Coming off a national title-winning season and three straight conference titles, the Golden Gophers’s women’s hockey team is considered the favorite to win the WCHA this year. In a preseason poll of the conference’s eight head coaches, the Gopher women got six first-place votes and 48 total points in results the WCHA announced on Tuesday.
Two players also got preseason acknowledgement from the WCHA on Tuesday. Senior forward Hannah Brandt was named preseason Player of the Year, for the third straight year, and freshman forward Sarah Potomak was named the conference’s preseason Rookie of the Year.