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MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota State Mankato women’s hockey team ended a 53-game losing streak against the Gophers with a 5-4 overtime victory at Ridder Arena.
In Mankato’s first win over Minnesota since 2007, Kelsey King scored the winning goal with 71 seconds left on the clock.
Mankato (10-11-1, 6-11-1 WCHA) dominated the game from the beginning, racing out to a 3-1 first-period lead on two goals from Charlotte Akervik and one from Kennedy Bobyck.
Minnesota (17-6-1, 12-5-1 WCHA), ranked No. 4 going into the game, tied the score 3-3 in the second period on goals from Savannah Norcross and Catie Skaja. Mankato went back up 4-3 on Jessica Kondas’ goal before Minnesota tied it 4-4 on Abigail Boreen’s second goal of the day. Both of her goals came on the power play.
“A good opportunity for us to learn from tonight’s result,” Gophers coach Brad Frost said. “When you go down 3-1 in the first period, it’s hard to come back. Our team battled back and got it to 3-3. After getting down 4-3, we got the equalizer to make it 4-4 and for one reason or another, couldn’t find the go-ahead goal there. Once you get into overtime, anything can happen. We need to learn from it and get better. We plan to do that this week.”
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Lauren Bench started in goal for Minnesota, but was relieved by Makayla Pahl at the start of the second period. Pahl stopped 22 of 24 shots in relief. Minnesota State’s Calla Frank, a junior from Hugo who played at White Bear Lake in high school, made 41 saves in the win.
The Gophers beat the Mavericks 7-2 on Friday night in Mankato in the first meeting of the two-game series.
