Despite being only six weeks into the season, the Gophers women’s hockey team is facing a crucial series this weekend when they travel to Duluth for two games against the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs.

The No. 4 Gophers (7-2 overall, 5-2 WCHA) will be tested by the No. 8 Bulldogs (8-2, 6-2), fully aware that the series outcome likely will have postseason implications.

“As we look around the country and at how many teams potentially will be selected from the WCHA for the NCAA tournament,” Gophers coach Brad Frost said, “any time you have head-to-head matchups with a top team, they are really important.

“We are approaching this weekend as if it is the biggest weekend of the year, because it is.”

The only losses to date for both teams came against No. 2 Ohio State. Both teams have two more games against the Buckeyes during the regular season as well as four against No.1
Wisconsin, the defending national champion.

From an immediate standpoint, this weekend will be a battle for third place in the WCHA, but also in gaining the edge for what likely would be one of six at-large bids to the NCAA
tournament.

All of which will make what is normally a feisty matchup all the more intense.

“The Bulldogs don’t like us too much, and we don’t like them too much,” Gophers fifth-year defenseman Madeline Wethington said, “so it makes for a fun game. We both want to compete hard, and the fans get into it, too.”

The Gophers went 5-0 against the Bulldogs last season, winning all four regular-season games before adding a victory in the NCAA tournament to advance to the Frozen Four. The previous season, UMD upset the Gophers in an NCAA tournament game at Ridder Arena to advance to the Frozen Four.

Wethington scored midway through the second period to break a 0-0 tie In last season’s NCAA tournament game against Duluth, a goal she considers the biggest of her Gophers career. The disappointing loss to the Bulldogs the previous postseason provided an added impetus.

“I had a little bit of a chip on my shoulder,’’ she said. “I didn’t want that to repeat itself.”

Wethington said the Gophers have talked as a team this week about the need to treat playing against the Bulldogs the same way they would Wisconsin or Ohio State. There is no team the Bulldogs would rather beat than the Gophers, and they have the skill capable of doing it.

“I think our teams are really similar,” Frost said, “even from the loss through graduation that they had and the loss through graduation that we had. Both teams have lost some pretty elite players, and we are (both) trying to form our identity and figure out who we are as we go.”

Both teams enter the series following a week off. Frost said the Gophers’ preparation has mainly been about being healthy enough to be at their best.

“This time of the year everybody is banged up,” he said, “so we want to use rest as a weapon. (The players) had a couple of days off. It was more about continuing to build on what we’ve been doing and to stay sharp.”

A series split would basically continue the status quo, and such an outcome would not be a surprise. Neither team is interested in trading victories.

“We had a good outcome against them last year, and the previous year they had a good outcome against us,” Wethington said. “We know how we felt that year after we lost to them, so we know they are going to be feeling that way. We have to come out and give our best effort, give our best game.”

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