The No. 1 Minnesota Golden Gophers will host No. 2 Ohio State, No. 4 Wisconsin and No. 8 Minnesota Duluth in the WCHA Final Faceoff at Ridder Arena this weekend.
The Gophers enter the Final Faceoff having won their last nine games. Although eight of those games came against teams under .500, head coach Brad Frost is confident that his team will be ready to go against some of the toughest teams in the country.
“It’s true, we haven’t played a top 10 team since Ohio State,” Frost said. “But you know, the good news is, the teams that we have played, we played very well against. We’ll ramp it up and practice again and simulate some of those things and we’ll be ready to go.”
The four teams competing this weekend boast a slew of skilled skaters, with six named as finalists for the 2022 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award for national player of the year (Minnesota Duluth: Elizabeth Giguere and Gabbie Hughes. Wisconsin: Casey O’Brien and Daryl Watts. Minnesota: Taylor Heise. Ohio State: Sophie Jaques).
Against the WCHA Final Faceoff field, Minnesota is 6-5-1, with no losses against their rival Wisconsin Badgers. The Gophers will be playing the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs who they are 2-2 against on the year.
“Their first line is one of the best in the country,” Frost said. “Giguere was player of the year at Clarkson just a few years ago, Gabbie Hughes has been one of the best players in the country as well. When we played them last, we were up a goal going into the third and they got loose twice and ended up beating us and so it starts with them. They’re well coached and they’ve got good goaltending, they’ve got two that have been playing pretty well here as of late. So they match up pretty good with us and we match up pretty good with them. So I expect it to be a great game.”
The Bulldogs have the most to lose in the WCHA Final Faceoff as they are a bubble team for the 2022 NCAA tournament. It does not help being the fourth-best team in the WCHA, as the Gophers were controversially not bidded a tournament invite last year.
If the Gophers manage to fend off the Bulldogs, a date with the Badgers or Buckeyes looms on Sunday. Wisconsin and Ohio State are even on their season series with each team earning two wins and two losses. Ohio State’s Amanda Thiele leads the WCHA and is sixth nationally in save percentage (.942). Daryl Watts leads Wisconsin with 27 goals, second nationally only to Minnesota’s Taylor Heise. The Badgers have not missed the WCHA Final Faceoff Championship since the 2013-14 season.
Minnesota will play Minnesota-Duluth at 1 p.m. on Saturday with Wisconsin facing Ohio State at 4 p.m. at the same location in Ridder Arena. The WCHA championship will then take place at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
