Abbey Murphy scored two goals to help the No. 3 Gophers women’s hockey team remain unbeaten with a 5-3 victory over St. Cloud State on Saturday at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud.
The Gophers (6-0-0, 2-0-0 WCHA), who defeated the Huskies 4-1 in the series opener Friday in Minneapolis, are off to their best season start since opening the 2022-23 season 6-0.
The No. 10 Huskies (3-3-0, 0-2-0) led 1-0 after one period Saturday. Chloe Primerano tied it 1-1 in the first two minutes of the second period before Murphy scored both of her goals — her 11th and 12th of the season — to give the Gophers leads.
Murphy’s first goal gave the Gophers a 2-1 lead with 8:43 left in the period, but the Huskies tied it 2-2 on a power-play goal by Maria Mikaelyan with 4:12 remaining in the period. Less than two minutes later, Murphy scored again to give the Gophers a 3-2 lead with 2:18 left in the period.
The Huskies tied it 3-3 with 31 seconds left in the second on a goal from Grace Wolfe.
The Gophers’ Sarah Paul scored in the first minute of the third to break a 3-3 tie. Emma Kreisz scored with 14:44 left to give the Gophers a 5-3 lead.
“Great win on the road,” Gophers coach Brad Frost said, according to a postgame news release. “Really proud of our group. Hung in there, going in 3-3 into the third period and finding a way to close it out. Really looking forward to getting home and preparing for a top-three matchup next weekend.”
The Gophers, who outscored their opponents 32-4 in the first five games, outshot the Huskies 48-26 on Saturday.
