Minnesota got four goals from its top line and held off a late St. Cloud State rally to post a 5-2 win in a rare WCHA Thursday night game.
“It was nice to win by more than a goal,” coach Brad Frost said.
The Gophers (8-1-0, 6-1-0-0 WCHA) had won their last four games by a single tally, all thanks to Sarah Potomak scoring the winning goal in the third period or later.
“We take a lot of pride in being a very balanced offensive team,” junior center Kelly Pannek said. “That’s something we haven’t really found. Sarah has been scoring a lot of our goals. It was huge for [Dani Cameranesi and me] to get a goal, Cara [Piazza] to get a goal.”
Pannek scored twice to triple her goal output on the season despite the efforts of St. Cloud State (3-5-1, 2-4-1-1 WCHA) freshman goalie Janine Alder, who made 33 saves.
“I was really impressed,” Pannek said. “She held us to one goal in the first and she was playing confidently.”
At times, the Swiss native was done in by her teammates.
“I thought she played well,” St. Cloud coach Eric Rud said. “There were a couple clear breakdowns that we had that led to easy goals for them.”
Both Potomak and Cameranesi finished with a goal and three assists.
Alder kept Minnesota off the board until Pannek finally broke through 16:10 into the contest.
“Still searching for some secondary scoring,” Frost said.
He finally got some when Potomak ladled a perfect pass onto Piazza’s stick on a penalty kill early in the third, and the junior center finished off the short-handed breakaway. When Potomak set Cameranesi up a few minutes later to make the score 4-0, Frost felt confident enough to give rookie goalie Serena D’Angelo some minutes in relief of starter Sidney Peters.
The Huskies staged an immediate rally, getting goals from Kayla Friesen and Payge Pena on their next two shots.
Pannek quelled that comeback when she answered within a minute for the final margin.
“Tonight, I thought our lack of execution was poor and allowed them to keep coming at us,” Rud said. “We would break it out clear, and then it was a five-foot pass that was maybe in the skates or off a little bit.”
His team couldn’t afford such miscues against Minnesota’s speed.
“Even when you have the puck in the clear, they’re catching up from behind,” Rud said.
His rival hopes to find a bit more velocity when the series concludes on Friday at 7:07 p.m. in Ridder Arena.
“I still think we have another gear, and hopefully, we get there tomorrow,” Frost said.
