Minnesota State Mankato women’s hockey completes series sweep of Gophers

Mercury Bischoff’s hat trick paced the Minnesota State Mankato women’s hockey team to a 4-1 victory over the No. 2 Gophers on Saturday in Mankato.

The victory completed the Mavericks’ first series sweep of the Gophers since January 2007. The Mavericks (8-7-1, 4-7-1 WCHA), who defeated the Gophers 3-1 on Friday at Ridder Arena, improved to 8-114-3 all-time against the Gophers. The series started in the 1998-99 season.

Bischoff, a freshman who was the Minnesota Ms. Hockey winner last season for Grand Rapids/Greenway, had a goal and two assists in the series opener.

Bischoff opened the scoring on Saturday with a power-play goal with 6:40 left in the first period.

The Gophers (12-4-0, 8-4-0) tied it less than two minutes later on a power-play goal by Josefin Bouveng with 5:21 left in the period.

Bischoff broke the tie midway through the second period and Whitney Tuttle’s goal with 5:59 left in the second period made it 3-1.

Bischoff’s empty-net goal with 1:48 remaining closed out the scoring.

The Gophers are idle next weekend before playing a home-and-home series with St. Thomas on Dec. 5 and Dec. 6.

Ryan Beasley scored 24 points as San Francisco pulled away in the final nine minutes for a 77-65 victory over the Gophers men’s basketball team on Saturday in Sioux Falls, S.D.

The Gophers, who trailed by seven at halftime, used a 13-4 run to tie the game 52-52 with 9:08 remaining. The Dons (5-1) outscored the Gophers 25-13 down the stretch.

Tyrone Riley and Mookie Cook each added 14 points for the Dons, who shot 49% from the field (26-of-53) and 50% from three-point range (11-of-22).

Langston Reynolds scored 16 points and Cade Tyson added 14 points for the Gophers (4-2).

The Gophers will play Stanford on Thanksgiving Day in Palm Desert, Calif. On Friday, the Gophers will play either Santa Clara or St. Louis in Palm Desert. The Gophers open Big Ten play on Dec. 3 at home against Indiana.

Jackson Smith’s power-play goal early in the third period proved to be the game-winner as No. 5 Penn State held off the Gophers men’s hockey, 2-1, on Saturday at 3M Arena at Mariucci.

The victory gave the Nittany Lions (11-5-0, 4-4-0 Big Ten) a series split with the Gophers (6-9-1, 3-3-0). The Gophers won the series opener on Friday, 3-2.

Tanner Ludtke’s power-play goal with 10:37 remaining in the first period gave the Gophers a 1-0 lead, which they maintained until late in the second period.

The Nittany Lions tied the game with a power-play goal by Charlie Cerrato with 5:28 remaining in the second period. The Nittany Lions started the third period on the power-play — the Gophers were whistled for too many on the ice with six seconds left in the second period. Smith’s power-play goal 66 seconds later gave the Nittany Lions the lead.

Nittany Lions goalie Kevin Reidler had 23 saves.