The Gophers have clinched the WCHA regular season title. With 30 seconds left on the clock, the players were jumping around and the noise in Ridder got louder. As Joel Maturi attempted to give Melanie Gagnon and Gigi Marvin the trophy, both declined to touch it. 3rd period: Things were pretty tough here in the third The referees let many things go. They made a call Jocelyne Lamoureux got pushed by a St. Cloud player and sent both to the box. A little later, Jenny Lura froze the puck and Felicia Nelson came through and knocked her. It went uncalled. A minute later Monique Lamoureux scored and had some words for the surrounding Huskie players before celebrating with her team. An update on Danielle Hirshc: it is possible her knee is shattered and there is no consensus on her ankle yet. She went into the boards toes first. 2nd period: The only scoring came eight minutes into the period on a Gopher power play. Sarah Erickson slid the puck lower left to gain the lead. Both assists went to the Lamoureux sisters. Minnesota looked better than they did in the first, but still not their best. The Gophers out shot St. Cloud this period 9-5, but still trail 13-15 in total shots. In a change of pace, Minnesota only took one penalty while the Huskies took two. 1st period: The Huskies opened up the scoring five minutes into the game. On their second shot of the night, St. Cloud put the puck past Jenny Lura. Gigi Marvin put the Gophers on the board with a wrist shot that went in upper right on the power play. A minute later, Sarah Erickson unintentionally hooked St. Cloud’s Danielle Hirsch, who went into the corner knee first and was carried off in a stretcher. As she was on the ice it was so silent you could hear a pin drop, but instead you heard Danielle scream in pain. Danielle is the younger sister of former men’s Gopher Tyler Hirsch. Tyler walked onto the ice at one point to check on his sister and than accompanied her to the hospital with her mom and dad. Erickson received a hooking penalty on the play. 63 seconds into Erickson’s penalty, Seeler got a holding penalty. The Gophers have got five penalties, three hooking and two holding, and only four shots this period. St. Cloud has 10 shots.
Pre-game:
This is it. The last regular season game for Minnesota. Wisconsin beat Bemidji State 5-2, so the pressure is still on Minnesota. If the Gophers win this game, they will be WCHA regular season champions and play the number 8 team next weekend in the first round of the WCHA playoffs.
The rest of the WCHA field looks like this:
Minnesota Duluth
St. Cloud State
Minnesota State
North Dakota
Ohio State
Bemidji State
The Gopher’s line-up looks like it has in the past with no changes:
West-Schoullis-Marvin
Francis-J. Lamoureux-M. Lamoureux
Rasmussen-Erickson-Blankenship
May-Horton-Jones
Gagnon-Seeler
Drazan-Zebro
Schleper-Willey
Tonight is senior night and before the puck drops the five seniors, Melanie Gagnon, Rachael Drazan, Gigi Marvin, Dagney Willey and Kim Hanlon, will be honored.
