Women's Hockey Swept at Minnesota

Gophers use pair of power-play goals to pull away in Saturday finale

by Dan Myers
Issue date: 10/17/06 Section: Womens Sports

When the WCHA schedule was released earlier this season, the Minnesota State women's hockey team knew they would be in for a rough start.

After opening their conference season against No. 7 Minnesota-Duluth, the Mavericks traveled to north to Minneapolis to play their first road games of the season. In both games during the series, UM used late flurries to send the Mavericks to an 0-4 start in WCHA play.

The Mavericks fell behind in Friday's game, but used a power-play goal by sophomore forward Maggie Fisher to tie the game at one after the opening frame.

Minnesota controlled play from there, outshooting MSU 25-13 during the final two periods and outscoring the Mavs 3-0. Andrea Nichols scored the game winner at 12:06 of the second period and the Gophers added a pair of insurance tallies in the third to secure the victory.

"We didn't do a good enough job of picking up people on the backcheck," said MSU head coach Jeff Vizenor. "We gave opportunities where we could have gone ahead, or tied games. Minnesota is a good team and they took advantage."

Saturday's game was a similar story as the Gophers cracked the scoreboard first on an Erica McKenzie goal at 14:30. The Mavericks again fought back to tie the game in the second, as Amanda Stohr buried her first goal of the season at 5:03.

UM took a 2-1 lead three minutes later, but MSU didn't trail for long. Shera Vis tied the game again 46 seconds after that. It appeared the game was going to be tied after two periods, but a late power play gave the Gophers the advantage. Bobbi Ross capitalized on the mistake to give UM the 3-2 lead at the 19-minute mark of the second period.

"I think that second period may have been our best period of the year so far," Vizenor said.

MSU outshot Minnesota 12-11 in the final frame, but UM added a pair of goals less than a minute apart to secure the victory and the sweep. The losses put MSU eight points in the hole to start its season.

"There have been times this season where we have everything going for us but can't hit the net," Vizenor said. "I just think it's going to take more focus and in practice. We need to learn to finish off our chances."

Although the trip to Grand Forks is never easy, MSU may finally have a bit of a respite in its early season schedule. North Dakota is one of the worst team in the WCHA and will host MSU in a Saturday-Sunday series at Ralph Engelstad Arena. The Fighting Sioux were swept by UMD and did not score a goal in either contest. Both games are scheduled to begin at 2:07 p.m.

"We need to go up there planning to win two games," Vizenor said. "Anything else is going to be a disappointment."

Dan Myers is the Reporter Sports Editor