EDINA, Minn. – Feb. 3, 2015 – A pair of goal-scoring freshman and the nation’s hottest goaltender highlight the women’s Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) Players of the Week for games of Jan. 30-Feb. 2, 2015. The honorees are: Wisconsin freshman forward Emily Clark (Offensive Player of the Week), North Dakota junior goaltender Shelby Amsley-Benzie (Defensive Player of the Week), and Minnesota State freshman forward Nicole Schammel (Rookie of the Week).

WCHA Offensive Player of the Week
Emily Clark – Freshman, Forward
University of Wisconsin

Clark, a freshman from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, had a four-point weekend to pace No. 3 Wisconsin to a WCHA road series sweep at Minnesota State. The rookie played a role in all three Badger goals during Friday’s 3-0 victory, scoring twice while assisting on the game-winning score. Clark also had an assist on Jenny Ryan‘s game-tying goal Saturday, sparking Wisconsin’s rally to a 5-1 triumph. She finished the weekend with a +4 rating and nine shots on goal.

Also nominated: Zoe Hickel, Sr. F, Minnesota Duluth; Josefine Jakobsen, Sr., F, North Dakota; Taylor Kuehl, Sr., F, Ohio State; Kathleen Rogan, Sr., F, Minnesota State

WCHA Defensive Player of the Week
Shelby Amsley-Benzie – Junior, Goaltender
University of North Dakota

Amsley-Benzie continued her run of stellar play, backstopping North Dakota to a five-point weekend at No. 6 Minnesota Duluth. The junior from Warroad, Minn. recorded her fourth shutout of the season – third against a nationally-ranked opponent – when she stopped all 30 shots faced Friday in a 1-0 victory. She then followed up her shutout performance with a 25-save effort Saturday, helping UND to a 2-2 tie and shootout victory. North Dakota’s netminder helped her team’s penalty kill go a perfect 6-for-6 on the weekend, stopping 10 shots while short-handed. Amsley-Benzie currently leads the nation with a .949 save percentage. Since Jan. 1, she tops the country with both a .971 save percentage and 0.71 goals against average.

Also nominated: Ann-Renée Desbiens, So., G, Wisconsin

WCHA Rookie of the Week
Nicole Schammel – Freshman, Forward
Minnesota State University

Schammel recorded her first career hat trick and added an assist to lead Minnesota State to a 5-1, Monday night victory over St. Cloud State – the Mavericks’ first WCHA win this season. The freshman from Red Wing, Minn. scored a pair of even-strength goals – including the game-winner – in the first period, before adding a power-play strike and an assist in the second. She becomes the first Maverick to record a hat trick since senior teammate Kathleen Rogan on Jan. 2, 2013, and the first Minnesota State freshman with three goals in a game since Rogan accomplished the feat Oct. 22, 2010. Schammel ranks fourth among WCHA freshman with 17 points in 27 games this season (7 goals, 10 assists).

Also nominated: Kelly Pannek, F, Minnesota

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Minnesota bounces back on freshman’s three-point effort

MINNEAPOLIS- Saturday’s game at Ridder Arena brought out early the simple lesson of “if at first you don’t score, shoot, shoot some more.”

No one helped adhere to that more than freshman forward Kelly Pannek.

A day after Ohio State (14-11-3, 9-10-3-1 WCHA) came back from two goals down to force a 3-3 tie (Minnesota won the ensuing shootout), the WCHA-leading Gophers (24-1-4, 17-1-4-2 WCHA) felt much better about than having the hollow feeling Friday’s game left.

“No one was happy with the shootout win,” said Pannek, who had three points (1G-2A) to extend her nation-leading first-year total to 38 and was one of three players to have 6 shots Saturday. “We just weren’t satisfied with our play yesterday.”

Minnesota was able to out-work and shut down the Buckeye women’s speed, making the road team skate on their heels in a 3-1 victory.

The Gophers  out-shot Ohio State 17-1 in the first period and 44-17 total. Possessing the puck for long stretches early – doing so despite finishing the game with 9 forwards – Minnesota made the necessary adjustments in the second game of the series to counter OSU’s unique forecheck. The Buckeyes were able to get players in front of rebounds and clear the zone in order to stay in the game.

It took until midway through the second period before coach Brad Frost’s team had breathing room on the scoreboard. Pannek burst the dam open with a shot on a 4-on-1 attempt that went off OSU goaltender Kassidy Sauve and into the net.

“We were just trying a lot of stuff to get the puck on net,” said Pannek. “Especially on rushes, if there are people going something good should happen. There were a lot of rebounds I thought throughout the period and the whole game so we were just focusing on getting pucks to the net.”

Pannek and senior defenseman Rachel Ramsey, who had a pair of assists Saturday, were also both part of Minnesota’s first goal. From her own one blue line to the other, Pannek found sophomore Kate Schipper mid-stride on a breakaway.

She did the rest, scoring her fifth goal of the season on her own rebound 8:57 into the game.

“Great finish there by Schipp,” said Frost. “That was a big goal for her, she needed it. She’s been fighting it a little bit.”

Getting the nod in net in place of Stacy Danczak, Sauve made 23 saves on 24 shots prior to Pannek’s goal in the second period. Hannah Brandt made it 3-0 with 5:10 remaining in the second period when the Vandais Heights, Minn. native needed all of 15 seconds to get her 24^th goal of the season from the face-off dot.

“We’ll take Hannah shooting from there every time,” Frost said.

Sauve’s counterpart in net, Amanda Leveille, made 16 saves Saturday. She was barely tested until early in the third period. The junior goaltender was able to stop a partial shorthanded breakaway by Julia McKinnon. She wasn’t as fortunate minutes later during a stretch of 4-on-4 when Claudia Kepler roofed a misplayed puck in front of Leveille to break the shutout.

The Buckeyes had a chance to make it a one-goal game with two power plays in the third, but Minnesota killed both with Ramsey in the box and without forwards Meghan Lorence and Paige Haley.

Replaced by Schipper on the second line, Lorence did not play past the early shifts a night after getting injured and is day to day. Haley had to be helped off the ice in the third period when she was checked by Sara Schmitt. She will be evaluated further in the coming days.

Losses in the ranks aside, it’s a happier group of players. Minnesota heads to North Dakota next weekend with a 10 point lead in the WCHA standings over Wisconsin and home ice in the playoffs with six regular season games remaining. Even better is that they are doing so with the work ethic and effort shown Saturday.

“Any time you show up on the score sheet you can walk away feeling like you did a good job,” said Pannek. “I thought we did a great job today responding. Everybody was ready to go from the drop of the puck to the final whistle, which was huge for us.”

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