UMD women: Top line powers Bulldogs to New Year's sweep at Harvard

Minnesota Duluth senior center Gabbie Hughes scored two goals for the second game in a row while her linemate, fifth-year senior wing Elizabeth Giguere, finished with four points as the No. 7 Bulldogs completed a nonconference, New Year’s weekend sweep of No. 10 Harvard with a 4-3 victory Saturday at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Giguere, an ECAC rival of the Crimson dating back to her four seasons at Clarkson, finished with a goal and three assists on New Year’s Day after posting two assists in Friday’s 5-2 win for the Bulldogs on New Year’s Eve.

In eight career games against Harvard as a Bulldog and Golden Knight, Giguere now has 16 points via six goals and 10 assists.

“It's just awesome to see,” Crowell said of Giguere’s weekend. “I don't know if it was a former ECAC foe or just coming off a little break after Christmas, but I certainly liked the way she played this whole weekend.”

Trailing 2-1 late in the second period, Giguere tied the game with her 10th goal of the season at the 15:03 mark. She then fed senior wing and linemate Anna Klein for a goal 76 seconds later to put the Bulldogs on top 3-2.

Hughes, who had two goals on New Year’s Eve, tied the game at 1-1 in the first via a slap shot on the power play 15:18 into the first. Harvard had taken a 1-0 lead three minutes prior to that with its one and only even-strength goal of the holiday series.

Hughes scored her 14th goal and 33rd point of the season 5:29 into the third via a pass from Giguere to give UMD a 4-2 advantage. Hughes finished the weekend with four goals and an assist to boost her nation-leading points per game average to 1.83 points per game.

Between Hughes, Giguere and Klein, UMD’s top forward line finished with eight points Saturday and 15 total points — 7 goals, 8 assists — in the weekend sweep.

“I would credit our first line with showing up huge this weekend,” Crowell said. “Obviously all over the score sheet, but the work ethic behind it, I think is what sends a message to the rest of our team. This is what we expect. This is how hard you have to play, especially against top 10 teams.”

Harvard’s goals came from Dominique Petrie in the first, Taze Thompson on a power play in the second and from Kristi Della Rovere on a power play with 8:31 to play in the third.

Bulldogs senior goaltender Emma Soderberg made 23 saves while Harvard got 29 stops from goalie Becky Dutton.

UMD returns to WCHA play next weekend at St. Cloud State.