UMD Women’s Hockey to Meet Northeastern in National Semi-Final Rematch

Puck drop Friday is set for 2:30 p.m. at the Pegula Ice Arena on the campus of Penn State University.

DULUTH, Minn. – The UMD women’s hockey team is in en route to their ninth-ever Frozen Four, a place where they’ve had a lot of success historically with an 11-3 record, including 5-3 in the semi-finals. And that’s where they’ll meet a familiar opponent.

The Bulldogs will face Northeastern, the team that knocked off UMD in last year’s semi-finals. It was a controversial finish that saw the Huskies win in overtime. But the Bulldogs say this time around, they’re expecting to flip the script.

“Just throughout this past year, we have so much more confidence. And last year, I think it was like such a big deal to make it to the Frozen Four and this year were like, ‘that’s not good enough. We want to win the whole thing.’ It’s just fun to play a team that you’ve played before and try and get revenge. We’re all so pumped up to play them,” said team captain Anna Klein.

“When people kind of count us out, that’s when we are like, ‘all right, well, prove you wrong and we’ll show you, what kind of team we are.’ And I think we know what kind of team we are inside the locker room so what people are saying outside doesn’t really matter to us. If they say that we’re the underdog, that’s their problem when we come out and we’ll beat them,” senior forward Naomi Rogge said.

Northeastern is led by superstar goalie Aerin Frankel, who won the Patty Kazmaier award last season.

“You look at her and her height isn’t something that you’re gonna write about. But she’s super athletic, has amazing instincts, has a great team in front of her too that allows her to see things and get to things and she has tons of confidence. I think confidence is such an important piece of playing your best,” head coach Maura Crowell said.

Puck drop Friday is set for 2:30 p.m. at the Pegula Ice Arena on the campus of Penn State University.