The No. 2 Gophers womenâÄôs hockey team put its historical East Coast struggles aside and capped its nonconference season with a sweep of No. 9 Harvard in Boston.
Forward Emily West had five points on the weekend and forward Kelly Terry recorded a hat trick Sunday.
The wins give Minnesota (14-2-0, 8-2-0 WCHA) a 6-0 record in nonconference play.
âÄúIt was only our third road trip of the year,âÄù head coach Brad Frost said. âÄúTo come all the way to Boston and play a very good Harvard team and to [sweep] was great for [the teamâÄôs] confidence,âÄù
Frost also said the perfect nonconference record would help improve how the team is viewed by selection committees come tournament time.
The Gophers took SaturdayâÄôs game 2-1.
Minnesota took a 1-0 lead when West scored with just less than two minutes left in the first period.
âÄúOur lines focused on getting everything to the net and creating opportunities from there,âÄù West said. âÄúEverything came out on the good end.âÄù
After a scoreless second period, Jen Schoullis appeared to make it a 2-0 game early in the third, but officials reviewed the goal and ruled the Harvard net had moved out of place before the goal.
It wasnâÄôt until Anne Schleper scored on a power play that the scoreboard actually rolled over to 2-0.
Marissa Gedman put the Crimson on the board with 5:35 left in the game, but the Gophers held on for the victory.
On Sunday, MinnesotaâÄôs offense exploded for seven goals, and the team completed the road sweep with a 7-3 win.
Rachael Bona scored a goal in the gameâÄôs first two minutes and Terry scored the first of her three goals a minute later.
Gina McDonald scored for Harvard, but seconds later, Minnesota took advantage of a Crimson penalty, and Terry scored her second goal.
She scored her third with 6:35 left in the first period for her first career hat trick.
âÄúMy line played really well this weekend,âÄù Terry said. âÄúWe knew we needed to start contributing more and weâÄôre finally starting to do that after this weekend.âÄù
Jillian Dempsey scored with just more than two minutes left in the period, and the teams went into the first intermission with the Gophers leading 4-2.
Schoullis scored three minutes into the second frame to put Minnesota up 5-2, but Harvard hung around.
Sarah Edney scored a power-play goal with just less than eight minutes left in the period, and the score stood at 5-3 at the second intermission.
The Gophers slammed the door in the first half of the third period with goals from Rachel Ramsey and West.
Harvard was shutout for the remainder of the game.
âÄúAnytime you can play an opponent thatâÄôs in the top-10 and do well [on the road], thatâÄôs a huge goal for us, and we accomplished it,âÄù West said.
Minnesota will travel to Grand Forks next weekend for a series with No. 6 North Dakota before concluding the first half of the season with a home series against Ohio State.
