In her last game before leaving for the Olympics for the United States women’s hockey team, Abbey Murphy moved into a tie at the top of the Gophers’ career goals scored list.
Murphy scored twice in the No. 3 Gophers’ 5-1 victory over No. 14 St. Cloud State on Saturday, Jan. 24, at Ridder Arena. With her 35th and 36th goals of the season, Murphy tied Nadine Muzerall, who scored 139 times with the program from 1997 to 2001.
“Don’t know what else to say, other than we’re super happy for her,” Gophers coach Brad Frost told reporters after the game. “Our program, to have her play here for five years, is a pretty special thing. She’s got an incredible knack for scoring goals.
“The other thing it says about her: She had a couple of 2-on-1s with the puck in her hand down the stretch and she chose to pass. Overall, that talks about who she is as a hockey player.”
The victory was the 10th in a row for the Gophers (22-4, 16-4 WCHA) and completed a four-game season sweep of the Huskies.
Murphy opened the scoring with a power-play goal with 7:12 remaining in the first period. St. Cloud State (8-16-2, 4-14-2) tied the score on a goal from Sydney Lamb with 2:04 remaining in the second period, but Kendra Distad made it 2-1 Gophers by scoring with 49 seconds left in the period.
Murphy doubled that lead 11 seconds into the third period. Chloe Primerano and Tereza Plosová also scored third-period goals for the Gophers.
Freshman Layla Hemp had 19 saves for the Gophers, while the Huskies’ Jojo Chobak stopped 38 shots.
