Gophers and St. Thomas to square off in WCHA women's hockey quarterfinals

GOPHERS WOMEN'S HOCKEY SERIES PREVIEW

WCHA first-round playoffs: Gophers vs. St. Thomas

Friday: 6 p.m. * Saturday: 2 p.m. * Sunday 2 p.m. (if necessary)

All games played at Ridder Arena and streamed on BTN+

Gophers update: No. 4 Minnesota (25-5-3) finished second in the WCHA regular-season standings, two points behind Ohio State, and faces the seventh-seeded St. Thomas in a best-of-three series, with the winner advancing to the WCHA Final Faceoff. The Gophers and Tommies met last weekend, with Minnesota winning 2-1 in overtime and 4-2 at St. Thomas Ice Arena. The Gophers boast the nation's No. 2 and No. 4 scorers in Taylor Heise (25-32-57) and Grace Zumwinkle (22-30-52), with Abbey Murphy (24-19-43) adding grit and a scoring touch. Heise is tied for the national lead with 25 goals, helping the Gophers average 4.61 goals per game, also best in the country. Goalie Skylar Vetter is 22-5-3 with a 1.96 goals-against average, .920 save percentage and five shutouts.

Tommies update: St. Thomas (8-25-1) is in its second season as a Division I program and went 0-3-1 against the Gophers this season. Led by former U.S. Olympic coach Joel Johnson, the Tommies average 1.50 goals per game (38th nationally) and give up 3.44 per game (tied for 36th). Maddy Clough (6-7-13), Anna Solheim (4-8-12) and Gabby Billing (5-5-10) are the team's top scorers. Saskia Maurer (5-13-1, 2.92, .917) and Alexa Dobchuk (2-11-0, 4.43, .894) have split time in goal. The Tommies have lost 12 of their past 13 games.

Other WCHA tournament series

No. 8 Bemidji State at No. 1 Ohio State

No. 6 Minnesota State Mankato at No. 3 Wisconsin

No. 5 St. Cloud State at No. 4 Minnesota Duluth