Amsoil Arena a home away from home for women’s hockey
By Steve Pesek
© Jim Rosvold 2010 – jimsville.com
Brad Frost might just have a set of keys to Amsoil Arena. The head coach for the University of Minnesota women’s hockey team may even have his own office in the Duluth, Minn. hockey palace.
The Gophers completed a sweep of the University of Minnesota-Duluth this weekend and continued to hold their outright place atop the Western Collegiate Hockey Association standings. Minnesota earned a 4-1 victory over the Bulldogs of UMD on Friday night and followed it up with a 4-0 shutout of UMD on Saturday evening.
The Golden Gophers are now 12-0-0 overall on the season and have compiled an 8-0-0 WCHA record. Coming off the weekend, they hold a three point lead over Ohio State University in the WCHA standings. OSU has played two more games in the conference so far this season.
Since the Bulldogs opened play in 2011 at Amsoil Arena, they have defeated Minnesota just once, the first ever game between the two programs at the two-year-old hockey facility. That 4-2 victory for UMD on Jan. 13, 2012 was their last win versus the Gophers in Duluth since October 2010.
The Gophers coaching staff must have learned something in that first game at Amsoil, seeing as they have now won eight straight games in the building, including the 2012 NCAA Women’s Hockey National Championship.
This ten month run for Minnesota has been impressive and Amsoil Arena looks to be a welcoming sight for the Maroon and Gold for years to come. A far cry from the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center, where UMD played their home games since the program’s inaugural season in 1999-2000.
The Bulldogs won five national championships in the team’s first eleven years at the DECC.
Minnesota looks to carry the success of last weekend’s sweep of UMD when they return to action November 16-17 against Minnesota State-Mankato at Ridder Arena.
The off-weekend on the schedule this week comes with the Four Nations Cup in the cities of Vantaa and Kerava, Finland.
Three members of the Gophers are taking part in the tournament, Megan Bozek, Amanda Kessel, and Milica McMillen.
The combination of Bozek, Kessel, and McMillen scored a goal or assisted on six of the Gophers eight goals on the weekend versus UMD in the two victories.