Abigail Boreen's two goals lead Gophers to women's hockey win over Tommies, keep title hopes alive

Abigail Boreen scored two goals as the No. 4 Gophers beat host St. Thomas 4-2 on Saturday in WCHA women's hockey to keep their conference title hopes alive.

With the victory in Mendota Heights, Minnesota (25-5-3, 22-3-3 WCHA) moved one point ahead of Ohio State in the conference standings. The Gophers have 68 points, the Buckeyes (27-4-2, 22-4-1) have 67 after losing 6-5 to Wisconsin on Saturday in the first game of that series. The second game is Sunday.

The Gophers win the regular-season title if the Badgers win the second game in regulation. If Ohio State loses in overtime or a shootout, it would earn one point and tie Minnesota for first place. A win of any kind gives the Buckeyes an outright title.

To get in that position, at all, the Gophers needed to sweep the Tommies and it wasn't easy. Alexa Dobchuk made 55 saves for St. Thomas to keep the game close. Skylar Vetter had 24 stops for Minnesota.

"A really hard-fought win tonight," Gophers coach Brad Frost. "We're proud of our group for how they competed and persevered. Lots of shots again and we defended pretty well.

"We've reached the end of the season and our team has done a really nice job managing this marathon. Now it's time to turn the page and head into the playoffs and some exciting things are ahead."

It was 1-1 after the first period. Boreen scored for the Gophers at 9:52. About two minutes later, Lotti Odnoga countered for the Tommies.

Heise put Minnesota ahead 2-1 with a power-play goal at 49 seconds. It was her team-high 31st goal of the season. Heise had a second goal shortly afterward waived off because of offside. Boreen's second goal at 12:42 made it 3-1.

Anna Solheim of the Tommies cut the lead to 3-2 at 3:36 of the third before Abbey Murphy got Minnesota's final goal in the 13th minute.