For the second straight night, the Minnesota power play dictated the outcome against North Dakota. The Gophers converted on 4 of their 5 advantages to improve to 8 for 12 for the weekend and cruised to a 7-1 victory.
Kelly Stephens led the way with the second hat trick of her Gopher career. The Minnesota first line again produced five goals and 10 points, with Krissy Wendell collecting two goals and two assists. Natalie Darwitz contributed three assists.
“It’s great skating with them,” Stephens said of her linemates. “I think the points are pretty well dispersed evenly throughout the line. That’s the fun of it. I look up, and you can pretty well put the puck anywhere, and it’s a done deal.”
Wendell struck first, burying the rebound after Sioux goalie Margaret-Ann Hinkley stopped the Bobbi Ross deflection of a Lyndsay Wall shot. The goal at 7:51 of the first period came just 26 seconds into Minnesota’s first power play.
Freshman Jenelle Philipczyk followed with her first collegiate goal, when her close range shot trickled by Hinkley. Wendell blasted home a one-timer during a 5-on-3, and Stephens cashed in another power play rebound to give her team a comfortable 4-0 lead at the first intermission. To that point, Minnesota had a 17-to-7 edge in shots on goal.
Amber Hasbargen replaced Hinkley in net after the fourth goal and proceeded to give her team steady play in net.
“It’s tough when you go in when you aren’t expecting to go in,” said UND coach Shantel Rivard. “I actually thought that our whole game was better than yesterday. Our first period of today’s game was better than the first period of yesterday’s game. Even though it was 4-0, it was all power play goals. When you’re out on a penalty kill against that line, it’s like a 7-on-4, not a 5-on-4.”
Minnesota missed Lyndsay Wall, especially on the power play, while she sat out an academic suspension during the second semester of her freshman year. She earned her first goal since her return when she fired a power play missile high into the cage at 15:39 of the second period for the Gophers’ fifth goal. Wall’s intimidating shot is a catalyst for much of Minnesota’s success when skating with an advantage.
“I don’t know if it’s just the mental thing with our other players on the ‘play, but when I’m out there, they pretty much just feed me and tell me to shoot,” Wall said. “When I shoot, [opponents] move up on me, and leave other people wide open. When I wasn’t playing, they were giving [her replacements] that shot.”
With the graduation of La Toya Clarke, Minnesota came into the season needing to find someone else to station in front of the goalie and provide screens and deflections. In the first series, Bobbi Ross filled that role.
Wall said of the rookie, “The first practice, I beaned her, and I was like ‘I’m sorry! Welcome.’ It’s a tough job, because she gets hacked, and slashed, and cross-checked, but she’s willing to do it.”
Stephens struck for consecutive goals to complete her hat trick and push the lead to seven goals by the 5:00 mark of third period. The Sioux responded with a late power play goal of their own off of the stick of rookie Cami Wooster, costing Minnesota goaltender Brenda Reinen her shutout. Reinen finished with 30 saves.
“I thought Rhino had a good game today,” Minnesota coach Laura Halldorson said of her senior netminder. “We had some breakdowns and didn’t make it easy on her. We have got to clean up play in our own zone. It all starts with the D handling the puck and making good decisions.”
“We definitely want to be strong in our defensive zone,” said co-captain Stephens. “We have great goaltenders. We have strong defensemen. Obviously we’re known for our offensive power, but we also have to focus on our D-zone and our P.K.”
Minnesota proved to be too strong an opponent all-around for the Sioux to stay close in their WCHA debut. The schedule does not get much easier for North Dakota with a pair at three-time NCAA champion Minnesota-Duluth next weekend.
“I think for the third year [the Sioux] look good and they’re only going to keep getting better,” Halldorson said. “Now their schedule starts off really tough with us and then Duluth. Welcome to the WCHA. But they’ll be all right. They’ll take their lumps early, but I think they’ll be real competitive this year.”
This weekend’s results suggest though that this will be the strongest top-to-bottom year among the WCHA’s returning teams, so the Sioux will have their work cut out for them. St. Cloud State and Bemidji State, who finished deep in the WCHA cellar a year ago, pulled upsets of Ohio State and No. 8 Mercyhurst, respectively, to open their seasons.
“The parity is growing,” Halldorson said regarding the early upsets. “Unless you’re the one that gets upset, it is exciting to know that you’re not sure who is going to win games. It’s better for our fans. It’s better for our players. It’s better for the sport.”
