An early goal from Kate Schipper, a couple of third-period tallies by Dani Cameranesi, and nine saves from Sidney Peters were enough to earn Minnesota a 3-0 win over visiting St. Cloud State.
“The team played great in front of me, so it made my life a lot easier than it could have been,” Peters said.
Schipper had to wait until the 10th game to collect the first goal of her senior season for the Gophers (9-1-0, 7-1-0-0 WCHA).
“Putting the first one in was definitely a relief and a weight off my shoulders,” Schipper said.
She drove to the crease and banged in a centering pass from Cara Piazza 11:28 into the game, but St. Cloud State (3-6-1, 2-5-1-1 WCHA) bent but didn’t break for the next 36 minutes of action.
“I thought we did a lot of things well enough to keep us in a game,” Huskies coach Eric Rud said.
Though stuck in their own zone for long stretches, they were able to limit the quality chances they yielded.
“We were at five D all weekend,” Rud said. “That’s tough to do against anyone, especially Minnesota. That’s difficult with our best defenseman [Brittney Anderson] hurt.”
The ultimate problem was the other end of the ice, where they weren’t able to pressure Peters.
“Our forwards got to kick it in and find a way to get a goal for our D that have been battling all weekend,” Rud said.
For much of the game, the Huskies were just one shot away from tying it up.
“The one two-on-one [break] that we gave up at the end of the first, [Peters] was square to the puck and made a great save there to keep it 1-0,” Minnesota coach Brad Frost said.
Janine Alder, her counterpart in the SCSU net, was called on to make 36 saves.
“Every goaltender in our league is real good, and it’s been that way for a long time,” Frost said. “St. Cloud seems to have found their Swiss kid that is just so solid, very square to it. She makes you earn everything.”
Through October, the Gophers have made a lot of goalies shine.
“Eventually, it’s going to start going in more often,” Schipper said. “It’s just a matter of getting there.”
It looked like they might not get there again before the Huskies found an equalizer.
“We talked about getting more shots on net and trying to create chaos,” Cameranesi said.
The Gophers did, Cameranesi banged in a rebound at 7:47 of the final frame, and she deposited another loose puck 10 minutes later with Sarah Potomak assisting on both markers.
St. Cloud State heads into a bye while the Gophers host Minnesota State on Friday.
