University of Minnesota Athletics
GOPHERS TO FACE TOUGH COMPETITION AT UNH TOURNAMENT
1/26/1999 12:00:00 AM | Athletics
The Gophers open with a rematch of last weekend's 6-4 win over defending Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union champion Concordia at 4 p.m. CST Friday. Saturday, Minnesota faces defending national champion New Hampshire at 1:30 p.m. Saturday before closing out tournament play at 11 a.m. Sunday versus the Beatrice Aeros.
MINNESOTA RECENTLY-The fourth-ranked Gophers saw their unbeaten streak reach 17 games as they defeated Wilfrid Laurier 10-0 and 7-1 at home Friday and Saturday. Minnesota's winning streak reached 16 games over the weekend as it got goals from all four lines and points from 13 of 20 skaters and, in each game, 17 of 18 players recorded shots on goal.
In Friday's 10-0 win, frosh forwards Laura Slominski (Burnsville, Minn./Burnsville) and Jenny Schmidgall (Edina, Minn./Edina) recorded two goals and an assist while sophomore blueliner Courtney Kennedy (Woburn, Mass./Buckingham Browne & Nichols) also scored two goals. Winny Brodt (Roseville, Minn./Roseville Area) chipped in a career-high four assists while Erica Killewald (Troy, Mich./Troy) stopped nine shots to record her second shutout of the season.
Saturday, the Gophers outshot the Golden Hawks 51-3 en route to a 7-1 win. Senior co-captain Amber Hegland (Farmington, Minn./Farmington) scored her first career hat trick while Schmidgall added two more goals and Brodt registered three assists.
CONCORDIA RECENTLY-The Stingers hosted their annual Theresa Humes Tournament over the weekend, sweeping three games for the title to raise their record to 20-3- 1 on the season. Concordia opened with a 3-0 win over the Ottawa Raiders Friday and followed that with a 3-0 win over the Quebec Juniors Saturday. In Sunday's finale, the Stingers downed the University of Guelph 7- 0.
Stinger head coach Les Lawton is in his 16th season as the team's head coach. He won his 400th career game, Jan. 17, with a 3-0 win over Providence at the High Peaks Classic in Lake Placid, N.Y. He is currently 403- 124-48 at Concordia, where he received his degree in 1989.
NEW HAMPSHIRE RECENTLY-The second-ranked Wildcats posted a pair of home wins over the weekend, including a 2-1 victory over third-ranked Brown. Friday, New Hampshire scored four times in the first 6:26 of the third period, overcoming a 2-1 deficit for a 5-3 win over Providence. After falling behind 2-1 in the second period, Samantha Holmes got the Wildcats back to even with her second goal of the game just 48 seconds into the final period. Michelle Thornton gave her team its first lead at 4:00 of the period and Carrie Jokiel and Melisa Heitzman scored 23 seconds apart to round out the four-goal surge.
Saturday, New Hampshire need to come from behind again, scoring twice in the third period, to top the Bears. Brown went ahead 1-0 just 6:48 into the first period and held that lead until Heitzman scored a power-play goal at 6:54 of the third period and Carisa Zaban got the game-winner less than three minutes later.
With the two wins, the Wildcats are now unbeaten in their last nine games (8-0-1) and boast a 14-1-4 overall record.
Head coach Karen Kay is in her seventh season at New Hampshire, compiling at 146-45-19 record during that time. She graduated from Providence in 1985 with degrees in psychology and business and also completed her degree in athletic training following her graduation.
ABOUT THE BEATRICE AEROS-One of Canada's top Senior AAA teams, the Aeros have won nine of the last 10 Ontario Provincial Championships and currently hold a 12-point lead in the Central Ontario Women's Hockey League's Western Division with a 24-1-1 record.
The Aeros feature four 1998 Olympians, including three from Team Canada. On defense, they feature Canadian Olympians Geraldine Heaney, Cassie Campbell and former Brown standout Becky Kellar while Finnish Olympian Sari Krooks is among the team's top forwards.
In goal, they feature another former Brown Bear in Lauren Goldstein, who has allowed just four goals in 519 minutes while posting six shutouts in 10 starts.
SCORING STREAK SNAPPED-Sophomore co-captain Kris Scholz (Hugo, Minn./Stillwater Area), who scored a goal and two assists Friday, saw her school-record 15-game point- scoring streak come to an end as she was shutout Saturday. During her 15-game streak, Scholz scored 11 goals and 27 points and had seven multiple-point games.< p> MOVING ON UP-The MVP at last year's national championships and a member of the 1998 USA Women's Select Team, Winny Brodt has established herself as one of the country's top players on defense. However, she was moved up to center for the Gophers game with St. Cloud State, Jan. 9, and has thrived at the new position. In six games at center, with Amber Hegland at left wing and Laura Slominski at right wing, she has scored 14 points and recorded five multiple-point games, including a four-assist effort Friday versus Wilfrid Laurier. She is also +15 during those six games and leads the team for the season with a +39 rating.
SYNCHRONICITY-The line of Winny Brodt with wings Amber Hegland</ a> and Laura Slominski has been synchronized since they formed earlier this month, giving the Gophers three solid forward lines. The trio has combined for 13 goals and 36 points in six games together, including seven goals and 18 points this past weekend.
INCOGNITO-Despite the attention she received coming off the U.S. Olympic team, Jenny Schmidgall has received little fanfare for leading Minnesota with 24 goals and 51 points in just 17 games.
After having an 11-game point and goal-scoring streak snapped by St. Lawrence on Jan. 15, she has put together four consecutive multiple-point games, tallying six goals and 13 points.
She now has eight multiple-goal games, including her last three in a row, and 13 multiple-point games, nine of which have come in her last 10 games.
THE BUZZ ON MUZ-The longest current point-scoring streak on the Gophers now belongs to Nadine Muzerall (Mississauga, Ontario/Kimball Union Academy), who has points in each of her last 14 games. Last year's team scoring leader and MVP, she had just two points over the weekend but notched her 20th goal of the season Friday and is now one point shy of 100 for her career.
NATIONAL STATISTICS-Minnesota was ranked highly in a number of team statistical categories last week, as were several Gopher players.
Total points-2. Jenny Schmidgall, 45; t5. Nadine Muzerall, 33; t9. < a href="../wHock/player.asp?player_id=389">Kris Scholz</ a>, 29. Points per game-1. Schmidgall, 3.00; 5. Muzerall, 2.20; t10. Scholz, 1.71. Totals goals-2. Schmidgall, 20; 3. Muzerall, 19; t18. Scholz, 11. Goals per game-2. Schmidgall, 1.33; 3. Muzerall, 1.27; t20. Scholz, 0.65. Total assists-t2. Schmidgall, 25; 8. Scholz, 18; t13. Muzerall, Shannon Kennedy, 14. Assists per game-t2. Schmidgall, 1.67; 8. Scholz, 1.06; t11. Muzerall, 0.93; t14. S. Kennedy, 0.88; 17. Laura Slominski, 0.87. Power-play goals-t2. Schmidgall, Muzerall, 7; t13. Scholz, Courtney Kennedy, 3. Short-handed goals-t1. Muzerall, 2. Game-winning goals-t5. Muzerall, 3; t13. S. Kennedy, 2, Emily Buchholz 2.
Goals against average-1. Crystal Nicholas, 0.47; 5. Erica Killewald, 1.49. Save percentage-2. Nicholas, .951; t4. Killewald, .934. Winning percentage-1. Nicholas, 1.000; 3. Killewald, .864. Shutouts-2. Nicholas, 4.
Scoring offense-1st, 6.65. Scoring defense-2nd, 1.18. Scoring margin-1st, +5.47. Power play-1st, 38.8%. Penalty kill-5th, 88.7%.
THE SERIES-Minnesota has faced two of this weekend's three opponents in the past, having met both this season.
The Gophers are 1-0-0 against Concordia after a 6-4 win, Jan. 16, in Lake Placid, N.Y. Minnesota is 0-3-1 versus New Hampshire, including the teams' 1-1 tie in the All- American East-West Challenge, Nov. 7.
WHEN LAST WE MET-The Gophers overcame an early 2-0 deficit to defeat Concordia 6-4 at the High Peaks Hockey Classic, Jan. 16, in Lake Placid. After falling behind 2-0 and 3-1 in the first period, Minnesota came back to score twice in the final four minutes of the opening period to tie the score at 3-3. Nadine Muzerall then scored twice in the second period and Kris Scholz added an empty-net goal in the game's final minute to secure the win.
Minnesota, which lost three times last season to New Hampshire, pulled out a 1-1 tie against the defending national champions, Nov. 7, at Mariucci Arena. Carisa Zaban put the Wildcats ahead 1-0 early in the second period and they held that lead until Jenny Schmidgall recorded her first goal as a Gopher with 9:44 to play in the third period. The game also featured a battle between two of the nation's top goalies as Minnesota's Erica Killewald stopped 31 shots while Alicia Roberts had 24 saves for New Hampshire.
THE COACH-Now in her second season behind the Minnesota bench and ninth season as a college head coach, Laura Halldorson has established herself as one of the nation's premier coaches in women's hockey, sporting an 97-83-13 overall record and a 38-8-4 mark at Minnesota.< p> She began her head coaching career at Colby College, where she led the White Mules, one of only two non- Division I schools at the time in the 12-team Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference, to a 12-9-1 overall record in 1995-96, earning ECAC Co-Coach of the Year honors as well as being named the New England Hockey Writers' Coach of the Year. While at Colby, she also recruited and coached ECAC Player of the Year Meaghan Sittler.
At the national level, she was the assistant coach for the gold medal-winning team at the 1998 U.S. Olympic Festival and also served as an assistant for the U.S. Women's Select team that competed in the Three Nations Cup in Finland.
A native of Plymouth, Minn., and a 1981 graduate of Wayzata High School, Halldorson played four years at Princeton, where she was a co-captain and all-conference performer while leading the Tigers to three Ivy League titles. She graduated from Princeton in 1985 with a degree in psychology.
A member of the 1987 U.S. National Women's Team and three national club championship teams with the Minnesota Checkers, Halldorson returned to her alma mater in 1987 to begin her collegiate coaching career as an assistant.
GONE POLLING-Minnesota moved up a spot in the U.S. College Hockey Online poll to second, its highest ranking ever, and maintinaed its number four spot in American Hockey Magazine/USA Today poll last week. Harvard remained in the top spot in both polls.
U.S. College Hockey Online Poll (Jan. 18, 1999) Team (1st Place Votes) Record Pts LW 1.Harvard (9) 16-1-0 99 1 2.Minnesota (1) 8-1-1 85 3 3.New Hampshire 12-1-4 84 2 4.Brown 9-1-3 72 4 5.Princeton 10-5-1 60 5 6.Providence 9-3-2 43 6 7.Dartmouth 7-5-4 37 8 8.Northeastern 10-4-2 27 7 Others receiving votes: Cornell 13.
USA Today/American Hockey Magazine Poll (Jan. 19, 1999) Team (1st Place Votes) Record Pts LW 1.Harvard (5) 16-1-0 25 1 2.Brown 9-1-3 18 3 3.New Hampshire 12-1-4 15 2 4.Minnesota 15-1-1 12 4 5.Providence 11-4-2 3 NR Others receiving votes: Princeton 2. UP NEXT-The Gophers return home for their third three- game weekend in four weeks, Feb. 5-7, when they host Cornell and Minnesota State, Mankato.
Minnesota will face the Big Red at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Mariucci Arena before hosting the Mavericks in a 3 p.m. matinee Sunday.
THE POWER PLAY-As a team, Minnesota is 26-for-71 (36.6%) on the power play after going 0-for-4 versus Wilfrid Laurier, ending a 14-game streak in which they has scored at least one power-play goal in every game. The Gophers' 71 power plays have resulted in 103:09 of power-play time and they average a goal every 3:58 while on the power play.
THE PENALTY KILL-As a team, Minnesota is 58-for-65 (89.2%) killing penalties with their opponents having spent 106:05 on the power play, averaging a goal every 15:09.
