“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.

Back with the Whitecaps this season when she turns 44 years old on Feb. 18, it begs the obvious question: How long will she keep playing professional hockey?

“Oh, that’s always the question,” Winny said. “I don’t know yet. I could be Tom Brady… day-to-day.”

In some ways, it could be tough to imagine a world where Winny isn’t playing hockey. Or more precisely, it could be tough to imagine what the girls’ hockey world looks like without the influence of Winny. She’s created so many opportunities to help grow the girls’ and womens’ games.

Another Minnesota hockey standout, Krissy Wendell, might have put it best when describing what Winny means to the growth of girls’ hockey.

“I’m scared to think about, if there was no Winny Brodt, what the state of girls’ hockey would be in the state of Minnesota, to be honest with you,” Wendell said. “I think, single-handedly, she’s continued to push boundaries in a way that’s successful.”

Winny’s accomplishments are quite extensive. Here’s a sampling:

• Inaugural Ms. Hockey winner, scored 62 goals and 61 assists in 30 games for the undefeated Roseville High School girls’ team that won a state title (1995-96)
• Senior Women’s A National Champion (1996-97)
• National champion with University of New Hampshire (1997-98)
• Team USA World Championship team (1999-2000, 2001-02, 2002-03)
• National champion with University of Minnesota Gophers (1999-2000)
• WCHA Defensive Player of the Year and top 10 finalist for Patty Kazmaier Award (2000)
• Founded OS Training and Minnesota Whitecaps (2004-05)
• Established Junior Whitecaps (2006-07)
• Western Women’s Hockey League Defensive Player of the Year (2006-07)
• Established Upper Midwest Elite League (2007-08)
• Analyst for KSTC-TV Channel 45 state girls’ hockey tournament (2006-present)
• Herb Brooks Foundation board member (2008-present)
• Minnesota Whitecaps player for 18 seasons (2004-present)
• Isobel Cup Champion (2018-19), runner-up (2020-21), finalist (2019-20)
• University of Minnesota M Club Hall of Fame Class of 2021
• Roseville Raider Hall of Fame Class of 2021

Ronda Curtin Engelhardt (L) and Laura Slominski behind the Minnesota Whitecaps bench during a Sept. 22, 2019 exhibition game vs. their alma mater, the University of Minnesota, at Ridder Arena. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Former Minnesota Whitecaps player and assistant coach, Laura Slominski, said the fact that Winny is involved with so many different aspects of the game is even more impressive than the fact that she’s still lacing up her skates in the Premier Hockey Federation (formerly the National Women’s Hockey League prior to the 2021-22 season).

“She has changed girls’ hockey in the state of Minnesota for not just being a pioneer and playing the game, but with everything she does in terms of her job and her camps and clinics,” said Slominski, who was an assistant Whitecaps coach through the 2021 season.

Of course, that doesn’t mean it was an easy task. As was common for players her age, Winny played on boys’ teams growing up, which also meant facing some discrimination and adversity during a time when there was a mindset that girls simply didn’t play hockey.

Winny remembers an exchange with a coach during her first spring-league game, a pick-up league without formal teams, when she was 10 or 11 years old. She went up to the coach to tell him she’d miss the next game. He didn’t know who she was and even asked if she was a girl.

“And I said ‘yeah,’ and he said, ‘well, I just thought you were a high-pitched hippie, long-haired hippie,” Winny said. “It was just such a time where you didn’t expect to see a girl playing hockey. At all.”

She continued to play with the boys until her senior year of high school. Without a girls’ team in place, her dad, Jack Brodt, met with the school board and Roseville athletic director to make it happen. She could have played for the Minnesota Thoroughbreds, a U19 team, but she wanted to play high school hockey, Jack Brodt said. She was a clear leader on the Roseville squad, with her 62 goals and 61 assists on the way to an undefeated season and a state title.

Dave Palmquist, the South St. Paul girls’ hockey coach from the very beginning of girls’ high school hockey, watched Winny play from the opposing benches. He remembers Roseville being a powerhouse the first couple of years in girls’ hockey. And when thinking of girls’ hockey in Minnesota, one of the first names that comes to his mind is Winny.

“Winny was the first girl that popped on the scene as far as really the amazing hockey skills that she had right from the get-go,” Palmquist said.

Slominski, who played for Burnsville, also had a front-row seat in seeing what Winny could do to the competition in high school. She heard the buzz about the Roseville team with Winny and the Curtin sisters, Ronda and Renee, knowing “it was like the whole neighborhood was on the team,” Slominski said.

When Burnsville and Roseville faced each other in the 1996 state tournament championship game, Slominski said she didn’t know what to expect, other than the opponent would be really, really good.

That played out as Roseville defeated Burnsville 5-2 for the state title.

“I just remember being out there against Winny, and she was just on a different level than anything we had seen before,” Slominski said.

The post Rink Rat appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Minnesota’s first family of women’s hockey takes reunion to the ice

Photo gallery by Rick Olson (@rickolson77) for Minnesota Hockey Magazine

MINNEAPOLIS — On any given summer Sunday afternoon families across Minnesota and beyond will gather in organized reunions, catching up on each other’s lives over pulled pork sandwiches, potato salad and green bean casserole. In many cases friendly, and not so friendly, competitions ritually ensue on the softball field, at a volleyball net or over an intense Cornhole tournament.

University of Minnesota freshman defender Maddie Wethington’s family on the other hand — at least for one Sunday — took their battle to the ice.

Maddie Wethington (MHM Photo: Rick Olson)

Wethington stepped onto the Ridder Arena ice for Sunday afternoon’s exhibition game against the National Women’s Hockey League’s Minnesota Whitecaps with much more on the line than her Gopher teammates. As she surveyed the defending Isobel Cup champions as they warmed up, Wethington exchanged glances with two of her aunts, former Gophers Winny (Brodt) Brown and Chelsey (Brodt) Rosenthal, while her grandfather, Jack Brodt, watched from behind the visitor’s bench.

After the game, a visibly emotional Wethington looked toward her cousins Jack and Haley, Chelsey’s children, playing nearby and said, “I was these kids’ age, like five and under, when I got to watch them put on the ‘M.’ To be able to get to do that and then also play against them is something that’s really unbelievable and I will cherish for the rest of my life.”

Wethington, a six-time letter winner in both hockey and golf at The Blake School in Minneapolis, is a member of Minnesota’s most famous women’s hockey family. Her mother, Kerry, the first Division I women’s hockey head coach at St. Cloud State (1998-2002), is Winny and Chelsey’s sister and another of Jack’s daughters.

All three women play defense so opportunities for 1-on-1 battles were scarce on this day but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t any on-ice interaction. Rosenthal’s moment came as the teams were warming up.

“I gave her a little tap on the shins as we were both at center ice,” Rosenthal said. “Didn’t really say much but just gave her a look like ‘good luck.’”

Wethington said it really set in for her what the game meant when she locked eyes with Brown on a faceoff and was met with an ear-to-ear grin.

Minnesota Whitecaps D Winny (Brodt) Brown (MHM Photo: Rick Olson)

“I was smiling across the way, you know, when we were on the faceoff draw but we’re very competitive too,” said Brown, Minnesota’s first Ms. Hockey winner in 1996. “In our family, it’s competing all the time whether it’s on the ice or checkers, or you know, getting shotgun in the car. I think it’s kind of a culture that probably my parents have created that has kind of been passed on to my sister Kerry and her daughters.”

That competitive spirit propelled Wethington to become a four-time all-state, four-time all-conference, and three-time all-metro honoree as well as a two-time Minnesota Girls State High School Tournament All-Tournament Team member. She helped Blake to three state championships (2014, 2016 and 2017) and one state runner-up finish (2015) to go with six conference titles.

In addition, Wethington has competed internationally for several U.S. Under-18 teams and, not surprisingly, has played club hockey since 2012 for the Minnesota Junior Whitecaps. While it is been an honor to wear those colors, nothing compares to the realization of Wethington’s childhood dream of donning the maroon and gold sweater with the ‘M’ across the front and No. 5 on the back.

The number is significant in that she wears it in honor of her aunts who both wore it as Gophers, Brown from 1998-2000 and Rosenthal from 2002-06. That Wethington got to wear it as a freshman she says is a matter of the stars aligning for her.

“I realized that the defenseman that was leaving (Sophie Skarzynski) was number five,” Wethington said. “So it just happened to work out perfectly.”

The number choice is an emotional one for Brown and Rosenthal as well.

“Both me and Chelsey are honored that, you know, she respects us enough to want to carry on that number and represent the Gophers with it,” Brown said. “It’s pretty special.”

Rosenthal expressed her pride in her niece while praising her play and added the experience of playing against her was something she never expected to happen

Minnesota Whitecaps D Chelsey (Brodt) Rosenthal (MHM Photo: Rick Olson)

“It was very cool to see her wearing in the ‘M’ and she’s worked so hard, Rosenthal said. “I remember her being in a stroller and now I’m playing against her so that kind of just says a lot how … I’m getting old.”

Wethington said she believed Sunday’s game was the first time her grandfather had coached against her but the day’s events conjured up fond memories of coaching alongside him as a young girl.

“I remember growing up he would coach some of their WHAM (Women’s Hockey Association of Minnesota) league (games) with my mom even playing and and I’d be on the bench with him pretending to coach when I was five years old,” Wethington recalled with a smile. “At the end of last season, my senior year, he was like, ‘Just wait, I’ll have all these players on you forechecking you so hard.’ He was looking forward to it; I was looking forward to it; it was a great moment for my whole family.”

Brodt, who played hockey at Hamline University and co-founded the Whitecaps in 2004, said the game was a proud grandparent moment and he is confident Wethington will make her own mark at the University of Minnesota.

“My granddaughter is a good player and she’s been wanting to play against her aunts so it was fun,” Brodt said. “It wasn’t exactly the way we wanted it to turn out but, it is what it is.”

It turned out to be a 5-1 Gopher win which saw them outshoot the Whitecaps 57-12, despite trailing 1-0 after one period on Jonna Curtis’ buzzer-beater. The Gophers proceeded to reel off five unanswered goals — led by Taylor Heise’s three-point effort (2-1—3) and a goal and an assist from Grace Zumwinkle — to overwhelm their guests.

To be fair, the Whitecaps had practiced only twice and a labor dispute has them, and every other NWHL team, playing with a significantly depleted roster compared to the one fans celebrated with on the ice in March.

Minnesota Whitecaps coach Jack Brodt (MHM Photo: Rick Olson)

“It’s always fun to play the Gophers,” Brodt said. “We didn’t give them much of a test but when we originally scheduled, we figured we were going to have all our players. We’ve only had one and a half practices. They’ve been practicing for two or three weeks so you can see that we were slow to all the pucks. They just took it to us and I kind of figured that that’s what they were going to do.”

To the Gophers’ credit, they took full advantage of the opportunity and Wethington even got on the score sheet, chipping in an assist on Zumwinkle’s game-tying goal in the second period. But that was secondary to the win in Wethington’s eyes.

“I think I got a little bit of an advantage at the table when it comes to Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Wethington said with a competitor’s grin. “But I’ll try not to rub it into their face too much.” 

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