No. 2 Gophers women’s hockey opens season by beating No. 9 UConn 4-1 for 500th career victory for Brad Frost

The Gophers women’s hockey team opened its season with a flourish, scoring on its first two shots as part of a four-goal first period in a 4-1 victory over Connecticut on Friday in Storrs, Conn.

It was the 500th career victory for Brad Frost. Frost, who is in his 18th season as Gophers coach. Frost has a 500-109-41 career record, becoming the sixth college women’s hockey coach to reach 500 career victories. After the game, the team put on caps and T-shirts with “500″ on them and posed for photos.

“It’s special, obviously, to reach a milestone like this,” Frost said. “Certainly, there’s been so many people that have been involved with it, from players to staff coaches. It also means I’ve been around a long time, but I’m really proud of our group here tonight and being able to get that big one to start the year.”

Abbey Murphy, who led the nation with 33 goals last season, opened the scoring 30 seconds into game on her first shot. She added a second goal with 2 minutes, 44 seconds remaining in the first period to make it 4-0.

A goal by Emma Kreisz, on the Gophers’ second shot on goal, made it 2-0 with 17:43 left in the period. Chloe Primerano’s power-play goal with 14:55 left in the first made it 3-0.

The Gophers, ranked No. 2, outshot the No. 9 Huskies 38-10, including 11-1 in the first period and 18-1 in the third.

The teams will conclude the series Saturday.