Madison Kaiser's third-period goal lifts Gophers women's hockey team over Minnesota State Mankato

Minnesota State Mankato proved to be tough test for the Gophers women's hockey team this weekend. But it's a test they still passed.

Madison Kaiser scored with 6 minutes, 14 seconds remaining in the third period and the Gophers beat the host Mavericks 2-1 on Saturday at the Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center, sweeping the home-and-home series.

"A great win here on the road," Gophers coach Brad Frost said. "We're a team that's comfortable in these tight games, and we found a way to win in the third."

The fourth-ranked Gophers (7-2, 5-2 WCHA) are 104-4-3 all-time against the Mavericks (2-8, 0-8), who have lost eight games in a row since starting the season 2-0. But both games in this series were decided in the third period, as for the second day in a row, the score was tied at 1-1 after two periods with the Gophers having to come from behind. On Friday, the Gophers got a tiebreaking goal from Nelli Laitinen with 5:59 to play in a 3-1 victory.

On Saturday, Lauren Zawoyski broke a scoreless tie at 6:40 of the second period, the first college goal for the freshman forward from Edina. The Gophers soon tied it at 12:02 on a goal from Hungarian freshman Emma Kreisz.

Skylar Vetter had 20 saves for the Gophers, who outshot Minnesota State Mankato 32-21.

"Skylar Vetter was great in net and we defended hard, and we got that difficult sweep on the road," Frost said.

The Gophers play at Minnesota Duluth next weekend.