Kristy Oonincx tallied five points, three of which came in a five-minute span, as Minnesota (3-0-0, 1-0-0 WCHA) opened defense of its WCHA title with a 10-1 win over St. Cloud State (1-1-0, 0-1-0) on Friday.
It was an eight-minute span late in the first period and early in the second period that hurt the Huskies as the Gophers scored four times in seven minutes, 25 seconds.
Although Minnesota had several chances on two early power plays, it wasn’t until the 16:01 mark of the opening period, on the Gophers’ third advantage, that Kelly Stephens scored from the top of the St. Cloud crease, deflecting a Winny Brodt pass past Huskies goalie Laura Gieselman.
Brodt set up Minnesota’s second goal 90 seconds later when Oonincx batted her shot from the left point out of air to give the Gophers a 2-0 lead heading into the intermission.
Oonincx got Minnesota’s third goal 1:24 into the second period as she took a pass from Brodt in the slot, stepped up to the top hash mark and beat Gieselman with a wrist shot on the ice.
It was Oonincx’s turn to collect a helper two minutes later when she fed Krissy Wendell skating into the St. Cloud State zone. Wendell deked Gieselman to the ice and stepped around her to score on her backhand. She got her fourth point with under two minutes to play in the period, assisting Noelle Sutton’s goal, and finished her hat trick at 9:43 of the final period.
The Gophers scored five times during the final period, with Natalie Darwitz collecting a goal and two assists during the span, before the Huskies’ Melanie Pudsey scored a power-play goal with 2:38 to play in the game, just after the Gophers had returned one of two penalized players to the ice.
Oonincx, who matched her career high of five points, set March 2, 2002, in a 9-1 win over St. Cloud State, was unaware of her point production.
“I didn’t even know I had five points,” she said. “I was just having a lot of fun out there and my linemates were playing well. Things were just clicking for our team and the bounces came my way.”
Minnesota coach Laura Halldorson took the opposite route, looking for what her team could have done better.
“I don’t think we were as aggressive as we could have been in the first period,” she said. “We had a lot of chances but we weren’t smart. If we were smarter and worked a little harder, we could have capitalized on some of the chances we had early.”
The Gophers outshot the Huskies 15-1 in the opening 20 minutes, en route to a 47-16 advantage for the game. The margin was just 14-8, in favor of Minnesota, in the second period and St. Cloud State head coach Jason Lesteberg took some consolation in that fact.
“They got some shots late in the period,” he said. “But, for a while, it was really back and forth where we were able to generate as many shots as they did. I thought we were playing better offensively.
“What hurt us was that we were trying to do some things, like sending somebody out in the neutral zone, but, when we got control of the puck, our kids just didn’t know what to do with it.”
The Gophers got points from 11 different players with goals coming from seven people. Kelly Stephens chipped in with a pair of goals while Brodt had three assists.
The two teams meet again Saturday afternoon when Minnesota opens its new 3,400-seat Ridder Arena.
