Gophers 2013-14 Women’s Hockey Schedule Released

Gophers National Championship Post Game Celebration 2013 – Ridder Arena, Minneapolis, Minn. – Steve Pesek – Gold and Gopher

A chance for a third straight national championship begins on Friday, Oct. 4 2013 in Hamilton, N.Y. as the University of Minnesota women’s hockey team opens their 2013-14 season against the Colgate University Raiders. The team’s 49 game unbeaten streak is on the line as they will look to extend one of many NCAA records this fall.

On Thursday, the university released the upcoming season schedule and things will not come easy at the start for the Golden Gophers.

After their opening series on the road at Colgate, the Gophers will host rival Wisconsin to begin the WCHA conference season. The following weekend Minnesota will travel on the road to rival Minnesota-Duluth. Those three schools comprise the only three winners of the NCAA women’s hockey National Championship since it became a sanctioned sport in 2001.

Non-conference games against Princeton and Yale help round out the regular season schedule to go with the Gophers’ 28 WCHA games. One interesting stretch on the calendar pits Minnesota against The Ohio State University for four straight games. The twist to this situation is that the games split the finals break and are actually a month apart between Dec. and Jan.

The WCHA Women’s Final Face-Off this season will take place at the Sanford Center in Bemidji Mar. 7-8, 2014. The 2014 NCAA Women’s Frozen Four will be hosted by Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn. between Mar. 21-23.

Two eligible players will not be with the rest of the squad this season as Amanda Kessel and Lee Stecklein will be competing with Team USA as they prepare for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

In Other News…

• In other Gopher women’s hockey news, alum Sarah Erickson was named the new head coach of Concordia College-Moorhead on Thurs. The Roseau, Minn. native was a four-year player and two-year captain at Minnesota and helped the team earn the 2012 National Championship in her senior season.
• Sticking with the sport of hockey, another Gophers hockey alum, this time on the men’s side made headlines Thurs. Former Minnesota centerman Jordan Schroeder resigned with the Vancouver Canucks on a one-year contract. The one-way contract should keep the Prior Lake native in the NHL for the full upcoming season and is rumored to be looked at as the club’s third line center to begin the season.
• On Wednesday, the Buffalo Sabers posted a blog piece about Thomas Vanek and the rumors of his return to Minnesota. Vanek is in the last year of his contract and almost everyone in the hockey community is speculating that the former Gophers forward will return to the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” the year after next with the Minnesota Wild.

Tweets of the Day

This addition of the Gopher Morning Report shouldn’t be entirely about hockey! A couple cool tweets about a former Gophers football stud at Broncos training camp and a current Gophers basketball stud who would hoop all over Jared Fogle of Subway diet fame! Congrats Eric and Mo from Gold and Gopher!

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