January 24, 2012

Minnesota State will host Minnesota on Friday and Saturday

MADISON, Wis. – The final weekend of January will feature a full complement of four head-to-head Western Collegiate Hockey Association series as the chase for the 2011-12 league championship heads into the final four weeks and 32 games.

On the docket this Friday, January 27 and Saturday, January 28 are two-game match ups featuring Wisconsin hosting Bemidji State, North Dakota traveling to Ohio State, Minnesota visiting Minnesota State and St. Cloud State hosting Minnesota Duluth.

At the Kohl Center (15,325) in Madison, defending WCHA and NCAA champion and league-leading Wisconsin (22-2-2, 16-2-2-1 WCHA) will take on Bemidji State (14-10-3, 8-10-2-0 WCHA) in a pair of 7:07 pm CT face-offs. In the first meetings this season, the top-ranked Badgers swept the host Beavers by 3-1 and 6-1 scores on Dec. 9-10 at Sanford Center. BSU also received votes in this week's national polls.

At the OSU Ice Rink (800) in Columbus, Ohio State (13-9-4, 10-9-1-1 WCHA) will play host to No. 5-ranked North Dakota (15-8-2, 11-7-2-1 WCHA) at 7:07 pm ET on Friday evening and 4:07 pm ET on Saturday afternoon. In their first two-game series back on Oct. 21-22, UND swept the Buckeyes by 11-1 and 7-1 scores at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks.

In Mankato this weekend, Minnesota State (7-19-0, 3-17-0-0 WCHA) will entertain No. 3-ranked Minnesota (20-4-2, 14-4-2-1 WCHA), with puck drops at All Seasons Arena (750) set for 7:07 pm CT on Friday night and 3:07 pm CT on Saturday afternoon. The Golden Gophers are 2-0 vs the Mavericks this season, with 3-0 and 7-0 victories on Oct. 20-21 at Ridder Arena.

And at the National Hockey Center (5,371), St. Cloud State (5-19-2, 4-16-0-0 WCHA) will entertain No. 8/9-ranked Minnesota Duluth (12-11-1, 9-10-1-1 WCHA) in a 7:07 pm CT Friday evening and 2:07 pm CT Saturday afternoon matinee series. The Bulldogs swept the Huskies back on Dec. 2-3 at AMSOIL Arena with 5-1 and 10-2 triumphs.

Heading into the Jan. 27-28 weekend, the WCHA standings have Wisconsin (16-2-2-1 WCHA) at the top with 51 points, six more than second place Minnesota (14-4-2-1 WCHA) with 46. North Dakota (11-7-2-1 WCHA) holds down third place with 36 points while Ohio State (10-9-1-1 WCHA) has jumped up into fourth with 32 points. Minnesota Duluth (9-10-1-1 WCHA) is currently in fifth place with 29 points, three ahead of sixth place Bemidji State (8-10-2-0 WCHA) with 26, St. Cloud State (4-16-0-0 WCHA) is seventh with 12 points and Minnesota State (3-17-0-0 WCHA) is eighth with six.

Each of the remaining four weekends – Jan. 27-28, Feb. 3-5, Feb. 10-11 and Feb. 17-18 – will feature four league series.

After the conclusion of the regular season on Feb. 18, the first round of WCHA Playoffs – a best-of-three format – will be contested the following weekend of Friday, Feb. 24 through Sunday, Feb. 26. All eight teams will participate in the playoffs, with the No. 1 seed hosting the No. 8 seed, No. 2 hosting No. 7, No. 3 hosting No. 6 and No. 4 hosting No. 5.

The four first round winners will then advance to the league playoff championship – the WCHA FINAL FACE-OFF – which will be contested Friday, March 2 and Saturday, March 3 at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth. There will be two semi-finals played on Friday at 4:37 pm CT and 7:37 pm CT while the championship contest will face-off at 7:07 pm CT on Saturday.

After the league tournament, the NCAA Regionals will be played the weekend of March 9-11 with the 2012 NCAA Women's Frozen Four to follow on March 16 & 18 at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth.

In conference action last weekend – Friday, January 20 and Saturday, January 21 – Wisconsin, North Dakota and Ohio State all banked six points in the standings on the strength of home-ice sweeps while Minnesota tucked away five points with a victory and a tie and shootout win.

In Madison, Wisconsin blanked visiting Minnesota Duluth 2-0 last Friday at the Kohl Center and then needed an extra minute to finish off a four-game regular season sweep of the Bulldogs with a 4-3 overtime victory on Saturday. It was the first time in their history that the Badgers have recorded a four-game season sweep against five-time NCAA champion UMD. In the battle between two teams which have won the last six national titles, UW goaltender Alex Rigsby, who is second in the country with a .947 save percentage, had 36 stops in compiling her fifth shutout on Jan. 20 in what was Wisconsin's first home game since Thanksgiving weekend. Brooke Ammerman's second goal of the game, just :44 seconds into overtime, was the difference Saturday. Ammerman and Brianna Decker each had second period goals to help the Badgers take a 3-1 lead. Decker leads the nation in goals with 27 and has the second most points in the country (59). Ammerman is fourth in the nation for points with 54 (22g, 32a). It was the 20th time in 62 meetings between the two programs that an outcome was decided in overtime. For UMD, defenseman Jessica Wong launched her team to a 1-0 lead with a goal just :09 into the first period while blueliner Tea Villila tied the game at 3-3 with a goal at 18:43 of the third.

At Ridder Arena in Minneapolis, Minnesota earned five points the hard way from Bemidji State last weekend. The Golden Gophers came back from two goals down for the first time in nearly four years for a 3-2 win over the visiting Beavers last Friday when left winger Emily West scored two goals. Then on Saturday, West scored shorthanded at 14:47 of the third period to give her club a 3-2 advantage, but BSU rallied to tie the game at 3-3 on an extra-attacker goal by defenseman Erika Wheelhouse at 19:11. Following a scoreless overtime, the Gophers claimed the extra point with a 2-0 shootout win. Minnesota winger Amanda Kessel, who ranks fifth in the WCHA and ninth nationally in points per game at 1.88, had an assist on Saturday to give her 99 career points. With one more point, Kessel will reach the 100-point milestone and will become the fourth player in the UM program's history to reach 100 career points as a sophomore (Nadine Muzerall, Krissy Wendell and Natalie Darwitz are the others). For Bemidji State in the series, goaltender Zuzana Tomcikova turned in a stellar effort with 85 saves in the two games.

At Grand Forks, host North Dakota powered past St. Cloud State twice at Ralph Engelstad Arena, snapping the Huskies' three-game winning streak with a 10-0 win last Friday and finishing off a sweep of the four-game season series with a 9-0 victory on Saturday. UND center Jocelyne Lamoureux and defenseman Monique Lamoureux-Kolls both had nine-point weekends. Monique Lamoureux, who had two goals last Friday and a three-goal hat trick last Saturday, now leads the nation (Div. 1) with 62 points (25g, 37a) while Lamoureux-Kolls is third with 56 points (22g, 34a). Junior goaltender Jorid Dagfinrud put together back-to-back shutout performances, making a total of 43 saves in the series. It was the second time this year Dagfinrud has had two consecutive shutouts. She leads the WCHA in goals-against average both overall (1.31) and in league play (1.40), is first in save percentage overall (.948) and tied for first in league play (.948). Her shutouts have come vs Minnesota, Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State (2). Freshman left winger Michelle Karvinen, meanwhile, collected six points vs SCSU, including two goals, and leads all Div. 1 rookies with 41 points (17g, 24a).

And in Columbus on January 20 and 21, Ohio State swept visiting Minnesota State at the OSU Ice Rink by a 3-1 count last Friday and a 4-2 margin last Saturday, two victories that elevated the Buckeyes up into fourth place in the WCHA under first-year head coach Nate Handrahan. Senior centers Laura McIntosh and Natalie Spooner led the way for the Buckeyes with three-point series. The dynamic Buckeye duo each finished with one goal and two assists along with a +2 rating. McIntosh's goal sealed the OSU victory last Friday, scoring the team's third goal at 18:37 in the third. McIntosh and Spooner also both inched closer to the top of Ohio State's career points list. McIntosh is three points from tying Jana Harrigan's (2003-06) career-points record of 160 as she leads all current Buckeyes with 157 points. Spooner moved past Jeni Creary (2002-05) into third place with 148 career points. Winger Ally Tarr also had a goal in each game for OSU against MSU. For the Mavs, left winger Tracy McCann scored the lone goal in game one while defenseman Emilia Andersson and center Kari Lundberg scored in game two.

With the non-conference portion of the 2011-12 schedule complete, WCHA-member teams finished the regular season with a 33-7-6 record and .778 winning percentage against opponents from other Division 1 conferences. WCHA teams went 6-0-2 (.875) vs ECAC Hockey, 13-2-1 (.844) vs. the Hockey East Association, 8-5-3 (.594) vs. College Hockey America, and 6-0-0 vs. Independents.

Looking ahead to the weekend of Friday, February 3 through Sunday, February 5, there will again be four WCHA series contested as Minnesota travels to St. Cloud State, Minnesota Duluth hosts Ohio State, North Dakota welcomes Bemidji State and Minnesota State visits Wisconsin (Friday/Sunday).

In this week's (Jan. 23) USCHO.com Women's Div. 1 College Hockey Poll, Wisconsin owns a unanimous No. 1 national ranking, Minnesota is at No. 3, North Dakota is up to No. 5 and Minnesota Duluth is at No. 8. Bemidji State also received votes.

And in the latest USA Hockey/USA Hockey Magazine Women's Div. 1 College Hockey Poll for Jan. 24, Wisconsin is No. 1, Minnesota is No. 3, North Dakota is No. 5 and Minnesota Duluth is No. 9. Also receiving votes again was Bemidji State.

Home to a record 12 consecutive national championship teams, including the latest NCAA Frozen Four crown won by Wisconsin last spring, the women's WCHA marks its 13th season in 2011-12.

Games for Friday, January 27: North Dakota at Ohio State (WCHA), 7:07 pm ET; Bemidji State at Wisconsin (WCHA), 7:07 pm CT; Minnesota at Minnesota State (WCHA), 7:07 pm CT; Minnesota Duluth at St. Cloud State (WCHA), 7:07 pm CT.

Games for Saturday, January 28: Minnesota Duluth at St. Cloud State (WCHA), 2:07 pm CT; Minnesota at Minnesota State (WCHA), 3:07 pm CT; North Dakota at Ohio State (WCHA), 4:07 pm ET; Bemidji State at Wisconsin (WCHA), 7:07 pm CT.

Results of Friday, January 20: Minnesota Duluth 0 at Wisconsin 2 (WCHA); Bemidji State 2 at Minnesota 3 (WCHA); Minnesota State 1 at Ohio State 3 (WCHA); St. Cloud State 0 at North Dakota 10 (WCHA).

Results of Saturday, January 21: Minnesota Duluth 3 at Wisconsin 4 ot (WCHA); Minnesota State 2 at Ohio State 4 (WCHA); Bemidji State 3 at Minnesota 3 ot (WCHA); St. Cloud State 0 at North Dakota 9 (WCHA).