Gophers women’s hockey tops St. Thomas thanks to two late goals

Sydney Morrow and Josefin Bouveng scored 51 seconds apart in the final three minutes to lift the No. 3 Gophers women’s hockey team to a 5-3 victory over St. Thomas on Friday at Lee & Penny Anderson Arena in St. Paul.

The Tommies had tied the game 3-3 with 6 minutes, 24 seconds remaining on a goal from junior defenseman JuliAnna Gazdik. Morrow, a senior defenseman, broke the tie with 2:39 to play. Bouveng, a senior forward, scored with 1:48 remaining to ice the game.

The victory ended a two-game losing streak for the Gophers (13-4, 9-4 WCHA). The loss was the sixth straight for the Tommies (8-11, 3-10). Five of the Tommies’ losses in that streak have been by one or two goals.

“Some really good things today,” Gophers coach Brad Frost told reporters after the game. “Unfortunately, when things go bad, they go bad and St. Thomas was able to get some chances and some goals. All in all, a really good third period in particular, our second period was pretty good as well, and a good first experience here at the new rink in St. Thomas.”

Until the final three minutes, neither team led by more than one goal and the game was tied three times.

Graduate student forward Abbey Murphy, who went into the game leading the WCHA with 18 goals and second in the nation in points (32), gave the Gophers to a 1-0 lead with her 19th goal with 14:20 left in the first period.

Tommies freshman forward Whitney Horton’s power-play goal — her first of two goals — with 3:11 remaining in the first period tied the game.

The goals were the fourth and fifth of the season for Horton.

Senior defenseman Allie Franco’s first goal of the season gave the Gophers a 3-2 lead with 15:19 left in the third period. It was Franco’s sixth goal in 99 games with the Gophers.

The Gophers outshot the Tommies 46-29, including 36-18 over the final two periods.

The Gophers, who went into the game ranked No. 8 in the nation on the power-play (.261) and 12th in power-play goals (12), were 0-for-1 with the player advantage.

The teams will conclude the home-and-home series at 2 p.m. Saturday at Ridder Arena.

The Gophers, who trailed 4-3 going into the third period, got goals from Jimmy Clark and Brodie Ziemer in a three-minute span to take a 5-4 lead with 12:22 remaining in the third period. The Buckeyes tied it 5-5 with 10:37 remaining on a goal from graduate transfer Adam Eisele, who played at Stillwater High School at three seasons at Minnesota State Mankato.

Karabela’s goal — assisted by Davis Burnside and Rosemount product Broten Sabo — came on the only shot on goal of the overtime. For the game, the Buckeyes outshot the Gophers, 36-19.

“The coach in me is going to come out,” Gophers coach Bob Motzko said. “We had two leads in the game, one early in the first and one in the third. We made some pretty glaring mistakes, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort. We’re trying to finish on a strong note, and I give our guys a lot of credit; what we went through in October, they battled back. We get a break now, and we’ve got to come back and pick up where we left off, and we’ve got to become even a better team.”

The victory ended a six-game losing streak and was just the second in the past 10 games for the Buckeyes (6-10, 2-6 Big Ten). The loss was just the second in six games for the Gophers (8-10-1, 4-4-0).

Tate Pritchard and Mason Moe scored in a 72-second span late in the first period to give the Gophers a 2-1 lead at the first intermission.

The Buckeyes tied it 2-2 early in the second period on a goal from James Hong.

Ziemer’s power-play goal midway through the period gave the Gophers a 3-2 lead, but the Buckeyes tied the game just over three minutes later on Burnside’s power-play goal with 6:38 left in the second period. Nathan McBrayer’s goal with 2:59 left in the period gave the Buckeyes a 4-3 lead going into the third period.