MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (Ridder Arena) - Minnesota’s Bobbi Ross recorded three points (1-2-3) to lead the Golden Gophers to a 5-1 victory over the Beavers in the first game of a best of three game series of the quarterfinals of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) tournament at Ridder Arena Friday night.

Minnesota scored four goals in the first period to take a 4-1 lead over the Beavers into the first intermission. The four goals scored by the Golden Gophers is the most goals the Beavers have given up in a period since Oct. 20, 2006 when the Beavers let in five goals against Minnesota Duluth.

Minnesota got on the board just :53 seconds into the contest. Bemidji State’s Brooke Collins (Pilot Mound, Manitoba) was called for cross-checking at :33 of the first period, which gave the Golden Gophers it’s first power-play of the game. Melanie Gagnon fired a shot from the point that beat Bemidji State goaltender Emily Brookshaw (Webster, Wis.) to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead. Erica McKenzie and Bobbi Ross
picked up the helpers on Gagnon’s goal.

Bemidji State tied the game at 1-1 at 3:25 of the period on Haley Balcom’s (Elk River, Minn.) second goal of the season. Balcom took a pass from Nikki Eckebrecht (Hamilton, Ontario) and fired a slap shot that found the upper right hand corner of the Minnesota goal. After Bemidji State’s game tying goal Minnesota took control and recorded three unanswered goals to push it’s lead to 4-1.

Erica McKenzie scored the Golden Gopher’s second goal at 4:09 with help from Gigi Marvin and Alexandra Zebro which pushed

Minnesota’s lead to 2-1. Brittany Francis recorded her eight goal of the season just 2:08 after McKenzie’s goal to give the Golden Gophers a two-goal advantage at 6:17 of the period. Assisting on Francis’s goal was Bobbi Ross, her second assist of the game.

Bemidji State’s Franny Dorr (Roseville, Minn.) took a hooking penalty at 11:44 which gave Minnesota it’s second power-play of the period.

The Golden Gophers took advantage of the extra man opportunity and added it’s fourth goal of the period at the 13:00 minute mark coming off the stick of Dagney Willey with help from Anya Miller and Whitney Graft.

Minnesota outshot the Beavers 13-to-5 in the opening period.

Minnesota added to it’s lead in the second period when the Golden Gophers turned it’s defense into offense. Dagney Willey was called for interference at 12:24 to give the Beavers it’s fourth power-play of the game. Minnesota’s Bobbi Ross blocked a Bemidji State shot from the point that deflected out to mid ice. Ross got up and out battled the Bemidji State player for the puck which turned into a break away
opportunity. Ross skated in on Brookshaw and snipped a shot that beat Brookshaw glove side to push the Golden Gopher’s lead to 5-1.

The short-handed goal was the eight short-handed goal given up by the Beavers this season.

The third period of play saw Bemidji State out shoot Minnesota 6-to-3 but Kim Hanlon and the Golden Gophers were able to shut down the Beaver offensive attack and secure a 5-1 win.

Minnesota out-shot Bemidji State 25 to 17 in the contest.

Brookshaw took the loss for the Beavers stopping 20 of 25 shots in 59:55 minutes of work dropping her record to 10-19-5 on the season for the Beavers.

Kim Hanlon stopped 17 of 18 shots faced in 59:52 minutes of work, improving her record to 9-6-0 on the season for the Golden Gophers.

The teams combined for nine penalties for 18 minutes. Bemidji State took three minor penalties for six minutes while Minnesota took six minor penalties for 12 minutes. Bemidji State was 0-for-3 on the power-play while Minnesota went 2-for-3 on the man-advantage.

With the loss Bemidji State drops to 2-30-3 all-time versus the Golden Gophers and 0-2 in the WCHA playoffs. The other lone loss the Beavers suffered to the Golden Gophers in the WCHA playoffs came on Mar. 3, 2005 when the Beavers lost 6-3 at Ridder Arena.

Bemidji State (11-19-5, 9-15-4 WCHA) and Minnesota (21-11-1, 17-10-1 WCHA) will play the second game of the best of three game series tomorrow evening from Ridder Arena in Minneapolis, Minn. Bemidji State will be looking to tie the series up at one game apiece. Game time is slated for 6:07 p.m.

--beavers--