University of Minnesota Athletics
Sacchetti's Goal Caps Gophers' Comeback
3/1/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Hockey
Freshman Nico Sacchetti's third career goal capped a late Minnesota rally as the Gophers pulled out a dramatic 5-3 win over Minnesota Duluth on Saturday at Mariucci Arena.
The win carried huge postseason implications as Minnesota moved into a fifth-place tie with the Bulldogs in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association standings. The Gophers hold the tiebreaker with Minnesota Duluth and are assured of home ice for the first round of the WCHA playoffs with two wins next weekend at Michigan Tech.
Sacchetti’s goal came with 7:11 left and broke a 3-3 tie. He took a pass behind the net from Mike Carman and cycled out in front of the net between the faceoff circles where he wristed a shot to the upper left corner of the cage. Sacchetti's goal was also assisted by Justin Bostrom, who had two points on senior night. Bostrom and R.J. Anderson were honored prior to the game, which was the Gophers’ home regular season finale.
Mike Hoeffel capped the scoring with an unassisted empty-net goal as Minnesota improved to 14-11-7 overall and 11-10-5 in the WCHA. The loss for Minnesota Duluth ruined an outstanding game from senior MacGregor Sharp, who notched a natural hat trick to help the Bulldogs go from a 2-0 deficit to a 3-2 third-period lead. The Bulldogs fell to 16-10-8 overall and 10-9-7 in the league.
Minnesota’s top two scorers teamed up for a picture-perfect first goal as Ryan Stoa took a pass from Jordan Schroeder on a two-on-one and buried it into the back of the net at 5:04 of the opening period. Cade Fairchild passed the puck out of the zone to set up the breakout, which gave the Gophers their first lead in four games.
The Gophers made it 2-0 when Justin Bostrom picked up his first goal in 10 games and his fifth of the season on senior night banging home a rebound at 4:15 of the second period. Fairchild had his second assist of the game and Joe Miller earned his first career assist on the play.
Minnesota Duluth’s league-leading power play got the Bulldogs on the board at 9:42 of the second period as Sharp started his flurry by scoring on a wrap around shot that deflected off a Gophers’ defender and into the net. Sharp scored again just 1:19 later to tie the game, backhanding a loose puck in the crease. The play was set up by Fontaine, who was lying on his back behind the goal and shoveled it out in front where Sharp finished the play. Minnesota Duluth put 17 shots on goal during the second period, but had three power plays during the frame.
Sharp finished off the natural hat trick at 6:01 of the third period when he picked off an errant Gophers’ pass and launched a shot that deflected in off the crossbar.
Minnesota tied the game on a similar play to its first goal at 9:06 of the third as Schroeder sent a pass across to Tony Lucia, who blasted a shot to the far post past Bulldogs’ goaltender Alex Stalock. Jay Barriball also had an assist on the play. It was the eighth time in the last four games that Minnesota has been down by a goal and scored a tying goal.
Just over three minutes later Sacchetti scored his eventual game-winner, though the Gophers were forced to kill off a two-minute penalty a short time later and limited the Bulldogs to one shot on the man-advantage.
Minnesota Duluth finished one-for-five on the power play and outshot the Gophers 31-27 for the game. Minnesota did not score on four power play chances and got 28 saves from Alex Kangas. Stalock finished with 22 saves for the Bulldogs.
