Gopher Women Skaters Defeat UMD

MINNEAPOLIS – Sophomore Maryanne Menefee (Lansing, Mich.) scored her first hat trick as a Golden Gopher and senior Sarah Davis (Paradise, N.L.) scored two goals to lead No. 1 Minnesota to a 6-0 win over visiting Minnesota Duluth at Ridder Arena Friday night.

Junior Meghan Lorence (Mounds View, Minn.) had three points on one goal and two assists, and sophomore Hannah Brandt (Vadnais Heights, Minn.) recorded two assists as the line of Menefee, Brandt and Lorence combined for nine points in the Gophers' 11th-straight win.

"It was a great game from our team tonight," head coach Brad Frost said. "We came out of the gates really quickly, getting the first one obviously, but the second at the end of the first was big for us. I thought we had great jump all night, did good things on the power play, and our penalty kill was solid. It was a really complete hockey game up and down the line-up."

Sophomore goaltender Amanda Leveille (Kingston, Ont.) earned her NCAA-leading 12th shutout of the season with 16 saves. UMD received 23 saves from starting goaltender Kayla Black, who fell to 12-10-6 on the season, and got 11 saves on 12 shots from Karissa Grapp over the final 27:43.

With the win, the Gophers extended their NCAA-leading unbeaten streak to 19 games (18-0-1).

Minnesota (31-1-1, 25-1-1-0 WCHA) received the 2014 WCHA regular-season trophy prior to the's game after clinching the league's regular-season crown with last Friday's 3-2 road win over No. 2 Wisconsin.

Menefee's hat trick included the game-winning goal and a power-play goal. She also recorded an assist to tie her career best with a four-point game. Menefee scored the game-winning goal at the 9:26 mark of the opening frame with assists from freshmen defensemen Megan Wolfe (Eagan, Minn.) and Kelsey Cline (Bloomington, Minn.). She then gave Minnesota a 2-0 lead with 2:05 remaining in the opening period as Minnesota outshot Minnesota Duluth (13-12-6, 11-10-6-4 WCHA) 18-4 over the first 20 minutes.

Davis doubled the Gophers' lead to 4-0 with two goals in the first 2:01 of the second period. She scored off a feed from junior Rachael Bona (Coon Rapids, Minn.) and Lorence on the first shift of the period at the 34-second mark before burying an unassisted effort at 2:01. Lorence added her 16th goal of the season at 9:44 of the middle frame to extend the Gophers' lead to 5-0.

Minnesota added its second power-play goal of the evening when Menefee completed her hat trick with 2:43 remaining. She redirected a shot by junior Rachel Ramsey (Chanhassen, Minn.) from the top of the slot past Grapp. Senior Kelly Terry (Whitby, Ont.) also picked up an assist on the play.

The teams combined for 26 penalty minutes as the Gophers went 2-for-5 with the man advantage while holding Minnesota Duluth scoreless on three power-play opportunities.

The Gophers look to close out the regular season with a sweep over the Bulldogs when the teams face off in the regular-season finale Saturday afternoon. Puck drop is set for 4:07 p.m. CT at Ridder Arena.

Minnesota will honor seniors Bethany Brausen, Baylee Gillanders, Davis and Terry prior to Saturday’s game. The Class of 2014 has a 132-16-5 career record. Together they have played in 604 career games and combined for 364 points (122g-242a).

In their four years, they have two WCHA regular season titles (2013, 2014), two WCHA regular season runner-up finishes (2011, 2012), two WCHA Final Face-off titles (2012, 2013), one WCHA Final Face-off runner-up finish (2011) and two NCAA national titles (2012, 2013).

Source: University of Minnesota