Win or go home: No. 3 Minnesota hosts Clarkson for only 2nd time

The No. 2 Minnesota women’s hockey team will face a familiar foe in the first game of the NCAA Tournament, and the squad is hoping for familiar results.
After falling 3-2 to Minnesota-Duluth in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association championship game Sunday, the Gophers will face Clarkson at 4 p.m. Saturday in a quarterfinal game at Ridder Arena.
The Gophers faced the Golden Knights for the first time in history Nov. 27 in a battle between the then-No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the land. The Gophers would go on to win 4-0 and come back the next night with another shutout, 2-0. Minnesota head coach Brad Frost said it was the best series the team had played all year.
“I think that was the highlight of our year,” Frost said. “We’re hopeful … to play as best we can and see what happens.”
Senior Alexandra Zebro said that the team’s familiarity with Clarkson is not necessarily a huge advantage, considering how long ago the sweep took place.
“We know what they have, and we know that team’s progress very well over the season,” Zebro said. “We need to elevate our game and not take anything for granted. We are going to come into this game to dominate.”
While the Gophers attempt to move past Clarkson in the NCAA quarterfinal match, their in-state rival Minnesota-Duluth will look to beat New Hampshire . Should the Gophers and the Bulldogs win this weekend, they will meet March 19 at Ridder Arena for the semifinal game of the Frozen Four.
Although the players are focused on their upcoming game, there is little doubt they would like an opportunity to avenge their loss in WCHA title game.
“It’s in the back of our minds,” Jaimie Horton said . “If we blow this one, we won’t get that chance.”
Sunday’s game with the Bulldogs started off with the Gophers taking three penalties in the first two minutes and failing to put a shot on goal for the first 12 minutes.
The high amount of penalties to start off the game may have been attributed to the high level of emotion that comes with playing a rival, and the referees might have been trying to keep the game under control early.
The prior series between the Gophers and Bulldogs saw them combine for 22 penalties in a 3-0 Minnesota loss, and the Saturday game ended with junior Emily West suffering a concussion in what Frost described as “the incident.”
“You knew going into the game that they were going to be watching things a little more closely,” junior Terra Rasmussen said. “We didn’t think we were going to have three girls in the box right off the bat.”
Rasmussen added that while the Gophers found themselves down 2-0 early due in part to the penalties, they were able to fight their way back.
This resiliency has been team’s identity as of late. After falling in an overtime heartbreaker to Wisconsin, they came back from a 2-1 third-period deficit in the final regular season game of the season the very next night.
In the first round of the WCHA playoffs, the Gophers needed a 4-3 triple-overtime victory to move past the Mavericks and a 5-4 double-overtime victory against Ohio State on Saturday in the semifinals .
“Playing a long game before, obviously, there should be some tiredness there,” Zebro said . “We really had the mindset to fight through it.”
Clarkson comes into Saturday’s matchup on the heels of a 4-3 overtime loss to Cornell in the Eastern College Athletic Conference title game .
Coming from a tough league like the ECAC, the only conference to boast three NCAA Tournament participants, Clarkson should be a formidable opponent standing in the way of a rematch with Minnesota-Duluth. But Frost is confident his team can carry over some of its recent success into the weekend.
“We have our hands full this weekend,” Frost said. “I think the big thing is just no regrets. Last thing we want to do is hold anything back in a one-game shot and wish you would have done something different.”
For seniors like Horton, a loss Saturday would mean the end of her Gophers career.
“It hasn’t really crossed my mind,” Horton said. “We’re meant to make it to the Frozen Four because we’re hosting it ... we believe it’s meant to be.”