It was Senior Day at Ridder Arena on Saturday afternoon. And title-clinching day.
Seniors score four goals as Gophers women's hockey rolls over St. Thomas for WCHA title
Minnesota clinched the WCHA regular-season title with the win in the final game before conference playoffs.
By Staff reports
February 20, 2022 at 3:01AM
Grad student Laura Bench got the start in goal for the No. 1 Gophers women's hockey team and seniors scored four of the goals in a 7-1 victory over St. Thomas.
The win, Minnesota's seventh in a row, secured the team's 11th WCHA regular-season title after a recent dry spell. The Gophers have won that title only once, in 2019, since a three-year run of dominance from 2013-15.
"Just an incredible way to honor our seniors," Gophers coach Brad Frost. "They've given their heart and soul to our team and our program. We're so thankful for all of them.
"To win the Julianne Bye Cup and the WCHA regular-season championship is really special. It's a very, very hard trophy to win — especially in our league. We're really happy for them and our group. We're going to celebrate that and look forward to the playoffs coming up."
With this win Minnesota (26-7-1, 21-6-1 WCHA) finished conference play with an .810 points percentage — the criterion used to decide the conference regular-season champion this season because of a pandemic-caused unbalanced schedule.
Ohio State swept Wisconsin 5-1 and 2-1 for second place (.777).
Savannah Norcross, one of 12 graduate students or seniors who were honored, had two goals in the third period against St. Thomas (5-25-1., 3-24-1).
Other seniors with goals were Taylor Heise and Emily Oden. Freshmen Ella Huber also had two goals.
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What makes Darius Taylor such an effective running back for the Gophers? Many things, but especially his vision and ability to find creases.
