It’s senior night here at the National Hockey Center in St. Cloud.  After a lengthy pre-game ceremony honoring SCSU’s nine seniors, we are just about set to drop the puck.   Opening faceoff is scheduled for 2:07.

Starting for the Gophers: Anne Schleper Laura May Sarah Erickson Alexandra Zebro Chelsey Jones In goal: Jenny Lura A major question of the day will be how will these two teams recover and maintain energy levels after playing into a shootout last night in Minneapolis. Both teams seem to be answering the bell early with several shots on net a piece. Lura got the starting nod in goal over Alyssa Grogan and whether that is for injury, fatigue, ineffectiveness or any number of other reasons is unknown. As a general rule, when hockey players are tired, coaches like to employ short shifts; we’ll see if that holds true today for the Gophers and Huskies. 13:30 About 6 and a half minutes in Saint Cloud got a break away and the shot trickled by goaltender Lura. The light went on but the linesman was screened on the play and waved the goal off and play continued. 11:58 With the first stoppage in play, the refs were given a chance to review the play and the goal was counted. 1-0 Huskies lead. 13:28 After the goal was counted, the clock returned to 13:58 and the Gophers gave up a power play goal. Huskies lead 2-0. Not including the shootout last night, 6 of the Gopher’s last 7 goals against have come on the penalty kill. 11:14 The Gophers had their first big chance at a goal when a scrum in front of the Saint Cloud net resulted in several rebounds while three Gophers jammed away at the loose puck at the goal mouth. Minnesota will go on the power play following the play as the refs got Saint Cloud’s Hirsch, 2 minutes for interference. 3:04 technical difficulties with this blog’s wireless connection left me unable to post the past several minutes. Apologies. The score remains 2-0 in favor of Saint Cloud but the Gophers seem to have a bit more control now than they did early. They have had several offensive chances but so far no points. Check in with the live score board at the Daily’s website for and up to date looks at things, minus the commentary of course. 1:17 emotions continue to get the best of the Gophers as things got chippy on the ice and escalated into a shoving math. penalties assessed: Minn. #10 Francis, 2 minutes for hooking. #19 Bozek 2 minutes for roughing. SCSU’s Meaghan Pezon 2 mintues for roughing. Gophers back on the penalty kill. End of the first period. Huskies lead 2-0. Beginning of the Second period. 18:17 Minnesota began the period by killing the remaining time left on Saint Cloud’s power play. 17:29 The Huskies answer right back with an even-strength goal to put them ahead 3-0. Goal to #12 Alex Nelson, assissts went to Felicia Nelson and Holly Roberts. 16:43 Laura May gets the Gophers back into the game with a goal just 3 minutes into the second period. 16:27 before I could even submit the last post, the Gophers have scored another goal. Pulling them within a goal. Terra Rassmussen got the tally. Huskies still lead 3-2. 13:03 minor penlty to Saint Cloud’s Pezon, 2 minutes for body checking. Minnesota will try to net the equalizer on the power play. 10:29 the Huskies killed the penalty. Gophers had a delayed penalty coming, only no one knew. The ref didn’t signal the penalty and allowed the Gophers to skate all the way through the neutral zone with the puck before blowing the whistle. 4:30 the Gophers PK looked very strong, getting several short-handed chances of their own. Outside of the one-minute flurry when the Gophers got the two goals, that penalty kill was the best their offense has looked all afternoon. It doesn’t appear to be lack of effort or energy- Minnesota seems to be outskating Saint Cloud and has certainly had many more chances. As coach Frost said last night, sometimes it comes down to what way the puck bounces. 1:58 The Gophers will get to close out the period on the power play. Huskies get a minor penalty, 2 minutes for hooking. End of the second period: The Huskies killed all but 2 seconds of the penalty and remain in the lead 3-2. Beginning of the Third: Huskies kill the final two seconds of the PP and even strength play resumes. 17:07 Senior Felicia Nelson danced to the goal mouth and shelfed a backhand. The Huskies sit at a two goal lead, 4-2. assists to Roberts and A. Nelson. 12:22 Saint Cloud puts another one by Lura. This time it was a 5 hole shot from Roberts and Nelson again to Felicia Nelson. SC leads 5-2. 10:43 Laura May buried one coming in from the left point. Assists to Francis and Erickson. Minnesota still trails 5-3. 4:10 The Gophers are trying to make their presence felt. Or perhaps this is desperation time and they’ve scrapped their initial plans. All night the Gophers have been working on dumping the puck deep and then working to control it in their opponents zone. Now they’ve adopted a new approach where they will walk in and just rip a slap shot from north of the circles. Several players have crashed the net looking for rebounds but Saint Cloud goalie Ashley Nixon hasn’t given up any good ones. Huskies still lead 5-3. 1:30 Minnesota pulled its goalie for an extra attacker and gave up an empty-net goal with 37 second left. Gophers trail 6-3. FINAL: Gophers 3 – SCSU 6