Healthy again, Gracie Ostertag enjoying last shot with Gophers women’s hockey
Of all the talented players the Gophers hockey team had returning for an extra season this year, Gracie Ostertag kinda flew under the radar.
She didn’t play in the Olympics last winter like Abbey Murphy and Grace Zumwinkle did, and she didn’t win the Patty Kazmaier Award like Taylor Heise did. In fact, Ostertag, sidelined by injuries, hadn’t played much anywhere over the previous two seasons.
But don’t sleep on Gracie Ostertag, who, after being limited by injuries to just 19 games over the previous two seasons, returns as one of four senior captains and, for all intents and purposes, is a major addition for No. 2 Minnesota (6-0-0).
“A hundred percent,” coach Brad Frost said.
Re-teamed with longtime partner Madeline Wethington on the blue line, her presence in the back end will be important this weekend as the Gophers travel to Columbus for two games against defending national champion and top-ranked Ohio State (8-0-0).
“I’ve been out for almost two years now,” Ostertag said Wednesday. “I feel like you can really kind of miss out on things when you’re injured and not able to really be present with everyone. So, having the opportunity to be back is really just amazing.”
After scoring four goals among seven points in 14 games last season, Ostertag got tangled with some teammates during practice and tore the anterior cruciate ligament in a knee and didn’t play again. She had surgery in January.
Minnesota went on to earn the No. 1 ranking for several weeks and win the WCHA regular-season championship before losing to Minnesota Duluth in the second round of the NCAA tournament, a disappointing one-and-done for a team aiming for its seventh NCAA national championship.
Virtually every player from that team is back, and Murphy and Grace Zumwinkle return after winning silver medals in Beijing. Because she played so little last season — although not little enough to earn a medical redshirt — Ostertag’s presence is almost a similar addition. She and Wethington were the defensive pairing that played against an opponent’s top line.
“Kind of our shutdown pair,” Frost said, “and they were doing a great job when she had an unfortunate injury in practice. But she’s back. She’s not where she probably wants to be yet, but she’s really close.”
Ostertag, from Shakopee, and Wethington, of Edina, have been a blue line team for a long time. “Since we were really little,” Wethington said. “Actually, probably 8 years old.” That includes gold medals at the 2016, 2017 and 2018 IIHF world championships.
Now they’re back together, playing against some of the best players in the world.
“We complement each other really well,” said Wethington, another fifth-year returner. “She’s so solid defensively, and it allows me to have that ability to be free as I join the play. And she’s just a great person overall and a great captain.”
Ostertag played full seasons as a freshman and sophomore, doing a lot of the important things that don’t show up on the stat sheet (she had 17 points in 75 games) — winning in the corners, starting breakouts, blocking shots — before starting to get more involved offensively last season.
That was cut short by her injury, but the COVID season of 2019-20 has given her one more chance to play with her teammates.
Asked if finally being healthy might mean joining some of those teammates with Team USA again, Ostertag declined to look ahead. She has plenty on her plate.
“I guess we’ll see what happens in the future,” she said, “but for me, having the opportunity to play one more year as a Gopher, that’s all I’m concentrating on right now.”
