The No. 2 Gophers women's hockey team scored four goals in the first period and that was enough to beat St. Cloud State 4-2 on Friday afternoon at Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.
Gophers women's hockey jumps to big early lead in victory over St. Cloud State
Four different players scored goals as No. 2 Minnesota took a 4-0 lead in the opening period and eventually won 4-2.
"A good win on the road," Gophers coach Brad Frost said. "Obviously we got out to a great start with a 4-0 lead after the first period. To St. Cloud's credit they came back with two in the second and made it a game. I'm proud of our team for the way we continued to hold the lead.
"A couple of big penalty-kills at the end and Skylar Vetter playing really well in net came up with a big save towards the end."
Abbey Murphy, Abigail Boreen, Grace Zumwinkle and Taylor Heise had the goals for Minnesota (5-0, 5-0 WCHA). Murphy's came at 1 minute, 5 seconds. Boreen scored on the power play at 4:50. Zumwinkle got her 90th career goal at 9:18, putting her eighth on the program's all-time list for goals. Heise made it 4-0 at 14:14.
Murphy and Zumwinkle share the team lead for goals this season with six.
Klara Hymlarova and Olivia Cvar scored for the Huskies (2-5, 0-5) in the last 1½ minutes of the second period. St. Cloud State had only one shot on goal in the first 18 minutes of the third period.
Skylar Vetter made 20 saves for the Gophers, JoJo Chobak 32 for SCSU.
Gophers’ final home game of season comes against Nittany Lions team in contention for College Football Playoff.