The No. 5 Gophers women's hockey team was stunned by unranked Vermont 4-2 on Friday night at Ridder Arena in their first ever meeting ever. Minnesota (16-6-2) fell behind 4-0 before rallying for two goals in the final six minutes.
Vermont (6-13-4) took a 2-0 lead in the opening period. Junior defenseman Taylor Flaherty, of Lakeville, scored in the 15th minute and sophomore forward Eve-Audrey Picard with 55 seconds left.
"For one reason or another, we did not have that jump that I expect us to have," Gophers coach Brad Frost said.
"When they came out shooting, they got a couple there; they got the lead and never looked back."
Alyssa Holmes increased Vermont's lead to 3-0 at 6:03 of the second period on her first goal of the season. At that point, Frost pulled senior Sidney Peters in favor of freshman Alex Gulstene.
Four minutes later, Holmes beat Gulstene for an unassisted goal, and it was 4-0 Catamounts. Peters finished with three saves, Gulstene with four.
The Gophers outshot Vermont 11-3 in the third period and got goals from Nicole Schammel and Sydney Baldwin.
Sophomore goalie Sydney Scobee, of Minnetrista and Breck, had 24 stops for the Catamounts.
