Minnesota Whitecaps - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Minnesota Whitecaps are a professional women's ice hockey team in the Western Women's Hockey League

Western Women's Hockey League

The Western Women's Hockey League is one of two major women's hockey leagues in Canada. The league was established in 2004, and consisted of teams in Canada and one from the United States...

(WWHL). The team play its home games in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota area. The Whitecaps do not have a home rink, and so must reach out to Minnesota youth hockey programs that can either afford to buy ice time at rinks suitable for Whitecaps home games or have had that ice time donated to them. In exchange, the Whitecaps use part of that ice time to put on clinics for the youth players, who receive free tickets to the games and whose hockey associations receive 100 percent of the proceeds from ticket sales. Some programs have raised more than $1,500 in a single night from the arrangement.

History

The Whitecaps had been part of the Western Women's Hockey League

Western Women's Hockey League

The Western Women's Hockey League is one of two major women's hockey leagues in Canada. The league was established in 2004, and consisted of teams in Canada and one from the United States...

from the fall of 2004 until the summer of 2006. In July 2006 it was announced that team along with other WWHL teams would be joining the National Women's Hockey League

National Women's Hockey League

The National Women's Hockey League was a women's ice hockey league. This League was in service between 1999 and 2007.-History:The NWHL superseded the old Central Ontario Women's Hockey League in 1998-99. After the old COWHL dropped down to three teams in 1997-98, the new league expanded to...

(NWHL) for the 2006-07 season. However, this was short lived as the NWHL and WWHL could not reach an agreement upon a playoff schedule. As a result, the merger was not consummated. With the collapse of the NWHL in the summer of 2007, the Western Women's Hockey League was a completely independent league . The Whitecaps have also 2 junior teams: U19 and U17 .

Season-by-season

See also: 2004–05 WWHL season
2004–05 WWHL season
The 2004–05 WWHL season was the first season of the Western Women's Hockey League. Previously this league did not exist and the western teams were in a division of the National Women's Hockey League.-Final standings:...
See also: 2005–06 WWHL season
2005–06 WWHL season
The 2005–06 WWHL season was the second season of the Western Women's Hockey League. The Calgary Oval X-Treme enjoyed an undefeated season and claimed the WWHL Champions cup.-Final standings:...
See also: 2006–07 WWHL season
2006–07 WWHL season
The 2006–07 WWHL season was the third season of the Western Women's Hockey League. The Calgary Oval X-Treme enjoyed an undefeated season and claimed the WWHL Champions cup.-Exhibition:...
See also: 2007–08 WWHL season
2007–08 WWHL season
The 2007–08 WWHL season was the fourth season of the Western Women's Hockey League. The Calgary Oval X-Treme defeated the Minnesota Whitecaps to claim the WWHL Champions cup.-Final standings:...
See also: 2008–09 WWHL season
2008–09 WWHL season
-Final standings:Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, Pts = Points. -Playoffs:semi-finals*March 7, 2009: Calgary 9, Starthmore 0*March 7, 2009: Minnesota 4, Edmonton 0-Final WWHL Championship:...
See also: 2009–10 WWHL season
2009–10 WWHL season
-Final standings:Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, Pts = Points.The Calgary Oval X-Treme suspended his activities for the season 2009-10 but will spend the upcoming season re-establishing a home arena and training returning Olympic team...
See also: 2010–11 WWHL season
2010–11 WWHL season
The 2010–11 WWHL season will consist of 4 teams: Strathmore Rockies, Edmonton Chimos, Minnesota Whitecaps and a new team Manitoba Maple Leafs. The Calgary Oval X-Treme suspended active participation in the league in 2009-10...

Year by year|-
Year	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
2004–05	12	8	3	1	34	23	40
2005–06	24	11	8	5	79	65	27
2006–07	24	13	9	1	74	64	28
2007–08	24	15	6	1	70	50	33
2008–09	22	18	3	1	181	44	38
2009–10	12	10	2	0	44	24	20
2010–11	18	17	1	0	120	43	35

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, Pts = Points,

Season standings

= Indicates First Place finish

= Indicates championship

Year	League	Reg. Season	Playoffs
2004-05	Western Women's Hockey League	2nd	Lost in First Round
2005-06	Western Women's Hockey League	3rd	Lost Final
2006-07	Western Women's Hockey League	3rd	Lost Final
2007-08	Western Women's Hockey League	2rd	Lost Final
2008-09	Western Women's Hockey League	2nd	WWHL Champions but lost the Clarkson Cup final game
2009-10	Western Women's Hockey League	1st Overall	WWHL Champions and Won Clarkson Cup
2010-11	Western Women's Hockey League	1st Overall	WWHL Champions but lost Clarkson Cup 2011 Clarkson Cup The 2011 Clarkson Cup will be contested at the Barrie Molson Centre in Barrie, Ontario, Canada. The four competing teams will include three from the Canadian Women's Hockey League and one from the Western Women's Hockey League. All teams play each other in a round robin Thursday March 24 through...

2008-09

January 16: The Whitecaps participated in Hockey Day Minnesota. The team played the USA Selects Team.
March 8: The Whitecaps defeated the Calgary Oval X-Treme on March 8 in the WWHL Championship game shutting out Calgary by a score of 2-0. The Minnesota Whitecaps also won the semi-final game on March 7 against the Edmonton Chimos by a score of 4-0.
March 21: The Whitecaps participated in the inaugural Clarkson Cup
Clarkson Cup
The Clarkson Cup is an ice hockey trophy, which since 2009 has been awarded to the winner of the Canadian Women's Hockey Championship. Like the Stanley Cup, it was created by and named after a former Governor General of Canada: Adrienne Clarkson....

. The final game pitted the Montreal Stars, the top team from the Canadian Women's Hockey League, against the Minnesota Whitecaps, the top team from the WWHL. Montreal won the Cup by a score of 3-1. Sanya Sandahl was selected as Minnesota's player of the game.

2009-10

November 16: Chisago Lakes was host to the first scrimmage of the season between the Whitecaps and the USA National team.
December 21: Jenny Potter, Angela Ruggiero, Julie Chu, Natalie Darwitz, Caitlin Cahow, Molly Engstrom, Lisa Chesson, Jinelle Zaugg-Siergiej and Karen Thatcher all former Minnesota Whitecaps will be playing in the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games on February 12–28.
On February 8, 2010, the Whitecaps clinched the WWHL Championship. The first game of the series on Friday February 5, was held at Minnetonka’s Pagel Ice Arena hosted by Minnetonka Youth Hockey Association. The Whitecaps beat Strathmore by a score of 6-3. Game two of the series was hosted by the NOVAS Girls High School Hockey team on Saturday, February 6, at Victory Memorial Ice Arena. The Whitecaps will look forward to competing in the Clarkson Cup Championship in Richmond Hill, Ontario
Richmond Hill, Ontario
Richmond Hill is a town located in Southern Ontario, Canada in the central portion of York Region, Ontario. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area, being located about halfway between Toronto and Lake Simcoe...

, Canada from March 26-28.
March 28: The Whitecaps defeat the Brampton Thunder
Brampton Thunder
The Brampton Canadettes-Thunder is an ice hockey team in the Canadian Women's Hockey League. The Canadettes-Thunder play its home games at the Powerade Centre in Brampton, Ontario.-Team history:...

by a score of 4-0 to win the Clarkson Cup.

Exhibition

|Fri Oct 1 > |Fri, Oct 08 > |Fri Oct 22 > |Sat Oct 23 >

Date	Opponent	Location	Score	Goal scorers
Minnesota Duluth	Duluth, MN	3-4 (Shootout)	Jenny Potter, Iya Gavrilova, Saara Tuominen
Minnesota Golden Gophers	Ridder Arena	2-3	Allie Thunstrom, Saara Tuominen Saara Tuominen Saara Elisa Tuominen has competed for Finland in ice hockey. At the 2006 Torino Olympics, Tuominen scored one goal and four assists...
Bemidji State Beavers	Eveleth, MN	3-1	Allie Thunstrom, Iya Gavrilova, Jenny Potter
Bemidji State Beavers	Eveleth, MN	1-5	Jessica Koizumi

Edmonton Chimos

December 3rd to 5th: The Whitecaps hosted the Edmonton Chimos
Edmonton Chimos
The Edmonton Chimos are a professional women's ice hockey team in the Western Women's Hockey League . The team played its home games at River Cree Twin Arenas in Edmonton, Canada. The Owner is Arlan Maschmayer.- History :...

, the longest run senior women's hockey team in North America. The first game was held at Andover Ice Arena and goals were scored by several Olympians including Gigi Marvin and Allie Thunstrom (Minnesota) and Meaghan Mikkelson
Meaghan Mikkelson
Meaghan Mikkelson , is a member of the Canada women's national ice hockey team and also plays for the Edmonton Chimos . Mikkelson also won a gold medal during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. She was selected third overall by Team Alberta CWHL in the 2011 CWHL Draft...

(Edmonton), respectively. The following day, both teams faced off at Minnetonka's Pagel Arena. In a closely fought game, Meaghan Pezon scored the game winning goal as the Whitecaps won by a 4-3 tally. The final game had a charitable tone as donations for the local Chaska area food shelf and Toys-For-Tots were accepted before game time. Despite a 2-2 score after the first period, the Whitecaps opened the game with three unanswered goal to grab a 5-2 win. After the game the players from both teams signed autographs.

Manitoba Maple Leafs

January 15th: The Whitecaps took on the Manitoba Maple Leafs in a battle of the border game. The Whitecaps worked with St. Luke’s Orthopedics & Sports Medicine training to instruct young players on how to exercise using proper techniques. Amy Stech scored first for the Minnesota Whitecaps while Briana Jentner scored the second goal of the game. Manitoba replied with a goal in the first minute of play with an unassisted goal from Crystal Sager. Allie Thunstrom scored to give the Whitecaps a 3-1 lead. Maple Leafs skater Chantal Larocque scored twice to tie the game. In the third period, Amy Stech opened the scoring for Minnesota. Allie Sanchez would provide the Whitecaps with a 5-3 lead. Allie Thunstrom and Meaghan Pezon put the puck behind Manitoba goalie Melissa Kanzelman to increase the lead. Manitoba skater Crystal Sager made it 7-4 Minnesota, but Thunstrom scored to extend the lead to four goals. Briana Jentner would score again, and Thunstrom would get the hat trick for a 10-4 lead. Manitoba’s Melissa Jacques made it 10 –5 Whitecaps as that would be the final tally.

Strathmore Rockies

January 31 to February 2, 2011: The Whitecaps travelled to Strathmore, Alberta to play the Strathmore Rockies in a three game series. Game one and two were held at the Strathmore Family Arena. The final game was at the Edge School Ice Arena. In the first game, the final score was 8-3 as the Whitecaps fired fifty shots against Rockies goaltender Amanda Squire. The following day, the Whitecaps took advantage of four Rockies penalties in the first period to jump to a 2-0 lead. Gigi Marvin would score two goals as the Whitecaps bested the Rockies by a 6-3 tally. On February 2, the Whitecaps and Rockies faced off at 8:30 am. Strathmore opened the scoring but quickly fell behind by a 2-1 score. Gigi Marvin had a hat trick as the Whitecaps won 9-3 and swept the series.

Current Roster

Goalies
Number		\|Player		\|Former Team	\|Hometown
39	United States	Megan Van Beusekom	Minnesota Whitecaps	Loretto, Minnesota
30	United States	Kim Hanlon	University of Minnesota	Blaine, Minnesota
20	United States	Sanya Sandahl	Cornell University	Duluth, Minnesota

{| width=100%
!colspan=2 |Defense
|- bgcolor="#dddddd"
!width=5%|Number
!width=5%|
!!width=10%|Player
!!width=10%|Former Team
!!width=10%|Hometown
|-
|- bgcolor="#eeeeee"
|align=center|33
|align=center|

United States
|align=center|Rachael Drazan

Rachael Drazan

Rachael Drazan played several games for the 2009–10 United States national women's ice hockey team Drazan also played hockey for the Minnesota Golden Gophers women's ice hockey program...

|align=center|Winny Brodt

Winny Brodt Brown

Winny Brodt Winny Brodt Winny Brodt (born February 18, 1978, is an American ice hockey player. She was the first ever winner of the Minnesota Ms. Hockey Award in 1996....

|align=center|Chelsey Brodt
|align=center| Minnesota Whitecaps
|align=center| Roseville, Minnesota
|-
{|
!colspan=2 |Forwards
|- bgcolor="#dddddd"
!width=5%|Number
!width=5%|
!!width=10%|Player
!!width=10%|Former Team
!!width=10%|Hometown
|-
|-bgcolor="#eeeeee"
|align=center|77
|align=center|

Russia
|align=center|Iya Gavrilova

Iya Gavrilova

Iya Gavrilova is a hockey player who competes for Russia women's national ice hockey team. She represented Russia in women's ice hockey in the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics...

|align=center|Allie Thunstrom

Allie Thunstrom

Allie Thunstrom has been a member of the United States national women's ice hockey team since 2010. She won a silver medal at the 2010 Four Nations Cup contested in St. John's, Newfoundland. She plays also for Minnesota Whitecaps, a professional women's ice hockey team in the Western Women's...

|align=center|Brooke White-Lancette

Brooke White-Lancette

Brooke White is a women's professional ice hockey player and co-founder of the Minnesota Whitecaps of the Western Women's Hockey League, as well as a hockey skills coach ....

|align=center| Gisele Marvin

Gisele Marvin

Gisele Marvin is a member of the United States national women's ice hockey team. Marvin won a silver medal at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games...

|align=center|Sammy Nixon
|align=center| St. Cloud State University
|align=center| Blaine, Minnesota
|-
|}

Coaching Staff

General Manager:
Head Coach: Jack Brodt
Assistant Coach: Dwayne Schmidgall
Assistant Coach: Jim Minkoff
Director of Marketing: Kristie Minkoff
Team Physician: Dr. Howard Fidler
Athletic Trainer: Dr. Andy Masis

Awards and honors

Natalie Darwitz, Western Women’s Hockey League Most Valuable Player (2006–07)
2008 Breaking Barriers Award: Presented at National Girls and Women in Sports Day in St. Paul
2009 Clarkson Cup Top role model: Julie Chu
2009 Clarkson Cup Top defense: Caitlin Cahow
In March 2010, the Whitecaps became the first American team to win the Clarkson Cup
Clarkson Cup
The Clarkson Cup is an ice hockey trophy, which since 2009 has been awarded to the winner of the Canadian Women's Hockey Championship. Like the Stanley Cup, it was created by and named after a former Governor General of Canada: Adrienne Clarkson....

2010 Clarkson Cup
2010 Clarkson Cup
The 2010 Clarkson Cup was contested at the Elgin Barrow Arena in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada. The four competing teams included the Brampton Thunder, Minnesota Whitecaps, Mississauga Chiefs, and Montreal Stars.-Qualification:...

Most Valuable Player: Julie Chu
2010 Clarkson Cup Final, Player of the Game, Brooke White-Lancette
Brooke White-Lancette
Brooke White is a women's professional ice hockey player and co-founder of the Minnesota Whitecaps of the Western Women's Hockey League, as well as a hockey skills coach ....

Notable players

Caitlin Cahow
Caitlin Cahow
Caitlin Cahow is an American ice hockey player. She attended the Foote School, where she graduated in 2000 and then attended the Hotchkiss School where she graduated in 2003 after playing soccer, field hockey, ice hockey and lacrosse...
Lisa Chesson
Lisa Chesson
Lisa Chesson is an American ice hockey defenseman. She was named to the United States women’s ice hockey team for the 2010 Winter Olympics....
Julie Chu
Julie Chu
Julie Chu is an American Olympic ice hockey player who plays the position of forward on the United States women's ice hockey team and the Montreal Stars. Chu's hometown is Fairfield, Connecticut, although she resided in Cambridge, Massachusetts during her college years while playing hockey for...
Natalie Darwitz
Natalie Darwitz
Natalie Darwitz is an American ice hockey player. Natalie has been the Captain of the US Women's National Team since the start of the 2007-08 season...
Molly Engstrom
Molly Engstrom
Molly Engstrom is an American ice hockey player of Swedish descent. She is a member of the United States women's national ice hockey team. She won a bronze medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics and a silver medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics...
Jenny Potter
Jenny Potter
Jenny Schmidgall-Potter is an American ice hockey player. She is a member of the United States women's national ice hockey team. She won a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics, silver medals at the 2002 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Olympics, and a bronze medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics...
Manon Rheaume
Manon Rhéaume
Manon Rhéaume is a Canadian ice hockey goaltender. An Olympic silver medalist, she achieved a number of historic firsts during her career, including becoming the first and only woman ever to play in a National Hockey League exhibition game.In 1992 Rhéaume signed a contract with the Tampa Bay...
Angela Ruggiero
Angela Ruggiero
Angela Marie Ruggiero is an American ice hockey defenseman. She is a member of the United States women's national ice hockey team. She is also the author of a memoir about her hockey experiences and a former contestant on the NBC reality show The Apprentice...
Karen Thatcher
Karen Thatcher
Karen Thatcher is an American ice hockey forward. She was named to the United States women’s ice hockey team for the 2010 Winter Olympics.-NCAA:...
Jinelle Zaugg-Siergiej
Jinelle Zaugg-Siergiej
Jinelle Zaugg was a member of the 2009–10 United States national women's ice hockey team and won a silver medal at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Zaugg also played hockey for the Wisconsin Badgers and won the NCAA title in 2006...
Brooke White-Lancette
Brooke White-Lancette
Brooke White is a women's professional ice hockey player and co-founder of the Minnesota Whitecaps of the Western Women's Hockey League, as well as a hockey skills coach ....