Gophers defeat Bemidji State for the 24th time in a row in women’s hockey

The No. 3 Gophers women’s hockey team scored four goals — three on the power play — in an eight-minute span in the first period and went on to defeat Bemidji State 4-1 in a WCHA game Saturday in Bemidji, Minn.

The victory was the fourth consecutive for the Gophers (8-3-1, 4-3-1 WCHA), who defeated the Beavers (1-10-1, 0-8-0) 2-1 on Friday. The Gophers have won 24 consecutive games against the Beavers.

“Obviously a great first period,” Gophers coach Brad Frost said. “Going 3-for-4 on the power play, and getting four right away to really put the hammer down. It was great to see, from a defensive standpoint, we played really, really well, giving up 10 shots, not allowing anything there in the third. Credit Bemidji, they tightened up defensively after that first period, but I’m really proud of how we played here tonight.”

Abbey Murphy opened the scoring with a power-play goal with 9 minutes, 49 seconds remaining in the first period. Less than three minutes later, Natalie Mlynkova, who scored both of the Gophers’ goals on Friday, scored on the power play to make it 2-0.

Emma Kreisz’s even-strength goal made it 3-0 before Murphy scored on the power play with 1:42 remaining in the period. Murphy, who had just one goal in the Gophers’ previous six games, now has nine goals this season.

Ella Huber and Audrey Wethington each assisted on two goals for the Gophers. Huber scored the 100th point of her career.

”She’s just a complete hockey player, somebody that we rely on a lot,” Frost said. “So really happy for her to get that hundredth point.”

The Gophers outshot the Beavers 16-4 in the first period and 34-10 for the game.

Junior goalie Sophia Johnson, who played at Minnetonka in high school, made her collegiate debut with 3:19 left in the game.

”[Sophia] is somebody that does the thankless stuff,” Frost said. “She’s working her butt off in practice every single day. An opportunity to get her in here tonight was a really cool thing for her but also for our team.”

The Gophers are idle next weekend before playing at Minnesota Duluth on Nov. 15-16.