DURHAM, N.H. – The sticks of the champions lay scattered around the ice, thrown in celebration as the Gophers women’s hockey team celebrated another national championship.
The players hugged and hollered between the tossed-aside equipment, champions once again, a dynasty that added more hardware Sunday to an already expansive trophy case.
With a 3-1 victory over previously unbeaten Boston College, the Gophers continued their reign at the pinnacle of women’s hockey, winning a fourth national title in five years.
“We’re just in the midst of a stretch here where it’s kind of mind-blowing,” coach Brad Frost said. “It’s just surreal. You never get used to it. Every time is a little different and super exciting. When this eventually ends, we’ll be able to look back on it and say this was one heck of a run. To get to five national championship games in a row is nuts. And to win four of them? That’s where the surreal comes in.”
The program’s sixth NCAA title makes the Gophers the winningest team in women’s college hockey history, and that doesn’t include the 2000 title they won before the NCAA sanctioned women’s hockey.
“It never gets old,” said Frost, who has four titles in his nine seasons as coach.
The latest sent the Gophers (35-4-1) storming over the bench at the final buzzer and piling atop goalie Amanda Leveille, who capped an illustrious career with an outstanding 32-save performance.
“I’m just very proud of our team,” said Amanda Kessel, who scored the game-winning goal. “It’s an unbelievable feeling to win. I think everybody battled hard out there. These are games you don’t get back and we laid it all on the line. I really couldn’t be happier with our team’s effort.”
The win ruined a perfect season for Boston College, which fell just short of matching the 41-0 record of the 2013 Gophers.
The Eagles trailed for just 49 minutes during the entire 38-game regular season, but Minnesota led Sunday’s game for 59:47.
The Gophers scored on the opening shift, 13 seconds into the game, on a tally by Sarah Potomak, the freshman forward who scored the team’s overtime winner in the semifinals.
“It’s a dream come true,” Potomak said. “I chose the University of Minnesota because I believed I could win a national championship with this team.”
The win caps a fine career for the Gophers seniors, who won three national championships in their four years.
This Gophers squad suffered three losses in the first half of the season, but defended their national championship because of a 21-1-1 record after Dec. 5.
The February return of Kessel, one of the best players in women’s hockey history, certainly helped.
Frost compared her return to a baseball team acquiring a slugger at the trade deadline.
Sunday, she capped a remarkable return to the sport that she had to step away from for a year and a half because of concussion symptoms.
With a slap shot from the high slot in the third period, Kessel netted the game-winner, her 11th goal in 13 games after returning.
“I know personally one player can’t make the difference,” she said. “You need (other) people and they really rose to the occasion. I think that just speaks volumes about them.”
Five minutes after Kessel’s winner, Kelly Pannek added an insurance score and the Gophers led 3-0 before Leveille’s lone blemish in an otherwise outstanding game.
Fittingly, the championship celebration started at her net when the final buzzer sounded, morphing into a pile up of maroon-and-gold sweaters.
The party continued with another national championship trophy to bring back to Dinkytown, one to put next to the titles from 2000, 2004, 2005, 2012, 2013, and 2015.
“We’re just so excited and happy and grateful to have won the 2016 national championship,” Frost said. “It’s somewhat surreal.”
