St. Cloud - The Gophers scored three goals in the first period — Maryanne Menefee had two of them — in beating St. Cloud State 4-0 on Friday afternoon in a WCHA women's hockey game at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.

Senior Shyler Sletta made 18 saves for the shutout.

"We started great. Getting those three goals in the first really set the tone for the rest of the night," Gophers coach Brad Frost said. "Hopefully we'll be a little better tomorrow [in the second two periods].

"A lot of shots, a lot of puck possession, but we still need to get ourselves to the net a little more."

Meghan Lorence gave No. 2 Minnesota (22-1-3, 15-1-3-1) a 1-0 lead on a rebound at 3 minutes, 48 seconds of the opening period.

Menefee, a junior forward, had a power-play goal at 13:10 and an even-strength goal about four minutes later to make it 3-0. Those goals were her 14th and 15th of the season. It remained 3-0 until Nina Rodgers scored with 58 seconds left in the game.

Hannah Brandt had three assists to increase her career point total to 201.

Julie Friend finished with 48 saves for the Huskies (6-19-1, 3-15-1-1).