MANKATO, Minn. -- The Minnesota State women's hockey team opened the 2022 portion of its schedule with a loss to No. 4 Minnesota. The Golden Gophers defeated the Mavericks 7-2 in Western Collegiate Hockey Association game played at the Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center, Friday evening.
The Mavericks now stand 9-11-1 overall with a 5-11-1 mark in the WCHA, while the Golden Gophers are 17-5-1 with a 12-4-1 mark in conference play.
Despite falling by a five-goal deficit on Friday night, the Mavericks had the hot start out of the gate. Twenty-five seconds into the contest, MSU charged into the Golden Gophers' end with momentum before junior forwards Kelsey King and Kennedy Bobyck put simultaneous shots on from the slot for rebound chances. The third forward in was senior forward Brittyn Fleming, who found herself in the right place at the right time to score her eighth goal of the season on the second rebound in the slot. The Mavericks' 1-0 lead lasted 7:09 up until the Gophers tied the game at 7:34 of the first period. The game-tying goal was the first of three goals scored by Amy Potomak in the first period, which helped the Gophers jump out to a commanding 4-1 lead after one period of play. The other goal, which was the eventual game-winning goal, was scored by Emily Zumwinkle at the 12:09 mark of the opening period. After one period, The Gophers owned a three-goal lead and were outshooting the Mavericks 26-13.
In the second period, the Gophers scored an insurance goal at 8:15 off the stick of Taylor Heise to take a 5-1 lead into the second intermission. MSU won the shots battle during the middle period, 10-8, but continued to trail in total after 40 minutes, 34-23.
The third period saw the Golden Gophers pile on 14 more shots opposed to the Mavericks' eight and score another pair of goals to make it 7-1. the Mavericks concluded the scoring when King scored her team-high 11th goal of the season with 56.5 seconds remaining in regulation. While carrying a 48-31 advantage in shots, the Golden Gophers took game one of the series with a 7-2 victory over the Mavericks in Mankato.
The win was earned by Minnesota's Skylar Vetter, who is now 10-2 on the season, after she made 29 saves on 31 shots in the contest. In goal for the Mavericks, junior Calla Frank made a total of 41 saves on 48 shots while taking the loss. She now owns an 8-9-1 record this season between the pipes for MSU.
The Gophers scored the game's only power-play goal while having a pair of chances. MSU was unsuccessful with three opportunities on the advantage.
The Mavericks head to Ridder Arena in Minneapolis Saturday to rematch the Golden Gophers in the series finale at 4:01 p.m.
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