The UND women’s hockey team faced a tough challenge this past weekend when it hosted the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs.

The weekend series was close all the way through — UND posting a 4-3 victory Saturday afternoon and finishing with a 4-3 shootout victory Sunday.

Saturday, North Dakota got on the board first when freshman Gracen Hirschy tallied her second goal of the season to give North Dakota the edge.

UND’s advantage was short-lived, however, as UMB tied it up just 30 seconds later.

UMD then took the lead on a powerplay goal just before the first period ended — leaving North Dakota to begin the second period down 2-1.

The Bulldogs took control of the second period when they added another goal to their lead to make it 3-1. With both teams’ efforts silenced for the remainder of the period, the third period opened up scoring for UND as it began its comeback.

UND scored two straight goals in the beginning of the period by sophomores Becca Kohler and Sam Lashomb. The scoreboard revealed a tie at 3-3 until the seven minute mark when UND junior Josefine Jakobsen scored the fourth and final goal of the game for the Green and White.

Back for a win

Sunday’s game also featured a comeback in North Dakota’s favor.

UND started out on top with Hirschy scoring her third goal of the season and the Green and White’s  first of the game.

While the Green and White secured a 2-0 lead during the second period thanks to a goal by freshman Susanna Tapini, it did not last long.

UMD responded about a minute later to make it 2-1. That was not the end of its scoring as it quickly scored two consecutive goals before the period ended to give it a 3-2 lead.

But UND did not give up as Jakobsen scored the game-tying goal to put the Green and White back in the game.

The buzzed sounded, and neither team could execute in overtime.

The winner was decided in a shootout. Tapani put the puck in the back of the net to award North Dakota the shootout win.

“You know it was a heck of a hockey game,” UND coach Brian Idalski said. “We’re gonna take the points, we still have things to work on. We’re still a young club, that’s a solid Duluth team and they’re going to beat a lot of people this year. We’ll be happy with that, we’ll keep doing some of the things we did well and we’ll start working on some of the things not so well.”

UND will move on to face Ohio State this weekend. The games will be Friday and Saturday night at 7:07 p.m. at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

Mariah Holland is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected]