UPDATED: UMD 3, Minnesota 2
MINNEAPOLIS – Not all Minnesota sports fans may agree that the best in-state rivalry matches Minnesota Duluth versus Minnesota in men’s hockey, but that’s what the Sporting News determined in an edition earlier this year.
Followers of the series understand.
The Bulldogs and Gophers met for the 210th time since 1952, in the second game of a Western Collegiate Hockey Association series Saturday night at Mariucci Arena. In the past eight years, UMD led the series by the tiny margin 11-10-3, including two straight one-goal victories.
No. 20-ranked UMD earned one more in its favor with a crazy finish for a second straight night, scoring the game’s final three goals for a 3-2 victory and a series sweep. Twenty of the last 25 games in the series have been decided by two goals or less.
“All season our guys have kept plugging away and plugging away. We say that with hard work anything can happen, and it happened to us twice in one weekend,” said UMD junior defenseman Mike Montgomery.
For the second straight night the Bulldogs (9-4-1 and 6-3-1 WCHA) fell behind 2-0 and rallied to win. On Friday, it took a Travis Oleksuk goal with 12 seconds left in overtime to seal the deal. This time, Montgomery was credited with a goal off the skate of Minnesota defenseman Cade Fairchild with 2:02 remaining.
On Saturday, the Gophers (4-7-1 and 3-6-1) were up 2-0 after one period and never scored again. They outshot the Bulldogs 38-33 and pulled goalie Alex Kangas with 69 seconds to play for an extra attacker.
Division I scoring leader Jack Connolly connected on a power play for the only goal of the second period and speedster Kyle Schmidt scored unassisted on a 50-foot attempt from left wing at 3:22 of the third to make it 2-2.
Freshman defenseman Wade Bergman, battling for a loose puck in the Minnesota crease, appeared to have scored with 10:58 to play, but after nearly 15 minutes of discussion referees Don Adam and Tim Walsh ruled no goal.
“The last 40 minutes was the difference,” said UMD coach Scott Sandelin. “Minnesota was peppering us in the first period and Brady Hjelle kept us in there and gave us a chance to win.
“After a delay like that, sometimes it’s hard to get going again, but we stayed at it and maybe it was justice that our last goal was good. We got some bounces.”
Montgomery thought he was nearly out of scoring range, reaching the extended goal line, and backhanded a shot into the crease. The puck bounced off a skate and under a Minnesota stick and, very slowly, trickled into the net. That goal was also reviewed and it stood. UMD had its first Mariucci Arena sweep since October of 2003.
The Gophers were dominant in the first period, getting goals from winger Mike Hoeffel and defenseman Kevin Wehrs in a 5-on-3 power play. They outshot UMD 18-11.
“We had some good looks on offense and had some good chances, and we might’ve played a little better than we did Friday. But we’re not a good enough team to have pucks go off us and still win,” said Minnesota coach Don Lucia. “We have to make those plays.”
Minnesota was called for the only three penalties of the second period and UMD scored the only goal. Connolly converted a Justin Fontaine rebound at the right edge of the crease on a power play at 6:27. UMD came into the game with the top three scorers, in total points, in Division I – Jack Connolly has 11 assists for 20 points in 14 games, and Fontaine is 11-9-20, while Rob Bordson has 3-16-19.
Sophomore goalie Hjelle was UMD’s star with a number of excellent saves from start to finish, including a stop on Minnesota’s Nico Sacchetti at 7:40 in the third period. He kept Minnesota from adding to a two-goal lead.
“Our first period was bad and Minnesota was on us all night, but we made a comeback and didn’t look back,” said Hjelle, who tied his career high with 36 saves.
The Bulldogs are off this week before resuming play at home Dec. 4-5 against No. 2 North Dakota.
Minnesota Duluth…..…......0-1-2--3
Minnesota……............…...2-0-0--2
First period – 1. Minnesota, Mike Hoeffel 6 (Kevin Wehrs, Nico Sacchetti), 8:24; 2. Minnesota, Wehrs 2 (Patrick White, Jake Hansen), 14:51 (5x3 pp). Penalties – Chad Huttel, UMD (holding), 4:41; Cade Fairchild, Minnesota (tripping), 10:11; Dylan Olsen, UMD (interference), 12;58; Drew Olson, UMD (elbowing), 13:38; Tony Lucia, Minnesota (interference), 19:08.
Second period – 3. UMD, Jack Connolly 10 (Justin Fontaine, Dylan Olsen), 6:27 (pp). Penalties – Zach Budish, Minnesota (interference), 2:21; Hansen, Minnesota (interference), 6:10; Sacchetti, Minnesota (hooking), 15:45.
Third period – 4. UMD, Kyle Schmidt 4, 3:22; 5. UMD, Mike Montgomery 2 (Jordan Fulton, Olsen), 17:58. Penalties – None.
Shots on goal – UMD 11-13-9--33, Minnesota 18-11-9--38. Goalies – Brady Hjelle (6-2-1), UMD (38 shots-36 saves); Alex Kangas (4-6), Minnesota (33 shots-30 saves). Power plays – UMD 1-of-5, Minnesota 1-of-3. Referees – Don Adam, Tim Walsh. Assistants – Tony Czech, Chris Olson. A – 10,188.
Posted by: pates on 11/21/2009 at 10:34 PM | Comments (2) | Permalink
Tags: minnesota, umd hockey
