Game Story: Minnesota Sweeps Mavericks on Senior Day (Zone Coverage)

MINNEAPOLIS- In their final Ridder Arena regular season appearance, Minnesota’s senior class helped lead the Gophers to its 50th consecutive victory over Minnesota State.

Senior forward Cara Piazza scored the game’s opening goal and senior goaltender Sidney Peters made 32 saves in a 2-0 shutout win. Combined with an Ohio State loss, Saturday’s win moved Minnesota (19-8-2, 12-6-2-0 WCHA) up to second place in the WCHA.

The much-needed two-game sweep comes a week after the Gophers were swept by the Buckeyes in Columbus. Minnesota plays its final four regular-season games on the road against St. Cloud State and Wisconsin before likely returning to host a WCHA first-round playoff series at the end of the month.

“It’s hard to win in our league and so to be able to get on the horse so to speak and find our winning ways is big going into the last four games of the regular season,” said Minnesota head coach Brad Frost.

The Gophers honored its four seniors — defender Sydney Baldwin, Piazza, Peters and forward Caitlin Reilly — prior to Minnesota’s 2017-18 home finale.

“I was tearing up even during the national anthem before the game started,” Peters said. “It was a pretty emotional day for me and the other three seniors just because we love this team so much.”

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Game Story: Shorthanded goal leads Gophers over Huskies (Zone Coverage)

MINNEAPOLIS- Once again, Minnesota held off a Huskies third period comeback at Ridder Arena.

Cara Piazza’s shorthanded breakaway goal with 16.9 seconds remaining in the second period ended up being enough for the Gophers in a 2-1 victory over its in-state neighbor. Junior Julia Tylke scored for St. Cloud State (5-15-2, 3-11-2-0 WCHA), which fell one goal short against Minnesota (16-5-2, 10-4-2-0 WCHA) for the second straight game between the two teams.

“That was a huge momentum thing for us to get up by two. We were pushing hard in the second period. Nothing was going in,” said Gophers head coach Brad Frost about Piazza’s goal. “Then all of the sudden to catch a break and a real nice shot on a breakaway.”

While both teams are WCHA members, Tuesday’s contest was officially a nonconference affair.

Each had holes in the schedule following North Dakota dropping women’s hockey in March. The Gophers and Huskies already played a two-game series earlier in the season in Minneapolis with the two teams set for another next month in St. Cloud. Despite losing all three, St. Cloud State was more competitive as the games went along.

“Every year I’ve been playing we’ve been getting a lot better. I’ve gone from being on a team that lost 12-0 and now it’s a one-goal game. It’s a huge growth for the program,” said Tylke. “We’re for sure just right there to finish it off.”

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Sydney Baldwin and Cara Piazza named 2017-18 co-captains

Minnesota's leadership group next season will be headed up by seniors Sydney Baldwin and Cara Piazza.

Baldwin and Piazza Monday were named co-captains for 2017-18 by their teammates. They replace 2016-17 captain Lee Stecklein and alternates Dani Cameranesi and Kate Schipper, all of whom graduated.

It's the first time either player has worn a letter with the Gophers.

"I'm confident in their abilities to lead the team both on and off the ice. I'm not surprised that their teammates selected them as captains," head coach Brad Frost said in a statement. "They both are great players and great students, and they are tremendous representatives of our program. We are looking forward to another great year of Gopher women's hockey."

Baldwin, a defender from Minnetonka, MN, plays in all situations, heading up a pairing much of last year with freshman Patti Marshall. The 2014 Minnesota Ms. Hockey finished her junior season with 16 points (2G-14A) in all 39 games and actually enters 2017-18 as the team's returning scorer thanks in part to Kelly Pannek and Sarah Potomak making their respective countries' Olympic rosters. In her Gopher career she has 49 total points

Piazza, a forward from Darien, Illinois, was a consistent presence on Minnesota's second line last season when not battling injuries. Piazza had 14 points (6G-8A) in 33 games. Prior to that she had scored 11 goals as both a freshman and sophomore.

2017-18 marks the third time in four seasons the Gophers go with co-captains. Rachael Bona and Rachel Ramsey shared the captain's "C" in 2014-15. Stecklein and Hannah Brandt did the same the following year as Minnesota repeated as national champions.

Gophers stand united with USWNT, turn down chance to play in World Championships

One of the biggest stories in hockey right now is the ongoing stalemate between the United States Women's National Team and USA Hockey.

The USWNT is currently threatening to boycott the upcoming World Championships (being played in Plymouth, MI) over a year-long negotiation over fair wages and support. (For a full timeline, click here.) As a team they have been standing together

Two current Gophers, Lee Stecklein and Kelly Pannek, and several Minnesota alums (Megan Bozek, Hannah Brandt, Amanda Kessel, and Gigi Marvin) are members of the US senior team.

Show us what #BeBoldForChange means to you. pic.twitter.com/P1iZqNtucw

— Lee Stecklein (@LeeSteck2) March 24, 2017

While the two have had been negotiating, USA Hockey took the step of contacting replacement players before the championships begin March 31st. Several collegians, including at least Minnesota players, have said no to the opportunity to represent their country.

***

Today I will do what others won't so tomorrow I can do what others can’t. I said no to USAH & will not play in the 2017WC #BeBoldForChange

— Cara Piazza (@carr_81) March 24, 2017

***

Today I will do what others won't so tomorrow I can do what others can’t. I said no to USAH & will not play in the 2017WC #BeBoldForChange

— Sydney Baldwin (@sydbaldwin9) March 24, 2017

***

Today I will do what others won't so tomorrow I can do what others can’t. I said no to USAH & will not play in the 2017WC #BeBoldForChange

— Taylor Williamson (@twilly_7) March 24, 2017

***
I'll update this if any more (i.e. Dani Cameranesi) post the same message.

UPDATE: Cameranesi did.

#BeBoldForChange pic.twitter.com/FIbz69wRpP

— Dani Cameranesi (@DaniCam9) March 24, 2017

UPDATE #2 (March 25th): Gopher freshman defender Patti Marshall turned down USA Hockey as well.

Today I will do what others won't so tomorrow I can do what others can’t. I said no to USAH & will not play in the 2017WC #BeBoldForChange

— Patti Marshall (@pattimarshall16) March 25, 2017 

Feature: Gopher women's hockey team glad Taylor Williamson finding the net (St. Paul Pioneer Press)

(This originally appeared in the February 18th St. Paul Pioneer Press)

The Gophers women’s hockey team waited much of the season for Taylor Williamson to break out and score.

In the lead-up to Minnesota’s final Western Collegiate Hockey Association series of the season this weekend against rival Wisconsin, secondary scoring for the Gophers is on the rise after the team got 65 percent of its goals during the first two months from its top line.

It eventually reached a point where coach Brad Frost stopped bringing up the subject.

“We really struggled with people scoring in the first half other than our first line. We’ve talked to our players about it,” Frost said. “We actually came back from Christmas break and said, ‘We’re not going to mention secondary scoring anymore.’ You guys know you have to score, but let’s focus on the process of scoring rather than the actual outcome of scoring.”

Some extra scoring would come in handy this weekend with the No. 4-ranked Gophers (23-5-3, 19-4-3-2 WCHA) playing host to No.-1-ranked Wisconsin (27-2-2, 22-2-2-2). The teams square off at Ridder Arena in 3 p.m. games on Saturday and Sunday.

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Pohl talk: Both Gopher men and women remain in top-10 + Pairwise Implications

Let's start with the fact that polls in college hockey don't decide anything.

This isn't football. To make matters worse, there are rankings (Pairwise) which do decide who makes the NCAA Tournament. As the year winds down and there are fewer games, those make more and more sense.

What polls are good for is discussion and figuring out the perception 50 people who aren't me have of the country.

In that case, both the Gopher men and women remain in the top-10.

BLOG: Gopher women could be without 4 of top 9 forwards against St. Cloud State

In Brad Frost's 17 years of coaching, he has never had this many injuries happen to players, let alone key ones.

Minnesota (17-5-3, 13-4-3-2 WCHA) could be without four of its top-9 forwards this weekend when the Gophers travel to St. Cloud State for games Friday (7:00 p.m.) and Saturday (3:00 p.m.).

"By far. Not even close," said Frost about it being unprecedented to his Minnesota teams. "You have one here or there, maybe two. To have four missing a series is pretty tough."

Both senior Kate Schipper and junior Cara Piazza suffered injuries during last weekend's series against Ohio State.