Women’s hockey: Abbey Murphy lifts Gophers past St. Thomas in OT

Staff Report, Pioneer Press
Updated ·2 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Perhaps a Twin Cities rivalry is heating up.

Three periods weren’t enough to decide a winner between the third-ranked Gophers women’s hockey team and St. Thomas on Friday night in Mendota Heights, Minn. But a fourth was as Abbey Murphy delivered the game-winner at 2:17 in overtime to help Minnesota escape with a 2-1 victory, their seventh straight on the road. Minnesota is 9-0-0 all-time versus the Tommies.

“A hard-fought win in overtime tonight,” Gophers coach Brad Frost said. “We had over 50 shots and hit a few posts and crossbars, but we just didn’t have the puck luck that we wanted. We defended pretty well and had to come back from being down in the third. We did a nice job of that and were able to get the winner in OT.”

The victory brings Minnesota (24-5-3, 21-3-3 WCHA, 65 points) within a point of WCHA leader Ohio State (27-3-2, 22-3-1, 66 points). The Buckeyes didn’t play Friday but are headed to Wisconsin for a two-game series Saturday and Sunday.

The Gophers swept St. Thomas during their previous series on Jan. 13-14, outscoring the Tommies 9-1 across the two games. While the Gophers tried their best to pile on the goals once again, they couldn’t get much past Tommies goalie Saskia Maurer.

Maurer had a whopping 53 saves, keeping St. Thomas (8-24-1, 3-23-1) within reach despite the team being outshot 55-19 in the game. Instead, she helped the Tommies take Minnesota to its second overtime in its last three games.

Maurer kept the Gophers off the board through two periods, allowing St. Thomas to take a 1-0 lead on Nicole Vallario’s unassisted goal at 3:20 in the third. That lead didn’t last long, however, as Minnesota’s Taylor Heise evened the game less than a minute later at 1-1, which it remained until Murphy’s overtime winner.

Grace Zumwinkle assisted on Heise’s goal, recording her 200th career point in the process.

Gophers goalie Skylar Vetter finished with 18 saves to earn the victory — her 27th career win, which ranks 10th in Minnesota program history.

The two teams meet again in Mendota Heights at 6 p.m. Saturday for the series finale.

Related Articles