2025 WCHA First Round Playoffs Roundup

Hello and welcome to the postseason, where all eight teams start with a clean slate and hope to punch their ticket to the WCHA Final Faceoff in Duluth.

This year there were two series where the teams were meeting for the second straight year (and even a third too).

We're changing the format of the roundup and going through every game of each series with the most important information and all the goals your heart desires!

Let's get started!

No. 5 St. Cloud State vs. No. 4 Minnesota Duluth

We need to jog our memories first before getting started with this game. This is the third straight year UMD and St. Cloud faced each other in the WCHA playoffs. Last year, the Bulldogs shut out the Huskies in both games thanks to goaltender Ève Gascon who was in net for Friday’s game too. The last time these two met in the regular season almost two months ag, UMD also shut out the Huskies. Something needed to give. Thirteen minutes into the game, St. Cloud was called for a five minute major for checking from behind, which gave Duluth an extended power play. Duluth made the Huskies pay as freshman Caitlin Kraemer found the back of the net for the 1-0 lead.

In the second period, St. Cloud answered back when Emma Gentry scored to tie the game as the power play was ending. Again, the Huskies did not score at all during last year’s first round, so this was an improvement.

Special teams continued to be the story of this period. On another power play a few minutes later, sophomore Alice Sauriol gave the Huskies the 2-1 lead. In the third, things were quiet. There was good forechecking by the Huskies but then the momentum changed… again. With two minutes left in the game, Duluth had an extra attacker on and Kraemer tied the game at two.

There was still time for either team to score or to send this game to overtime. But then, with just five seconds left in the game, Olivia Wallin scored for the win. It was an incredible come-from-behind effort for the Bulldogs for the 3-2 win—a big win for Duluth and a devastating loss for the Huskies.

I did say that I believed this series was the most even matchup, despite what happened the past few years in the playoffs and during the regular season. It was up to both teams to decide their fate. Would St. Cloud State be able to extend their season one more day or would UMD be ready and waiting for their final faceoff opponent?

The Huskies started Emilia Kyrkkö in net on Saturday, while Gascon started again for the Bulldogs. Midway through the first, both teams had opportunities to score, but couldn’t find the back of the net. Then with three minutes left in the period, it looked like Sauriol had scored in her second straight game. But UMD immediately challenged for offsides and the goal was overturned. The period ended scoreless.

In the second, the teams traded scoring chances but didn't score. With 17 minutes left in the period, UMD killed a penalty and then scored right after to take a 1-0 lead on a Grace Sadura goal. Duluth wasn't done yet. With one minute left in the period, Olivia Mobley scored to extend the lead to two.

Duluth entered the third one period away from reaching their 17th Final Faceoff, while the Huskies hoped to extend their season one more day. Kyrkkö did all she could to keep it a two goal game, and the Huskies finally got on the board with four minutes left to cut the lead to one.

St. Cloud put the extra attacker on but weren't able to score. Duluth moved on to the Final Faceoff after winning another close one 2-1 and will face Wisconsin. While the Huskies season is over, they had a great run and I know they'll do well next season, especially with Kyrkkö entering her second season in net and Jojo Chobak returning to the crease after her redshirt season. That may well be another great goaltending duo in the WCHA.

No. 8 St. Thomas vs. No. 2 Ohio State

Ohio State entered Friday’s game shorthanded, as captain Jenna Buglioni sat out the game after getting knocked around in the regular season finale the weekend before. It ended up being no problem for the Buckeyes. Joy Dunne opened the scoring a minute and a half into the game by going five hole on Tommies’ goaltender Dani Strom. Eleven minutes later Dunne and Jocelyn Amos found Emma Peschel, who scored on a nice tic-tac-toe goal to extend the lead to two.

In the second period, the Buckeyes scored another goal less than five minutes into the period for a 3-0 lead, thanks to last week's Rookie of the Week Mira Jungåker. The Buckeyes' Amos then added a power play goal 29 seconds into the third period, extending her point steak to five games.

St. Thomas was able to end Amanda Thiele's shutout bid after Ohio State was called for a five minute major late in the game. Cara Sajevic scored for the Tommies' only goal of the game as the Buckeyes added one more for a 5-1 win.

On Saturday, Ohio State was looking to put the series away. They started things off early again, with another Dunne goal less than two minutes into the game on the power play for her fourth point of the series. Thirteen seconds after that, freshman Josie St. Martin scored, before Maddi Wheeler added a third goal to end the first period.

For the second straight game, the Tommies were able to break Thiele's shut out attempt by scoring early in the third, but the Buckeyes would win the series 2-0 after a 4-1 win. They face Minnesota in the Final Faceoff on Friday.

No. 6 Minnesota State vs. No. 3 Minnesota

This series is a rematch of last year’s, where the teams went to three games. After Minnesota’s 6-1 win in the first game, it would take a lot for Mankato to come back to even the series. The Gophers opened the scoring with a backhand goal from Ava Lindsay, who beat Mavericks goaltender Hailey Hansen for the 1-0 lead midway through the first. In the second period, Emma Kreisz scored twice to extend the Gophers lead to three. Kreisz put together a strong second half of the season and she continued that strong push here with her first career multi-goal game.

Minnesota State managed to find a way to break through with a goal from Claire Vekich with less than 20 seconds left in the period to cut the lead to two. But the third period was all Minnesota; they scored three more goals, including Lindsay’s second of the game, for a 6-1 win and a 1-0 series lead.

We’re skipping ahead to the third period of Saturday's game here because a win in double overtime wasn't because of a goal.

Entering the third period, Minnesota State was leading 3-2 before Mackenzie Bourgerie scored 15 seconds into the period for a two goal lead. Less than two minutes after that, Abbey Murphy scored her second of the game to once again make it a one goal game. That was Murphy’s 15th career goal against the Mavericks.

Now, the Gophers were down by as much as three goals in this game and they had never come back from a deficit like that before. But as they say, it’s the playoffs and anything can happen, right? Five minutes into the third, Krista Parkkonen netted her first goal as a Gopher to tie the game at four.

The tide was changing and Minnesota was taking control, but then things got interesting. The teams traded chances the rest of the period to end regulation deadlocked at four. The Mavs' overtime record this season in 3-on-3 overtime was 1-4-2, so maybe they could do better with more bodies on the ice during postseason overtime.

But these two overtime periods really belonged to the goalies. Clark and Hansen stood tall, stopping quality chances and penalty kills on their team’s sides. Hansen even managed a few minutes of play without her goalie stick and used forward Jamie Nelson's stick instead.

With five and a half minutes left in double OT, it looked like Murphy had scored the game winner, but it was immediately called a no goal. After a review, the call stood. Murphy wasn’t going away and kept looking for the game-winner, but Hansen managed to stop one of her chances with three minutes left. But with 4.7 seconds left, Madison Mashuga beat Clark and scored the game winner to force a game three. For a team that hadn’t done well in 3-on-3 overtime all season, these 5-on-5 overtime periods sure were what the Mavs needed for a 5-4 win. Head coach Shari Dickerman said postgame that the team calls Hansen "Slayley" (a mix of the word slay and Hailey), and you could see why, as Hansen faced 70 shots on goal in this game and allowed only four goals.

It's game three time! The Gophers had revenge on their mind and they were able to accomplish it by getting to Hansen early. After making a program record 66 saves the previous night, Minnesota got to the Mavericks. Five minutes into the period, Natálie Mlýnková scored on the power play and then the Gophers took control the rest of the game. Ava Lindsay scored her third goal of the series less than two minutes into the second period. Then a few minutes later, Audrey Wethington tallied a short-handed goal for a three goal lead.

The Gophers then piled on the goals, adding three more by the end of the second period (including two from Murphy), to reach 99 career goals.

The Mavericks managed to get on the board with two goals from assistant captain Nelson, but it wasn’t enough. Minnesota moves on to the Final Faceoff after a 6-2 win. They will face Ohio State on Friday. I wasn't expecting this series to go to three games for the second year in a row, but if you want to see how the WCHA continues to grow as a conference, look at Saturday's game two and the work Minnesota State put in.

No. 8 Bemidji State vs. No. 1 Wisconsin

I said in my preview that the Beavers' biggest asset is their defense. That defense showed up on Friday night. The Badgers average 5.56 goals scored per game, but Bemidji was able to hold them to just three goals in Friday's 3-0 loss.

Beavers goaltender Kaitlin Groess worked hard during the first period, making 15 saves before Wisconsin's Kelly Gorbatenko scored with 40 seconds left in the period.

In the second period, Claire Enright added another goal on a delayed penalty less than five minutes in. Her shot got under Groess' arm for the 2-0 lead. Less than three minutes after that, Lacey Eden scored the third goal of the game. It was an unlucky bounce into the net for BSU. They didn't help themselves in this period either, as they ended up recording no shots on goal.

But their defense and their goaltender shut down the Badgers in the third period. Groess stopped all 10 shots she faced and Riley Reeves, the conference leader in blocked shots, recorded 11! All in all, the Beavers recorded 36 blocked shots in this game. With a really good defensive showing, BSU would need a little more from the offense in hopes of winning on Saturday.

In game two, Wisconsin had other ideas, though. Kirsten Simms scored just 15 seconds into the game for an early 1-0 lead.

Less than three minutes later, Casey O’Brien found Simms again for her second goal of the period. O’Brien entered the game three points behind tying Hilary Knight for most career goals in program history. With her second point here, she was down one point. The floodgates had been opened by the Badgers now; 30 seconds later, Maggie Scannell added a goal of her own to extend the lead 3-0. About 28 seconds after that, Finley McCarthy scored, thanks to O’Brien, who tied Knight for most points in program history at 262! The Badgers led 4-0.

The game wasn’t even six minutes in when Wisconsin extended the lead 6-0. But they weren’t done yet. The Badgers were on the penalty kill with 13 minutes left in the period, when O’Brien rewrote history. She scored shorthanded for her fourth point of the period to make it 7-0, and recorded her 263rd point to become the all-time points leader. She managed to tie and set the new record in about eight minutes of playing time too! Congrats Casey!

Midway through the second period, Simms added another goal for her second straight hat trick, while O’Brien recorded her sixth point of the game to make it a nine goal lead.

An incredibly dominant performance from a team that only managed three goals in all of Friday’s game. The Badgers move on to the WCHA Final Faceoff in Duluth after winning 11-0 and shutting out Bemidji in both contests. Give credit to Bemidji for finding a way to shut down the Badgers even if it was for only one game. In game two, they managed more shots on goal than they did in the first game. If they had been able to put both efforts together, they would have been able to score at least one or two goals. Wisconsin will face Minnesota Duluth on Friday.

Before I leave you, check out this cool video of Hilary Knight congratulating O'Brien for surpassing her points record!

WCHA Final Faceoff update

Here is the updated bracket for Friday's games! There will be a preview here before then so please stay tuned.

See y'all Friday!