Final: #Gophers get the win over Minnesota State and advance to the WCHA Final Faceoff! #GWH pic.twitter.com/GkHzWRQuYE
— Minnesota Women's Hockey (@GopherWHockey) March 1, 2015
The Gopher women’s hockey team is WCHA-final bound for the 16th year in a row after sweeping Minnesota State Mankato this weekend. The No. 2 Gophers beat the Mavericks 5-1 Saturday at home, after a 10-0 shutout win Friday.
After Friday’s blowout, the Mavericks came out a different team outshooting the Gophers 15-3 in the first 20 minutes of play Saturday, Gopher Sports reports.
The Gophers kicked it up a notch in the second period, with back-to-back goals by junior Maryanne Menefee.
Freshman Kelley Pannek added a goal of her own in the second period, her 13th of the season. Senior Rachael Bona rounded out the night with the Gopher goal in the third period, her 14th of the season.
Minnesota State netted its single goal at 11:23 in the third period.
Junior goalie Amanda Leveille had 29 saves for the night. Sophomore Megan Wolfe had her third-straight game with three assists.
Dani Cameranesi was a standout this weekend, hitting a career-high seven points in the series. She has 98 career points so far in her sophomore career, with 42 goals and 56 assists.
Scoring Summary
2nd period: 4:16 MINN – Menefee – Assists: Wolfe and Stecklein
2nd period: 5:59 MINN – Menefee
2nd period: 8:37 MINN – Pannek – Assists: Schipper and Garzone
3rd period: 8:37 MINN – Brandt – Assists: Cline and Cameranesi
3rd period: 9:09 MINN – Bona – Assists: Wolfe and Lorence
3rd period: 11:23 MSU Rogan – Assists: Schammel and Fiegert
Minnesota advances to the 2015 WCHA FINAL FACEOFF hosted next weekend by North Dakota in Grand Forks, N.D. The Gophers will play whichever team wins Sunday night in the best-of-three series game against No. 4 Minnesota Duluth and No. 5 Bemidji State.
