University of Minnesota Athletics
Kangas Delivers First Career Shutout in 3-0 Win
11/16/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Hockey
It had been a long time coming, but Alex Kangas finally earned his first career shutout as Minnesota extended its season-opening unbeaten streak to 10 games with a 3-0 win over Michigan Tech on Sunday at Mariucci Arena.
Kangas, making his 41st career start, had allowed one goal in a game 11 times during the past two seasons and set single-season school records for goals against average and save percentage, but was never able to get the shutout until Sunday’s game. He did hold Minnesota State scoreless for over 96 minutes in a conference playoff game last March, but lost 1-0 in double overtime. His 38 saves in Sunday’s effort were six short of his career high from that double overtime game.
The shutout was Minnesota’s first in exactly one year with the most recent coming on Nov. 16 of last season against Alaska Anchorage when Jeff Frazee made 24 saves.
“It feels good to get the monkey off my back,” Kangas said. “We played a great game today. I had only thirty-eight shots but most of them were from the outside.”
Kangas’ teammates didn’t make it easy for him in the closing minutes, committing three penalties in the final three minutes of the game and playing the final 1:45 with just three players on the ice. Kangas stopped 15 shots during Huskies’ power plays as Michigan Tech was 0-for-6 for the game and 0-for-13 for the weekend.
The win extended second-ranked Minnesota’s season-opening unbeaten streak to 10 games as the Gophers improved to 6-0-4 and remained in first place in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association with a 5-0-3 mark. Michigan Tech fell to 2-7-1 overall and 1-6-1 in league play. It was the fourth consecutive weekend Minnesota has tied the opening game and won decisively on the second night.
Michigan Tech controlled play in the opening minutes with six of the game’s first seven shots, but a pair of Huskies’ penalties helped Minnesota strike early with consecutive power play goals just 24 seconds apart. The first came on a five-on-three when the Gophers patiently held the puck in the zone for over a minute before Ryan Stoa wristed a shot from between the circles over the shoulder of Huskies’ goaltender Rob Nolan. Stoa’s goal was his ninth of the year and came at 9:39 of the period. It was assisted by Jay Barriball and Cade Fairchild.
Tony Lucia scored the second goal during the remaining power play time when he knocked in a rebound of Mike Carman’s shot that bounced off the post. The goal came at 10:03 of the period and was also assisted by David Fischer.
The Huskies had four quality scoring chances in the first four minutes of the second period and even hit a pipe, but just seconds later, Jordan Schroeder gave the Gophers a 3-0 lead at 3:14 of the period, firing in a shot on a three-on-two breakout off a perfect feed from Barriball. Stoa also picked up an assist as Minnesota’s top forward line continued its early-season success.
Kangas made 16 of his 38 saves in the final period as the Huskies held a 16-7 advantage in shots. Michigan Tech outshot the Gophers 38-27 for the game, marking only the second time this year that Minnesota has been outshot.
The Gophers travel to Denver next weekend for a two-game series with the Pioneers in a rematch of last year’s WCHA Final Five championship game. Minnesota went 0-4-1 in five games with Denver in 2007-08.
