Lara Stalder scored two goals and had one assist as the Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team beat the No. 2-ranked Gophers 5-3 on Saturday afternoon at Amsoil Arena to sweep their WCHA series. Minnesota took a 21-game unbeaten streak (20-0-1) against UMD into this season going back five years

The Gophers (16-5-2, 12-4-2-2 WCHA) had not been swept this season. Wisconsin was the last team to do beat Minnesota twice the same weekend, on Dec. 4-5, 2015 in Madison, Wis.

"We are fighting for second place now in our conference with the sweep by Duluth," said coach Brad Frost, whose Gophers now trail first-place Wisconsin by seven points. "Nobody is feeling sorry for us after the success that we've had. We've got to move forward and be better. Giving up five makes it really tough to win a hockey game. We've just got to be better overall."

Ashleigh Brykaliuk of No. 4 UMD (15-4-3, 12-4-2-1) broke a 2-all tie with the first goal of the second period. It came at 4 minutes, 54 seconds. Stadler made it 4-2 Bulldogs with her first goal of the game on a breakaway at 14:11. It proved to be the eventual winner.

Kate Schipper got the Gophers within one goal at 17:32 of the second. Stalder restored UMD's two-goal margin at 8:18 of the third.

Maddie Rooney made 29 saves for UMD, Sidney Peters 21 for the Gophers.

Minnesota scored the first and fourth goals of the game in the opening period. Kelly Pannek extended her point streak to 19 games with her 13th goal of the season at 6:47. Sophie Skarzynski got her first goal at 16:17. In between, UMD got goals from Katherine McGovern and Maria Linh about three minutes apart in the middle of the period.

Minnesota still remains in second, a point ahead of UMD.