They’ll be playing on the road in upstate New York, and as the lower seed. But a case can be made that the Minnesota Gophers will be the favorites on Saturday afternoon in their quarterfinal NCAA tournament game at No. 4 seed Clarkson of the ECAC, with the winner advancing to the Frozen Four.

For starters, the Gophers (27-9-2), the No. 5 seed, play in the best women’s hockey conference in the nation in the WCHA, and were one fluky goal away from beating eventual conference champion Wisconsin in the semifinals of the WCHA Final Faceoff.

Also noteworthy is the fact that the Gophers and Clarkson (32-4-2) had a common opponent this season in Cornell, which finished fourth in the ECAC. Clarkson lost twice to Cornell, 3-2 in overtime and 3-0, while the Gophers beat Cornell 5-1 in a tournament in Washington, D.C., in November.

“We’re certainly confident in our team and in our abilities,” Gophers coach Brad Frost said. “When we played Cornell, their season had just started a month earlier. Cornell has gone on a pretty good run after we were able to beat them.

“I don’t take a lot of stock in that, in regards to the common opponent thing. It’s going to be up to us to make sure we’re really good in our habits and our structure and playing with confidence as we go in there.”

Frost mentioned last week during the Final Faceoff at Ridder Arena that he would have no qualms about playing on the road in the NCAAs, and he reiterated that point on Sunday after the tournament field was announced.

“The biggest reason is that we’ve had success there,” Frost said. “The first half of the season we were on the road like crazy, and we had pretty good success. We’re a team that really focuses on ourselves, so line matchups and things like that, yeah, they’re all part of it.

“But when you’re on the road you’re just really rolling and just playing.”

A stingy defense was a big reason for Clarkson’s success this season. The Golden Knights allowed only 45 goals in 38 games.

“They’re a very structured and disciplined team,” Frost said. “Goaltending is tremendous. They have a couple of national team ‘D’, one for Canada and one for team USA, and then some skill up front.”

Frost compared their style of play to that of Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State, but said Clarkson has a higher overall skill level.

“I expect a patient game, a lower-scoring game,” he said. “Something where special teams are going to be critically important. They’re going to be hard to score on.”

The Gophers were shocked by the late game-tying goal by Wisconsin in the Final Faceoff matchup and the loss to the Badgers in overtime. But they feel like they can build on the way they competed against the No. 2 team in the nation.

“Obviously you want to win that game,” Frost said, “but then to see Wisconsin go out and beat Ohio State in the championship game, we know those are the top two teams in the country. We can play with them; we know we can do that.”

The Gophers will be without second-line center Madison Kaiser, who will be out for the remainder of the season after sustaining an upper body injury in the loss to Wisconsin.

Looking at the 11-team field, Ohio State is the No. 1 seed despite making the tournament as an at-large team. Wisconsin is the No. 2 seed, with Colgate at No. 3.

Minnesota Duluth will play Connecticut on Thursday in Columbus, Ohio, with the winner playing Ohio State. The Cornell/Stonehill winner will play Colgate and the winner of the game between St. Lawrence and Penn State will face Wisconsin.

The Gophers will be playing for a 16th trip to the Frozen Four after losing to eventual national champion Wisconsin in the semifinals last season.

“It’s certainly a goal of ours every year to be in a position where we make the NCAA tournament,” Frost said. “With not knowing exactly what our team would look like coming into the year, from a, ‘Who’s going to create offense?’ standpoint in particular, there were a lot of unknowns.

“But really happy with our team; how they progressed throughout the year. And certainly the way we’re playing right now.”

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