Redshirt junior right winger Abbey Murphy is destined to go down as one of the greatest players in Gophers women’s hockey history, with a style of play that draws rants from the opposition and raves from the Gophers faithful.

Abbey Murphy

The Gophers’ 5-2 win over St. Thomas on Saturday at Ridder Arena added yet another entry into the chronicles known as “Murph being Murph.” The feisty and electric Murphy left her imprint all over the game — and she only played two periods.

Murphy’s night ended early when she received a major penalty and a game misconduct for boarding, but not before scoring a pair of goals, assisting on another and being conspicuous every time she was on the ice.

“Through two periods she was the best player on the rink,” Gophers coach Brad Frost said.

Frost, who has seen this type of performance from Murphy many times before, said he did not feel compelled to say anything to her after the game beyond the fact that she played well.

Likewise, no regrets from Murphy, who watched the third period from the suite level.

“It’s adversity,”  she said. “Sometimes it doesn’t go your way. You just have to find ways to go about it and just finish. Obviously, I didn’t finish. It’s not fun.”

She added, that she was bothered by the fact that she left her team in a difficult position by taking the major.

“You feel like crap,” she said. “Hopefully it doesn’t happen again.”

St. Thomas coach Joel Johnson coached Murphy in the last Olympics and as part of the U.S. Women’s National Team. So he knows Murphy’s playing style and doesn’t have a problem with it.

“I know there’s no intent to injure anybody,” he said. “I wasn’t worried she was trying to do anything stupid. She plays the game and she has an influence on it. I have nothing but respect for Abbey Murphy.”

Murphy’s pair of goals gives her 27 goals in 27 games, a pace that would produce one of the best goal-scoring seasons in team history.

Her first one came early in the second period when she scored on a breakaway seconds after stepping out of the penalty box. She received a cross-checking penalty at the end of the first period when she took exception to Tommies forward Abby Promersberger trying to take the puck from her as Murphy held it in the Gophers’ zone as the clock wound down.

Murphy’s second goal of the game came at 15:03 of the second period and gave the Gophers a 4-2 lead.  She beat Tommies goaltender Olivia King from in tight after taking a pretty pass from Josefin Bouveng.

The Gophers were already on the penalty kill when Murphy took the boarding penalty at 19:08 of the second period. They killed off a minute and 52 seconds of 5-on-3 and then the remainder of the major penalty.

Peyton Hemp scored shortly after to put the Gophers (22-5-1, 16-5-1 WCHA) comfortably in front.

“You never want your top player to get kicked out,” Frost said, “but it also forced our team to step up and get a good character win.”

As for the Tommies (8-20-1, 2-19-1 WCHA), Johnson said he felt his team might have gotten tired as the game wore on, but once again he liked a lot of what he saw from the Tommies. Their chance of pulling off the upset was hurt by taking four penalties, resulting in two power-play goals for the Gophers.

“I thought some of (the Gophers’) talented players made some really good plays,” he said. “Sometimes you just have to say, ‘That was a really nice play.’”

Briefly

Bouveng scored the Gophers’ first goal of the game. It was her 11th goal of the season and fifth in the last six games, including the game-winner on Friday night.

The Gophers are 6-0 since being swept by Ohio State, with a series against St. Cloud State up next.

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