Western Collegiate Hockey Association
Brad Frost and the Gophers Host Wisconsin in an NCAA Tournament Matchup March 15 |
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Bulldogs, Gophers, Badgers Advance to Women's NCAA Tournament
March 12, 2008
By John Gilbert - The University of Minnesota Duluth captured the women's hockey version of a hat trick by winning the WCHA FINAL FACE-OFF, right after winning the WCHA regular season title, and then gaining a home-ice slot for the NCAA women's hockey tournament,. The news was also good - but with an asterisk - for both Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The two-time defending NCAA champion Badgers and Gophers joined UMD to give the WCHA-Women their anticipated three entries in the eight-team NCAA field, but it came at the cost of facing off against each other in a first-round NCAA pairing.
The NCAA selection committee's pairings are believed to have followed precisely the rating of the NCAA Selection Committee. Other ratings can list what they want subjectively, but the NCAA's own rating is the one that matters, and while the committee could have altered its rating to avoid familiar foes from meeting, it apparently stayed on form.
That meant No. 1 Harvard would be at home against No. 8 Dartmouth, No. 2 UMD will be host to No. 7 Mercyhurst, No. 3 New Hampshire is at home against No. 6 St. Lawrence, and No. 4 Minnesota is at home against No. 5 Wisconsin. All four match-ups are one-game eliminations, to be held Saturday.
There are no easy matchups, no "gimmes" into next week's Frozen Four in Duluth. Obviously, Harvard (31-1) is favored over Dartmouth (18-8-6), and New Hampshire (32-3-1) is favored over St. Lawrence (28-9-1), but UMD's superb 31-4-1 cinches nothing against a Mercyhurst (26-7-3) team that was rated No. 1 when UMD tied and beat them 3-1 in an early-season series.
And Minnesota (27-6-4), of course, got the least of the bargains for being one of the top four seeds, because even home ice doesn't make the Gophers chore easy against Wisconsin (27-8-3), which has lost to the Gophers only once in five meetings - completing a 3-1-1 mark with a 4-3 thriller in the WCHA semifinals, before losing the 5-4 overtime battle to UMD.
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Minnesota's loss in the WCHA FINAL FACE-OFF in Duluth was created by two goals apiece from 6-foot-1 Jinelle Zaugg and 5-foot-0 Erika Lawler, and came despite outshooting the Badgers 28-21, while the Gophers were led by two goals from Gigi Marvin, whose last-second try for the equalizer was disallowed for being batted in by hand by teammate Whitney Graft.
"That was the best game I've seen her play in three years," said WCHA Coach of the Year Brad Frost of his ace junior. "She was flying, playing strong defense, and creating offense every shift."
As for the pairings, Frost had mixed emotions. "Our goal was to finish in the top four so we could host the first round of NCAAs," he said. "But up until this point, there had never been inter-conference matches in the first round. For sure, the WCHA wanted to avoid playing each other. On one hand, this pairing prevents the WCHA from having any chance of getting three of the Frozen Four spots, but on the other hand, it also assures one of us of getting to the Frozen Four."
For that matter, Harvard and Dartmouth are both ECAC teams, which means two of the four pairings will be between teams from the same conference. Also, UMD has played both Mercyhurst and St. Lawrence - and, in fact, the lower rating of both those teams was at least partially due to UMD sweeping two games at St. Lawrence, and tying and beating Mercyhurst.
The Minnesota contingent was concerned that if Wisconsin had beaten UMD in the title game of the FINAL FACE-OFF, the Badgers might have slipped ahead of Minnesota. That would have given the Badgers home ice in Madison, and perhaps sent the Gophers out east for a quarterfinal game. Everybody concerned anticipated the NCAA would, as usual, attempt to avoid inter-conference matchups, or games between teams that had played each other already, but the pairings proved otherwise.
It may also be a factor that the women don't generate the same sort of revenue in the NCAA tournament and Frozen Four, and the pairings now assure three bus trips with only Mercyhurst needing to fly to Duluth. For the Bulldogs, that game means they will be able to stay in the friendly confines of the DECC, where they happened to play their last two league series, the first round of league playoffs, the WCHA FINAL FACE-OFF, and now the NCAA quarterfinal, and then the Frozen Four. By then, the ice will come out of the DECC about the same time the ice goes out of the Lake Superior harbor.
Unusual goals at the crease were the order of the weekend at the FINAL FACE-OFF. UMD jumped ahead of St. Cloud State 4-0 with a three-goal burst midway through the second period, as Elin Holmlov and Haley Irwin scored twice each in an eventual 9-0 romp.
Along with Graft's batted-in disallowed goal, the second semifinal featured Lawler scoring a goal when she crashed into the Minnesota net and the puck went in off her body as she slid into goalie Kim Hanlon.
In the final, UMD jumped ahead 3-0 in the first period, with the third goal coming as Holmlov, at the right of the net, got her stick on the puck and managed to pull it back and tuck it in while falling face down on the ice. UMD raced off to a 3-0 and 4-1 lead, but The Badgers rallied back, finally attaining a 4-4 tie when Meghan Duggan slid into goaltender Kim Martin, jarring the puck loose, and Mallory Deluce rapped the suddenly uncovered puck in at the crease with 2:49 remaining, for a 4-4 tie.
In what almost appears to be an effort to cut down on icings, about a dozen missed long passes weren't back. The last of those bothered the Badgers, because the puck never came out of the Badger zone, with Heidi Pelttieri shooting, and freshman Haley Irwin retrieving the blocked shot and snapping a screened wrist shot past Jessie Vetter at 6:32 of overtime for a 5-4 victory and the league playoff title.
The all-tournament team consisted of Irwin, who had 3-2--5 in the two games as one of the forwards, Myriam Trepanier, who had 1-5--6 with her rocket-shooting from the point, and Jocelyne Larocque, who had three assists, and goaltender Martin, all from UMD; plus Jinelle Zaugg, who had four goals, from Wisconsin; and Marvin, who had two goals in Minnesota's game, as the other two forwards. Elin Holmlov of UMD was named tournament most valuable player, after she scored 3-1--4 in the two games, some of them while on her skates.
Trepanier, whose hard shots were decisive during much of her junior year, but particularly in the playoffs, said, "I've been practicing a lot, working on getting my shot through from the point. And it's taken a lot of practice - as my teammates know, because of all the times I hit their helmets, shoulder pads and bodies."
While UMD won the league playoff trophy, they now go after bigger game, and whether WCHA teams are paired against each other or not, the fact remains that they have won all seven national tournaments held so far - with UMD winning the first three, Minnesota the next two, and Wisconsin the most recent two.
As far as Minnesota and Wisconsin are concerned, maybe the FINAL FACE-OFF should be renamed the "Final Faceoff until next week," because the tense battle they had in the league semifinal will have an immediate sequel at Ridder Arena, with a trip to the Frozen Four attached. And with three entries, WCHA supporters can have a reasonable hope that the league will extend its national championship mastery to eight straight years.