Abbey Murphy's overtime goal earns Gophers women's hockey 2-1 victory at St. Thomas

Abbey Murphy scored with 2 minutes, 47 seconds left in overtime, and the Gophers women's hockey team began its final regular-season series with a 2-1 overtime victory over St. Thomas on Friday night at St. Thomas Ice Arena in Mendota Heights.

"A hard-fought win in overtime tonight," Gophers coach Brad Frost said. "We had over 50 shots and hit a few posts and crossbars, but we just didn't have the puck luck that we wanted. We defended pretty well and had to come back from being down in the third. We did a nice job of that and were able to get the winner in OT."

The Gophers (24-5-3, 21-3-3 WCHA) ended a three-game winless streak by improving to 9-0 all-time vs. the Tommies, but it took them more than 60 minutes to claim their first and only lead against a team that has now lost 10 of 11 games, as they were repeatedly stonewalled by St. Thomas goalie Saskia Maurer. She finished with 53 saves, compared to 18 for the Gophers' Skylar Vetter.

After a pair of scoreless periods, St. Thomas (8-24-1, 3-23-1) scored first when defenseman Nicole Vallario — who like Maurer helped Switzerland to a fourth-place finish at last year's Beijing Olympics — broke through 3 minutes, 20 seconds into the third period.

But the Gophers quickly responded, tying the score when Taylor Heise scored her team-high 24th goal only 57 seconds later. That goal came on the Gophers' 40th shot on goal.

In 3-on-3 overtime, Emily Oden gained possession for the Gophers along the boards at center ice and fed Peyton Hemp for a 2-on-1 break. Hemp passed in the slot across to Murphy, who finally beat Maurer to end the game.

The Gophers tied Ohio State at the top of the WCHA standings with 56 points. But the Buckeyes have two games remaining this weekend at Wisconsin and can win the title outright with a sweep of the Badgers.