U Minnesota college hockey teams move on in tournaments

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MINNEAPOLIS - The University of Minnesota will be playing in the Frozen Four this season after winning over North Dakota at home Saturday 5-1 while the men's team is back at the WCHA Final Five after winning a wild contest with Alaska-Anchorage Saturday 7-3 at Mariucci Arena.

The U women's team scored three second period goals to add to a 1-0 lead then added one more in the third in front of more than 1,600 fans at Ridder Arena. The goals came from Emily West, Sarah Erickson, Amanda Kessel, Jen Schoullis and Sarah Davis. All of these players had assists as well. Winning goalie Noora Raty made 28 saves as UND outshot the Golden Gophers. The U will play Cornell next Friday at 8 p.m. at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth in the Frozen Four for the third time in four years. Minnesota's record is 32-5-2.

Meanwhile the men's team came from from giving up three straight power play goals to UAA early in the second period to score six unanswered goals and win their first WCHA playoff series in the two seasons.

The Gophers scored twice to tie the score at 3-3 and score four more in the third period. Zach Budish and Nick Bjugstad both scored to tie the game and Erik Haula scored twice, part of a four goal weekend for him, to power the Golden Gopher surge. Jake Hansen, Seth Helgeson and Sam Warning also scored for the U. Haula also had two assists as did Ben Marshall, Mark Alt and Kyle Rau. Kent Patterson finished with 16 saves as the U outshot the Seawolves 38-16.

The U improves to 28-12-1 and will have a first round bye in the WCHA Final Five next weekend.

Tags: minnesota sports, proam, hockey, gophers