No. 1 Golden Gophers too much for St. Thomas women

MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. — One week after having to try to keep up with No. 5 Minnesota Duluth, the St. Thomas women’s hockey team had a potentially even more difficult task ahead of it Thursday when it took on No. 1 Minnesota.

It turned out that it was as the high-powered Golden Gophers were just too much for the Tommies to handle. Minnesota jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period, two of the goals coming within the first five minutes, and never looked back as the Gophers rolled to a 7-1 victory. UST starting goalie Alexa Dobchuk finished with 39 saves.

The final outcome was pretty one-sided, but Tommies acting head coach Bethany Brausen found some positives in the loss, the biggest thing being that her team was able to slow down the Gophers at key moments.

“What you could kind of see throughout the game was the ebb and flow of the momentum,” she said. “Even when you look back at the second period, (Taylor) Heise comes right off after a penalty and gets a quick goal and then a quick second one right after. So, I think there’s moments like that throughout the game where it’s just a game of momentum.

"So, if you can kind of halt an opponent and pause them a little bit in those moments, and I think that’s something that our team has consistently been really good at is recognizing when is the other team is making a really big push and can we neutralize it and reset and then show up better the next shift or the next period. And that’s something they’ve continued to do really well.”

Catie Skaja got things started offensively for the Gophers as she received a cross ice pass during a rush from Abigail Boreen and beat a sprawling Dobchuk to make it 1-0 at the 3:19 mark. Less than two minutes later, Minnesota struck again as Amy Potomak collected a loose puck in the slot and backhanded it past Dobchuk to pad the lead to 2-0.

With 9:15 remaining, Dobchuk came up big to keep the deficit to two as she denied Ella Huber in the slot and then made a great stop on Peyton Hemp on the rebound. She couldn’t stop the next good Gophers scoring chance though as Madeline Wethington sent a blast from the point that pushed Minnesota’s advantage to 3-0. The Tommies didn’t manage much offensively in the period with the only real chance coming with 1:59 left as Maddie Jurgensen got a good look on Gophers goalie Skylar Vetter, but she flashed the glove to maintain the three-goal lead.

It was more of the same in the second period as Abigail Boreen snuck a wrister past Dobchuk at the 8:19 mark to push the lead to 4-0. The Tommies answered back just 25 seconds later as Maddy Clough fired a puck through traffic that beat Vetter low to get UST on the scoreboard. Any hopes of a big Tommies comeback vanished fairly quickly though. Just as the Gophers killed a penalty, Heise came out of the box and scored top shelf to put Minnesota back up by four at 5-1 with 7:18 remaining. Heise scored again 13 seconds later to make it 6-1 Gophers going into the third period.

Compared to the first two periods, the third was pretty quiet as the Gophers managed only one goal, a tally from Crystalyn Hengler at the 16:41 mark. The highlight of the period though was Tommies senior goalie Eryn Cooley seeing action on Senior Night as she played the final 12 minutes of the game and made 13 saves.

“It was honestly an honor,” Cooley said with a big smile as she fought back tears. “It’s been a year filled with adversity. So, to be able to just get the opportunity to have my Senior Night, that was really cool.”

The Tommies will most likely play the Gophers again in the first round of the WCHA playoffs and while some teams may tense up about playing a deep, talented team like that again to open the postseason, Brausen said her team is embracing the challenge.

“That’s an internal thing,” she said. “I think as coaches you can try to say the right thing and do the right thing and encourage in the right direction, but ultimately, it’s 'Is your group on board or not?' and they certainly are. So, I think that’s the exciting part about this team. I’ve said this before, but from the moment the puck drops from the referee’s hand in the first period to the time that the buzzer goes, they never play different. The game naturally ebbs and flows, that’s hockey, but our team consistently shows up and gives 100 percent every single opportunity that they can. So, I think that’s what's different about them. I’ve never seen that in a group before and to this extent, they play like it is a 0-0 hockey game regardless and that’s what's special.”