Advertisement

Women’s hockey: Grace Zumwinkle, Taylor Heise lead Gophers past New Hampshire

john shipley, pioneer press
·3 min read

On a team full of great players, Taylor Heise and Grace Zumwinkle are still finding ways to stand out.

On Saturday, Heise scored her NCAA-leading 17th goal and Zumwinkle scored twice in a six-point performance to become just the sixth player in program history to score 100 career goals as the fourth-ranked Gophers raced past New Hampshire, 8-1, at Ridder Arena.

“It speaks to her character than in the locker room she gave all the credit to all her teammates and linemates,” Heise said of Zumwinkle. “She’s not going to take credit for herself, but the hours she spends, the work that she does … I’m so proud of her. Things are starting to move in her direction.”

Zumwinkle, a senior from Excelsior who played for Team USA and won an Olympic silver medal last winter, finished with two goals and four assists. He sister, Emily, had three assists as Minnesota won for the sixth straight time to improve to 16-3-2 overall.

In those six games, the Gophers have outscored their opponents by a combined score of 41-4.

“I certainly like how we’re playing,” coach Brad Frost said. “We’ve got a lot of jump offensively with all four of our lines and our D contributing.”

Blue liner Madeline Wethington scored her first goal of the season on Saturday, and Abbey Murphy had two goals and two assists. Zumwinkle’s second goal was a one-timer on the power play that hit the pads of Wildcats goaltender Ava Boultier and trickled in for an 8-1 lead with 2 minutes, 20 seconds left in the third period.

“I think it hasn’t really hit me yet,” Zumwinkle said of joining a list that includes Olympians such as Hannah Brandt, Amanda Kessel and her associate head coach Natalie Darwitz. “I’ve obviously been super fortunate to play on some winning teams and play with a lot of great hockey players who have helped me along the way.”

Catie Skaja, Ella Huber and Abigail Boreen also scored goals for Minnesota. Heise, the reigning Patty Kazmaier Award winner, lit the lamp with a wrist shot from between the circles at 9:25 of the final frame. She has scored seven goals in the Gophers’ past three games, and earned 19 points in the past six.

“I’ll give full credit to my teammates, too,” said Heise, the tournament MVP at the IIHF World Championships in September. Heise, Murphy and Grace Zumwinkle played two games with Team USA in the Canada Series over winter break. When Heise returned, she had treatment to relieve nerve pressure in her back.

“It’s easy when you come back and have the smiley faces like I do in the locker room, and have people ready for what they’re doing,” Heise said.

Emily Pinto scored New Hampshire’s goal, and Boutlier finished with 32 saves for the Wildcats (7-16-0). In Saturday’s first game, Klára Hymlárová scored a pair of goals as St. Cloud State (13-10) beat Merrimack, 3-1.

The Gophers got defenseman Nelli Laitinen back from a six-week injury absence this weekend — she scored a goal in a victory over Merrimack on Friday — and expect Gracie Ostertag (lower body) to return soon, perhaps as early as next weekend’s two-game series against St. Thomas at Ridder Arena.

100 CLUB

Grace Zumwinkle became the sixth player in Minnesota program history to scored 100 career goals after scoring twice in Saturday’s 8-1 victory over New Hampshire. Here are all six:

Player Years Goals
Nadine Muzerall 1997-2001 139
Hannah Brandt 2012-15 115
Amanda Kessel 2010-13 / 2015-16 108
Krissy Wendell-Pohl 2002-05 106
Natalie Darwitz 2002-05 102
Grace Zumwinkle 2017-21 / 2022-23 100

Related Articles