Women's Varsity Shuts Out St. Norbert for NCHA Playoff Title

The Women’s Varsity team took on the St. Norbert Green Knights for the NCHA playoff title, the SLAATS Cup, on Sunday, March 6th at Arrington Ice Arena.

The first two periods saw plenty of shots both ways, however, neither team found the back of the net in the first forty minutes of play. Freshman Shelly Czarnowczan would score the first goal of the game off of a shot from the point on the powerplay to give the Bulldogs the lead. Czarnowczan’s second career goal was assisted by Brooke Lupi. Czarnowczan’s goal would come at the 11:49 mark of the final frame. Two minutes later, Lupi was assessed a five minute major and a DQ for kicking. The two teams would play 4-on-4 hockey for 1:14 before the Bulldogs would be down a skater for 3:46 of the remaining 5 minutes of the game.

The Bulldogs would successfully kill of the five minute major and the Green Knights would pull their goaltender with less than two minutes to go in the game. Captain Kaylyn Schroka would send home the empty net goal to give the Bulldogs a comfortable 2 goal lead. The real dagger, however, would come at the 19:48 mark when the Knights received the final penalty of the game.

With the 2-0 victory, the Bulldogs win their first SLAATS Cup and second NCHA Playoff title in their 9 year program history. The Bulldogs will now head to the NCAA Quarterfinals in the next few weeks, game times, locations, and opponents will be announced this coming week.

Bulldog forwards Kaylyn Schroka, Kristin Lewicki, and defenseman Shelly Czarnowczan would all be named to the all tournament team and goaltender Jade Walsh would be named the NCHA Playoff Tournament MVP.