Athletes are known for coming up with ways to create some friendly competition in practice, providing an opportunity to show off some skills and talk a little trash.

The Gophers women’s hockey team likes to play “hit the post,” firing the puck at an unoccupied net looking to ring the puck off the iron. Junior winger Josefin Bouveng is good at it. Perhaps too good, as those skills have carried over into games, leaving her goal-scoring numbers a little pedestrian for such a skilled player.

“I don’t know how many posts she’s hit in the first half or just missed,” Gophers coach Brad Frost said.

As a result, Bouveng, whose 19 goals and 50 points last season were second on the team to Abbey Murphy’s 33 and 62, respectively, entered Friday’s game against the Brown Bears in East/West Showcase at Ridder Arena with only five goals.

“Maybe I should stop playing that game,” Bouvang said with a smile.

She had another reason to smile after the game, leading the way with two goals and two assists. The No. 3 Gophers (15-4-1) scored four unanswered goals in the first period in a 9-1 rout of the Bears (8-8-1).

Along with all her success, Bouvang hit another post last in the game from in tight to just miss out on completing a hat trick. But both her and her coach feel it was the kind of performance that can jump-start her offensive production in the second half.

“We always talk about flow,” Bouveng said. “It’s easy to say, but you’ve just got to do it and get into it. I feel good after this game, so going into tomorrow, hopefully, I can build on that.”

Frost is counting on it — and expecting it from a player he hasn’t had to worry about losing her confidence.

“It’s more about continuing to do the right thing,” he said. “The outcome is you want to score goals, so it’s OK, how do you do that? So, you think about the process of doing that. You’ve just got to continue playing the right way, and eventually your talent will take over.”

Bouveng said she hasn’t let her lack of goal production affect the rest of her game.

“I think it’s more about how much you can create and what you contribute (overall),” she said. “I think as a team we are starting to play better, so I’m excited for the second half. Last year was kind of the same thing — we started slowly as a team and me personally, as well. We started to go after Christmas.”

Asked to name Bouveng’s best attribute as a player, Frost said it is her ability to score.

“She’s got an unbelievable shot,” he said. “It’s not the hardest shot, but it’s deadly accurate. And she does see the ice well; she’s a very unselfish player. She’s just trying to make the right play all the time, which is what you want.”

Bouveng has played alongside Ella Huber and Abbey Murphy on the Gophers’ top line for most of the season but skated on the second line with Ava Lindsay and Peyton Hemp on Friday.

“The goal is it have multiple lines that can score,” Frost said. “Tonight, their line had three, so that is a really big deal.”

The Gophers, who returned from the holiday break on Wednesday with a 4-1 win over Bemidji State, will look to extend their winning streak to five games when they face Penn State on Saturday. The Nittany Lions defeated Bemidji State 6-4 in the first game of the day.

Among the other standouts for the Gophers on Friday, left winger Natalie Mlynkova scored a pair of goals, giving her five in the past two games and 12 for the season. Murphy scored her team-leading 17th goal of the season, a short-handed goal 25 seconds into the third period. She also had two assists.

Briefly

The Gophers are without standout freshman defender Chloe Primerano, who is playing for Team Canada in the Under-18 World Championships in Finland.

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