Ella Huber scored twice in the first eight minutes of the third period to spark the No. 3 Gophers women’s hockey team to a 3-1 victory over No. 2 Ohio State on Friday at Ridder Arena.
The victory was the seventh straight and the 18th in the past 20 games for the Gophers (22-5-1, 16-4-1 WCHA), who took over sole possession of second place in the WCHA standings.
“A great win,” Gophers coach Brad Frost said. “Love how we played tonight. Real structured, worked hard, blocked a lot of shots. We made good, strong, hard plays.
“Everything we want to do to be successful, they did tonight.”
The loss ended a seven-game winning streak for the Buckeyes (20-6-3, 14-6-3), who were 5-0-1 against the Gophers over the past two seasons. Earlier this season in Columbus, Ohio, the Buckeyes defeated the Gophers 4-3 and won the shootout after the teams skated to a 1-1 tie.
The game was scoreless heading into the third period. Huber’s first goal, on the power play, came 61 seconds into the period. Huber’s even-strength goal with 12 minutes, 8 seconds remaining made it 2-0. A little over a minute later, Abbey Murphy’s power-play goal made it 3-0.
“Ella was great,” Frost said. “You always know what you’re going to get with Ella. She has great speed, and she was able to find a couple of goals in the crease. That was obviously huge for us.”
Murphy’s goal was the 94th of her career, giving her sole possession of ninth place on the program’s career list. Murphy has 24 goals this season and has at least one point in 23 of the Gophers' 28 games.
