U women's hockey gets revenge, beats North Dakota

Grand Forks, N.D. — Freshman Kate Schipper scored two goals and Amanda Leveille made 31 saves as the Gophers women's hockey team beat North Dakota 5-1 Friday night in a WCHA game at Ralph Engelstad Arena to avenge its only loss of the season.

UND ended the Gophers' 62-game winning streak on Nov. 17 with a 3-2 victory at Ridder Arena. UND had lost to the Gophers 10 times before that during the streak.

Since that loss, the Gophers have put together a 13-game (12-0-1) unbeaten streak. They still have a 41-game winning streak on the road alive, too.

Becca Kohler gave North Dakota a 1-0 lead at 9:05 of the first period. But the Gophers countered on Maryanne Menefee's power-play goal 1 ½ minutes later.

The Gophers broke the tie early in the second period. Schipper scored at 44 seconds from the top of the crease and again at 3:05 on a power play to make it 3-1. That made the Gophers, who came into the series a Division I-best 26.7 percent with a man advantage, 2-for-2 in this game. They finished 3-for-3 on power-play opportunities while UND was 0-for-1, getting it with only three seconds to play.

Schipper's two goals gave the 5-4 forward from Breck a total of four this season.

"Outside of the Olympics, this is probably as good of hockey as you are going to see," UND coach Brian Idalski said on the eve of the series.

But this game wasn't close because the Gophers won the goalie duel. Leveille was solid. Lexie Shaw of UND stopped only 32 of 37 shots.

Meghan Lorence gave the Gophers a 4-1 lead late in the second period. It was her 13th goal of the season and sixth in the past five games.

Rachael Bona made it 5-1 with a power-play goal at 15:01 of the third.

The Gophers lead the all-time series 40-6, after winning first 28 games.