MN Hockey News

Minneapolis -- Saturday afternoon marked the eighth time in school history that the University of Minnesota made it to the NCAA Women's Ice Hockey Tournament.  Their first appearance in the national tournament came back in 2002, and since the field expanded to eight in 2005, Minnesota has only missed one year in 2007.  Including this season, the Gophers have never traveled during NCAA regional competition, hosting all five quarterfinals at Ridder Arena, which is also the site for this years Frozen Four.

Last weekend in the WCHA Final Face Off, Minnesota needed double-overtime to get past Ohio State 5-4, and lost in the championship game to Minnesota-Duluth 3-2.  That loss dropped the Gophers overall record to 25-8-5, 18-6-4 in league play, and the WCHA Co-Champs earned a number three seed in the NCAA Tourney.

On the other side of the ice, the Clarkson Golden Knights finished the regular season 23-11-5 overall, and enjoyed their best season ever in the ECAC finishing second with a 14-5-3 conference record.  After defeating Harvard 3-2 in the semifinals of the ECAC Tournament, the Golden Knights lost to regular season champion Cornell in the tournament championship game 4-3 in overtime.  Despite the loss, Clarkson earned an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament, their first ever appearance in school history.

Both teams played a weekend series earlier this season after Thanksgiving on November 27 and 28, with Minnesota getting the shutout sweep 4-0 and 2-0.  Freshman Finnish goaltender Noora Raty made 41 saves in net for the pair of out shutouts, while Emily West scored three goals, Brittany Francis scored a goal and assist, and Anne Schleper had two assists on the weekend.  Following that series the Golden Knights went 7-1-2 in their next 10 games, which included a tie and loss to Mercyhurst who's been the Number 1 team in the country for almost the whole season.

Junior Emily West got the Gophers off to a fast start as Minnesota won the opening face-off and the winger from Colorado Springs, Colorado got the first of her game leading 11 shots on goal just :12 seconds into the opening period.  West, along with freshman Megan Bozek set up the Gophers first goal at 14:19 of the first period  feeding Brittany Francis down low on the right side, and her wrister trickled in off the pad of Clarkson goaltender Lauren Dahm to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead heading into the first intermission.

It appeared as though the Golden Knights had tied it up 1-1 at 15:29 of the second period.  The puck was loose in-front of the crease and it found it's way to the back of the net past Gopher netminder Noora Raty, but upon further review Danielle Boudreau kicked it in and ruled no goal as it remained a 1-0 Minnesota lead.

Following her three goals earlier in the season against Clarkson, Emily West made it four in three games when she scored her 21st of the season 17:36 into the second period.  Sophomore Sarah Erickson let off a slapper from the right face-off circle, and the centre's shot rebounded to West who put the garbage back in the basket for a 2-0 Gopher lead which they carried into the second intermission.

Just under halfway through the third period, the Golden Knights caught a break as they took advantage of a 2-on-1 breakaway with Canadian senior Britney Selina feeding fellow countrywomen Melissa Waldie for the junior's 18th tally of the season at 9:51.

With less than two-minutes remaining it looked like Minnesota had the game won and just needed to roll out a few more shifts, but Clarkson sophomore Juana Baribeau got off a laser from just inside the blue-line that went over Noora Raty's shoulder to tie the game 2-2.  In the post-game press conference Gopher head coach Brad Frost said that out of a million times, that shot gets past Raty maybe once.

For the third straight weekend Minnesota played an overtime game, as last weeked they beat Ohio State in double-ot and Minnesota State in Triple-ot the weekend before.  The Golden Knights though were no stranger to the extra period, as they lost to Cornell last weekend in overtime, and closed out the regular season playing three of their last four games in OT.

Emily West made sure it stayed a early night as she scored her second goal of the game 3:09 into overtime as the Gophers defeated Clarkson 3-2 to advance to the Frozen Four next Friday at Ridder Arena.  Noora Raty made 37 saves, as the Patty Kazmaier finalist improved her record to 18-3-4 on the season.  Raty is only the second ever freshman named a top-three finalist for women college hockey's top honor joining Mercyhurst forward Vicki Bendus and New Hampshire forward Kelly Paton.  The other freshman was Megan Agosta of Mercyhurst in 2007.

With Minnesota-Duluth's 2-1 win over New Hampshire earlier in the day, that means Minnesota will have re-match with UMD, as the Bulldogs beat the Gophers last Sunday 3-2 in the WCHA championship game.  The other Frozen Four game will feature the Number One team in women's college hockey, Mercyhurst, versus Cornell.  Friday's games at Ridder Arena will be at 5 and 8pm, with the announcement to come on Sunday or Monday with the Match-ups, but it's expected that the Gophers will play the 8pm game.  The Winners will then advance onto the National Championship game next Sunday at Noon 

THREE STARS:

1--Minnesota--Winger--Emily West

2--Minnesota--Winger--Brittany Francis

3--Clarkson--Winger--Melissa Waldie

SCORING:

CLARK  0-0-2-0

MINN  1-1-0-1

1--1419--MINN--PP--Brittany Francis/13  (Emily West/22, Megan Bozek/18)

2--1736--MINN--EV--Emily West/21  (Sarah Erickson/22) 

3--952--CLARK--EV--Melissa Waldie/18 (Britney Selina/26, Carlee Eusepi/13)

3--1816--CLARK--EV--Juana Baribeau/18 (Danielle Boudreau/4)

OT--309--MINN--EV--Emily West/22  (Unassisted)

GOALIE STATS:

CLARK--Lauren Dahm  (Loss, 23-11-5)  63:09-MIN,  3-GA,  32-SV (13-10-9-0)

MINN--Noora Raty  (WIN, 18-3-4)  63:09-MIN,  2-GA,  37-SV  (12-11-12-2)

PENALTIES:

1--657--MINN--Brittany Francis--2min--Hooking

1--900--CLARK--Tegan Schroeder--2min--Interference

1--1315--CLARK--Tegan Schrieder--2min--Tripping

1--1523--MINN--Anne Schleper--2min--Interference

2--259--MINN--Kelly Seeler--2min--High Sticking

2--259--CLARK--Danielle Skirrow--2min--Tripping

2--1352--MINN--Kelly Seeler--2min--High Sticking

2--1858--CLARK--Brittany Francis--2min--Interference

3--036--CLARK--Juana Baribeau--2min--Tripping

3--1336--MINN--Megan Bozek--2min--Cross Checking

Clarkson  5--10 Minutes

Minnesota  6--12 Minutes

MISC STATS:

Shots on Goal:  CLARK  39 (12-11-14-2),  MINN  35 (14-11-9-1) 

Power Play Goals - Attempts (Shots):  CLARK  0-5 (6),  MINN  1-4 (7)

Face Off Pct. (Won-Lost):  CLARK  50% (35-25),  MINN  50% (35-35)