St. Cloud State ends Gophers women’s hockey team’s seven-game winning streak

Brieja Parent and Avery Farrell each had a goal and an assist and Sanni Ahola made 38 saves to lead No. 9 St. Cloud State women’s hockey team to a 3-1 home victory over the No. 3 Gophers on Saturday and a split of the home-and-home series.

The loss ended a seven-game winning streak for the Gophers (9-4-1, 5-4-1 WCHA), who defeated the Huskies 5-2 on Friday at Ridder Arena.

“Unfortunately, this one got away from us,” Gophers coach Brad Frost said. “One-nothing going into the third and we gave up a couple of quick ones. Then we made a push to give us a chance, but credit St. Cloud, they defended well and their goaltending was excellent.”

After a scoreless first period, which saw the Gophers outshoot the Huskies 23-8, St. Cloud State took a 1-0 lead midway through the second period on a goal by Abby Promersberger.

Farrell and Parent scored 80 seconds apart early in the third period to give the Huskies (7-4-1, 6-3-1) a 3-0 lead.

Natalie Mlynkova scored with 13½ minutes remaining to get the Gophers within 3-1. But that was the only goal against Ahola as St. Cloud State won despite getting outshot 39-28.

After going 2-for-3 on the power-play on Friday, the Gophers were 0-for-3 on Saturday.

The Gophers are idle next weekend. They play at St. Thomas on Dec. 6-7. The Huskies play a nonconference series next weekend at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y.