Minnesota coach Ken Klee has maintained from the start of the season that he has a roster full of goal scorers.

As he has pointed out many times, however, the evidence has not been visible on scoresheets to date. But Minnesota was able to celebrate a breakthrough and a victory Tuesday night at Xcel Energy Center with a 4-3 shootout win over Ottawa before an announced crowd of 4,585 at Xcel Energy Center.

Denisa Krizova scored her first two goals of the season, including the lone goal in the third period that allowed Minnesota to come back from a 3-2 deficit. The 29-year-old Krizova then got Minnesota started with the first goal in the shootout, which Minnesota won, 3-1.

With the two points, Minnesota moved into a tie for first place with Montreal.

“She’s played really well for us,” Klee said of Krizova. “You look at her rankings, game in and game out, she has been a really good player for us. She just hasn’t been able to find the back of the net.

“Hopefully, this opens the floodgates. Obviously, she ripped two (top) shelf today. We’ve been talking to her every day: ‘Hey you have a good shot.’ She just needs to believe in it.”

Krizova, a native of Czechia, played four years at Northeastern, where she scored 66 goals. She reached 20 goals twice in a season. She said she hasn’t let her lack of production affect her overall game.

“It feels great to be able to help the team,” she said. “I try not to put pressure on myself (to score). I try to focus on playing hard and being hard to play against.”

Minnesota, which outshot Ottawa 46-25, had opportunities to win the game prior to the shootout.

An Ottawa penalty with 34 seconds to play in the third period carried over into the overtime, which started with Minnesota having the advantage four skaters to three.

Minnesota kept possession of the puck in the Ottawa zone for most of the power play but never had a great scoring opportunity. That changed, however, just after the Ottawa penalty ended when Krizova was stopped in tight in her bid for the hat trick.

Seconds later, Kendall Coyne Schofield was stopped on a partial breakaway.

After Krizova scored to leadoff the shootout, Ottawa’s Hayley Scamurra beat Minnesota goaltender Maddie Rooney to tie things up. Grace Zumwinkle broke the tie in the fourth round before Taylor Heise clinched the victory.

“It kind of goes back to my general philosophy for our group — we need a full team effort,” Klee said. “I thought every line was good tonight. I was really happy with the effort.”

Abby Boreen gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead at 7:23 of the first period with her fourth goal of the season. Heise partially fanned on a shot from the slot, but the puck slid to Boreen just off the crease, and she one-timed it past Ottawa goaltender Sandra Abstreiter.

Krizova’s first goal of the game put Minnesota up 2-0, but Ottawa responded with a pair of goals before the end of the period.

Ottawa took a 3-2 lead 52 seconds into the second period with its second power-play goal of the game. It would have been a tough way to lose for Minnesota if the goal had held up.

Boreen was sent off for a check to the head, a call that appeared questionable at best. Boreen was playing the puck when the Ottawa player hit her head on Boreen’s shoulder.

“I didn’t love the call,” Klee said. “We practice stick on puck. I watched the video, and their player’s head was straight down looking at the ice.”

Briefly

Rooney made her second straight start in goal for Minnesota after picking up her second shutout of the season on Sunday in a 2-0 win at New York.