The Minnesota Golden Gophers started a veteran of two Olympics in its goal, while the Harvard Crimson went with a first-year netminder. That difference went a long way in telling the story of the 4-2 win for the Gophers (10-5-0, 5-5-0 WCHA).<\/p>\n
Harvard (4-4-2, 4-2-2 ECAC) enjoyed a 37-18 advantage in shots on goal, but couldn’t score until they were already down 4-0.<\/p>\n
“We came out of the gates flying, had a lot of good pressure, and that first goal was deflating,” Harvard coach Katey Stone said. “But we’ve got to figure it out.”<\/p>\n
Junior Kelly Seeler opened the scoring when her bomb from the right point found twine over Harvard starting goalie Lauren Joarnt at 14:25 of the opening period.<\/p>\n
“Upstairs is wide open; she kind of went down and we noticed that,” Seeler said. “So we tried to get more shots high.”<\/p>\n
The Gophers power play upped the margin to 3-0. A Crimson defender got a stick on Seeler’s pass, but it still reached Sarah Erickson on the weak side, and Erickson sniped her seventh goal of the season with Jen Schoullis getting the second assist.<\/p>\n
In the second period, defenseman Mira Jalosuo collected her second goal in as many games, taking a Sarah Davis pass in the slot and beating Joarnt along the ice. It was Davis’ second primary assist, as she also had the helper on Seeler’s opening goal.<\/p>\n
Rookie Bethany Brausen got into the act with her first goal in maroon and gold, finishing off a rush with Terra Rasmussen at 12:44 of period two, Minnesota’s lead was four, and Joarnt was relieved by Laura Bellamy in net.<\/p>\n
“There’s been a lot that haven’t been going my way, and the third line in particular,” Brausen said. “On that play, I saw ‘Ras’ coming up the wide boards, and I knew that if I got to the net, she’d find a way to dish it over to me. It went off the skate, and then it kind of went off the stick, and somehow went in the net.”<\/p>\n
Harvard finally got on the board after being denied for nearly five periods when Kate Buesser coaxed the puck over the goal line during a scramble in the crease. Katharine Chute and Leanna Coskren picked up the assists on the power-play tally. It was the only time on the weekend that the Harvard PP was successful in ten tries.<\/p>\n
“Minnesota’s got a very good kill, and I don’t want to shake that, because they do a very good job and they don’t give you a lot,” Stone said. “The best kill is the goaltender, and we know what that’s like, we had that before.”<\/p>\n
Buesser connected again late in the third period for the final 4-2 score.<\/p>\n
“Tonight was certainly not our best effort, but we did enough to win,” Minnesota coach Brad Frost said. “We won tonight because our goaltender played better than their (goalie).”<\/p>\n
Noora Raty stopped 35 shots in her return to the Gopher net after being injured during Friday’s contest, improving to 9-4-0 on the year.<\/p>\n
The Gophers wrap up the nonconference portion of their schedule with a perfect 5-0 record.<\/p>\n
“Coming into the weekend, we wanted two wins, and we came out with two,” Frost said.<\/p>\n
Minnesota next heads to Bemidji for WCHA games Friday and Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n
“We’ll get there,” Stone said. “We’ve just got to piece a few more things together.”<\/p>\n
The Crimson continue their road trip in a week at Boston College.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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