and beat Schaublin in front.
UND junior goalie Amber Hasbargen turned in a strong performance with 29 saves in a losing effort. She is now 4-10-1 for the year.
The teams rematch Sunday at 2:05 in Grand Forks.
