Gophers women’s hockey shuts out St. Thomas

Abbey Murphy had two goals and three assists and Natalie Bouveng scored twice to lead the No. 3 Gophers to a 5-0 victory over St. Thomas on Friday at St. Thomas Ice Arena.

It was the eighth victory in the past nine games for the Gophers (12-4-1, 8-4-1), who improved to 17-0 all-time against the Tommies (5-12-2, 2-10-1) since they joined the WCHA.

Murphy, who has had at least one point in 14 of the Gophers’ 17 games, leads the team in scoring with 29 points (15 goals, 14 assists).

The Gophers appeared to get off to a quick start, scoring less than two minutes into the game, but Natalie Mlynkova’s goal was waved off. The Gophers got on the scoreboard midway through the first period when Natalie Bouveng scored on an assist from Murphy.

Murphy then scored twice and assisted on a goal by Bouveng to fuel the Gophers’ three-goal second period.

Midway through the second period, Bouveng scored a power-play goal — assisted by Murphy and Mlynkova — to extend the Gophers’ lead to 2-0. Less than two minutes later Murphy scored to make it 3-0. Three minutes later, Murphy scored again to make it 4-0.

Chloe Primerano scored two-and-half minutes into the third period — on assists by Murphy and Emma Conner — to make it 5-0.

Gophers goaltender Hannah Clark had 14 saves as she recorded her first shutout of the season. Clark, who went into the game with a 1.86 goals-against-average, improved to 8-2-1 on the season.

The teams conclude the series at 6 p.m. Saturday.