MINNEAPOLIS – The St. Thomas women’s hockey team stumbled in the first game of the WCHA quarterfinals, falling 7-0 to No. 4 Minnesota Friday at Ridder Arena.
The Gophers (25-5-3 overall, 22-3-3 WCHA) erased any doubt after their previous series against the Tommies (8-25-1, 3-24-1) a week ago. The Tommies managed to take a point in an overtime loss Feb. 17, earning their first WCHA point against Minnesota in program history.
Friday night was a different story.
The Gophers took charge in the first, burying a puck that got away from sophomore goaltender Saskia Maurer, taking a 1-0 lead just over a minute in.
About twelve minutes later, a redirect in front of the net put the Tommies down 2-0.
Senior forward Allie Monrean was called for high-sticking with less than a minute left to play in the first. It was the only penalty called on the Tommies all game.
The Gophers scored three seconds after Monrean sat down in the box.
St. Thomas was down 3-0 after one.
Fifth-year center Taylor Heise resumed the Gopher dominance to start the second, skating past multiple St. Thomas defenders to score less than a minute into the period.
Much like the first period, the Gophers finished strong, scoring another goal with less than four minutes on the clock. The second period ended with a 5-0 Gopher lead.
The Tommie defense was strong up until the last five minutes when the Gophers scored their sixth and seventh goals less than 30 seconds apart.
St. Thomas will return to Ridder Arena on Saturday Feb. 25, for a do-or-die second game of the quarterfinals, puck drop is 2 p.m.
Annabelle Wiskus can be reached at wisk9881@stthomas.edu.
Sam Larson can be reached at lars4378@stthomas.edu.