Dani Cameranesi completed her natural hat trick in the final minute of the second period as Minnesota skated to a 5-0 victory over visiting Minnesota State.
“The coaches kept talking about how much energy we had on the bench and positivity, and I think that really attributed to our win tonight as a team,” Cameranesi said.
For the senior from Plymouth, it was her fifth career hat trick for the Gophers (10-1-0, 8-1-0-0 WCHA).
“I’ve been fortunate to play with a lot of great players, and I’m still playing with a lot of great players, and we have a great team,” Cameranesi said.
Kelly Pannek, her current center, assisted on all three tallies.
Nicole Schammel opened the scoring with her first goal as a Gopher after playing her freshman season for Minnesota State (2-8-1, 0-8-1-0 WCHA).
“It was a good play by Lindsay [Agnew], but I just thought we played a really good game overall,” Schammel said. “Fun to get a goal, but better that the team won.”
Junior defenseman Sydney Baldwin also collected her first goal of the year.
Meanwhile, the Mavericks stayed winless on the season in WCHA play, after suffering through a winless league campaign a year ago. Their last conference triumph came Feb. 2, 2015, versus St. Cloud State.
Sophomore goalie Katie Bidulka made 30 saves in her third start of the year for MSU. However, she didn’t get any offensive support as Sidney Peters stopped all 10 shots to get the shutout, her second straight.
“I just think she’s getting more and more comfortable,” coach Brad Frost said. “You can just tell.”
In her first year as the starter, Peters has not allowed a goal in her last nine periods of action.
“I thought this might have been one of our more complete games of the year,” Frost said. “Excited for the off day here and getting back at it.”
The teams conclude their series on Sunday at 2:07 p.m.
