The Penalty Box Post
Wednesday, February 23rd
Goals for a Goal: Gophers enter postseason with 152 goals!
The Gopher Women's Hockey team finished the regular season with 152 goals, nineteen (19) of which came on the power play!!
We send our thanks to everyone who has enrolled into the Power Play Club's Goals for a Goal campaign this year, submitting a pledge for every goal scored by the Gophers! But there's still plenty of time to make a pledge if you haven't done so. Additionally, we provide a reminder that goals scored in the postseason will be included in this year's final count. The collected funds will be used to support the squad's participation in a regular-season tournament in Las Vegas in 2022-2023. We encourage you to make your pledge online, or download the pledge form here and mail it in to the Golden Gopher Fund. The GGF will send out invoices following the end of the season.
GWH Online Auction recap
Additional thanks go to everyone who participated in the Gopher Women's Hockey online auction earlier this month. The auction netted $3,877 in support of the team!
The Minnesota Golden Gophers are 2021-2022 WCHA Regular-Season Champions!!
WCHA Quarterfinals - Best 2 out of 3 games
#1-seed Minnesota Golden Gophers (26-7-1, 21-6-1-1 WCHA)
vs. #8-seed St. Thomas Tommies (5-25-1, 3-23-1-0 WCHA)
Friday, February 25 at 6:00 p.m.
Saturday, Feburary 26 at 4:00 p.m.
Sunday, February 27 at 2:00 p.m. (if necessary) - at Ridder Arena
After completing the regular season against the University of St. Thomas Tommies, the Gopher Women's Hockey team will face them again to begin the WCHA playoffs. The best two-out-of-three-game quarterfinal series at Ridder Arena will open on Friday, February 25 at 6:00 p.m., then continue on Saturday, February 26 at 4:00 p.m. and (if necessary) Sunday, February 27 at 2:00 p.m.
Gophers earn WCHA regular-season crown with sweep of Tommies – Minnesota cruised in their final two regular-season contests, defeating St. Thomas with a pair of 7-1 results. Sixteen (16) different Gophers recorded a point in the series. The top line of Abigail Boreen, Taylor Heise, and Catie Skaja posted 15 points over the weekend; Boreen led all scorers with a 6-point effort on a goal and 5 assists, Heise lit the lamp 3 times and added two helpers for 5 points, and Skaja tacked on a goal and 3 assists. Three others each tallied 3 points – Ella Huber (2g, 1a), Peyton Hemp (1g, 2a), and Audrey Wethington (3a). Savannah Norcross also lit the lamp twice on Saturday. Skylar Vetter and Lauren Bench each made 11 saves in their respective starts. Maddy Clough & Luci Bianchi tallied for the Tommies. UST goaltender Alexa Dobchuk stopped 98 shots in 108 minutes of action, while Eryn Cooley made 13 saves in a 12-minute relief appearance on Thursday.
Tommies analysis update – With an assist on Thursday, freshman Abby Promersberger (#11) retained the Tommies' overall scoring lead with 13 points on 5 goals and 8 helpers, also bringing her into a tie with senior Anna Solheim (#19) for the assists lead (Solheim has 2 goals for 10 points). Juniors Allie Monrean (#14) and Luci Bianchi (#15) have each lit the lamp a team-high 6 times; Monrean has 5 assists for 11 points, while Bianchi has dished out 3 assists for 9 points.
Senior Alexa Dobchuk (#30) posted a new personal-best 59 saves in Saturday's game against the Gophers, but her record this season fell to 2-19-1 with a 4.50 goals-against average and an .896 save percentage. Fellow senior Eryn Cooley (#35) has now stopped 38 of 43 shots faced in just over 47 minutes of action across five relief appearances. Freshman Saskia Maurer's availability for this weekend is unknown; as noted last week, she has a 3-6-0 record in her 9 starts, with a 3.16 GAA and .917 SV%.
Huber earns conference honor for final regular-season weekend
Gopher Women's Hockey freshman Ella Huber was named WCHA Rookie of the Week for her performance against St. Thomas to conclude the regular season. In the finale on Saturday, Huber lit the lamp twice for her first career multi-goal game, also dished out an assist, and recorded a +3 plus-minus rating in the contest. Her effort also garnered additional recognition from the league as the Howies Hockey Tape Performance of the Week! Congratulations, Ella!!
Heise reaches 60-point season, surpasses 150 career points
With 3 goals and 2 assists this past weekend, Minnesota Women's Hockey senior Taylor Heise reached the 60-point mark for the season, becoming the first Gopher to do so since Kelly Pannek in 2016-2017. Heise currently leads the nation in total points scored & points-per-game (among those playing 20+ games), and her 26 goals are tied for the national lead as well. Additionally, with her assist on the opening goal last Thursday night, Heise reached the 150-point mark for her collegiate career; she now sits at 154 points on 64 goals and 90 assists. Congratulations, Taylor!!
With 52 points of her own, Abigail Boreen joins Heise as the first Gopher duo to both reach the 50-point mark in the same season since Pannek & Sarah Potomak did so in '16-'17.
Nine Gophers earn medals at 2022 Olympic Winter Games;
USA falls to Canada in Gold Medal Game, Finland takes bronze
A comeback attempt by Team USA fell short in the Olympic Gold Medal Game against Canada. The Canadians took a 3-0 lead as Sarah Nurse netted the opening goal and Marie-Philip Poulin struck twice. Hilary Knight scored short-handed, with an assist to Hannah Brandt, to cut the American deficit to two before the second intermission, but it took a 6-on-4 extra-attacker power-play with time running out to pull within one as Amanda Kessel scored with under 13 seconds left. Team Canada killed off the remaining time and took home the gold, winning 3-2.
Earlier in the Bronze Medal Game, Finland blanked Swtizerland 4-0. Viivi Vainikka opened the scoring in the first period. The Swiss held their deficit at one until the third period when the Finns lit the lamp three more times, including a power-play goal by Nelli Laitinen. Swiss goaltender Andrea Braendli made 43 saves in the contest, while Anni Keisala stopped 15 shots for Finland.
Gophers at the Winter Games – We send our congratulations to the nine Minnesota Women's Hockey representatives between Team USA and Team Finland who earned medals at the Games. Here are the final statistics for our Gophers (** indicates Silver Medalist, * indicates Bronze Medalist).
Amanda Kessel** (USA) – 3 goals, 5 assists, 8 points
Nelli Laitinen* (FIN) – 2 goals, 5 assists, 7 points
Kelly Pannek** (USA) – 2 goals, 4 assists, 6 points
Hannah Brandt** (USA) – 6 assists, 6 points
Dani Cameranesi** (USA) – 2 goals, 1 assist, 3 points
Megan Bozek** (USA) – 3 assists, 3 points
Josefin Bouveng (SWE) – 1 goal, 1 point
Lee Stecklein** (USA) – 1 goal, 1 point
Grace Zumwinkle** (USA) – 1 goal, 1 point
Abbey Murphy** (USA) – 1 assist, 1 point
Around the WCHA...
Last weekend – Ohio State took care of business at home to claim the 2nd seed for the WCHA playoffs, sweeping Wisconsin 5-1 and 2-1. Kenzie Hauswirth netted both Buckeye goals on Saturday after also lighting the lamp on Friday, while Jenna Buglioni recorded a goal and 2 assists and Amanda Thiele stopped 48 out of 50 shots. Makenna Webster and Daryl Watts scored for the Badgers.
Minnesota Duluth suffered a mini-upset last Tuesday (Feb. 15) when St. Cloud State played them to a 1-1 tie and the Huskies won the shootout (2-1 in 4 rounds). Meeting again for a standard weekend series in Duluth, the Bulldogs shut out the Huskies on Friday, 3-0, but needed two goals in the final minute of regulation on Saturday to complete the sweep with a 4-3 win. Naomi Rogge led UMD with 2 goals and 2 assists over the three contests, while Elizabeth Giguere dished out 4 helpers. After netting Tuesday's shootout-clinching goal, Courtney Hall recorded a goal and an assist for SCSU on Saturday.
Chantal Burke, a transfer goaltender from Penn State, made her debut for Minnesota State and earned her first two career shutouts, 2-0 and 5-0, over Bemidji State, stopping all 47 shots she faced. Brittyn Fleming recorded two goals and two assists for the Mavericks, posting a new Minnesota State program record for points in a season with 40. Kelsey King added a goal and 3 helpers for MSU.
Final regular-season standings:
1. Minnesota – .810 pts%, 21-6-1-1, 0-3 in OT, 68 points (26-7-1 overall)
2. Ohio State – .778 pts%, 21-6-0-0, 1-1 in OT, 63 points (25-6-0 overall)
3. Wisconsin – .704 pts%, 18-6-3-2, 2-0 in OT, 57 points (23-6-4 overall)
4. Minnesota Duluth – .690 pts%, 19-8-1-0, 1-1 in OT, 58 points (22-9-1 overall)
5. Minnesota State – .381 pts%, 10-17-1-1, 1-1 in OT, 32 points (14-17-1 overall)
6. Bemidji State – .298 pts%, 8-18-2-0, 1-0 in OT, 25 points (11-18-3 overall)
7. St. Cloud State – .210 pts%, 4-20-3-2, 1-1 in OT, 17 points (9-21-2 overall)
8. St. Thomas – .123 pts%, 3-23-1-0, 0-0 in OT, 10 points (5-25-1 overall)
Other WCHA Quarterfinal Pairings...
Best 2-out-of-3 / Friday, Saturday, and (if necessary) Sunday, February 25-27
#5-seed Minnesota State University at #4-seed University of Minnesota Duluth
All three games at 2:00 p.m. CT
#7-seed St. Cloud State University at #2-seed Ohio State University
Friday at 6:00 p.m. ET / Saturday & Sunday at 3:00 p.m. ET
#6-seed Bemidji State University at #3-seed University of Wisconsin
Friday at 7:00 p.m. CT / Saturday at 3:00 p.m. CT / Sunday at 2:00 p.m. CT
More information from the league is available here.
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