Sophomore defenseman Alex Goligoski’s first goal of the season at 6:56 of the second period broke a 3-3 tie and lifted No. 8 Minnesota (2-1-1, 2-0-0 WCHA) to a 4-3 win and a two-game sweep of Minnesota State-Mankato tonight at Mariucci Arena.
Ten different Golden Gophers recorded points, and freshman goaltender Jeff Frazee earned his first win to push Minnesota’s win streak over the Mavericks (0-4-0, 0-2-0) to 11 games.
The opening period was a wild scoring affair with both teams scoring three times to take a 3-3 tie into the first intermission. For the first time this season, the Golden Gophers drew first blood with Justin Bostrom scoring the first goal of his career at 3:29. Bostrom’s fourth line worked hard down low, as Evan Kaufmann dug the puck from the boards and made a pass to Bostrom in front, who tucked a shot under Minnesota State goaltender Mike Zacharias’ pads.
Minnesota held the 1-0 lead until midway through the period when the two squads scored three times in 44 seconds. At 9:44, Minnesota State tied the game at 1-1 with Joel Hanson scoring his first goal of the season. Capitalizing on a Gopher turnover in the neutral zone, Hanson skated in on a two-on-one and beat netminder Jeff Frazee from close range with a wrist shot for the unassisted goal.
Just 38 seconds later, the Mavericks grabbed their first lead of the game with Travis Morin beat Frazee to the stick side with a strong shot from the left circle. Ryan McKelvie and R.J. Linder earned assists on the play.
Only seven seconds after the Minnesota State goal, Ryan Potulny tied the contest at 2-2 with his third goal of the season at 10:29. Blake Wheeler made a beautiful pass to Potulny alone in front to beat Zacharias to the 5-hole. Derek Peltier was credited with the second assist on the goal.
Minnesota regained the lead at 12:01 with Gino Guyer’s third goal of the season. Andy Sertich dug the puck out from a scrum behind the Mavericks net and found Guyer in front to fire the puck high to Zacharias’ glove side for the go-ahead goal. Mike Howe picked up the second assist on the tally.
Minnesota State wrapped up the first period scoring at 18:23 with its first power-play goal of the weekend. Taking a Kyle Peto pass, Ryan Carter used a blistering one-timer to beat Frazee to the stick side. The Golden Gophers out-shot the Mavericks 13-9 in the opening period.
The second period saw Minnesota score the stanza’s only goal to take a 4-3 lead into the second intermission. At 6:56, Kris Chucko took a shot from the left circle with the puck deflecting off Sertich’s stick and off the pads of Zacharias. Alex Goligoski streaked in from the point and knocked the rebound into the open net for his first goal of the season. For the period, Minnesota outshot the Mavericks, 11-6, for a two-period advantage of 24-15.
The Golden Gophers maintained the one-goal lead in the third period, despite Minnesota State gaining a five-minute power play in the latter half of the period. Minnesota’s Ryan Stoa was whistled for checking from behind and given a five-minute major and a 10-minute game misconduct at the 12:13 mark. Minnesota stood tall, however, blocking numerous shots in front of Frazee.
Minnesota also withstood a late Minnesota State rush when the Mavericks pulled Zacharias for the extra attacker. For the period, the Gophers outshot Minnesota State, 11-8.
For the game, the Golden Gophers went 0-for-7 on the power play. Minnesota State was 1-for-5 on the man advantage. Frazee took the win for Minnesota with 20 saves to improve to 1-0-1 on the season, while Zacharias got the loss to fall to 0-1-0.
