Through two periods in its home opener Friday night at Ridder Arena, the No. 2 Gophers women’s hockey team found itself in a scoreless tie with the Boston University Terriers despite owning a sizable edge in play.

Nineteen shots on goal later, the Gophers produced just enough offense to pull out a 1-0 victory to improve to 3-0 on the season. Abbey Murphy, who led women’s college hockey with 33 goals last season, delivered the game-winner, giving her four goals in three games.

Murphy said she hit the ice in the third period determined to be the one to break through. She did so with an assist from head coach Brad Frost.

“Frosty kind of went hard on us and kind of said it’s not good enough,” Murphy said. “We, as a team, knew that, too. In the first period we kind of sat back and were waiting for something to happen, waiting for someone else to do it.

“But I think we changed that in the last 40 minutes. Change your mindset; what can we do to get something going. We just kept fighting, and we changed the game in the last 20 minutes.”

Frost downplayed the role he had in getting his team to up the intensity level in the third period.

“With a veteran team and a team that is pretty solid, they know it’s time to go and put the pedal down,” he said. “What was really good about that third period was that we gained momentum by stacking shifts together.

“I think we had five really good shifts in a row, got the momentum and was able to carry it on through.”

Frost said he was pleased with his team’s effort and performance while giving the Terriers (1-1) credit for playing a strong game.

“Certainly, territorially and in shots we were able to carry the play,” Frost said. “Their goaltender played really well, and they blocked a lot of shots. They made us work for everything we got tonight.”

BU had a good chance to possibly steal a victory with seven minutes to play in the third period. The Terriers were awarded a penalty shot when Gophers defender Chloe Primerano was called for hooking with Boston’s Lilli Welcke having a clear path to the goal.

Welcke came up empty when she tried to deke Gophers goaltender Skylar Vetter but was unable to get a shot on goal.

The Gophers went on a five-minute power play at 18:22 of the third period when Boston’s Riley Walsh was ejected for a hit to the head. Murphy banged in a rebound from just off the crease 18 seconds later.

“There was a lot of pressure on us with a minute left,” Murphy said. “But when you believe, you can do it. We never gave up.”

While it’s early in the season, Murphy, a redshirt senior, is a good bet to better her goal output from a year ago. But she has never been one to set personal goals in that regard.

“Every year I want to get better,” she said. “This year we have a lot of expectations, a lot of (high) standards for this team. I think we have one goal in coming in the end and just focus on that.”

Frost had a busy offseason rebuilding a defensive corps that was hit by graduation, and the results so far have been outstanding. After limiting Connecticut to a total of 23 shots on goal in the first two games of the season they held the Terriers to 11.

Primerano is paired with Nelli Laitenen on the Gophers’ first unit, with freshman Gracie Graham and Colgate transfer Sydney Morrow making up the second pairing. Maggie Nicholson and Vermont transfer Krista Parkkonen round out the top six.

“We’re extremely deep back there with a couple of transfers and a couple of really good freshman,” Frost said. “We graduated four ‘D’ last year, and we knew we would have to bring some in.

“I’m glad that we got Syd and Parkky, they’re great. The freshmen add a dimension that we haven’t had the last couple years in their ability to create offensively.”

Friday night aside, Frost does not believe goal scoring will be an issue.

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