Western Collegiate Hockey Association Sara R. Martin Commissioner C 303 808-9366 • F 608 829-0200 [email protected] Bill Brophy Women’s Public Relations Director O 608 277-0282 • C 303 330-5468 [email protected] March 18, 2014/For Immediate Release WCHA Administrative Office Minnesota, Wisconsin to Faceoff in NCAA Women’s MSC 8302, WCHA Frozen Four Friday; WCHA Seeks 15th Consecutive 2211 S. Josephine Street Denver, CO 80208-8302 National Championship in Hamden, CT O 303 871-4491 • F 303 871-4770 Badgers, Defending National Champion Gophers Play Friday at Bruce M. McLeod Commissioner 5:00 pm ET in First Semifinal; Second Semifinal has Mercyhurst [email protected] vs Clarkson; Title Contest Set for Sunday Afternoon; Frozen Four Carol LaBelle-Ehrhardt Associate Commissioner of Operations Games Streamed on NCAA.com; Gophers’ Brandt Among Three [email protected] Finalists for Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award ... Winner to be Greg Shepherd Revealed Saturday; Gophers are WCHA Regular Season and WCHA Supervisor of Officials O/F 651 330-5131 FINAL FACE-OFF Champs; Latest Div. 1 Women’s National Poll [email protected] Has Minnesota No. 1, Wisconsin No. 3, North Dakota No. 10; WCHA Doug Spencer Teams Own Combined 31-11-2 Non-Conference Mark; Sertich Retires Associate Commissioner for PR O 608 829-0100 • C 303 475-9283 After Eight Seasons Behind Bemidji State Bench [email protected] MADISON, Wis. – Thanks to the first round victories by Minnesota and Wisconsin, who have topped the Women’s Member Teams standings and the national rankings all season, the Western Collegiate Hockey Association is assured of Bemidji State University having a representative in the 2014 NCAA Division 1 Women’s Ice Hockey Championship’s title game for University of Minnesota the 15th straight season. University of Minnesota Duluth Minnesota State University The two long-time rivals will stage a Border Battle in Hamden, Conn. this Friday in one of the two University of North Dakota semifinals of the NCAA tournament. Two-time defending national champion and two-time 2013-14 WCHA Ohio State University regular season champ Minnesota (37-1-1) will face Wisconsin (28-7-2) at 5:00 pm ET in one semifinal while St. Cloud State University Mercyhurst (24-8-4) meets Clarkson (29-5-3) in the other semifinal at 8:00 pm ET Friday at Quinnipiac’s University of Wisconsin High Point Solutions Arena at the TD Bank Sports Center. Home of a Record 14 con't Consecutive National Championship Teams 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2013-14 WCHA Standings 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, Conference Only Overall 2012, 2013 Pts GP W L T SW Win% GF- GA GP W L T Win% GF- GA 1 Minnesota 79 28 26- 1- 1 0 .946 128- 29 39 37- 1- 1 .962 186- 41 2014 WCHA 2 Wisconsin 66 28 21- 5- 2 1 .786 86- 33 37 28- 7- 2 .784 111- 42 FINAL FACE-OFF 3 North Dakota 48 28 14-10- 4 2 .571 73- 63 36 20-12- 4 .611 96- 74 March 7-8 4 Minnesota Duluth 43 28 11-11- 6 4 .500 56- 65 36 15-15- 6 .500 85- 84 Sanford Center • Bemidji, MN 5 Ohio State 34 28 9-14- 5 2 .411 56- 75 37 15-17- 5 .473 82- 90 6 Bemidji State 29 28 8-17- 3 2 .339 47- 88 36 11-21- 4 .361 64-104 visit us on the web at: 7 Minnesota State 22 28 7-20- 1 0 .268 46- 92 37 13-23- 1 .365 71-106 8 St. Cloud State 15 28 3-21- 4 2 .179 40- 87 36 4-27- 5 .181 48-111 wcha.com (shootout win = 1 additional point) wcha.com/mobile This Week in the WCHA 2014 NCAA Women's Frozen Four @ TD Bank Sports Center, Hamden, CT Frozen Four games streamed on NCAA.com Games for Friday, March 21: Wisconsin vs Minnesota, 5:00 pm ET (NC); Mercyhurst vs Clarkson, 8:00 pm ET (NC). Games for Sunday, March 23: National Championship, 3:00 pm ET (NC). WCHA W Release • Week 25 • 031814 The national championship game will be played on March 23 at 3:00 in Madison last Saturday in a battle of two elite goaltenders – Wiscon- pm ET. All tournament games will be streamed on the NCAA website, sin’s Alex Rigsby and Harvard’s Emerance Maschmeyer. Wisconsin www.ncaa.com. got goals from Blayre Turnbull and Katy Josephs to make it 2-0, but The Gophers beat the Badgers in all four regular season WCHA Maschmeyer made 42 saves and Harvard scored with 3:23 remaining to meetings. The Gophers are 39-26-8 all-time against the Badgers. The get the sellout crowd at LaBahn Arena nervous. Rigsby made 23 saves, most recent series saw Minnesota sweep Wisconsin on the road in including a diving effort with her stick to knock down a puck headed Madison, 3-2 and 4-0 (Feb. 14-15, 2014). The Gophers also swept UW for a wide-open net. The win gives her 100 in her career, tying her with in this year’s first series at home, 2-1 and 2-0 (Oct. 11-12, 2013). The Mercyhurst’s Hillary Pattenden for second-most in NCAA history. Gophers have won the last 10 meetings between the two teams. WCHA teams have won all 14 national titles in women’s hockey. Minnesota is the top seed in the 2014 NCAA postseason and advanced Minnesota (with 4 titles), Wisconsin (4 titles) and Minnesota Duluth to the Frozen Four with a 5-1 quarterfinal win over Boston University (5 titles) are the only teams to ever win a national championship. last weekend. Minnesota earned the WCHA’s automatic bid into the Eight teams are selected for the NCAA field. Of the eight teams, the national tournament as WCHA FINAL FACE-OFF champions. top-four teams are seeded. Three conferences were awarded automatic Minnesota is making its third-straight and 10th overall Frozen Four bids for the 2014 tournament. The remaining five teams were selected appearance. The Gophers enter the 2014 Frozen Four as back-to-back at-large. The automatic qualifying conferences and their representatives national champions and are on a 25-game unbeaten streak (24-0-1). are the WCHA – Minnesota; ECAC Hockey – Cornell; and Hockey East The Gophers punched their ticket to the Frozen Four with a 5-1 Association – Boston University. Boston College, Clarkson, Harvard, quarterfinal win over Boston University led by Kelly Terry’s hat trick Mercyhurst, which qualified for the tenth straight year, and Wisconsin and Amanda Leveille’s 28 saves last Saturday. In a rematch of the 2013 were all selected as at-large teams. NCAA championship game, the Gophers broke a 1-1 tie in the second In the latest USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Div. 1 Women’s College period with four unanswered goals. Hockey Poll for March 18, Minnesota is No. 1, Wisconsin is No. 3 and The Gophers own a 16-8-1 (.660) all-time mark in the NCAA tourna- North Dakota is No. 10. ment with five national titles (2000, 2004, 2005, 2012 and 2013). WCHA-member teams are a combined 31-11-2 (.727) through 44 Minnesota is 9-6-1 (.594) in the Frozen Four. non-conference games so far this season. The WCHA is 15-4-1 (.775) The Gophers are on a 25-game unbeaten streak (24-0-1) and are vs. College Hockey America, 8-4-1 (.654) vs. ECAC Hockey and 8-3-0 86-1-1 dating back to the start of their NCAA-record 62-game winning (.727) vs. the Hockey East Association. streak, which went from Feb. 18, 20112 through Nov. 16, 2013. The Gophers are making their 12th appearance in the NCAA postsea- Visit WCHA.com, WCHA.com/mobile son and have qualified for the tournament for the seventh consecutive year. for Live League & National Scoreboards, Minnesota has a 5-0-0 all-time record against Clarkson, including Live In-Game Statistics, Box Scores, four shutout victories and one 3-2 overtime win in the 2010 NCAA Game Recaps, Standings quarterfinal round. All five meetings occurred during the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons. Most recently, Minnesota swept the Golden Knights The Western Collegiate Hockey Association’s official web site – wcha. on the road to open the 2010-11 season, winning 5-0 and 3-0. com – also features fully functional mobile pages at wcha.com/mobile The Gophers are 6-1-0 all-time against Mercyhurst. The most recent where visitors can access live league and national scoreboards, live meeting was a 5-4 Gopher loss in the NCAA semifinals in Boston on in-game box scores and statistics, complete team and individual statis- March 20, 2009. Mercyhurst went on to lose 5-0 to Wisconsin in the tics, league standings, etc. 2009 national championship game. The Gophers won the first six To access all the latest developments as games are in progress visit meetings with the Lakers, dating back to a 3-0 win on Jan. 6, 2001. www.wcha.com or www.wcha.com/mobile. Wisconsin is 17-3 (.850 winning percentage, best in history) in NCAA post-season play. This is their seventh trip to the Frozen Four (reaching Minnesota’s Brandt a Finalist for Patty the round of four in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012) and in the six previous trips, Wisconsin has never lost in the semi-final. The Kazmaier Memorial Award Badgers beat Minnesota in two of the three previous NCAA postseason University of Minnesota sophomore Hannah Brandt is one of three games.