Minnesota trailed for only the third time this season, was tied at the midway point of the final period for the first time, but the end result was eerily familiar, a 6-2 win over Minnesota-Duluth. <\/p>\n
“They approach every game as the biggest game of the year and you saw how much it meant to them tonight when it’s 2-2 and we get that third and the place erupts and gives us some momentum,” Minnesota coach Brad Frost said.<\/p>\n
Amanda Kessel maneuvered through the UMD defense and finished off a rush at 12:15 of the third period, the first of three goals for the Gophers in a span of 1:45. <\/p>\n
“Hannah [Brandt] made a nice little chip there and I was dead and I knew that we needed a goal badly,” Kessel said. “So I put everything I had into that to get open there and just saw her five-hole open and slid it in.” <\/p>\n
Rachael Bona banged in the rebound of a Kelly Terry shot on the next shift for a 4-2 lead for the Gophers. <\/p>\n
“They were playing against Duluth’s top line all night and did a great job on them defensively, but then to put one home to get up by two was big,” Frost said of Terry’s line with Bona and Becky Kortum. <\/p>\n
Kessel found Meghan Lorence on the weak side soon after and another game was in hand. <\/p>\n
Kessel’s three assists on the day added to her goal gives her 82 points for the season, eclipsing the 80 points that she put up as a sophomore. <\/p>\n
Jordyn Burns completed the scoring in the final minute. <\/p>\n
Earlier while killing a penalty, Jenna McParland made a big-time play to take the puck from the last Minnesota player back and beat Noora Räty for an unassisted, short-handed goal and tie the game 2-2 at 5:39 of the final period. <\/p>\n
That could have been a deflating momentum, coming on the heels of a near-miss for Minnesota at the other end, but Kessel said she didn’t get the feeling the team’s winning streak (28-0, 22-0 WCHA) was about to end. <\/p>\n
“If we were playing how we had played in the first period, I might have been a little nervous, but the fact that our team got our legs going, and our forecheck, and were getting chances, I wasn’t scared,” Kessel said.<\/p>\n
When the teams played in Duluth this past November, UMD was the team that was dealing with injuries. This time, Minnesota had a number of players hurting, including center Sarah Davis, who missed the game after a mid-ice collision with the Bulldogs’ Katie Wilson the night before, and UMD took advantage. <\/p>\n
“[Minnesota-Duluth] played a great game,” Kessel said. “They were all over us. They had a great forecheck, a great backcheck.” <\/p>\n
The Bulldogs took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission and appeared to have the game right where they wanted it. <\/p>\n
“The first period was not how our team plays,” Kessel said. “We came out slow and flat and Duluth was playing well, so to get those power-play goals was huge.” <\/p>\n
Minnesota got a pair of power-play goals in the second period from Brandt and Milica McMillen to overcome the early UMD advantage. <\/p>\n
“We challenged our power plays today because last night we didn’t generate enough and obviously didn’t score,” Frost said. “Those were two big goals for us in the second.” <\/p>\n
Pernilla Winberg had struck halfway through the opening 20 minutes to give the Bulldogs hope for a crucial road win, assisted by Jordan Krause and Zoe Hickel. Instead, it wound up as the first four-game sweep of the season series in the history of the two programs. <\/p>\n
“It’s pretty incredible,” Frost said. “They’ve always been a huge rival for us, just like Wisconsin. We hadn’t swept a four-game series from Wisconsin since 2000, so it’s pretty remarkable to think back of the program’s history and 15 years and never sweeping Duluth. <\/p>\n
“So it’s pretty special.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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