UMD’s Emma Soderberg Returns Home After Olympic Run with Sweden

Soderberg finished with an Olympic-high 167 saves to help her country clinch a spot in the quarterfinals.

DULUTH, Minn. – This week, the UMD women’s hockey team welcomed back goaltender Emma Soderberg, who was over in Beijing representing Sweden in the Winter Olympics.

Soderberg finished with an Olympic-high 167 saves to help her country clinch a spot in the quarterfinals. But now she says it’s time to get back to work.

“I’ve been trying to rip the band-aid off in getting to my routine as soon as possible for both hockey and school. I came back yesterday, but I hitting the ice for a goalie session today with Lou so that’s going to be good. Just like trying to get back into things as fast as possible,” Soderberg said.

In her absence, Jojo Chobak has been a breakout star for UMD with a pair of road shutouts over Ohio State and Wisconsin. Head coach Maura Crowell says who starts this weekend against St. Cloud State is still up in the air.

“Jojo and Sods are great team players and they’ll back each other in whatever decision we make as coaches. I know they’ll be 100% behind it. But I think it’s a great situation from a coaching perspective. I know we have two very capable goalies and we’ll make the decisions that we feel is best for the team in the moment,” Crowell said.

The penultimate game of the regular season will be Friday at Amsoil Arena. Puck drop is set for 3 p.m.