After playing three-years with Harvard University and finishing up her NCAA college playing career with a season at Clarkson University, Petrie took a giant step toward that desire of playing in the PWHL.

That giant step occurred on June 10 when this talented 23- year-old forward from Hermosa Beach, Calif. was picked in the fifth round, 27th overall, by the Minnesota Frost.

“I was at home in California where we had a watch party,” Petrie said. “We had the draft live streamed on YouTube.”

In reflecting on that moment when Minnesota selected her, Petrie said: “There were tears, sighs of relief, excitement, smiles and lots of high fives.”

Dominique Petrie scored the tying goal to force overtime in the season opener against New York. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

A big highlight in the early going of the season has been the home fans which drew lots of strong praise from Petrie.

“Minnesota has an amazing fan base,” Petrie said. “Minnesota is the state of hockey. I’m really excited to have been drafted by Minnesota. It’s (playing for the Frost) an awesome cool experience.”

The biggest electrifying on-ice highlight which Petrie described as being “on top of the list for one of my greatest hockey moments,” occurred in the Frost’s first regular-season game of the year.

Leaving her mark early
Playing on Dec. 1 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Petrie was absolutely pumped when at 15:47 of the third period she scored and celebrated her first PWHL goal, which at the time tied things up 3-3 of an eventual 4-3 overtime loss against the New York Sirens.

“I couldn’t have written a better story,” Petrie said about the goal. “It was a two-on-one (with Denisa Křížová), just like we’ve worked on in practice. I got in on my stick and let it rip.

PWHL players and fans watched as the Walter Cup Champions banner was unveiled before the season opener on Dec. 1 at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

“The fans erupted and my teammates were celebrating, and it was a cool moment. It’s at the top of my list for great hockey moments.”

Naturally, Petrie was presented with that milestone puck which she still has.

“Right now, it’s sitting on a shelf. I will take it back home at some point,” Petrie said.

In talking about that regular-season opener, Petrie couldn’t help but to once again deliver more praise toward the Minnesota fans.

“The fans were decked out in our paraphernalia,” Petrie said. “When we scored, the fans got really loud. It’s definitely a special market and the fans pump us up.”

Prior to Minnesota’s season opener, fans got to experience PWHL history as the Minnesota had their Walter Cup championship banner raised to the Xcel Energy Center rafters.

“The banner ceremony was a cool experience,” Petrie said. “To look around and take it all in was a cool moment.”

In putting on the Minnesota Frost jersey for her PWHL debut, Petrie called it “a surreal moment.”

“I felt blessed and thankful,” Petrie added.

During that much anticipated debut against New York, Petrie had three shots on goal and was a plus-one.

Petrie played at Harvard, then Clarkson
Before embarking on her PWHL career, Petrie played three years of college hockey at Harvard University where she graduated with a degree in economics and a minor in psychology. In looking to continue her education and college hockey career, Petrie transferred to Clarkson for a Masters of business administration.

Her three-year playing career at Harvard saw her play 76 games where she produced 30 goals and 71 points. In her time with Clarkson last season, she scored 15 goals and 35 points in 40 games.

“It was an amazing opportunity,” Petrie said. “I enjoy challenging myself, and I was fortunate to be able to play hockey and get an education.”

Without question, Petrie’s greatest moment playing for Clarkson occurred in March 2024 when playing at home in front of a sold-out Cheel Arena. She made history by scoring in quadruple-overtime for a 3-2 win against the University of Minnesota Gophers. The win sent fourth-ranked Clarkson to their first Frozen Four since 2019, though they lost to Ohio State in the semifinal.

In making that jump from college hockey to the PWHL, Petrie said a big difference is how much more physical the pro league is. However, Petrie referred to herself as a physical player, so it’s something she isn’t bothered about.

From an early age, Petrie’s passion to play hockey was inspired by her brother, Guy, who played college hockey at the University of Utah.

On the international stage, Petrie has also had success in helping the U.S. Women’s National U-18 team take home gold at the 2017 and 2018 IIHF World Women’s U18 Championships. A year later, she captained the squad to a silver.

In her first three games as a Frost player, Petrie has three goals and is a +2.

“I’m happy Minnesota took a chance on me,” she said. “I just want to show what I can do.”

It might be extremely early, but chances are Petrie has definitely made a loud statement to the Frost organization that she can play in the PWHL.

The post Dominant Dominque appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

One of the big series finds St. Cloud State — the most surprising team in the NCHC, if not the whole country — at home on its Herb Brooks National Hockey Center ice to take on perennial CCHA contender Michigan on Friday and Saturday.

The Huskies sputtered through their non-conferemce schedule with a meager 2-4 record, but now we suspect St. Cloud State coach Brett Larson was using those non-conference games precisely as they were intended, to work newcomers into his lineup and juggle units for the regular season.

That suspicion gains credibility when you check out the Huskies once the shooting started in the NCHC. Forget the 2-4 start, because St. Cloud State has zoomed through six games to take sole possession of first place, most recently disassembling University of Minnesota Duluth with the same sure-handed force that might have been deployed to disassemble that Thanksgiving turkey on your platter.

Huskies bite the Bulldogs
Scorewise, both games on the big rink at St. Cloud lived up to the intense rivalry tendencies of Huskies-Bulldogs games over the last decade, although this time both games saw some uncommon rough stuff to end both of the St. Cloud victories last Friday and Saturday night, by 2-1 and 6-5 scores.

The first game was scoreless until Jack Reimann scored late in the second period for St. Cloud State, and UMD’s Matthew Perkins scored midway through the third period to tie the game 1-1. That put Joe Molenaar in the spotlight. Molenaar has been a trusted, loyal soldier throughout his career at St. Cloud State, but he’s never given Larson reason to expect big goal numbers. Until this year. Molenaar, who scored only two goals last season, scored the game-winner with 2:19 remaining against UMD. It was his fifth goal in the last four games. 

The first game boiled over in lost tempers in the final minute as a couple of 5-on-5 scraps broke out. The second one came at the final horn and ended with UMD captain Luke Loheit switching from peacemaker to aggressor, delivering a face-to-face cross-check that earned him a 5-minute major, game misconduct and, because the official time of 20:00 didn’t leave much for punishment, he was also suspended for the next game (last Saturday).

Unlike the defensive shutdown battle, both teams hit the ice running in game 2, and it veered back and forth. Jack Rogers staked the Huskies to a 1-0 lead at 1:46. But Blake Biondi, getting a chance to center the injury-ravaged first line, scored on a power play at 8:56 for a 1-1 tie. Veeti Miettinen — who Larson *did* expect to score this season — regained a 2-1 lead for the Huskies on a power play at 17:46, only to see Anthony Menghini tie it 2-2 in the final second of the opening period.

That pattern resumed in the second period when Tyson Gross gave the Huskies their third lead of the night at 10:38, but UMD defenseman Owen Gallatin countered that in the last minute of the middle period for a 3-3 standoff.

St. Cloud State broke through for two goals in a row to open the third period, with Kyler Kupka scoring at 0:39 and Miettinen at 3:20 for a 5-3 cushion. That made eight goals in Miettinen’s last eight games. UMD battled back for a goal by Quinn Olson to cut the deficit to 5-4, but Jack Ingram made it 6-4 with 2:56 remaining. The Bulldogs weren’t about to concede, and with 1:48 to go, Gallatin scored his second of the game to cut it to 6-5. But the Bulldogs, who never led, couldn’t get the equalizer and went down to extend their exasperating streak to 0-7-1 in their last 8 games.

A look at the men’s hockey conference standings
With their early growing pains providing valuable experience, the Huskies sit in first place alone with a 6-0 conference record, leaving North Dakota (4-0) second in NCHC standings. North Dakota, however, can take satisfaction from moving up to the No. 1 rank in the U.S. College Hockey Online rankings.

St. Cloud State stays at home on its Olympic-sized — 200 x 100 feet — ice surface to take on Michigan, which like Minnesota, is finding it a challenge to string victories together in the Big Ten. The Wolverines, bristling with new talent, is only 2-4-2 in the Big Ten. The top three in the Big Ten are Michigan State (5-0-1),Wisconsin (4-2) and Notre Dame (3-1-2). Michigan State, definitely the surprise team in the Big Ten, swept Wisconsin 4-2 and 3-2 to make the Badgers’ stay at No. 1 short as they plunged to No. 6. The Spartans visit Mariucci Arena this weekend to face Minnesota.

In the CCHA, the standings show nearly everybody tangled up and deadlocked. Bemidji State lost 5-1 at Minnesota State Mankato. In their second game, Bemidji State came back to rally from a 5-2 first-period deficit to cut the deficit to 6-4 after two, then rallied for three unanswered goals late in the third period to escape with a 7-6 victory. Jackson Jutting scored at 13:58 and Lleyton Roed tied the game at 14:48 before Jutting scored the game-winner at 15:46. The three goals in the span of 1:48 was enough for the victory and the hop into first place in the CCHA.

It doesn’t get easier for Bemidji State, as the Beavers make a Thanksgiving weekend trip to its closest Hwy. 2 rival — North Dakota. Another pair of CCHA highlights this week show Michigan Tech at MSU Mankato, and St. Thomas is at home to face Lake Superior State.

Women’s hockey updates
In the WCHA women’s competition, Ohio State swept Wisconsin in a battle of undefeated league-leaders, winning 3-0 and then 2-1 on Hannah Bilka’s short-handed goal at 1:17 of overtime. Jennifer Gardiner, who scored the first goal in the second game, had two goals in the 3-0 opener.

Minnesota swept two games at Duluth, both by 3-1 counts, with Abbey Murphy scoring a goal in both games and Peyton Hemp scoring an empty-netter with 0:15 left. Hemp also scored the final goal in the second game. 

The WCHA gets a chance to flex its power this weekend with an array of games against Eastern foes. UMD stays home in AMSOIL Arena to take on Colgate, which is ranked No. 2 in the country behind Ohio State.St. Lawrence is at Ohio State. Minnesota and St. Thomas travel to Washington D.C. for a weekend tournament. The Gophers face Harvard on Friday afternoon and Cornell on Saturday afternoon. Flip-flop those opponents and days for the Tommies as they face Cornell and Harvard.

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The post Gallery: Gophers Stun Crimson appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Golden Gophers women grab sixth national title

Minneapolis — There is no question that Minnesota is the “State of Hockey” in women’s hockey, too.

The University of Minnesota stopped Harvard 4-1 in front of a full house of 3,400 at Ridder Arena Sunday afternoon, giving the Gophers their third NCAA title in four seasons and their sixth national title overall.

Gophers coach Brad Frost – who joked that he was attempting to launch a tradition by cutting up the hockey nets for mementos for the first time after the game the way it’s done in basketball – says he’s basically a bit mystified by all the success.

Frost, who has a seven-season record of 226-38-17 at Minnesota and a 146-10-7 mark over the past four seasons, took a seat at a postgame news conference next to captains Rachel Ramsey and Rachael Bona and shook his head.

“I don’t know how you explain what’s going on,” he said. “To have these two and Meghan Lorence and Shyler Sletta play in four national championship games in a row and to come away with three of them, I think it just speaks volumes to our team and our program and our players. We are so blessed.”

Minnesota teams have now won 10 of 15 championships since women’s hockey moved under the NCAA umbrella in 2001 – five by the Gophers and five by UMD, in addition to Minnesota winning the American Women’s College Hockey Association title in 2000.

Asked if the Golden Gophers have constructed a dynasty, Ramsey smiled mischievously and said she will leave that up to outsiders.

“I will say, I think what we’ve done is incredibly special and won’t happen again,” she commented.

The Gophers, who finished with a 34-3-4 record, outshot the Crimson 14-6, 11-8 and 8-6 over three periods for a 33-20 edge, got goals from Megan Wolfe, Hannah Brandt, Lorance and Bona to make the final difference appear much more lopsided than the way the game went.

“We had to play probably our most complete game of the year to beat Harvard,” Frost said.

It was 0-0 until late in the first period when Wolfe, a sophomore who has shuttled between forward and defense this season and came into the game with just two goals, ripped in a pass from Dani Cameranesi to make it 1-0.

“That’s her shot,” Bona said.

“What a goal,” Frost commented. “That was a beauty.”

It appeared that goal might be enough because of the standout goaltending supplied by Gophers junior Amanda Leveille, who was relegated to backup status when Minnesota won the title two years ago and suffered a 5-4 loss to Colgate in last season’s title game.

“Tonight you could tell she was confident,” Frost said. “She made a couple of big saves early to allow us to settle in.”

Harvard (27-6-3) did not score until it pulled within 2-1 with just 4:54 remaining in the third period, but Lorence scored less than two minutes later and Bona added an empty-netter to lock things up.

Leveille, who made 34 saves to thwart Wisconsin in the semifinals on Friday, finished with 19 saves Sunday as well as a spot on the all-tournament team.

Brandt, who had a goal and two assists against the Badgers, was selected as the tournament’s most outstanding player, while Maryanne Menefee, Cameranesi and Wolfe were also picked to the team. Harvard defender Sarah Edney, who scored the Crimson goal, was the lone non-Gopher selected.

It didn’t hurt Minnesota’s cause, of course, that the game was played at the home of the Gophers, where they went 17-0-2 to end the season and have gone 130-6-5 in their most recent 141 games there.

Minnesotans, who are typically big supporters of the Gophers men’s team as well as the NHL Wild that coined the “state of hockey” term, dominated the crowd.

“It was a great atmosphere,” Crimson coach Katey Stone said. “It’s a difficult environment to play in, an exciting environment to play in.”

Before departing, Frost took one more stab at defining his team’s success, referring to things like culture and values. But he said he knew going into the final game that this has been an outstanding season for his players.

“Winning,” he added, “is icing on the cake.”

The post A Golden Dynasty appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

[See image gallery at minnesotahockeymag.com]

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Max Everson at the 2011 NHL Entry Draft

Harvard University defenseman Max Everson, a sophomore from Edina, is reportedly among a handful of players who have been dropped from the Crimson roster.

According to a report in the Harvard University newspaper The Crimson, four Harvard hockey players were recently removed from the team’s roster prior to last Friday’s game at Merrimack. Crimson staff writer Scott Sherman’s story did not name names, but a College Hockey News report compiled by Joe Meloni lists Everson, Patrick McNally, and Mark Luzar as being removed from Harvard’s roster last week.

Everson, whose 21 points (2-17–22) were good for fifth overall in regular-season scoring for the Hornets in 2010-11 and tops among Edina’s blueliners, has five assists in 41 career games for the Crimson.

Everson is a 2011 seventh-round selection of the Toronto Maple Leafs whose brother, Marshall, is a senior forward for the Crimson.

Stephen Michalek

CHN goes on to say that goaltender Stephen Michalek, a sixth-round draft choice of the Minnesota Wild in 2011, left the program last month to sign on with the United States Hockey League’s Cedar Rapids Roughriders. The 19-year-old Michalek played in 24 games last season as a freshman for Harvard, going 7-7-8 with a 3.19 goals against average but had not played in a game this season for the Crimson.

The CHN staff report asserts that the dismissals may be related to an academic scandal in which 125 of 279 students enrolled in a Government 1310: “Introduction to Congress” course last spring were accused of plagiarizing answers or inappropriately collaborating on its final take-home exam. An investigation into the allegations was launched in August but its findings have yet to be released.

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