Held in check by a pair of the nation’s top teams over the first two weekends of the season, the Golden Gophers played their best game of the young season on Friday night en route to a 5-1 win over Alaska Anchorage in front of their home crowd at Mariucci Arena.Senior captain Tony Lucia's two shorthanded goals spearheaded the offensive outburst for the Gophers, who of course were shutout in three of their first four games. Two other Gophers – junior Kevin Wehrs and freshman Zach Budish – got their first career goals wearing the Maroon and Gold, while defenseman Aaron Ness scored his first goal of the season to get the scoring started on the night for Minnesota.
Ness’ goal would knot things up at 1-1 after the Seawolves got on the board first, thanks to a power play goal by junior wing Nick Haddad. Defensemen Nick Leddy and David Fischer failed to tie him up in front, and Haddad tipped a point shot past Gophers goalie Alex Kangas for his second goal of the season at 8:09 of the first period.
“I thought we started off great,” said Seawolves Head Coach Dave Shyiak.
The Gophers would answer back though, thanks to Ness’ quazi-power play goal, though it didn’t come easy. The Seawolves took three straight penalties midway through the first period, giving the Gophers a five-on-three power play that they couldn’t capitalize on, due in large part to UAA doing a great job of blocking Minnesota shots and getting sticks in lanes. However, that would end up being their downfall. After a UAA forward blocked a Jordan Schroeder shot from the point, the puck ricocheted to Ness, who one-timed it past Christianson for his first score of the season at 13:25 of the first period, just seconds after a Minnesota power play expired. It was Minnesota’s first goal since their first game of the season and ended a scoreless drought of more than 146 minutes.
One of the main negatives for the Gophers on this night was the loss of Leddy to a head and/or knee injury. Late in the first period, he came across the UAA blueline with his head down, and after he got rid of the puck, he was leveled by the Seawolves Jade Portwood. There was no penalty on the play and the teams were in agreement afterward that the hit was clean and that Leddy could have handled things better.
Tony Lucia agreed.
“Hopefully he learned a lesson,” Lucia said. “You cringe when a guy goes across the middle like that.”
Head Coach Don Lucia noted that Leddy should be fine, but his status for Sunday’s rematch is up in the air.
Coming into the game and even after the first period, the UM penalty kill was very shaky and had been taken advantage of at an alarming rate. However, the unit buckled down at the start of the second period and held a string of UAA power plays in check, and then, they built on that momentum by scoring a short-handed goal, thanks in large part to a great play by senior captain Tony Lucia, who both started the play and finished it. Lucia blocked an attempt by the UAA defenseman to keep the puck in the zone and helped force an errant pass, which was picked off by sophomore Taylor Matson, who fed it back to a streaking Lucia for a breakaway. He would notch his first score of the season as he went high on the blocker-side – and area the Gophers shot at all night long – to make it 2-1 Minnesota 4:47 into the second period.
“That shorty really stung us,” Shyiak said. “We lost momentum and composure and they gained it.”
At the 10:00 mark of the second period, Kangas made, as Don Lucia said, “a game-changing save,” as he robbed freshman Alex Grant by moving quickly from his left to his right. Grant was camped out on the side of the net and appeared to have his second goal of his career, but Kangas got a pad on it to preserve the one goal Gopher lead.
Lucia would get his second point of the evening later in the second period as he assisted on defenseman Kevin Wehrs’ first collegiate goal. Wehrs, a junior, took the pass at the point from Lucia and got a shot on net. Before it found its way past Christianson, it hit off a UAA forward and changed direction. Regardless, it extended Minnesota’s lead to 3-1.
“He’s playing within himself and doing a good job in his own end, which were things he didn’t do at times last season,” Lucia said.
Wehrs was a pretty big point-producer prior to coming to the U (he had 40 points in 57 games his final season in the USHL) and admitted that it’s been tough at times not scoring at that same rate in the WCHA.
“It’s been a frustrating first two years,” Wehrs said. “I hope to help out more offensively this year and it’s good to get back on the scoresheet.”
Less than two minutes later, another Gopher would get his first even goal in Maroon and Gold, as this time Budish would finish a flurry of Gopher activity in the UAA zone. Kangas left the Minnesota net due to a delayed penalty call on the Seawolves, giving the Gophers a six-on-five advantage. The puck made its way to Budish’s stick on the doorstep, and he tapped it in to extend the lead to 4-1.
Even though the Gopher power play remained 0-for the season, they generated more chances tonight than any other game and between Ness’ goal just after a man-advantage expired and Budish’s goal with the extra attacker on the ice, they are confident their funk will end soon.
“We had some good looks and some good setups,” Don Lucia said.
A miscue by UAA defenseman Curtis Leinweber and a fortunate non-call, which was pointed out by Shiyak after the game, by the referees lead to Lucia’s second “shorty” of the night. Leinweber fanned on a point shot and got tied up with Lucia and Jay Barriball, which resulted in a two-on-one break for the Gophers. Barriball dished the puck to Lucia, who showed great patience before letting a perfect shot go, again high on the blocker-side, to make it 5-1 Minnesota. The assist was Barriball’s 100th career point as a Gopher.
“I’m no sniper,” said Lucia, who admitted he didn’t pick a corner or anything, but just knew he wanted to shoot it high.
Kangas was solid all night but wasn’t tested too much. He turned away 21 shots to get his first win of the year.
The rematch will be Sunday at 4 p.m. and will air live on FSN.
Notes: Barriball was sporting a mustache on this night, and said he did it as a result of a phone call with former Gopher Alex Goligoski, who suggested his former teammate give it a try to attempt to turn the team’s offensive fortunes in the right direction … Lucia, Schroeder, and Budish were the three stars of the game … Minnesota won 38 of the 60 faceoffs on the night … It was Lucia’s first ever two-goal game as Gopher … The Gophers attempted 58 shots on the night, with 34 making it to the net … UAA had just seven power play shots in their eight attempts.
