"The special thing for me is watching everyone believe in the process of all we've done." Lopes' Head Coach Reid Miller, postgame speech to team Sunday
 
And now they have much more to do.
 
Entering the 2025 Western Women's Collegiate Hockey League Playoffs this weekend having dropped to the No. 4 seed in the final week of the regular season, the Grand Canyon University Women's Hockey team stunned the four-team field, scoring 15 goals in the final two days of action and routing top-seeded University of Colorado, 6-2, in Sunday's championship game at AZ Ice Gilbert in Gilbert. The win sends the upstart Lopes to the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division 1 National Tournament for the first time in the program's nine-year history. The Lopes finished 2-1 in the three-day tournament, and reached the title match for the second time in the last three years. The result was the only loss of the tournament for the Buffaloes (19-6 overall, 12-2 WWCHL), who advanced to the title game after gutting out a pair of overtime wins in the tournament's first two days.

Friday: #1 Colorado 3, #4 GCU 2 (F/OT)

The Buffaloes' first overtime win Friday was against a Lopes' team that seemed to still be stinging from two disappointing road losses to end the regular season at the University of Utah, who leapfrogged the Lopes into the tournament's 3^rd seed as a result. The Lopes' offense struggled to get anything moving early, managing just four shots on goal in the first period, but GCU goalie Hannah Schneidmiller was in midseason form, swatting away all 21 CU shots to salvage a scoreless tie after one. When the teams came back on the ice for the 2^nd period, the Lopes were livelier, resulting in their only lead of game on midseason signee Courtney Briggs' 2^nd goal of the year two minutes in. Schneidmiller protected the 1-0 lead until the middle of the frame when Buffs' forward Amanda Wallace first set up Sophie O'Brien for the tying goal in the eighth minute, then cashed in her own goal three minutes later to give CU a 2-1 edge heading to the final period. The Colorado offense recharged for 21 more shots on goal in the final 20 minutes of regulation, but once again, Schneidmiller wouldn't budge, keeping CU at bay while Lopes' freshman forward Ava Johnson knotted the game up at 2-2 midway through the 3^rd on assists from Natalya Hooey and fellow frosh Sophie Armit. The final 12 minutes of regulation was a virtual standstill, sending the teams to the extra session, which was much of the same until the Buffs found room in the Lopes' zone, and O'Brien slapped it past Schneidmiller for the gamewinner with 1:06 left.
"That loss just fueled the fire for us," said Lopes' forward Reese Gingrich. "After that, we had to get it done and keep working just to get to the championship game. That's exactly what we did and I'm just so proud of this team."

Saturday: #4 GCU 9, #2 Colorado State 1
 
The Lopes' chances of even reaching Sunday were out of their hands, and it was the Buffaloes themselves that handed them the championship berth. The tournament's tiebreakers dictated that teams who split their first two tournament games would break the tie by head-to-head competition, so if CU had lost their early-afternoon game Saturday with Utah, they'd still own the tiebreaker over GCU, no matter what the Lopes did later that night against 2^nd-seeded Colorado State University. However, the Buffs outlasted the Utes in triple overtime, giving the Lopes a door to walk through. That night, the Lopes instead ripped the door off its hinges, blitzing the Rams from the outset. 1^st-period goals by Johnson and Elaine Richardson within a 30-second span gave CSU reasons for reflection, and when Gingrich found the back of the Rams' net twice in a seven-second span midway through the 2^nd frame while the Rams were on the power play, the gravity of the situation set in. The one-two punch of Gingrich (her second four-goal night of the season) and Johnson (her second three-goal 'hat trick' of the year) piled it on, accounting for six of the Lopes' final seven scores. Meanwhile, Schneidmiller was… well, Schneidmiller, saving 25 of 26 Rams' shots to emphatically extend the Lopes' season by at least one more day.
 
"We saw that we could climb that mountain, and I knew that I needed to lock in, do it for my team and get it done," said Schneidmiller. "We just worked hard, worked together, played as a team and kept battling – even though we were at the bottom of the seedings."

Sunday: #4 GCU 6, #1 Colorado 2

That left the Lopes and Buffs to both open and close the tournament as the last two standing, but the resemblance between the two matchups was non-existent. The offenses for both teams were determined to own the day Sunday, pounding opposing goaltenders for a combined 22 shots on goal in the first 15 minutes. It was the Lopes who were more accurate early, though, as Johnson picked up where she left off Saturday with a goal just three minutes into the game, then Armit followed on a beautiful unassisted goal five minutes later. Undaunted, CU continued to find scoring opportunities, but Schneidmiller gave them no openings in the game's first 35 minutes, and when Gingrich put her own unassisted shot into the Buffs' net with 14 minutes left in the 2^nd, Colorado looked like a worried squad.
 
Oksana Terletska restored CU's hope with their first goal with five minutes left in the frame, and it appeared they'd have the momentum entering the final period; that is, until Gingrich and Armit broke free and charged towards CU netminder Zoe Watson in the final minute. Watson got a piece of Gingrich's shot attempt, but couldn't glove it, and the puck skittered to the back of Armit's skate where Sophie pushed it into the net, giving the Lopes a 4-1 edge at the intermission, and sucking the air out of the Buffs' sails. GCU offered just five shots on goal in the final period, but once again, quality won out over quantity as Gingrich's 2^nd unassisted goal of the day and a Rory Arteaga score in the first four minutes of the 3^rd period sent Colorado into a 6-1 hole. Nearly the rest of the game was spent in the Lopes' zone, with the Buffaloes firing 24 frantic shots at Schneidmiller. The Buffs' top scorer, Mia Fiscelli, finally found the net with 5:30 left, but by that time, the Lopes' bench was already celebrating. Gingrich and Armit both wound up with two goals and an assist, while Schneidmiller registered another 47 saves for the Phoenix-area native's final win on her home soil.
 
"We put in so much work this season that I knew this team was coming here to get something done," said Gingrich, who will enter the national tournament as the nation's co-leader in goals (25) after earning the tournament's most valuable player award with six goals and an assist over the team's final five periods. "These girls push me so hard every day in practice to get better, so I give the MVP award to them. We knew we could do something like this, but sometimes we doubt ourselves. Today showed that when we play as a team and work hard together, we can beat any team in the ACHA."
 
"I thank you for everything you've given to us, and you really deserve that trophy right there," Miller told the team moments after he brought the WWCHL Championship trophy in and placed it in the middle of the room after the game. "You've made a legacy, since your names get put on that trophy, and I want you all to be very proud of that."
 
The waiting game will last all of 48 hours for the Lopes (14-17 overall, 10-6 WWCHL) before the ACHA announces the seedings and opponents for the national tournament Tuesday. The 12-team tournament will begin Monday, March 17 in St. Louis, Missouri, with the championship game slated for Friday, March 21.