University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Drop Overtime Heartbreaker to Bulldogs
11/21/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Hockey
After a late Minnesota goal forced overtime, Minnesota Duluth's Travis Oleksuk scored with 12 seconds left to give the Bulldogs a 4-3 win over the Gophers on Friday at Mariucci Arena.
Following a faceoff in the Bulldogs' own end, Minnesota Duluth's Justin Fontaine skated up the ice and passed to Oleksuk at the right faceoff dot. Oleksuk fired a wrist shot that beat Gophers' goaltender Alex Kangas for the winning goal.
Minnesota had tied the game on a power play goal by Nico Sacchetti with 2:19 left in the third period. Sacchetti took a pass from Jordan Schroeder at the top of the right faceoff circle and wristed a shot just inside the near post to even the game. The tie came after Minnesota had a two-goal lead and saw the Bulldogs score three straight goals to take the lead.
The first two Bulldogs' goals deflected off Minnesota players in front of the net and then Jack Connolly scored his second goal of the game to put Minnesota Duluth ahead with 14:01 left in the third period. Minnesota is now 4-6-1 overall and 3-5-1 in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, while Minnesota Duluth is now 8-4-1 overall and 5-3-1 in league play. It was another thrilling victory for the Bulldogs at Mariucci Arena after scoring an overtime goal to beat Princeton in last year's NCAA regional after tying the game in the final second of regulation.
An evenly played game saw Minnesota Duluth hold a slim 32-29 edge in shots. Minnesota Duluth had a power play for the first 1:53 of overtime when Mike Hoeffel was called for interference with 6.6 seconds left in regulation for a hard hit on Cody Danberg. The Bulldogs had two shots on the power play and all four of the overtime shots. Kangas finished the night with 28 saves for Minnesota.
After a scoreless first period in which each team put eight shots on goal, Minnesota opened the scoring with a highlight-reel goal by Jordan Schroeder just 43 seconds into the second period. Hoeffel had the puck behind the net and made a backhanded pass to Schroeder out front. Schroeder moved the puck from his forehand to his backhand to slip a defender and commit Bulldogs' goaltender Kenny Reiter to the opposite side. It marked the third straight game that Schroeder has scored for the Gophers.
Minnesota's Jake Hansen scored for the second straight game with a goal at the five-minute mark. Ryan Flynn knocked the puck away from a Bulldogs' player and Hansen scooped up the puck just inside the blueline. He snapped a wrister from the top of the left faceoff circle that tipped off the glove of Reiter and trickled into the net.
Minnesota Duluth scored just over two minutes later on a power play as Connolly swatted a rebound out of mid-air and bounced it off the skate of a Gophers' defenseman into the net at the 7:09 mark. Mike Seidel started the play with a pass to Rob Bordson, whose shot deflected off the glove of Kangas and into the air. Crashing the net, Connolly was able to get enough of the puck to create the deflection. The officials confirmed the goal after looking at video replay.
Another deflection off a Gophers' player tied the game for Minnesota Duluth at 15:42 of the second period. Danberg had the puck to the right of the goal along the goalline and sent a pass into the crease that bounced off David Fischer's skate. The Bulldogs had three power plays in the second period and outshot the Gophers 12-8 in the frame, which ended tied 2-2.
The Gophers had a prime chance to take the lead just over four minutes into the third period as Hansen picked up a loose puck behind the net and Reiters dove to try to knock the puck away, falling out of position. Hansen had a wide open net to shoot at, but Bulldogs' defenseman Chad Huttel recovered in time to get in position and bat away Hansen's shot with his glove.
About a minute later, Connolly put Minnesota Duluth ahead with a goal at the 5:59 mark of the third period. Mike Connolly had a shot that went wide of the goal and Danberg collected the rebound behind the net before backhanding a pass to Connolly cutting down the slot for the goal.
The Bulldogs, who have now scored a national-best 23 power play goals, finished one-for-six on the man-advantage. Sacchetti's game-tying power play goal allowed Minnesota to finish one-for-three on the power play. Reiter had 26 saves for Minnesota Duluth.
The two teams meet again on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Mariucci Arena.
