Past Minnesota teams, even those who have gone on to win national titles, have exhibited some rust in their first game of the new year. The 2005-2006 edition looked recharged rather than rusty in a 7-2 win over Bemidji State coming out of the break.
“I’m a big fan of a long break, because I think they come back excited, and they did,” said coach Laura Halldorson. “I thought it was a good start to the second half of the season.”
Sophomore forwards Whitney Graft and Bobbi Ross each notched a pair of goals to lead the Gophers (13-5-1, 8-4-1 WCHA), with Ross adding an assist. Senior defenseman Ashley Albrecht had a goal along with two assists.
The underdog Beavers (4-15-2, 3-12-0 WCHA) looked poised to enter the first intermission with a 1-1 tie on the strength of a Brooke Collins rebound goal. But Gigi Marvin scored on the power play with just 14 seconds to go in the period when she fired from the left circle through traffic in front past Bemidji goalie Jill Luebke.
“I threw a shot to the net and Bobbi tipped it in – she was screening in front,” Marvin said. “Everyone has been telling me my whole life to shoot, so I’ve got to just do it. Good things will happen if you get the puck on net, as everyone says.”
Ross cashed in a Marley Wournell feed from the low slot two and half minutes into the second period, and Minnesota pulled away.
Though the official statistics show the Gophers went just 1-for-5 on the power play, they did more damage with the advantage. Graft scored both of her goals after a Beaver penalty had expired, but before the penalized player could rejoin the action.
“I felt great about our power play today,” Graft said. “We’ve been working hard in practice trying to get a lot of quick puck movement and a lot of cycling between me and Jenelle Philipcyzk down low.”
Graft scored the game’s first goal seven minutes into the game when she collected her own rebound along the goal line and converted along the ice from a bad angle.
“Ashley [Albrecht] tried to hit me back door, I got a good bounce behind the net and just tried to put it on goal,” Graft said. “Luckily, it went in.”
Graft backhanded the puck past Luebke at 6:43 of the middle stanza to make it 4-1. Ross upped the margin to 5-1 just over two minutes later with a short-handed goal.
“Erica McKenzie made a real good pass back to me,” Ross said. “She talked to me when we were first breaking in so I could get the puck to her. She went around [the defense], and there was a small window of time for her to get the puck to me, and she did. The rebound was just there for me, so I swatted at it when I probably wasn’t even standing up.”
That goal ended the night for Luebke, who was replaced by Emily Brookshaw.
Lindsay Block and Albrecht provided third period goals for Minnesota. For Block, it was her first goal as a Gopher.
Tara Hiscock made the final score 7-2 with a last minute goal for the Beavers.
“We challenged our players to go out there and make a statement in the last couple minutes of the game,” said recently installed Bemidji State co-coach Sis Paulsen. “We come out and score a goal, and give ourselves a little push saying, ‘We can score on this goalie.’ Hopefully, the goals will come a little bit easier tomorrow.”
Natalie Lamme saw her first action in the Minnesota net in the third period, in relief of Kim Hanlon, who improved to 4-0 on the season.
“I’m happy for Natalie,” Halldorson said. “She’s worked hard for a year and a half for us, and it was nice to give her some game action. I thought she made some big saves out there and played well.”
Brittony Chartier was missing due to the Canadian Under-22 Team’s Air Canada Cup.
“We knew that we were going to have this weekend without Brittony Chartier and really didn’t know what position we’d be in with our goaltenders,” Halldorson said. “We knew that we’d have some sort of unproven goalies on our team. But it was great to come into the weekend not worried about our goaltending situation at all, even though a very good goaltender for us is playing for Team Canada right now.”
“We struggled to put the puck in the net tonight,” Paulsen said. “We had opportunities, and the goalie came up big or we shoot right into her. That’s just how the game goes.”
Paulsen looked at special teams as a key to Saturday’s 4 p.m. rematch at Ridder Arena.
“Essentially, they scored three or four power play goals,” Paulsen said. “If it didn’t come right on the power play, it came two or three seconds after. We have to be better in our defensive zone on our penalty kill. You’ve got to give them credit – they have five great players out there on the power play. They shoot the puck, they crash the net, and that’s where they hurt us tonight.”
