University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Downed by Mavericks
12/5/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Hockey
A night after suffering their first road loss off the season, another last-ditch Minnesota rally fell short and the Gophers lost to Minnesota State 2-1 at Verizon Wireless Center in Mankato, Minn. on Saturday night. For the second consecutive night, No. 17 Minnesota heavily outshot the Mavericks, but MSU goaltender Phil Cook made 49 saves to power the Mavericks to another win.
For the first time all season, the Gophers played a scoreless first period, but the opening 20 minutes did not come without its chances.
Just 4:12 into the game, Cade Fairchild sprung captain Jay Barriball on a breakaway, but Cook knocked Barriball's snapshot down with his glove.
The Gophers appeared to take the lead with 3:33 remaining in the period when Nick Bjugstad banged home a loose puck in front, but the goal was disallowed after a review because Bjugstad's linemate, Nate Condon, was in the crease.
Minnesota peppered Cook and hit two posts in the first ten minutes of the next period when Pat White rang a shot off the crossbar and Mike Hoeffel deflected a Mark Alt shot off the post just more than three minutes apart, but the game remained scoreless.
The Gophers best chance of the period came with just over two minutes to play when an errant Andrew Sackrison shot at end of an MSU power play caromed around the boards and out of the Minnesota zone onto the stick of Jacob Cepis, who was coming out of the penalty box. Cepis then dropped a pass to Barriball who fed Erik Haula in the right circle, but Cook lunged across the crease to make a left-pad save on Haula's one-timer.
Although it was Minnesota who carried the play throughout the second stanza, it would be the Mavericks who struck first.
With Seth Helgeson off for interfering with Minnesota State forward Mike Louwerse, Maverick captain Rylan Galiardi found a loose puck in a scrum in front of Gopher goaltender Kent Patterson and buried his third goal of the season to give the Mavericks the lead with under a minute to go in the middle frame.
MSU added to their lead 8:59 into the third period when Kurt Davis came into the Gopher zone on a partial breakaway and took a slapshot that beat Patterson and went off the right post and in.
Minnesota answered right back 39 seconds later when Cade Fairchild scored off a broken play that was capped by a shot that hit a Maverick defenseman in front and made its way past Cook.
With 1:28 remaining, Patterson was pulled to give the Gophers a 6-on-5 advantage, but none of Minnesota's final shot attempts made it to the back of the net.
The Gophers are now 8-7-1 overall and 5-6-1 in WCHA play.
Minnesota returns to action next weekend with a two-game set against No. 1-ranked Minnesota-Duluth at Mariucci Arena. It will be their final series before they get 20 days off for winter break.
