University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Drop Series Opener to Denver
11/3/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Hockey
Minnesota’s offensive struggles continued on Friday as the Gopher men’s hockey team fell to 0-3 in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association for the first time in 14 years with a 5-1 loss to Denver at Mariucci Arena.
The Gophers had plenty of scoring chances throughout the game, but had trouble finishing all night. Minnesota had 37 shots on goal in the game, however, the Gophers couldn’t solve Pioneers’ goaltender Peter Mannino until the final nine minutes of the contest. Minnesota also finished 0-for-4 on the power play and has not scored on the man-advantage its last six games and 24 chances. Mannino finished the night with 36 saves and stopped all 26 shots faced in the first two periods.
Minnesota is now 4-3 overall, but 0-3 in the WCHA for the first time since 1993-94. Denver is 5-2 overall and 2-1 in the WCHA. The teams take a day off Saturday and conclude the series on Sunday as the Gophers look to avoid their first-ever 0-4 league start.
Despite being outshot 12-6 in the opening period, the Pioneers scored the game’s first goal late in the stanza when Rhett Rakhshani scored his first goal of the year off a pass from Patrick Mullen. The goal came at the 16:57 mark of the period and was set up following a faceoff win by Jesse Martin.
Denver scored on three of its first five power play opportunities in the game after entering at 3-for-37 for the season and with one goal in their last 31 chances. The Pioneers struck for two power play goals in the second period and another in the opening minute of the third. Tyler Ruegsegger scored a pair of man-advantage goals in the period, ripping one through the legs of Gophers’ goaltender Jeff Frazee at the 2:23 mark and sending one into the upper corner of the cage at the 16:02 mark. Brock Trotter and Tyler Bozek assisted the first score, while Anthony Maiani and Rakhshani assisted the second for Denver, which finished the night three-for-seven with the mad-advantage.
Denver had a five-on-three power play for the final 22 seconds of the second period and first three seconds of the third. The Gophers were able to overcome the two-man advantage, but Denver still scored a power play goal with the second player in the box. Trotter scored the goal 43 seconds into the period by putting in a rebound off a long shot from Rakhshani. Maiani also assisted the goal.
The Pioneers added an even strength goal at the 6:05 mark when Tyler Bozak fired a shot past Frazee that was assisted by Trotter and Mullen.
The Gophers got on the board at the 11:10 mark of the third period as Ryan Flynn put in a rebound after Derek Peltier drilled a shot from the blueline. Ben Gordon also assisted the goal, which came on a delayed penalty.
Minnesota outshot Denver in every period and held a 37-28 advantage in shots. Frazee made 23 saves for the Gophers. The game featured 31 penalties for a total of 78 minutes.
