Minnesota Duluth eyes first NCAA women's hockey title since 2010

The NCAA first held a women's hockey tournament in 2001, and the first national power in the sport was Minnesota Duluth, which won the first three championships and added two more by the end of the 2009-10 season.

Twelve years later, the Bulldogs have a chance to add to their national championship haul. On Sunday, eighth-ranked Minnesota Duluth will try to cap its impressive NCAA tournament run with a win against top-ranked Ohio State in the Frozen Four championship game in State College, Pa. The 3 p.m. game will air on ESPNU.

Minnesota Duluth (27-12-1) has gotten hot at the perfect time, blanking Harvard 4-0 in the NCAA first round, beating the No. 2-ranked Gophers 2-1 in the Minneapolis Regional final and following that up with a 2-1 double-overtime thriller over No. 3 Northeastern in the Frozen Four semifinals on Friday.

UMD coach Maura Crowell doesn't view her team as an underdog, calling the Bulldogs "underrated and a little underappreciated,'' after the NCAA win over the Gophers.

The record shows UMD can go toe-to-toe with national powers. The Bulldogs split six games with Minnesota and four with Ohio State. And they avenged last year's Frozen Four semifinal loss to Northeastern on Friday, when Naomi Rogge scored 18:15 into the second overtime.

Goalie Emma Soderberg has been outstanding, making 46 saves against Northeastern, 37 against the Gophers and 27 against Harvard. The Bulldogs also boast a dangerous top line of Gabbie Hughes, a Patty Kazmaier Award finalist; Elizabeth Giguere, the 2020 Kazmaier winner at Clarkson; and Anna Klein, a 2021 All-America selection. The trio has combined for 62 goals and 107 assists.

Ohio State (31-6) needed two overtimes to edge Quinnipiac in a regional final and beat Yale 2-1 in the Frozen Four semifinals. The Buckeyes have won nine consecutive games, and defenseman Sophie Jaques, a Kazmaier finalist, has 21 goals and 38 assists this season.