MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota women’s hockey team advanced to their 18th WCHA tournament championship with a decisive 5-1 win over Minnesota Duluth on Saturday afternoon.
The Gophers scored 51 seconds into the game on their first shot as Catie Skaja put a pretty innocuous-looking shot on Chobak from her right side. The puck squeezed between Chobak’s arm and side and trickled into the net to give the Gophers a 1-0 lead that seemed to set the tone of the game.
Minnesota pressured UMD with a relentless forecheck, taking away time and space and keeping the Bulldogs from ever seeming to get comfortable or settled into their own game. Every time they looked to be generating momentum, the Gophers scored and took a bit more wind out of Duluth’s sails and made the hole they needed to climb out of even deeper.
Crystalyn Hengler extended the Minnesota lead with 12.6 left on the clock when she released an easy shot from the blue line. It careened off one Bulldog and then deflected down off another to bounce past Chobak.
“A lot of their goals came at really opportune times for them and were tough to overcome,” said Minnesota Duluth coach Maura Crowell.
That was tough, but may have been surmountable for UMD if not for another early goal to open the second and make it a 3-0 deficit. The Bulldogs lost track of Abigail Boreen as Madeline Wethington fought for the puck in the far circle. She came away with it and Boreen was sitting all along at the back post. She redirected Wethington’s quick pass into the wide open net to make it a 3-0 lead for the Gophers.
“A fast start from the drop of the puck is huge for us,” Skaja said. “We haven’t really had that the last few games, so I think being able to get a goal or get opportunities early builds confidence throughout the whole lineup and allows us to play free and have some fun.”
The Gophers did a great job of curtailing any advance the Bulldogs might make and coach Brad Frost said his team focuses on having every player on the ice involved in both defense and offense.
“The teams we’re going to face are great in transition, so our forwards have to get back.
Our team is a six person unit out there,” he said. “I thought it was a pretty thorough performance. I felt like there weren’t really any lapses here tonight. It’s really hard to do.”
Taylor Heise let go with a slapshot :14 into the third to score her nation-leading 29th goal of the year to make it 4-0.
UMD got a goal back when Élizabeth Giguère scored a few minutes later, but they could not find a way to cut the lead any more than that.
Emily Brown scored on the empty net to wrap up the 5-1 win for the Gophers.
Both teams should advance to the NCAA tournament based on their season performance, but it was still a tough loss for the Bulldogs, with both Gabbie Hughes and Giguère showing emotion at the loss in the post-game press conference. But Crowell looked at the positive – this was a good time for her team to stumble. Their season goes on with next week’s NCAA quarterfinal and they’ll have a week to learn from their mistakes.
“We know we can beat them. We have got to be ready in these big moments. That’s something that we’ll work on. I’m glad we had this experience. Obviously we wanted it to go better, but to be able to extend the season here – we’re going to play in bigger moments coming up. Hopefully we learn from this.”
