Women headed to NCAA tourney

In program’s first bid, Connecticut will take on Minnesota-duluth

Fresh off their victory in the Hockey East tournament, the Uconn women’s hockey team claimed the first NCAA Tournament bid in the program’s history.

The Huskies, seeded 11th in the 11-team field, will go to Columbus, Ohio to play No. 6 Minnesota-duluth on Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Regional hosted by top overall seed Ohio State, which will play the winner in the quarterfinals on Saturday at 4 p.m..

Uconn (25-7-5) beat Northeastern, 1-0 in overtime on a goal by Megan Woodworth with 25 seconds left in the first 20-minute overtime session on Saturday at Toscano. Uconn, winners of the regular season title in Hockey East for the first time, defeated Holy Cross, Boston College and Northeastern, which had been to six NCAA Tournaments in a row, to claim the conference’s automatic bid. Hockey East did not get an at-large entry.

Minnesota-duluth (20-134) plays in the Western College Hockey Association, where many of the top teams in the country reside, and lost in the playoffs to Ohio State, 5-0. The Bulldogs have long been a prominent national program, winning the NCAA Tournament five times between 2001-2010. They are making their 15th tournament appearance, their fourth in a row.

Earlier in the season, the Bulldogs came to Quinnipiac for a two-game series, losing one game and tying the other. Quinnipiac, despite a a 25-11-1 record and a No.9 ranking in the Pairwise ratings, did not get an at-large bid after losing to Cornell in the ECAC quarterfinals.

Wisconsin, Colgate, Clarkson and Minnesota are seeded second through fifth in the tournament. Penn State, Cornell. St. Lawrence and Stonehill are also in the field. There are 44 schools playing Division I women’s hockey.