As Saturday was the final home game of the regular season for Minnesota, it also happened to be Senior Day. Originally Senior Day was scheduled in another two weeks, but thanks to losing the North Dakota program that’s now a bye week for the Gophers and these players got to be honored now instead. Before the game began the four seniors—Sydney Baldwin, Cara Piazza, Caitlin Reilly, and Sidney Peters—received on ice accolades at Ridder Arena then were on the ice for puck drop.
Just after the game started Emma Wittchow took a hooking penalty at 1:17. On the power play the Gophers caused a mess at Chloe Crosby’s crease then Jessica Kondas tried to shove Reilly into the net, which was the first of many aggressive actions by both sides.