2022 NCAA Women's Frozen Four This Weekend

The 2022 NCAA Women's Frozen Four for Division I ice hockey is set. Minnesota-Duluth, defending national runner-up Northeastern, Ohio State, and first-time national semifinalist Yale make up the field that will skate this weekend in State College, Pa., at Penn State's Pegula Ice Arena.

Third-ranked Northeastern will take on eighth-ranked UMD at 3:30 p.m. ET on Friday, while OSU, the top-ranked team in the nation, will face sixth-ranked Yale at 7 p.m. ET, with both of those games to be televised by ESPN+. The winners will advance to Sunday's championship game at 4 p.m. ET (ESPNU).

Out of the four schools, only UMD has previously won an NCAA title, having done so on five previous occasions (2001-2003, 2008, 2010). The Bulldogs (26-11-1 overall) advanced to this year's semifinals by winning two games, 4-0 over Harvard and 2-1 against Minnesota.

The other three schools all earned first-round byes and had to win once apiece in this year's tournament, which was expanded to 11 teams from the previous eight. Yale (26-8-1) edged host Colgate, 2-1, while Ohio State (30-6-0) clipped visiting Quinnipiac, 4-3, and Northeastern (31-4-2) avenged last year's title game loss with a 4-2 victory over visiting Wisconsin. In the first round, besides UMD's triumph over Harvard, Quinnipiac blanked Syracuse, 4-0, while Wisconsin ousted Clarkson, 3-1.

UMD's Elizabeth Giguère, a graduate transfer from Clarkson, is the second-leading scorer in the nation with 21 goals and 39 assists for 60 points through 38 games. OSU senior defender Sophie Jaques is the NCAA's third-leading scorer, and tops among all blueliners, with 21-38—59 points in 36 contests.

Graduate defender Skylar Fontaine of Northeastern leads all NCAA skaters with 41 assists in 37 outings, while graduate teammate Maureen Murphy is pacing the nation with 13 power-play goals, and graduate goaltender Aerin Frankel has posted a 25-3-2 record with an NCAA-best 11 shutouts in 31 appearances this season to date. Yale graduate forward Tess Dettling is tied for second in the nation with three shorthanded goals.

As a team, OSU leads the nation with 4.72 goals scored per game, and a power play that has a 37 percent success rate, while Northeastern ranks first in the nation with just 1.03 goals allowed per game. Yale has the top penalty-killing unit in the NCAA, clicking at almost 95 percent, and is also tied for the national lead with eight shorthanded scores, while UMD ranks in the top 10 in goals scored per game (3.50) and power-play efficiency (26.6 percent).