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Abby Murphy ends her career with 143 career goals—a Minnesota program record. | Brady Paitrick—Gophersports.com
The Minnesota Golden Gophers women’s hockey team got a gift last weekend when UConn defeated Northeastern in the Hockey East Championship game. By that win, the Gophers remained #4 in the NPI rankings and “earned” the chance to host the NCAA Quarterfinal on Saturday afternoon against #5 Northeastern. Unfortunately for the few thousand fans packed into Ridder Arena, they probably wish the game had been in Boston instead. Minnesota’s unfathomable lack of offence since their four players headed off to the Olympic games continued and with great play in net by Northeastern goalie Lisa Jonsson the Gophers lost control of the game early in the first period and never recovered losing 4-2 to the Huskies.
The Gophers came out with incredible fire as the top line of Bella Finale, Josefin Bouveng and Abbey Murphy has two great looks in the first thirty seconds of the game. Murphy was robbed on a rebound by Jonsson in what was an omen for the rest of the game. Jonsson came to play, and unfortunately for the Gophers their own sophomore goalie Hannah Clark did not.
The teams traded chances in the first few minutes of the game, but Minnesota’s overaggressiveness would catch up to them just over five minutes into the action. After a face-off win in the Northeastern zone Murphy picked up the puck and skated in firing a backhand over the goal. Gopher defender Sydney Morrow pinched in deep near the net looking for a rebound, but the puck slid along the boards past her right to Northeastern’s Eloise Caron. She brought the Huskies into the Gopher zone on a 2-on-1 and put a wrist shot from the circle past Clark to give Northeastern a 1-0 lead.
The Huskies changed momentum again just a few minutes later. After a Gopher power play with several good looks but no goals, Northeastern took possession and again streaked down the ice with numbers. Just 17 seconds after the end of the penalty it was Stryker Zablocki putting a wrist shot past Clark from almost the exact same spot as the first goal and Northeastern went ahead 2-0.
That would go to 3-0 aftr they would score on their first power play of the game. Alessia Baechler took a shot from the point that Clark made the initial save on but the rebound was slid past her by Mia Langlois and make it 3-0. Brad Frost took his timeout and replaced Clark with freshman Layla Hemp in net. The period would end 3-0.
Minnesota tried valiantly in the second period, but between Jonsson playing exceptionally well and the Gophers unable to stay out of their own way missing wide open nets and mishandling pucks, it just was not there. Northeastern repeated the script from their second goal on their fourth after killing off a power play where Minnesota had several good looks and 15 seconds later it was Morgan Jackson putting a wrist shot top corner past Hemp to make it 4-0.
Minnesota continued to rack up shots on goal left and right in the end of the second period and through the third as the Huskies went into a defensive shell packing all five players in front of their goal, but the Gophers could not break through despite their best efforts until there was 8:50 remaining in the game. Minnesota finally cashed in on the power play with Bouveng taking a shot from the left circle that Jonsson got a piece of, but not enough as the rebound went right to Murphy who slammed in the puck for her 39th goal on the season.
Murphy was not done just quite yet. Minnesota pulled Hemp and earned one more power play with just over two minutes remaining. Murphy would rip a rocket slapper past Jonsson to the top corner of the net with 1:32 left for her 40th goal of the season, and her record 143rd and final goal of her Gopher career.
Minnesota pulled Hemp again for the last 1:30 of the game but could not get another look and the Huskies would move onto the Frozen Four with a 4-2 victory.
Murphy skated around the Ridder Arena ice in a daze by her self and after the final handshakes took a seat on the Gophers bench one final time getting a hug from Gopher Head coach Brad Frost and joined by some of her fellow senior teammates including defender Nelli Laitiinen and Bouveng just trying to soak it up one final time while Northeastern celebrated on the other end of the rink. Murphy was the last to leave walking to the locker room after everyone else on both teams had left the rink to a round of applause from 100 or so Gopher fans who remained to salute her.
Murphy, Laitinen and Frost were all very emotional in the postgame press conference. Murphy talked repeatedly about how much the feeling sucked to watch Northeastern celebrate on their home ice and how much she will miss being a Gopher. “Gopher Hockey changed my life. The people, Frosty, the coaching staff, everyone that I played with in my five years here has given me something to take out of here.” Laitinen agreed. “It’s just been an honor to be a Gopher, to be the best four years of my life and play with some of the best players in the world in Abbey, Taylor Heise, Grace Zumwinkle.” After the press conference Laitinen and Murphy rejoined the rest of the Gophers senior class who had gone back out to the Ridder Arena ice and were laying next to one another on the M at center ice trying to not leave t for the final time wearing the maroon and gold.
The Gophers ended the season going 2-6-1 in their final nine games, and not scoring more than two goals in any of the six losses down the stretch. This from a team that prior to the Olympics was averaging 5.6 goals per game. What happened? That’s the grand question that Gophers fans and the coaching staff will need to deal with. Minnesota loses a ton off of this roster including their top two forward in Murphy and Bouveng, their top two defenders in Morrow and Laitinen, and a pair of second line forwards in Madison Kaiser and Jamie Nelson.
Will Brad Frost be back to try and right the ship next season? Another unknown question. Frost was more emotional post game than in several of the Gophers more recent eliminations. Frost’s contract reportedly expires at the end of this season and no news of any extension has been made public. Minnesota has been consistently been one step behind WCHA rivals Wisconsin and Ohio State for at least the past 7-8 seasons, and something has to change. Will it be with the man behind the bench, or will Frost keep his job and need to figure out different ways to make change to the program. If it was his last time coaching Minnesota he went out praising his group. “That’s a special group and I just love coaching here, and with this program”
Only Mark Coyle may know at this point whether Frost will return for a 20th season behind the Gopher bench. If he will not be back, we would expect to hear about a chance sooner rather than later with the way the NCAA works in 2026 with the transfer portal and all the other trappings of making, maintaining and keeping a team. Regardless on the decision, it’s another disappointing to a Gopher women’s hockey season as has been the norm since 2017.
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