Gophers' Hannah Brandt, other seniors, pursuing third NCAA women's hockey title

Hannah Brandt has played in three consecutive NCAA hockey championship games, winning twice. But the Gophers senior insists she doesn't get caught up in wondering if this season's team has the same chops.

"Like we learned a couple years ago, you're never safe until that final buzzer goes off in the championship game," Brandt said, referring to the team's 5-4 loss to Clarkson in the 2014 title game.

The Gophers (31-3-1) enter this weekend's WCHA Final Face-off at Ridder Arena on another serious roll, ranked No. 2 in the national polls, riding a six-game winning streak.

They were cruising along just fine even before last month, when they re-added Amanda Kessel, who won the 2013 Patty Kazmaier Award, given to the nation's top player. Kessel hadn't played since the 2014 Olympics because of lingering concussion symptoms.

In eight games, Kessel has produced nine points — five goals, four assists. Of course, the 24-year-old senior Kessel set the bar pretty high three years ago, when she averaged 2.7 points per game for a Gophers team that went 41-0.

"It's unrealistic to think she'd be at that level after playing a month in the last 2½ years," coach Brad Frost said. "I've seen great progress. She's progressed significantly with her legs. She's feeling more confident. She's certainly a threat every time she's on the ice.

"I do believe she'll be back to where she was in that Kazmaier year; it's just a matter of time."

Then again, the national competition has improved, too. Consider:

• No. 3 Wisconsin won the WCHA regular-season title. The Badgers swept Minnesota in Madison three months ago and held on to win the title by one point despite getting swept by the Gophers two weeks ago at Ridder Arena.

• No. 1 Boston College is 36-0, with a chance to complete its own perfect season, though at least two WCHA teams could have something to say about that at the Women's Frozen Four in two weeks, in Durham, N.H.

• The three Kazmaier finalists this year are Wisconsin goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens, Northeastern forward Kendall Coyne, and BC's Alex Carpenter, who won the award last season. In other words, the Gophers got shut out. They had two of the top 10 finalists — Brandt and Cameranesi.

In 2013, when the Gophers finished their perfect season, they also had all three Kazmaier finalists: Kessel, goalie Noora Raty and defenseman Megan Bozek. Brandt was a top three finalist the past two years, but an undisclosed injury cost her four games and lowered her point production this season.

"People thought because we lost those three games in the first half that we weren't having a good season," Frost said. "And it couldn't have been further from the truth."

Now the Gophers and Wisconsin appear to be locks to host NCAA quarterfinal games next week, though they will be jostling for national seeding this weekend. North Dakota and Minnesota Duluth likely need to win the WCHA tournament to keep their seasons alive.