Gophers and Badgers Battle for WCHA Title

Minnesota and Wisconsin will battle for the WCHA tournament title, today at 1:07 p.m. Minnesota, who holds the No. 1 seed, defeated Minnesota State, while Wisconsin defeated No. 3 Minnesota Duluth to advance to the championship title. 

Yesterday's Recap
The No. 1 University of Minnesota women’s hockey team scored four goals in the third period en route to a 7-2 win over Minnesota State University, Mankato, yesterday at Ridder Arena. The Golden Gophers, who was ahead by one goal after the second period, turned on the pressure in the third to secure the win. In all, 11 Gopher student-athletes tallied a point in the win, including Jocelyne Lamoureux with four points (2-2), while Monique Lamoureux had two goals and Anne Schleper and Emily West had two assists.
The Golden Gophers took and early 2-0 lead scoring 5:29 and 13:26 in the first period. While on the penalty kill, Gigi Marvin netted her third short-handed goal of the season when she rifled in a top-shelf shot at 5:29 in the first. West batted down a MSU clearing attempt and held the lone set up for the Marvin. Brittany Francis netted her sixth goal of the season when she added a high tip on a Rachael Drazan slapshot from the point.
MSU responded when Abby Williams scored at 18:48 in the first to cut Minnesota’s lead to 2-1 after one.
Jocelyne Lamoureux added the Gophers’ second power-play goal and third goal on the special teams when she scored at 7:19 in the second period. For the second time in the game, MSU cut the Gopher lead to one when Emmi Leinonen scored a power-play goal at 16:44 in the second.
Minnesota opened the floodgates in the third period, when it found the back of the net four times for the 7-2 final. Monique Lamoureux scored her 37th goal of the season at 3:53 to put the game at 4-2 with the assists going to Jocelyne Lamoureux and Melanie Gagnon. Terra Rasmussen banked in a rebound attempt at 11:43 in the third for her sixth goal of the season. Monique Lamoureux added her second goal of the game when she made a beautiful back-handed play for her 38th goal of the season. Jocelyne Lamoureux notched her second goal of the game when the puck went off her glove for her 28th goal of the season. Kelly Seeler tallied the lone assist.
After allowing 13 MSU shots on goal, the Gophers only allowed five Maverick shots on goal to their 16. Alyssa Grogan made some key saves for the Gophers in the first two periods and recorded her 15th win of the season. Grogan had eight saves in the first, 12 in the second and five in the third for 25 total saves.
The University of Wisconsin earned a 3-1 win over Minnesota Duluth, in the second semifinal game at Ridder Arena.
After UMD broke the scoreless tie at 8:20 in the second period, Wisconsin went on to score three unanswered goals for the win. Alycia Matthews scored a power-play goal at 15:47 in the second, and netted another goal at 18:39 in the second from Jasmine Giles to put the game at 2-1 heading into the final period. Meghan Duggan notched her 21st goal of the year at 17:14 in the third for the insurance goal and the 3-1 final.
IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
The 2009 championship game marks the eighth time in 10 years the Gophers have played in the WCHA championship game. Minnesota’s only years it did not play in the championship game was in 2001 and 2008. The Gophers hold a record of 3-4 in the previous seven appearances. The Maroon and Gold fell to Minnesota Duluth in 2000 and 2003, won in 2002 (vs. UW), 2004 (vs UMD) and 2005 (vs UW) and lost to Wisconsin in 2006 and 2007.
This is Wisconsin’s fifth-straight appearance in the WCHA championship game, dating back to 2005. Wisconsin lost to Minnesota in 2005, won in 2006 and 2007 and lost to Minnesota Duluth last year.
Minnesota and Wisconsin have played in the championship game four times (2002, 2005, 2006, 2007) and each team has won and lost twice.

Gopher Statistics
Monique Lamoureux enters today’s game with 73 points, followed by Jocelyne Lamoureux with 60, Gigi Marvin with 50 points, Emily West with 39 and Jen Schoullis with 38. Gopher blueliner and defensive player of the year Melanie Gagnon has 27 points, followed by fellow defenseman Anne Schleper with 26. Goalie Alyssa Grogan has a goals against average of 1.27 and a .938 save percentage.

Gophers vs the Badgers
Minnesota and Wisconsin have gone neck and neck this year. When the Gophers visited the Kohl Center in October, the Badgers tied and won against Minnesota. At the beginning of February, Minnesota held a win and a tie to give the Gophers a one-point lead in the standings and the eventual WCHA regular season championship. Both teams are deep at forwards and have some of the best goaltenders in the WCHA. Hilary Knight, the WCHA Offensive Player of the Year, leads the Badgers with 68 points, followed by Erika Lawler (55), Brooke Ammerman (50) and Meghan Duggan (49). Jessie Vetter is between the pipes for UW and holds a 1.28 goals against average and a .939 save percentage. The Badgers support the nation’s best power-play conversion percentage at 30.2.

games nationally
New Hampshire and Boston College will battle each other today for the Hockey East tournament championship and the HEA automatic bid into the NCAA quarterfinals. UNH won 3-1 over Providence, while BC earned a 3-2 win over Boston University.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Laura Gersten scored at 13:20 of overtime to give RPI women’s hockey team a 3-2 victory over top-seeded Harvard University in the semifinals of the ECAC Hockey Tournament. In RPI’s first-ever win over the Crimson, the Engineers play Dartmouth in the championship game. The winner of that game also receives an automatic bid into the NCAA quarterfinals.  

NCAA Bracket
The 2009 National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey Championship bracket will be posted on www.NCAA.com Sunday, March 8. The eight-team women’s ice hockey bracket will be released at 5 p.m. (ET). Four teams will host the other four in a single-elimination game on either March 13 or March 14. Winners of each game will advance to the NCAA Frozen Four, March 20 & 22 in Boston, Mass. Tickets for the championship may be purchased by visiting the Agganis Arena Web site at http://www.agganisarena.com/womens_frozenfour09/index.html for more information.

WCHA Top 10
Prior to the WCHA FINAL FACEOFF, the conference named its top 10 players in its first 10 years. Minnesota’s Ronda Curtin, Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell were named three of the top-10 players. Along with Minnesota’s three, the other seven included are Sara Bauer (Wisconsin), Tessa Bonhomme (Ohio State), Molly Engstrom (Wisconsin), Caroline Ouellette (Minnesota Duluth), Jenny Schmidgall Potter (Minnesota Duluth), Maria Rooth (Minnesota Duluth) and Jessie Vetter (Wisconsin). The players will be honored during the first intermission of the championship game, with Curtin, Darwitz and Vetter in attendance.

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