Abbey Murphy’s hat trick helped the No. 3 Gophers women’s hockey team pull away from No. 9 St. Cloud State for a 5-2 victory on Friday night at Ridder Arena.
Abbey Murphy has hat trick as Gophers women’s hockey beats St. Cloud State 5-2
The Gophers have won seven in a row and beaten the Huskies nine times over the past 11 meetings.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
November 23, 2024 at 5:27AM
The victory was the seventh in a row for the Gophers (9-3-1, 5-3-1 WCHA), who defeated the Huskies (6-4-1, 5-3-1) for the ninth time in 11 meetings (9-1-1).
Murphy scored twice on the power play as she increased her goal total to 13 on the season.
“I thought we played well,” Gophers coach Brad Frost said. “After a great weekend in Duluth last weekend, I just wanted our team to take another step, and I thought they did that. We were staying above pucks, we were reloading well, winning our battles, in particular in the second and third. We did a great job at the end, closing that thing out in the third period, just allowing four shots. Really happy with the win.”
Her first power-play goal gave the Gophers a 3-1 lead early in the second period. A St. Cloud State penalty 19 seconds into the third period put the Gophers back on the power play, and Murphy scored five seconds into the advantage to make it 4-2.
Murphy sealed the victory with an empty-net goal with 78 seconds remaining.
“[Murphy] continues to do the right things,” Frost said. “She’s starting to get rewarded on the score sheet a little more, but what people don’t see are the behind-the-scenes things, the things that she does in the community, and the things she does with little kids. That’s the kind of person Abbey is, but it’s fun to see her lighting the lamp and getting those points, and just continuing to lead us in a great way.”
The Gophers’ Ella Huber scored in the game’s first minute, but the Huskies tied it with a power-play goal from Abby Promersberg at 15:34 of the first period.
Less than two minutes later, the Gophers regained the lead on a goal by Ava Lindsay.
Abby Qualley’s power-play goal with three minutes left in the second period got the Huskies within 3-2.
Huber had two assists to go with her goal and Nelli Laitinen had two assists for the Gophers, who outshot the Huskies 34-27.
The teams will conclude the home-and-home series on Saturday in St. Cloud.
Sam Rinzel had two of the Gophers’ three power play goals against the Irish.
