GOPHER WOMEN ARE #1

By foxsports
Published

Juggernaut Gophers top the heap just weeks ahead of season: In what has to be one of the no-brainers of all time, the UM women’s hockey team is ranked at the top of the pre-season USA Today/USA Hockey Women’s poll. The Gophers are coming off a perfect 41-0-0 campaign and are looking to defend back-to-back national titles.



Gopher women celebrate NCAA record 22nd consecutive win – a record they have since considerably eclipsed – at Ridder Arena November 17, 2012.
It must be lonely at the top. No one else has been there or even close in recent memory. Head Coach Brad Frost’s team was a unanimous #1 selection every week last season. This poll was not unanimous, however: of 19 possible first place votes, Minnesota snagged 18. Boston College was the only other team to garner one.
The Gophers are among three Western Collegiate Hockey Association teams ranked in the pre-season top ten. North Dakota is ranked #5 while Wisconsin in seventh. Minnesota will continue to compete in the WCHA for women’s hockey even though the men’s team will play in the new Big Ten hockey conference this season.
Here’s the pre-season top ten:
1.   MINNESOTA2.   Boston College3.   Clarkson4.   Boston University5.   North Dakota6.   Cornell7.   Wisconsin8.   Mercyhurst9.   Harvard 10. Northeastern
The Gopher women open with exhibition games against Japan September 26 and British Columbia September 27. Their regular season opens at Colgate the following weekend. The 2013-14 home opener at Ridder Arena will be October 11-12 against Wisconsin.
Doug McLeod is the Gopher hockey play-by-play announcer on Fox Sports North. He returns for the 2013-14 season beginning October 11 vs. Mercyhurst.