Colgate netminder Hannah Murphy discusses her final season in the NCAA and her pro hockey aspirations. With only three weeks remaining in the NCAA women's hockey schedule, the nation's top teams continued winning this weekend. WISCONSIN FACES TOUGH TEST IN MINNESOTA-DULUTH Top ranked Wisconsin faced perhaps their toughest test of the season in back-to-back 2-1 wins over the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Early in the name, Grace Sadura tipped a shot by Ava McNaughton to give UMD a 1-0 lead. Marianne Picard tied things up for Wisconsin beating Ève Gascon on a shot from the right face-off circle. Heading to overtime, it was Kirsten Simms who played the hero taking a cross ice pass from Casey O'Brien, before capitalizing on her own rebound. “I had Casey [O’Brien] on the other side of me. Typically I like to pass but she was screaming at me to shoot so I had to take the shot and the rebound was there so I kept at it a couple times and it ended up going in," Simms said following the game. Game two of their weekend series started the same as game one with Olivia Mobley opening the scoring for Minnesota-Duluth. Laila Edwards and Sarah Wozniewicz scored third period markers to lift Wisconsin to the win. OHIO STATE AND MINNESOTA SPLIT The number two and three teams in the nation split their weekend series with Minnesota winning game one 3-1 Friday night. Ella Huber scored twice while Abbey Murphy recorded the insurance marker for the Golden Gophers in a big win for the program. "What a great win," said head coach Brad Frost following the game.. "Just loved how our team played really structured. Worked really hard, blocked a ton of shots, made good, strong, hard plays." Game two was a reversal seeing the Ohio State Buckeyes explode offensively in a 7-3 win, highlighted by a Sloane Matthews second period hat trick. Rookie defender Mira Jungåker continued her strong campaign after missing the first half of the season due to injury. She had a goal and added an assist. COLGATE SWEEPS WEEKEND WITH OT WINS Colgate snapped out of their funk with a pair of hard fought overtime wins on the weekend beating Clarkson 2-1 and St. Lawrence 3-2. “We’re happy to come out of this weekend with two wins,” Colgate head coach Stefan Decosse said. “We showed a lot of resolve and resilience this weekend, but we haven’t arrived and there’s much for us to continue to learn. All in all, I’m just so proud of our effort and the way we stuck together in tough times to come through with two wins.” Elysse Biederman scored the winner in extra time against St. Lawrence. Facing Clarkson the night before, Hannah Murphy stopped a career-high 55 shots, Alexis Petford tied the game with only 10 seconds left in regulation, and Kaia Malachino drilled the game-winner in overtime in a thrilling contest. IVY LEAGUE TEAMS DOMINATE Cornell and Princeton both won a pair of games this weekend showing why they are not programs to sleep on heading into the final weeks of the NCAA women's hockey season. On Friday, Cornell shutout St. Lawrence 6-0 with Ashley Messier scoring a pair of goals from the blueline and Annelies Bergmann stopping 20 shots for the shutout. Cornell followed that decisive win by edging Clarkson 2-1. Rory Guilday and Gabbie Rud each scored their second goals of the weekend in the victory. Princeton continued to quietly impress as the program kept winning beating Dartmouth and Harvard in weekend action. Issy Wunder had two goals and an assist on the weekend, while rookie sensation Mackenzie Alexander notched a goal and two assists in the wins.
