The Minnesota Golden Gophers women's ice hockey team plays for the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

at the

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in sta ...

campus in Minneapolis. The team is one of the members of the

Western Collegiate Hockey Association The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's ice hockey-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated a ...

(WCHA) and competes in the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

(NCAA) in Division I. The Golden Gophers have won six

NCAA Championships The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

as well as the final

American Women's College Hockey Alliance The American Women's College Hockey Alliance debuted in 1997-98. It was a program funded through the United States Olympic Committee/NCAA Conference Grant Program. The AWCHA organized and developed activities with collegiate women's varsity ice hock ...

Championship. In the WCHA, they have also been regular season champions 11 times and tournament champions 7 times. In addition to their overall success as a competitive team, the Gophers have also been ranked in the nation's top two teams for attendance since becoming a varsity sport, and the team holds the second largest single-game attendance record for women's collegiate hockey, drawing 6,854 fans for the first Minnesota women's hockey game on November 2, 1997. The team also holds the distinction of having the longest winning streak in women's or men's college hockey at 62 games from February 17, 2012 to November 17, 2013, winning back-to-back NCAA titles during the stretch. In 2004–2005, Minnesota also won back-to-back NCAA Championships.

Natalie Darwitz Natalie Rose Darwitz (born October 13, 1983) is an American ice hockey player. Natalie was the Captain of the US Women's National Team for several seasons beginning with the 2007–08 season. She won three World Championships between 2005 and 2 ...

was a three-time All American, and three-time finalist for the Patty Kazmaier award. Darwitz left the program with the career scoring mark at Minnesota in three years and set two NCAA single-season record with 114 points (42 Goals, 72 Assists) and most assists in 40 games in her final season. Minnesota Gophers women's hockey players have won the Patty Kazmaier Award three times (

Krissy Wendell Kristin Elizabeth "Krissy" Wendell-Pohl (born September 12, 1981) is an American former women's ice hockey player, and current amateur scout for The Pittsburgh Penguins. During the 2004–05 season, Wendell set an NCAA record for most short-han ...

005 ''005'' is a 1981 arcade game by Sega. They advertised it as the first of their RasterScan Convert-a-Game series, designed so that it could be changed into another game in minutes "at a substantial savings". It is one of the first examples of a ...

Amanda Kessel

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and Taylor Heise 022, as well as having all three finalists in 2013.

Coaches

The Gophers have had two head coaches to date:

Laura Halldorson Laura Halldorson (born January 12, 1963) is an American retired women's college ice hockey player and head coach. She was the first head coach of the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers Women's Hockey team, leading the new team to national pr ...

and Brad Frost. Halldorson was the head coach for eleven years, from the 1997–1998 season to the 2006–2007 season. Her overall coaching record was 278–67–22 with the Gophers, a winning percentage of .787. During that time, the Gophers won four of their five WCHA championships and three of their national championships. They averaged 28 wins per season and appeared in eight out of ten national tournaments, reaching seven finals. In addition, the Gophers experienced their best season in 2004–2005 with a 36–2–2 record. In the 2007–08 season, Brad Frost became the temporary head coach. He had previously been an assistant coach. In his first year as head coach, Frost led the Gophers to a 21-game winning streak, with the season's record ending with 27 wins, 7 losses, and 4 ties but also ended with a conference record of 21–5–2, which ranked second in the WCHA. The Gophers made another NCAA regional appearance and post-season Frost was awarded WCHA Coach of the Year. In the 2008–2009 season, his temporary coaching status was lifted and he was named permanent head coach of the Gophers. That same season he led the Gophers to a record of 32–5–3 and to another WCHA championship. Frost then coached the Gophers into back-to-back NCAA Frozen Four championships in 2012 & 2013, which were encompassed in their 62-game winning streak. The Golden Gophers have had a cross state rivalry with the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs. The Gophers handed the Bulldogs their first ever conference loss 4–3 in a sold-out game at Pioneer Hall on February 11, 2000.

Team history

Minnesota put its first women's team on the ice in 1997–98. Nadine Muzerall, a Canadian who graduated from Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire, was among its initial recruits. During the 2004–05 season, Krissy Wendell set an NCAA record (since tied) for most shorthanded goals in one season with 7. After graduating from Minnesota, she had the career record for most shorthanded goals in a career with 16. Ironically, both marks were tied by

Meghan Agosta Meghan Christina Agosta (born February 12, 1987) is a Canadian women's ice hockey forward, who last played for the Montreal Stars of the Canadian Women's Hockey League. Agosta plays for the Canada women's national ice hockey team and is a gol ...

. In 2009–10,

Noora Räty Noora Helena Räty (born 29 May 1989) is a Finnish ice hockey goaltender, playing in the Naisten Liiga (NSML) with HPK Kiekkonaiset. She is affiliated with the Minnesota chapter of the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) and ...

was just the second freshman to be a finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award. Räty led the NCAA in several goaltending categories. She led the NCAA in goals-against average (1.24), save percentage (.951) and shutouts (7), while ranking third in winning percentage (.792). Her won loss record for the year was 17–3–4. In addition, Räty was the WCHA goaltending champion and earned numerous honours including All-WCHA First Team and All-WCHA Rookie Team. During the season, she was named the WCHA Defensive Player of the Week four times and WCHA Rookie of the Week on two occasions. She set a school record for most assists in one season by a goaltender (3). Räty played on national championship teams in 2011–12 and

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

. The 2012–13 team finished 41–0–0, and the team won the last 49 games of Räty's career. Räty finished with both the career and single-season record for shutouts.

Minnesota Duluth rivalry

Minnesota-Duluth, had been a traditional rival to the Gophers in men's hockey. In 1998, Minnesota Duluth announced that it was going to assemble a women's team for the 1999–2000 season. Duluth gave a three-year, $210,000 contract to

Shannon Miller Shannon Lee Miller (born March 10, 1977) is an American former artistic gymnast. She was the 1993 and 1994 world all-around champion, the 1996 Olympic balance beam champion, the 1995 Pan American Games all-around champion, and a member of the g ...

, who coached Canada to the 1998 Olympic final in Nagano. Miller recruited players from Canada, Finland and Sweden, including four Olympians. The rivalry was fuelled when Miller took two players from Minnesota: star forward Jenny Schmidgall, whose 93 points led the nation, and defenseman Brittny Ralph, who would serve as the Bulldogs' captain. In the 1999–2000 season, Duluth would lose just once to the Gophers in their first five meetings, which included a 2–0 Bulldogs victory in the final of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association tournament.

Arenas

The Golden Gophers have called two ice rinks home. From their 1997–1998 season to their 2001–2002 season the Golden Gophers shared their home ice with the men's team at

Mariucci Arena 3M Arena at Mariucci is the home arena for the Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey team of the University of Minnesota. The arena is located on the Minneapolis campus and seats approximately 10,000 fans (9,600 in the main bowl plus club room ...

. The Golden Gophers moved into

Ridder Arena Ridder may refer to: Places *DeRidder, Louisiana, city in US state of Louisiana *Ridder, Kazakhstan, settlement in Kazakhstan (named for Philip Ridder) Things *Ridder (title), Dutch and Belgian title equivalent to knight * Knight Ridder, newspaper ...

in the 2002–2003 season, a facility dedicated solely to a women's hockey team, and named for team benefactors

Robert Ridder Robert Blair Ridder (July 21, 1919 – June 24, 2000) was an American ice hockey administrator, media businessman, and philanthropist. He was the founding president of the Minnesota Amateur Hockey Association, and managed the United States men ...

and

Kathleen Ridder Kathleen Culman Ridder (October 2, 1922 – April 3, 2017) was an American philanthropist, educator, writer, and feminist. She graduated from University of Minnesota Duluth as a teacher, advocated for women's athletic programs at the University ...

Year to Year

Championships

National

* 2000 –

championship * 2004 –

NCAA championship The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

* 2005 –

* 2012 –

* 2013 –

* 2015 –

* 2016 –

Conference

Western Collegiate Hockey Association Women's Regular Season Champions ::*2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2019, 2022 Western Collegiate Hockey Association Women's Tournament Champions ::*2002, 2004, 2005, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2018

Current roster

As of August 20, 2022.

Captains

Olympians

*The following Gophers players have participated in the women's ice hockey tournament at the

Winter Olympic Games The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

2002 Winter Olympics

United States national team *

- Silver * Courtney Kennedy- Silver *

Lyndsay Wall Lyndsay Cheyenne Wall (born May 12, 1985 in Visalia, California) is an American ice hockey player. She won a silver medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics and a bronze medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics. She graduated from Churchville-Chili High Schoo ...

- Silver *

- Silver

2006 Winter Olympics

Finland national team *

- 4th Place United States national team *

- Bronze * Courtney Kennedy- Bronze * Kelly Stephens- Bronze *

- Bronze *

(Captain)- Bronze

2010 Winter Olympics

Finland national team *

- Bronze United States national team *

- Silver *

Gigi Marvin Gisele Marie "Gigi" Marvin (born March 7, 1987) is an American ice hockey player for the Boston Pride of the National Women's Hockey League. As a member of the United States national women's ice hockey team, Marvin won a silver medal at the 201 ...

- Silver

2014 Winter Olympics

Finland national team * Mira Jalosuo- 5th place *

- 5th place United States national team * Megan Bozek- Silver * Amanda Kessel- Silver *

- Silver * Anne Schleper- Silver *

Lee Stecklein Lee Ethel Stecklein (born April 23, 1994) is an American ice hockey defenseman and member of the US national team, currently playing in the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) with Team Harvey's. She has represented the Unit ...

- Silver

2018 Winter Olympics

Finland national team *

- Bronze * Mira Jalosuo- Bronze United States national team *

Hannah Brandt Hannah Brandt (born November 27, 1993) is an American ice hockey centre, currently playing for the Minnesota section of the PWHPA. She was named to the United States women's national ice hockey team, which represented the United States at the 201 ...

- Gold * Dani Cameranesi- Gold * Amanda Kessel- Gold *

- Gold * Kelly Pannek - Gold *

- Gold

2022 Winter Olympics

United States national team * Megan Bozek- Silver *

- Silver * Dani Cameranesi- Silver * Amanda Kessel- Silver *

Abbey Murphy Abbey Murphy (born April 14, 2002) is an American ice hockey forward, currently playing for the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the NCAA. Along with Kendall Coyne Schofield, she is one of two players in history to have scored in three consecutive II ...

- Silver * Kelly Pannek- Silver *

- Silver * Grace Zumwinkle- Silver Finland national team *

Nelli Laitinen Nelli Laitinen (born 29 April 2002) is a Finnish ice hockey player and member of the Finnish national team, currently playing in the NCAA Division I with the Minnesota Golden Gophers women's ice hockey program. Playing career Laitinen began h ...

- Bronze Sweden national team *

Josefin Bouveng Josefin Bouveng (born 15 May 2001) is a Swedish ice hockey forward and member of the Swedish national team. She is signed to play college ice hockey with the Minnesota Golden Gophers women's ice hockey program in the Western Collegiate Hockey ...

Awards and honors

Golden Gophers in elite hockey leagues

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Minnesota Golden Gophers Women's Ice Hockey Ice hockey teams in Minnesota Ice hockey clubs established in 1997 1997 establishments in Minnesota

Coaches

Team history

Minnesota Duluth rivalry

Arenas

Year to Year

Championships

National

Conference

Current roster

Captains

Olympians

2002 Winter Olympics

2006 Winter Olympics

2010 Winter Olympics

2014 Winter Olympics

2018 Winter Olympics

2022 Winter Olympics

Awards and honors

Golden Gophers in elite hockey leagues

See also

References

External links