Women's Hockey

There’s a new banner hanging from the rafters in Ridder Arena.

Minnesota’s 2011-12 national championship banner was unfurled at its home rink this weekend before the Gophers took the ice and swept St. Cloud State.

Minnesota won Friday’s game 7-1 and Saturday’s 4-0.

Head coach Brad Frost said after Friday’s game that he thought, at times, the team had been outcompeted and outhustled.

But while the Huskies came out strong in the first period both nights, it wasn’t enough against the No. 1 Gophers.

Two of the Gophers’ top forwards watched last weekend’s games against Colgate at a McDonald’s in Canada.

Kelly Terry and Sarah Davis had left the team over the weekend for the Canadian national camp, but they have returned and will play in this weekend’s series against St. Cloud State.

Head coach Brad Frost said the Gophers will switch up their lines because the duo will be “within the top two lines.”

Gophers forward Amanda Kessel and defender Megan Bozek will have the opportunity to represent the U.S. this November.

USA Hockey announced Sept. 27 that Kessel and Bozek, along with former Gophers players Gigi Marvin, Anne Schleper and Sarah Erickson, were named to the 23-player 2012 Four Nations Cup roster.

The Four Nations Cup is an annual tournament between the U.S., Canada, Sweden and Finland.

Schleper and Erickson played with Kessel and Bozek on the 2011-12 national championship team. Marvin played for the Gophers from 2005-09.

Freshman forward Hannah Brandt scored five goals in her Gophers debut as Minnesota’s women’s hockey team swept Colgate University over the weekend.

On Friday night, Brandt scored a hat trick and goalie Noora Räty held the Raiders scoreless as the Gophers won 7-0. On Saturday, the Gophers scored early and often to back freshman goalie Amanda Leveille and win 11-0.

Playing in their first games since winning the national championship last season, the Gophers had eight different players score in their first-ever meeting with Colgate.

In true hockey-champion fashion, members of the Gophers women’s hockey team were able to spend a day with the NCAA trophy after they won the 2011-12 national championship.

Junior captain Bethany Brausen took it to her grandfather’s house to surprise him.

Her grandfather was sick at the time, and she said the trophy brought tears to his eyes.

She said the trophy got some good “site destinations” this summer, but team’s experiences with it were tame compared to those NHL players have with the Stanley Cup.

Minnesota’s women’s hockey team will begin the 2012-13 season this weekend right where it left off — as the No. 1 team in the country.

But when the Gophers hit the ice Friday for their first game of the season, they’ll sport a different look than the team that skated off as national champions in March.

The team graduated forwards Emily West, Jen Schoullis, Sarah Erickson and Nikki Ludwigson along with defenders Anne Schleper and Kelly Seeler.