The Gophers and Bulldogs close out the regular season this weekend
The #4 ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers women’s hockey team closes their regular season this weekend when their biggest in-state rival comes to town. #6 ranked Minnesota-Duluth comes to Ridder Arena to try and leapfrog the Gophers and claim third place in the WCHA Standings and a much easier opening round playoff matchup. Minnesota will be looking to continue their recent dominance over the Bulldogs and see of they can get a bit of help to sneak into the second place spot in the standings.
Minnesota heads into the final weekend of the regular season after a split in a home and home series with #11 St. Cloud State. Both teams won on the road with the Huskies defeating the Gophers in Minneapolis Friday before Minnesota flipped the script Saturday in the Granite City. Minnesota currently sits in third place in the WCHA with 51 points. They trail second place Ohio State by 2, and lead fourth place UMD by three. Therefore, the Gophers could finish anywhere from second to fourth in the final WCHA standings depending on this weekend’s results.
Minnesota will hope to continue their recent success over Minnesota-Duluth. Since UMD’s NCAA Quarterfinal win over the Gophers in March of 2022, Minnesota has gone 10-0-1 against UMD. The Gophers need a minimum of two points against the Bulldogs this weekend to lock down the third place spot—so one overtime or shootout win. Meanwhile, the Gophers will be rooting hard for St. Cloud State to pick up an upset win in Columbus. The Buckeyes will have the tiebreaker over Minnesota, so to claim the #2 seed, Minnesota would need to record three more points that Ohio State this weekend. But a Gopher sweep and one St. Cloud State win would do it.
Both the Gophers and Bulldogs are locked into home ice for the first round of the WCHA playoffs. Whoever finishes in fourth place will have the much tougher task as 5th place St. Cloud State would be their opponent. The second place team and third place team will not know their opponents until after the completion of this weekend’s series between Minnesota State and St. Thomas which will determine who finishes in 6th place, and who finishes in 7th.
To get their must needed sweep this weekend Minnesota will need to solve Bulldog goalie Eva Gascon. The sophomore is a semifinalist for the 2025 NCAA Women’s Goalie of the Year award. Headed into this weekend Gascon owns a save percentage of .941, and has five 40+ save games, which includes six wins against top-8 teams, complete with two shutouts. She has never defeated the Gophers in her career as of yet.
Despite the Gophers recent success, these teams match up well. Minnesota averages 3.61 goals per game, UMD 3.12. The Bulldogs give up just 1.81 goals per game, the Gophers give up 2.42. The teams are nearly identical on the power play with the Gophers scoring in 29% compared to UMD’s 28%. UMD kills 85% of their penalties compared to just 81% for Minnesota. They also lead the nation in shorthanded goals with 7 compared to Minnesota’s 5. The Gophers do not want to get into a 2-1 type of game. To feel comfortable Minnesota needs to score at least three goals and make it a track meet. If they can do that, then Minnesota should be able to continue to keep their recent dominance over the Bulldogs. if not, and things get very interesting.
Friday night’s game will face off at 6 PM, and Saturday’s finale is scheduled for a 2 PM Puck drop. Both games will stream on B1G+. Saturday the Gophers will honor senior day and will recognize nine seniors or grad students including : Emma Conner, Peyton Hemp, Ella Huber, Olivia King, Natalie Mlynkova, Abbey Murphy, Maggie Nicholson, Skylar Vetter, and Audrey Wethington.