Women's hockey series of the week: Minnesota State vs Minnesota-Duluth

It’s conference tournament week across collegiate women’s hockey, and the WCHA conference is no different. The quarterfinal round kicks off this Friday as Minnesota State gets set to take on No. 9 Minnesota-Duluth.

Here are a few things to watch out for in the series.

Minnesota-Duluth dominated the season series:

This was not a close-season series when you look at the fact that Duluth went 3-0-1 in the four games played, and won the shootout in the game that counts as a tie.

In those four games, they surrendered only one goal through the 240 minutes of on-ice action. Starting goaltender on the season, Eve Gascon has been superb, posting a 1.87 GAA, despite having 11 losses.

Caitlin Kraemer is the leading scorer for the Bulldogs, 29 pts, and had three points in the first series between the two teams. To advance in the conference tournament, as well as try and vie for an NCAA tournament auto berth, they will have to exalt the demons, whom they have never held a lead against all season.

Special teams will make the difference

Minnesota Duluth and Minnesota State are both nearly identical in so many key stats as a team, but one statistic is drastically different than the majority of the others.

That stat is short-handed goals.

The Bulldogs have five such goals and have used it to their advantage in numerous games. The penalty kill sits at 82.5% on the season, good for 17th in the NCAA, two spots ironically behind Minnesota State.

For the Mavericks to give themselves a chance this weekend, they can’t give Minnesota-Duluth great danger chances when on the advantage. The opponent will capitalize and cause concern for the Mavericks to have any chance.

When looking at the powerplay for both teams, they sit at the same spot, at 33rd in the country.

Both these teams have so many things that are parallel stat-wise besides the records. Minnesota-Duluth is 19-12-3 on the season, a good amount ahead of their opponent this weekend, Minnesota State, which is currently 15-17-2, hovering around the .500 mark.

As I look at who I believe will win the series this weekend, I have a feeling the matchup goes to three games, giving Minnesota State a chance, but I still think the talent of Minnesota-Duluth will win the series in three games.

The series should be fun for all involved and should provide a great battle to propel one of these teams to the WCHA final next weekend.

Giustino Racchini is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him please email him at gar5448@psu.edu.