Senior forward Taylor Anderson scored a goal in the first period and another in the third, and Emma Soderberg stopped 16 shots as No. 7 Minnesota Duluth beat Clarkson 2-0 on Thursday night at Ridder Arena in a first-round women's hockey game of the Minneapolis Regional.
The shutout by Soderberg was her NCAA-leading 12th of the season — and third of her career in an NCAA tournament game. Michelle Pasiechnyk had 25 stops for the No. 9 Golden Knights (29-11-2).
"I thought they played well, Clarkson has a lot of skilled players," said UMD coach Maura Crowell, whose teams are now 3-1 in NCAA first round or quarterfinal games. "They brought the heat right away, but I like the way we settled in.
"We will play whatever game we have to, we've been in 1-0 games, 2-0 games and we've won by larger margins. In these games, when they are tight and you're playing a team you aren't familiar with, it is challenging at times. But that's kind of been our way, we are battle tested and that's what makes us so good in these games is the ability to close it out."
Anderson's first goal, a second shy of six minutes into the game, came on a long rebound after Gabby Krause's shot on goal from the right circle. Her second goal of the game — and seventh of the season — came at 3:23 of the third from the top of the left faceoff circle with three seconds left on a power play.
UMD also had a goal waived off earlier in the third period.
The victory for the Bulldogs (26-9-3) advances them to the regional final against the No. 2 Gophers (29-5-3) at 2 p.m. Saturday at Ridder.
