It’s a rematch of the NCAA Semifinals between the Gophers and the Badgers
The Minnesota Golden Gophers will face a very familiar foe in the Semifinals of the WCHA Frozen Faceoff on Friday afternoon. The Gophers earned a date with the Wisconsin Badgers after clawing their way back to a best-of-three series win over Minnesota State after dropping the opening game. Meanwhile the Badgers barely broke a sweat in a sweep of St. Thomas and will look to try and lock up the #2 NCAA Seed this weekend. Meanwhile if the Gophers want to see Ridder for another game this season, they most likely will need to win this weekend’s tournament, and even then that might not be enough.
Minnesota comes in after needing to go the full three games at home against Minnesota State to advance. The Gophers had played Minnesota State close all season long, but had always come away with a win. Last Friday, that tide turned as a poor performance from the Minnesota defense and Skyler Vetter in goal saw the Gophers blow an early 2-0 lead before trading goals the rest of the game. Minnesota State would convert the game winner with 1:36 to play and took a 1-0 series lead. The Gophers were rightfully mad at their effort and turned it around on Saturday not leaving anything to chance. Minnesota would cruise to a 7-1 win to force a deciding game three on Sunday.
In that game the Gophers took an early 1-0 lead on a Ella Huber goal and looked like it might turn into a carbon copy of Saturday. But the Maverick defense tightened up and it took a pair of third period Josefin Bouveng goals to ice the game and earn the Gophers a chance to advance to this weekend.
Meanwhile Wisconsin tore through St. Thomas winning 4-2 on Friday before a 9-1 slaughter on Saturday. They had seven different players score a goal while Britta Curl and Casey O’Brien added a pair each.
That sets up another Minnesota vs Wisconsin game with a lot on the line. The two teams hooked up in a pair of memorable semifinal games a year ago with Minnesota knocking off the Badgers 4-2 in the WCHA Final faceoff Semis before defeating Ohio State for the WCHA Tournament crown. Of course Wisconsin would get their revenge just a few weeks later beating the Gophers 3-2 in overtime in the NCAA frozen Four semifinals in Duluth en route to winning the NCAA title.
So yeah, the Gophers and Badgers have been there before. But this year feels different. The Badgers went 3-1 against Minnesota in the regular season with the lone Gopher win coming at Ridder Arena in December. The Badgers would outscore the Gophers 13-4 in their other three meetings. If Minnesota can pull off the win on Friday it would legitimately feel like an upset. Wisconsin is a loaded team again this season. A league-leading nine Badgers were recognized with All-WCHA honors with a trio named to the first-team All-WCHA in forwards Kirsten Simms and Casey O’Brien and defender Caroline Harvey. Minnesota had two players on the second team and one on the third. The Badgers have three of the top four scorers in the nation in Simms, O’Brien and Curl. Simms, O’Brien and Harvey were all named Patty Kaz Top Ten Finalists on Thursday as well. If Minnesota is going to beat the Badgers, they will need to play a nearly flawless game.
It may come down to the netminders. Both Wisconsin and Minnesota have platooned their goaltenders over the course of the weekends for a majority of the season. Wisconsin will likely start redshirt junior Jane Gervais who has been the Friday starter. She comes into the weekend with a 1.55 goals against average and a save percentage of .921. Their other goalie freshman Ava McNaughton has been just as good if not better with a 1.34 GAA and a .934 save percentage. The choice for the Gophers will be a bit more interesting. Minnesota has platooned the weekend series for a majority of the season with junior Skyler Vetter and 5th year senior Lucy Morgan. Vetter started the Friday game against Minnesota State and picked up the loss allowing five goals while Morgan played the next two and allowed just one. Both goalies played the Badgers twice this season with Morgan picking up the lone win.
Offensively for Minnesota the key will getting someone to score besides Abbey Murphy. The Patty Kazmaier Top Ten Finalist as announced on Thursday will be a marked woman on the ice all game. Wisconsin will do anything they can to take her out of her game and try to get her to take stupid penalties. But Murphy is as dangerous as they come on the ice. She leads the nation in goals with 33, but also leads the nation in penalty minutes. But the Gopher offense has stagnated at times besides Murphy. Her 59 points leads the Gophers and is third in the nation, and there is a large gap between her and Bouveng who is second on the team with 46 points and 17 goals. Minnesota needs her, Huber, Peyton Hemp and just about anyone else who will be wearing a maroon jersey to step up and put the puck in the net.
Minnesota has no room for error if it wants to see the Ridder Arena one final time this season. Heading into the weekend Minnesota sits 5th in the women’s pairwise and if the numbers would hold would heat to Colgate for an NCAA Quarterfinal next weekend. It appears the only way the Gophers can leapfrog Colgate and host the Raiders instead is if they win the WCHA Final Faceoff title, and Colgate does not win the ECAC. The Gophers can end up seeded anywhere between #4 and #6. If the Gophers lose on Friday to Wisconsin, and Cornell wins the ECAC title, the Big Red can leap over the Gophers and force Minnesota not only into a road game, but an opening round game where they would play the NEWHA Champion before a likely date against Clarkson in a quarterfinal. That’s what losing to Minnesota State in the playoffs will do. Barring a great weekend from the Gophers they will heading on the road for their opening game of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018. Meanwhile the Badgers are playing to lock up the #2 overall NCAA seed. They appear locked into either the #2 or #3 seed depending on their performance this weekend.
So yes, there is a lot at stake in another Minnesota vs Wisconsin matchup. Shocking right. The Gophers and Badgers will meet at 4:30 PM on Friday in the second semifinal of the day.
In the first semifinal at the Final Faceoff #1 Ohio State will take on #4 seed Minnesota-Duluth at 1 PM. The Buckeyes swept all four games from UMD this season by a combined score of 11-2. Ohio State has already wrapped up the #1 overall NCAA seed and has nothing to play for but pride—and more hardware of course. UMD is in the NCAA tournament field and is locked into the #8 overall seed and will face CHA Champion in the opening round before a likely quarterfinal game at Ohio State.
The two winners of the semifinals will return to the Ridder Arena ice at 2 PM on Saturday to crown the WCHA Tournament Champion. All three games will stream on B1G+.