2022 WCHA Final Face-off at Ridder Arena
Semifinals – Saturday, March 5
#1/1 Minnesota (1st seed) vs. #7/8 MN Duluth (4th seed) – 1 p.m.
#2/2 Ohio State (2nd seed) vs. #4/4 Wisconsin (3rd seed) – 4 p.m.
Championship – Sunday, March 6 at 1:00 p.m.
With Ridder Arena hosting the WCHA Final Faceoff for the seventh-consecutive year, the top-ranked, top-seeded Gopher Women's Hockey team looks to follow up its WCHA Regular-Season Championship with the league's Tournament Championship. Minnesota kicks things off with the first semifinal on Saturday, March 5, against in-state rival Minnesota Duluth at 1:00 p.m. In a clash of red-clad squads, Wisconsin and Ohio State square off in the second semifinal at 4:00 p.m. The winners will advance to the championship game on Sunday, March 6, at 1:00 p.m.
Tournament television/video coverage – Continuing the WCHA's partnership, all three Final Faceoff contests will have video streaming on the B1G+ subscription service. Additionally, all three will also be broadcast on FOX9+ in the Twin Cities, with streaming of that station through Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV, fuboTV, and YouTube TV. More information has been posted by the WCHA here.
All-session ticket packages can be purchased from the University of Minnesota Ticket Office through GopherSports.com or by calling 1-800-U-GOPHER during normal business hours (M-F, 9am to 5 pm). The packages are $35 for reserved chairback seating, $25 for adult general admission (bench) seating, $20 for general admission for seniors, students & youth, and $10 per ticket for general admission groups of 10 or more. Single-day tickets have not yet gone on sale.
How they got here...
Gophers sweep St. Thomas in conference quarterfinals
The Gophers hosted 8th-seeded St. Thomas in the first round of the playoffs, the first time the league has had a full quarterfinal bracket in five years. Minnesota's defense was a large part of the weekend, holding the Tommies to a combined 28 shots on goal in the two-game series. Audrey Wethington, Taylor Heise, Abigail Boreen (PP), and Amy Potomak lit the lamp while Lauren Bench stopped the 9 shots she saw for a 4-0 shutout victory on Friday. UST goaltender Alexa Dobchuk made 49 saves. Catie Skaja scored Saturday's first two goals & Heise tallied her second of the series, all in the first period. Goals by Emily Oden and Wethington sandwiched St. Thomas' lone tally of the weekend by Jenna Hartung in the second stanza. Neither team scored in the final period, resulting in a 5-1 Gopher victory and the series sweep. Bench made another 18 saves; Saskia Maurer made 52 saves in 54 minutes of action, and Eryn Cooley stopped 3 shots in the final 5:33 of her Tommies career. Heise led all scorers with 4 points, adding a pair of assists to her two goals, while Wethington (2g, 1a), Boreen (1g, 2a), and Savannah Norcross (3a) each had a 3-point series.
Minnesota Duluth finished fourth in the conference standings, posting a 19-8-1-0 (1-1 in OT) mark in WCHA play. The Bulldogs faced Minnesota State in the quarterfinals, needing three games to eliminate the Mavericks and advance. The opener was a wild affair in which the teams traded the lead in the first period, going to the intermission with MSU ahead 3-2 after Kelsey King lit the lamp twice. But UMD's Naomi Rogge recorded a second-period natural hat trick to put the Bulldogs up 5-3 after 40 minutes, and the Mavericks could only muster an extra-attacker goal by Brittyn Fleming with 48 seconds remaining, giving UMD the series lead with a 5-4 victory. Mavericks goaltender Chantal Burke stopped 41 of 42 shots in Game 2 and Fleming scored twice in a 3-1 upset win to even the series at one game apiece. The Bulldogs took a 2-0 lead in Game 3 just over 2 minutes into the second period behind goals from Anna Klein & Taylor Anderson, but Fleming netted her fourth goal of the series to cut MSU's deficit to 2-1 and Jessica Kondas knotted the score in the third. The contest went to overtime, and Elizabeth Giguere punched the Bulldogs' ticket to the Final Faceoff with some amazing stick-work resulting in the game-winning goal at the 2:30 mark. Burke finished with a three-game combined total of 102 saves, while UMD's Jojo Chobak stopped 69 shots.
Ohio State finished second in WCHA play with a 21-6-0-0 (1-1 in OT) conference record plus a perfect 4-0-0 mark in non-conference play. The Buckeyes blanked 7th-seeded St. Cloud State in the quarterfinals, posting 6-0 and 3-0 shutout victories for the weekend sweep. Paetyn Levis exploded for 4 consecutive goals plus an assist on Friday, and dished out two more helpers on Saturday for a 7-point series. Liz Schepers recorded two goals and an assist, while Lauren Bernard added a goal and 3 assists. SCSU goaltender Emma Polusny's collegiate career came to a close with a combined 86 saves.
Wisconsin took third in the WCHA standings with an 18-6-3-2 (2-0 in OT) conference record, though they were 5-0-1 in non-conference action. Hosting 6th-seeded Bemidji State, the Badgers found themselves trailing the Beavers 1-0 after one period on a goal by Graysen Myers. However, that would be the only BSU scoring for the weekend. Maddi Wheeler lit the lamp in the second period and Brette Pettet tallied early in the third stanza for a 2-1 Wisconsin victory in Game 1. Kennedy Blair stopped all 15 shots she saw in Game 2 and Casey O'Brien contributed on all five Badger goals – scoring twice herself and dishing out 3 assists – for a 5-0 victory. Beavers goaltender Kerrigan Dowhy made a combined 82 saves.
Final Faceoff Semifinal Matchups
Minnesota vs. Minnesota Duluth – With the expansion of the NCAA Tournament field to 11 teams this year, UMD is not as much of a bubble team as they have been in the recent past. While the Gophers sit atop the Pairwise Rankings, the Bulldogs are in 8th.
Minnesota and Minnesota Duluth split their four-game regular-season series. The Gophers took the opener in Duluth in October, 3-1; after trailing by three goals, they came back to force overtime but the Bulldogs won in in the extra period, 5-4. In December in Minneapolis, the Bulldogs took the first game 3-2 at Ridder Arena, but the Gophers won the rematch, 2-1. Minnesota held a 125-95 advantage in combined shots on goal. Peyton Hemp led the Gophers in total scoring against UMD, lighting the lamp once and dishing out four assists for 5 points. Abigail Boreen & Audrey Wethington each recorded two goals and two assists, Emily Oden lit the lamp twice, and Taylor Heise added a goal and two helpers. Gabbie Hughes (3g, 2a) and Elizabeth Giguere (2g, 3a) each posted 5 points for the Bulldogs against the Gophers, while Liz Schepers recorded a goal and 3 assists. In net, Lauren Bench made 61 saves over the first three meetings, with a 2.99 goals-against average and .871 save percentage, while Makayla Pahl stopped 24 of 25 shots in the fourth game. Bulldogs goalkeeper Emma Söderberg stopped 114 shots with a 2.50 GAA and .919 SV%; however, Jojo Chobak has been UMD's primary goaltender in the second half of the season.
Ohio State vs. Wisconsin – Both the Buckeyes and Badgers are comfortably in the NCAA Tournament field, but while OSU will likely move up to the top spot in the national tourney with a Final Faceoff championship victory, Wisconsin needs a good weekend showing – and/or some help in the other conferences – to get an NCAA quarterfinal home game.
Ohio State held a 7-5 edge in the standings points over their four head-to-head contests. The Badgers took the first two meetings in Madison in late October, 3-1 and 2-1 (OT), but the Buckeyes earned a weekend sweep in the final series of the regular season, 5-1 and 2-1. A 45-23 shots on goal advantage in the fourth contest gave Ohio State a combined 130-114 edge in the season series. Casey O'Brien led the Badgers with 5 points on a goal and 4 assists against the Buckeyes, while Daryl Watts added two goals and an assist, Nicole LaMantia lit the lamp twice, and Makenna Webster tallied a goal & two helpers. OSU's Jenna Buglioni matched O'Brien with a goal and 4 assists, Kenzie Hauswirth scored 3 goals (all in the February series), and Gabby Rosenthal added 2 goals and an assist. Between the pipes, Kennedy Blair played the first 8 periods for Badgers, stopping 67 shots while recording a 2.61 goals-against average and .905 save percentage, while Cami Kronish appeared in the final four periods, making 54 saves with a 1.53 GAA and .964 SV%. Buckeyes goaltender Andrea Braendli made 59 saves with a 2.00 GAA and .937 SV% in the October series, while Amanda Thiele stopped 48 shots with a 1.00 GAA and .960 SV% in the February games.
Current PairWise Rankings
1. Minnesota (28-7-1 overall record, .6345 RPI)
2. Ohio State (27-6-0, .6280)
3. Northeastern (28-4-2, .6162)
4. Colgate (28-7-1, .6046 RPI)
5. Wisconsin (25-6-4, .6041)
6. Quinnipiac (25-8-3, .5968)
7. Yale (24-7-1, .6021)
8. Minnesota Duluth (24-10-1, .5914)
9. Harvard (22-9-1, .5877)
10. Clarkson (22-11-3, .5610)
11. Vermont (22-10-3, .5539)
12. Connecticut (23-8-4, .5539)
** Syracuse (15-10-6, .5126)
The NCAA Tournament Selection Show is scheduled for Sunday, March 6 at 9 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. CT and will be televised on ESPNews. Reminder: The conference playoff champions from the CHA, ECAC, Hockey East, and the WCHA earn autobids to the tournament; Syracuse has already claimed a space as the CHA Playoff Champion. Rankings and RPI calculations courtesy of BCInterruption.com.
