Minnesota Women’s Hockey: Gophers beat UMD to advance to Frozen Four

The revenge tour of the Minnesota Gophers women’s hockey team continues. The Gophers used stellar defensive and goaltending play by sophomore netminder Skyler Vetter and the scoring trio of Madeline Wethington, Abbey Murphy and Catie Skaja to earn the Gophers’ first trip back Frozen four from 2019. The Gophers will see a very familiar foe in their Frozen Four semifinals. Wisconsin Badgers who upset No. 3 Colgate 4-2 to advance to Duluth next weekend.

The first set was a rather cautious period, with neither team wanting to give the other a huge advantage early in the game. UMD turned a couple of Minnesota turnovers in its defensive zone into quality situations, but Vetter made some big saves. The Gophers also got a good look at UMD goalie Emma Soderberg, but she was calm, controlled and flawless in the opening stanza. After one set, the situation remained scoreless.

Minnesota seemed to play more of their style in the second period. Minnesota controlled the game and time in the offensive zone. Minnesota finally broke through when Madeline Wethington took the puck out of her own zone, skated down the left side of the ice and raked a shot off the stick of a UMD defenseman and slipped over Soderberg’s shoulder to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead. . UMD challenged the goal for offsides, but a replay showed Gopher freshman Madison Kaiser’s skate was on the blue line and was called a good goal.

Minnesota looked at Soderberg for a few more good periods, but he held his ground and Minnesota took a 1-0 lead into the third period.

It took just over 3 minutes in the third period for the hottest Gopher player to strike again. Abbey Murphy took the puck at center ice and skated into Bulldog territory. He walked through the legs of UMD defender Taylor Stewart and then fired a shot into the absolute top corner of the goal past Soderberg. That gave Minnesota a 2-0 lead with 16:38 left in regulation. Murphy now has a goal in nine games for the Gophers.

UMD challenged the goal for the second time in the game when the net started to come off right after the puck went into the goal, but the referees confirmed the goal again. The Bulldogs were forced to take a two-minute delay of game penalty because they had already lost their lone challenge, but they would kill the penalty with ease.

UMD had a few looks, but nothing too significant, and the Gophers put up the final nail of the Bulldogs’ season with 9:42 left in the game when Wethington found a falling Catie Skaja all alone for a layup. He moved the puck past Soderberg to give Minnesota a 3-0 lead. Skaja has scored 11 goals against UMD in her career.

The Bulldogs started playing with urgency late in the period and got Vetter some good looks, but he stopped them all. Soderberg was pulled with just over four minutes left in the game, but UMD couldn’t break down the Gopher defense and Minnesota couldn’t score an empty netter. As the final horn sounded, the Gophers forced Vetter, who is 29 years old, to help lead the Gophers back to the Frozen Four for the first time since 2019.

In Duluth, the Gophers face a very familiar foe in Wisconsin. it will be the sixth meeting between the two schools this season and the seventh time in the last 11 NCAA tournaments that the two rivals have met.

A full WCHA national semifinal appearance guarantees that a WCHA team will play for the NCAA title again in 2023. A team from the conference has played in every NCAA championship game since the tournament began in 2021, with one exception — 2018, when Clarkson and Colgate met ironically at Ridder Arena. Either Minnesota or Wisconsin are playing for their NCAA-leading 7th championship, and Minnesota added one ACHA championship in 2000, bringing their total to seven national championships.

The other Frozen Four semifinal will feature fifth-seeded Northeastern, which defeated Yale 4-2 to advance against the winner. Ohio State and #8 Quinnipiac. In that game, Quinnipiac was leading the defending NCAA Champ Buckeyes 1-0 early in the second period at the time of this publication.

We’ll have plenty more coverage of the Gophers’ return to the Frozen Four all this week here at TDG.