Power Play Club

GWH Senior Celebration – Thursday, February 20

RSVPs are due by next Monday, February 10 for the 2025 Gopher Women's Hockey Senior Celebration, which is scheduled for Thursday, February 20, at Club Cambria in Huntington Bank Stadium. Doors will open at 5:00 p.m. with the meal and program to begin at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $50 for adults and $25 for children, with payment collected at the event. RSVP to Ashley Holmes by email at holme965@umn.edu or by text at 612-296-0057. More information is available in the event flyer here.

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.

Goals for a Goal

After lighting the lamp six more times last weekend, the Gopher Women's Hockey team has netted 111 goals this season, with 26 coming on the power play!! We continue to ask for your help converting each of those into a donation back to the team through our Goals for a Goal pledge-per-goal program. We are still accepting pledges at z.umn.edu/GoalsForAGoal, with the option to double the pledge for power play tallies! Our thanks for your consideration of this campaign!

#3 Minnesota Golden Gophers (22-6-1, 16-5-1-0 WCHA)
at #1 University of Wisconsin Badgers (27-1-2, 21-1-2-1 WCHA)
Saturday, February 8 at 2:00 p.m.
Sunday, February 9 at 12:00 p.m.
LaBahn Arena – Madison, WI

Following a contentious battle this past weekend, the Gopher Women's Hockey team heads into its last full road series of the 2024-2025 regular season and a second-straight top-three matchup nationally. The squad travels to Madison for two more Border Battle games against the #1-ranked University of Wisconsin Badgers at LaBahn Arena, playing Saturday, February 8 at 2:00 p.m. and Sunday, February 9 at 12:00 p.m.

Game coverage – Saturday's contest will be televised on Fox 9+, and both contests will have video streaming on the B1G+ subscription service (Saturday / Sunday). Free audio play-by-play on GopherSports.com continues Saturday & Sunday, and live stats can be found here.

This season against Wisconsin – Home ice was not kind to the Gophers in their October series against the Badgers, falling 5-0 & 4-3. Wisconsin controlled the opener, holding Minnesota to only 18 shots on goal, all of which were stopped by UW netminder Ava McNaughton. Skylar Vetter kept the Gophers in the game through two periods, stopping 23 of 24 shots, but Wisconsin lit the lamp on four of their first six 3rd-period shots over the opening 7:40 of the stanza. Hannah Clark relieved Vetter for the remainder of the contest, stopping the two shots she faced. After a scoreless first period of the rematch with Clark between the pipes for the Gophers, Sydney Morrow lit the lamp twice in the opening two minutes of period two and Madison Kaiser pushed the Gopher lead to 3-0 at the 8:44 mark of the period. Unfortunately, the Badgers chipped away at that lead, getting a power-play tallies by Laila Edwards & Lacey Eden, the tying goal from Hannah Halverson 4 minutes later, and one more from Casey O'Brien put them ahead with 6:07 to play. McNaughton shut the door on Minnesota the rest of the way, finishing with another 26 saves, while Clark stopped 25 shots. Caroline Harvey assisted on all four Badger goals Saturday to give her five helpers for the weekend, and O'Brien posted a two-goal, two assist series.

Analyzing the Badgers – Wisconsin has been the top team nationally much of the season, having lost only once (at Ohio State in December) and recorded two ties. The Badgers lead the nation in scoring offense (averaging 1.29 goals-per-game more than the next-closest team), scoring defense, scoring margin, power play goals, and power play percentage. They need only a single standings point in their remaining four games to clinch a share of the WCHA Regular-Season Championship, and they'll win it outright if they get that point this weekend.

Individually, Wisconsin boasts 4 of the top 6 scorers nationally. Senior Casey O'Brien (#26) is the NCAA's top point-getter, recording 59 on 18 goals and 41 assists. Junior Laila Edwards (#10) has the most goals in Division I with 26 while dishing out 29 assists for 55 points. Junior Kirsten Simms (#27; 15g, 33a), junior defender Caroline Harvey (#4; 14g, 33a), and senior Lacey Eden (#6; 19g, 21a) have also reached or exceeded the 40-point mark this year.

At the other end of the ice, sophomore netminder Ava McNaughton (#30) has an NCAA-best 1.16 goals-against average and the second-best save percentage at .949 (among qualifying players); she has started all but one of Wisconsin's games, posting a 26-1-2 record with 7 shutouts. Fifth-year player Quinn Kuntz (#35) won her lone start against Maine and has also made 3 relief appearances, stopping 25 of the 26 shots she's faced in 117 minutes of action (.962 SV%, 0.51 GAA). Redshirt sophomore Chloe Baker (#32) has two relief appearances and has stopped all 7 shots she's faced.

Recent action for Wisconsin – Despite being held to only two goals in each game, the Badgers earned a weekend sweep on the road at Minnesota Duluth, winning 2-1 in overtime on Friday and 2-1 in regulation on Saturday. The Bulldogs has 1-0 leads in both contests on goals by Grace Sadura & Olivia Mobley, and Ève Gascon made a combined 86 saves. However, Ava McNaughton stopped the other 53 UMD shots she faced. Marianne Picard tied Friday's game less than six minutes after Sadura's goal, and Casey O'Brien lit the lamp with 37 seconds remaining in overtime, scoring on a rebound. Minnesota Duluth's lead Saturday lasted more than 28 minutes, but Laila Edwards evened the score in the third period and Sarah Wozniewicz netted the game-winning goal 5½ minutes later.

Gophers win Friday, fall Saturday to split with Buckeyes at Ridder

In a hotly contested weekend series at Ridder Arena, the Gopher Women's Hockey had to settle for a split against the Ohio State Buckeyes, winning Friday's game, 3-1, but falling in Saturday's rematch, 7-3.

The series opener remained scoreless after 40 minutes, but Ella Huber converted on a power play just 1:01 into the third period. Huber then doubled the lead at the 7:52 mark and Abbey Murphy pushed the lead to three on another power play 63 seconds later. Former Gopher Emily Zumwinkle lit the lamp for Ohio State with only 2:01 remaining to break up the shutout bid, scoring an extra-attacker goal moments after the Buckeyes had had a 6-on-4 due to a Gopher penalty. Hannah Clark made 25 saves for Minnesota, while Amanda Thiele stopped 19 shots for OSU. Sydney Morrow dished out two assists.

Emma Conner's third goal of the season and two from Peyton Hemp gave the Gophers three different one-goal leads on Saturday, but Sloane Matthews responded each time for the Buckeyes, recording a second-period hat trick and sending the game to the second intermission knotted at 3-3. Ohio State then capitalized on a series of Minnesota penalties, tallying three power-play goals in the first 4:48 of the third period; Mira Jungåker netted the first of those, the eventual game-winner. The Buckeyes tacked on one more with 2:54 to play for the final margin. Clark made another 35 saves for the Gophers, while Hailey MacLeod and Thiele combined for 30 saves for Ohio State. Huber added an assist to her weekend tally to post a 3-point series, while OSU's Makenna Webster had 4 assists across the two games.

Murphy takes sole possession of ninth on GWH career goals list – Netting her 94th goal in the Maroon & Gold, Abbey Murphy moved into sole possession of ninth place on Minnesota Women's Hockey's all-time career goals list, dropping Dani Cameranesi to tenth (with 93 goals). Murphy remains behind both Taylor Heise & Kelly Stephens, who are tied for seventh with 97 collegiate goals.

Wethington earns PNC Achievers Award

Prior to last Friday's game, Gopher fifth-year forward Audrey Wethington was presented a PNC Achievers Award for her excellence in academic achievement, community service, and demonstrating team values, as voted on by her peers and university staff. Congratulations, Audrey!!

Olympic qualifying, Rivalry Series, and other int'l play this week

We provide a reminder that the Gopher Women's Hockey Team will be without forwards Josefin Bouveng & Emma Kreisz in Madison this weekend. Both are competing with their national teams – Sweden and Hungary, respectively – in qualifying tournaments for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games. Three separate qualifier events begin tomorrow (Thursday, February 6) and run through Sunday (February 9).

Group G: China, France, Japan (host) and Poland
Group H: Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, and Sweden (host)
Group I: Austria, Germany (host), Hungary, and Slovakia

The winners of each of the three groups will advance to the 2026 Olympics in Milan & Cortina, Italy. It is suspected that the highest-ranked of the three second-place teams from the qualifiers will also advance, following the International Ice Hockey Federation Council's decision to not reintegrate Russia & Belarus into its championships for 2025-2026. The United States, Canada, Czechia, Finland, and Switzerland have already qualified for the Winter Games due to their current world rankings, and Italy will also compete as the host nation.

Once again, we congratulate and send wishes of good luck to Josefin & Emma!!

USA-Canada Rivalry Series – We again also wish good luck to Gopher Women's Hockey alumnae Taylor Heise & Kelly Pannek as they compete as members of the U.S. Women's National Teamfor the fourth and fifth games of the 2024-2025 Rivalry Series against Canada. The squads will meet tomorrow night (Thursday, February 6) at 7 p.m. Atlantic Time / 5 p.m. Central at Scotiabank Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Saturday, February 8 at 7 p.m. AT / 5 p.m. CT at Credit Union Place in Summerside, P.E.I., and both games will be televised on NHL Network.

Zumwinkle among four scratched from U.S. roster – Unfortunately, Gopher alum Grace Zumwinkle was one of four players announced Monday as being unavailable for this week's Rivalry Series games as USA Hockey named their roster replacements. Zumwinkle has missed a number of games as a member of the PWHL's Minnesota Frost, and we look forward to seeing her back on the ice soon.

Euro Hockey Tour action – As for the other squads already qualified for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games, the national teams of Czechia, Finland, and Switzerland are also in action this week, competing in the round-robin 3 Nations Tournament as part of the Euro Hockey Tour. The contests are being held tomorrow through Saturday (Feb. 6-8) at Home Credit Arena in Liberec, Czechia.

Around the WCHA

Tommies upset Huskies Saturday for series split – Sofianna Sundelin scored twice with an assist, Alice Sauriol added a goal and two helpers, and Sanni Ahola made 13 saves to earn her 35th career victory and become St. Cloud State's all-time wins leader as they defeated St. Thomas 5-2 on Friday. However, UST netminder Dani Strom stopped 32 of 33 shots Saturday and finished with 60 saves on the weekend; Ella Boerger scored in the second period & assisted on Lauren Stenslie's goal 36 seconds into overtime for a 2-1 upset of the Huskies despite Sundelin's third goal of the series.

Beavers, Mavericks skate to a series split – Whitney Tuttle scored twice in the second period Friday to erase Minnesota State's two-goal deficit against Bemidji State, but Makenna Deering's second goal of the game – and of the season – 21 seconds into overtime gave the Beavers a 3-2 victory. The Mavericks responded Saturday with two goals and an assist from Alexis Paddington and two assists from Tuttle in a 5-1 win for the weekend split.

Gophers, Buckeyes clinch home ice for WCHA First Round – With these results, Minnesota and Ohio State have clinched home ice for the First Round / quarterfinals of the WCHA Conference Tournament, coming up February 28 through March 2. On the flip side, Ohio State fell out of contention for the WCHA Regular-Season Championship.

Upcoming games – The other three league series this week will be played Friday & Saturday. Minnesota State will host St. Cloud State starting with a Friday matinee game, while St. Thomas visits Ohio State and Bemidji State hosts Minnesota Duluth.

Standings (* clinched home ice for WCHA playoff quarterfinals):
1. Wisconsin* – 65 points (.903 pts%), 21-1-2-1, 1-0 in OT (27-1-2 overall)
2. Minnesota* – 48 points (.727 pts%), 16-5-1-0, 1-0 in OT (22-6-1 overall)
3. Ohio State* – 48 points (.667 pts%), 15-6-3-2, 2-0 in OT (21-6-3 overall)
4. Minn. Duluth – 36 points (.545 pts%), 10-10-2-2, 0-2 in OT (15-11-2 overall)
5. St. Cloud State – 29 points (.455 pts%), 8-10-4-1, 1-1 in OT (13-10-5 overall)
6. Minnesota State – 20 points (.303 pts%), 5-16-1-0, 0-4 in OT (11-16-1 overall)
7. St. Thomas – 16 points (.273 pts%), 5-16-1-1, 2-1 in OT (8-18-2 overall)
8. Bemidji State – 8 points (.121 pts%), 3-19-0-0, 1-0 in OT (5-23-1 overall)

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