The Northeastern women’s hockey team will face the University of Minnesota Gophers in the first round of the NCAA tournament, the NCAA announced March 8. The Huskies will travel to Gopher territory in Minneapolis for the March 14 game.
Although the team fell to the University of Connecticut Huskies March 7 in the Hockey East championship game, its ranking as fifth in the nation allowed Northeastern to be chosen for the tournament in the NCAA Selection Show March 8.
Minnesota ended its season with a 26-11-1 overall record. Like the Huskies, the Gophers lost their conference — the Western Collegiate Hockey Association — championship game to Ohio State University 4-0 March 5.
Minnesota’s graduate student forward and recent Olympic gold medalist Abbey Murphy scored the most goals out of the team this season with 38 goals, 19 more than Northeastern’s leading scorer, senior forward and captain Lily Shannon.
In terms of blocks, Northeastern’s senior defender Jules Constantinople blocked more shots than the Gophers’ top blocker, junior defender Molly Jordan. Constantinople took 82 blocks to Jordan’s 61.
Yale University and the University of Minnesota Duluth will face off in a game March 12. and the winner will play Ohio State. The winner of that game will face either Northeastern or Minnesota in the Frozen Four at University Park, Pa.
