Friday’s game between Minnesota and North Dakota was advertised as a showcase on offense. It was — but only for one team.<\/p>\n
The Golden Gophers racked up 48 shots on goal — 42 of them in the first two periods — and scored twice on a UND major penalty in the second period on the way to a 6-1 win before a crowd of 10,215 at Mariucci Arena.<\/p>\n
For Minnesota, defenseman Mike Vannelli had two goals and an assist, while Danny Irmen racked up four points with a goal and three assists. Irmen and Ryan Potulny both extended their point-scoring streaks to seven games, matching the Gophers’ current winning streak.<\/p>\n
“I wasn’t trying to take too many chances, but it worked out well,” said Vannelli, who enjoyed his first multiple-goal game as a collegian.<\/p>\n
The Gophers were active right from the start, peppering UND netminder Philippe Lamoureux with 13 shots on goal before UND managed its first.<\/p>\n
“We’re making more plays coming up the rink,” said Minnesota head coach Don Lucia. “And that’s when it’s fun, when you make hockey plays like that.”<\/p>\n
Minnesota’s win came a month after the Gophers swept North Dakota in Grand Forks, leaving the Sioux doubly disappointed.<\/p>\n
“They took two ends out of our building, and to show up here and play like we did is embarassing,” said UND’s Chris Porter.<\/p>\n
The Gophers also dominated on defense, allowing only 14 shots on goal through the first 40 minutes. That was despite the absence of Chris Harrington, serving a game disqualification which forced Lucia to move forward Andy Sertich back to the blue line.<\/p>\n
“I thought our defensemen, with Chris out of the lineup, really stepped up,” said Lucia.<\/p>\n
Despite the final score, there were a few moments of doubt for the Gophers. Already up 2-0 and dominating play early in the second period, Minnesota went on a five-minute power play after a hitting-from-behind major on UND’s Scott Foyt.<\/p>\n
With the dagger in their hands, the Gophers briefly turned it on themselves, giving up a Sioux two-on-one that culminated in an Erik Fabian backhander to narrow the lead to 2-1 at 13:44 of the second. That was the only goal allowed by Minnesota’s Kellen Briggs, who quietly rang up 27 saves.<\/p>\n
Abruptly, the Gophers heated up again. Still on the man-advantage, Irmen fired a pass through the crease for Potulny, whose shot from a near-impossible angle beat Lamoureux for his 19th goal of the season, restoring the two-goal lead at 14:49.<\/p>\n
Minnesota wasn’t done on the power play. With seconds left on the advantage, Vannelli potted his second goal of the game, taking the puck from Ben Gordon and making a scintillating drag move before firing it by Lamoureux (42 saves).<\/p>\n
“[UND’s Mike] Prpich lost his stick on me there … and I was hoping [Gordon] would pass it over. He did, and I just kind of did it,” said Vannelli.<\/p>\n
“You could feel the momentum change,” said Irmen. “It kind of dropped their confidence back down.”<\/p>\n
The floodgates stayed open after a Taylor Chorney crosscheck. On the resulting power play, the Gophers’ eighth of the game, Irmen scored his eighth goal of the season, putting back a loose puck to make it 5-1 at 17:43. That doused any chance of a Fighting Sioux comeback.<\/p>\n
UND had some spark to open the third period, but to no avail as Minnesota scored its final goal at 6:22, by Justin Bostrom to make the final 6-1.<\/p>\n
“We showed a little bit of life in the third,” said Porter, “but we’ve got to do that for the full 60 minutes. … It’s got to be 60 minutes of hard work, and we haven’t done that all year.”<\/p>\n
The matchup was all Minnesota early, though it took the Gophers 13 shots to solve Lamoureux as defenseman Alex Goligoski fired a rebound through traffic for his fifth goal of the year at 10:02 of the first.<\/p>\n
With one minute left in the frame, UND defenseman Kyle Radke took a minor for slashing, and was followed into the box by Prpich and Goligoski after those two got into a wrestling match on the ice. Prpich picked up the double minor for roughing after giving Goligoski an extra whack, putting Minnesota on a five-on-three that extended into the second period.<\/p>\n
Shots on goal after 20 minutes were 17-3 in favor of the Gophers, who took advantage of Prpich’s miscue early in the second.<\/p>\n
After 45 seconds of cycling in the UND zone, Vannelli made the five-on-three count, firing a wrist shot off Lamoureux and in to extend the lead to 2-0.<\/p>\n
That was followed by the Foyt major, which eventually closed the door on UND — for one night, at least.<\/p>\n
“The guys came in after the game and said, ‘Hey, that’s great, now we’ve got another one tomorrow,'” said Lucia.<\/p>\n
Oddly, the result broke a four-year pattern of UND-Minnesota games at Mariucci, which had seen the Sioux win every Friday game going back to Jan. 12, 2001.<\/p>\n
The Gophers will try to extend their winning streak in the rematch Saturday at 7:07 p.m. CT, while UND looks to rebound.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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