The Gophers will look to get past the Mavericks
The Minnesota Golden Gophers women’s hockey team will kick off the post season this weekend hosting Minnesota State in a best-of-three series in the First Round of the WCHA Playoffs. It will be a familiar foe for the Gophers as Minnesota also drew Minnesota State in the first round of the playoffs last season. Minnesota will look to try and eliminate the Mavericks in a sweep this season instead of repeating last year where the Gophers were upset in Friday’s opening game before needing to battle back to win the final two games to advance.
Minnesota has won six straight over the Mavericks after that game one loss a season ago including earning a season sweep this season. Minnesota trounced the Mavericks in Minneapolis with a combined 16-5 score in their two wins this season.
Minnesota finished the WCHA season in third place for the season season in a row. Redshirt-senior Abbey Murphy leads the team with 52 points (25g-27a). Murphy has notched at least one point in 25 out of the Gophers’ 35 games, including 16 multi-point games. Murphy also leads the team with seven game-winning goals. Following Murphy is senior forward Ella Huber, who has recorded 39 points (12g-28a) this season, then fifth-year forward Natalie Mlynkova with 29 points (14g-15a). I goal it has all been on the shoulders of freshman Hannah Clark. Clark stepped in after the season ending injury to senior goalie Skyler Vetter and has been great finishing the season with 21-7-1 record on the season with a .905 save percentage and 2.29 goals-against average. Her 21 wins are the most ever for a freshman goalie in Gopher history.
Minnesota State is the 6th seed which they earned after sweeping St. Thomas last weekend to leap ahead of them in the final standings. Jamie Nelson and Madison Mashuga lead the Mavericks in scoring this season each recording 27 points. Claire Vekich led the team in goals with 14. In net Hailey Hansen has seen the most action starting 22 games and recording a goals against average of 2.88 and a saves percentage of .900.
The winner of the best-of-three series will advance to the WCHA Final Faceoff in Duluth next weekend. Games this weekend are set for a 6 PM faceoff Friday, 2 PM Saturday and 3 PM Sunday if necessary. All games will air live on Fox9+ and will stream on B1G+.