Women's hockey: Letdown? Don't even say the word to Gophers
Jan. 25—Minnesota's women's hockey team is coming off its biggest weekend series win in years, 2-1 and 4-3 victories over then-No. 1 Wisconsin at Ridder Arena. It was, you could say, big.
The wins marked Minnesota's first series sweep against the Badgers since 2016, and the first time any team had swept Wisconsin since 2018. They also completed a 3-0-1 regular season against the Badgers, the Gophers' first unbeaten season against their archrivals since 2014.
Now, don't say "letdown."
"Honestly, I hate the letdown thing," Gophers coach Brad Frost said Tuesday when asked if he was doing anything this week to guard against one. "I can tell you as coaches, we don't say to the players, 'Let's avoid a letdown.' We talk about the next opponent."
It's a good one.
The Gophers, who moved up to No. 2 in the PairWise and uscho.com rankings this week, travel to Ohio State for two games against the Buckeyes, ranked No. 2 in this week's USAToday/Coaches poll.
Now, don't say "revenge." Ohio State (18-4-0) swept the Gophers (19-6-1) at Ridder in the first series of the season and they haven't met since, but revenge apparently is not a Gophers concept.
"I don't know about revenge," Frost said. "I just think our team, every time we step onto the ice, we want to win. So, I think it's an opportunity where they look back and say 'OK, we were a different team back then and hopefully we can have a better showing as we go out here towards the end of the year.' "
MORE OLYMPIANS
The Gophers added two more Olympians to the fold this month.
They already had eight players with UMN ties to the U.S. squad that will be competing next month in Beijing — including current players Grace Zumwinkle and Abbey Murphy — and now have added forward Josefin Bouveng of Sweden and blue liner Nelli Laitinen of Finland to the 2022-23 recruiting class. Each captained her national team at the Under-18 World Championships.
"It's really fun to know that we'll have eight U.S. players, a Swedish player and a Finnish player over there." Frost said, "and cheering them all on is going to be a lot of fun."
Frost called Bouveng, who committed on Monday, "a natural goal-scorer ... who can really put the puck in the net, sees the ice really well, and is really excited to come to Minnesota."
HOCKEY DAY?
After taking place in Mankato this month, Hockey Day Minnesota is scheduled to return to the Twin Cities next year in White Bear Lake, the first East Metro Hockey Day since it was in Stillwater in 2017.
Hockey Day was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic last winter.
With a return to the Twin Cities, Frost was asked Tuesday whether his team would be interested in another outdoor Hockey Day game. The Gophers beat Ohio State, 2-1, at Parade Stadium in Minneapolis on Jan. 18, 2020.
The temperature plummeted to 1 degree with wind chills reading minus-20.
"My face is still thawing out from that," Frost said.
Still, he said, it would be hard to turn down another chance, although he'd rather it's not another WCHA game.
"I'd maybe prefer to play it as an exhibition game, or something where maybe it's not necessarily for points," he said. "But if we had an opportunity to do that, we would certainly do that."
BRIEFLY
While Minnesota ascended three spots in the PairWise and uscho.com rankings after sweeping the Badgers, they moved up just one spot to No. 4 in the USAToday poll released Tuesday. ... Senior Taylor Heise was named WCHA forward of the week after providing a goal and assist against the Badgers last weekend. Ella Huber, who scored a goal in Saturday's 4-3 victory, is the conference's rookie of the week.
