University of Minnesota Athletics
Big Third Period Lifts Gophers Past Harvard
1/9/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Hockey
Minnesota broke open a tight game with four third period goals to pull away from Harvard for a 5-2 victory on Friday at Mariucci Arena.
The Gophers got a goal and assist from Nico Sacchetti and pulled back to the .500 mark for the season with a 10-10-1 overall record. Harvard, which was playing at Mariucci Arena for the first time since 1999, fell to 2-9-2 with the loss.
The game was tied 1-1 through two periods before the Gophers scored three straight goals to take a commanding lead. Minnesota controlled play throughout the game by outshooting the Crimson 45-22 for the game and getting 20 saves from Alex Kangas. The Gophers have now put 136 shots on goal over their past three games.
Jake Hansen started the scoring early for Minnesota with a goal at the 2:05 mark of the first period for his fifth of the year with an assist from Sacchetti. The goal stood nearly two full periods before Harvard evened the game with 1:28 left in the second period on a score by Chad Morin as the game was tied 1-1 after two periods despite the Gophers holding a 26-13 advantage in shots.
Jacob Cepis gave the Gophers the lead with a power play goal just 53 seconds into the third period, finishing off a scrum in front of the net by putting in a rebound just under the crossbar. Jordan Schroeder and Mike Hoeffel also had shots and earned assists on the play before Cepis picked up his second goal in just three games since joining the Gophers at mid-season.
Sacchetti put Minnesota ahead 3-1 at the 8:54 mark with a highlight-reel goal, snapping a shot into the upper right corner from the top of the faceoff circle. Sacchetti took a pass from Tony Lucia and fired the shot through a defenseman while falling down. David Fischer started the play out of the Gophers' own end with a pass ahead to Lucia.
Zach Budish tacked on a goal at the 11:06 mark, banging home a rebound for his fourth goal of the season. Nick Larson and Ryan Flynn had assists on the play.
Harvard scored with 1:23 left in the game when Morin took a sharp-angle shot from the corner that deflected off the skate of a Gophers' defenseman and into the net.
Tony Lucia added an empty net goal with 1.2 seconds left and was assisted by Schroeder and Nick Leddy. Schroeder had two assists in his first game with the Gophers after helping the United States capture the gold medal at the World Junior Championships in Canada over the past two weeks.
The game was relatively penalty-free with each team committing just two penalties. The goal by Cepis early in the third period was the only power play goal by either team. Harvard goalie Kyle Richter finished the night with 41 saves.
The two teams will play again on Saturday night at 7 p.m. at Mariucci Arena in Minnesota's final non-conference game of the season.
