Second-Seeded Warriors Dominate Minnesota; Advance to WMCH Semifinals

LYNCHBURG, Va. – Despite finishing the regular season unbeaten, Midland University dropped in the computer-based national polls ahead of the Women's Midwest College Hockey (WMCH) Tournament. The drop pushed the Warriors to the 2nd seed where they were pitted against the 7th-seeded and No. 13-ranked University of Minnesota. Looking to make a statement, Midland scored early and often as it blew past the Golden Gophers for a 6-1 opening-round win.

It took just under two minutes for the Warriors' offense to get on the scoreboard as Callie Maguire skated in and scored on her putback at the 1:42 mark. Ten minutes later, Maguire found the back of the net once more as Karenna Grothmann's shot from deep was directed to the backside where she was there to flip it over an outstretched save attempt by the Gopher's goalie.

Before the period ended, Midland would take advantage of a Minnesota penalty for holding. With just over five minutes before the intermission, Grace Page skated along the blue line and sent a laser shot to the net. The puck evaded all of the players in front and snuck past the goalie whose vision was blocked by all the traffic. Darbi Poole earned the assists as Midland took a 3-0 lead into the first break.

After yielding a goal to the Gophers seven minutes into the second period, the Warriors looked to get their fourth goal at the 8:47 mark but a save by the goalie at the edge of the line negated the would-be answer from the stick of Ally Rakowski.

Just over a minute later though, Keagan Shearer started a breakout as she wrapped around the Midland goal and up the left side. A quick pass angled up through the neutral zone was deflected by Rakowski and sent on to a streaking Kayla Flanigan. With the Warriors' top two scorers charging into the goal, Flanigan touch-passed it to herself past the last defender and then went top shelf over the glove to make it a 4-1 score.

With just under nine minutes to go in the second, Minnesota attempted to clear the puck after blocking a pair of powerful shots. Shearer stepped in front of the clear just in front of the blue line and rather than fire a fastball onto the net, she lobbed in a changeup that sailed over the top of a defenseman and then right over a surprised goalie for the Warriors' fifth goal of the contest. Ava Matthews-McCulley was credited with the assist as Midland skated a 5-1 lead into the second intermission.

In the final period, the Warriors added one final goal to the tally following a Gophers' penalty for slashing. Maguire completed her hat trick night as she scored on a rebound attempt. After a pair of bounce backs off the goalie's pads, Maguire slid in for her third goal of the game with 3:27 on the game clock. Picking up assists on the score were Jenna Grosdidier and Flanigan.

Hannah Stone picked up the win in net, the 83rd victory as a collegian, and her 46th for the Warriors.

Midland (28-0-2) will have a tough task ahead as it goes up against third-seeded Minot State (21-10-1) on Friday. The WMCH Semifinal between the Warriors and Beavers is set to start at 5:00 p.m. ET (4:00 p.m. CT) in Lynchburg.