The Isobel Cup is coming to St. Paul! The Isobel Cup, the NWHL league’s championship trophy, is awarded annually to their playoff champion at the end of each season. The cup is named after Lady Isobel Gathorne-Hardy, the daughter of Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, donor of the famed NHL trophy Stanley Cup.

This year Minnesota joined the league as an expansion team. They have sold out every game at the Tria Rink in St. Paul. The Minnesota Whitecaps have finished their first season in the league with a record of 12 wins and 4 losses and the regular season champs. Now it’s time to play for the cup to finish off an incredible season. The semi final game was to have been played on Sunday against the Metropolitan Riveters. Our Minnesota weather played a pivotal roll in changing all of those plans as the opponents couldn’t get here to play due to travel issues. 

The show must go on, so now the game will be made up on Friday at Tria Rink in St. Paul with the winner of the Whitecaps and Riveters moving on to the Isobel Cup final.  The final is being played two days later, on Sunday, March 17th in St. Paul, against the Buffalo Beauts who won their semi final game on Sunday. the league made the decision to keep everyone in Minnesota to play on Sunday even if the Whitecaps don’t win on Friday. 

The decision was spelled out in detail on the NWHL website this morning. They could have postponed the Final for one week and played it at the highest seeded location, but that would put the Isobel Cup against the NCAA Women’s Final Four next weekend and they have an informal agreement to not do that. 

Best wishes to our Whitecaps on Friday. The games are available to watch on a Twitter live stream on Friday and Sunday for free.