Jan. 17—BEMIDJI — Going into Saturday’s game against No. 3 University of Minnesota, the Bemidji State women’s hockey team was looking for a repeat of Friday night’s third period.
The Beavers held the Gophers scoreless, scoring three goals themselves in their strongest period of the weekend. Despite the 5-3 loss, the period appeared to give BSU confidence heading into Saturday’s series-ending tilt.
Instead, Bemidji State looked a lot like it did the first two periods Friday night, struggling mightily against the Golden Gophers’ potent offense.
Abbey Murphy, a 2026 Olympian, scored four goals, and junior Ava Lindsay scored three, each bagging hat tricks in an 11-1 drubbing of the Beavers at the Sanford Center.
“It’s frustrating. Everyone’s frustrated and it’s not what we wanted today,” head coach Amber Fryklund said. “I think one of the messages is just how we showed up yesterday. We had a lot of good energy, we had a compete mindset, we outworked, we took care of the puck in our defensive zone for the most part.
“Today we just didn’t have that, and I think the message is we certainly can’t dwell on this.”
BSU’s lone goal came in the third period, shorthanded no less. Morgan Smith got loose on a breakaway and sniped Gopher goaltender Layla Hemp.
But Bemidji State was doomed from the start. Forty-seven seconds into the game, Murphy got the Gophers on the board with a tipped shot from the point. Seven minutes later, Josefin Bouveng added another one on the power play to make it 2-0 Gophers.
Late in the first period, Lindsay scored on a rebound, followed by another goal from Emma Kreisz. By first intermission, the Beavers were already down 4-0.
“I don’t think we came out with the compete and the outwork energy we had yesterday,” Fryklund said. “Credit to Minnesota, we knew they were going to come out today and deliver a big punch. We just didn’t have a good start and the game got away from us.”
The second period was more of the same. Murphy and Lindsay each scored two to claim their hat tricks, with Kendra Distad adding one as well to take a 9-0 lead into the third period.
Bemidji State goaltender Kaitlin Groess made 21 saves on 28 shots before she was relieved by Ava Hills midway through the second period. She stopped 17 shots the rest of the game.
“(Groess) saw a lot of pucks, and coming back in game two is always hard,” Fryklund said. “Minnesota is an incredibly talented team. Kaitlin made some really great saves tonight, but we didn’t do a good job in our net front clearing pucks either, so that was certainly not all on her.”
Murphy scored her fourth of the game in the final frame, with Anabella Fanale adding one more to clinch the 11-1 win for the U of M.
The schedule doesn’t get any easier for Bemidji State (5-16-3), as it heads to Madison, Wisconsin, next week to take on No. 1 Wisconsin. BSU is still looking for its first conference win since Nov. 22, when it won 6-5 in overtime against St. Cloud State.
“Huge area of focus is going to be from this game is our defensive zone and making sure that we’re hard to play against, we’re picking up sticks and making it hard for them to get to our net front,” Fryklund said.
Minnesota 11, Bemidji State 1
UM 4 5 2 — 11
BSU 0 0 1 — 1
First period — UM GOAL: Murphy (Primerano, Laitinen) 0:47; UM GOAL: Bouveng (Fanale, Murphy) PPG, 7:58; UM GOAL: Lindsay (Kaiser, Jordan) 13:38; UM GOAL: Kreisz (Distad, Primerano) 17:08.
Second period — UM GOAL: Murphy (Fanale, Jordan) 3:09; UM GOAL: Lindsay (Nelson) 5:46; UM GOAL: Lindsay (Nelson) 11:46; UM GOAL: Distad (Laitinen, Nelson) 12:05; UM GOAL: Murphy (Morrow, Graham) 13:38.
Third period — BSU GOAL: Smith (Goettl) SHG, 4:59; UM GOAL: Murphy (Unassisted) PPG, 6:53; UM GOAL: Fanale (Bouveng, Murphy) 11:04.
Saves — Groess (BSU) 21; Hills (BSU) 17; Hemp (UM) 24.
