Minnesota Scores Five Goals In The First Period Of A 7-4 Win Over Ohio State

The Gophers had goal scoring by seven different individuals

Oct. 19, 2007

From Minnesota Athletics

The University of Minnesota scored five goals in the first period en route to a 7-4 win over Ohio State University, tonight, in Columbus, Ohio. With the win, the Golden Gophers improve to 3-1-1 overall and collected their first win in Western Collegiate Hockey Association competition with a 1-1-1 record. OSU fell to 1-3-1 and 0-2-1 in WCHA action. The Gophers had goal scoring by seven different individuals, while Melanie Gagnon had three assists and Emily West had a goal and two assists.

The Gophers lit the lamp five times in the first period and rattled off 25 shots to take an early 5-2 lead. The Gophers got on the board early at 2:22 in the first period when Kelli Blankenship scored her first goal of the season on a rebound attempt with West and Melanie Gagnon tallying the assists. The Gophers' line of Gigi Marvin, West and Blankenship connected again two minutes and 20 seconds later at 4:42 when Marvin added her second goal of the year with West and Blankenship on the assists. Minnesota netted their third goal of the period, this time at 6:25 in the first. West scored her first power-play goal of her career with Gagnon and Jenelle Philipczyk tallying the setups.

Ohio State fought back and scored a short-handed goal at 7:07 in the first and added another goal at 11:57, both of which were scored by Canadian National Team member and team captain Tessa Bonhomme. The Gophers, however, put the game back to a three-goal lead when they scored at 15:39 and 16:11 to finish out the scoring in the first 20 minutes of play. Anya Miller fired off a snapshot to score her second power-play goal of the season at 15:39 with Erica McKenzie and Bobbi Ross on the assists. McKenzie scored a goal of her own at 16:11 when she tipped in a Rachael Drazan shot with Marvin on the assists. It was McKenzie's sixth goal of the season.

By the end of the first period, Minnesota was three-for-four on the power play and had 13 shots with the extra attacker. The Gophers finished the game four-for-10 and did not allow a power-play goal in four OSU chances.

The Buckeyes cut the Gophers' lead to one with goals at 14:16 in the second period from Olivia Antognoli and from Bonhomme at 4:26 in the third to put the game at 5-4. Minnesota, however, quickly responded with two goals at 4:41 and 10:38 in the third from none other then captains Ross and Whitney Graft. Ross scored her second goal of the season with Jen Schoullis on the assist. Graft scored her first goal of the season, while Gagnon and Philipczyk tallied the assists.

The Gophers finished the game with 46 shots, a season high, and allowed 27 OSU shots.

Kim Hanlon recorded her second win of the season and now sits at 2-0-1. She had seven saves in the first, nine in the second and seven in the third for a total of 23. The Gophers faced two goalies in the evening in Liana Bonanno and Diedre Facklis. Bonanno allowed five goals and Facklis allowed two.

Minnesota will look for the sweep tomorrow at 7 p.m. at the OSU Ice Rink. Minnesota will look to break its trend against the Buckeyes tomorrow with the two teams splitting the last four series against each other.