MINNEAPOLIS -- The
Robert Morris women's hockey team got a taste of how the other half lives in their first of two games against one of the nation's most successful programs, but only their top player had the chance to savor the flavor.
Junior forward
Jaycee Gebhard padded her College Hockey America lead with her 15th goal of the season in a 6-1 win by No. 2 Minnesota (16-2-1, 9-2-1) at Ridder Arena Friday night. Dating back to Oct. 20, the RMU assistant captain has registered a point in 14 straight games, furthering her school record.
She entered the left wing circle on an odd-numbered rush and flicked a shot that ricocheted so violently under the crossbar and out from behind goaltender Alex Gulstene that officials allowed play to continue until Gulstene's counterpart,
Lauren Bailey, covered the puck to force a whistle. A subsequent video review vindicated Gebhard, who tied the game 5:18 into the first period.
Gebhard, with 33 points, remains tied with Elizabeth Giguere (Clarkson) for the NCAA scoring lead through Friday. Coming off CHA Player of the Week honors, as well as her second consecutive CHA Player of the Month award, she took sole possession of second place in Division I goal-scoring and now trails only Maureen Murphy (Providence) by two.
Her former Notre Dame Hounds teammate,
Amber Rennie, set up the equalizer. The senior tri-captain extended her own career-long point streak to seven games, and her last five helpers, in fact, have come against WCHAÂ opponents.
The Colonials (8-9-4, 6-1-1), however, could not overcome the offensive skill of the Golden Gophers, who pulled away late in the period with goals by Emily Brown, Taylor Wente and Kelly Pannek 2:07 apart. For the second series opener in a row, lower-body injuries to reigning CHA Defender of the Year
Kirsten Welsh and rookie
Gillian Thompson left them with only five defenders to rotate.
Robert Morris was able to spend more time in the attacking zone going forward, but it had nothing more to show for those efforts despite outshooting the second-ranked Gophers 15-12 over the final two periods.
RMU, for that matter, blocked 15 shots to Minnesota's 12. Sophomore defender
Emily Curlett, still the national leader in that category through Friday (89), led all competitors with six blocks.
Late in the second the Gophers killed off its lone power play of the night without allowing many quality chances, though the same can be said for the Colonials, who yielded just one shot on goal during their only PK, near the midpoint of the third.
Nicole Schammel and Alex Woken salted their wounds by scoring with 9:01 and 7:12 remaining in the second, respectively. Schammel also set up Grace Zumwinkle for a backhand goal that opened the scoring, as the latter faked out Bailey 4:13 into the contest to trigger a teddy bear toss benefiting the U of M's Masonic Children's Hospital.
It came one week after RMU staged a similar event at the Island Sports Center, with 672 fans, plus staffers, hurling stuffed animals onto the Colonials Arena ice for the Autism Society of Pittsburgh in a Nov. 30 win over Penn State.
Bailey, who, earlier this week, celebrated her third CHA Goalie of the Week nod as a senior, finished with 21 saves, including a sliding, full-extension stop of a Wente breakaway with just over three minutes left in regulation.Â
Robert Morris concludes both the series and the fall portion of its 2018-19 schedule at 2:07 p.m. ET/1:07 p.m. CT Saturday.
Once again, the game can be seen live on Big Ten Network Plus andÂ
FloHockey.tv (subscriptions required), and fans can also listen live, for free, on GopherSports.com.
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