University of Minnesota Athletics
Mavericks Post First-Ever Sweep of Gophers
2/1/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Hockey
Another physical battle went to Minnesota State as the Mavericks swept a weekend series from the Gophers with a 3-1 victory on Saturday at Mariucci Arena.
After a game that featured four major penalties and three ejections on Friday, the Gophers had two more majors and ejections on Saturday. It was the first time Minnesota State has ever swept Minnesota as the Mavericks had beaten the Gophers just three times in 37 all-time meetings prior to the weekend.
Minnesota State evened its overall record at 13-13-13 and moved to 9-11-2 in league play, while Minnesota maintained a one-point edge over the Mavericks in the standings with a 12-7-5 overall record and 9-6-3 conference mark.
Minnesota State scored a pair of first period goals, including a power play goal at the 11:24 mark when a rebound bounced free to Kurt Davis at the side of the net. The Mavericks got another at 17:59 of the period when James Gaulrapp picked the puck off the stick of a Gophers’ player and raced in for an unassisted shorthanded goal. The Gophers have now allowed five shorthanded goals with one each in five of their seven losses.
The physical play picked up in the second period as Minnesota was whistled for a pair of five-minute checking from behind major penalties less than two minutes apart. Nico Sacchetti received the first penalty and Ryan Stoa was whistled a short time later. Both players were given game misconduct penalties and the Gophers were forced to kill off a five-on-three situation for over three minutes. Minnesota State managed just five shots during the two-man advantage as the Gophers kept the score at 2-0.
However, Minnesota was unable to maintain its momentum, missing several quality scoring chances the remainder of the period. The Gophers even had back-to-back power plays shortly after killing the lengthy five-on-three, but could not convert.
Patrick White pulled the Gophers within a goal at 5:09 of the third period putting in a rebound of his own shot. Drew Fisher started the play in the corner with a pass behind the net to Ryan Flynn, who spun a pass out front to White for his fifth goal of the season.
Minnesota did not manage many opportunities the remainder of the period, despite holding a 12-5 advantage in shots. The Gophers pulled goaltender Alex Kangas for over a minute, but surrendered an empty net goal to Zach Harrison with 13 seconds left.
After each team put 30 shots on goal on Friday, the Mavericks owned a 31-30 edge on Saturday. The Gophers entered the weekend ranked third in the country on both the power play and the penalty kill, but went 0-for-6 on the power play and allowed Minnesota State to 1-for-4 on its power play.
The game was the first of five straight home games for the Gophers, who host Wisconsin in a two-game series next weekend at Mariucci Arena.
