For the home-and-home series with St. Cloud, Minnesota coaches placed star forwards Erica McKenzie and Gigi Marvin on different lines for the first time this season. The duo made the most of their time together on the ice in Saturday’s rematch, combining for five goals and four assists.
Two keys sequences, one late in the first period, the other early in the second, went a long way to producing a 5-0 victory for the No. 6 Gophers (15-6-1, 10-5-1 WCHA).
With Minnesota in the midst of a line change, Marvin spotted her former left wing open to the right of the goal, and McKenzie softly called for a pass. Marvin zipped one across the crease, and McKenzie converted from a bad angle with just under two minutes left in the first period.
“I had maybe a two-puck-length opening,” McKenzie said. “I don’t know how it got in there.”
The Huskies (8-13-1, 5-10-1 WCHA) attacked from the following face off. Senior wing Kristy Oonincx, a former Gopher, was open on the far post, but just failed to click on a centering pass.
Minnesota coach Laura Halldorson stresses to her team the importance of the next shift after a goal is scored either way.
“We haven’t had too many teams come at us as hard after a goal as St. Cloud did,” she said.
With Minnesota holding the 1-0 lead and on the power play in second period, St. Cloud goalie Kendall Newell lost her stick. Defenseman Brittni Kuyper picked it up behind the net and carried it to her goaltender, but was assessed a two-minute penalty for “playing with two sticks”.
Coaches for both teams said they had never seen the penalty called previously. St. Cloud coach Jason Lesteberg’s interpretation of the rule was that his skater needs to hand the netminder her stick before retrieving the goalie stick.
Minnesota took maximum advantage of the resulting 5-on-3 opportunity.
McKenzie took a pass from Bobbi Ross, and spotted a little space above Newell’s shoulder. Once again, the sniper didn’t miss, as Newell got a piece of the puck but not enough to keep it out of the goal.
Before Kuyper’s penalty expired, Marvin poked home the rebound of a Ross shot for a 3-0 lead. For a St. Cloud team that didn’t score on the weekend, the deficit was too much to overcome.
When a third-period collision with a teammate left Newell down and out of the net, McKenzie drilled a shot from just inside the blue line into the empty net to complete a hat trick.
Marvin put the puck on a string and carried it from the corner to the crease before sliding it into an opening on the far side for the final 5-0 margin. The tally came on the power play – Minnesota finished 3-of-5 with the advantage on the day. Halldorson was happy with the performance, given her team’s power play struggles in the first half of the season.
Ross finished with three assists for the game. Melanie Gagnon, Anya Miller, and Jenelle Philipczyk each added a helper.
Brittony Chartier followed Kim Hanlon’s shutout on Friday with one of her own – each now has four on the season. Though Hanlon’s emergence and the resulting goalie rotation has meant less playing time for Chartier, she looks at it as a positive, as she now has an opportunity to learn from watching Hanlon in goal.
The freshman from Saskatoon, Sask. made her first appearance in the Minnesota goal in more than a month, after missing the Bemidji St. series while performing with the Canadian U-22 team.
“I’m excited to be back with my teammates,” she said.
After suffering the sweep, St. Cloud is now 1-27-0 all time against Minnesota.
“Today, we just didn’t compete,” Lesteberg said.
Still, those who observed the weekend’s action could see that the Huskies were closer in speed and skill to the Gophers than they have ever been in the history of the two teams.
“Our program is improving,” Lesteberg said.
Halldorson welcomed the sweep with a trip to Duluth to take on the Bulldogs upcoming.
“Two wins — we’ll take them,” she said.
