Minnesota Duluth defender Tova Henderson went into the series against the Gophers women’s hockey team with one goal in the Bulldogs’ first 32 games.
Her second and third goals of the season lifted the No. 10 Bulldogs to a pair of overtime victories over the No. 3 Gophers.
Henderson scored 1 minute, 47 seconds into the overtime Saturday, Feb. 21, to give the Bulldogs’ a 2-1 victory over the Gophers at Ridder Arena. A day earlier, the senior from British Columbia scored with 1:41 remaining in the overtime to give UMD a 3-2 victory.
“It’s one of those things where you get to overtime and it’s three-on-three — anything can happen — and unfortunately we were on the wrong end of it today,” Gophers coach Brad Frost told reporters.
The Bulldogs (19-12-3, 15-10-3 WCHA), who went into the series with a seven-game losing streak against the Gophers, finished the WCHA regular season with sweeps of Bemidji State, St. Thomas and the Gophers. The series-opening victory was the Bulldogs’ first at Ridder Arena since March 2022.
The loss extended the Gophers’ winless streak to five games (0-4-1).
“We hated the loss, but we really liked our game today,” Frost said. “It’s the first time we’ve given up two goals or less all year and not won. We out-chanced them and outshot them by a large margin in the second and third periods. We hit the crossbar in overtime and they came down and scored.”
Caitlin Kraemer, who assisted on Henderson’s game-winner, gave UMD a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal with 1:57 left in the first period. Henderson and Mary Kate O’Brien assisted on Kraemer’s goal.
