Freshman defenseman Madeline Wethington scored an unassisted goal midway through the opening period and senior forward Sarah Potomak got a goal late in the middle period as the No. 2-ranked Gophers women's hockey team beat Colgate 2-0 on Friday night at Ridder Arena in its season opener before an announced crowd of 1,238.

"Great first win of the season," Gophers coach Brad Frost said. "I thought our team played really well. We were battling a couple injuries and still found a way. We defended really well, I thought.

" That first one was big as we were controlling the play, and getting the first goal is a way to do that. Colgate is a very good team, very dangerous on the attack. I thought overall we handled it pretty well."

Alex Gulstene made six saves in the first period for Minnesota and Sydney Scobee eight in the final two periods to combine for the shutout. Liz Auby had 34 stops for the Raiders.

The Gophers raised a banner, commemorating a Big Ten regular-season title, before the game. Then they played suffocating defense against Colgate (1-1), which beat Holy Cross 4-1 last Saturday. The Gophers had a 36-14 shot advantage in the cleanly played game — only one penalty was called on each team — and Wethington was named the first star of the game. She was picked the preseason WCHA rookie of the year.

Potomak, the team's active career scoring leader with 47 goals and 134 points, was the second star, and Scobee the third.

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