The Penalty Box Post
Tuesday, March 14th
Team send-off tomorrow (Wednesday, March 15)
Send-off Event – Join us to help send off the Gopher Women's Hockey team to Duluth, Minnesota for the 2023 Frozen Four! Stop by the Athlete's Village Atrium at 3 p.m. tomorrow, Wednesday, March 15 to support the Gophers!
Semifinal pregame events – Friday, March 17
'Sota Social in Canal Park – Join Gopher Athletics at Green Mill in Canal Park (340 S. Lake Ave.) on Friday starting at 3:30 p.m. for the official pregame hangout before the Gophers' semifinal game! The restaurant will be decked out for the Maroon & Gold with gold poms, Gopher flags, and more! The U. of M. Pep Band and Goldy Gopher will also make an appearance. Note: Unofficial gathering starts at 2:30 p.m.)
Red Carpet Arrival – Cheer on the Gophers as they arrive at AMSOIL Arena before their matchup against the Wisconsin Badgers! The Gophers are set to arrive at 3:45 p.m. and we are inviting the Maroon & Gold fanbase to join us, the Pep Band and Goldy along the carpets to welcome the team into the arena! Fans attending the afternoon game will be allowed to leave and reenter. You will just need to make sure you stop and have your ticket scanned out when you're leaving and then you'll be able to have it rescanned on your way back in.
More details about all the events can be found on the NCAA Frozen Four Central page on GopherSports.com.
Weather alert later this week...
While we hope many of you will be making the trip to Duluth for this weekend's Frozen Four, the National Weather Service offices in both the Twin Cities and Duluth are predicting a winter storm for the eastern half of Minnesota and northern Wisconsin, with a good chance of 6+ inches of snow in the Twin Ports area Thursday into Friday. We encourage you to use your best judgment, plan accordingly, and stay safe.
2023 NCAA Frozen Four – AMSOIL Arena, Duluth
Semifinals – Friday, March 17
#1 Ohio State (32-5-2) vs. #5 Northeastern (34-2-1) – 2:30 pm CDT
#2 Minnesota (30-5-3) vs. Wisconsin (27-10-2) – 6:00 pm CDT
Championship – Sunday, March 19 at 3:00 pm CDT
AMSOIL Arena in Duluth is prepared to host the NCAA Frozen Four for the first time since 2012. While Minnesota returns to the semifinals after a three-year hiatus, Wisconsin and Ohio State enter as the last two national champions, while Northeastern joins OSU in making their third-consective Frozen Four appearance. The Gophers will square off against the Badgers in their sixth head-to-head meeting of the season, playing in the second semifinal on Friday, March 17 at 6:00 p.m. The top-seeded Buckeyes will face the #5-seed Huskies in the opener at 2:30 p.m. The winners will advance to Sunday's title game at 3:00 p.m.
Ticket information – Again, tickets can be purchased online through Ticketmaster.
Video streaming of both semifinal games will be free of charge on ESPN+:
The National Championship Game will be broadcast live on ESPNU and also streamed free on ESPN+.
Audio coverage with play-by-play man Dan Hamann for the Gophers' semifinal against the Badgers can be found here.
How they got here...
Gophers shut out Minnesota Duluth at Ridder
Madeline Wethington scored unassisted on a second-period end-to-end rush and added a later assist, Abbey Murphy extended her goal-scoring streak to 9-straight games, Catie Skaja lit the lamp on a breakaway, and Skylar Vetter earned her 7th shutout of the season with 30 saves as the Golden Gopher Women's Hockey defeated Minnesota Duluth 3-0 in Saturday's quarterfinal contest as Ridder Arena. Grace Zumwinkle and Emily Oden also recorded assists in the contest. UMD netminder Emma Soderberg stopped 27 shots.
Wisconsin had to play a First Round contest but had no issue as they outshot Long Island University 59-7, getting two goals & two assists from Jesse Compher and a goal & 4 assists from Britta Curl en route to a 9-1 victory. The Badgers held #3-seed Colgate to just 15 shots on goal in their quarterfinal matchup; goals by Nicole LaMantia, Casey O'Brien (PP), Vivian Jungels and Laila Edwards earned them a 4-2 win and their Frozen Four ticket.
Ohio State earned the top seed for the NCAA Tournament. Hosting a Quinnipiac team that had played a triple-overtime contest in the First Round, the Buckeyes found themselves trailing 1-0 after 20 minutes on a Bobcats power-play goal by Kendall Cooper. But OSU rattled off the next four goals as Gabby Rosenthal (PP), Lauren Bernard, Emma Peschel and Sophie Jaques (PP) lit the lamp. Quinnipiac scored with an extra attacker, but Jaques added an empty-netter for a 5-2 victory. Amanda Thiele earned the win with 21 saves.
Northeastern entered the NCAA Tournament as both the regular-season and conference tournament champions from Hockey East but the only representative from that league in the Big Dance. Earning the #5-seed, they went on the road to face #4-seed Yale in the quarterfinals. Lily Shannon opened the scoring for the Huskies in the second period and Chloe Aurard & Alina Mueller extended the lead to 3-0 with under 11 minutes to play. Anna Bargman got the Bulldogs on the board with 4:38 to go, but Maureen Murphy hit a short-handed empty-netter for a 4-1 win to advance. Gwyneth Philips stopped 38 of 39 shots for the victory.
Frozen Four Semifinal Matchups
Minnesota vs. Wisconsin – The Gophers look to repeat their victory over the Badgers in the WCHA Semifinals 1½ weeks ago. The two teams traded goals through the first two periods, but Abbey Murphy lit the lamp on a third-period power play and Catie Skaja hit an empty net for a 4-2 Minnesota victory. Prior to that game, however, Wisconsin was 2-0-2 in the four regular-season meetings between the two squads. In Madison in November, the teams played to a 3-3 tie with the Gophers earning the extra point with the shootout win, but the Badgers won the rematch 4-1. Last month at Ridder Arena, Wisconsin took the bonus point for a shootout win after a 2-2 tie, and they again won the rematch in a wild 7-5 game.
Taylor Heise and Grace Zumwinkle each have 7 points against Wisconsin this season; Heise has 4 goals & 3 assists, while Zumwinkle recorded 2 goals & 5 assists. Skaja's three-point performance in the WCHA semifinal increased her season total against the Badgers to 6 on two goals & four assists, while Murphy improved to 3 goals & 2 assists. Jesse Compher & Casey O'Brien each have 6 points for Wisconsin in the head-to-head meetings; Compher recorded 3 goals & 3 assists, while O'Brien posted 2 goals & 4 assists. Lacey Eden dished out 5 assists for the Badgers, while Kirsten Simms (3g, 1a) & Laila Edwards (2g, 2a) each tallied 4 points. Gopher goaltender Skylar Vetter improved to a .902 save percentage with a 3.29 goals-against average, but Cami Kronish still sports a .925 SV% and 2.76 GAA for Wisconsin.
Ohio State vs. Northeastern – While 2023 will be the third-consecutive year in which the Buckeyes and Huskies both reached the NCAA Semifinals, the two squads did not play each other in 2021 nor 2022. In fact, the last meeting between the two programs was way back in October 2007.
That said, this semifinal has the notable storyline of featuring Patty Kazmaier Award Top-3 Finalists as OSU's Sophie Jaques and Northeastern's Alina Mueller will meet head-to-head. Jaques has a sizeable lead nationally in scoring by a defender this season, currently sitting at 48 points on 24 goals & 24 assists; for her career, she has 156 points (61g, 95a). Mueller recently became the Huskies' all-time career scoring leader with 254 points (98g, 156a), surpassing Kendall Coyne; sixty (60) of those points have come this season on 27 goals & 33 assists.
Additionally, Buckeyes forward Jenn Gardiner (21g, 35a, 56pts) and Huskies forward Maureen Murphy (20g, 35a, 55pts) & goaltender Gwyneth Philips (34-2-1, 10 SO, 0.81 GAA, .961 SV%) were Kazmaier Award Top-10 Finalists this season.
Frost named finalist for Coach of the Year
We send our congratulations to Gopher Women's Hockey head coach Brad Frost, who was named a finalist for the 2022-2023 Division I Women's Coach of the Year by the American Hockey Coaches Association yesterday. Frost is a two-time Coach of the Year honoree, having won in 2013 and 2014, and qualified as a finalist this year by reaching the NCAA semifinals. As noted in the press release, the award will be presented on April 26 at the AHCA Convention.
Zumwinkle reaches another career milestone
We also congratulate GWH fifth-year forward Grace Zumwinkle on recording her 100th career assist this past weekend in the NCAA Quarterfinal victory over UMD. Already with 109 career goals, Zumwinkle is now the fifth player in Minnesota program history to reach triple digits in both scoring categories.
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