The No. 3 Gophers women's hockey team built a three-goal lead and held on for a 4-2 victory over St. Thomas on Friday at Ridder Arena.

The Gophers (16-5-1, 10-4-1 WCHA), who won for the fifth time in their past six games, took a 3-0 lead into the third period. The Tommies (5-14-1, 2-12-1) made it 3-2 midway through the period before the Gophers added a goal in the final minute.

"It got close there in the third period," Gophers coach Brad Frost said, "but we found a way to defend and gut it out. We had a really good effort from a multitude of players."

The Gophers outshot the Tommies 14-7 in the scoreless first period. The Tommies went 0-for-2 on the power play in the first 20 minutes.

Audrey Wethington opened the scoring with a power-play goal with 15 minutes, 16 seconds left in the second period. Five minutes later Ava Lindsay's shorthanded goal made it 2-0. Emma Conner made it 3-0 with 3:14 left in the period.

Nora Sauer's goal got the Tommies on the scoreboard 5½ minutes into the third period. The Tommies pulled within 3-2 with 10 minutes remaining on a power-play goal by Maddie Clough. The Tommies were 1-for-6 on the power play.

Allie Franco's power-play goal, her first goal of the season, with 22 seconds left sealed the victory. Emma Kreisz assisted on all four Gophers goals.

"Emma played well, too," Frost said. "She plays the right way. It's funny, when you play the right way, you get rewarded for it."

The Gophers, who swept St. Thomas 5-0 and 6-2 in early December, improved to 19-0 all-time against the Tommies.

The team conclude the series Saturday.