Women's Hockey Gains Tie Against Minnesota-Duluth

Banged up Mavericks tie and lose to UMD; sets up playoff battle with Minnesota

by Dan Myers
February 28, 2006

Already banged up, the Minnesota State women’s hockey team lost yet another vital cog to injury as the Mavericks tied and lost to No. 6 Minnesota-Duluth this past weekend at All Seasons Arena.

After trading goals with UMD in Friday’s opener and earning a hard fought tie with the Bulldogs, MSU trailed Duluth 2-1 midway through the second period. Charging down the ice on a 2-on-1 break, forward Jodi Helminen was hauled down and landed awkwardly on her ankle. Helminen smashed into the boards and was slow to get up. After being helped to the bench, Helminen was brought to the locker room and did not return. It is almost certain she will not play this weekend.

“You could kind of see after that injury our team got a little down,” said Mavericks head coach Jeff Vizenor. “She was probably having her best series in her career so far, and to have another player go down with injury... I think if I had wrote this before the season started nobody would believe me.”

After the injury to Helminen, who had scored the only Maverick goal of the game at 16:41 of the first period, Duluth pulled away with a pair of goals in the second and one more in the third en route to a 5-1 win.

The loss assured the Mavs of a seventh-place finish, but a favorable first round match-up with second-seeded Minnesota, this weekend in the first-round of the WCHA playoffs.