February 08, 2025
Sports

Downers Grove South graduate Cara Piazza a big part of Minnesota's hockey national title

By JASON ROSSI
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The University of Minnesota's Cara Piazza makes a play at the front of the net in a game against Wisconsin this season. Piazza, a Downers Grove South graduate from Darien, helped the Golden Gophers repeat as NCAA national champions this year. (Photo provided)

MINNEAPOLIS – College hockey has been kind to Cara Piazza.

The 2014 Downers Grove South graduate from Darien recently helped the University of Minnesota women's team make a bit of history. The Golden Gophers topped Boston College 3-1 on March 20 to repeat at NCAA champion.

It was the third time Minnesota has won back-to-back championships and it was the Gophers' NCAA-best seventh national title.

"Being able to go back-to-back as NCAA champions was unbelievable," Piazza said. "It's not something that comes around very often."

After going 34-3-4 to win the title in 2014-15, Minnesota finished 35-4-1 this season. The records were similar each season, but there were differences between the two.

Last season the Gophers won the Western Collegiate Hockey Association regular season title by 11 points, which included three wins and tie against rival Wisconsin. This year Minnesota and Wisconsin split their four regular season meetings as the Badgers unseated the Gophers as WCHA champs. Wisconsin also defeated defeated Minnesota for the WCHA tournament title.

"Last year our team was pretty well defined as the best team in the country, but this year there were a lot of question marks," Piazza said. "We weren't the No. 1 team, so people were a little unsure of us."

After losing to Wisconsin twice in the regular season and 1-0 in the WCHA tournament final, the Gophers won the game that counted most as they downed the Badgers 3-2 in overtime of a national semifinal on March 18.

Another big difference this season was Piazza's role on the team. She saw more time on the power play this year, which coincided with a doubling of her point total to 34. She nearly quadrupled her number of assists, going from six last year to 23 this season.

"Last year I was just getting used to the college game and I didn't have much confidence on the ice," she said. "I spent the whole summer training and working out, so that was a confidence booster."

Piazza plans to split time this offseason training with the team in Minneapolis and training on her own in Elmhurst and at American Heartland Ice Arena in Lincolnwood with the goal of helping Minnesota to a third straight national title. The loss of five seniors, including starting goalie Amanda Leveille and her .947 career save percentage and 1.18 career goals against average, will be tough to overcome, but the Gophers will be ready for the challenge.

"The seniors were a huge part of our team, but we have a lot of good freshmen coming in and people who will keep improving," Piazza said. "The big thing next year is that people are ready to move into bigger roles. Every year we have a good class of seniors and we know we are going to lose them, so people have to be ready to step into bigger roles."

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Cara Piazza bio

Class: Sophomore

Height: 5-foot-7

Position: Forward

Key 2015-16 stats: 11 goals, plus-26 rating, 62.8 faceoff percentage