A minute into the game, Minnesota-Duluth's Pernilla Winberg dumped a puck on net from just inside the blue line. The puck ticked off of the glove of UND goalie Jorid Dagfinrud and into the net.
It was a bizarre way for Dagfinrud's shutout streak of 171 minutes, 17 seconds to end, and it spelled the start of disaster for the UND women's hockey team.
UND, wearing its Fighting Sioux jerseys for the final time, lost the Western Collegiate Hockey Association contest 5-1 and the series with the Bulldogs ended in a split.
UND dropped to 12-7-1 overall and 9-6-1 in league play, while Duluth improved to 9-8-1 and 6-7-1.
The next time UND takes the ice for a Jan. 4 game against Lindenwood, it will be wearing jerseys with the interlocking N and D. And UND hopes it will get off to a much better start than it did Sunday afternoon in Ralph Engelstad Arena.
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"It seemed like a harmless shot from just inside the blue line," UND coach Brian Idalski said. "And I think our problems playing from behind are well documented. It seems like quicksand for us. The harder we try, the worse it gets. It's just been an issue. Something we've got to figure out before the second half for sure."
UND trailed 2-0 after the first frame, despite outshooting and outplaying the Bulldogs. After that, Duluth cruised as goaltender Jennifer Harss shut down almost every scoring chance for fifth-ranked UND.
Just as they did in the series opener, Duluth's Canadian Olympian Haley Irwin and UND's American Olympians Jocelyne Lamoureux and Monique Lamoureux-Kolls canceled each other out.
None of the standouts had points on the weekend. For the Lamoureux twins, it marked the first time in their college careers that both of them were held without a point during a weekend series.
UND's lone goal came with just 2:39 to go, when Josefine Jakobsen slammed home a rebound of an Andrea Dalen shot.
"I thought Harss played really well," Idalski said. "She shut the door when we had some chances to climb back in it. She really played solid for them. I thought she was the difference."
Senior Alyssa Wiebe added: "She made some good saves. We know where we're supposed to shoot on her and that didn't happen today."
UND will head to Christmas break in third place in the WCHA and it may be able to retain its top-five ranking.
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"As much as you'd like to go into the break with a win and feeling good about yourself -- something we definitely don't after the effort today -- we're in a decent spot overall," Idalski said. "We had a very demanding first-half schedule. I'd like to think that it has made us a little more battle tested.
"We need to be better back-to-back. We need to sweep at home when we have an opportunity like we did today."
