By Sunday the effects of jet lag had started to wear off for No. 1 Minnesota, so Natalie Darwitz turned on the jets right away.
Darwitz skated right past the Brown defense just 47 seconds into Sunday’s game, and scored the first of eight consecutive goals in an 8-1 Minnesota win over the Bears (1-3).
Minnesota (8-0) had taken Saturday’s game by a 5-2 margin, despite wearing down in the second and third periods. Four exhausted Gophers had to leave for Providence just days after returning from the Four Nations Cup in Sweden. Darwitz among them bounced back strongest with three goals and two assists.
“I felt yesterday I was seeing doubles of everybody, like 20 people on the ice,” said Darwitz, who earned her second hat trick in four games. “But I think today we had a good night’s sleep and the whole team responded from the traveling.”
Brown did not score until the final 1:01, when Katie Guay found the net as the Bears poured on the pressure and beat junior Judy Horak for the first time in 15 shots. The goal prevented what would have been the worst shutout loss in Brown coach Digit Murphy’s career. The loss was the Bears’ third straight to the Gophers since beating them in the 2002 Frozen Four.
“I thought we played really well today and I was little disappointed we couldn’t hang on and give Horak a shutout, but it was still a good win for us,” said Minnesota coach Laura Halldorson.
Darwitz saw plenty of room for improvement, and specifically mentioned the breakout as one such area.
“I think we had two and half solid periods of hockey but we need to work on all three,” Darwitz said.
Darwitz’s early effort ensured that the third period would be of little consequence. On her first shift, she skated outside the last Brown defender on the right side, cut inside and beat Brown goaltender Katie Germain inside the left post on her backhand. Kelly Stephens and Allie Sanchez had set up Darwitz on the breakout back at their own blue line.
“I looked up and saw I had one person to beat,” Darwitz said. “I just didn’t have to do anything. I just skated straight down the ice. I think the goalie knew my hot spot’s glove from yesterday. I deked her with my backhand.”
Freshman Andrea Nichols, one day after scoring her first career goal, maintained her first goal-scoring streak when she picked up a puck in traffic, pulled it back and put it inside the right post at the 5:34 mark of the first period. Germain never had a bearing on it.
“I kind of had been in a slump lately,” said Nichols, Ms. Hockey Minnesota last year. “It’s a big change for me coming from high school hockey. Now that I got [my first goal] the pressure’s off.”
La Toya Clarke netted Minnesota’s third goal. Stephens, carrying the puck in transition tipped the puck to Clarke who roofed it into the right corner at the 6:12 mark.
Sophomore defenseman Danielle Ashley set up both Minnesota’s fourth on fifth goals on quick feeds from the half boards to the slot. The first was to Darwitz and the second was to freshman Becky Wacker.
Wacker and Nichols combined for three goals for the weekend after getting just one prior to the trip. They are now holding their own on a line with Olympian Krissy Wendell.
“I was really happy with how that line played this weekend,” Halldorson said. “I think they’re really coming around and getting used to each other and that showed.”
The sixth Minnesota score came from Noelle Sutton creating space herself and putting the puck in the net shortly following a faceoff.
The Gophers’ last two goals came on the power play. Darwitz completed her hat trick when her shot deflected off the post, she caught the airborne rebound, laid the puck on the ice, and put in the open side of the net. Wendell scored the final goal, breaking in and beating Marie-Pier Desbiens five-hole. Desbiens relieved Germain in the second period and stopped 15 of 19 shots. Germain stopped 8 of 12.
Brown finally came on strong in the end to score the last goal and nearly scored another in the final minute.
“They’re big, they’re gritty, and they worked till the very end,” Darwitz said of the Bears. “The score was 8-1 but it was a tough game. We were still working our behinds off out there every shift.”
Minnesota went 2-for-9 on the power play. Most chances came when the Gophers had already built a huge lead, and they most often did not have their best team on the ice. But the Bears did a better job defending the top Gopher unit early in the game than they had on Saturday, limiting Wendell and Darwitz’s space and breaking up most of the Gophers’ diagonal passes.
Junior Kristine McManus was Brown’s most dangerous player on the rush. She almost had Horak beat on a power play strike in the first period but Horak stuck her right foot out just in time to block it. Later in the second period she broke in around a Gopher defender and roofed a puck off Horak’s chest, then barely overskated the rebound.
Sophomore Keaton Zucker, Brown’s go-to player on Saturday, also had a successful deke on a late second period power play that drew another penalty for a 5-on-3, but Brown did not take advantage.
Murphy could not be reached for comment after the game.
Minnesota next plays a critical series with No. 10 Minnesota State. Brown plays at Quinnipiac on Tuesday.
