Gophers women’s hockey ends four-game winless streak with rout over Minnesota State Mankato

The Gophers women’s hockey team ended a four-game winless streak with a flourish with an 8-2 victory over Minnesota State Mankato on Friday at Ridder Arena.

The victory, Minnesota’s first since Oct. 6, was the 500th in WCHA play for the Gophers, who are the first conference program to reach 500 victories. The Gophers have a 500-110-50 record in WCHA games.

“Really happy, coming off a hard weekend last weekend” Gophers Brad Frost said in an online postgame interview. “Proud of how our group just came out right off the bat, right off the hop, and we got one early there, and were able to extend the lead as we went. Lot of good things, offensively, defensively. Overall, really happy with how we played here tonight.”

Natalie Mlynkova had two goals and an assist and Josefin Bouveng, Ella Huber and Abbey Murphy each had a goal and two assists as the No. 4 Gophers (5-3-1, 1-3-1 WCHA) scored a season-high in goals.

Mylnkova’s goal came in the first minute of the game. She added a second-period goal to make it 4-0.

“She’s got a ton of talent and a lot of ability,” Frost said. “She was a little snakebit for a few games, but she keeps doing the right things, playing the right way, and we saw a couple special goals for her tonight.”

The Gophers eventually built an 8-0 lead before the Mavericks (2-3, 0-3 WCHA) scored twice in the final six minutes.

Eleven different skaters had a point for the Gophers who earned their 10th victory in the past 11 games with the Mavericks. The Gophers are 109-5-3 all-time against the Mavericks.

The teams will conclude the home-and-home series on Saturday afternoon in Mankato.