Throughout the first two months of the season, Gophers women’s hockey coach Brad Frost talked about the uncertainty that surrounded a team that lost a handful of marquee players. Was it going to prove to be good enough to retain its familiar perch among perennial national championship contenders?

With the calendar having flipped to December, the veteran coach is starting to get some welcome answers to those questions.

Playing on home ice for the first time in 28 days, the Gophers (12-2 overall, 8-2 WCHA) scored six unanswered goals in the second period en route to a 9-2 win over Bemidji State (1-13-1, 1-10 WCHA) on Friday night at Ridder Arena.

The Gophers have won seven straight, and have given their coach reason to put some of his concerns at ease.

“I love that the things we’ve been implementing from Day 1, they just keep getting better and better at,” Frost said. “We’re starting to see it on the ice a lot more. We defend really well. Our goaltenders are both tremendous, so that certainly helps.”

Since losing a pair of one-goal games at top-ranked Ohio State on Oct. 27-28, the Gophers have responded admirably facing a pair of significant challenges.

First, they went to Duluth and swept the UMD Bulldogs. Last weekend, playing in a tournament in Washington, they dominated No. 9 Cornell in a 5-1 victory.

“I think playing the good competition really helps us,” Gophers assistant captain Ella Huber said. “It keeps us honest, and it makes us all work hard.”

Frost said he didn’t know at the start of the season if the Gophers had enough offense to be an elite team. He’s feeling much better in that regard 14 games in.

Friday night, Huber, who centers the Gophers’ top line, had three assists, with both of her linemates finding the back of the net. Abbey Murphy scored twice to give her 17 on the season, and Josefin Bouveng picked up her third of the season.

Ava Lindsay and Lauren O’Hara represented the third and fourth lines well, with both scoring a pair of goals.

“I think tonight showed that we have a lot of depth,” Huber said. “It’s fun to see everyone having an impact. I think people just had to get moving and get comfortable. Now, I think everyone is starting to pick it up.”

The Gophers had a 14-6 edge in shots on goal in the first period, but Bemidji State goaltender Abbie Thompson, a junior from Forest Lake, helped the Beavers enter the second period tied 1-1.

The Beavers got on the board first on a goal by Talya Hendrickson at 10:37. Murphy tied it for the Gophers at 16:45, taking a lead pass from Huber and skating in all alone on Thompson.

Audrey Wethington got the Gophers’ second-period scoring binge started at 2:37, beating Thompson on a wrist shot from the right circle for her third goal of the year. Murphy got her second of the game at 6:21 on a Gophers power play, burying a back-door feed from Huber.

After Emma Kreisz made it a 4-1 game at 10:58, the Gophers scored three times within 1 minute, 17 seconds late in the period to break the game wide open.

The two teams play again Saturday afternoon before the Gophers face another challenge with defending national champion Wisconsin coming to town. It will provide another opportunity for the Gophers to show that they are legit.

But on Dec. 1, they had already shown enough to legitimately dream big.

“The key is we want to be even better than we are now come February and March than we are now,” Frost said. “We’re certainly taking steps in that direction.”

Related Articles

Gophers women’s hockey series at Duluth has NCAA tournament implications

Abbey Murphy helps Gophers women’s hockey team scrap out win over Minnesota State