Gopher Women's Hockey 2022-23 Season

It looks like WCHA quarterfinals tickets are on sale now.

I thought it said on sale on the 16th.

They are on sale.

Games for February 24, 25, 26.
 

Minnesota Gophers are #4 in today's USCHO poll. That is 1 points behind #3 Colgate.

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The two teams swapped spots after Minnesota lost to Wisconsin on Saturday and Wisconsin winning the tied OT shootout Friday.


Colgate beat #2/#1 Yale and Brown this weekend.

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#1/#2 Ohio State easily swept St Thomas this weekend. Ohio State will be #1/#1 this week.





Wisconsin moves up 2 spots in the ranking.


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Taylor Heise of Minnesota this weekend:


Grace Zumwinkle this weekend:


Abbey Murphy this weekend:
 




2023 WCHA Postseason Tournament
All eight league teams advance to the 2023 WCHA Postseason Tournament, with seeding set by their finish in the WCHA standings. The top four seeds each host a best-of-three quarterfinal series the weekend of Feb. 24-26, with the four winners advancing to meet at the WCHA Final Faceoff on March 3-4.

Source: https://wcha.com/news/2022/5/11/general-wcha-announces-2022-23-league-composite-schedule.aspx

1. Minnesota will host a series on February 24 and 25 (and 26 if needed). Those tickets are on sale.

That looks like it would be against #7 Saint Thomas.

2. The final four teams will play in the WCHA Final Faceoff Tournament hosted by Minnesota at Ridder Arena. These tickets are on sale. The first day is two games. The second date is the tournament championship game. The projection is that Minnesota may play Wisconsin on the first date of the Final Faceoff.

First Rounds of Tournament Tickets in Minneapolis:

Final Faceoff Tickets in Minneapolis:
 
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Heading into the final weekend of regular season hockey, Minnesota trails Ohio State by 3 points in the WCHA standings. Minnesota plays two games against Saint Thomas, likely two wins. Ohio State plays a hot Wisconsin team two games. Wisconsin trails Minnesota by 5 and leads UMD by 10 points. Thus, Wisconsin is unlikely to move up or down in the rankings, but Wisconsin can influence which teams are #1 and #2.

Minnesota currently has 66 points. Ohio State has 69 points.


From WCHA:

"Beginning in 2020-21, the Hockey Commissioners Association agreed all leagues that utilize shootouts will use the same point system to calculate standings after the NCAA mandated 3-on-3 overtime for all games. Additionally, all conferences and media outlets are recommended to use the same standings table.

All conference games are now worth three points. The points are awarded as follows:

  • 3 for a regulation win
  • 2 for an overtime win or shootout "win"
  • 1 for an overtime or shootout "loss"
  • 0 for a regulation loss"
While nearly every Division I college conference now uses shootouts to break ties after overtime is played, the NCAA uses W-L-T for record keeping and does not recognize shootout "wins" as wins. A game is considered a "tie" for both teams and coach historical records after overtime ends without a goal scored. Shootouts are used only to determine points in league standings. For this reason, records will continue to be displayed as W-L-T with OW-OL-SW following to display total point calculations. The OW-OL-SW records are accounted for in the W-L-T record.

TIEBREAKING FOR WCHA POSTSEASON TOURNAMENT SEEDING
Tiebreakers are applied to standings only at the end of the regular season

In regular season competition, each WCHA team shall have an opportunity to accumulate points from each WCHA regular season League contest (i.e., a contest between teams representing two WCHA member institutions played as part of the League schedule). A team that wins in regulation receives three (3) points, while the losing team receives zero (0). In the case of a tie after overtime, the team that wins in overtime or a shootout receives two (2) points, while the losing team receives one (1) point.

At the conclusion of the regular season, teams will be ranked by the number of points accumulated. If two (2) or more teams are tied for first place, they will be declared WCHA Regular Season Co-Champions. In the case of co-champions, the #1 seed will be determined by the tiebreaking procedure outlined below. The quarterfinal round of the WCHA Postseason Tournament will be a best-of-three (3) games format, with all games at the home sites of the teams ranked higher in the final regular season standings. All eight (8) teams participate in the quarterfinal round of the Tournament.

Quarterfinal round playoff pairings will be: #1 rank (host) vs. #8 rank, #2 rank (host) vs. #7 rank, #3 (host) vs. #6, and #4 (host) vs. #5.

Following the four (4), quarterfinal-round series, the four (4) winning teams will be re-seeded #1 through #4 according to their standings in the WCHA regular season competition in the WCHA Final Faceoff.

In the event that ties are encountered in the determination of WCHA ranking or designation of home teams for WCHA Postseason Tournament purposes, the following procedures will be used int he order given to break the ties:

a) If two (2) or more teams are tied, head-to-head competition during the regular (League) season will be used to break the tie.

b) If two (2) or more teams are still tied after (A), the highest seed will go to the team with the most WCHA (League) wins during the regular season.

c) If two (2) or more teams are still tied after (A) and (B), the highest seed will go to the team with the fewest WCHA (League) losses during the regular season.

d) If two (2) or more teams played a four (4)-game series during the regular season and the teams have the same win-loss records for those series, the same number of WCHA (League) wins and the same number of WCHA (League) losses, the team having the least number of goals scored against it in the four (4)-game series shall have the higher rank. If two (2) or more teams played a two (2)-game series during the regular season, proceed to tiebreaker (E).

e) If two (2) or more teams are still tied after applying the provisions of (A), (B), (C), and (D), the team having the greatest "winning margin" during the regular season will have the higher rank. Winning margin = WCHA (League) goals for during the regular season minus WCHA (League) goals against.

f) Games played against WCHA opponents in holiday tournaments will not be counted in the determinations.

g) Shootout wins used during the WCHA regular season will not be counted in the determinations. Shootout games will be recorded as a tie in the determinations.

NOTE: In the case of ties among three (3) or more teams, the criteria above will be used in order, beginning with (A), until a team (or teams) is (or are) separated from the other tied team (or teams). At that point, the procedures are re-started to break the "new" tie and determine recipient of the higher seed. In other words, when a three (3)-way tie becomes a two (2)-way tie, the two (2)-way tie is treated as a "new" tie and the process re-starts with the first criterion."


Note: Minnesota women's hockey tickets are an incredible entertainment value. They are cheap. Tickets are available now for post-season hockey at Ridder Arena, a phenomenal sports entertainment value.
 




Saint Thomas must be pleased with a scoreless first period. Gophers kept the puck in their zone most of the time, a mismatch of teams and talent.

Gophers last weekend and now seem to shoot lots of easy saves.
 

Much more aggressive and better scoring attacks this period. Fun to watch. Still no goals though.

Saint Thomas had several dangerous breakaways. I am guessing that the more aggressive Gophers attacking brings risk.

The Gophers power play continues to be ineffective.

Scoreless after 2.
 

Saint Thomas just took the lead with a puck pitted up to the top right corner of the net, something the Gophers tend to not do

Boom! Gophers scored right back, this time with a better placed close shot.
 

God if we lose to St.Thomas, I can GUARANTEE you we are not winning a national championship. You can quote me on that.
 



St Thomas crowd went wild when the regulation ended in a tie.
 


As of this evening, Minnesota and Ohio State are tied for points. As of this moment they would be declared co-champions -- if I read the rules correctly.

For tournament seeding, Minnesota would have the #1 seed because Minnesota has a better head-to-head record. Minnesota went 2-1-1 against Ohio State this season.

I sure hope that happens. I'd rather not play boring Saint Thomas again next weekend in the tournament and then have to potentially face hot Wisconsin the next week.

Ohio State and Wisconsin play Saturday and Sunday. Minnesota plays Saint Thomas again tomorrow.
 

As of this evening, Minnesota and Ohio State are tied for points. As of this moment they would be declared co-champions -- if I read the rules correctly.

For tournament seeding, Minnesota would have the #1 seed because Minnesota has a better head-to-head record. Minnesota went 2-1-1 against Ohio State this season.

I sure hope that happens. I'd rather not play boring Saint Thomas again next weekend in the tournament and then have to potentially face hot Wisconsin the next week.

Ohio State and Wisconsin play Saturday and Sunday. Minnesota plays Saint Thomas again tomorrow.
I think OSU is 1 point up on us. We won in OT, so we only got 2 points tonight.
 

I think OSU is 1 point up on us. We won in OT, so we only got 2 points tonight.

You are right. I thought earlier when I looked I saw them both at 66. I must have flubbed that. Thanks again!

Looks like Saint Thomas got to be spoiler.



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Something is not right here. The Saint Thomas goaltender Saskia Maurer of Switzerland made 52 saves. Many Minnesota shots were easier saves. How was 52 saves not more points? The Minnesota goaltender only had to make 18 saves and Saint Thomas (plus Wisconsin) showed better puck placement with the few shots they had. They took it to overtime.

The Gophers power play has been ineffective.




In both the Wisconsin and Saint Thomas games, the opposition did a better job at lifting the puck to choice places.

Now in overtime, Abbey Murphy does a nice job hitting the net just at the pipe:



Great work by the Gophers. They are young learners in college and learning. They are doing great. Will just face tough competition in the tournaments ahead.
 
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Graze Zumwinkle, one of the better players to ever play the game, gets to 200 career points yesterday!

 

Coach points out the things that didn't work as they hoped and the optimistically says, "It ended pretty well." LOL. Pretty well isn't as good as "great," so that's fair, but easy Saint Thomas still possibly took the championship from Minnesota, depending on the outcome of the Wisconsin-Ohio State series.

I would say Wisconsin, who had a bad losing streak this season, is peaking at the right time while Minnesota, who has looked like champions, is a little off as tournaments approach. Minnesota at times has been the best team in hockey this season.



#2 Yale won against easy Ivy League Dartmouth (7-21) competition.



#8 UMD stomped Bemidji State.



#3 Colgate stomped Union (11-20-1).



--> All three of those other teams put up 6 goals. Gophers put up saves.
 

Ohio State tied the game with Wisconsin with 2 minutes left. Wisconsin had been up 2 goals in the 3rd.

Going to overtime -- Wisconsin vs Ohio State.

 

Wisconsin defeats Ohio State in overtime.

 

Gophers playing some of their worst hockey right now. Should be up big against this team instead they're letting UST dictate the game. Definitely need to step it up or it's gonna be a short postseason.
 

Great upper corner goal by Heise.

Earlier Heise and Zumwinkle missed high outside. Better that center of goalie.

I see Hemp is on the first line now.
 

Gophers win.

Now all eyes on Ohio State tomorrow.
 

Wisconsin is the most dangerous team right now.
 

#2 Yale destroyed Harvard 10-1 and clinched the conference championship.

Minnesota faces some stiff competition ahead in the postseason. Yale, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Colgate, UMD.

Exciting action ahead!


 





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