A few weeks ago, Bethany Brausen officially became the head coach of the St. Thomas women’s hockey program after having the interim tag placed on her for 12 games following the abrupt resignation of then-head coach Joel Johnson.

After a successful playing and coaching career at the University of Minnesota, along with the Tommies’ sweep of then-No. 4 Minnesota Duluth during Brausen’s interim stage, it was no surprise that UST decided to put the future of the program in her hands.

Hockey is basically in Brausen’s blood, and some family influences helped guide her into fully embracing the sport she loves.

“My dad, he always kind of played, more informally though, so he would always kind of just do some pick-up hockey and stuff, so we definitely grew up in the rink,” Brausen said recently. “But a lot of the credit I give to my hockey involvement was actually for my cousin Connor, and he was like my best friend. I was attached at the hip with Connor, and he decided that he was wanting to play hockey, and so anything that he did, I was sold on as well. So, looking back, that was probably the biggest reason I got in was my best friend, my cousin. And then I feel like once I started playing, as most people know, it’s a hard sport to get out of. It’s just something you fall in love with pretty quickly.”

After earning Ms. Hockey honors as a senior and leading Roseville Area High School to a state championship in 2010, Brausen stayed in the Twin Cities and decided to suit up for the WCHA powerhouse Golden Gophers, even though it wasn’t as easy of a decision as one might think.

Choosing the Gophers
“When I was growing up, Minnesota was kind of the premier program in the Twin Cities,” she said. “It was really the only option in some ways for Minnesota kids just to get really high-level visibility, and so when I was growing up, there were people that I knew like Winny Brodt and Ronda Curtin, they were both Roseville people, and they ended up at Minnesota. So, I think I was kind of the traditional story of growing up in the Twin Cities and having the Gophers 10 minutes away from my home, and so that was definitely a big part for me when I went through the recruiting process.

“There were some other schools that I was considering. I thought about going out east. I even considered, you know, could I go to an Ivy League, things like that. But at the time just growing up in the Twin Cities and having an option that was close to home that had just such a rich tradition of success was definitely a big part of it.”

Brausen helped lead the Gophers to back-to-back national championships in 2013 and 2014 and then back to the title game in 2015. Then she decided to turn to coaching, which ended up being a perfect fit for her considering what she majored in during her time at Minnesota.

“I think to some degree I always knew that I wanted to coach in some capacity,” she said. “What’s interesting is I think growing up and even into my college years, I don’t know if coaches do a good enough job really kind of advocating and promoting a career profession of coaching. So, for me when I was at Minnesota, I’d never really thought about it as a full-time job. I actually originally got my master’s (degree) in counseling, and then I was pretty much set up with my PhD applications. I thought I’d go on and become a psychologist and maybe work in sports psychology, or industrial organizational psychology.

“So that was kind of my path originally and then at that point when I was starting my second year of my master’s program is actually when (Gophers head) coach (Brad) Frost called me and offered for me to come back and coach Minnesota. I think I always knew I wanted to coach. I coached at high school (at Breck) for a couple years. I coached in OS stuff all growing up but for me, I never really thought of it as a career profession until the opportunity presented itself. And then, similar to falling in love with hockey at a young age, it felt impossible not to fall in love with the coaching side of it as well later.”

When asked if her multiple degrees have helped her as a coach, Brausen said they definitely have played a role.

“My undergraduate was in psychology,” she said. “I think that that really applies to any sector that you go into and that’s kind of why I was drawn to that degree originally and then the masters in counseling. I actually did a internship with Premier Sports Psychology as well during that time and so, I really got pretty nuanced in the mental side of sports, and really just kind of the mental side of life, too, and how we can be the healthiest version of ourselves. And so, I think between those two programs and then the current one I’m in right now is actually in organizational leadership.

“So, for me, education has always been something I’ve been really passionate about and I just believe that everyone can and should be lifetime learners if we want to keep getting better. So, I definitely think between those three different types of degree programs it’s really set me up to be a really well-rounded coach.”

As far as her PhD goes, the soon to be Dr. Bethany is in her last year of her program and is in her dissertation stage before she’ll be defending it later in 2025. The topic is appropriately related to women’s hockey, which is a topic “near and dear to her heart.”

“I’m looking at four different coaches across the country Division 1 women’s hockey, and the question I’m trying to answer is what are the thoughts, beliefs, and practices of these four coaches who seek to help their student athletes flourish,” she said. “Essentially the question is really about how do we go above and beyond, kind of, traditional approaches to coaching. How do we go beyond kind of just black-and-white there’s a player you have their coach and it’s kind of old-school and traditional, but how do we go beyond that and actually develop these student athletes holistically and from a social psychological academic full life perspective?

“So that’s the answer, or the question I’m trying to answer, and I will get back to you in some months hopefully. If I get some good insights in that way.”

Brausen says all four of the coaches she’s researching are female and not just from the WCHA, which makes for an interesting study.

“It’s called purpose of sampling,” she said. “So, what you do is, if you were actually kind of ingrained or engulfed into a certain population or a certain demographic, you can actually hand select people based on your experience or feedback from others of who would be the best candidates, and so that’s how I went about selecting my participants. I can’t say specifically who they are from an anonymous standpoint, but they are all female and that was just by chance. It could’ve been a male, but just by chance, the four that were really the best fit for the study were females. I have a couple of head coaches, and a couple are associates or assistant coaches. I have one that’s an Ivy League coach, I have some from the WCHA, and some from other conferences. So, it’s really a nice blend to get some different perspectives from a wide range. So, it’s been fun.”

Joining the Tommies as an assistant coach
With a psych background and a successful tenure at Minnesota, Brausen joined the Tommies bench and there were a couple of factors that made her switch from maroon and gold to purple and gray.

“I think the biggest thing is that, number one, I had been with Minnesota both as a player and as a coach for so many years at that point, so nearly a decade, and it was fun and it was rewarding and it was so many great things, but it was a very seasoned program,” she said. “So, for me, the opportunity to go somewhere that was new and different and really building from the foundation up, was pretty much the opposite experience of what I currently had. Like with academics, I’m just a really high achiever by nature where I want to do things differently. I want to always keep pushing myself, and so for me, the opportunity to go coach somewhere that was new, and was different, and was building something from that foundation level was such a new challenge and very exciting for me.

“And the other part of it is I went around and I walked the St. Thomas campus when I was considering coaching there. I vividly remember the thought of ‘Gosh, it’s going to take some years. It might take three or four years to really kind of start to build that program, but that is not a program I want to recruit against in the future.’ I just remember vividly having that thought because as a potential student athlete when I walked around that campus, this is where I would’ve wanted to go. If I could do the recruiting process now today, the fact that it’s this beautiful, small private school in a very safe part of the Twin Cities, your professors come to your games, they know you by name, they know your family members’ names. It was just a different academic and athletic experience. Just being a lot more intimate. Our athletic director (Phil Esten) and our sports administrators, they’re at almost every single game.

“So, it’s just a different environment at St. Thomas. So, I think it was both of those things. It was this new and different challenge that was so different than anything I’ve experienced and then on the other side of it, it’s not for everyone necessarily, but for the right people looking for something different in our conference. St. Thomas offers a completely different experience than any other school in the WCHA.”

The post New Boss On The Bench, Part 1 appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The University of Minnesota hockey programs are no stranger to those high expectations, especially the women’s program, which has seven national championships and three national runners-up finishes in 24 seasons up until 2023-24.

Those standards, though, don’t preclude the team from having any fun. That couldn’t be demonstrated any better than with the team’s leader, junior captain Peyton Hemp, engaging in a bit of fun with her younger sister and fellow teammate, Josie, on occasion.

“There’s times I’ll walk into the dressing room or the conference room on the road and see them horsing around and wrestling and things like that,” Gophers head coach Brad Frost said. “So I certainly think they have fun.”

On top of Frost’s view of his players’ lighthearted antics, when brought up to the players themselves, the discussion was met with a few laughs.

“I think that’s like a part of our relationship,” Peyton said. “Obviously, there’s so much love there, but we definitely get on each other’s nerves, but it’s all on the love, so it’s super fun.”

It’s just sisterly love, right? Once you are around someone long enough, you can be just a bit more comfortable. No matter if it’s in the locker room, in the hallways around Ridder Arena, or in the team areas of rinks around the WCHA, the pair can be found often wrestling with one another.

Peyton Hemp has 10 goals and 23 points in 26 games so far this season. (Photo courtesy of University of Minnesota / Gopher Sports and Brad Rempel)

While there is no one who is the instigator to all of the friendly bouts, at least some of them can be attributed to the younger sister.

“After practices sometimes, I’ll literally just out of nowhere kind of jump on her,” Josie said. “We’ll literally just start tackling each other, so there’s that. Sometimes in the locker room before practice, we will just randomly, it’s not actually a fight, but we’ll randomly just start wrestling each other, literally just like out of nowhere.”

Andover to Minnetonka to Minneapolis
This pair of sisters from Andover, Minn., being two years apart, have had quite the experience playing together growing up. From being little kids all the way to high school to play hockey together, it ended up being a little weird to the duo when Peyton was at Minnesota and Josie still had two years of high school left. While those high school memories were fleeting at Andover, as Josie transferred to Minnetonka for her final two years of high school, Peyton and Josie reached the ultimate goal while playing together.

In 2020, they helped Andover to a Class 2A state championship with a victory over Edina.

“I think the one that sticks out the most with her and I was in my junior year and [Josie’s] freshman year at Andover when we won the state tournament,” Peyton said. “I think that’s probably like the biggest one. That was just super fun to win that with her and it was super special too, but there were so many moments growing up.”

That success in the state tournament propelled Peyton to be the state’s Ms. Hockey in her senior season in 2021 before joining the Gophers. Josie played the remainder of her two years of high school without her older sister, but with her younger sister, Layla, at Minnetonka.

A junior at Minnetonka this season, Layla is also committed to Minnesota, but she’s a goaltender. She also recently helped backstop the United States to gold at the 2024 U-18 Women’s World Championship.

“I’m sad we don’t all three get to play with each other, but it’s super cool obviously for me being in the middle,” Josie said. “Being able to have Layla and Peyton and then getting to play with the both of them for two years in high school [was really special].”

Josie Hemp is a 5-9 defenseman in her freshman season at the University of Minnesota, joining her older sister, Peyton Hemp. (Photo courtesy of Bjorn Franke)

Three sisters, three roles
Funny enough that the trio each plays their own position, but it was Josie who actually played forward instead of defense until high school. When she was a forward, she was linemates with Isa Goettl, now a teammate on the Gophers. Josie said that her dad helped bring it up once about potentially making the switch in positions. Then, in high school, after getting some shifts on the back end, she realized she really enjoyed playing defense and stuck with it ever since.

Using that experience as a forward, Josie said it has helped her understand her role as a defender. While she said she views herself more as an offensive defender, and Frost also says she has good offensive instincts, she values the experience of knowing how to play up front to better understand her own responsibilities on the ice on defense.

Josie is looking to redshirt the 2023-24 season and compete for a spot in the Gophers’ defensive corps next season, and through a large part of a season of practices in her first year with the team, she said she’s learned the most about speed and size at this level of competition.

“The transition [from high school] was definitely big, with the speed,” Josie said. “Even though I haven’t gotten to play in a game, I definitely think I’ve learned so much in practice because of adjusting to the speed, as I would say, speed is the biggest thing for me.”

Going against older sister Peyton in practice has to be a tough assignment for anyone, considering the complete game she produces for the Gophers every night. Both Frost and Peyton said that she brings a consistency to the game that coaches and teammates alike really appreciate. From the penalty kill to the power play, her competitiveness and consistency have been making an impact.

That also helps Peyton’s role as the team captain, to set an example for the rest of her teammates to look to in the long grind of the season.

With the competitive angle she helps represent on the team now, to the little competitions that both Peyton and Josie had with together with older sister Catalina in their garage as kids, Josie and Peyton are as close as can be.

“Honestly, I feel like it’s just great to have, like obviously you’re friends with everybody on the team, like you love your teammates and stuff, but it’s such a blessing to have that one person that can just be your go-to,” Peyton said. “[Someone] that knows you truly, they literally grew up with you, so they pretty much know everything about you.”

The post Hemp Sisters Have Fun appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Talented. Dedicated. Focused.

There’s one word, though, that quite accurately describes both Sadie and Ava Lindsay — Competitive.

For athletes, it’s common to be naturally competitive, to have that desire to find something to beat anyone at. Ping Pong, a footrace, arm wrestling, even checkers. For Sadie and Ava, both forwards on the No. 2-ranked Gophers’ women’s hockey team, they not only have that competitive itch, but have been able to fulfill that with one another nearly their whole lives in the sport they love and grew up playing together.

“I think growing up, it was always Ava and I competing,” the elder sister Sadie said. “It’s kind of how you both learned how to play. It’s been really cool to see that competition transform now into becoming teammates now and playing for the same school.”

Ava Lindsay, pictured here during a game on Dec. 13, 2022, finished her high school career with Minnetonka. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Sadie, now a junior forward at Minnesota, said that both she and her sister learned to skate, play and love the game from their father, J., who also played college hockey, skating at Denver in the early 1990s.

That love of hockey trickled down to both Sadie and Ava and gave them a chance to showcase their competitive nature, although it is all in good fun on the ice.

“From a young age, we’d always be out on a backyard pond playing together and competing against each other, doing 1-on-1s,” Ava, the younger of the two and a freshman on the Gophers, said. “Now, even today sometimes at practice we’ll be up against each other, and it will be so fun going against each other and battling, getting a little feisty out there for sure, but I think just having someone … we’re so close in age that we’re really able to push each other and make each other better that way.”

As one can imagine, this is just the latest instance of playing on the same team together for the duo. Despite being at different levels the past two seasons with Ava still in high school and Sadie playing for the Gophers, they managed to win three Class 1A state championships together at Breck back-to-back-to-back from 2018 to 2020.

Sadie Lindsay (middle) and Ava Lindsay (right) celebrate a goal in a state tournament game against Mound Westonka on Feb. 22, 2019 at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Tim Kolehmainen)

Sadie recalled the last state tournament in 2020 as her favorite memory from high school. It definitely makes sense, as both her and Ava had double-digit points in the six games they played in the playoffs that year. Now, after Ava spent two years at Minnetonka to finish out her high school career, the two are together again with the Gophers, the team they dreamed of playing for someday when they were younger.

Aside from just being best friends off the ice, Sadie helped ease Ava’s transition into the college ranks this season. That transition has been a good one, considering Ava has provided some immediate impact this season and is being put into many different situations early on in her career.

“[Ava’s] playing in all situations right now as a freshman which is a pretty big deal,” head coach Brad Frost said. “She’s on our power play, she’s killing penalties and playing a regular shift and that’s hard as a freshman, but, she’s handled it really well.”

When talking about Sadie’s time with the Gophers, Frost said that she’s really coming into her own now this season. Her first two years with the Gophers, Sadie battled injury and played in limited games. Her sister Ava has seen how extensive her recovery process was over the past year to get back this season and admires her tenacity.

“I’m just really proud of her,” Ava said. “Just seeing how focused and disciplined she’s been in making a comeback and being able to play.”

On top of just being able to play, Sadie scored her first collegiate goal on Dec. 2 against Bemidji State, a culmination of the hard work she’s put in to get healthy again and playing regular shifts. As Frost put it, in addition to her excellent edge work and vision, she’s someone who can continue to produce for this team the rest of the way.

As for the rest of the season, the Gophers have plenty to look forward to as one of the top teams in the country with title hopes not just in the WCHA but to also the whole country. This long-term pursuit is another thing, as Sadie said, that athletes can get caught up in with the ongoing grind of a season.

Sadie Lindsay (No. 8) and Ava Lindsay on the ice for a state tournament game against Fergus Falls on Feb. 20, 2019 at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Tim Kolehmainen)

“It’s easy to get stuck in the loop of like ‘ok, we got this, let’s go get more,’” Sadie said. “So, there’s definitely been times this season where I’ve just stopped and been like, ‘looking back, 8-year-old me would have been freaking out right now that I would be able to go practice with Ava,’ or just do the daily things that sometimes I take for granted now.”

For now, on top of the trek to the top of the collegiate hockey mountain, the Lindsay sisters are enjoying the little things. Taking in the time at the rink together, the time hanging out with each other, just to make the most of the fact that they’re back playing hockey together again.

“I just know that she always is my number one fan, and I’m hers,” Ava said. “So it’s super special to have that, someone I can go to if I’m feeling down or not confident or having a bad shift, she can fire me back up.”

The post Competitive Lindsays appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

“I think I look back and I reflect on the times where we got to have our names called back-to-back during the lineups [for the high school state tournament at the Xcel Energy Center], because she was No. 6 and I was No. 5,” Madeline said. “I was going to say No. 4 because she’s 4 now, but she was 6 back then. That was kind of partly why she chose No. 4 because 6 was unavailable [when she joined the Gophers] so we still wanted to be next to each other in the lineup.”

Best friends on and off the ice, despite the difference in position. Even while Madeline plays defense and Audrey is at forward, the two still have managed to end up on the same line together on more than one occasion.

Back in high school at Blake, then-coach Shawn Reid elevated Madeline to a forward when they needed a spark for a comeback. Reid didn’t just make her a forward but also placed her on a line with former Gophers-commit Addie Burton and Madeline’s younger sister, Audrey. Later, with the Gophers, when Minnesota’s defense was reeling with multiple members out of the lineup, Audrey shifted back to defense in games against St. Thomas as Madeline’s defensive partner.

It really worked because of Audrey’s smart, tenacious 200-foot style of game that makes her one of the most responsible forwards for the Gophers in all situations, not to mention the team leader in blocked shots. The shift in high school worked because Madeline’s eye for the net combined with her ability to drive offensively made it a decision worth making.

Audrey moves (to) forward with Gophers 
It’s a wonder any of these unorthodox decisions had to be made at all, considering Audrey’s departure from what became something of a family tradition. Madeline and Audrey are the two oldest of four sisters, the younger two being Jackie, a freshman on the University of Minnesota’s rowing team, and Addie, a freshman at Blake. Three sisters all ended up as left-shot defenders. Audrey must not have wanted to make it a clean sweep, because somehow, she ended up as the lone right-shot forward amongst the group.

“I was actually curious, and [my mom] was like ‘You were just all over the ice, like a little gnat out there, sometimes running around with your head chopped off, so we stuck you at forward.’” Audrey said. “She knew that I liked the forecheck, which is something I take pride in now. I think that’s pretty much it, I think she saw how close in age we were and thought it would be a great idea for us to play different positions.”

Gophers head coach Brad Frost agrees, as Audrey is one of the most responsible and trustworthy members of the team. He said on top of her technique, she has the instinctual wherewithal to be in the right shooting lanes and understands how to be there when the shot comes. While Frost said it was a no-brainer to bring Audrey to the team as well prior to the 2020-21 season, Audrey said she was preparing for the chance she might have to consider playing somewhere else.

“At the time, in high school, I knew I wanted to go here, but I wasn’t sure if this, obviously the University of Minnesota they have a top-notch team and they’re looking for top-notch girls, so with me developing later, I was like ‘I need to keep my options open,’” Audrey said. “So I went into the recruiting process with an open mind, but deep down inside I was like ‘I want to be a Gopher.’”

Additionally, with the turnover on defense that saw three experienced defensemen depart after the 2022-23 season, Frost more than welcomed having Madeline return for a fifth year. She’s been paired with fellow fifth-year player Taylor Stewart, who is in her first year with the Gophers but has known Madeline and Audrey since they were kids. Stewart said that both Madeline and Audrey have made her transition to the Gophers an extremely easy one, and have helped bring her into the family atmosphere that encompasses this team.

“[They’ve] made me feel very part of things right from the start, and I think that helps off the ice and ultimately transitions onto the ice as Maddie and I have been building chemistry as a D-pair, it’s been pretty exciting,” Stewart said. “She makes it really easy to play with, and I’ve enjoyed all of the shifts that we’ve been able to be together for.”

From L to R: Pictured in fall 2019, former Minnesota Whitecaps defenseman Chelsey Brodt Rosenthal, former Whitecaps coach Jack Brodt, University of Minnesota defenseman Madeline Wethington and former Whitecaps defenseman Winny Brodt Brown. (MHM Photo by Rick Olson)

Hockey is a family tradition
While the family affair between the Wethingtons and hockey may seem to end with the sisters, it goes back a very long way. Madeline and Audrey are part of women’s hockey royalty in the state of Minnesota. Their aunts, Winny Brodt Brown and Chelsey Brodt Rosenthal, both played for the Gophers and their mother, Kerry Wethington, was the head coach for the women’s hockey team at St. Cloud State for the first four years of that program’s existence from 1998-2002.

While Frost noted that the Gophers haven’t had any mother-daughter duos for the Gophers just yet in its 26th season of existence, Audrey and Madeline following in their aunts’ track to the Gophers is the first step toward that becoming more of a reality for this storied program.

“They’re truly trailblazers in the sport, especially in this state,” Madeline said. “I even look back at when I was younger and a lot of the best teams composed of having the girls play with the boys, and nowadays that’s not as common, like more and more girls are sticking to just playing with girls which I think is great.

“That means there are more and more girls playing. I look back at like my mom and aunts and they didn’t have that opportunity to play with just girls. Like, my aunts, with Winny, her senior year is when they first started high school hockey. So, she had to grow up playing with the boys all the way until the age of 16/17 years old.”

Added Audrey: “They always like to remind me that back when they played, my mom was targeted out there, she broke her collarbone, and she would have to get dressed in the bathroom. Seeing how far it’s come, they always like to remind me like, you know, just be appreciative of all that you got.”

While their relatives are trailblazers, both Audrey and Madeline are no strangers to working incredibly hard in whatever they do, on and off the ice. They not only manage to perform to the high standards of one of the most successful college hockey programs in the country, but both also have thrived in their academic pursuits. Taking advice and seeing how rewarding many members of their family have had in medicine, both have taken a very admirable route.

Audrey is graduating this fall from the College of Biological Sciences with a degree in biology and just applied to a Master’s program in biological sciences that could begin this coming spring. Madeline currently works in the Visible Heart Lab on campus at the University of Minnesota and has become passionate about the work she is doing with the research in that lab. After this season, she will look to take a year or two away from school to play professionally and continue the process of applying to medical school, which can take more than a year.

Right now though, both sisters are taking in every moment with each other. Not thinking of the big picture or reminiscing too much on the end, but just enjoying every moment of their time together on the Gophers, something they’ve both dreamed about since coming to games as little kids.

“I think we’ve always made each other better people and players out there,” Audrey said. “Enjoying the little things, the little routines, the walk to the rink, all those things that you can’t get back.”

The post All In The Family appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Last season, the Gophers defeated UMD all five times they played, four in the regular season and once in the playoffs. Doubtful that even that landslide completely made up for the sting Minnesota felt when its previous season ended on home ice in a 2-1 loss to the Bulldogs in the 2022 NCAA West Region final.

That’s the sort of thing that is hanging in the balance whenever these two teams meet.

“It’s always a good game,” said UMD defenseman Nina Jobst-Smith. “A lot of players on both teams played against or with each other growing up. That helps raise the level of intensity to some extra animosity. That always makes it more fun. They’re quick, and very offensive from their forwards back to their defense, and they’ve got good goaltending.”

But none of the players, or coaches, involved with the two programs can recall the intensity that was born when the UMD program was born 25 years ago. Minnesota had already been playing for a couple of years, with only Division III Augsburg as an area competitor. When UMD started its hockey program, it was also the first year that enough other Western teams started that the Western Collegiate Hockey Association also started. Both the WCHA and the Bulldogs are celebrating their 25th anniversary this season.

The first time coach Shannon Miller took her Bulldogs team to face the Gophers, UMD won the Dec. 3, 1999 game 5-4. That led to a very interesting bit of intrigue between the two. Minnesota coach Laura Halldorson used her influence to get the first-year WCHA champion invited to participate in a coaches association four-team, postseason invitational tournament in spring of 2000 at Northeastern.

Several times during that season, I asked Halldorson: Since UMD was surprisingly strong, wouldn’t it be great for the WCHA if the top two teams could go to that tournament to make it two East against two West teams? Halldorson was less than tactful when she said, “No. There will be only one West team and it will be us.”

As fate would have it, UMD went on what still stands as a school record 22-game unbeaten streak that first season, and knocked off the Gophers to win the WCHA title, earning the slot in the invitational tournament. That caused Halldorson to pull in all her chips and get the Gophers invited, too, so it ended up being two East and two West teams.

I told Miller that it would be good for the WCHA to have two representatives, but Miller disagreed.

“She insisted all year that there would be only one West team in that tournament, so now she should have to live by what she said,” Miller said at the time.

After I wrote Miller’s comments, Halldorson decided not to speak to me during or after that tournament. 

Tournament organizers put UMD and Minnesota against each other in the semifinals of the tournament. Minnesota won that game on the way to winning the invitational tournament championship.

One year later, in the 2000-01 season, the NCAA decided to start holding an NCAA championship for Division I women’s hockey teams, structuring a full regional playoff to determine the four entries. UMD, in its second season, won that first national championship with a powerful team led by goaltender Tuula Puputti, plus Jenny Schmidgall and Maria Rooth — the two top goal scorers in UMD history — plus Hanna Sikio, Erika Holst, and defensemen Navada Russell, Brittny Ralph, and Pamela Pachal.

UMD also won the second and third NCAA tournament championships. The Bulldogs were national champions in the first three national tournaments ever held, starting in their second year of operation.

Of course, that didn’t sit well with anyone connected with the Gophers, who worked feverishly to find a way to get an NCAA title of their own. They finally managed, and reached an elite level of play they have never wavered from. But while they were getting there, Miller led the Bulldogs to two more NCAA championships.

So, in what amounted to the dark of night, the Gophers unceremoniously started referring to that first and only invitational tournament title as a “national championship,” which closed the gap on their reviled “Duluth Branch.”

In later years, Gopher teams caught up and slipped ahead of UMD. Thanks to a team with U.S. Hockey Hall of Famers Krissy Wendell and Natalie Darwitz, the Gophers even went undefeated through a whole season, culminating with an NCAA title. But while nobody else seemed to notice, except me, there is one banner hanging in Ridder Arena amid the six legitimate NCAA National Championship banners, which proclaims 2000 as a “national championship” year.

That would give Minnesota seven national championships, to UMD’s five. But it also means that if you count up all the NCAA national tournaments, there would be one more “championship” than there have been NCAA national tournaments. Current Gopher women’s coach Brad Frost defends the sleight-of-hand, insisting in retrospect that the 2000 invitational tournament at Northeastern was, indeed, a national tournament.

Not true, Brad.

“I never knew that background,” said current UMD coach Maura Crowell. “They can’t just do that, can they?”

That’s just another reason why this weekend’s series between the U of M Gophers and the UMD Bulldogs has that little extra edge, which players on either team might be unable to explain.

In the WCHA, both Minnesota and UMD are rebuilding a bit, while Wisconsin and Ohio State have run off side-by-side to stand tied for first place. This weekend, while Minnesota (5-2) is at UMD (6-2), Wisconsin (8-0) is facing Ohio State (8-0) for the early lead.

In the ranking, Wisconsin is No. 1 in the women’s poll after being unrated to start the season.

Men’s hockey upate
The St. Cloud State men’s team, which struggled a little against a deceivingly tough early schedule, got everything back in order just at the right time to start the NCHC regular season, and reeled off sweeps of 3-2, 6-0 against Miami and 3-2, 3-0 against Western Michigan. SCSU coach Brett Larson said he thought those two teams would be tough later in the season and has warned his troops to not be complacent this weekend when Minnesota Duluth — his alma mater — comes to town for a series.

“We get Duluth when they’re sure to be in a bad mood, having lost twice to North Dakota,” said Larson, who coached at UMD in two terms, helping them win three NCAA men’s titles. “I think the league is going to be tough as ever, and it will be no surprise if any of the eight teams beats any of the others. There are no upsets in the NCHC. You’ve got to be ready every game.”

St. Thomas just made its presence felt in the CCHA, hitting the road to Bowling Green and sweeping. First, the Tommies won 4-1 behind two goals from Liam Malmquist in the first period. Then they followed that up with a 4-3 with two goals in the third period after Cooper Gay scored twice early for the Tommies.

The post Women’s Hockey Rivalry: Gophers vs. Bulldogs appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

But last week’s action involving Minnesota’s six Division I college hockey teams resulted in some impressive goaltending performances that made headlines in the Big Ten Conference, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, the Central Collegiate Hockey Assocation, the women’s Western Collegiate Hockey Association for women, and even the NHL.

The Minnesota Gophers stayed at the top of national men’s ratings, despite splitting two games at North Dakota, with the goaltending of Justen Close. He was responsible for the Gophers’ 4-0 victory in game one, and he couldn’t be faulted when he made 32 saves when the Fighting Hawks came back to beat Minnesota 2-1 in the rematch at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks.

Close’s first-game victory gave him back-to-back shutouts. But the Hawks got 21 saves from Ludvig Persson, their goaltender of the hour, in game two. Minnesota’s loss didn’t cause it to drop out of the No. 1 national ranking because both Boston University and Michigan, ranked No. 2 and No. 3, also lost over the weekend. The only movement among the top five was North Dakota, which appropriately moved up from fifth to fourth and served notice to their NCHC rivals that they are, indeed, equipped for contention.

Frost gets 2-year extension; WCHA packs top-10 rankings
The Gopher women, also ranking high at No. 4 in the WCHA, gave coach Brad Frost a two-year contract extension because he simply forms a contending team year after year. They stand No. 4 after running up a 5-0 record in the early going, including a WCHA midweek match with ever-improving St. Cloud State. The Gophers lost a lot of offensive firepower from last season, causing Frost to proclaim that it will take a more defensive posture to win this year, and beating the Huskies was a clear example.

Frost’s goaltender was Skylar Vetter, who was trying for the fourth-straight Gophers shutout. Avery Farrell spoiled the shutout big with a goal with 5.2 seconds left in the third period. Minnesota had gained the advantage when Ava Lindsay scored midway through the second period, and Taylor Stewart, a fifth-year transfer from University of Minnesota Duluth, scored a short-handed goal into an empty net with 47 seconds left. Fifth-year goaltender Jojo Chobak — another transfer from UMD — was pulled for a 6-on-3 skater edge. The Gophers won 2-1.

The Gopher women have a big challenge this weekend, with a trip to Ohio State (5-1), which is ranked No. 2 in the WCHA-dominated top 10. Wisconsin, Ohio State, Colgate and Minnesota make up the top-four ranked teams, followed by unbeaten Quinnipiac and Yale. UMD (4-2) is ranked No. 7 with St. Cloud State (7-2) rising to No. 10. 

UMD swept Minnesota State Mankato in WCHA play by 3-1 and 4-1 margins. Mary Kate O’Brien, Reece Hunt and Hanna Baskin scored for the Bulldogs in game one. In the second game, Gabby Krause scored a pair of goals to go with goals from O’Brien and Jenna Lawry. Bulldogs freshman goaltender Eve Gascon made 21 saves in the second game, and she was named WCHA Rookie of the Week for her stinginess. 

An interesting part of this coming weekend’s UMD trip to Bemidji State is that it will be a homecoming of sorts for Hunt. She transferred from Bemidji State to UMD for her fifth year, seeking a master’s degree in business with UMD’s curriculum.

Bemidji State’s Mattias Scholl watches his blocked UMD shot trickle past him. (MHM Photo / John Gilbert)

Cohasset natives shine in net at college, NHL levels
Minnesota-Duluth’s men may have good reason to help the good folks of Cohasset, Minn., a tiny mining town on the Western tip of the Iron Range, build a statue to goaltenders. Hunter Shepard, a Cohasset native, is a former Grand Rapids High School standout who guided the Thunderhawks to the Class 2A state tournament before playing junior hockey on his way to UMD. He was the MVP as the Bulldogs won back-to-back NCAA championships. Shepard recorded 15 shutouts in his days at UMD.

While he continued to do his hometown of Cohasset proud by winning the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup trophy for Washington’s AHL franchise, he was called up to start his first NHL game for the Washington Capitals vs. New Jersey on Oct. 25. That was the same day that current UMD goaltender Zach Stejskal was named NCHC Co-Goaltender of the Week for recording his first collegiate shutout in last Friday’s 4-0 victory over Bemidji State before also surviving a wild, power-play-filled shootout to beat the Beavers 5-4 in overtime Saturday in Bemidji.

“I know I came close a lot of times,” Stejskal said, of getting a shutout victory. “I remember one game we were tied 0-0 against St. Cloud, and they beat us 1-0 in overtime. When we’d win and I’d give up a goal late, I’d always say that shutouts didn’t matter, winning was what was important. But now that I finally got a shutout, I’ve got to admit, it’s pretty neat.”

Both nights, Stejskal had to outduel Bemidji State’s Matthias Scholl, who was victimized by a three-goal first period for the Bulldogs, all on power-play tallies from Matthew Perkins, Luke Bast and Aaron Pionk. The next night was not a pleasant one for either Stejskal or Scholl.

“I thought their goalie (Scholl) played great,” said UMD coach Scott Sandelin. “We looked really confident on our power play in the first game, but there were some unnecessary penalties that we will have to tighten up.”

After a miraculous recovery from cancer, UMD senior Zach Stejskal recorded his first career shutout against Bemidji State to keep the Bulldogs unbeaten at 3-0-2. (MHM Photo / John Gilbert)

Stejskal’s story has a double impact, because he, too, is from Cohasset, Minn., and was a state tournament star at Grand Rapids before playing at UMD. After one impressive season, however, Stejskal was stunned by the news in the fall of his sophomore season that he had testicular cancer and would miss the entire season during treatment. He made it through treatment, got a clean bill of health, made it back last season and has become the No. 1 netminder as a senior for the Bulldogs.

Somebody asked Sandelin what he thought Shepard would be going through in his first NHL start at Washington, and the coach said: “Knowing Shep, he’s probably nervous, excited, and probably won’t show it.”

Unlike the 6-foot Shepard, Stejskal is 6-foot-5, towering over the crossbar, the crease and just about everybody on both teams. Maybe they’ll need twin statues up in Cohasset.

The post Glory to Goalies appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

After lean times Minnesota State is rounding the corner

EDINA — Through the first half of the first semester, Minnesota State was predictably near the bottom of the WCHA. They swept a non-conference series against RIT and tied St. Cloud State. Otherwise, it was a loss-filled start to the season that saw them go 0-10-1 through their first 11 conference matches.

But then something happened.

The Mavericks started rounding the corner. Since that rough start, they’ve gone 3-2-0 in-conference and 4-4-1 overall. And it hasn’t been easy. They had to beat a resurgent Ohio Sate, a defensively sound Bemidji State, and the nationally-ranked Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs.

Minnesota State sophomore Corbin Boyd (Minnetonka) scored twice against No. 2 Minnesota in a Jan. 8 game at Edina’s Braemar Arena. (Photo courtesy of Minnesota State University Athletics / Mark Vasey)

Most recently, they returned from the midseason break and gave the Gophers a run for their money in the woefully named U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Museum Women’s Face-Off Classic at Edina’s Braemar Arena. The Mavericks outshot the Gophers in the first period and closed the gap to 4-3 in the third when Corbin Boyd scored her second of the game (and season) with just 57 seconds remaining.

“I think we’ve gotten better and we’ve gained some confidence by those wins and it has made us a better team,” said second-year coach John Harrington after the game. “It’s such a big thing to have the confidence that you can win hockey games.”

Their success is one of the big variables as the second half kicks off. With wins against tough competition logged, could their continued success shake up the middle of the WCHA standings?

It may just be three conference wins, but don’t underestimate how significant that is. They didn’t win a single in-conference game last season. To find the last time the Mavericks beat a WCHA opponent you have to track back to the 2014-15 season and a Feb. 2 game against St. Cloud.

“I think it’s our experience,” Harrington said. “Last year, we only had one senior. We had 21 freshmen and sophomores. I think the one thing is just having that year under our belt, where we’re familiar with the league. We still only have three seniors on our team. We’re still a young team.

“We’ve had a lot of young players not only get the experience of being in the league but the experience of playing in a lot of situations. That’s helped us and certainly, we’ve had a couple freshmen who have come in and made some solid contributions.”

He may be underselling just how reliant they are on the team’s youth. Though their senior class includes goaltender Brianna Quade — who Harrington calls “the backbone” of the team — there is reason to believe their recent success matters.

Last year’s team included just four total upperclassmen. Of their 24 players this season, seven are juniors, eight are sophomores, and six are freshmen.

And it’s not just the raw numbers. The production is coming from their youth as well. Four of their top seven scorers are sophomores, including Emily Antony, who leads the team in goals (5) and points (12), as well as Boyd, who shares the team lead with Antony for assists (7). There isn’t a single senior in those top seven.

And having just three seniors is itself a rarity. Inside the WCHA, only Ohio State has fewer. After that, it’s UMD with five and the Gophers and Badgers with six each. The Mavericks are a young team and they’re getting key contributions on both offense and defense from young skaters.

“They compete real hard. They’re fast,” said Minnesota coach Brad Frost after the Gophers’ 5-3 win at the Hall of Fame Game. “They’re improving. You can see why they beat Duluth and you can see why they’ve gotten some conference wins this year.”

Nonetheless, the Mavericks are goal starved. Carrying an underwhelming 5.3 shooting percentage, they’re averaging just 1.27 goals per game, down from last year’s 1.52. But the defense is notably improved. They’re allowing just 3.14 goals against per game, which is the school’s lowest mark since the 2013-14 season when Danielle Butters (.924 save percentage in 30 games) and Erin Krichiver (.943 save percentage in eight games) made a huge difference in net.

Even more importantly, they’re not allowing as many shots to opponents. Last season they allowed 34.75 shots against per game, which was their best mark since prior to the 2012-13 season. This year, they’ve tamped that down to 29.75.

“They come at you hard on the forecheck with two and in their d-zone, it seems like they’re always on you,” said Frost. “It doesn’t maybe look as structured, but you just don’t have a lot of time and space with the puck. They do a nice job.”

Minnesota State might not be challenging for the national championship, but they’ve made some major strides. It’s starting to show up in the standings and in their underlying numbers.

With a team sporting 14 sophomores and freshmen, and only three seniors, they’re a team that could become a frustrating presence for the top dogs in years to come.

The post Mavs’ Changing Tide appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

It’s difficult to imagine how a player gets more in the spotlight than the Gophers’ Sarah Potomak was last year when she scored the overtime goal that sent Minnesota to the national championship. But that’s the case for Potomak, who scored three goals and five points as a rookie in the NCAA Tournament.

The sophomore is now taking center stage in the absence of two of the biggest stars to ever wear maroon and gold, Hannah Brandt and Amanda Kessel. It’s been talked about ad nauseam, but that’s a testament to the impact those two had on the program.

The shoes that need filling are large and it will take a team effort, from top-line upperclassmen Dani Cameranesi and Kelly Pannek to freshmen Lindsay Agnew and Alex Woken. Yet, just one year into her collegiate career, Potomak has the potential to be the difference-maker Minnesota needs.

In some ways, the season started relatively quiet start for Potomak, who put up just one goal and four points in her first four games

Last season, her 1.42 points per game ranked eighth in the nation and her 54 points were the eighth most ever by a Gopher rookie. The team needs Potomak to build on that performance as lines start to coalesce and the team looks to quell some slow starts.

Early in her second campaign, she’s delivering.

That extra offense is especially important in a conference rife with outstanding goaltending. Ann-Renee Desbiens and Brittni Mowat are two of the best in the nation. Young netminders like Ohio State’s Kassidy Sauve, Duluth’s Maddie Rooney, St. Cloud’s Janine Alder, and North Dakota’s Lexie Shaw are all off to strong starts. Meanwhile, though the season is young, the Gophers are averaging just 3.2 goals per game in conference play. That’s a good step down from last season’s 5.14.

Since Minnesota’s Oct. 14-15 series against Minnesota-Duluth, Potomak has seen an offensive explosion. She leads the nation with 18 points in 10 games, scoring a game-winning goal in half of those contests.

Sarah Potomak (Photo by Jaylynn Nash for Minnesota Hockey Magazine)

Coach Brad Frost started the season with Potomak at center. It was an experiment. If she could work there, it had the potential to give the Gophers depth that would be difficult for opponents to handle. While Potomak has played center previously for the Canadian national team, it was the first time she’d been given that responsibility with the Gophers.

But in an effort to ignite some offense against Duluth, Frost moved her to wing on the top line with Cameranesi and Pannek, a trio that spent a bit of time together last season when Brandt was injured.  It was the start of Potomak being able to focus on offense and it’s paying dividends for the team.

“I just really felt like we needed to get some scoring, from [Potomak] in particular,” Frost said of reuniting that line. “The first few games we were more of a balanced lineup. We tried to get our top players together here with Pannek, Potomak, and Cameranesi. It seemed to pay off.”

It made the roster top heavy, but it certainly had the desired effect. In her first weekend after the line change, Potomak garnered WCHA Player of the Week honors.

“It felt good. I thought that me and Kelly and Dani blended really well together,” Potomak said after an Oct. 28 win over St. Cloud State. “Center is more of a defensive responsibility. So, when I’m playing wing, I find that I’m more open to producing offense, especially with Kelly as a center. She’s so good there. It makes it easy.”

Lines continue to be tinkered with, but like recent seasons, if you have a top-line powerhouse, things start to sort themselves out.

“You know, in the past, you’ve had Hannah Brandt and Amanda Kessel, so it’s been pretty easy to figure out,” Frost said after an opening weekend tilt against Lindenwood. “Let’s put anybody with them and we’ll go from there. Well, we don’t have Hannah and we don’t have [Kessel], and quite frankly we have a multitude of forwards who are very talented, so a lot of people are getting some different opportunities.”

Potomak has risen to the challenge of her sophomore year in the early going, again proving herself to be an adept skater at both ends of the rink and capable of providing clutch goals. “I don’t feel any additional pressure [this season],” she says. “I just think that there’s an expectation that I show up every day. I’m not a freshman anymore and I know what to expect. I’m just going to do my best to lead the freshmen and contribute everything I can.”

Story originally published in the November, 2016 issue of our digital magazine. For more stories like this, click HERE to view the November issue and subscribe to have future issues delivered directly to your email inbox. 

The post Stepping Up Her Game appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The post Dinkytown Dynasty appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Minneapolis – Amanda Kessel played her final collegiate game at Ridder Arena Saturday, then offered a few postgame observations that left most of her teammates with moist eyes.

“Kess had a few people in tears,” fellow senior Hannah Brandt commented. “Maybe more than a few.”

Kessel, a 24-year-old senior who had missed 18 months because of concussion symptoms before surprisingly returning to the University of Minnesota women’s hockey team six weeks ago, capped her days at Ridder in high style with a hat trick.

Her play lifted the Gophers to a 6-2 NCAA quarterfinal victory over Princeton in front of 2,468 Ridder Arena customers, ushering the Gophers into the Frozen Four for the fifth consecutive season.

Amanda Kessel (MHM Photo / Carson Mark)

Then she stood in front of her teammates and told them what a joy it has been to play for the Gophers for 3 ½ seasons, how fortunate she considered herself to be back in uniform and how much it means to the program to gun for a second consecutive NCAA title and fourth in five seasons.

Not only did she tally the winning goal late in the first period, but her hat trick was her first as a Gopher since Jan. 18, 2013.

“Pretty awesome,” she said.

Gophers coach Brad Frost, who raised his record at Minnesota to 291-45-22, said it has been a thrill to have Kessel back on a team that was already considered one of the best in the nation.

“She has just been a great leader for us the last six weeks,” Frost said. “Here’s a kid who thought her hockey career was over and now she’s got a second shot at it, so you can see the passion that she’s played with. … It is emotional to see her out there and see her competing once again.”

The Patty Kazmaier Award winner as college women’s hockey player of the year three seasons ago before her one-year term with the U.S. Olympic team, Kessel finished with three goals, one assist and seven of the Gophers’ shots as the home team outshot Princeton 43-27.

Strangely, however, Minnesota will advance to the Frozen Four as an underdog, seeded No. 3 in the nation. The Gophers needed Saturday’s win to earn a replay of Border Battle hostilities with Wisconsin, which stunned the Gophers 1-0 in the WCHA playoff finale a week earlier.

The two will collide Friday at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, N.H.

“In my opinion,” Brandt said, “there’s nothing better than a Minnesota-Wisconsin game.”

There was little doubt throughout the afternoon that the Gophers, who have a 33-4-1 record, would take care of Princeton (22-9-2). Even after the Tigers scored just 29 seconds into the first period, this game was tilted toward Minnesota.

Hannah Brandt (MHM Photo / Carson Mark)

Brandt’s 25th goal at the 4:07 mark of the period tied the score, and Kessel drilled a short-handed breakaway to put her team in front 1:14 later, then tallied on a power play at the 17:35 mark for what proved to be the winning goal.

Teammate Nina Rogers sidled up to Kessel after the first period and said she might bring a hat to the bench for the second, just in case. Kessel laughed that off, but plenty of fans in the crowd obliged by tossing hats on the ice when Kessel’s third goal made it 6-1 late in the second period.

Frost downplayed whether or not his team will be an underdog in the semifinals at New Hampshire.

“The expectations are so high within our program,” he explained that fans say, “If you don’t get to the Frozen Four, what happened? What’s wrong? As a coach, you just hope and pray that you get your team as prepared as possible and they play well, like they did tonight.

“Now it’s candy as you go to the Frozen Four. You give yourself a shot, and that’s all you can ask for.”

This will be the fourth Frozen Four in four seasons for Brandt, who broke out of a slight slump with a goal and two assists. Along with a goal and an assist from Sarah Potomak and Kessel’s four points, Minnesota’s top line produced nine points.

Those three were “all over the score sheet,” Frost said, and it enabled Minnesota to be all over Princeton.

The post Going Out in Style appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.