Five years removed from its last NCAA national championship — at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center, no less — the University of Minnesota Duluth women’s hockey team is the NCAA champions once more.

The Bulldogs dominated the University of Wisconsin, which they faced just one year ago in the 2007 title game, 4-0 to earn UMD’s fourth Frozen Four championship in only the eighth year of NCAA women’s hockey existence.

“Today we pulled together almost a perfect hockey game for 60 minutes,” said head coach Shannon Miller, who is now 4-1 in the title game over her career. “We have such a young team. Every single time there was a hurdle in front of us, we cleared it. Every time there was a wall, we went around it. And when you watch your team do that, you know you can win a national championship.”

UMD had five players named by the media to the 2008 Frozen Four All-Tournament team. Forwards Fridfinnson and O’Toole, defensmen Myriam Trepanier and Heidi Pelttari, and of course, netminder Martin. It also marks the most Bulldogs ever to be named to a Frozen Four All-Tournament team in the program’s five visit history.

The Bulldogs, who close out their 2007-2008 season with a record of 34-3-1, the best ever by a UMD squad, will no doubt relish their impressive season and its perfect ending for weeks to come.

“It’s unbelievable, it’s like a dream,” said lone senior Demeule after securing herself a piece of Bulldog title immortality. “A lot of players wish for this. I got to win a national championship at home. It’s perfect. It’s like a dream.”

Only this time, Demeule, and the rest of her Bulldogs, are wide awake, holding the 2008 NCAA national championship trophy.

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–Excerpt courtesy UMD Athletics