University of Minnesota Athletics
Women's Hockey Holds Media Day
9/21/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Hockey
The Gopher women's hockey team held its annual media day, today in the Ridder Arena clubroom. Here's Coach Frost's opening press conference statement as well as an interview with Emily West.
Heading into the 2010-11 season
• Head coach Brad Frost enters his fourth season at the helm of the Gopher women’s hockey program. Last year, Frost guided the team to a Western Collegiate Hockey Association regular season championship, an honor the team shared with Minnesota Duluth. With an overall 2009-10 record of 26-9-5 and an 18-6-4 mark in the WCHA, Frost also led the Gophers to back-to-back Frozen Four appearances, the program’s seventh appearance at the national championships.
• Joel Johnson and Natalie Darwitz will serve as the team’s assistant coaches. Darwitz returns to the coaching staff after a year hiatus from competing with the United States Olympic Team. Johnson, who was an assistant coach from 1999-2004, returns behind the Gopher bench.
• Minnesota returns both of its first-team All-Americans in goaltender Noora Räty and defenseman Anne Schleper. Räty played in 26 games last year and held a 1.33 goals against average and was the WCHA Goaltending Champion. Schleper led the Gopher blue liners in points, producing 12 goals and 22 assists for 32 points.
• The Gophers return five of their six top scorers from last year’s team. Senior Emily West led the scoring charge with 23 goals and 23 assists for 46 points. Junior Sarah Erickson was second with 40 points (18-22), while Schleper was fourth overall with 32. Senior Laura May is coming off the best point production season of her career (12-12-24), and sophomore second-team All-WCHA Megan Bozek also had 24 points.
• Minnesota’s deepest position, like last year, will be at goaltending. Along with returning All-American Räty, Alyssa Grogan was named to the United States Under-22 Team. Also returning for her senior season is Jenny Lura.
• At defense, the Gophers graduated three seniors, but will look to replenish with young talent. Leading the pack is Schleper, followed by junior Kelly Seeler, Bozek and sophomore Mira Jalosuo. New to defense this season will be sophomore Katie Frischmann, who played as a forward last season and freshman Baylee Gillanders.
• The Golden Gophers will host 17 regular season games as well as the WCHA FINAL FACEOFF, March 4-5. With exhibition games against Manitoba (Sept. 26) and Minnesota Whitecaps (Oct. 8), the Gophers will open the season at Clarkson, Oct. 2-3. Minnesota’s first game will be on Oct. 9 against Wayne State and then open the WCHA season against North Dakota, Oct. 15-16 at Ridder Arena.
