Power Play Club Board of Directors meeting - Wednesday, April 10 – at 7 p.m. via Zoom
The Power Play Club Board of Directors will be meeting online via Zoom on Wednesday, April 10, at 7:00 p.m. Board meetings are open to all enrolled PPC members to attend; 2023-2024 registration applies for off-season meetings, and you can contact club president Bill Johnson at billjohnson013@gmail.com for connection information.
2024 IIHF Women's World Championship – Utica, NY
USA defeats Canada for #1 seed in playoffs, Germany & Sweden advance out of Group B
The U.S. Women's National Team will be the top seed for the playoff round at the 2024 IIHF Women's World Championship following its 1-0 overtime victory over Canada last night in the final preliminary-round contest for both squads. Both squads were undefeated coming into the matchup, with respective wins over Czechia, Switzerland, and Finland (all game recaps here).
In last night's battle, Kirsten Simms buried the overtime gamewinner past Canadian netminder Ann-Renee Desbiens 3:38 into the extra session after the teams played a scoreless draw through regulation. Caroline Harvey got the lone assist. At the other end of the ice, Aerin Frankel posted a 26-save shutout; Desbiens finished with 29 saves, including 6 earlier in overtime. The game was played in front of an Adirondack Bank Center record crowd of 4,017 spectators.
Team USA's opponent for their quarterfinal game on Thursday (April 11) is still to be determined. Canada, as Group A runner-up, will be the #2 seed for the playoff round and will face Group B runner-up Sweden, who advanced by going 3-1 in their four preliminary contests. Germany also advanced, winning Group B with a 3-0 record through their first three games, including defeating Sweden 1-0 yesterday. Germany and five of the other teams are concluding preliminary-round action today (Tuesday, April 9) to fill out the rest of the quarterfinal bracket and determine which teams will be relegated; watch our social media accounts for updates.
Gophers at the World Championship – Quickly summarizing how our U. of M. representatives are doing at the World Championship:
Josefin Bouveng (SWE) – 4 goals (current tournament leader), 1 assist, 5 points
Taylor Heise (USA) – 2 goals, 1 assist, 3 points
Abbey Murphy (USA) – 1 goal, 2 assists, 3 points
Nelli Laitinen (FIN) – 2 assists, 2 points
Kelly Pannek (USA) – No scoring, even plus-minus rating
Grace Zumwinkle (USA) – serving as an alternate and has not played
Jim Scanlan stepping down as BSU Beavers Head Coach
In NCAA & WCHA news breaking yesterday, it was announced that Jim Scanlan is stepping down as head coach of the Bemidji State University Beavers women's hockey team, having led them the past 10 seasons. He compiled a 122-202-23 (.385) career record at BSU during that time, earning USCHO.com National Coach of the Year and WCHA Coach of the Year honors for the 2014-2015 season and leading the team to a school-record 22 wins in 2015-2016.
We send warm wishes to Coach Scanlan following this announcement.
No additional announcements on a replacement or of a search have been made at this time. We will share any news as it becomes available.
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