Soderberg becomes Bulldogs all-time leader in career shutouts, UMD blanks Beavers 6-0

BEMIDJI — Minnesota Duluth fifth-year senior goaltender Emma Soderberg became the program’s all-time leader in shutouts Friday, making 12 saves for the 21st of her career as the Bulldogs rolled over Bemidji State 6-0 in WCHA play at the Sanford Center in Bemidji.

It was Soderberg’s third shutout in four games and 10th of the season, tying the UMD single-season record of 10 in 2014-15 by Kayla Black, who is now second in career shutouts with 20. Friday’s win was UMD’s 12th shutout as a team, with also ties the single-season record for the program.

“It couldn't happen to a better person,” UMD coach Maura Crowell said of Soderberg’s record. “I just adore that kid and everybody does. We're so happy for her. It's a special moment and that's roughly a quarter of her games are shutouts. That's ridiculous.”

With 21 shutouts in 82 career games, Soderberg has posted a shutout now once in every 3.9 games, and they’ve come in a variety of ways.

Soderberg has averaged 18.67 saves per shutout, making as few as eight saves on Jan. 14, 2023, vs. Bemidji State at Amsoil Arena and as many as 34 on Jan. 15, 2021, vs. Ohio State at Amsoil.

Two of Soderberg’s 21 shutouts have come in the NCAA tournament, including 30 stops against Colgate in the quarterfinals in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 2021 and 27 last year against Harvard in a first-round game in Minneapolis.

All 21 of Soderberg’s career shutouts have come during her three seasons as a starter, though, she’s played just 73 games over the last three seasons because of COVID-19 delaying the start of 2020-21 and her month-plus long absence in 2021-22 to backstop Sweden at the Olympics in Beijing.

Soderberg played in just nine games her first two years at UMD while backing up United States Olympic gold medalist Maddie Rooney.

“Just thinking back to the first two years where she sat behind Maddie and waited her for her opportunity, she just took it and ran with it,” Crowell said. “What she has done for our program with the back-to-back Frozen Fours, those certainly don't happen without her, and what we're trying to do this year. She's everything.”

Unlike her two previous shutouts — a 2-0 win and 0-0 overtime tie — Soderberg got plenty of goal support on Friday. Sixth-year senior forward Naomi Rogge and sophomore forward Mary Kate O’Brien both scored twice for the Bulldogs while fifth-year seniors Anneke Linser and Ashton Bell also scored.

UMD netted five goals in the second period, including three during a five-minute power play that came via a successful coach’s challenge by Crowell that turned a roughing minor on Bemidji State’s Gabbie Smith into a major and game misconduct for contact to the head.

Rogge finished the game with three points while O’Brien, Bell and fifth-year senior defenseman Maggie Flaherty all had two points.

Bell is now tied with with Jessica Wong and Julianne Vasichek for fourth in career points by a defenseman at 77 and alone in second for career goals by a defenseman at 26. Fifth-year senior forward Gabbie Hughes, who picked up her 130th career assist, is alone in third in career assists by a Bulldog. Flaherty is fifth in career assists by a defenseman at 58.