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.<\/p>\n
“It was nice to win by more than a goal,” coach Brad Frost said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“I was really impressed,” Pannek said. “She held us to one goal in the first and she was playing confidently.”<\/p>\n
At times, the Swiss native was done in by her teammates.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
Both Potomak and Cameranesi finished with a goal and three assists.<\/p>\n
Alder kept Minnesota off the board until Pannek finally broke through 16:10 into the contest.<\/p>\n
“Still searching for some secondary scoring,” Frost said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The Huskies staged an immediate rally, getting goals from Kayla Friesen and Payge Pena on their next two shots.<\/p>\n
Pannek quelled that comeback when she answered within a minute for the final margin.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
His team couldn’t afford such miscues against Minnesota’s speed.<\/p>\n
“Even when you have the puck in the clear, they’re catching up from behind,” Rud said.<\/p>\n
His rival hopes to find a bit more velocity when the series concludes on Friday at 7:07 p.m. in Ridder Arena.<\/p>\n
“I still think we have another gear, and hopefully, we get there tomorrow,” Frost said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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