Minnesota's game against Maine started slowly and ended with a shutout. The No. 3 Gophers beat Maine 4-0 on October 10 to move to 3-0-0 overall. Hannah Clark made 23 saves for the 6th shutout of her career.
Greg "Boom" May didn't call it an easy night. "A lot of credit to Maine. They played incredibly hard," May said. "It felt like we were battling from the puck drop all the way to the buzzer."
For a while it really was a battle. Maine goaltender Kiia Lahtinen made 13 saves in the 1st period alone and kept the game scoreless after 20 minutes. Minnesota finally broke through in the 2nd. Senior defenseman Molly Jordan got one on a deflection, and Madison Kaiser scored her 1st goal of the season. The Gophers added 2 more in the 3rd and finished with a 43-25 edge in shots.
Clark controlled her end the whole way. "She was dialed," May said. "She was in control the entire time and her confidence level rose as it went on."
The win came after a solid opening weekend. Minnesota swept Bemidji State, winning 5-2 on Friday and 5-3 on Saturday. That sweep has the Gophers at 2-0-0 in WCHA play. Freshman Maddie McCullough scored twice in the series, including the team's 1st goal of the season. Minnesota got there without junior defenseman Chloe Primerano for the Maine game, because she was at Hockey Canada's selection camp.
Senior forward Ava Lindsay said this year's group can score from anywhere in the lineup. "We have four lines that can produce, four lines that can score," Lindsay said. She also made clear what the home building means to the team: "Every time that we can play at Ridder, it's just the best atmosphere."
The Black Bears came in 1-3 after splitting with St. Lawrence. They also return all 5 of their top scorers from last season, which helps explain why Minnesota needed 2 periods to break through. With the loss, Maine falls to 1-4-0.
Voters weren't impressed enough to move Minnesota up, but they didn't drop the Gophers either. Minnesota held at No. 3 in the latest poll, the program said.
The schedule gets much harder from here. Minnesota and No. 2 Ohio State meet October 16-17, a top-3 series this early in the season that should give a real read on where this team stands.
