For the first time this season, someone other than Brittony Chartier was in the Minnesota net at the start of a game. Freshmen goalie Kim Hanlon out of Blaine High School got the nod and stopped everything that reached her.
But the best defense for the No. 4 Gophers (9-3-0, 4-2-0 WCHA) may have been that they played the bulk of the game in the Brown end of the ice. The Bears (2-4-0, 1-1-0 ECAC) were outshot 39-12 and went 0-for-5 on the power play for the second straight day.
“You can’t [fail to] score on the power play,” said Brown coach Digit Murphy. “You can’t score one goal on the weekend and expect to win. Our goalies played real well.”
Brown went with a rookie goaltender as well, Buffalo Grove, IL native Nicole Stock. She kept the Gophers off of the scoreboard until a goal soon after defenseman Lindsay Wilde received the game’s first penalty.
Minnesota’s “gold” or second power play unit capitalized. Sophomore Jenelle Philipczyk banked the puck off of Stock and into the goal at 8:18 of the first period.
Philipczyk said. “[Captain Andrea] Nichols is always there ready to jam it in, so I was just trying to get the puck to the net and get a chance to score.”
Crisp puck movement led to the tally, which stood up as the game winner, with Whitney Graft and Chelsey Brodt earning the assists.
“We practiced it a lot this week in practice,” Philipczyk said. “We worked on moving the puck faster and getting more chances, so they get caught out of rotation.”
A day after getting torched by Minnesota’s top line for five goals, Brown successfully shut them down in the rematch, in part by using a different strategy.
“I thought that we shut down [left wing Erica] McKenzie well today,” Murphy said. “We just had our center shadow in their offensive zone.”
However, the Gophers got contributions from other sources. In addition to her first period assist, Graft finished off a second-period rush with Becky Wacker, after a Nichols pass started them up the ice.
“I think we got used to playing with each other – Andrea, Becky, and I,” Graft said. “Today I think we really just meshed well and knew where each other was going.”
To date, the sophomore center has been the feel-good story of the Minnesota season. She has three goals and three assists while skating primarily on the second line after her rookie campaign yielded only a single assist.
“Last year, she didn’t get a lot of playing time,” said Minnesota coach Laura Halldorson. “She always wanted to be a Gopher. She came because this is where she wanted to be, without any guarantee of a particular amount of playing time. But it shows her dedication and her character that she worked as hard as she did over the summer, because she wasn’t satisfied with that role and did something about it.”
Graft is just happy for the opportunity to play and produce this year.
“Last year was definitely a growing year for me as a person,” she said. “It’s tough to sit on the bench.”
In a day that belonged to the underclassmen, frosh Melanie Gagnon completed the scoring with the game’s prettiest goal, her first in a Minnesota uniform, at 5:33 of the third. Gagnon dropped the puck to Bobbi Ross and continued to the net, then slipped the return pass through Stock’s five-hole.
All of the newly constructed Minnesota lines contributed scoring chances and gained a territorial advantage in the 3-0 triumph.
“I love playing with Liz [Palkie] and Krista [Johnson],” Philipczyk said of her line. “We forechecked really hard, got the puck out of the corner to the net a couple of times. I think we did a really good job working in the offensive zone.”
Hanlon enjoyed her experience in making the jump to the next level.
“It feels awesome,” she said. “Practice is just like games, so I’m getting shots from some of the best players in the nation.”
Serving as a backup to Chartier, who figures to see the lion’s share of the playing time, presents a challenge. Hanlon intends to be ready even if her opportunities are infrequent.
“I focus every game,” she said. “At the start of every game I get ready, just like I’m going to start.”
Both coaches recognized the disadvantage that Brown and the other Ivy League schools face at this time of year.
“Brown hasn’t played a lot of games yet — they’re in our building,”
Halldorson said.
“I think that we got outhustled and outmuscled,” said Murphy. “You can tell that they’ve been playing for two months and we’ve been playing for less than one.”
Minnesota looks ahead to resuming WCHA play next weekend.
“We know that we’ll have a big test next weekend when the Badgers come in,” Halldorson said. “We’ll see how we do next weekend.”
