Penalty Box Post
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Recap: Gophers complete regular season with sweep of Beavers
The Gopher Women's Hockey team concluded their 2020-2021 regular-season schedule with a resounding road sweep of the Bemidji State Beavers, winning by scores of 6-1 and 9-1.
The Gophers started rolling early, as Crystalyn Hengler, Grace Zumwinkle, and Abigail Boreen all lit the lamp in the first 8:37 of Friday's contest. Abbey Murphy extended Minnesota's lead to 4-0 at the 3:58 mark of the second period. Bemidji State's Taylor Nelson found the back of the net later in the second stanza, but Zumwinkle responded with her second goal of the game just 80 seconds later and completed a hat trick with 7 minutes left in regulation.
Another fast start followed for the Gophers on Saturday as Madeline Wethington scored just 48 seconds into the game and Emily Brown made it 2-0 just 86 seconds later. BSU's Paige Anderson responded to make it 2-1 midway through the opening frame, but Murphy and Josey Dunne netted another pair of goals 87 seconds apart before the first intermission. In the second period, Zumwinkle tallied her 4th goal of the series and Hengler added her 2nd. Taylor Heise found the back of the net 21 seconds into the third stanza, and the Gophers added another pair of goals in close succession as Murphy and Amy Potomak lit the lamp just 41 seconds apart; it was Murphy's second goal of the game and 3rd of the weekend.
The Gophers and Beavers each played all three of their respective goaltenders. For Minnesota, Lauren Bench made 15 saves in her return to Bemidji on Friday, Makayla Pahl stopped 6 shots in the first two periods of Saturday's game, and Olivia King made her official collegiate debut, stopping all four shots she faced in one period of work. Kerigan Dowhy started Friday's game for Bemidji State, stopping 15 shots in two periods, and Lexi Baker made 5 saves in the final 20 minutes. Hannah Hogenson started on Saturday, but yielded 4 goals on only 9 shots; Dowhy entered in relief and made another 22 saves over the remainder of the game.
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Zumwinkle, Hengler, Murphy earn conference Player of the Week honors
Three Gophers were honored yesterday by the WCHA for their performances in Bemidji this past weekend. Grace Zumwinkle, Crystalyn Hengler, and Abbey Murphy were respectively named the league's Forward, Defense, and Rookie of the Week after the team's sweep of the Beavers.
Zumwinkle dished out 4 assists to go with her 4 goals, both of which were league highs, for an NCAA-leading 8-point weekend. As noted in the WCHA's press release, this week's honor is the ninth of her career; it's also her second of the season.
Hengler led the NCAA with a +9 plus-minus rating, while being the only WCHA defender to light the lamp twice. Also recording an assist, she tied 3 fellow Gopher blueliners with 3 points apiece. This is the second weekly honor of Hengler's career, with the first coming earlier this season.
In addition to netting 3 goals, Murphy dished out 3 helpers; her 6 points put her second only to Zumwinkle among WCHA players. She led league rookies in all three scoring categories and plus-minus rating, posting a +6. Murphy was previously named Rookie of the Week following the St. Cloud State series in January.
Congratulations Grace, Crystalyn, and Abbey!!!
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Around the WCHA...
While much has been decided for the WCHA playoffs, a lot is still to be determined. We present our "look around the league early" in this week's Penalty Box Post to provide the necessary updates.
Minnesota Duluth sweeps Minnesota State with come-from-behind wins – The MSU Mavericks held third-period leads in both of their road games against UMD, but the Bulldogs scored a pair of late goals in each contest to earn a sweep. Jamie Nelson put Minnesota State up 1-0 in the first period on Saturday, but Gabbie Hughes evened the score for UMD midway through the third and McKenzie Hewett lit the lamp with 4:52 remaining in regulation, resulting in a 2-1 victory. The teams traded goals through the first two periods of Sunday's rematch, and Nelson netted her second goal of the series 3:08 into the third stanza for a 3-2 MSU lead. But Kasundra Betinol netted her first goal of the season on a Bulldogs power play midway through the frame, and Hughes buried the gamewinner with just 3 seconds remaining the regulation for the 4-3 decision.
Upcoming games – The last weekend of the WCHA regular season features a pair of series, both with Friday & Saturday games. In the final action for both teams, Bemidji State will host St. Cloud State at the Sanford Center. Meanwhile, Wisconsin heads north to play at Minnesota Duluth in their only two regular-season meetings. Minnesota State's season is complete, and Ohio State is idle.
Playoff scenarios – With just 4 games remaining on the composite WCHA schedule, the UW-UMD series in Duluth has significant implications on the upcoming Final Faceoff tournament on March 6 & 7 at Ridder Arena, along with the league's regular-season championship.
Minnesota, Minnesota Duluth, Ohio State, and Wisconsin are the confirmed participating teams in the Final Faceoff, but tournament seedings for all four squads are still to be determined. Here's our breakdown of possible scenarios:
If UMD sweeps UW – UMD wins the WCHA title and is the #1 seed, Wisconsin #2, Ohio State #3, and Minnesota #4.
If UMD earns 5 standings points vs. UW – UMD and UW are co-champions, UMD gets the #1 seed (based on head-to-head record), Wisconsin #2, Ohio State #3, and Minnesota #4.
If UMD earns 3 or 4 points vs. UW – Wisconsin wins the WCHA title and is the #1 seed, UMD #2, Ohio State #3, and Minnesota #4.
If UMD earns 2 points vs. UW – Wisconsin is the #1 seed & Minnesota is the #4 seed, while tiebreakers dependent on this weekend's specific game results come into play between UMD and OSU to determine who is #2 and who is #3.
If UMD earns 1 point vs. UW – Wisconsin is the #1 seed, Ohio State #2, UMD #3, and Minnesota #4.
If UW sweeps UMD – Wisconsin is the #1 seed, Ohio State #2, Minnesota #3, and UMD #4.
Standings – 1. Wisconsin, .810 pts%, 34 points in 14 games (11-2-1-0, 1-1 in OT); 2. Minnesota Duluth, .714, 30 pts in 14 gms (10-4-0-0, 1-1); 3. Ohio State, .667, 32 pts in 16 gms (11-5-0-0, 1-0); 4. Minnesota, .632, 36 pts in 19 gms (11-7-1-1, 0-1); 5. Minnesota State, .333, 20 pts in 20 gms (7-12-1-0, 2-0); 6. St. Cloud State, .265, 13.5 pts in 17 gms (4-12-1-0, 1-1, 1 shootout no-decision); 7. Bemidji State, .213, 11.5 pts in 18 gms (2-14-2-1, 2-4, 1 shootout no-decision).
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ESPN announces multi-year agreement to provide coverage of
NCAA D-I Women's Ice Hockey, including 2021 Frozen Four
ESPN announced yesterday a new, multi-year rights agreement for NCAA Division I women’s ice hockey on its family of networks, starting with coverage of the 2021 National Collegiate Women's Frozen Four being played in Erie, PA, on March 18 & 20. The first semifinal game will be streamed on ESPN3, while the second semifinal and the championship game will be broadcast live on ESPNU. All three contests will also be available on the ESPN Mobile App.
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Introducing “The Fan Project” from Sports Innovation Lab
We've heard repeatedly from you, our members and fellow Minnesota Women's Hockey fans, that you want to see more media coverage of the team and the sport. Here's an opportunity to help drive the effort.
The Fan Project is "dedicated to proving to the sports industry that fans want more women's sports." The effort, started by Hockey Hall of Fame member Angela Ruggiero and her company, Sports Innovation Lab, is to collect social media data from fans of women's athletics, parse that data, and generate meaningful and impactful insights that will presented to media companies and executives. Their stated goal indicates, "The more visible that women's sports are, the greater their power is to inspire the next generation. With your data, we'll unlock the power to push executives to increase coverage of women's sports to 10% of all sports coverage in 10 months time."
More details are available on the project's web site, thefanproject.co. Please note that the Power Play Club publicizes this only for informative purposes, and any decision to participate in/with The Fan Project is strictly your own. That said, we point out that both the National Women's Hockey League and the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association are listed as partners of the project.
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