MINNEAPOLIS- Two goals 16 seconds apart, coming in the final minute of a period, normally has been enough for Minnesota to pull away from its competition at home.
Normally. As Merrimack reminded the Gophers Friday night, it's a new year. The past doesn't mean anything.
Hosting Merrimack to open the 2017-18 season, Minnesota allowed the Warriors to score three times in a six minute stretch of play to erase a 3-1 lead. Lea-Kristine Demers made a career-high 54 saves as Merrimack (2-0-0) defeated the #3 Gophers 4-3 at Ridder Arena.
"They defended really well, blocked a lot of shots and kept things to the outside. Their goalie played really well, but didn't really give up any second chances," Minnesota head coach Brad Frost said. "I don't think we had one odd-man rush, a two-on-one, three-on-two breakaway. On the flip side, they had a couple two-on-ones and a couple breakaways. We didn't defend as well as they did and the puck ends up in the net."
The Warriors, picked to finish eighth of nine teams in Hockey East in its third year as a program, followed up a win over BU last week with its biggest victory in team history.
Kippin Keller and Mikayla Grant-Mentis traded first period goals 2 minutes apart for Minnesota (0-1-0) and Merrimack, respectively. Both teams had several chances in the opening period against defenses finding their footing in the season opener.
It took until the first penalty of the game for someone to break the deadlock. With Minnesota on the power play, freshman Grace Zumwinkle unleashed a one-time slap shot which went past Demers and clanging off the netting with 46.4 seconds left in the first period.
"Ever since I was a little kid my dream was to play here. Tonight it came to life that I was actually here playing. It was even better to score tonight in more or less my first game," said Zumwinkle.
Zumwinkle's goal kicked off a flurry of action and attempted goal calls to close the first period. Fellow freshman Olivia Knowles made it 3-1 Gophers, however, Merrimack's Katelyn Rae poked home a loose puck with 13 seconds left to cut the lead in half just before both teams headed for their locker rooms.
"It's a pretty incredible situation to go down 3-1 in the Gophers' building and try to feel like you're a team that can come back because they're such a powerful group most of the time. They have such a history of being successful," said Merrimack head coach Erin Hamlen. "Credit to our kids for being resilient and being able to put one in at the end of the period. That was just sheer will to be able to get that done."
One thing Hamlen said she focused on with her team this week in the lead up was capitalizing on Minnesota's defensive aggressiveness and creating odd-man rushes off of turnovers and out of position defenders. While the Warriors only had 19 shots to the home team's 57, almost every one was in a prime scoring area. It paid off with a pair of early second period goals to give Merrimack the lead for good.
First, freshman Maddy Burton was left unmarked and scored her first goal of the season. Then on Merrimack's next shot on net less than two minutes later, Woodbury, MN native Jessica Bonfe took advantage of a Minnesota defensive gaffe to score on a two-on-one odd-man rush.
"We let up on the gas pedal there in the second period. (Tonight's loss) is another opportunity to show us every team is going to give us their best," said senior captain Sydney Baldwin. "We got to bring 60 good minutes of hockey to the game every game."
The Gophers continued to pile shots on in an attempt to find the equalizer, but could not find a way past Merrimack's defense and Demers to avoid the upset and third loss in its last four home games.
"Lea was just an incredible, athletic stone wall for us in so many ways," Hanlen said. Her players leapt off the bench at the final buzzer, rushing their goalie in celebration.
Redshirt senior Sidney Peters made 8 saves on 12 shots for Minnesota before being pulled for freshman Alex Gulstene early in the second period. Gulstene stopped all 7 shots she faced in her college debut.
Prior to Friday night, the Gophers had not lost a season opener at Ridder Arena since 2008. Additionally, no visiting team had scored 4 goals on Minnesota in a regular season game since Wisconsin in November 2010.
Minnesota and Merrimack complete the two-game series Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. CT.
Box score
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