Minnesota Whitecaps


The Minnesota Whitecaps are a professional women's ice hockey team based in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area. Established in 2004, they are a member of the National Women's Hockey League. The Whitecaps play their home games at the TRIA Rink in Saint Paul, the practice rink of the Minnesota Wild.
The team was independent, following the dissolution of the Western Women's Hockey League after the 2010–11 season. While independent, the Whitecaps' schedule consisted mostly of games against women's college ice hockey squads. The team also played some exhibition games against teams in the new National Women's Hockey League during the league's inaugural 2015–16 season but was not an official member of that league. On May 15, 2018, the National Women's Hockey League announced they had acquired the Whitecaps and the team would officially join the league for the 2018–19 season.
The Whitecaps are the only team to have won both a Clarkson Cup and an Isobel Cup championship, the two major championships in professional women's hockey in North America winning the Clarkson Cup in 2010 as a member of the WWHL and the Isobel Cup in 2019 in their inaugural season in the NWHL.
The Whitecaps have also two junior teams: U19 and U17.

History

WWHL era

The Whitecaps were formed by two Minneapolis–Saint Paul area hockey dads, Jack Brodt and Dwayne Schmidgall in 2004. They wanted to give their daughters – Winny Brodt, former Minnesota Golden Gophers player and U.S. national team member, and Jenny Schmidgall Potter, a four-time U.S. Olympic medalist – a place to play after college. The Whitecaps were part of the Western Women's Hockey League 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 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 took three regular season championships in the WWHL, 2008–09, 2009–10 and 2010–11, qualifying to participate in the Clarkson Cup tournament for the Canadian women's ice hockey championships against teams from the Canadian Women's Hockey League.
During the qualifying WWHL rounds 2008–09, the Whitecaps won the semifinal match 4–0 over the Edmonton Chimos. The next day, the Whitecaps defeated the Calgary Oval X-Treme by the score of 2–0 in the championship match in Calgary. During the 2009 Clarkson Cup, the Whitecaps upset both the Brampton Thunder and the Calgary Oval X-Treme. The Whitecaps then played in the final match of the tournament but lost by a score of 3–1 to the Montreal Stars, who would take home the Clarkson Cup.
The following season, 2009–10, the Whitecaps took the WWHL Championship. The first match of the WWHL qualifying round took place on February 5, 2010, at the Minnesota Pagel Ice Arena and the Whitecaps defeated the Strathmore Rockies by a score of 6–3. During the second match on February 6 at Victory Memorial Ice Arena, the Whitecaps beat Strathmore by a score of 4–1. The third match on February 7 at the Graham Arena, Strathmore won 4–3 over the Whitecaps. The Whitecaps 2–1 record advanced the team to the 2010 Clarkson Cup tournament in Richmond Hill, Ontario. Whitecaps beat the Brampton Thunder 4–0 in final game and won their only Clarkson Cup.
The Whitecaps were defeated in all three of their round-robin matches in the 2011 Clarkson Cup.

Independent era

The Canadian Women's Hockey League announced on April 19, 2011, that it would merge with the Western Women's Hockey League for the 2011–12 season. The merger was to feature one team based in Edmonton and Calgary and would be combination of the former WWHL franchises, the Edmonton Chimos and Strathmore Rockies, called Team Alberta.
However, the CWHL decided against adding the Whitecaps and Manitoba Maple Leafs. The business manager of the Whitecaps, Kristie Minkoff, accused the Canadian Women's Hockey League of collusion against the participation of Whitecaps in the 2012 Clarkson Cup and making the team pay $200,000 expansion fee to the CWHL in order to play. The two teams attempted to continue operating the league, but lost several board members and were unable to put together a 2011–12 season. The two teams played a number of exhibition games while the league looked to expand with new teams. The WWHL never reorganized and effectively ceased operations. While independent, the Whitecaps' schedule consisted mostly of games against women's college ice hockey squads.
While independent, the Whitecaps did not have a home rink and reached out to Minnesota youth hockey programs that could either afford to buy ice time at rinks suitable for Whitecaps home games or had ice time donated to them. In exchange, the Whitecaps used part of that ice time to put on clinics for the youth players, who received free tickets to the games and whose hockey associations received 100 percent of the proceeds from ticket sales. Some programs raised more than $1,500 in a single night from the arrangement.
During the 2015–16 season, a new National Women's Hockey League began play in the Northeast United States, and was the first women's hockey league to pay its players. The Whitecaps played four exhibition games against the NWHL teams, but was not an official member of that league. For the 2016–17 season, Whitecaps scheduled no games against CWHL or NWHL teams, but had several games scheduled against NCAA teams and Shattuck-St. Mary's School.
In February 2018, Kate Schipper and Sadie Lundquist were invited to represent the Whitecaps at the NWHL All-Star Game and Skills Challenge, which were held at TRIA Rink in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

NWHL era

On May 15, 2018, the NWHL announced that it had an agreement in principle to acquire ownership of the Whitecaps and the team joined the NWHL as an expansion team for the 2018–19 season. The then made an agreement with the Minnesota Wild to use TRIA Rink, the Wild's practice facility, as the site for Whitecaps home games. It was reported that the Whitecaps had hired 2018 Olympic gold medal-winning coach Robb Stauber and his wife Shivaun Stauber as coaches, sharing the head coaching responsibilities, but the parties never signed a contract. Whitecaps' founder and general manager Jack Brodt then returned to the coaching position he held prior to joining the NWHL and hired former University of Minnesota player Ronda Curtin Engelhardt as co-coach.
On August 21, the Whitecaps unveiled their new logo. During their first NWHL season, league commissioner Dani Rylan stated that the Whitecaps were the first NWHL team to turn a profit by having a league-leading 500 season tickets sold, significant merchandise sales, and all home games were sold out through eight games. On March 3, 2019, the Whitecaps finished their inaugural NWHL season as the first seed and regular season champions. On March 17, 2019, the Whitecaps beat the Buffalo Beauts 2–1 in overtime to win the Isobel Cup league playoff championship. The Whitecaps also ended the season with the highest average attendance by selling out all ten home games including the playoffs.
After the season ended, Whitecaps founder Jack Brodt stated the NWHL had never signed the contract the purchase the team and had remained privately controlled.

Season-by-season

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, Pts = Points
SeasonGPWLTGFGAPtsFinishPlayoffs
2004–05128313423402ndLost in First Round
2005–062411857965273rdLost Final
2006–072413917464283rdLost Final
2007–082415617050332ndLost Final
2008–0922183118144382ndWWHL Champions; lost the Clarkson Cup final game
2009–101210204424201stWWHL Champions and Won Clarkson Cup
2010–1118171012043351stWWHL Champions; lost Clarkson Cup
SeasonGPWLOTLGFGAPtsFinishPlayoffs
2018–191612405334241stWon Isobel Cup championship game, 2–1 vs. Buffalo Beauts
2019–20241752106523641stTBD Isobel Cup championship game vs. Boston Pride

Season events

2008–09

;Exhibition
DateOpponentLocationScoreGoal scorers
October 1, 2010Minnesota DuluthDuluth, MN3–4 Jenny Potter, Iya Gavrilova, Saara Tuominen
October 8, 2010Minnesota Golden GophersRidder Arena2–3Allie Thunstrom, Saara Tuominen
October 22, 2010Bemidji State BeaversEveleth, MN3–1Allie Thunstrom, Iya Gavrilova, Jenny Potter
October 23, 2010Bemidji State BeaversEveleth, MN1–5Jessica Koizumi

;2011 Clarkson Cup
DateMatchWinner
March 24, 2011Minnesota – MontrealMontreal Stars 5–1
March 25, 2011Minnesota – TorontoToronto Aeros 6–0
March 26, 2011Minnesota – BramptonBrampton Thunder 7–2

Independent schedules

Since 2011–12 season, Whitecaps played only exhibition games against CWHL, NCAA, high school and NWHL teams.

Exhibition games

Players

Awards and honors