TUNE IN: This weekend's games will be broadcasted on KKXL "The Fan" 1440 AM and on www.FightingSioux.com. A webcast is also available through www.WCHA.com.
A live blog will be open for fans during the game at www.FightingSioux.com or you can get live updates by following UNDWHockey through twitter. Live stats for the game can be found through www.WCHA.com.
The games will also be televised in the Duluth region on My9.
LAST ACTION: North Dakota swept its way to the Final Face-Off with 3-1 and 2-0 victories over Bemidji State. Senior Stephanie Ney backstopped the Sioux to two win allowing only the one goal on the weekend while making 33 saves. UND held Bemidji State 0-for-10 on the power play and under 20 shots on goal in each game this weekend. Kelsey Ketcher led North Dakota with two goals in the series while Candace Molle, Jocelyne Lamoureux and Monique Lamoureux-Kolls each tallied one goal.
SCORING TITLES: Jocelyne Lamoureux concluded the regular season as the WCHA scoring champion.
The 2011 U.S. World Championship forward line of Jocelyne Lamoureux (33-46-79), Wisconsin's Brianna Decker (32-40-72) and Monique Lamoureux-Kolls (25-43-68) concluded the regular season first, second and third in the nation in points, respectively.
Monique Lamoureux-Kolls led all defensemen in scoring.
Michelle Karvinen (23-35-58) finished the season ninth in the nation in scoring and easily led all other rookies, finishing 13 points ahead of Northeastern's Kendall Coyne.
Josefine Jakobsen (13-20-33) finished the regular season tied for sixth in points by a rookie.
HOME SWEET HOME: UND set a new home attendance record this season with 28,218, surpassing its previous record of 24,320 set in 2010-11. North Dakota is currently second in the nation with 1,485 per game. North Dakota also broke its record of 11 home wins during 2010-11 having now won 15 games at the Ralph Engelstad Arena in 2011-12. During those games, UND has outscored its opponents 102-36 with an overall record of 15-3-1.
BIG THREE: North Dakota became the first WCHA school in a non-olympic year to finish the regular season WCHA standings in the top three.
POSTSEASON PLAY: The four teams that finished one through four in the final Western Collegiate Hockey Association regular season standings - league champion Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and Minnesota Duluth - all swept their first round, best-of-three playoff series this weekend to advance to the 2012 WCHA FINAL FACE-OFF at AMSOIL Arena (6,726) on March 2-3 in Duluth, Minn.
There will be two semi-finals played next Friday (March 2) with No. 4 seed Minnesota Duluth (20-13-1) taking on No. 1 seed Wisconsin (31-3-2) at 4:37 pm CT followed by No. 3 seed North Dakota (22-10-3) skating against No. 2 seed Minnesota (29-5-2) at 7:37 pm CT. Friday's two winners will then play for the league championship on Saturday (March 3) evening at 7:07 pm CT. The winner of the WCHA FINAL FACE-OFF receives the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Div. 1 Women's Ice Hockey Tournament.
Wisconsin, the defending WCHA FINAL FACE-OFF champion, won their first round set over visiting Minnesota State by 7-0 and 4-0 scores on Feb. 24-25. Regular season runner-up and host Minnesota won back-to-back playoff games over St. Cloud State, 6-1 and 6-0. North Dakota prevailed by 3-1 and 2-0 counts over visiting Bemidj State. And Minnesota Duluth downed visiting Ohio State by 4-3 and 3-2 (ot) margins.
