Gophers women's hockey completes sweep of MSU Mankato

The No. 2 Gophers women's hockey team picked up its second consecutive sweep to open the season with a 9-4 victory over Minnesota State Mankato on Saturday afternoon at Ridder Arena.

Minnesota (4-0) struck for three early goals to take a 3-1 lead into the first intermission. Abbey Murphy started things off with a highlight-reel goal before Catie Skaja and Josefin Bouveng tacked on. Minnesota State (0-6) continued to hang with the Gophers through the second and early in the third period before Minnesota scored three unanswered goals in the final 12 minutes to pull away from their WCHA rivals.

The Gophers outshot the Mavericks 46-24, and totaled 20 goals in a single series for the first time since Oct. 15-16, 1999.

Senior Makayla Pahl stopped 18 shots before being relieved early in the third period for Skylar Vetter. Lauren Barbro stopped 37 shots in defeat for the Mavericks.

"A very different game than last night," Gophers coach Brad Frost said. "We knew that would be the case, but I'm proud of our team and the way they battled. They fought through a little adversity and it's always good to go through those patches. It was a good effort and we continued to apply the pressure. We credit Mankato for the pressure they put on us, but it was good for us to stem the tide and turn it around in the third to pull away."

With her third-period goal, Grace Zumwinkle moves into a tie with Ambria Thomas for eighth place in Gophers program history in career goals (89).