The #3 ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers Women’s Hockey Team will face their second of three consecutive Top-5 matchups when they head up I-35 to face the #4 ranked Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs for a two game
series. Minnesota will need to deal with the talented Bulldogs shorthanded on Friday as both Chloe Primerano and Gracie Graham will be suspended for Friday’s game after incidents at the end of last Sunday’s 6-3 win over #2 Ohio State at Ridder Arena.
Minnesota heads to the series with a 7-1 record on the season. They hosted the #2 Buckeyes last weekend and lost their first game of the season on Saturday afternoon 4-1 before earning a spilt with a 6-3 win on Sunday. On Sunday the Gophers shot of the gate like a bullet scoring three goals in the first 13 minutes of the game to jump out on the Buckeyes. OSU would claw back but the first Gopher goal from Minnesota State transfer Jamie Nelson would be the game winner as the Gophers would hold on for a 6-3 victory.
The incident at the end of the game would be what would get all the attention though. The game was allready getting chippy late in the third period after a checking from behind call on the Buckeyes late in the third period. Then as the clock was winding down Minnesota’s Gracie Graham and Ohio State’s Kassidy Carmichael would get tied up behind the net and Carmichael would take down Graham before the two ushed and shoved and both were called for roughing with three seconds left. Then, the main event started. After the last faceoff of the game, Minnesota’s Emma Kreisz was taken down by Ohio State’s Jordan Baxter and then Baxter slashed and repeatedly cross-checked Kreisz on while she lay on the ice. Minnesota’s Primerano stepped into defend her teammate and went after Baxter repeated giving her cross-checks even while trying to be separated by the referees. Meanwhile other Gophers and Buckeyes entered that scrum pushing and shoving. Behind that group, Graham and Carmichael game out of the penalty box and started going after one another. After Graham was piled on by three Buckeyes, fellow Buckeyes Jordyn Petrie then started punching Sydney Morrow’s cage after Morrow joined the scuffle. This led to more aggressive pushing by various players. Finally the two head coaches came onto the ice to try and separate their players, but Minnesota’s Brad Frost and his former assistant OSU coach Nadine Muzerall had words as well as the teams skipped the handshake and went to the locker rooms.
The fallout of the penalties resulted in Graham and Carmichael being awarded Disqualification penalties for leaving the penalty box which both come with an automatic one game suspension. On Monday the WCHA added on one game suspensions for Primerano and Petrie for “escalating the situation”
So the Gophers will need to take on the dangerous Bulldogs on their own ice without two of their top four defenders. Not great. Thus the onus will be on the Gopher offense and goalie Hannah Clark to pick up the load. Minnesota still leads the nation in scoring with 5.5 goals per game. Abbey Murphy continues to lead the nation in scoring with 19 points on the season. Her linemate Ava Lindsay leads the nation in assists with 12, while freshman Bella Fanale is tied for the nation’s lead in goals by a freshman with 5. Meanwhile on the other end of the ice Clark is off to a great start. The sophomore is 5-1 on the season with a 1.5 goals against average and a.942 save percentage. She will need to be good this weekend to shut down a potent UMD offense.
The Bulldogs enter the weekend ranked #4 in the nation. They are 6-2 on the season with their only losses coming to #1 Wisconsin in Madison two weeks ago. The Bulldogs are led in scoring by sophomore Caitlin Kraemer who had 11 points on seven goals and four assists so far this season. Mercyhurst transfer Thea Johansson is second in scoring with seven points, all on seven goals typing her with Kramer for the team lead. Minnesota will see a pair of familiar faces on the Bulldogs blue line as former Gophers Krista Parkkonen and Kate Kosobud both transferred to UMD in the summer and will play against their former team this weekend.
Where UMD really shines in in goal. Junior goalie Eva Gascon is one of the nation’s best and is the reigning WCHA Goalie of the Week after allowing just one goal in a sweep of Minnesota State. She enters the weekend with a 1.87 GAA and a save percentage of .936.
Minnesota will look to continue their recent success over UMD. The Gophers have not lost to UMD in their last 13 games going 12-0-1 in that stretch. The last loss to the Bulldogs was in the 2022 NCAA Quarterfinals where UMD won 2-1 to advance to the Frozen Four. If UMD was to ever end that streak, it seems like Friday night would be their best chance to attack a shorthanded Gopher group. Minnesota will need to outlast UMD as well. UMD has scored over half of its goals in the third period this season with 16 of their 28 coming in the final 20 minutes of their games.
Friday’s game is set for a 6 PM faceoff and Saturday’s for a 3 PM Start. Both games will air live on Fox9+ and will stream on B1G+.
