Things have been pretty good at Ridder Arena for the Minnesota women’s hockey team in 2013. A conference regular season and playoff title along with a national championship have all been won at home this calendar year. This weekend, however, the Gophers will host Princeton for a two-game series — the last pair of games to be played at home in 2013.
The Tigers come to Minneapolis for a Saturday and Sunday match up with the nation’s No. 1 ranked team. At 5-4-2 overall, Princeton will look to accomplish something that just one team has been able to do in 2013 — beat Minnesota at home.
Princeton is led offensively by a 5-foot-3 senior defender, Rose Alleva, a hometown girl from Red Wing, Minn. The former Ms. Hockey Award runner-up has five goals and four assists for a team high nine points. She also leads the team with two power play goals on the season. In high school, Alleva was the recipient of the Herb Brooks Memorial Award and the Hobey Baker Character Award and will make a homecoming this weekend.
The Gophers are coming off a road sweep of the Yale Bulldogs — an Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference foe of the Tigers. And besides a rough first period in the loss to North Dakota, the Maroon and Gold have certainly showed why they are still the top team in the nation.
Offensively, the Gophers are getting scoring from the right people at the right time. Players like Rachael Bona, Hannah Brandt, Sarah Davis, and Kelly Terry are all racking up points in bunches.
In addition, Minnesota is finally getting some solid play from their defensive corps as Rachel Ramsey and Milica McMillen are playing lock-down defense while adding plenty on the offensive side of the puck.
Both games will be afternoon contests as Saturday’s game will see the opening draw take place at 4 p.m. CT and the series finale on Sunday set to face-off just after 1 p.m.