Power Play Club

Goals for a Goal program returns for the new season!

One of our fundraisers for the Gopher Women's Hockey team is our Goals for a Goal program, a pledge-per-goal campaign, which is back for the 2025-2026 season! Register your pledge for every goal the Gophers score all the way through the playoffs, with the option to double your pledge for power play tallies. Pledges can be submitted electronically through the online form at z.umn.edu/GoalsForAGoal. Following the conclusion of the season, you will receive an email with your pledge total and giving instructions. In 2024-2025, Minnesota lit the lamp 153 times with 35 of those coming on the power play, resulting in nearly $3,400 raised for the program.

The Gophers have already started the season with a bang, netting 18 goals in their opening series, three of which came on the power play! (More details are provided in our recap below.) We'll continue to update this scoreboard as the year progresses.

PPC member enrollment remains open for 2025-2026!

Registration to the Power Play Club for the 2025-2026 season remains open AT ALL LEVELS! Your annual membership enrollment donations are our biggest source of financial support for the team, last year raising more than $34,000.

Locker Sponsor level – Please consider sponsoring a GWH player's or coach's locker through our top membership tier. The donor's name is posted on a nameplate next to the locker, and donors will have an opportunity to meet with their respective player(s) at our event in January (with pictures and a team meal). A minimum $1,000 donation (per locker) is required, though any amount over and above that is encouraged. If you are interested, either as a renewing or new Locker Sponsor, please contact Bob Milligan at milligandanes@gmail.com as soon as possible but do not submit a donation at this time; donation instructions for Locker Sponsors will be sent at the start of November.

Basic Membership level – A minimum donation of $125 is required for our basic membership tier, which includes up to two adults and any children at same address. Online registration is preferred at z.umn.edu/PPC25; click the "Make A Gift" button on that page and follow the instructions. To register offline, download the form here and send it in to the listed address, with a check payable to the "University of Minnesota".

Looking ahead – Oct. 10 game vs. SCSU moved to 5:30 p.m.

SCHEDULE CHANGE!! The next home game at Ridder Arena for the Gopher Women's Hockey team, coming up on Friday, October 10 against the St. Cloud State Huskies, has been moved up ½ hour to a 5:30 p.m. start time. The change is to mitigate traffic concerns due to that evening's Homecoming parade on University Avenue. We look forward to seeing you at the arena!!

#3 Minnesota Gophers at #13 Boston University Terriers
Friday, October 3 at 6 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. CT
Saturday, October 4 at 4 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. CT
Walter Brown Arena – Boston, MA

Coming off a pair of high-scoring games to open their season at home, the Gopher Women's Hockey team heads to Beantown for their first road test, facing the #13-ranked Boston University Terriers. The two squads will square off this Friday, October 3 at 6 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. CT and again on Saturday, October 4 at 4 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. CT at Walter Brown Arena.

Game coverage – With Boston University being a member of Hockey East, video streaming for both contests will be through the ESPN+ subscription service (Friday / Saturday). FREE audio play-by-play can be found on GopherSports.com (Friday / Saturday). Live stats will also be available via GopherSports.com.

Last time against B.U. – The Gophers and Terriers met early last season at Ridder Arena. The opening contest of the weekend series was scoreless through 58 minutes, but a major penalty against B.U. put Minnesota on a power play and Abbey Murphy converted with 1:20 to play; an 11-save shutout performance by Skylar Vetter made that stand for a 1-0 victory. In the rematch, five different Gophers lit the lamp with Murphy tallying a goal & an assist and Natalie Mlynkova dishing out three helpers; Lilli Welcke and Riley Walsh scored for the Terriers, but Hannah Clark posted 12 saves for the 5-2 win and series sweep. B.U.'s Callie Shanahan stopped 40 shots in the Friday contest and Mari Pietersen made 21 saves in the Saturday game.

Analyzing the Terriers – With two games left in the 2024-2025 regular season, Boston University needed only to force overtime in one of those contests against Connecticut to earn the Hockey East Regular-Season Championship; however, the Huskies swept the Terriers, 4-1 and 3-1, to take the title and drop B.U. to second place. Despite that setback, B.U. recovered with three-straight overtime wins in the league playoffs – 4-3 over Vermont, 3-2 over Boston College (2OT), and 3-2 over Northeastern – to claim the Hockey East Playoff Championship and the conference's autobid to the NCAA Tournament. Earning the #8 seed, though, the Terriers were one-and-done as they fell 3-1 to #9 Clarkson in the regional semifinal, finishing with a 24-12-2 record (including postseason play) and a 18-7-2-1 (1-1 in OT) mark in regular-season league action. Entering 2025-2026, the Terriers were initially ranked #11 in both pre-season national polls, but have already slid down to #13 despite not yet having played any official games.

The Terriers enter the year with a new look after four of their top six scorers from last season all completed their collegiate careers. That said, scoring leader Sydney Healey (#11) returns as a senior after recording a team-high 15 goals and adding 8 assists for 23 points during her junior year. Another senior, Clara Yuhn (#19), was the only other Terrier to reach double-digits in goals (11) in 2024-2025; she also dished out 7 assists for 18 total points. Additionally, despite the graduations from last year's squad, B.U. comes in with five other seniors on this season's roster, including next-highest returning scorer Rylie Walsh (#21; 9g, 8a last year), German National Team members Lilli and Luisa Welcke (#26 & #16, respectively), and Minnesota native Maeve Kelly (#24).

B.U. is backstopped by a pair of experienced netminders. After taking a year off, Michelle Pasiechnyk (#1) returns to NCAA competition as a grad transfer from Clarkson, where she went a combined 74-28-5 over four seasons with 21 shutouts, a 1.58 goals-against average, and a .935 save percentage, also being named both NCAA Goaltender of the Year and ECAC Goaltender of the Year in 2023-2024. Junior Mari Pietersen (#92) was the Terriers' primary backup last season; over her first two years (combined), she's 11-6-1 in 19 appearances (18 starts) with 2 shutouts, a 2.44 GAA, and an .890 SV% (2.08 GAA & .911 SV% last season). They are joined this season by freshmen Sydney Fogu (#33) and Jackie Wright (#35).

Last weekend for Boston University – B.U. hosted the Concordia University (Montreal) Stingers in exhibition last Friday. Four different Terriers lit the lamp and Keira Healey was their top overall scorer with 2 assists; however, the game ended in a 4-4 overtime tie with B.U. winning a shootout, 2-0 in two rounds. Michelle Pasiechnyk, Mari Pietersen, and Jackie Wright combined for 26 saves.

Gophers rout Boston College in season-opening sweep

Coming into the new season with 10 new faces and opening official action against a Boston College squad they hadn't seen in nearly 6 years, the Gopher Women's Hockey team seemed to have little difficulty against the Eagles in their weekend series at Ridder Arena. A combination of a five-goal first period and stout defense gave Minnesota a 7-1 victory in the Thursday opener. Already leading 1-0 after 20 minutes of Friday's rematch, the Gophers found the back of the B.C. net 10 more times while getting a solid goaltending performance at the other end for an 11-0 blowout and the sweep. Ten different Gophers lit the lamp at various times in the series, and another four each had at least one assist.

On Thursday, freshman Bella Fanale netted the team's first goal of the season, the first of her collegiate career. Chloe Primerano doubled the lead a short time later and Fanale added a second goal on a power play 71 seconds after that. Sophomore Kendra Distad followed with her first career goal and Abbey Murphy added her first of the season before the game was 20-minutes old. Molly Jordan pushed the lead to 6-0 with her first goal as a Gopher, coming against her former team. Ava Thomas got the Eagles on the board later in the second stanza, but Nelli Laitinen lit the lamp for Minnesota in the third for the final result. Murphy dished out 3 helpers for a four-point game, Ava Lindsay & Sydney Morrow also recorded 3 assists apiece, and Sienna D'Alessandro recorded her first collegiate point with an assist on Distad's goal. Hannah Clark needed only 9 saves for the victory as the Gophers held B.C. to only 10 shots on goal in contest, including none in the first period.

Friday night saw more of an evenly played first period, though Morrow lit the lamp to put Minnesota up 1-0 at the intermission. In the second, Sarah Paul converted on a power play for her first Gopher goal, Tereza Plosová netted her first collegiate goal, and Murphy found the back of the net twice to make it a 5-0 game after 40 minutes. That score remained unchanged midway through the third stanza, but the Gophers then struck four times in a 98-second span; Plosová scored her second goal of the game, Josefin Bouveng tallied her first of the season, Morrow netted her second of the contest, and Murphy completed her hat trick. The scoring wasn't done as Jordan converted another power play for her second goal of the weekend and Fanale added her third. Meanwhile, Layla Hemp made 25 saves in her collegiate debut, including a glove snag at the final horn, to earn her first career win and shutout. In addition to her 3 goals, Murphy added two assists for a 5-point contest and Fanale added three assists to her goal for a four-point effort. Meanwhile, Lindsay & D'Alessandro each dished out another three helpers to give them (respectively) 6 and 4 points in the series, and Jamie Nelson also tallied two assists for her first points as a Gopher.

Milestones reached and conference honors awarded

With the team finding the back of the net 18 times this past weekend, milestone scoring marks were reached and weekly honors from the WCHA were earned.

Abbey Murphy's fifth point of the series against Boston College, an assist on Sydney Morrow's first-period goal on Friday, was her 200th career point, making her the eleventh player in Gopher Women's Hockey history to reach that mark. However, she was not done there; her second goal of that game brought her points total to 202, moving her into ninth place in the Minnesota record book for overall scoring ahead of both Dani Cameranesi and Ambria Thomas. Completing her hat trick in the third period, Murphy also moved up in the Gophers' all-time goals list with 107, putting her past Krissy Wendell's 106 and into fifth place. Adding another assist after that, Murphy sits at 204 career points on 107 goals and 97 assists.

A trio of Gophers were recognized by the WCHA for their performances in the series against the Eagles. Tallying a combined 9 points (4g, 5a), Murphy earned the honor as the league's Forward of the Week. Meanwhile, a six-point (3g, 3a) debut weekend by Bella Fanale earned her the Rookie of the Week award, and Sydney Morrow was named the Defender of the Week after her 5-point (2g, 3a) showing.

Another Gopher to also hit a milestone for scoring was senior Josefin Bouveng. Her goal in Friday's contest was her 42nd at Minnesota to go with 58 assists, giving her 100 career points!

We send our congratulations to all four players on these achievements!!

Around the WCHA...

Minnesota Duluth blanks Syracuse – In the other Thursday-Friday series this past week, UMD netminder Ève Gascon posted back-to-back clean sheets with 46 combined saves, Thea Johansson lit the lamp 3 times, and Caitlin Kraemer added two goals & an assist as the Bulldogs earned a pair of 4-0 shutout road victories over the Orange. Ava Drabyk stopped 78 shots in the series for Syracuse.

St. Thomas earns road sweep at Lindenwood – A three-goal Tommies lead in the opener was whittled away by the Lions and disappeared completely when Silje Gundersen scored an extra-attacker goal for LU with 1:19 left in regulation; however, Cara Sajevic responded for St. Thomas, lighting the lamp just 21 seconds later for the 4-3 road victory. Lindenwood took a 1-0 lead early in the second period of the rematch on a goal by Zsofia Pazmandi, but Teagan Kulenkamp knotted the score 6½ minutes later and Keara Parker, already with an assist on Kulenkamp's goal, lit the lamp with 4:45 remaining in the third for a 2-1 UST win and the weekend sweep. Julia Minotti made a combined 44 saves for the Tommies to earn both wins.

Wisconsin rolls past Bemidji State – Maggie Scannell tallied a hat trick Friday and added a fourth goal Saturday, Kirsten Simms recorded 3 goals & an assist, and Lacey Eden (2g, 2a), Cassie Hall (2g, 2a), and Caroline Harvey (4a) each also posted a 4-point series as the Badgers earned the road sweep of the Beavers, 9-2 & 5-0. Ava McNaughton earned both wins with 26 combined saves. Maddie Kaiser and Kate Johnson scored for BSU and Kaitlin Groess stopped 61 combined shots.

St. Cloud State splits at Connecticut – In a battle of ranked Huskies teams, Raili Mustonen & Julianne Labbé scored and Emilia Kyrkkö stopped 35 of 36 shots for a 2-1 come-from-behind victory for SCSU in their opener on the road at UConn. In the rematch, Livvy Dewar tallied a first-period assist and the game-winning second-period power-play goal and Tia Chan made 36 saves for a 2-1 Connecticut win to split the series.

Upcoming games – In addition to the Gophers, four other WCHA teams are in non-conference action, all playing Friday and Saturday. Ohio State opens their season with a road trip to Colgate. Meanwhile, Minnesota State hosts Lindenwood, Bemidji State hosts Robert Morris, and Wisconsin hosts Maine. Minnesota Duluth, St. Cloud State, and St. Thomas are idle.

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