Earlier this season, Minnesota State said that while the Minnesota Gophers have great players, they also have a lot of good players. That quantity of talent beyond the stars everyone knows proved crucial in Minnesota’s 3-2 win over Boston College in overtime.
Third-line center Sarah Davis wound up with the puck on her stick 99 seconds into the extra session and made a play that proved decisive.
“Before the first overtime period, we said this is to our advantage,” Davis said. “We’ve been here. Personally, I didn’t want to be three more overtimes. We said we wanted to get on them fast, and luckily we did.”
Davis showed poise with the puck, holding it until she had an unobstructed view of the twine and burying her shot. Both of her wings were involved in the play, as junior Bethany Brausen and sophomore Meghan Lorence had the first and second assists.
“I love playing with Brausen and Lorence,” Davis said. “We may not be the most-flashy line or getting all the goals, but I feel like it’s a line that coach can rely on, and maybe shift momentum or something like that. But we’re okay with being the third line.”
Brausen, battling an injury, was held to a period of action in the NCAA quarterfinal win over North Dakota. That contest went nearly six periods before the Gophers pulled it out. It looked like another marathon might be on the way when the Eagles scored to force overtime after Minnesota had taken its first lead of the game at 2-1 and looked to have all the momentum.
Davis said that she was a little surprised that the Eagles were able to rally against her team.
“BC is a great team, especially in transition, and they managed to capitalize on that.”
Earlier, the Gophers were the team that needed to rally when they went into an intermission down on the scoreboard for a rare time this season after 40 minutes. They drew even on a power play less than two minutes after getting back on the ice.
“Just getting that first goal is almost like a relief,” Davis said. “When we were down 1-0, we were saying in the dressing room, ‘Well, we need to score one goal to win anyway in any game.’ We just got the momentum changing a little bit. We always believe, but that’s when we really wanted to find a way to win.”
Davis’ line almost found that way earlier.
“Lorence had some great chances,” Davis said. “I think there were about two minutes left and she gave me a really nice pass across the slot, and I missed the net. I told her I was going to have nightmares about that, but after the game, she said to not worry about it.”
Now Minnesota is one game away from the title that has seemed to be destined to be theirs for much of the year.
“I can’t wait for Sunday,” Davis said.
Before then, the product of New Foundland wants to take advantage of something the miles often prevent.
“My family is actually here, so I’m so excited to see them,” she said.
