MINNEAPOLIS — Megan Wolfe scored early and Amanda Leveille made 19 saves, leading Minnesota to a 4-1 victory over Harvard on Sunday for the third women’s hockey championship in four seasons for the Golden Gophers.

Hannah Brandt, Megan Lorence and Rachael Bona scored in the third period for Minnesota (34-3-4), which returned the trophy to the west after a one-year slip.

Sarah Edney’s bad-angle shot from the left corner got past Leveille with 4:33 left, trimmed the lead to 2-1 and giving Harvard (27-6-3) hope, but Lorence answered with a wrist flip past Crimson goalie Emerance Maschmeyer less than 90 seconds later.

The Golden Gophers lost to Clarkson in the title game. Over 15 seasons of NCAA competition, 14 championships have been won by the three Western Collegiate Hockey Association powers: Minnesota (5), Minnesota Duluth (5), and Wisconsin (4).

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Minnesota State received the top overall seed for the NCAA tournament, followed by North Dakota, Boston University and Miami (Ohio) as the other No. 1 seeds.

The 16-team field includes six from the eight-team National Collegiate Hockey Conference and just one from the Big Ten.

Hockey East champion Boston University, led by Hobey Baker Award finalist and likely high NHL draft pick Jack Eichel, will face Yale in a first-round game at Manchester, New Hampshire.

Two other Hockey East teams – Providence and Boston College – were placed in the East Regional in Providence, Rhode Island. Providence, with goalie Jon Gillies of South Portland, plays NCHC champion Miami, and Boston College will meet Denver.

The four regional winners will advance to the Frozen Four in Boston beginning April 9.

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