In History: The 2019 NCAA Women’s Frozen Four

With the 2019-2020 hockey season starting, I’m going to recap on some big moments in women’s hockey recent history that I was personally in attendance for.

And next up is the 2019 NCAA D1 Women’s Frozen Four!

This most recent Women’s Frozen Four was held at the People’s United Center at Quinnipiac University in Hamden Connecticut. On top of a hill sits the beautiful facility containing a basketball court and hockey rink attached by miles and miles of tunnels underneath the stands, which only took until about the second period for me to finally figure out and navigate. Once in the media room, I was met with the presence of many great photographers and other media members, many of whom I follow their work and look up to artistically. While I didn’t talk to many of them, it was great to see them in action and learn from the experience.

2019 Women’s NCAA Frozen Four, Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT

Before we jump onto the ice at Quinnipiac, let’s take a look at Clarkson’s NCAA Quarterfinal game against Boston College at home in Cheel Arena the previous weekend. And what a game it was. Starting off the scoring in the first period was the always-mentioned-in-the-recap Boston College’s Daryl Watts and assisted by Serena Sommerfield. That score would hold until late in the third period when Clarkson’s Josiane Pozzebon connected off of Cassidy Vinkle to tie the game and send Cheel into an eruption of cheers, and overtime. There was only one other time I had heard Cheel Arena that loud and it was just a few weeks prior when Loren Gabel scored a game tying goal with 1.1 seconds left in regulation in the ECAC playoffs. After three quarters of the first overtime period, Clarkson’s Elizabeth Giguere “did Elizabeth Giguere things” (-ECAC Hockey, source) and scored the game winner, with assists from Michaela Pejzlova and Emma Keenan, and secured Clarkson’s ticket to Quinnipiac. Now while officially Giguere scored the goal, I am still unsure if it was Giguere or Loren Gabel who actually scored it. While reviewing it, it appeared to me that Gabel got a stick on it, but what do I know, I’m just a photographer. Below are some photos from the game.

Now back at Quinnipiac, Clarkson arrived on the famous red carpet while Minnesota and Cornell faced-off in the first semifinal game. Below are some photos of that.

After Minnesota defeated Cornell 2-0, Wisconsin and Clarkson took the ice for the second semifinal game.

The first period saw no score, but a lopsided shots on goal total 13-5 favoring Wisconsin. The second period gave way to a more evened out shots on goal total, 10-6 Wisconsin, and the game’s first goal, awarded to Wisconsin’s Abby Roque, with assists from Britta Curl and Natalie Buchbinder. While the first two periods saw somewhat evenly matched play, the third period provided a broken scale and a power boost to Wisconsin, allowing them to score four goals (Sam Cogan, Annie Pankowski (2), Presley Norby) with a uneven shot total of 17-3 for a game total of 40-14 in favor of Wisconsin. This was quite the rarity for Clarkson, as it was the first time they were shutout that season and the first time since February 9th of 2018.

Though, I have to give it to Wisconsin’s goalie Kristen Campbell who just recently (like a couple of days ago recently, according to The Ice Garden) snapped her scoreless game streak at over 200 minutes – this includes the entire 2018-19 NCAA Tournament.

Below are some in-game shots.

Note: If there is any information wrong in this article, please let me know at schuybreach@gmail.com or by messaging me on any of the social medias. I was going off of memory and what information I could find in the NCAA and Clarkson Athletics Online Archive.