UMD women's hockey: Bulldogs grateful to be in NCAA tournament after rollercoaster season played in a pandemic

Mar. 13—The COVID-19 pandemic forced Minnesota Duluth to spend the first three months of the 2020-21 season holed up at Amsoil Arena, just practicing, before finally playing a game on Nov. 20.

Twice the Bulldogs' regular season came to a halt due to COVID-19 protocols, resulting in a five-week layoff after their first six games and back-to-back weekends off in February following the next six contests.

However, after months of a social and academic life reduced to Zoom calls and an endless stream of swabs stuck up their noses, UMD finds itself among a group of eight NCAA Division I hockey programs with at least one more game still on their schedule — an NCAA quarterfinal against fourth-seeded Colgate at 6 p.m. Monday at Erie Insurance Arena in Erie, Pennsylvania.

The fifth-seeded Bulldogs depart for Erie on Friday, which is exactly one year to the day the NCAA announced it was canceling all of its remaining winter and spring championships due to the then, "evolving COVID-19 public health threat."

Considering no one was playing in the NCAA tournament a year ago at this time — and eight ECAC members won't return to the ice until the fall — grateful doesn't even begin to describe how the Bulldogs feel to be among the eight teams playing hockey in mid-March.

"I wouldn't take it back for anything," Bulldogs junior defenseman Lizi Norton said about everything she and her teammates have gone through this year to get to this point. "Hockey and school right now are our top priorities. It's definitely been a stressful season with additional problems like COVID, but we battled it and we're just ready to prepare for Monday's game."

The Bulldogs also have another reason to be grateful for playing next week, and that's because of the way their WCHA Final Faceoff experience went last Saturday at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis. UMD lost 7-2 to Ohio State in the league semifinals, giving up four goals in the opening eight minutes of the second period to fall behind 5-1 and land all-league goaltender Emma Soderberg on the bench.

For UMD, it was the team's most lopsided loss of the season. That distinction previously belonged to a 4-2 home loss to Minnesota, which pushed the margin to two goals via an empty netter. The other five losses were all by a single goal, including two in overtime.

The NCAA selection committee on Sunday could have punished the Bulldogs for the timing of their blunder — Minnesota was punished for its late-season 3-7-1 slide and left out of the tournament — but instead UMD was given another chance to show it's the team that shut out the No. 3-seeded Buckeyes 2-0 on Jan. 15, and the team that was less than two minutes away from sweeping second-seeded Wisconsin in the 4-2 win and 4-3 overtime loss on Feb. 26-27.

"That feeling after that Saturday game, not knowing what the result would be on Sunday, we just don't want to have happen again," Bulldogs junior center McKenzie Hewett said. "We have a little fire under our bellies now after that. Sometimes in games like that, you learn more than the ones you win."

For all 23 Bulldogs on this season's roster, this is their first NCAA tournament experience. The last time UMD was in the national quarterfinals in 2016-17 against the Gophers at Amsoil Arena — a 1-0 loss — current assistant coach Ashleigh Brykaliuk was the team's senior captain.

This group is by no means a group of tournament newbies, however. The Bulldogs played in three tournaments last season, including two out East. UMD beat Colgate, the most recent meeting between the two schools, in the championship game of the IceBreaker in Buffalo, New York, and split at the Nutmeg Classic at Quinnipiac.

Much of the Bulldogs roster has also played in the Minnesota state high school tournaments, and seven have played for and won medals at the Under-18 Women's World Championships, something Norton — who won gold with Team USA in 2017 and 2018 — said will help when the pressure hits Monday.

Despite all that experience, Bulldogs coach Maura Crowell said playing in the NCAA tournament this year after a three-year absence is an important step her program moving forward.

"It's important to me as a coach to have players on our team get this experience and hopefully get a lot more of it moving forward, because that's the conversation we want to be in," Crowell said. "We want to be one of the best teams in the country, if not the best team in the country. It's extremely hard to make the NCAA tournament field every year, whether it's the Pairwise or a committee making decisions. It really doesn't matter, it's difficult to get in there, especially from our league."

Colgate, the ECAC regular and postseason champion, is back in the NCAA tournament for the first time since making its run to the national championship game in 2017-18 in Minneapolis. The Raiders beat Northeastern at home and Wisconsin in the Frozen Four semifinals in overtime before losing to ECAC rival Clarkson in OT in the championship.

— UMD women's hockey: 'Miserable' 24 hours ends with Bulldogs back in NCAA tournament

— Photos: Minnesota Duluth vs. Ohio State in the WCHA Final Faceoff semifinal Saturday, March 6

— Bulldog Insider Podcast: Q&A session with women's senior class

Only five remain from the 2017-18 Raiders, most notably senior forward Malia Schneider — originally a North Dakota recruit — who had 16 goals in 41 games as a freshmen that season. A member of Canada's Under-18 national team for the 2016 World Championship, she followed her rookie year with 19 goals in 38 games as a sophomore and 12 goals in 38 games as a junior, but has only four goals this year in 22 games.

Junior forward Noemi Neubauerova of the Czech National Team and sophomore forward Danielle Serdachny, who played on Canada's gold-medal winning U18 World Championship team in 2019, have led the team in scoring this season with nine goals each.

"They're a fast team, they got some skill. It'll be a good battle," said Crowell, who has coached against both Schneider and Serdachny with Team USA at prior U18 Women's World Championships.

"Every team has depth at all positions, they wouldn't be here otherwise. It's really coming down to who's hungrier and whose going to be the better team on any given day."

Bulldog Bites

The NCAA moved the entirety of the 2021 National Collegiate Women's Hockey Tournament to the site of this year's Frozen Four, Erie Insurance Arena in Erie, Pennsylvania, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Typically the quarterfinals are conducted at the homes of the top four seeds, like in 2017 when UMD hosted Minnesota.

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Upon arriving in Erie on Friday, the Bulldogs will be tested and then quarantine at their hotel. They will take a second test no less than 12 hours later. Teams are not allowed to leave their hotel and practice until they have two on-site negative COVID-19 test results on consecutive days, per the NCAA's protocols. Teams will continue to be tested daily while in Erie.

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Pending negative test results, the Bulldogs will get in two practices and a morning skate in Erie prior to Monday's game against Colgate. The Mercyhurst Ice Center will be used for practices on Saturday and Sunday for the four teams playing Monday. Teams won't skate on the ice at Erie Insurance Arena until the day of their quarterfinal game. Mercyhurst Ice Center is also where Monday's quarterfinals winners will practice on Tuesday.

NCAA women's hockey tournament

At Erie Insurance Arena in Erie, Pennsylvania

Quarterfinals

Monday, March 15

1. Northeastern (20-1-1) vs. 8. Robert Morris (16-7-1), 1 p.m. (NCAA.com)

4. Colgate (14-6-1) vs. 5. Minnesota Duluth (11-6), 6 p.m. (NCAA.com)

Tuesday, March 16

2. Wisconsin (13-3-1) vs. 7. Providence (12-7-1), 1 p.m. (NCAA.com)

3. Ohio State (12-5) vs. 6. Boston College (14-5), 6 p.m. (NCAA.com)

Semifinals

Thursday, March 18 at 1 p.m. (ESPN3) and 6 p.m. (ESPNU)

Championship

Saturday, March 20, 6:30 p.m. (ESPNU)