Minnesota will look to try and return to the Frozen Four
The Minnesota Golden Gophers women’s hockey team will hit the road on Saturday to Upstate New York on their quest to get back to the NCAA Frozen Four for the second consecutive season. The Gophers are the #5 seed in the NCAA Tournament and will face off against the #4 seed the Clarkson Green Knights at 1PM Saturday in a NCAA Quarterfinal matchup. Minnesota will be facing a team has had their number in big games over the last decade. Can the Gophers change that in 2024?
Minnesota found out they were the #5 seed in the NCAA Tournament officially when the brackets were announced last Sunday. Minnesota dropped their semifinal in the WCHA Final Faceoff Tournament to Wisconsin 4-3 in overtime on Friday afternoon which locked them into the 5th spot in the pairwise rankings and guaranteed they would hit the road for a NCAA Semifinal for the first time since 2018. Minnesota led the Badgers 3-2 until Casey O’Brien scored the game tying goal with 8.8 seconds remaining by banking the puck off of Minnesota goalie Skyler Vetter’s facemask from behind the net and into the goal. The Badgers would win in overtime on a goal by Lacy Eden to advance to the WCHA Championship Game where they would knock off Ohio State the following day.
Minnesota suffered another bigger loss in the long run in that game to the Badgers. In the second period Gopher sophomore forward Madison Kaiser was hit awkwardly into the boards by a Badger player. No penalty was called and she was slow to get to the bench. Gopher coach Brad Frost revealed earlier this week that she suffered an upper body injury and would miss the rest of the season. Kaiser had been the second line center all season long, and now Minnesota will need to move up third line center Emma Kreisz into that role. The Gophers had been playing with just 11 forwards for the majority of the season and it will be interesting to see if they add another player into the end of their rotation with the “fourth line” or more likely the Gophers just roll three lines the rest of the season.
Minnesota finished in third place in the WCHA in the regular season with an overall record of 27-9-2. Minnesota went 7-8-1 against teams in the NCAA Tournament. That number is slightly misleading as the Gophers went 1-8 against Ohio State and Wisconsin the top two overall seeds in the tournament, and 6-0-1 against Minnesota-Duluth, UCONN, and Cornell.
Clarkson comes into the NCAA Tournament with a loss as well to Colgate 3-0 in the ECAC Championship Game. Clarkson allowed just one goal with their goalie Michelle Pasiechnyk in net, with the other two coming late on empty net goals. Clarkson finished second in the ECAC regular season standings, just 0.5 points behind Colgate. They come into the NCAA Tournament with a 32-4-2 record with all four losses coming to fellow ECAC teams in the NCAA Tournament in Colgate, Cornell, and St. Lawrence. Overall they are 8-4 against teams in the NCAA field, again all in ECAC competition.
The two teams have just one common opponent this season in Cornell. The Gophers went 1-0 by defeating the Big Red 5-1 in the Championship Game of the D1 in DC event held over Thanksgiving weekend. Clarkson was 0-2 against Cornell this season losing 3-2 in OT at Cornell in January and then 3-0 at home in February.
The Gophers and the Green Knights have met three times in NCAA Tournament play. Minnesota won the first matchup 3-2 in overtime in the 2010 Quarterfinals at Ridder Arena but Clarkson is 2-0 in their most recent matchups. The one that stung the most was the 2014 NCAA Championship Game where the Gophers were going for the three-peat. Clarkson would defeat Minnesota 5-4 in Hamden, Connecticut to win their first NCAA Championship. In 2017 in St. Charles, Missouri the Green Knights would defeat the Gophers in the Frozen Four Semifinal 4-3 en route to their second NCAA Championship. They would win a third in 2018 and thus far are the only team outside the WCHA to raise the Walnut and Bronze Championship Trophy.
What will determine if the Gophers can get past Clarkson on Saturday will be their ability to play and win a very low scoring game. Clarkson is the best defensive team in the nation allowing just 1.18 goals per game this season. Pasiechnyk is one of the best goaltenders in the nation and is allowing just 1.31 goals per game this season. Her save percentage of .943 is 7th in the nation, and second of any goalie who has played the majority of a team’s games. The Gophers rank 13th in the nation in defense allowing 2.03 goals per game. Minnesota will likely play Skyler Vetter who has had up and down games this season. She has a 2.26 goals against average and a .921 save percentage. Minnesota’s other goalie Lucy Morgan is a transfer from St. Lawrence and is very familiar with the Green Knights. She has slightly better stats this season with a 1.68 GAA and a .929 save percentage while playing a slightly easier schedule. A year ago she went 0-4-1 against Clarkson for the Saints.
Offensively the teams are very evenly matched. Minnesota averages 3.5 goals per game to rank 6th in the nation while Clarkson averages 3.45 goals per game to rank 7th. The Gophers are led by redshirt junior Abbey Murphy. The Top -10 Patty Kazmaier Finalist leads the nation with 33 goals and is 5th in the nation in points with 60. She also leads the nation in penalty minutes with 114 and it will be absolutely key for Murphy to try and stay out of the box and on the ice for the Gophers as much as possible. Josefin Bouveng is second of the Gophers roster with both 48 points and 18 goals in what has been a breakout sophomore season. Clarkson is led by Nicole Gosling who has 37 points and 14 goals. The Green Knights scoring is much more spread across the roster as they have three players including Gosling with a team leading 14 goals on the season and have six players with 30 or more points on the season where the Gophers have just four.
Special teams could easily be the make or break point for one of these teams seasons on Saturday and again is a great battle and fairly evenly matched. Clarkson has the #1 ranked penalty kill in the nation with a 91.8% kill rate, while the Gophers are 6th at 89.4% killed. Minnesota has the #1 power play in that nation with a 37% success rate while Clarkson is #5 at 27.2%.
The winner of the Minnesota/ Clarkson quarterfinal is likely to face #1 overall seed Ohio State in a Frozen Four semifinal. The Buckeyes will host #8 seed Minnesota-Duluth a winner in double overtime over #9 seed UConn 1-0 in a quarterfinal on Saturday. The other side of the NCAA Tournament bracket features #2 seed Wisconsin hosting the #7 seeded St. Lawrence Saints who defeated #10 seed Penn State 1-0 in overtime, and #3 seed Colgate who will host ECAC foe #6 seed Cornell.
Good luck to the Gophers on Saturday! The game will stream for free via ESPN+.
HOW TO WATCH: NCAA WOMEN’S HOCKEY QUARTERFINAL
#5 Minnesota Golden Gophers @ #4 Clarkson Green Knights
Where: Cheel Arena, Potsdam ,New York
When: 1 PM Saturday
Stream: ESPN+
Audio Gophersports.com