BOSTON, Mass. – The trip to Boston started just the way the Beavers wanted late Thursday night: With a convincing victory.

All-time career shutout leader Jordan Ivanco made 16 saves in goal for the third-ranked Minot State women's hockey team, and her teammates unleashed an early offensive assault as the Beavers skated to a 7-0 win over No. 10-ranked Miami (Ohio) in the final first-round game of the ACHA Division I Women's National Tournament.

"It was a great way to kick off the tournament," Minot State head coach Ryan Miner said. "We were successful in a lot of areas tonight and adjusted as needed. Our goal was to get a rhythm going offensively early and we did that.

"This was a good game to get the nerves out and get back into the flow of things!"

Freshman Cameron Schmidt got things started for Minot State in her first trip to nationals as she scored what proved to be the game-winner just 3 minutes, 24 seconds into the action off an assist from Riley Ball.

That opened the floodgates on a goal-rush for the Beavers (22-10-2 overall) who put four pucks in the net in a 3 minute, 14 second stretch.

Jordan Kulbida, fresh off being named an ACHA Second Team All-American earlier in the week, made it 2-0 just 56 seconds later with an unassisted goal, then Gracie Perry also scored unassisted 1:12 after that for a commanding 3-0 lead.

Kulbida finished off the fast start with her second of the game with just 6:38 gone from the first-period clock, putting Minot State well on its way to victory in front 4-0. Megan Norris assisted on Kulbida's second of the day.

From there, the Beavers kept tacking on insurance goal after insurance goal as Paige Ackerman scored with 8 seconds left before the first intermission, off a Kulbida assist, then Norris scored 1:14 into the second period off an Ackerman assist.

Ball then capped the scoring for Minot State, putting away an assist from Norris with 1:29 gone in the third period for the 7-0 victory.

A victory that sends Minot State into the national quarterfinals on Saturday when the Beavers play Maryville (Mo.) at noon (CT). Miami plays a loser-out game Friday against Arizona State.

The shutout was the 18^th of Ivanco's record-setting career at Minot State.

The Beavers now face a Saints team that beat Arizona State 2-0 on Thursday. The teams played twice to open the 2022-23 season back on Oct. 7 and 8 with Minot State beating the Saints 5-4  on Friday and the Saints winning 2-1 on Saturday.