ST. CLOUD âÄî The Gophers womenâÄôs hockey team has a nice pattern going on the road. After opening the season with 5-0 and 3-0 victories at seventh-ranked Clarkson, the team swept St. Cloud State in its second road series by the same scores to improve to 4-0 away from Ridder Arena. The Gophers outshot the Huskies 91-32 and spent 12 fewer minutes in the penalty box while erasing the memory of last weekendâÄôs sweep at the hands of North Dakota. âÄúItâÄôs not easy to sweep on the road, and in particular up here against St. Cloud,âÄù Gophers head coach Brad Frost said. âÄúBut being able to do that this weekend was just huge for our team, especially after last weekend.âÄù Freshman Sarah Davis and sophomore Megan Bozek opened the scoring Friday and Saturday night, respectively, and the Gophers never relinquished either lead. Junior Anne Schleper contributed six points and freshmen Kelly Terry and Sarah Davis each added four. Sophomore goalie Noora Raty continued her perfect season in goal, notching her third and fourth shutouts of the year while facing just 32 shots over both nights. âÄúNoora played tremendous again and made the saves that she needed to,âÄù Frost said Saturday night. After a weekend of quiet offensive production against UND, Frost started his usual second line of Davis, Terry and Becky Kortum, who had scored three of the four goals against UND. They came through, starting early in the first period Friday night with DavisâÄô first career goal, a rebound off an Anne Schleper slap shot. Schleper added her only goal of the weekend to go with her five assists later in the first, and Becky Kortum added to scores in the second and nearly recorded the teamâÄôs first official hat trick of the year in the third. The Gophers again jumped out to an early lead Saturday night on Megan BozekâÄôs slap shot from the right point late in the first. Meanwhile, MinnesotaâÄôs top line of Kessel, Schoullis and Erickson was quiet on the series and saw a handful of breakaway opportunities go awry. âÄúToday each of us should have had about 10 goals,âÄù Schoullis said Saturday night. After a weekend that saw tensions amount to a Friday brawl between several UND and Minnesota players, cooler heads prevailed for the Gophers this weekend. They kept their cool in the few skirmishes that did arise. âÄúItâÄôs just something that we preach âĦ just walking away and letting them take the penalties,âÄù Frost said Saturday night. âÄúOur players âĦ did a really good job just walking away.âÄù The GophersâÄô road dominance will get its toughest test thus far next weekend when they travel to play Minnesota Duluth, the defending national champions.
Gophers continue road dominance with sweep of SCSU
by Nate Gotlieb
Published October 24, 2010
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