Abbey Murphy’s overtime goal lifts Gophers women’s hockey to season-opening sweep of UConn

Abbey Murphy’s goal in the first minute of overtime lifted the Gophers women’s hockey team to a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over Connecticut on Saturday in Storrs, Conn.

The second-ranked Gophers trailed the ninth-ranked Huskies 2-1 with five minutes remaining in the third period before Natalie Mlynkova scored with 14:50 remaining to tie the score.

Murphy, who scored two goals in the Gophers 4-1 victory over UConn on Friday, scored 49 seconds into the extra period to sweep the season-opening, two-game series.

“Anytime you can beat a top-10 team, it’s great,” Gophers coach Brad Frost said. “Nonconference games are so important because of the lack of crossover. We only have six games against nonconference opponents.

“I’m just so proud of our team and the resilience: being down a goal, coming into the third, tying it up, getting down again, tying it up late, and then getting that overtime. It’s kind of a character win here early on, and something that we can pull from.”

The Gophers, who outshot UConn 48-13, trailed 1-0 after two periods. Josefin Bouveng scored 26 seconds into the third period to tie the score.

UConn regained the lead 21 seconds later on a goal by Brianna Ware.

The Gophers play host to Boston University next weekend.