Olympic years have a way of evening things out in women's college hockey.
The top players leave for the year and the traditional powers can't put things on cruise control, like they often are able to in other years.
Nobody has to tell Minnesota-Duluth coach Shannon Miller these facts.
The Bulldogs are a far different team than they were a year ago when they ousted UND in the first round of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs.
Their top five scorers from that team are not on the roster this fall. Four of them have college eligibility left, but are centralized with their country's Olympic squads. One of their goalies from last season graduated. The other is centralized with the Swedish team.
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There are two more players who will join Finland's Olympic team come February and miss a month of the season, including Saara Tuominen, who entered the season with more career points than anybody in the country.
In all, 58 percent of Minnesota-Duluth's scoring from last season will not be in the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center this weekend when the Sioux visit for a two-game series (7:07 tonight, 7:07 p.m. Saturday).
So far, the Bulldogs have been up-and-down. They split at home with Robert Morris to open the regular season. Then, they swept St. Cloud State at the DECC and lost a pair at Ridder Arena against Minnesota.
"Their top line is still three kids who have won a national championship," UND coach Brian Idalski said. "They've still got a bunch of good players."
The Sioux, who earned a shutout win over the Bulldogs in the DECC a season ago, are hoping to get their season jump-started in Duluth.
After opening the season by beating defending national champion Wisconsin -- another team that has been hit hard by the Olympic year -- the Sioux are 0-2-1. UND has scored just three goals in the last three games and is looking to get some production from the power play, which enters the weekend without a goal in 24 chances on the year.
Duluth also has struggled on the power play this season, scoring on just 1 of 27 chances, while giving up two shorthanded goals.
"I don't think anybody's power play is clicking," Idalski said. "When you take away kids who are that high of a caliber of players, and kids who are always finishing off plays, it's a little bit different.
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"We'd like to get back on track. We've been disappointed with outcomes against Mankato at home two years in a row now. We felt that we outplayed them and outchanced them, but they did what they needed to do to come out and get points. We'd like to get back and have a nice weekend."
Reach Schlossman at (701) 780-1129; (800) 477-6572, ext. 129; or send e-mail to bschlossman@gfherald.com .
