“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.

“She didn’t stick out,” said Natalie Darwitz, Gophers women’s hockey assistant coach who watched the practice. “She fit right in and looked like one of the guys. It’s a huge compliment to Crystalyn.”

Crystalyn Hengler celebrating a Section 2AA title with Eden Prairie in 2018 and in her current role on the Gopher blue line. (MHM Photos / Rick Olson)

Hengler kicked off the weekend as the female hockey player invited to skate with the Minnesota Wild during the team’s practice Friday morning at TRIA Rink. She got in on some of the early drills with the Wild.

“It was an awesome experience,” Hengler said. “They’re really fast-paced. They’re bigger than I thought they would be when watching them on TV.”

She talked a lot with Wild assistant coach Bob Woods about various drills the Wild runs during practice. Woods talked to her about things he wants the defensive corps to work on, Hengler said.

“That was actually really helpful,” Hengler said. “I can bring some stuff back to college with me and share those things with my teammates.”

The Gophers women’s hockey team is 14-5-1 overall this season, with Hengler a staple on the blue line. She has two goals and seven points in the 20 games, and 10 goals, 32 points in 112 career games at Minnesota. She had a pair of assists in the team’s last victory, a 2-1 score over Minnesota-Duluth on Dec. 11.

Hengler is an offensive defenseman going back to her five years with Eden Prairie High School when the 2018 Minnesota Ms. Hockey semifinalist scored 27 goals and 108 points in 147 career games. She helped lead the team to state multiple times, including to a Class 2A state title in 2016.

She brings a super skillset to the Gophers blueline, with a quick-release shot to get pucks to the net efficiently, Darwitz said.

“Off the ice, she’s just a super character person,” Darwitz said. “Does things the right way, is a great teammate. Just a joy to coach.”

One Wild player Hengler particularly connected with Friday was defenseman Matt Dumba. Hengler said Dumba asked about her ethnicity, and the two had a perfect vantage point to see all the young girls from Minnesota Unbounded watching in the stands.

“I think it was pretty cool when you’re sitting with another person of color on the bench looking out into the stands full of color, different shades, faces, races,” Dumba said. “It’s sometimes a real lonely feeling being in a hockey world, being different. To see that gave me a smile and warmed my heart to see these girls here today.”

Wild defenseman Matt Dumba enjoys a chat with Hengler at Friday’s practice at Tria Rink. (Photo courtesy of Jessi Pierce / NHL.com)

Friday, Hengler had a lot of support in the stands and along the glass from many of her Gophers teammates, three of her coaches, her mom and her brother. One of those coaches was Darwitz.

Hengler was also supposed to make the “Let’s Play Hockey!” call before the Florida Panthers versus Minnesota Wild game Saturday afternoon, but that game was postponed due to Covid-19 safety protocols issues involving the Panthers. The plan is to have Hengler make the call, along with holding the other Girls’ Hockey Weekend activities, whenever the make-up game gets scheduled.

The Girls’ Hockey Weekend clinics for girls’ hockey players went on as scheduled Friday night and Saturday afternoon (moved up after the postponed Wild game) at Xcel Energy Center. About 50 girls each for the 8U, 10U and 12U levels participated in on-ice clinics and dryland training led by Minnesota Hockey personnel, and Minnesota Whitecaps and WCHA players.

Thirteen Gophers women’s players helped with the clinics Friday night alone, Darwitz said. They volunteered “without batting an eye,” and during their finals week, too, she said. It didn’t take much prodding from Darwitz.

“I said to our team, ‘hey, you have no idea that little eyes that are on you,’” Darwitz said. “’Male, female, it doesn’t matter. They want to emulate you and be wearing the same sweater you are and do the same moves you are doing.

“’Getting out there in the public eye and doing these camps and clinics, not only is it going to do so much for you, it’s going to do now triple for the game and those little girls.’”

Hengler is the fifth player from the Gophers women’s hockey program to skate with the Wild, though she’s the first one to participate while still a collegiate player. Krissy Wendell skated in 2017, followed by Hannah Brandt in 2018 and Lee Stecklein in 2019.

Darwitz was retired when asked to be part of the inaugural Girls’ Hockey Weekend in 2016.

“I told Wayne Petersen of the Wild that I was able to set the bar low for everybody else,” Darwitz joked.

Minnesota Unbounded players following Crystalyn Hengler’s every move during Friday’s Minnesota Wild practice at Tria Rink. (Photo courtesy of Jessi Pierce / NHL.com)

Watching Hengler brought back memories of that weekend for Darwitz. It all comes back to growing the game, and both Darwitz and Hengler acknowledged how great it is that the Wild put together a weekend like this, since few organizations do. Having Hengler skate with the Wild is a way to help grow the game, too. It’s all about having role models to look up to and someone to emulate on the ice, Darwitz said, adding that for her it was Neal Broten until Cammi Granato came along.

“Now the same for people of color or different backgrounds,” Darwitz said. “They see Crystalyn out there and think, ‘you know, I can do this, too.’ So I think that’s pretty special.”

Hengler’s advice and encouragement for young girls playing hockey? Have fun.

“I’ve grown some lifelong friends through the sport throughout my time playing it,” Hengler said. “Just have fun with it. Don’t be too serious, especially at a young age. Just find the little things that make you happy when you play.”

The post This One’s for the Girls appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Former Gophers shine in NWHL with Whitecaps  

After a college career with the Gophers women’s hockey team, Nicole Schammel is no stranger to playing weekend series against opponents. But the schedule she’s playing this season as a rookie in the National Women’s Hockey League as a forward for the Minnesota Whitecaps isn’t quite the same.

There are 24 regular-season games compared to 38- or 39-game seasons she played with the Gophers.

“I think there’s definitely pros and cons to going every couple weekends,” Schammel said. “You feel fresh, but you also kind of feel like you aren’t in game shape.”

Nicole Schammel (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Whatever the schedule, Schammel is finding her way as one of the top players for the Whitecaps this season. She’s one of seven former Gophers on the team, four of whom are playing their NWHL rookies seasons this year.

A lot of the Whitecaps players work as coaches. For instance, Schammel is an assistant coach for the Breck girls’ high school team.

“So that actually helps with not playing as much,” Schammel said. “That you’re still around the game, and watching a game can be really advantageous.”

Schammel plays alongside center Haylea Schmid and fellow Gopher Meghan Lorence on the right wing.

Lorence said she and Schammel have similar vision on the ice. Lorence graduated from Minnesota in 2015 after 102 points in 148 games across four years with the Gophers.  She and Schammel didn’t overlap, as Schammel finished up her redshirt-senior season last year.

“Just finding each other and making those plays,” Lorence said. “It helps coming from the same system from college.”

The Whitecaps are second in the five-team NWHL standings at 7-3-2 behind an undefeated Boston team (13-0-0). Along with Schammel and Lorence, defenseman Sydney Baldwin, Kelsey Cline, goaltender Amanda Leveille, Winny Brown and Chelsey Rosenthal are all former Gophers.  

“I think, in general, a lot of us are from Minnesota,” Baldwin said. “So we were familiar with playing with each other in summer leagues or in the offseason, so we do have a little bit of that familiarity.”

Meghan Lorence (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

With the regular season halfway in the books for 2019-20, Schammel ranks second on the team in goals (7), points (14) and is a plus-7 in 12 games. She’s also won 32-of-33 faceoffs and leads the team with 92 shots. Baldwin is on the top defensive pair with Amanda Boulier. Baldwin has 5 goals and 11 points in 10 games with a plus-8. Lorence has five goals and eight points in 12 games. Schammel and Lorence are tied with two others for the team lead with two power-play goals each.

When the Whitecaps returned to TRIA Rink for their second home series of the season Dec. 14-15 v. the Metropolitan Riveters, they split with a 3-2 shootout loss and 5-2 win. In the loss, the two goals came from the third line, from Audra Richards and Allie Thunstrom to tie the game each time. Thunstrom, Schammel and Schmid all came up empty in the shootout. Minnesota rebounded the next afternoon with a 5-2 win with goals from Schammel, Baldwin, two from Richards and Stephanie Anderson.

The Whitecaps followed that up the next weekend with a sweep in Connecticut in a 3-0 shutout and 2-1 victory. This road series happened to line up with the Minnesota Wild’s fourth annual Girls’ Hockey Weekend with festivities held at Xcel Energy Center. Proceeds from the Wild game magazine sales and the “Split the Pot Raffle” for the Wild’s Dec. 21 game against the Winnipeg Jets went to the Whitecaps. The Wild also hosted dryland training and on-ice clinics for girls on 12U, 10U, and 8U teams that Saturday.

Though the Whitecaps weren’t in town for girls’ hockey weekend, they still got in on the action at Xcel Energy Center when they hosted a free skating event for the public ahead of their practice held on the NHL ice surface on Thursday.

Sydney Baldwin (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

It’s yet another chance for young girls to interact with female professional hockey players. Both Whitecaps and Riveters players also participated in the Girls Outdoor Classic on Dec. 14 at the Roseville Oval. Whitecaps players were there as referees and dropped pucks for some of the 4-on-4 games going on, according to Lorence, though they “were mostly just there to socialize with the girls, and cheer them on,” Lorence said.

It’s another good opportunity to grow the game, according to Baldwin.

“Everyone’s happy being outside, and it was halfway decent weather, playing a little pond hockey,” Baldwin said.

There’s no shortage of role models, and players like Schammel, who wanted to be a Whitecaps player since she was little, are enjoying their time in the NWHL.

“I think post-grad, there’s not a ton of opportunities to play, and I’m just grateful for the opportunity to continue to dress,” Baldwin said. “I’m at a point where I’m still very competitive and like to be able to get in the lineup and play a good game.”

The Whitecaps return to action in St. Paul for three straight weekends of hockey in January, starting with a couple games against Buffalo on Jan. 11. They’ll finish the regular season with another home series against Connecticut on Feb. 29 and March 1. 

The post Close To Home 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.” 

The post Sunday Fun Day appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Kelly Pannek returns to the Gophers a humble world champion.

It’s difficult to encapsulate everything that happened to Kelly Pannek since the last time she put on the Gophers’ “M” for a game. It was March 17, 2017 in a 3-4 loss to the eventual national champion Clarkson Golden Knights. It capped off a season where she led the nation in points and was a top-10 Patty Kazmaier Award finalist. That was just 18 months ago.

Since that game, the Gopher captain received a somewhat unexpected invite to the Team USA senior camp, participated in a boycott that changed women’s hockey, won gold at the 2017 World Championships, made the Olympic roster, and won gold at the Olympics.

GANGNEUG, REPUBLIC OF KOREA – FEBRUARY 7: Team USA Portraits – PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games. (Photo by Andre Ringuette/HHOF-IIHF Images)

Looking at her skill set and her impressive on-ice vision, it seems almost inevitable she’d be carrying the accolades she has, but it wasn’t a given to Pannek. “I didn’t know where I stood [prior to Worlds],” she says standing in Ridder arena, not far from a mural of Gopher Olympians that has yet to add her face. “I’d made a few camps, and I’d been a part of the program itself for a while, but never felt like I was at that point where I’d be getting a chance to be on the team.”

Pannek had never received an invite to a U.S. Women’s Team senior camp. Then the call came. “After getting that call it was crazy. It was a whirlwind. I just tried to focus on surviving at that level, to be honest.” Though, she says, the speed with which she was thrust onto the national team helped her to not think ahead to the possibility of the Olympic roster. “I didn’t really think at all about what was going on afterward because I had no time to. I think I was a little naïve, and that was kind of a blessing.”

She made the U.S. roster for the 2017 Women’s World Championship, but she almost didn’t get the chance to prove she belonged on hockey’s biggest stage.

The U.S. Women’s National Team threatened to boycott Worlds, which were taking place in Michigan. The players protested the program’s compensation for women and an inequitable treatment of the girls’ and women’s programs compared to the boys’ and men’s programs. It was an unprecedented victory for the women’s program that resolved only days before the start of the tournament.

“It’s something the veterans really explained to us: This isn’t about us, this isn’t about our team,” she says. “I think it’s easy to have those doubts, like ‘Will I have another chance after this?’ But one thing we always talk about with Team USA is that you’re part of something bigger than yourselves. That was a moment where that was the most accurate it could be.”

Worlds was a jarring transition from college hockey. “Before my first shift, my family was in the stands, and they saw the first shift. They were like, ‘Can she do this? Is she going to be fast enough?’” she recalls. She didn’t register any points as the U.S. ran through the tournament with five straight wins to grab gold. But she played well. It was enough to get an invite to centralization and, eventually, the U.S. Olympic roster and a gold medal in Pyeongchang.

Kelly Pannek/Gopher Athletics)

Though, throughout that process, the Gophers weren’t far from her thoughts. “I tried to watch as many [games] as I could,” she says with a smile. “I lived with [Duluth goaltender] Maddie Rooney last year so we watched the games against Duluth. I made sure to keep in touch and ask how things were going, just to be a sounding board for some of the players last year, but also just to watch and be a big fan.”

Coming back to the University of Minnesota hasn’t been a difficult transition despite a wild year away. “I prefer it,” she says. “I was excited for my first day of school. It’s been exciting to be back with the team on a daily basis. It’s a different feel being in the college environment. It’s really fun.”

Her return after a year of growth sets up the Gophers to again be a powerhouse in the WCHA. She returns with Sarah and Amy Potomak, who weren’t on Canada’s Olympic roster, but participated in Team Canada’s centralization and didn’t play last year. Add returning talent and young standouts like Grace Zumwinkle and Taylor Heise, and the Gophers have a good shot at making Pannek’s run of success continue well into 2019.

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Gopher coach’s family-first formula brings success

Brad Frost has accomplished more in 8 years at his job than most of us will in our entire lifetime. He’s been named WCHA and national coach of the year multiple times. He’s had perfect seasons and won three National Championships.

And he’s only 41 years old.

There are coaches that work for decades just to get to a Frozen Four and Frost has been there so many times I’m convinced they just reserve a room for him at the hotel when the site it’s announced … or at least they should.

It led me to wonder how someone can have continued success year after year. Yes he gets the best players the state has and yes Minnesota has the most talented pool of players in the nation and yes when you shake hands with someone who happens to be wearing three national championship rings, it’s an easy choice.

But if you know Brad Frost, you know he’s not the kind of guy to flaunt rings, or his very impressive resume. He seeks out players who want to play his style, which is to say that players aren’t individuals in his system; they are cogs in the machine, no one is more important than the next player.

If you think it’s a cliché consider Amanda Kessel, one of the best forwards in the game, who helped the Gophers win a title in 2013 and was an Olympian in 2014. They played without her this year and still won simply because Frost preaches that not only is a fence only is good as its weakest link, it needs every link to stay standing.

Last Thursday night at the Frozen Four banquet I asked Brad how he continues to win, year after year with new players and tougher competition. His answer and rankings of priorities surprised me.

Gopher players bestow a celebratory post-game ice water shower upon coach Brad Frost after defeating Harvard to win the Frozen Four on Sunday at Ridder Arena. (MHM Photo / Mackenzi Marinovich)

“First and foremost we recruit great kids. They come from great families,” Frost told me.  “And they have to be good hockey players. And when you put a group of 22 or 23 players together like that, you know you’re going to have success.”

What Frost believes, in essence, is that you can teach hockey but you can’t teach attitude, the ability to accept coaching or teamwork. In this day and age of anything-goes college athletics, his approach is not only to be commended, it should probably be copied!

I have had the good fortune of getting to know Brad over the past eight years. I came to Minnesota around the same time that he took over the Gopher Women’s hockey program full time. I’ve met his wife, his kids and even his brothers (because when a Frost is playing for a national championship – EVERYONE comes to town). So I believe I’ve gotten a good read on him over the years. And the funny thing is, hockey is not even the top priority on his list.

It’s his family and his faith.

After Thursday’s Frozen Four banquet, the program was over and the players were getting ready to leave for their hotels. We were roughly 24 hours away from the Gopher’s national semifinal—the biggest game of the season for Frost and his team.

However, Brad was not sweating the details or running back to the office to go over more film, he was busy being a father. His oldest son had a few tests the next day and he was nervous (as we all would have been). But rather than pass the phone to his wife and leave her with the parental duties, I witnessed Frost doing some of his best coaching yet.

He very calmly motivated his son and convinced him that he could conquer this task in front of him, no matter how tough it seemed. At that moment it was easy to see how he gets his players to lay it all on the line for him.

Frost considers them part of his family, which is why he gets the best out of them. They respect him as a coach and they respect each other as a team. It’s a formula that has proven tough to beat.

It’s funny sometimes how sports can be subject to over thinking. Which match-ups are best, what offense and defense will exploit your opponent? Don’t get me wrong, Frost is the “Doogie Howser” of coaching for sure. His success at such a young age is undeniable but what makes him so successful is the simplicity with which he coaches. He sees the value in an entire team, not just a few stars.

Which is why no matter the cast of characters in his story, the ending is almost always the same: Frost and his team holding a championship trophy.

The post Schwartz: For Frost, winning is a family matter appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Photos courtesy of Brent Cizek http://www.brentcizekphoto.com/

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Kuehl scores twice as Buckeyes rally to tie Gopher women

MINNEAPOLIS- Friday night had all the markings of a trap game for the University of Minnesota women. It wasn’t, but the end result left the Gophers wanting more than two points in front of 2,340 fans at Ridder Arena.

A week away from traveling to North Dakota and ending the regular season with series against Minnesota-Duluth and Bemidji State, the two-game home series against fifth-place (out of eight teams) Ohio State featured an opponent that had won 6 of the last 8 games and 9-3-1 on the road.

By the end of the game Minnesota head coach Brad Frost’s voice was shot yelling at his players and the officials.

The Buckeyes’ persistence despite missing several early attempts paid off down the stretch in the series opener. Down 3-1 senior forward Taylor Kuehl, a Minnetrista, Minn. native,  scored twice for the Buckeyes Friday night.

Her second goal, tying the game at 3 with 3:16 remaining in regulation, proved to be the difference in a 3-3 tie where Ohio State was out-shot 32-28 yet had a 9-7 advantage in the third period.

“They were a lot more aggressive than teams we have played recently,” said junior forward Hannah Brandt about OSU after snapping a 12-game point streak Friday. “Their forecheck was a lot faster I guess. We just have to be more prepared for it tomorrow.”

Minnesota (23-1-4, 16-1-4-2 WCHA) took the extra league point in the shootout when Brandt, Milicia McMillen and Dani Cameranesi all scored. Junior goaltender Amanda Leveille, who made 25 saves in regulation and forced Claudia Kepler to shoot wide on a first period shorthanded breakaway, stopped Julianna Iafallo with a diving toe save for her second consecutive shootout win.

“When you win the shootout you feel like you’ve kind of won the game. You certainly feel better than when you lose the shootout,” said Frost. “At the same time we gave up a two goal lead there so there’s some hollowness to it as well.”

Both teams wasted no time off Friday with two goals and a major penalty in the opening 3:21.

Meghan Lorence got Minnesota on the board 90 seconds into the game when her rebound shot got past Ohio State goaltender Stacy Danczak. 76 seconds later Danielle Gagne tossed a change-up on OSU’s first shot that hit the crossbar and sat down on the wrong side of the red line for the Gophers.

Gagne’s night lasted less than another minute. The 5’6” senior was sent off for checking from behind, giving the Gophers a chance to re-take the lead.  Minnesota only had one shot on the five minute major, which turned into a 5×3 when Kara Gust was called for checking, but made the most of it. Redshirt sophomore defenseman Lee Stecklein scored her second of the season on a shot from the top of the slot.

Minnesota freshman Cara Piazza took a pass in stride from linemate Brook Garzone 4:33 into the second period and was rewarded with her ninth goal of the season.

“I just hear Cara on my left and she was wide open. So I just passed it over to her,” said Garzone. “It was a great shot. I was screaming so loud for her.”

The lead wasn’t to be, though. Kuehl made it a 3-2 game eight minutes later when her shot on the power play found its way through traffic.

Ohio State had multiple chances before the goal as the Gophers were unable to clear the puck out of the zone.

“We had three chances to clear it and we became part of the power play by making some good passes to their point,” said Frost.

The Gophers killed a 22 second two-man disadvantage early in the third period, turning what could have been a change in momentum with a one-goal lead into one for the home team. Sara Schmitt came close with a shot off the crossbar, but was reviewed and upheld.

Garzone brought the physical play, sticking up for Leveille late with self-described “crazy eyes” and getting in Julia McKinnon’s face when McKinnon shot the puck after a whistle. Kuehl scored during the 4×4. Despite the efforts of Cameranesi in overtime to bury a winner, first-place Minnesota dropped a point in the WCHA standings.

“Definitely not what we were hoping for especially being up. You never want to let a team back into a game like that,” said Brandt. “It was great to get the extra point, but we’re definitely not satisfied with that game and know we have to come out harder tomorrow.”

Still, Frost sees the game against Ohio State as a reminder for his team to play a more consistent, sixty-minute game before tomorrow’s rematch.

“That’s the hope. Certainly Ohio State is a very, very good team. They’re fighting to get in the top-four of our league and they’re flirting with the top-10 of the Pairwise,” Frost said. “It’s just going to continue to ramp up.

“We’re playing some great teams down the stretch and this is a great way to prepare for it.”

The post Minnesotan leads OSU comeback appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Balanced scoring leads Minnesota over Minnesota State

MANKATO – On Hockey Day Minnesota teams from all over the state face off against one another and help celebrate our roots as the state of hockey. While high school teams took to the ice at Holman Field in St. Paul, the Gopher men’s team at Mariucci Arena, and the Wild at the Xcel Energy Center, there was another game being played today a little further south.

The Gopher women’s team traveled to Mankato, Minn. to square off against Minnesota State in game two of a weekend series. While there were two WCHA points on the line in this contest, it was also a special afternoon as two in-state teams faced off against each other on Hockey Day Minnesota.

“Hockey Day Minnesota is always special,” said Minnesota State head coach Eric Means. “It’s the second year in a row on Hockey Day we’ve played Minnesota.”

Minnesota, the no. 2 team in the country, was looking for the series sweep and continue their winning ways as they were unbeaten in their last 14 games heading into today’s afternoon match up. MSU on the other hand, was looking to come steal some points from the Gophers this weekend and add another win to their record after picking up their first two victories of the season a week ago.

“Mankato was coming in after getting their first two wins so they were playing confidently,” said Minnesota coach Brad Frost. “We wanted to make sure that we started quickly in both games and I think we did a good job of that here.”

Start quickly is exactly what Minnesota did.

Just 1:26 into the game, Gopher leading scorer Hannah Brandt gave Minnesota a quick 1-0 lead. From there the two teams would trade chances until Minnesota seemed to break this game open just past the midpoint of the first period.

Gopher captain Rachel Bona tallied her 12th of the season shortly before Minnesota freshman Kelly Pannek netted a power play goal to give the maroon and gold a 3-0 lead to close out the first period. The Mavs had a chance to get back into this one, but had trouble finding the needed offense to get on the board.

Starting the second period on a 5-on-3 power play, the Mavericks couldn’t find the back of the net and Minnesota poured it on immediately after killing the two penalties.

Minnesota junior Maryanne Menefee scored her fourth goal of the weekend 1:32 into the second period to spot her team a 4-0 lead with the assist going to Brandt. The Gophers would get two more second period goals on Cara Piazza’s seventh of the season before Dani Cameranesi tallied on the power play, her 17th goal of the season.

With a 6-0 lead heading into the third period, MSU was looking to get on the board before this game was all said and done, and they did that before the midpoint of the final period.

Maverick freshman Hannah Davidson scored her fifth of the season to put MSU on the board on a pretty passing play where she redirected a Nicole Schammel pass into the Minnesota net to bring the game to 6-1. That’s where it would end for the Mavericks, however, as Minnesota would add one more before the final buzzer when Gopher sophomore Lee Stecklein buried her first of the year during 4-on-4 play when she walked out of the corner and around MSU goaltender Brianna Quade for the score and a 7-1 Gopher victory.

While MSU had a handful of scoring chances, they just couldn’t seem to find a way to get their shots through, and like many teams around the nation, had a hard time containing this potent Gopher offense.

“We tried to match up with them today but you look at that top line and you’re talking almost 400 career points,” said Means. “We’re asking some freshmen who are in their 20th game of their career to go out there and handle those girls and that’s a tough task for anyone, let alone freshmen.”

Minnesota would leave Mankato with a 7-1 win and the series sweep. For one of these Minnesota teams, the day ended in sweet victory, while the other suffered their third straight loss. Though both teams can appreciate playing on this special day and celebrating our hockey heritage in this great state.

“Hockey Day in Minnesota, where else does it happen in the United States?” said Minnesota coach Brad Frost. “It’s such an honor and privilege to coach at the University of Minnesota and to be able to have two Minnesota teams square off here today was pretty fun.”

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