Gophers need overtime to reach Frozen Four

The Minnesota women’s hockey team doesn’t seem to be able to win a game in regulation but has a knack for winning in overtime.
For the fifth weekend in a row, the No. 3 Gophers sent a game into an extra period, but this time they cemented their spot in the NCAA Frozen Four with a 3-2 overtime win over No. 5 Clarkson at Ridder Arena on Saturday night.
“It seems like I’ve been saying this for a few weeks, but we’re in the entertainment business, and [we] continue to give our ticket holders their extra hockey,” Gophers head coach Brad Frost said after Saturday’s victory. “It’s not necessarily how we drew it up.”
While the Gophers have struggled to end games in regulation this season, the extra time on the ice might help them in next weekend’s Frozen Four.
“We’ve been there…before going into overtime, and I think that was a huge advantage to us,” said junior captain Emily West, who scored the game-winning goal just 3:09 into overtime. “We didn’t panic, we kept our composure, and I think you can really tell by the way we played.”
Minnesota scored first on a power-play goal from senior captain Brittany Francis , who came up the near side of the net and shot a puck that was deflected in at 14:19 in the opening period.
“I was trying to get it to Sarah [Erickson], and it went off their defense and went in,” Francis said. “[We’ll] take what we can get.”
It looked as though Clarkson had tied the game with a power-play goal in the middle of a scrum at 15:29 in the second period. But a review found that a Clarkson player had purposely kicked the puck in with her skate inside the crease, and the goal was waved off.
The Gophers went up 2-0 after a goal by West at 17:36 in the second. West brought the puck up the ice and had her shot denied, but when Erickson put a shot on the net, West was there for the rebound.
Minnesota held a 2-0 lead entering the final period, but Clarkson proved tough to put away.
Golden Knights junior Melissa Waldie scored on a 2-on-1 breakaway to put the game within reach.
“It got us going,” Waldie said. “Everyone was excited. I think it gave us momentum.”
It looked as though the Gophers would hang on to become the last Frozen Four team, however, when they took a one-goal lead into the final two minutes of regulation.
But with 1:44 remaining, Clarkson sophomore Juana Baribeau s ent the puck from just inside the blue line past Gophers freshman goalie Noora Räty , who seemed to get herself in a bad position with nobody near the net and just missed catching the puck as it sailed over her glove.
Frost said the Patty Kazmaier finalist apologized to him for letting in the goal when the teams were shaking hands after the game.
“I’m like, ‘Don’t ever say sorry to me again,’” Frost said. “I mean, if there’s one player who never needs to say sorry, it’s her. She played strong all night and she’s played strong all year for us.”
But just over three minutes into the extra period, West stole the puck deep in the Clarkson zone and slid it past junior goaltender Lauren Dahm for her Division I-leading 10th game-winning goal of the season.
“I knew that I had been shooting all night low left, and that maybe she would bite on that and [I could] just try and sneak it in,” West said.
The Gophers joined Cornell, Mercyhurst, and Minnesota-Duluth in next weekend’s Frozen Four at Ridder Arena.
“I think all of us as a staff and our players look at it as a real privilege and a real opportunity to host [the Frozen Four] and now to be able to play in it,” Frost said.
Now two wins from their third NCAA title , the Gophers will face archrival Minnesota-Duluth at 7 p.m. Friday in a rematch of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association title game, which the Bulldogs won 3-2 last Sunday.
When asked if they were ready for another crack at Minnesota-Duluth, which has won the last three games against Minnesota, the players had a clear consensus.
“Oh yeah,” West said.