Women’s hockey: Taylor Heise, Catie Skaja hit career milestones as Gophers sweep St. Thomas
Taylor Heise and Catie Skaja each hit career milestones, Abigail Boreen scored twice and the No. 3/4 Gophers women’s hockey team completed a sweep of St. Thomas with a 4-1 victory over the Tommies Saturday afternoon at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis.
It marked the Gophers’ seventh WCHA sweep this season.
Heise earned the second assist on Boreen’s first goal — which put Minnesota up 1-0 just 36 seconds into the contest — to reach 200 points for her career.
But the Gophers’ early lead didn’t last long. St. Thomas quickly knotted the game at 1-1 thanks to a goal from Maddy Clough just two minutes later, and the Tommies (7-16-1, 2-15-1 WCHA), despite being outshot 20-6 in the frame, were able to keep it even with Minnesota (18-3-2, 15-2-2) through one period.
But the Gophers’ dominance continued in the second frame, as Grace Zumwinkle, coming off a record-setting night Friday, found Heise on the power play, and last year’s Patty Kazmaier Award winner found the back of the net 3:11 into the period to put the Gophers back on top, 2-1.
“A great sweep of St. Thomas,” Gophers coach Brad Frost said. “St. Thomas played really well today and played hard, but our team gutted it out. It was a great finish to the weekend and six more points in the bank. We’re looking forward to getting up to Bemidji next weekend.”
Ella Huber added another second-period goal, which Skaja assisted on for the 100th point of her career. Boreen added her second goal late in the third period to finalize the score at 4-1.
St. Thomas goaltender Saskia Maurer stopped 38 of 42 Gophers’ shots, while Minnesota’s Skylar Vetter stopped 11 of 12 following Friday’s shutout.
Minnesota returns to action at Bemidji State at 3 p.m. Friday; St. Thomas resumes its schedule against Minnesota Duluth 6 p.m. Saturday at St. Thomas Ice Arena in Mendota Heights.
