The U.S. select women’s hockey team, which includes Gophers assistant coach Natalie Darwitz, will scrimmage a lot of high school boys’ hockey teams this season starting Nov. 21-22.

Coach Tom Osiecki’s U.S. team has been invited to participate in the Buffalo Jamboree that weekend. There will be varsity scrimmages all day and night on one of the rinks there.

 Some of the most watched undoubtedly will involve the U.S. team.

On the first day, Friday, Nov. 21, the U.S. team will scrimmage St. Cloud Tech at 4:30 p.m. and Blaine at 7 p.m. On the second day, the U.S. will play Wayzata at 4:30 p.m. and Buffalo at 7 p.m.

(more…)

Wednesday is the first day that Gophers women’s hockey coach Brad Frost can sign players, too, just like it is for Don Lucia.

A year ago, Frost brought in a strong class of six, including the Lamoureux twins from Grand Forks via Shattuck St. Mary’s in Faribault.

He can not say anything about this year’s recruiting class, but some poking around turned up a little.

Everyone knows Becky Kortum of Hopkins committed to the U in January of this year. Royals coach Vin Paolucci said she is definitely a candidate for Ms. Hockey this season. She had 37 goals and 22 assists as a junior to lead Hopkins to a Class 2A section final. There the Royals, who finished 22-4-2, lost to Benilde-St. Margaret’s.

“She is responsible in all three zones,” Paolucci said of Kortum. “She is strong with the puck, physically strong and a great skater  and a great person on and off the ice.”

(more…)

Both the men’s and women’s cross-country teams will be Terre Haute, Ind., on Saturday for the Pre-NCAA meet. They will run on the same course the national meet will be held on next month.

The women, ranked No. 4, will be in the 6K Blue race, which includes No. 1 Washington and 10 other nationally ranked teams.

They placed fourth in the Blue race a year ago led by Jamie Cheever, who was 15th, and Elizabeth Yetzer, 24th.

(more…)

Lindsey Schwartz, a senior from Bettendorf, Iowa, came into this weekend with six goals, five of them game-winners for the Gophers women’s soccer team.

On Sunday, she didn’t score but got her second assist this weekend, both on corner kicks which set up the only goals in both games the U played.

Defender Krystle Kallman headed the corner into the net as the Gophers edged Illinois 1-0 Sunday at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium in St. Paul.

On Friday, the Gophers, now 14-1-0, 4-1-0 in the Big Ten, beat Purdue 1-0 in double OT. Tam Strahota got the game-winner in the 109th minute on a corner kick by Schwartz.

The women’s hockey team and the volleyball team each faced the No. 1-rated team in its sport on Saturday. And the U came away with a split decision.

In Duluth at the DECC, Brad Frost’s skaters beat Minnesota Duluth 2-0 on goals by the Lamoureux twins, those feisty freshmen from Grand Forks. Jocelyne got her first career goal at 13:18 of the first period, Monique got her second at 2:09 of the second. Each of them had an assist on the other one’s goal.

Sophomore netmender Jenny Lura had 34 saves for the shutout.

(more…)

The reports kept coming in last Friday from my tormentors at work: The Gophers women’s hockey team, the team you wrote about, the team you jinxed that morning, was trailing Robert Morris 1-0, then 2-0, then 3-0.

I had not planned to go to the game, figuring blowout. The Gophers were No. 3 in the country, playing at home at Ridder … Robert Morris was a 12-win team the year before.

I went over for the third period to see what would happen. Bobby Morris, as one of my colleagues in the newsroom called them, hung on to win 3-2 despite being outshot 65-10. Unbelieveable. Not a good way for the Gophers’ weekend to start. Next night, it was 7-1 Gophers, a truer indication of the strength of both teams.

(more…)

Senior goalies started for both the Gophers and Robert Morris in a women’s hockey season opener Friday at Ridder Arena.

One goalie had a tough night, one was sensational.

Unfortunately for Brad Frost, making his debut as Gophers head coach, he was the one who had to switch goalies. Frost was the interim coach last season.

Robert Morris, a fourth-year program out of Pittsburgh, upset the Gophers, rated No. 3 in the preseason national polls, 3-2 after taking a 3-0 lead early in the second period.

The Gophers outshot the Colonials 65-10, including 24-1 in the third period.

(more…)

Gophers freshman goalkeeper Cat Parkhill of Apple Valley was named to the under-20 U.S. women’s national team a training camp last week in Sunrise, Fla.

The team will play in 2008 FIFA under-20 women’s World Cup in Chile next month.

“When the coaches and I decided I would redshirt this season,” Parkhill said, according to a U of M release, ” it gave me a great opportunity to pursue this opportunity with the U20 national team. It would have been difficult to travel with the team, do well in school, and also to travel with the national team all at once.”

The under-20 U.S. team will open World Cup play with a match against France on Nov. 19, followed by matches with Argentina on Nov. 22 and China on Nov. 26.

Gophers hockey captain Ryan Stoa, who missed  all but four periods last season with a knee injury, can’t wait for the men’s hockey season to start.

The Gophers start practice at 8:30 a.m. Saturday. But on Friday, his sister Maria Stoa, a sophomore, will have the advantage over him and play first. She is one of the top forwards for Robert Morris which visits Ridder Arena this weekend to play No. 3-rated Minnesota in a season opening series.

This two-game series will be the first meeting between the Colonials and Gophers. The Colonials were 12-22-1 overall and a 2-10-0 in the CHA last season. Robert Morris faced WCHA teams Wisconsin, St. Cloud State, Bemidji State and Minnesota State and was 2-5-1 against them.

The Griak Invitational, which was held for the 23rd time last Saturday, is a marathon for spectators. It has 10 races, which start at 9 a.m. and keeps going.

I came only for the two Division I college races and four high school races but, even though I was only there for six of the 10, my feet ached at the end of the day.

When Gophers sophomore Hassan Mead started jogging away — and I wanted to ask him one more question — there was zero chance I could catch him.

(more…)