Jamie Nelson had a goal and two assists and Madison Kaiser had a goal and assist as the No. 3 Gophers women’s hockey team defeated St. Thomas 4-1 on Saturday at Ridder Arena.
The victory completed a home-and-home series sweep for the Gophers (14-4, 10-4 WCHA), who scored twice in the final three minutes Friday to pull out a 5-3 victory over St. Thomas at its new Lee and Penny Anderson Arena. The Gophers improved to 22-0 against the Tommies since they moved to Division I.
“I thought it was a great game,” Gophers coach Brad Frost said, “maybe one of our best that we’ve played all year in all phases. We had great discipline in our structure. We were up on our toes, applying a ton of pressure right from the drop of the puck.”
Kaiser gave the Gophers a 1-0 lead 71 seconds into the game. Abbey Murphy, who moved past Taylor Heise into sixth place on the program’s career points list (228) on Friday, scored with 14:15 left in the first period to make it 2-0.
Josefin Bouveng and Jamie Nelson scored in the second period to put the Gophers up 4-0. Ellah Hause scored for the Tommies midway through the third period.
The Gophers outshot the Tommies 38-13.
“It was 60 minutes of really good hockey, so really happy for our gang,” Frost said. “Going into our break, out last game, just to see our team come together and play the way they did. A great first half overall.”
The Gophers are idle until Jan. 2, when they will open a two-game series at Sacred Heart in Fairfield, Conn. The Tommies (8-12, 3-11), who have lost seven in a row, will next play an exhibition at St. Cloud State on Jan. 3 before playing host to Bemidji State on Jan. 9-10.
