Shining stars earn place in final for U women

The award wouldn't affect her, Amanda Kessel vowed. Being named the WCHA Rookie of the Year on Thursday was great, but "I tried not to get that in my head," the Gophers freshman said.

Well, she failed.

Kessel collected her first collegiate hat trick Friday, carrying Minnesota past its recent postseason nemesis, Minnesota Duluth, 4-2 in the WCHA tournament semifinals, then admitted that "obviously, I had to come out and show I deserved" the award.

That much she accomplished, energizing her teammates with a breakaway goal, a point-blank blast and a game-clinching short-handed goal, giving her a team-high 19 scores on the season.

"I had a hat trick in an exhibition game, but it's not the same as in the postseason," said Kessel, the 19-year-old phenom who has reclaimed her spot on the Gophers' first line. "It's pretty unbelievable."

So was her first goal, which jump-started her teammates after a quick 1-0 deficit. The young left winger flew down the left side of the ice on a breakaway, sweeping -- but whiffing on -- a backhand shot as she skated through the slot. In a flash, she instinctively gathered the puck again, then knocked it past Duluth goaltender Jennifer Harss.

That goal, that energy, changed the tenor of the game.

"You can just see it, the jump that she has, her vision," Gophers coach Brad Frost said after his third-ranked team reached the conference championship game for the third consecutive season. Frost added that Kessel and Kelly Terry, who broke the 1-1 tie with a breakaway goal of her own, "didn't play like freshmen tonight, nor have they all year."

That's important, considering what's next. Minnesota, which probably ensured a home game in next week's NCAA tournament with the victory, will face top-ranked Wisconsin in Ridder Arena on Saturday, an opponent that hasn't lost a game since Thanksgiving weekend. The Badgers' 23-game unbeaten streak makes them the favorite, but the Gophers (26-8-2) are one of two teams to have beaten them this season.

Even better: "The past couple of years, I don't think we've been playing our best hockey at this time of year," Frost said, "and this year, I believe we are. And a lot of it is attributable to our youth and that enthusiasm."

That's what freshmen are for, right? Kelly and Terry weren't here for the Bulldogs' back-to-back victories during the 2010 postseason on Minnesota's home ice, so it's meaningless history to the teenagers.

And if there were any postseason nerves, they didn't show. Kessel followed Terry's go-ahead score by corralling the puck in traffic 10 feet in front of the goal, and rocketing it high over Harss' left shoulder. In the third period, Kessel put the game away with a shorthanded goal on a 2-on-1 breakaway.

Despite the loss, the defending champion Bulldogs (22-8-3) are certain to be named to the NCAA tournament field Sunday. The Gophers will, too, but they have one more big challenge.

This one, the freshman understands. She's from Madison.

"No better team to be playing," Kessel said with a smile.