Friday wasn’t the best of evenings for the Minnesota and St. Thomas women’s hockey teams. Both were upended in WCHA play and now head into Saturday looking to gain series splits.
Minnesota-Duluth 3, Minnesota 2 (OT)
The Gophers battled back from a 2-1 deficit midway through the third period to force overtime at Minnesota-Duluth.
Unfortunately, Minnesota’s rally only delayed the result as the Bulldogs prevailed 3-2 in the extra session.
Tova Henderson’s unassisted tally at 1:41 of OT iced the result and handed the Gophers a fourth consecutive defeat.
Minnesota took the early lead as Madison Kaiser’s goal at 16:33 of the first period gave the visitors a 1-0 edge at Amsoil Arena on the shore of Lake Superior.
The advantage didn’t last long. UMD evened the count at 1-1 with a strike at 10:21. The hosts staked their claim to the game at 12:36 of the middle frame on a goal from Maddie Burr.
Duluth’s 2-1 lead carried well into the third period before Ava Lindsay breathed new life into the Gophers at 9:30 of the stanza to send the game into overtime knotted at 2-2.
With the prospect of a shootout ticking ever closer, Henderson closed the door on Minnesota’s comeback. Bulldogs goalie Eve Gascon made 31 saves as her Gophers counterpart, Hannah Clark, made 29 stops. The loss dropped Minnesota to 24-8-1 overall and 18-8-1 in conference play.
The Bulldogs, as locked into fourth place in the WCHA standings as the Gophers are cemented to third place, improved to 18-12-3 overall and 14-10-3 in the circuit with one game remaining in the regular season.
Minnesota and UMD will take the ice for that final pre-playoff contest at 2 p.m. Saturday inside Duluth’s lakeside arena. The game is scheduled to be televised on BTN+.
Minnesota State 5, St. Thomas 2
An exciting first period was followed by two more that didn’t go the Tommies’ way at the Lee & Penny Anderson Arena in a 5-2 loss.
The opening frame set up well for a big day in St. Paul. St. Thomas gave up the opening goal, but followed with two of their own in scintillating fashion to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.
After the Mavericks drew first blood at 6:56, Rylee Bartz struck back for the Tommies just 24 seconds later to make the score 1-1. Then, just as fans began to head to get concessions, Ella Boerger had them standing up for a different reason as she scored with just four ticks left on the clock.
Minnesota State got down to business in the second period, scoring the lone tally of the frame at 15:26 to draw even at 2-2.
That’s how the score remained until 16:09 of the third, when the visitors took their second lead of the game at 3-2. Unlike their brief first-period edge, this one proved to be permanent.
The Mavericks added a power play goal at 12:25 and a final tally with 2:15 remaining to skate away with the three-goal win.
St. Thomas goaltender Julia Minotti made 27 saves in the game, while MSU netminder Hailey Hansen saved 23 of 25 attempts.
The loss ended any Tommies hopes of leapfrogging the Mavericks in the WCHA regular-season standings. MSU (14-17-2 overall, 8-17-2 WCHA, 27 points) took a four-point edge on St. Thomas (12-20-1, 7-19-1, 23 points) in the conference with the win and just one game left to go before the playoffs.
The two teams go at it one more time at 2 p.m. Saturday inside Anderson Arena.
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