Gophers women’s hockey dominates Brown in East/West Showcase

Josefin Bouveng had two goals and two assists and Natalie Mlynkova scored twice to lead the No. 3 Gophers women’s hockey team to a 9-1 victory over Brown in the East/West Showcase on Friday at Ridder Arena.

Peyton Hemp and Abby Murphy each had a goal and two assists for the Gophers, who will play No. 12 Penn State (16-4-1) on Saturday. The Nittany Lions defeated Bemidji State 6-4 on Friday.

“Great game,” Gophers coach Brad Frost said. “For 60 minutes, I thought we played really well and started quickly. Getting the four in the first period was obviously a big deal, and we were just really able to continue to play the right way, and our team got rewarded for that offensively.”

The Gophers (15-4-1), who outshot Brown 48-16, were in control from the outset, scoring three times in the game’s first eight minutes.

Nelli Laitinen opened the scoring 90 seconds into the game and Peyton Hemp scored two minutes later to give the Gophers a 2-0 lead. It was Hemp’s 50th career goal.

Freshman Carly Humphrey’s first career goal extended the Gophers lead to 3-0 with 12 minutes left in the first period. Mlynkova scored with 3:45 left in the period to make it 4-0.

Bouveng’s first goal gave the Gophers a 5-0 lead midway through the second period before the Bears (8-8-1) got on the scoreboard on a goal from India McDadi with 9:07 left in the period. Bouveng scored with 5:19 remaining to restore the Gophers’ five-goal lead.

Sydney Morrow’s power-play goal with 97 seconds left in the period gave the Gophers a 7-1 lead after two periods.

Murphy’s shorthanded goal in the first 30 seconds of the third period and a power-play goal from Mlynkova with 15:05 remaining made it 9-1.

It was the first game between the Gophers and Bears since the 2005-06 season, when the Gophers swept a two-game series at Ridder Arena.