Exactly nine months from their last loss, the Gophers women’s hockey team set a new NCAA Division I record for consecutive wins.

No. 1 Minnesota beat Minnesota State-Mankato twice over the weekend to extend its winning streak to 22 games, breaking a previous record set by Harvard in 2008.

Junior forward Kelly Terry said the team was told to focus on the process of getting to the record not the record itself.

“But now that we have the record, it’s something that we can celebrate,” Terry said.

Head coach Brad Frost called the feat “remarkable.” He credited this year’s team and last year’s, which won the NCAA tournament, for their involvement.

“Anytime you can set some sort of record … it’s a pretty special time,” he said.

Minnesota broke the record in dominant fashion, winning 9-1 Saturday following a 3-0 victory Friday.

Senior captain Megan Bozek broke a 1-1 tie Saturday on a 5-on-3 opportunity from the point in the second period. She had two goals in the night.

Less than 30 seconds later, Becky Kortum scored a power-play goal.

Minnesota scored four goals in both the second and third periods.

Although the Gophers didn’t break the game open until the second period, they controlled the first one, too. The two teams swapped power-play goals in the first period, but the Gophers ended it with a 13-3 advantage in shots on goal.

The shots kept coming for Minnesota in the next two periods and eventually began to find the back of the net. The Gophers outshot the Mavericks 48-11.

Minnesota’s top-producing line of Hannah Brandt, Amanda Kessel and Maryanne Menefee turned in another solid performance.

Brandt had a goal and an assist, Kessel had two goals and three assists and Menefee had a goal and two assists.

But the team also found scoring from other sources Saturday. Thirteen players had at least one goal or one assist.

“I think distributing the points evenly got our team going a lot,” Terry said. “We seemed to have chemistry throughout all of our lines tonight.”

Terry had three assists in the game and a big defensive play in which she thwarted a Mavericks breakaway attempt.

Four of Minnesota’s goals Saturday came on the power play, which Frost said he thought was “very dialed in.”

Each team took six penalties, and MSU-Mankato had two 5-on-3 power plays, one of which they scored on.

Bozek said after Saturday’s game that the team had set a goal to take three fewer penalties per game. She said the team has shied away from that recently.

“We’re definitely hearing it from coach that we need to keep our sticks down, keep our feet moving,” Bozek said, “because we shouldn’t take any penalties that are not necessary.”

Starting goalie Noora Räty played the first two periods, but Frost lifted her to give freshman Amanda Leveille a chance between the pipes.

Leveille made four saves in the period, and Frost said they were trying to get her as much time as they could when Räty didn’t have a shutout in tact.

That wasn’t the case Friday.

The Gophers held MSU-Mankato to just 10 shots in the first two periods. The Mavericks had 14 shots in the third, due in part to three power-play chances.

“We took some unnecessary penalties at the end of the game there to give [Räty] more action,” Frost said Friday. “She worked hard for that shutout tonight.”

Minnesota outshot MSU-Mankato 12-5 in the first period Friday, but it didn’t see returns until the second.

Frost said Friday the team “needed to tighten things up” against the Mavericks.

“They were a lot more aggressive on their forecheck than we had seen on video, so we made some adjustments there,” he said.

Räty said Friday she thought the team faced adversity.

“Usually we’re up a couple goals after the first,” Räty said.

But Minnesota responded in the second period.

“I think when we started to pressure their [defense] a little more, we started to get a few more turnovers, which led to a couple of those goals,” Frost said Friday.

Brandt, standing near the right post, scored Minnesota’s first goal at the 14:02 mark in the second period after Kessel slid her a pass from the left side of the net.

Menefee scored the second goal with a minute left in the second period.

“We’ve got four solid lines,” Brandt said Friday. “We just wear the other teams down. I think it’s hard for them to keep going after the first period.”

Brandt scored again in the third period after Kortum brought the puck behind the net and dished it off.

The two wins improved Minnesota’s record to 14-0-0.

After Saturday’s game, Bozek was asked if the team could run the table.

“I think the way that we’ve been playing, it’s definitely a possibility,” she said. “But anything can happen on any given day.”

McMillen sits out

Freshman defenseman Milica McMillen sat out both games in this weekend’s sweep.

Frost said she sat out because she had broken team rules.