Abigail Boreen and Gophers women's hockey team 'hangry' for an NCAA tourney run

When the final 10 candidates for the Patty Kazmaier Award were announced last week, Ohio State coach Nadine Muzerall noticed a name missing for the honor that goes to the top player in women's college hockey.

No, it wasn't one of her Buckeyes. Instead, Muzerall thought that the selection committee overlooked Gophers forward Abigail Boreen.

It's easy to see why. Boreen, a senior and former prep star at Hill-Murray, is tied for third in the nation with 58 points on 24 goals and 34 assists, trailing only Gophers linemate Taylor Heise (66 points) and Minnesota Duluth's Elizabeth Giguere (59).

Today's game is being livestreamed without charge on BTN+, according to the network's website. Watch it here.

"With all athletes, confidence is such a big thing," Gophers coach Brad Frost said, "and she is playing extremely confident."

Boreen has another chance to show off her confidence and skills 2 p.m. Saturday at Ridder Arena when the second-ranked Gophers play No. 8 Minnesota Duluth in the NCAA Minneapolis Regional final. At stake is a trip to the Frozen Four and a chance for the Gophers to continue a season of redemption after they were left out of last year's national tournament.

Playing on a dominant line with Heise and Catie Skaja, Boreen helped the Gophers (29-8-1) win the WCHA regular-season championship before they fell 3-2 in overtime to now-No. 1 Ohio State in a matchup of heavyweights in the conference tournament final.

Boreen, a Somerset, Wis., native, is eager for the challenge that the NCAA tournament brings.

"We're going to get everyone's best," she said, "and we're going to bring it to anyone we play."

Yes, Boreen and the Gophers have a swagger to them, fueled in part by what they believe was a snub by the NCAA's selection committee last year. Reaching the program's 15th Frozen Four and winning an eighth national championship is their goal.

"They're 'hangry,' I guess, might be the best way to say it," Frost said.

Along with that desire to win, Boreen has shown patience in both her play and career development.

In the WCHA final against Ohio State, Boreen took a pass from Heise, waited for Buckeyes goalie Amanda Thiele to commit, patiently toe-dragged the puck and fired it into the open net for a 1-0 lead.

"I honestly didn't plan it, but I let the play develop a bit," Boreen said. "The defender went down, and I didn't want to shoot it because I felt I'd shoot it right into her. I just pulled it, and the net was wide open. It was fun."

Said Frost, "There's not too many players that would do that."

Patience, too, helped Boreen become a Gopher.

After leading Hill-Murray to a pair of Class 2A state championships, Boreen got a scholarship offer from Frost — with a catch. The coach initially wanted her to redshirt in the 2018-19 season.

"When you say that in the recruiting process, oftentimes kids will say, 'No, I want to play right away,' " Frost said. "But she was like, 'Yep, I'll do that if that's what you want.' "

Boreen, whose father, Chad, was a Gophers goalie in 1987-88, always had Minnesota at the top of her list. "I just wanted to be a Gopher so badly that I didn't care how I was going to be a Gopher," she said.

It turned out that Boreen didn't redshirt her first season and had nine points in 34 games. A 10-point sophomore season followed, and Frost saw her game grow that offseason. She scored eight goals among her11 points in 20 games in the COVID-19-shortened 2020-21 season before quintupling her totals this season.

"She was possessing the puck, she was protecting it, she wasn't giving it up very easily," Frost said. "… When you keep it, you can do some things with it."

Big things, as it's turned out. And Boreen is hopeful for even bigger things starting Saturday.

"We haven't won one in a while, so why not lay it all out there and give it everything you can?" she said of an NCAA championship. "In the end, if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out, but you know that you went down battling hard."