MINNEAPOLIS – The No. 2 Gopher Women's hockey team fell behind early but clawed their way back to earn a 2-1 victory over St. Cloud State on Saturday afternoon at Ridder Arena.
 
Minnesota (6-0-0) fell behind for the first time this season after St. Cloud State (2-6-0) pounced on a rebound 54 seconds into the game to take an early lead. The Gophers responded after Savannah Norcross delivered a beautiful behind-the-back pass to Madison Kaiser for her second of the season. Neither side could find the go-ahead goal until fifth-year forward Grace Zumwinkle swept in a rebound with 4:02 remaining to put Minnesota in front for good. 

Sophomore Skylar Vetter started in goal again for the Gophers, stopping 20 shots in her fourth win of the season. St. Cloud State's Sanni Ahola made 43 saves in the loss. 



Quotable 
"A big win today and a big three points," said head coach Brad Frost. "I'm proud of our team and the way we gutted it out. It was a grind and St. Cloud played extremely well and made it very tough to score and get to the net. I'm proud of our team's resilience, especially in the third, to stick with it and get one late and lock it down from there."

Notable
•    Minnesota allowed the first goal of the game for the first time since Feb. 11 of last season (13 games)
•    Grace Zumwinkle leads the Gophers in points with 12 (7g-5a) through six games. 
•    Minnesota killed off all five St. Cloud State power-plays in today's contest. 

Up Next
The Gophers travel to Columbus to take on the defending national champion Ohio State Buckeyes next weekend. Friday's contest is slated for 5:00 pm CT while Saturday's is set for 2:00 pm CT.