The Gophers women’s hockey team will leave about 12:30 p.m. Friday for Duluth and the WCHA Final Face-off. That’s the new name for the semifinals and championship game in the WCHA playoffs.

Minnesota will face Wisconsin at 4:07 p.m. Saturday and, if the Gophers win, they will play the winner of the Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State game.

That’s a tough draw for the U. Wisconsin is on a roll and has a good goalie. The Badgers beat the Gophers 5-1 and tied them 2-2 two weekend ago at Ridder Arena on the last weekend of the regular season.

If the Gophers gets past the Badgers, they will probably face UMD. “They have some great forwards who can put the puck in the net,” Gophers coach Brad Frost said. “And another one of best goalies in country. She is the only goalie up for the Patty Kazmaier Award. And they are a  a yougn team.”

The Kazmaier Award honors the top player in NCAA Division I women’s hockey and there are 10 finalists, including Gophers forward Gigi Marvin and UMD goalie Kim Martin, a native of Stockholm, Sweden. 

Frost calls St. Cloud State, the fourth teams in the semifinals,  a real gritty,  hard-working team. “They do not have as much talwente,” he said. “But they are very disciplined and well-coached. And their goalie is playing very well for them.

“We think we are in,” said Frost when asked about the NCAA Division I tournament, “but there is not a guarantee that, even if we lose a game, we remain in the top eight.”

The Gophers are fourth in the PairWise rankings — the NCAA uses a similar computer-generated ranking to pick its five at-large teams. Three conference tournament champions, including the WCHA playoffs winner, get automatic bids.

St. Lawrence, fifth in the PairWise ratings and, Wisconsin, which is sixth, all are very close to one another, Frost said, and could move up or down.

“We are as healthy as are going to be,” Frost said. “We had a great weekend last weekend, sweeping North Dakota and winning [the second game] 9-0. That gave our players a lot of confidence. We are ready to get up there and face Wisconsin and see what happens.”