A crowd of 2,730 turned out to watch Minnesota wrap up the crown in the WCHA with a 2-0 shutout of Minnesota-Duluth.
“I think this makes winning a trophy that much better —- a close game,” senior captain Rachael Bona said. “I’m glad that it happened like that.”
The win, coupled with a Wisconsin loss at Ohio State, gave the Gophers (27-2-4, 20-2-4-2 WCHA) an insurmountable, eight-point lead with one weekend left in the regular season.
“Very fortunate, especially to win at home,” the team’s other senior captain, Rachel Ramsey said. “Not our best two periods, but to have [coach Brad Frost] come in the locker room and ask us if we had one period to win a WCHA Championship, how much would we put in, because Wisconsin just lost. I think that was the moment to get our feet finally moving.”
The Bulldogs (17-10-5, 12-10-4-2 WCHA) took it to Minnesota in the first period, outshooting the hosts 12-6 and ringing the crossbar, and had the game stalled at 0-0 heading into that second intermission.
Dani Cameranesi jumped on a loose puck at neutral ice, broke down the left wing, and found goalie Kayla Black’s five hole for her 19th goal of the season 2:15 into the final frame.
“That was just a great play to pick that puck up and get the speed,” Frost said. “She’s a big-time player, and big-time players need to make big-time plays, and that was huge for us.”
From there, the Gophers locked down defensively and only allowed UMD two shots and no good scoring chances.
“I knew that they would do that,” said Amanda Leveille, who made 19 saves to get the shutout. “Our team is fantastic when we get up. We know that we can’t get scored on, and they just shut down.”
Black saved the other 25 shots she faced, but Lee Stecklein hit an empty net immediately after Black was pulled for an extra attacker for the final margin.
A day after Frost won his 250th game as Minnesota’s head coach, his senior class surpassed the mark established by Minnesota’s seniors a year ago by winning their 139th game to become the winningest class in the sport’s history on their Senior Day.
“It’s crazy to wrap your head around,” Ramsey said. “I think they said something like 92 percent of our games we’ve won. It doesn’t feel like that, maybe because the losses stand out in your head, the ones you do lose. We’ve been blessed.”
Forward Meghan Lorrence and goaltender Shyler Sletta are the other Minnesota seniors.
“They hang banners,” Frost said. “They’ve hung a lot of them here in the rink. The legacy that they leave beyond the hockey rink is what I’ll remember.”
Minnesota finishes its season in Bemidji, while the Bulldogs will host Ohio State as they look to wrap up home ice.
