University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Fall to Denver in WCHA Title Game, 2-1
3/23/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Hockey
Minnesota’s magical run in the 2008 WCHA tournament came up a goal short Saturday night at the Xcel Energy center in St. Paul as the Golden Gophers dropped a 2-1 decision to the Denver in a title game that went back and forth all night long.
The Golden Gophers (18-16-9) looked sharp for most of the evening, despite playing their sixth game in nine days, and actually jumped out to a 1-0 lead.
After a scoreless first period that saw the Pioneers enjoy a four-minute advantage in power play time, Minnesota quickly found itself short-handed once again as Jay Barriball was sent off for tripping just 22 seconds into the period.
The Gophers did a nice job of killing off the penalty, which then sparked the offense. Minnesota got on the board at 5:39 of the second period when Ryan Flynn deflected a shot from the point by Stu Bickel past Denver goalie Peter Mannino.
It marked the 31st time in 44 games this season that Minnesota had scored first. The advantage would not last long, though. Denver (26-13-1), which defeated Minnesota for the fourth time this season to capture its record 15th WCHA playoff championship, took only 3:31 to tie the game.
Tyler Bozak, who had given the Gophers fits in each of the previous four meetings during the 2007-08 season, centered the puck from the left corner off the sake of Minnesota defenseman Cade Fairchild past Alex Kangas at 9:20 for his seventh goal of the season against the Maroon and Gold.
Denver, which outshot the Gophers 15-7 during the second period stayed on the attack and finally were rewarded for their efforts when Eagan product Tom May beat Kangas between the pads with just 26 seconds left in the period.
The goal would prove to be the game winner as the Gophers just could not find away to get the puck past Mannino a second time.
Minnesota launched a total of 14 shots on goal during the third period and had several scoring chances in the final 1:23, when head coach Don Lucia elected to pull Kangas for a sixth skater but came away empty handed.
Kangas, who became just the second player not from a the championship team to be selected as tournament’s MVP, was brilliant once again and stopped 32 of 34 shots. Fellow freshman Mike Hoeffel, the hero of the semifinals for the Gophers, was named to the all-tournament team.
The Gophers are expected to receive their eight consecutive NCAA tournament berth Sunday morning when the selection committee announces the pairings at 10:30 a.m. (CDT) live on ESPN2.
