View the February 4th Penalty Box Post newsletter
Looking ahead...
All-member PPC Chalk Talk – Saturday, Feb. 21 at 12:30 p.m.
The final of our three member-exclusive Chalk Talks for the 2025-2026 season is scheduled for February 21 at 12:30 p.m., prior to the Gophers' regular-season finale against Minnesota Duluth. We will be joined by one of the Gopher coaches to discuss on-ice strategy and the team's performance in the previous game. The event will be held in the Ridder Arena Weight Room, on the upstairs level across the hall from the suites and press box.
Enrollment remains open for basic PPC membership!
As the official booster club for the University of Minnesota Women's Hockey program, the primary objective of the Power Play Club is to provide financial support. Membership in the club is our best fundraising vehicle and encourages the players and coaching staff in their quest for academic and athletic excellence. Enrollment in our Basic Membership level is still open and requires a minimum donation of $125, 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. Offline registration is also available by downloading the form here and sending it in to the listed address, with a check payable to the "University of Minnesota".
Goals for a Goal – Gophers reach season to-date total of 150
Another method of financially supporting the Gopher Women's Hockey program is by contributing to the Goals for a Goal pledge-per-goal program, part of our partnership with the Golden Gopher Fund!
Lighting the lamp four times this past weekend, the Gophers increased their season-to-date goal total to 150, with twenty-four (24) of those coming on the power play! Register a pledge for every goal tallied through the playoffs, with the option to double your pledge for power play conversions, 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. Thanks as always for your support of this effort!!
#3 Minnesota Golden Gophers (23-5-0, 17-5-0-0 WCHA)
vs. Univ. of St. Thomas Tommies (12-16-0, 7-15-0-0 WCHA)
Friday, February 6 at 12:00 p.m. - Lee and Penny Anderson Arena – St. Paul
Saturday, February 7 at 2:00 p.m. – Ridder Arena
The Gopher Women's Hockey Team looks to start a new winning streak with a home-and-home series against their crosstown rivals, the University of St. Thomas Tommies. The action begins this Friday, February 6, with a 12 p.m. matinee at Lee & Penny Anderson Arena in St. Paul, then moves to Ridder Arena for the rematch on Saturday, February 7, at 2 p.m.
Ticket information – Please note that St. Thomas relies primarily on digital ticketing; you can purchase tickets here, though you may have to create an account and log in first. Ticket prices include parking at the Anderson Parking Facility at the southwest corner of Cretin Avenue & Grand Avenue.
Tickets for Saturday's game at Ridder Arena can be purchased here.
Game coverage –
Friday's game televised on Fox 9+
Both games streamed through the B1G+ subscription service – Friday / Saturday
Free audio play-by-play on GopherSports.com – Friday / Saturday
Traffic & parking alert Saturday – Fans coming to Saturday's game are advised to allow time for additional vehicle and pedestrian traffic around the U. as four other Gopher teams are also hosting events: Men's & Women's Swimming and Diving are holding their First Chance Meet at the Jean Freeman Aquatic Center starting at 11 a.m., Gymnastics is facing UCLA at Maturi Pavilion at 4 p.m., and Men's Hockey is taking on Ohio State at 3M Arena at Mariucci at 8 p.m.
Last time against St. Thomas – Meeting at the start of December, the Gopher Women's Hockey team defeated the Tommies in their first-ever visit to Lee & Penny Anderson Arena, 5-3, before returning to Ridder Arena and completing the series sweep with a 4-1 victory.
The two teams exchanged goals over the first 54 minutes of the opener as Minnesota took 3 one-goal leads only for St. Thomas to even the score each time; Abbey Murphy, Kendra Distad, and Allie Franco lit the lamp for the Maroon & Gold, but Whitney Horton netted two goals and JuliAnna Gazdik knotted things up again for UST with 6:24 remaining in regulation. However, Sydney Morrow put Minnesota ahead for good with 2:39 remaining and Josefin Bouveng added an insurance goal 51 seconds later. Nelli Laitinen led the Gophers with 2 points on a pair of assists and Hannah Clark made 26 saves, while Tommies netminder Julia Minotti stopped 41 shots.
In the rematch, Minnesota got first-period goals from Madison Kaiser and Murphy, and Bouveng & Jamie Nelson pushed the lead to 4-0 just past the midway point of the contest, sending Minotti to the bench in the process. Dani Strom entered between the pipes for UST and kept the Gophers from netting anything else, but her teammates could only manage a goal by Ellah Hause in the final stanza. Nelson finished with a three-point game, dishing out two assists before her own goal, and Layla Hemp stopped 13 of 14 shots for the win. Minotti made 18 saves before being relieved, and Strom stopped another 16 shots.
Analyzing the Tommies – St. Thomas enters the series with a full roster as only former players Saskia Maurer & Nicole Vallario were Olympic team selections (for Switzerland). UST also comes in as the fifth-best team in the WCHA after last weekend's games (more on that shortly), posting a 7-15-0-0 conference record and a 12-16-0 mark overall.
As we noted before the December series, the Tommies have been overtime warriors, now with seven of their games – all in WCHA play – needing extra time. They've gone 3-4-0 in those contests, including a road win over Minnesota State (2-1), two losses to Ohio State (3-2 & 2-1), a road loss at Wisconsin (4-3), and two wins & a loss against St. Cloud State.
Junior Rylee Bartz (#6) is the Tommies' leader in both goals (15) and total points (26), having dished out 11 assists, while fellow junior Ella Boerger (#15) has a team-high 16 helpers while lighting the lamp 6 times herself for 22 points. Sophomore Chloe Boreen (#20) is third in scoring with 19 points on 10 goals & 9 assists, and junior Maddie Brown (#10) follows in fourth with 4 goals and 14 assists for 18 points.
Graduate student Julia Minotti (#37), the transfer from Clarkson, continues as UST's primary goaltender; she now has a 9-14-0 record with 2 shutouts, a 2.82 goals-against average, and a .904 save percentage. Sophomore Dani Strom (#1) remains the main backup this season, going 3-1-0 with one no decision in five starts; two wins at Bemidji State last month improved her stats to a 2.83 GAA and an .881 SV%. Freshman Nora Hannan (#31) added a start two weekends ago at Ohio State (a 5-0 loss) to three relief appearances; in 131 minutes of action, she has a 5.49 GAA and an .862 SV%. Senior Maggie Malecha (#33) remains on the St. Thomas roster but has yet to play this season.
Last action – UST earns 5-point sweep of SCSU – Hosting St. Cloud State at Anderson Arena and trying to get out of the 7th spot in the league standings, the Tommies did just that with a 3-2 overtime victory followed by a 3-2 regulation win. Friday's series opener saw Ella Boerger put UST up late in the first period, but Maria Mikaelyan converted on the second stanza power play and Raili Mustonen lit the lamp to give SCSU the lead with 5:34 left in regulation; however, JuliAnna Gazdik knotted the score again for the Tommies with 1:27 remaining in the third to force overtime and Rylee Bartz found the back of the net on a power play 2:50 into the extra session. In the rematch, Maddie Brown, Bartz, and Chloe Boreen tallied to put St. Thomas up 3-0 after 40 minutes; St. Cloud State tried to rally with two goals in the third from Sofianna Sundelin but they were unable to find an equalizer. Julia Minotti made a combined 36 saves in the series for the Tommies, while Jojo Chobak stopped 61 shots for the Huskies.
Gophers defeat Badgers in OT on Friday, fall on Saturday
A 25-save performance by Hannah Clark and a pair of unassisted goals led the Gopher Womne's Hockey team to a 3-2 come-from-behind overtime victory over top-ranked Wisconsin at Ridder Arena on Friday, but the Badgers earned a measure of payback with a 6-1 win of their own in the rematch Saturday for a series split.
Sydney Morrow opened the weekend's scoring, lighting the lamp on a rebound 3:47 into the contest to put Minnesota up 1-0. That lead held until Lacey Eden & Finlay McCarthy found the back of the net exactly one minute apart in the second period to give Wisconsin a 2-1 advantage. But Avery Hovland knotted the score in the third, popping the puck up from center ice into the Badger zone, racing past two Badgers to catch up to it herself, and putting it past goalie Rhyah Stewart. The game required overtime, and Clark kept the Gophers in it with a breakaway save about a minute into the extra session. Speeding down to the other end of the ice, a centering pass hit a Badger defender but Molly Jordan collected the loose puck and ripped a wrist shot high on Stewart's stick side for the win at the 1:17 mark.
Saturday was a much different story as Wisconsin roughed up Gopher netminder Layla Hemp for 3 goals in the first 11+ minutes of the contest, with Cassie Hall scoring twice. Clark came in to relieve Hemp, but gave up three more goals in the second stanza; Vivian Jungels netted her second goal of the game and Hall completed her hat trick. No further damage was done in the third, and Chloe Primerano scored for Minnesota to break up the potential shutout.
Ava Lindsay was the lone Gopher to record multiple points in the series, dishing out a pair of assists. Hall had two assists to go with her hat trick for a five-point weekend and Stewart finished with 48 combined saves.
Olympic Women's Hockey begins tomorrow; here's how to watch
With 4 current and 5 alumnae members of the Minnesota Women's Hockey program representing their respective countries, here's how to watch all the action in the 2026 Olympic Women's Ice Hockey Tournament in Milan, Italy.
The full schedule of games can be found on the IIHF's tournament site. Tomorrow's action (Thursday, Feb. 6 – times shown are U.S./Canada CST) includes Sweden vs. Germany at 5:10 a.m., Italy vs. France at 7:40 a.m., USA vs. Czechia at 9:40 a.m., and Canada vs. Finland at 2:10 p.m.
In the United States, all four of Team USA's preliminary round games will be televised live on USA Network, with re-airings also occurring. (Note that elimination round game coverage is TBD.) Other select games will be also televised on the USA Network. Regardless, all the games will streamed on Peacock TV subscription service. The complete coverage schedule for both the women's and men's tournaments can be found on NBCOlympics.com.
For our Canadian families & friends, CBC is the exclusive English-language broadcaster for the Olympics. All games of the women's hockey tournament will be streamed on the CBC Gem subscription service, and it is expected that all Team Canada games will be televised live on CBC TV. Their full Olympic streaming and TV schedule is available here.
Around the WCHA...
Buckeyes sweep Bulldogs in Columbus – Jocelyn Amos tallied a hat trick & an assist on Friday and added a fourth goal Saturday to lead Ohio State to a home sweep of Minnesota Duluth, 6-2 and 3-1. Maxine Cimoroni dished out 5 assists in the series and Hailey MacLeod stopped 64 shots for OSU. Grace Sadura recorded a goal & an assist for UMD.
Mavericks, Beavers split – Taylor Otremba, Lauren Zawoyski, and Mercury Bischoff lit the lamp and Hailey Hansen posted a 17-save clean sheet as Minnesota State earned a 3-0 victory to open their weekend series against Bemidji State; Ava Hills stopped 38 shots for BSU. Playing Saturday in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Museum Women's Face-Off Classic in Grand Rapids, Otremba gave MSU a 1-0 first-period lead, but Izy Fairchild knotted the score for the Beavers 7 minutes later, Shelby Sandburg put BSU ahead with 12 minutes to play, and Hills made another 29 saves for a 2-1 win and the weekend split.
Upcoming games – In two other Friday-Saturday series, Minnesota Duluth hosts Bemidji State while Minnesota State visits St. Cloud State. The big matchup of the weekend, however, features #2 Ohio State at #1 Wisconsin on Saturday & Sunday; Saturday's game will be broadcast on Big Ten Network at 3 p.m. CT.
Standings (* clinched home ice to open conference playoffs):
1. Wisconsin* – 57 points (.864 pts%), 18-2-2-1, 1-1 in OT (24-2-2 overall)
2. Ohio State* – 55 points (.833 pts%), 19-3-0-0, 2-0 in OT (25-3-0 overall)
3. Minnesota* – 50 points (.758 pts%), 17-5-0-0, 1-0 in OT (23-5-0 overall)
4. Minn. Duluth – 32 points (.485 pts%), 9-10-3-2, 0-0 in OT (13-12-3 overall)
5. St. Thomas – 22 points (.333 pts%), 7-15-0-0, 3-4 in OT (12-16-0 overall)
6. Minnesota State – 21 points (.318 pts%), 6-14-2-1, 1-1 in OT (12-14-2 overall)
7. St. Cloud State – 18 points (.273 pts%), 4-16-2-1, 1-4 in OT (8-18-2 overall)
8. Bemidji State – 9 points (.136 pts%), 3-18-1-0, 1-0 in OT (6-19-3 overall)
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