Jordan McAlpine highlights their journey

Article is from our December 2025 Preview digital issue.

The post Planted in Duluth appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

But the women’s representatives from Minnesota deserve to be recognized for their prominence, too. A look at the week before Christmas national rankings show that five of the top eight teams are from the WCHA, starting at the top:

1. Ohio State, 14-2
2. Minnesota, 13-2
3. Wisconsin 13-3
6. UMD, 10-5-1
8. St. Cloud State, 12-5

The 1-2-3 punch at the top had to survive the sort of upsets that never used to happen in the WCHA.

St. Cloud State, clearly the surprise of women’s college hockey this season, invaded Columbus and, after falling behind 1-0 in the first period, scored twice in the second period. Finnish import goaltender Sanni Ahola stifled the Buckeyes the rest of the way for a shocking 2-1 upset. Ohio Sate had lost only one game all season, and while everyone anticipated a tough game, nobody expected a Huskies win.

St. Cloud’s Addi Scribner said that after that upset, an Ohio State fan came up to her and said: “Your goalie is unreal. She’s a Cyborg!”

The Buckeyes came back in the second game and broke a 1-1 tie with four straight goals in the second period to gain a 6-2 victory and a split. While being upset by St. Cloud could have cost Ohio State the No. 1 ranking, it didn’t. That’s because No. 2 Wisconsin suffered a similar weekend, against Duluth.

UMD went to Wisconsin and lost 3-0, solidifying the Badgers position on Saturday. However, the Bulldogs battled the Badgers through two scoreless periods in their Sunday afternoon rematch, and were determined to make their effort stand up in the third. UMD won that second game 3-2 for the split. 

A victory by the Badgers would have elevated them back to the No. 1 ranking.

The upsets weren’t over when the weekend ended, though, because the Gophers had a one-game matchup Tuesday against St. Cloud State. Peyton Hemp gave the Gophers a 1-0 lead but Scribner tied the game in the second period. The game went to overtime and a shootout. Allie Franco’s shootout goal gave the Gophers, who came in on an eight-game winning streak, the extra WCHA point. 

But it seems there are no such things as upsets anymore in the WCHA. At least going into a frantic pre-holiday-break weekend that features Wisconsin at Minnesota, and UMD at St. Cloud State, with Bemidji State at St. Thomas for good measure among Minnesota’s teams.

Minnesota teams have always dominated with NCAA championships
For statistical evidence, it’s not as though the Minnesota teams and the West are just emerging on top. Go back to the year 2000-01, which was the first year the NCAA conducted a national tournament for women’s teams. In the first 13 years it was held, Minnesota Duluth and Minnesota virtually owned the championship.

UMD won the first three NCAA titles, with spectacular players such as Jenny Schmidgall, Maria Rooth and Caroline Ouellette leading the way. Under Shannon Miller’s coaching, UMD won five championships in all, with the 2001, 2002, 2003, 2008 and 2010 trophies still filling the school’s trophy case. Minnesota won championships in 2004, 2005, 2012 and 2013 — meaning that the Bulldogs and Gophers won nine of the first 13 NCAA women’s championships.

The other four titles were won by the emerging power at Wisconsin, meaning that those three WCHA teams won all of the first 13 women’s national championships. The Badgers won in 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2011, and their 2007 team went 36-1-4 to eclipse the 31-3-2 of UMD in 2003 and the 36-2-2 by the Gophers in 2005.

But in 2013, the Golden Gophers had a load of talent throughout their lineup and set the record for all time with a splendid 41-0-0 championship season.

It was the following year, in 2013-14, that Clarkson broke through and claimed the first NCAA title for women for the East, and Clarkson also won championships in 2017 and 2018. And that’s it. Only three times did a non-WCHA team win the title, and all three times it was Clarkson.

All NCAA tournaments took a year off during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. When they resumed, Mark Johnson led his Badgers back for their sixth championship, with Ohio State emerging to capture the 2022 title. Last spring, Wisconsin was a surprise winner of its seventh title, and the same WCHA teams seem clustered for another run this season.

St. Cloud State women marking their mark
But maybe there will be an additional team in the mix, after St. Cloud State pulled off the seemingly impossible task of upsetting Ohio State on the road and coming home to tie the Gophers. That takes care of the top two-ranked teams, and now they get to take on old rival UMD, which upset No. 3 Wisconsin.

The games at St. Cloud State’s Herb Brooks National Hockey Center are expected to be tight, low-scoring battles, because both teams have two outstanding goaltenders. UMD has record-setting Hailey MacLeod, who is setting records for goals-against and save percentage, alongside freshman Eve Gascon, from Montreal.

St. Cloud State has an interesting duo, with Ahola capturing the spotlight in net. She’s paired with Jojo Chobak, who spent a season at UMD before transferring to St. Cloud State because she had grown weary of backing up Swedish Olympic star Emma Soderberg, who decided to stay another year.

Both teams depend on depth, getting scoring from their three top lines, and four for St. Cloud State. Both play tough defensive hockey but with defensemen who can readily move up into the play to help the rush or fire lasers from the points.

“We hung our hats on being a tough defensive team last year,” said St. Cloud State coach Brian Idalski. “We haven’t changed that and still want to play tough defense, but we’ve added some new players and I think we’re capable of scoring more goals this year.

“Especially coming off two tough games at Ohio State, then tying the Gophers on Tuesday. We’re getting contributions from all four lines, and we’re approaching this weekend like we’re preparing for the playoffs.”

From Duluth’s end of the transition from last weekend’s upset to this weekend’s rivalry series, the sound was similar. Center Mannon McMahon praised third-line center Jenna Lawry, who was cool and poised as she scored the game-winner at Madison.

“It was super cool to see how Jenna and her line have stepped up, and now they’re being rewarded,” McMahon said. “A lot of us were disappointed at losing 3-0 in Saturday’s game, but we were confident enough to not let that happen again on Sunday.

“Our response from the first game to the second was what I was most proud of. Now we have to carry that through to St. Cloud. It’s going to be tough. They just don’t quit, and they love to battle.”

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Bob Motzko is no stranger to the Minnesota hockey scene. He was Don Lucia’s right-hand man at the University of Minnesota during their National Championship seasons in 2002 and 2003. After leaving to take over St. Cloud State in 2005, Motzko guided the Huskies to their first Frozen Four bid in 2013 and helped solidify SCSU as one of the premier programs in college hockey. Now Motzko is back with the Gophers, this time as the head coach.

However, Big Ten Hockey has a bit of a black eye on it. Many loyal fans are still bitter about the breakup of the old WCHA which featured all five Minnesota Division-1 teams in one conference. All five teams are now in their sixth year of realignment and, for the most part, the majority of the programs in the State of Hockey have sustained success. 

One could argue that Motzko’s biggest task isn’t just getting the Gophers another championship, but making the program more appealing to a fan base that’s still sour over a breakup. Hell, even Motzko admitted that it’s easy to blame the U of M for this change.

“It dawned on me too because I was on the other side when this league started,” Motzko said at his preseason media availability. “Well the fans there where we were, did not like this school; they blamed this school. Well the Duluth fans blamed this school. North Dakota, who always hated this school, now you give them even more reason to hate this school. Mankato didn’t like it.”

“You had all these people – the hockey community (that) didn’t like Minnesota … they blame Minnesota and there was this negativity that started to fester itself to where all of the sudden there was just bullets coming at Minnesota and I used to throw them ­– I can’t hide from it. That was a pretty powerful league (the old WCHA) and there’s a lot of wounds from that from the entire hockey community within the region and they still blame Don – that Don did it – and of course he had zero to do with it.”

Motzko’s not wrong here. It was a collection of events that led to this: the CCHA disbanding, the NCHC forming, Penn State achieving Division-1 status and yes, the Big Ten wanting it’s own conference. To say Lucia was the guy that caused all of this, is nothing short of ignorance.

Last year’s Frozen Four yielded three teams from the Big Ten, even though the UMD Bulldogs – who reside in the NCHC conference – captured the national championship. So there’s definitely enough of a sample size to say Big Ten Hockey is at or exceeding it’s expectations for being a conference that’s just six years old.

“I’m going to switch caps and I don’t want to be hypocritical on how I used to feel about it,” Motzko said. “Here we are six years later and the rankings come out: Duluth’s No 1, St. Cloud’s No. 4, Mankato’s No. 8 or 9. Everybody’s kind of settling in now after five years; maybe their new leagues are ok. The Big Ten had three teams in the Frozen Four last year.

“Maybe hockey’s pretty good at our level.”

The Gophers were ranked No. 13 in the first preseason poll by USCHO.com. So with teams achieving success from a national level, the wound from this realignment can hopefully be put in the rear-view mirror.

“Maybe the scars are starting to heal over a little bit and maybe we can now start to build forward … and for me to be a cheerleader on it,” Motzko said. “Just imagine if the Big Ten kicked football and basketball out. The uproar you would have if we weren’t part of the Big Ten as a school and then I had to look it up, 1896, we’re a founding member of the Big Ten. So it’s not a new conference, we’ve been in forever. It’s just new to hockey and it is growing and it’s a pretty powerful hockey conference.”

As Motzko alluded to, rivalries will always exist and that’s just a fabric of sports. There was a time when getting a ticket to Mariucci Arena (now the 3M Arena at Mariucci) was the hottest ticket in town. It might not be at max capacity right with a snap of a finger, but as the on-ice product for Big Ten Hockey has fulfilled its vision, it will be up to the fans in the State of Hockey when they want to get over it.

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Power play plagues the Bulldogs in 4-2 loss to Western Michigan

DULUTH — The University of Western Michigan spoiled Hockey Day Minnesota celebrations for the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs, who surrendered two power play goals en route to a 4-2 loss.

In front of 6,873 fans at Amsoil Arena, UMD’s special teams struggles were exacerbated by a combined eleven penalties.

Without their top scorer, Dominic Toninato, who was suspended for a knee-on-knee hit in Friday’s 2-2 draw, the Bulldogs struggled to get pucks to the net on the power play, tallying only four shots on four opportunities.

“I thought there was some good in both nights, but not enough good for 60 minutes,” Justin Crandall said, assistant captain and Lakeville, MN native.

The senior earned an assist on Tony Cameransi’s gritty third period goal that tied the game at two, but Western Michigan quickly responded with Colton Hartgrove’s second goal of the game, which also served as the game winner.

“We need some more of that,” Crandall said. “Guys [going] to the net scoring some ugly ones.”

In the back and forth contest, physical play kept both teams from getting quality scoring chances.

“You’re not going to get great chances against this team, that’s just how they play,” head coach Scott Sandelin said. “But when you get them, you gotta bear down and we didn’t do that. You have to get your nose in there, and you have to get into the tough areas. We gotta get back to that.”

The Broncos size and physicality kept UMD’s deep lineup from sustaining offensive pressure for much of the game. And when they faltered, goaltender Lukas Hafner stepped up, stopping 25 of 27 shots.

“I thought their goalie was good tonight,” Sandelin said. “[With] this team you have to earn it, and get goals like [Cameranesi] did, where it barely goes over the goal line. We knew it was going to be difficult, they make it difficult on every team.”

Across the ice, UMD freshman goaltender Kazamir Kaskisuo stopped 23 shots, including 14 in the opening period — nine of which came on the power play.

The Bulldogs struggled to execute offensively against Western Michigan, failing to convert on the few opportunities they were given.

“That’s been our biggest downfall the last couple games, we’re getting quality chances but we’re not scoring,” said Crandall.

Helped by the newly formed NCHC, and several similarly physical games, there appears to be a blooming rivalry between the two teams.

“Every weekend with these guys is [a] battle,” said Crandall. “It kind of seems like we take it to them at their rink, and they kind of give it to us at our place, so we’re excited to get a little crack at them at the end of the year.”

Despite the conference loss, the Bulldogs maintain second place in the NCHC and travel to St. Paul, MN next week to face Bemidji State in the North Star College Cup at the Excel Energy Center.

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UMD’s Kayla Black stops 23 shots for her 7th shutout of the season

DULUTH – The St. Cloud State Huskies came into Duluth hoping on Hockey Day in Minnesota hoping to get themselves back in good standings after losing 12 of their last 13 games while the Bulldogs hoped to thwart that effort.

That being said, the Bulldogs came into the weekend as a statistical favorite, but with some concerns of their own after splitting last weekend’s series with Bemidji State, the very same team St. Cloud State defeated the week before.

“You have to be prepared to work,” said Bulldogs coach Shannon Miller. “In our first period, we just played, we didn’t compete and when you do that you get yourself into trouble.”

UMD opened the first period with a goal from left wing Katherine McGovern just under two minutes after puck drop, her first of the season. From there things stayed fairly even offensively, with each team recording only five shots in the first period despite UMD attempting 15, seven of which St. Cloud State blocked in the first frame.

“Every team in our conference is good, so you need to expect a lot of pressure,” said Bulldog center Lara Stalder. “They’re a hard working team so we knew the way they were going to be coming out. We didn’t figure it out in the first period. We need to find that killer instinct in us.”

The second period was scoreless but both teams picked up their offensive efforts, more than doubling their respective shot totals to end the period UMD-18, St. Cloud-13.

The Bulldogs’ Katerina Mrazova was awarded a penalty shot in the early third period, but waited too long to take a shot as she came in on Huskies’ Julie Friend who would make the save to keep her team within one.

However, Friend wasn’t able to stop the shot of a wide open Lara Stalder who doubled the UMD’s lead with 11:49 left to go in the match up. Stalder sent a one timer over Friend’s right shoulder from the edge of the crease after defenseman Brigette Lacquette weaved through traffic from the blue line to send the puck down.

The Huskies answered back with offensive pressure of their own as St. Cloud State coach Eric Rud pulled Friend with nearly four minutes remaining in the game. While the Huskies were able to get more pressure on the Bulldogs, they were unable to crack UMD’s Kayla Black, who made 23 saves on the outing, earning her seventh shutout this season.

“She came up big for us again,” Stalder said of her goaltender. “We need that trust in our goaltender and we have it right now so that’s great.”

The women will face off again on Sunday at 3:07 p.m. at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minnesota for the second half of their weekend series.

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In a season where it’s almost impossible not to notice the surge in young players making an impact within the NHL ranks, Nathan MacKinnon, Sean Monahan, Seth Jones and the Minnesota Wild’s Charlie Coyle just to name a few, some fans may find it easy to forget that not every player is going to walk off his junior squad and be ready to fill a nightly role with an NHL club. Carson Soucy may not be quite there yet, but if the freshman player UMD head coach Scott Sandelin refers to as “a pleasant surprise” continues to build his game at such a rapid pace throughout the NCHC season, don’t be surprised to see him become a regular presence on the Minnesota Wild’s blue line for many years to come.

As Soucy moved from the Alberta Junior Hockey League into being not only a member of the UMD squad, but also a NHL draft pick, questions arose as to whether or not the defenseman was going to be able to offer up enough of an offensive threat to be the kind of player required by the highest levels of hockey in North America. Coach Sandelin put those doubts to rest following a non-conference game against Notre Dame on Friday night.

“He’s a big kid who has good hands and he can skate, he’s got a lot of plays and we’ve seen that through a lot of these games,” said Sandelin. “I’m not saying he’s going to be Paul Coffey (for those unfamiliar with Coffey, he’s long been held as one of the NHL’s all-time best offensive defensemen, arguably second only to Bobby Orr), but he certainly does a good job moving pucks.” In the past three games Soucy has notched up three assists and in preseason exhibition play scored a goal for the Bulldogs.

“I think he’s improved every week, there’s no question about that,” said Sandelin. “You never know with freshmen where they’re going to start, but I think he’s had a real good start.”

If the seasoned coach’s opinion of the player isn’t enough to convince onlookers that Soucy is the real deal, Soucy offers up reassurance of his own. “There’s not a lot of down time in college hockey, if I’m not at school I’m putting in a lot of work at the rink,” Soucy said. “I’ve been working on my shot, getting that stronger and I’m getting more confident out there (on the ice).”

Soucy is one of the larger bodies drafted by the Wild and stands even with the largest defenseman currently on the Wild roster, Clayton Stoner. Size isn’t everything when it comes to being a D-man and Soucy is one of the first people who points this out.

“Obviously size is a big thing and lots of NHL teams are looking for big players who can also skate,” said Soucy. “If you’re a big player but you can’t skate you’re not going to be able to do much, but I think size is an advantage.”

The Alberta native grew up in a small farming community, a student of the game raised–similar to many Minnesota kids–on frozen ponds where the game of hockey is a part of life and he seems to be having no problem fitting in around northern Minnesota.

“I like Minnesota overall, I could stay here forever,” said Soucy and Minnesota fans everywhere should sure hope he does.

UMD’s Carson Soucy (#4) in action on Oct 26, 2013 in a 4-1 Win over Notre Dame at Amsoil Arena in Duluth, MN. Photo credits – Rylie Heilman UMD.

Five Player Quick Facts:

Name Pronounced – SUE-see

Twitter – @DrSouce71 (Get it? Dr. Seuss? Carson certainly has a sense of humor!)

Birthday – July 27, 1994

Prior Team – Spruce Grove Saints (AJHL)

NHL Affiliation – Selected in round five of the 2013 NHL entry draft, 137th overall by the Minnesota Wild

Five Player Fun Facts:

Pre-game Warmup – Ping-pong against teammate Alex Iafallo

Pre-game Meal – Chicken and pasta at Blackwoods which is “Really good!”

Music Preference– Techno! Current favorite DJ is Avicii!

Favorite off season activity – Plays fast pitch!

Something not a lot of people know about him – Carson likes to dance when he can! (Unfortunately we failed to asked whether or not he knew how to drop it low or twerk, maybe next time!)

**Remember to follow @MNhockeyMag on twitter for all of our latest stories, updates, in-game action for your favorite Minnesota Hockey team and events! You can also follow the author of this article @AmySnow17!

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