University of Minnesota Athletics
Amanda Kessel Earns WCHA Weekly Honors
11/23/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Hockey
Nov. 23, 2011
Gopher forward Amanda Kessel earned weekly honors from the WCHA this week. Kessel was named the Co-Offensive Player of the Week with Wisconsin's Carolyne Prévost.
A sophomore from Madison, Wis., Amanda Kessel had eight points last weekend, including seven goals and an assist, to lead the host Golden Gophers to a sweep over New Hampshire. In Friday's 11-0 Gopher victory, Kessel tallied four goals and an assist for five points, marking her career-best for goals in a game and points in a game. During Minnesota's 6-1 win over the Wildcats, Kessel got her second hat trick of the weekend, scoring three goals in the game.
Kessel's two hat tricks on the weekend marked the first time since 2004 that a Gopher player had two hat tricks in a weekend. On Nov. 26-27, 2004, Krissy Wendell had hat tricks against Northeastern and Harvard in a Thanksgiving tournament. In addition to Kessel's hat tricks against the Wildcats last weekend, there's only one other time a Gopher player has scored two hat tricks in a weekend against the same opponent each night. Nadine Muzerall had eight goals in two games against Bemidji State at Mariucci Arena on Jan. 21-22, 2000.
In 14 games this season, she has 17 goals and 17 assists for 34 points, ranking first in the WCHA in goal scoring and second in the conference in points per game.
The honor is Kessel's fifth WCHA weekly award as she was named the WCHA Offensive Player of the Week on Oct. 13, and earned WCHA Rookie of the Week honors three times last season.
