Freshmen have stepped up big for Gophers women's hockey

Jan. 26—A lot has changed over the past several months for the Gophers women's hockey team. Most obviously, the coronavirus pandemic hasn't wreaked havoc on the schedule as it did last season.

Most notably, perhaps, Minnesota has gotten a great boost from a large pool of players who have taken larger roles this season, including a large freshman class that has logged a combined 101 games at every position on the ice.

"It's been really fun to see their development," coach Brad Frost said.

Because of that development from rookies such as Peyton Hemp, Ella Huber and Emily Zumwinkle — as well as veterans such as Audrey Wethington, Abigail Boreen and Catie Skaja — the Gophers will play Ohio State this weekend as a different team than the one that opened the season against the Buckeyes.

"A lot different," Frost said.

The Gophers (19-6-1), ranked No. 2 in the PairWise rankings and uscho.com poll, and Buckeyes (18-4-0), ranked No. 2 in the USAToday/Coaches poll, begin a two-game series Friday in Columbus with a 5 p.m. puck drop.

Ohio State swept Minnesota on Oct. 1-2 at Ridder Arena to open the season, a rare 0-2 start for the Gophers. For any who worried the losses were the continuation of an 11-8-1 season in 2020-21 — which finished with the Gophers left out of the NCAA tournament bracket for the first time since 2006-07 — those fears fairly quickly assuaged.

Frost had six freshmen in the lineup against the Buckeyes, including goaltender Skylar Vetter, who made her first college start in the second game.

"It was very fast, and we were all like, 'Oh, wow, it's our first game, they're coming out really fast,' " said Zumwinkle, a blue liner from Deephaven. "But I think we've gotten used to it, the pace, now. I think we're ready to play them."

The Gophers won 12 of their next 13 games, including a sweep at then-No. 3 Colgate, and haven't lost two in a row since. Senior Taylor Heise said recently she knew that this would be a special season after watching the freshmen play at then-No. 1 Wisconsin in early December.

"They showed up and showed no fear, and that was crazy," said Heise, a senior forward from Lake City who leads the nation in points, 17 — 26 — 43. "I remember my first series (against the Badgers), my mind was going in a thousand different directions."

The freshmen played big roles as the Gophers won both games, the second in a shootout, in a series that changed the tenor of Minnesota's season. Hemp and Huber had assists on Emily Oden's goal in a 3-2 victory in the first game, and Hemp and Zumwinkle scored regulation goals in a 2-2 before Zumwinkle added the deciding goal in a 3-2 shootout.

In a sweep of the Badgers last weekend at Ridder, Huber tied the second game, 2-2, with her fifth goal on assists by Hemp and Oden. It marked the first time Minnesota had swept a series from Wisconsin since 2016, and the first time they finished an undefeated regular season against the Badgers since 2014.

This weekend looms just as large for a team eager to bolster an already-strong NCAA tournament resume and perhaps earn a No. 1 seed in the WCHA Final Faceoff at Ridder Arena on March 5-6.

"It just feels like we just need to treat it like 'the next game's the biggest one,' so I feel like we just need to go out there and do what we did against Wisconsin, just keep the energy high and keep battling," said Zumwinkle, whose sister Grace is a forward on the U.S. Olympic team that will compete at the Winter Games in Beijing starting next week.

It's not just the freshmen stepping up for the Gophers this season. Savannah Norcross, a senior transfer from Boston College, has five goals and 12 assists in 26 games. Skaja, a senior who scored six points in an injury-shortened 2020-21 season, has 10 goals and 17 assists. Boreen, who finished last season with eight goals in 20 games, already has 15 goals and 19 assists this season.

As Frost said, the Buckeyes will be facing a different team than the one they swept in October, which was also the first series for new assistant coaches Natalie Darwitz and Jake Bobrowski.

"I'm super excited, and I know everybody else is, too," said Hemp, a forward from Andover who scored her first college goal against Ohio State in the season opener. "We were a totally different team in the beginning. I feel like we really know the systems and what we really want to work on mentally as far as how we want to play. I feel like we've really figured that out, and we're excited to showcase that this weekend."

IMPACT FRESHMEN

Freshmen making an impact for Minnesota's second-ranked women's hockey team this season:

Player, Pos. Hometown G Pts.

Emma Conner, F Edina 21 2-4 — 6

Peyton Hemp, F Andover 24 9-16 — 25

Ella Huber, F Northfield, Ill. 26 5-10 — 15

Sadie Lindsay, F Minnetonka 6 0-2 — 6

Tristana Tatur, F Maple Grove 6 0-1 — 1

Skylar Vetter, G Lakeville 12 5-2-0, 1.66, .927

Emily Zuwinkle, D Deephaven 26 4-3 — 7