Power Play Club

PPC All-Member Meeting – Saturday, February 22 at 12 p.m.

The annual Power Play Club All-Member Meeting is scheduled for Saturday, February 22 at 12 p.m. in the Baseline Tennis Center Club Room. This is an opportunity to touch base with other Power Play Club members and to provide feedback on the operation of the club and the Gopher Women's Hockey game experience. We will also have a Board of Directors election, including for the offices of president and vice president. All enrolled 2024-2025 club members are invited and encouraged to attend.

Looking ahead – WCHA First Round at Ridder

As mentioned last week, the Gopher Women's Hockey team has secured home ice for the first-round, quarterfinal series in the 2025 WCHA Conference Tournament. While Minnesota's opponent is still to be determined, the schedule for the best-of-3 series is set with games Friday, February 28 at 6:00 p.m.; Saturday, March 1 at 2:00 p.m.; and (if necessary) Sunday, March 2 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are on sale through the U. of M. Ticket Office (also by phone at 1-800-U-GOPHER).

Goals for a Goal

With two weekends to go in the regular season, the Gopher Women's Hockey team has netted 114 goals, with 26 coming on the power play!! It's not too late to enroll in our Goals for a Goal pledge-per-goal program, which converts each time Minnesota lights the lamp into a donation back to the program. You can submit a pledge at z.umn.edu/GoalsForAGoal, with the option to double the amount for power play tallies! Once again, we send our thanks for your consideration of this campaign!.

#3 Minnesota Golden Gophers (22-8-1, 16-7-1-0 WCHA)
vs. #11 St. Cloud State Univ. Huskies (14-10-6, 9-10-5-1 WCHA)
Friday, February 14 at 6:00 p.m. – Ridder Arena
Saturday, February 15 at 3:00 p.m.
Herb Brooks National Hockey Center – St. Cloud

The Gopher Women's Hockey team looks to break out of its three-game skid. They return home for a Valentine's Day matchup against the #11 St. Cloud State University Huskies at Ridder Arena, Friday (February 14) at 6:00 p.m. Action then relocates to the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud for the rematch Saturday, February 15 at 3:00 p.m.

Game coverage – Both contests will have video streaming on the B1G+ subscription service (Friday / Saturday). Free audio play-by-play on GopherSports.com continues Friday & Saturday, and live stats can be found here.

This season against St. Cloud State – The Gophers settled with a split against the Huskies in November, winning the opener at Ridder Arena 5-2 before falling 3-1 in St. Cloud. Already leading 2-1 in the opener on goals by Ella Huber and Ava Lindsay, Abbey Murphy recorded a hat trick for Minnesota to put the game out of reach; Huber added two assists to her goal, Peyton Hemp & Nelli Laitinen each also dished out two helpers, and Hannah Clark earned the win with 25 saves. The Gophers put 23 shots on goal in the first period of the rematch, but SCSU goaltender Sanni Ahola stopped all of them to keep the contest scoreless after 20 minutes. Abby Promersberger netted her second goal of the series for the Huskies midway through the second, and Brieja Parent & Avery Farrell lit the lamp in the first 3:09 of the third to push their lead to 3-0. Natalie Mlynkova tallied for Minnesota with 13:33 to play to break up a shutout bid, but they got no closer. Clark took the loss despite another 25-save effort, while Ahola finished with 38 saves and the victory.

Analyzing the Huskies – As we've noted several times previously, St. Cloud State hasn't finished a regular season in the top half of the WCHA standings since 2009-2010. Despite their current #11 ranking in both national polls, a home ice series for this year's WCHA Quarterfinals looks unlikely; they sit fifth in the league with a 9-10-5-1 conference record, notably earning only the single shootout point after the five ties. Any combination of three standings points either they drop or Minnesota Duluth earns will send the Huskies on the road to open the playoffs.

Two sophomores lead St. Cloud State in scoring statistics. Alice Sauriol (#4) has the team's most total points (19) and assists (14), also lighting the lamp 5 times herself, while Sofianna Sundelin (#34) is the Huskies' top goal scorer with 9 while dishing out 8 helpers for 17 points. Grad student Emma Gentry (#20) is third in scoring with 14 points on 8 goals & 6 assists, and senior Dayle Ross (#2) is their top-scoring defender with 11 points (2g, 9a).

Fifth year goaltender Sanni Ahola (#1) is now the Huskies' all-time winningest netminder, having earned her 35th career victory late last month; this season she is 8-5-3 with two shutouts, a 2.06 goals-against average, and a .919 save percentage. Fellow Finland-native Emilia Kyrkkö (#42), a freshman, is 6-5-3 in her 14 starts with 3 shutouts, a 1.83 GAA, and a .927 SV%. Sophomore Paige Hoogendam (#31) has yet to see any official action in her two seasons with SCSU.

Recent action for St. Cloud State – Playing in Mankato, third-period goals by Marie Moran & Alice Sauriol broke a 1-1 tie against Minnesota State and Emilia Kyrkkö needed only 15 saves for the 3-1 victory for the Huskies on Friday. Trailing the Mavericks 2-1 after two periods in Saturday's rematch, Avery Farrell scored for SCSU 9:14 into the third stanza, and Sanni Ahola made 27 saves in total in a 2-2 overtime tie; however, MSU earned the shootout point, winning 2-1 when Taylor Otremba beat Ahola in the fifth round. In the series, Emma Gentry led the Huskies with a goal & an assist.

Gophers routed by Badgers in Madison

A road trip to Madison turned into a long weekend for the Gopher Women's Hockey team as they were swept by the Wisconsin Badgers, 8-2 and 6-1.

Laila Edwards got the scoring started for UW 4 minutes into the opener on Saturday and added a second goal and two assists, Casey O'Brien recorded 2 goals and an assist, and Kristen Simms dished out 4 helpers. Hannah Clark made 22 saves for the Gophers but was pulled after two periods; Sophia Johnson made her second career appearance and stopped 8 shots. Ella Huber and Sydney Morrow each tallied a goal & an assist and Chloe Primerano dished out helpers on both goals, but Badger netminder Ava McNaughton made 18 saves for the win.

Sunday's rematch began with a scoreless first period, but Wisconsin struck for four goals in the second stanza and added two more in the third. O'Brien posted a one-goal, 4-assist game to finish with 8 points (3g, 5a) in the series; she also passed the career 250-point mark. Emma Conner scored for the Gophers with Sydney Morrow earning an assist for her 3rd point of the weekend; Clark made 37 saves, but McNaughton stopped 24 shots at the other end to complete the sweep.

Badgers claim Julianne Bye Cup – With Saturday's victory, Wisconsin clinched the 2024-2025 WCHA Regular-Season Championship and earned the Julianne Bye Cup. It's the Badgers' 10th regular-season title, having last won in 2020-2021.

Sweden, Germany, Japan qualify for 2026 Winter Olympics;
USA wins Rivalry Series Game 4, Canada takes deciding Game 5

We send congratulations to Gopher Women's Hockey junior forward Josefin Bouveng as Team Sweden punched their ticket to the 2026 Olympic Winter Games, claiming first place in their Group H qualifier tournament. The Swedes defeated Denmark 5-0 in a win-to-get-in deciding game on Sunday after also earning shutout wins over Norway (3-0) and the Netherlands (8-0). Bouveng lit the lamp once in the tournament, coming against the Dutch, and had a +1 plus-minus rating.

Gopher Emma Kreisz and Team Hungary were not successful in Group I, falling to Germany on Sunday, 2-1, in another deciding contest. The Germans were perfect in their tournament, also defeating Austria (2-0) and Slovakia (6-1). The Hungarians knocked off Slovakia (3-1) and Austria (3-2, OT) before their Sunday loss. Kreisz tallied 2 points on a goal and an assist, posted a +1 plus-minus rating, and was named Hungary's Player of the Game against the Austrians.

Japan needed only two games to secure its Olympic berth from Group G, but finished undefeated with wins over France (7-1), Poland (6-0), and China (4-1). The Francs finished second with wins over China (4-1) and Poland (9-0).

We await the announcement of which nation will officially get the 10th spot in the Winter Games, being held in Milan & Cortina, Italy next February. While the IIHF decided to not reincorporate Russia into its championships in 2025-2026, the International Olympic Committee will decide whether to allow a "Russian Olympic Committee" team in Italy. As the team having the best second-place finish at the qualifiers, France will be the 10th team if the Russians are excluded.

Canada wins Rivalry Series in Game 5 after U.S. victory in Game 4 – Team USA needed a shootout last Thursday but took Game 4 of the 2024-2025 Rivalry Series, 2-1, to tie the series at two games apiece. Hilary Knight put the Americans up in the first period and Gwyneth Philips made 31 saves, but Blayre Turnbull netted an extra-attacker goal for the Canadians to knot the score late in regulation. After a scoreless overtime, Knight, Hannah Bilka, and Gopher alumna Kelly Pannek scored in the shootout and Philips held the Canadians off the board for the win.

In the deciding Game 5, Brianne Jenner put Canada up 1-0 in the second period, but Pannek tied it up for the Americans 3:03 into the third. However, Jenn Gardiner netted her first career goal as a member of Canada's senior national team with 6:44 remaining and Laura Stacey tacked on an empty-netter with 1:19 to go, resulting in a 3-1 Canadian victory and a 3-2 series win.

Czechia wins Euro Hockey Tour event – Hosting in the city of Liberec, the Czechia Women's National Team calimed the top spot in the Euro Hockey Tour 3-Nations Tournament with wins over Finland (7-2) and Switzerland (4-2). The Finns took the second spot with a 3-1 tournament-opening victory over the Swiss.

Around the WCHA...

Buckeyes earn 5-point sweep of Tommies – Keara Parker's goal midway through the 3rd period Friday put St. Thomas up 4-2 over Ohio State, but the comeback was on for OSU; Jenna Buglioni scored short-handed four minutes later, Jocelyne Amos netted her second goal of the game with an extra attacker and 29.6 second remaining, and Joy Dunne converted on a power play 1:09 into overtime for a 5-4 Buckeye victory. Amos added another goal and an assist and Dunne & Kiara Zanon each added a goal and two assists as the Buckeyes completed the sweep with a 5-1 victory in the rematch.

Bulldogs shut out Beavers – Minnesota Duluth goaltender Tindra Holm needed only 22 combined saves to earn back-to-back shutouts of Bemidji State, 2-0 and 6-0. Caitlin Kraemer scored both goals of the series opener and lit the lamp a third time in the rematch, while Olivia Wallin added a combined goal & 3 assists. Eva Filippova made 50 saves for BSU.

Upcoming games – Minnesota Duluth hosts Minnesota State in a matinee series starting Friday afternoon, while Bemidji State visits St. Thomas starting Friday evening. Ohio State and Wisconsin are idle.

Standings (* clinched home ice for WCHA playoff quarterfinals):
1. Wisconsin* – 71 points (.910 pts%), 23-1-2-1, 1-0 in OT (29-1-2 overall)
2. Ohio State* – 53 points (.679 pts%), 17-6-3-2, 3-0 in OT (23-6-3 overall)
3. Minnesota* – 48 points (.667 pts%), 16-7-1-0, 1-0 in OT (22-8-1 overall)
4. Minn. Duluth – 42 points (.583 pts%), 12-10-2-2, 0-2 in OT (17-11-2 overall)
5. St. Cloud State – 33 points (.458 pts%), 9-10-5-1, 1-1 in OT (14-10-6 overall)
6. Minnesota State – 22 points (.306 pts%), 5-17-2-1, 0-4 in OT (11-17-2 overall)
7. St. Thomas – 17 points (.236 pts%), 5-18-1-1, 2-2 in OT (8-20-2 overall)
8. Bemidji State – 8 points (.111 pts%), 3-21-0-0, 1-0 in OT (5-25-1 overall)

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Follow the Power Play Club online at www.powerplayclub.org, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PowerPlayClubMN, or on X at x.com/powerplayclub.

Follow the Gopher women's hockey team and all Univ. of Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletics at gophersports.com. You can also find the Gopher women's hockey team on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GopherWomensHockey and on X at x.com/GopherWHockey.