University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
15-5-2, 10-4-2-0
Minnesota Duluth
9-11-1, 5-8-1-1
Gophers Roll Past Bulldogs, 5-0
12/9/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Hockey
MINNEAPOLIS - The No. 6 Minnesota women's hockey team cruised to a 5-0 win over visiting Minnesota Duluth in game two of this weekend's WCHA series Saturday evening at Ridder Arena.
Minnesota (15-5-2, 10-4-2-0 WCHA) was led by Nicole Schammel (2g-1a), Caitlin Reilly (2a), Sophie Skarzynski (1g-1a), Grace Zumwinkle (1g-1a), and Taylor Wente (1g-1a) with multiple points in the win, and Sidney Peters made 18 saves in her second shutout of the season.
"Great response by our team tonight," head coach Brad Frost said. "They took last night pretty personally, giving up those leads in the third. I'm just really really proud of our team. It shows what they can be and what they are becoming. They approached this game a little differently knowing it was their last game [before the break], and that is how we have to approach every weekend."
The Gophers opened the scoring late in the opening period with three goals from Wente, Schammel, and Skarzynski in the final five minutes. Minnesota continued its scoring into the second with goals from Schammel on the power play and Zumwinkle in the final 10 seconds of the period.
"Certainly it was a great stretch there in the first to score those three goals in the last five minutes to get a good cushion, and then those two big goals, the fifth one in particular by Grace with a few seconds left in the second," Frost said.
Minnesota finished the game 1-for-3 on the power play while holding the Bulldogs scoreless on all three of their power play attempts.
Minnesota Duluth (9-11-1, 5-8-1-1 WCHA) was held scoreless by the Gophers after the teams posted a 3-3 overtime tie in game one of the series on Friday night. UMD picked up an extra point in the WCHA league standings with a 2-1 shootout win.
The Gophers outshot the Bulldogs, 24-16, in game two with Bulldogs senior netminder Jessica Convery falling to a 9-9-1 record on the year while Peters improved to 9-4-1 for the season.
Minnesota's line of Zumwinkle (2g-3a), Schammel (2g-3a), and Wente (2g-2a) combined for 14 points over the weekend.
"We had a really good first half, a lot of lessons learned, and we are going to continue to learn and grow through those things" Frost said. "Awesome game tonight to finish the first half, looking forward to getting a little rest before we come back in a few weeks."
Minnesota now has nearly four full weeks off from competition as the Gophers resume play following the holiday break by hosting the Minnesota Whitecaps in an exhibition game at 7 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 5. The Gophers then host St. Cloud State (Jan. 9) and Vermont (Jan. 12-13) in non-conference action in early January to begin the second half of the season.
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