Assignments set for Frozen Four
The Harvard women's hockey team gets its second chance in two years to win the national championship when the Women's Frozen Four comes to Providence this weekend.
The National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey Committee announced the field for the NCAA Tournament yesterday, and the four teams that have jockeyed for position atop the national polls all season claimed the spots.
The University of Minnesota (28-4-2) drew the top seed and will play No. 4 Dartmouth (24-6-2), which rose as high as No. 2 during the season, but then lost four of five games during a two-week stretch in February. The Big Green also lost their ECAC semifinal to St. Lawrence.
Harvard (29-3-1) got the No. 2 seed, so the Crimson will face St. Lawrence (27-9-1) again, a team they have owned this season, including a 6-1 victory in yesterday's ECAC final.
The Frozen Four, which includes the top seed from the East and West regions and two at-large teams, is a mighty select group. The rapid rise of women's college hockey has produced more than four teams capable of winning a national title, and with only four teams selected, some contenders are left out. This year, that means Wisconsin (25-6-3) and three-time defending champion Minnesota-Duluth (20-12-2).
The teams that will play in Providence have had some spirited encounters this season. Top-ranked Minnesota, the Western Collegiate Hockey Association regular-season and tournament champion, hosted Dartmouth in February and split a two-game series. Harvard, which shared the regular-season ECAC title with St. Lawrence, has taken three victories from the Saints this season, but lost both its games with Dartmouth. St. Lawrence swept a weekend series with the Big Green, then ranked second in the nation, before dropping two to Harvard.
Two of the teams that will play at the Dunkin' Donuts Center Friday night must make their run at the national championship without their best players. The Canadian national team opened a training camp in Nova Scotia yesterday in preparation for the World Championships in Halifax (March 30-April 6), and Dartmouth's Cherie Piper and Gillian Apps, as well as SLU's Gina Kingsbury, all made the difficult choice. They make some slick moves on the ice, but they still can't be in two places at once. Members of the US team, including Harvard's Angela Ruggiero and Julie Chu and Minnesota's Krissy Wendell, Kelly Stephens, and Natalie Darwitz, will join the US team after the Frozen Four.
