EDINA, Minn. — After scoring one goal in her first 14 college games, rookie Kelly Pannek scored three in Minnesota’s 5-0 win over St. Cloud State in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Museum Women’s Faceoff Classic on Monday night.
“The atmosphere was just electric,” Minnesota coach Brad Frost said. “Any time you can play in front of an almost sold-out crowd makes it pretty darn fun for the players both for us and St. Cloud. We’re very grateful to Braemar Arena and all the people that work here, as well as the Edina Hockey Association to get so many young girls here to cheer on both teams. To have so many other high school teams and associations involved was just fantastic.”
Amanda Leville made 19 saves to record the shutout, her third of the year, for the Gophers (12-1-2, 9-1-2-0 WCHA), but the story of the game was Pannek.
“Sometimes the bounces just go your way,” she said.
Pannek scored the game’s first two goals and finished off her hat trick in the third period to produce the final margin.
“She found herself in great spots, and every single goal was a beautiful one tonight,” Frost said.
Despite not getting on the scoreboard, it was far from a wasted effort for the Huskies (5-9-1, 2-5-1-1 WCHA).
“I’m really, really glad that we were a part of that,” coach Eric Rud said. “I thought it was a great atmosphere, great for college hockey, and a lot of little girls sitting in the stands cheering. It was the wrong team they were cheering for most of the time, but we’ll take it. The game was closer than the score for the majority of the game, and I thought it was a pretty good hockey game.”
The Gophers broke the game open with a three-goal second period, including two goals in the final 83 seconds.
After Pannek got her second goal of the game on a power-play rebound, Kate Schipper and Dani Cameranesi converted on quick shots after receiving a pass from a linemate.
“All of the goals in general tonight were nice plays,” Pannek said. “That’s what happens when our team is clicking. We’re very creative offensively, and you just saw that tonight with all five of the goals.”
Minnesota outshot the Huskies in the first period, 13-4, and Pannek scored the only goal with 17:38 elapsed.
“You’re never happy with the a loss, but obviously, we’re in the stage of our program where we’re trying to learn from certain things,” Rud said. “We gave up three goals in the second period; it might have been our best period all year, including games that we won, because I thought we just really competed hard and made plays. I think the hard work that we’re putting in in terms of working on our offensive play helped.”
