Gophers women's hockey team beats Mercyhurst in season opener

The Gophers women's hockey team rarely loses its season opener.

Last year was one exception. But history did not repeat Friday night. Despite a slow start, the No. 3 Gophers beat No. 10 Mercyhurst 4-2 in a nonconference game at Ridder Arena.

Senior captain Kelly Pannek, a returning U.S. Olympian who was honored before the game, had one goals and one assist. Sarah Potomak, a redshirt junior from Aldergrove, British Columbia, who also missed last season chasing her Olympic dreams, got two assists.

Potomak and her younger sister Amy, a redshirt freshman who scored Minnesota's second goal, trained with the Canadian national team last season but were cut before the Winter Olympics.

With the win, the Gophers, who trailed 1-0 after the opening period, improved to 20-2 all-time in season openers.

"Good start to the year," Gophers coach Brad Frost said. "Our first period was not really great. … Fortunately Alex [Gulstene] made most of the saves there."

Mercyhurst took a 1-0 lead on Emma Nuutinen's power-play goal at 11:39 of the opening period.

The Gophers scored twice more early in the third. Defenseman Emily Brown got an unassisted goal at 49 seconds — the eventual game-winner — and Pannek made it 4-1 at 4:40.

"The back-breaker for them," Frost said, "was when Brownie scored early in the third."

Mercyhurst's Emily Pinto got the game's final goal at 13:32.

Gulstene had 21 saves for the Gophers, Kennedy Blair 24 for the Lakers.