The goal was notorious before the puck even went in.
As Abbey Murphy skated across the blue line her coach, Brad Frost, knew exactly what she was going to do.
Two weeks earlier, the hockey world couldn’t stop talking — and arguing — about Ridly Greig’s emphatic slap shot into an empty net in the dying seconds of a one-goal game between the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs. Frost, the longtime head coach of the University of Minnesota women’s hockey team, knew that Murphy, women’s hockey’s preeminent pest, had found some inspiration.
So, in the dying seconds of a one-goal February game against rival Minnesota-Duluth, Murphy skated into the offensive zone, wound-up, and took a slap shot into the empty net.
“Yep, there it is,” Frost said.
Murphy immediately turned around, smirked, and put her hands up to welcome the challenge from Bulldogs forward Clara Van Wieren.
“That’s what is awesome about Murph is, she does that and goes to the corner and knows somebody is going to be coming after her,” Frost said. “She was almost like come on, go on, give it to me.”
#Gophers get one more! pic.twitter.com/epBmAKvGSQ
— Minnesota Women’s Hockey (@GopherWHockey) February 24, 2024
Murphy said she’d seen the goal from Greig and when she entered the zone thought,…
