University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
1-0-0
Penn State
0-1-0
No. 1 Minnesota Blanks Penn State, 8-0
10/3/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Hockey
 |
|  | ||||||||||||||||
| 8 | | 0 |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Oct. 3, 2014
Box Score | Box Score 
| 
Photo Gallery
MINNEAPOLIS – Six different Gophers scored goals and junior Hannah Brandt (Vadnais Heights, Minn.) led the way with three points as the No. 1 Minnesota women's hockey team blanked Penn State, 8-0, in front of 2,040 fans at Ridder Arena Friday night.
Brandt set up two Minnesota goals and scored one of her own. Fellow junior Milica McMillen (St. Paul, Minn.) scored a pair of power-play goals, and sophomore Dani Cameranesi also scored twice.
Redshirt freshman goaltender Sidney Peters (Geneva, Ill.) made 15 saves in her first collegiate game. Peters backstopped the Gophers to a shutout victory as Minnesota outshot Penn State, 48-15, for the game. PSU goaltender Celine Whitlinger made 40 saves in the loss.
"I'm very happy with the win here tonight," head coach Brad Frost said. "I'm really happy for Sidney Peters. She's waited a long time for her first start, and to get a shutout with her first start is pretty special. It was a great night overall."
Four Gopher freshmen made their collegiate debuts, and sophomore Lee Stecklein (Roseville, Minn.) played in her first game for the Maroon & Gold since the 2012-13 season after donning Red, White & Blue with Team USA at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games last year.
Minnesota (1-0-0) wasted no time getting on the board, taking a 1-0 lead at the 8:04 mark of the first period. McMillen scored the Gophers' first goal of the season by burying a shot from the bottom of the face-off circle on the power play. Cameranesi then extended Minnesota's lead to two just 1:32 later when she redirected a shot Stecklein through traffic past Whitlinger.
"I really thought we seized some momentum in the game with those two quick goals in the first," Frost said. "We forced them to call a timeout. We had a little lull after that and then picked it up at the end of the first period. We were able to apply some relentless pressure in the second and continue that on into the third."
Balanced scoring saw Minnesota add three more goals in both the second and third periods. Brandt scored her first goal of the season at the 6:08 mark of the second period, redirecting a shot from the point by Stecklein and giving the Gophers a 3-0 lead before McMillen and Cameranesi each scored their second goals of the game to give the Maroon & Gold a 5-0 lead after two periods.
Three more Gophers added third-period goals as senior Meghan Lorence (Mounds View, Minn.), freshman Cara Piazza (Darien, Ill.) and sophomore Kelsey Cline (Bloomington, Minn.) scored sealed the 8-0 win.
The Gophers finished 4-for-6 on the power play while holding Penn State scoreless on four opportunities with the man advantage.
Minnesota concludes its season-opening weekend by hosting Boston University (1-0-0) at Ridder Arena Saturday night at 7:07 p.m. St. Cloud State (0-1-0) and Penn State (0-1-0) face off at 4:07 p.m.
###
