MINNEAPOLIS — Kyle Rau netted a hat trick as Minnesota rolled to a 6-2 win over No. 12 Michigan on Friday at Mariucci Arena.
“The guys were emotionally involved and we did what we needed to do, play well defensively,” Gophers coach Don Lucia said. “Through defense we were able to score some goals and obviously when the captain has a game like that he leads the team.”
Minnesota jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the second period on a short-handed goal by Rau, to go with his first-period power-play goal.
Seth Ambroz, Vinni Lettieri and Mike Reilly also scored to help the Gophers build the lead.
“They had a perfect home game,” Michigan coach Red Berenson said. “They got the first goal, the second, the third goal, they got the crowd into it and we could not change the momentum. They were far and away the better team.”
Rau completed the hat trick at 5:32 of the third period, giving Minnesota a 6-1 lead with an unassisted goal on a shot from 50 feet out that beat Steve Racine.
“There has not been many from the distance,” Lucia said. “It was a nice shot from the top of the circle he usually gets them in nice and tight.”
“No, I was not thinking hat trick. I was trying to find a spot,” Rau said. “I thought the goalie was going to go down but he didn’t.”
[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G0000rug42hOFmTw” g_name=”20150213-Michigan-Minnesota-JGR” f_show_caption=”t” f_show_slidenum=”t” img_title=”casc” pho_credit=”iptc” f_link=”t” f_bbar=”t” fsvis=”f” width=”500″ height=”375″ bgcolor=”#AAAAAA” bgtrans=”t” btype=”old” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” crop=”f” trans=”xfade” tbs=”4000″ f_ap=”t” linkdest=”c” f_fullscreen=”f” f_constrain=”f” twoup=”f” f_topbar=”f” f_bbarbig=”” f_htmllinks=”f” f_enable_embed_btn=”f” f_show_watermark=”f” f_send_to_friend_btn=”f” f_smooth=”f” f_mtrx=”f” f_up=”f” target=”_self” wmds=”llQ6QNgpeC.p1Ucz7U.f22T7cRoRak2YTm6ZIBfpEsJAWduq2fG2eTEWQoViliyywb2ClA–” ]The Gophers dominated the first half of the second period, outshooting Michigan 13-2 and extending their lead to five goals.
“The first five minutes in the second period we could not get out of our zone,” Berenson said.
Reilly put Minnesota up 4-0 on a one timer from Travis Boyd at 7:19 of the second.
Rau netted a short-handed goal on a two-on-two rush while crossing through the zone from 50 feet out at 11:17, resulting in Michigan starting goaltender Zach Nagelvoort being pulled.
Michigan finally got on the board with a power-play goal at 18:35 of the second period by Cristoval Nieves on a one-timer off a blocked shot by Dylan Larkin. The point extend Larkin’s scoring streak to 10 games.
Rau opened the scoring with his 150th career point on a power-play goal at 6:28 of the first. The play was a pretty give-and-go with Taylor Cammarata. Cammarata was positioned on the goal line just below the right circle, and Rau one-timed the shot over Nagelvoort’s glove.
At 16:07, Ambroz slammed home a puck that got behind Nagelvoort after Travis Boyd tipped a shot from Reilly. A defenseman almost cleared the tip but Ambroz dived and drove the puck home.
Just 53 seconds later, Lettieri cleaned up a rebound on a shot off the pipe by Cammarata.
“We got to change our whole team tomorrow night,” Berenson said. “We have to be a different team or we are going to get the same result.”
“I was just happy how hard we defended tonight,” Lucia said. “I think that was the big thing from us. We didn’t shorten the rink for them. We did not give them much of two-on-ones or three-on-twos.”
Minnesota (15-9-3, 6-2-3 Big Ten) pulled within three points of first-place Michigan (16-9, 8-3) in the Big Ten standings.
“We want to win the Big Ten title,” Rau said. “To do that we have to go through Michigan. We are still not where we want to be. We have to beat them again tomorrow.”
