University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota Drops Series Opener at North Dakota 6-0
3/13/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Hockey
Minnesota will have to win two straight games to capture its first round conference playoff series after dropping the opening game 6-0 at North Dakota on Friday.
The Sioux scored 1:39 into the game and tallied three first period goals in jumping out to the lead in the best-of-three series. Minnesota will attempt to become the third team to win a Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoff series on the road after losing the first game. The Gophers did it two years ago at Minnesota State as part of their current streak of 11 straight WCHA Final Five appearances.
Minnesota has won its first round playoff series 31 of the last 32 years and suffered its worst postseason loss since a 7-1 loss to Wisconsin in the 1990 WCHA title game. The Gophers fell to 17-18-2 overall, while North Dakota is 21-11-5. The Sioux are one win away from their eighth straight trip to the WCHA Final Five.
Turnovers hurt the Gophers in the opening period and North Dakota's Danny Kristo took advantage of a blunder in the early going, picking off a pass in front of the Minnesota net and converting for an unassisted goal.
The Sioux had the game's first eight shots on goal and outshot the Gophers 12-4 in the opening period. They added a pair of goals in the final four minutes of the first period with Chris VandeVelde netting a shorthanded goal at the 16:07 mark and Brad Malone adding another score with 55 seconds left in the period.
Neither team mounted many scoring chances in the second period and North Dakota scored the only goal of the period on a one-timer by Matt Frattin at the 18:50 mark. The goal came moments after Minnesota goalie Alex Kangas stopped a shot from close range. The puck bounced free to Derrick LaPoint, who passed to Jake Marto at the point. Marto fired to Frattin below the left faceoff dot for the one-timer.
Minnesota pulled Kangas for Kent Patterson after the second period, but the Sioux made it 5-0 at 7:46 of the final period when Mario Lamoureux finished off a three-on-two with a shot from the slot. David Toews slid the puck to Lamoureux for the goal. Frattin added North Dakota's sixth goal when he went around a Gopher defender and tallied the goal at 15:33 mark of the third period.
The Gophers outshot the Sioux 14-9 in the final period, but North Dakota finished with a 34-27 advantage for the game. Brad Eidsness had 27 saves in shutting out Minnesota for the second time this season after also doing so in the season opener. It was the sixth time the Gophers have been shutout with the previous school record being four times. Kangas had 21 saves and Patterson stopped seven shots for Minnesota.
The second game of the series is slated for Saturday at 7 p.m. in Grand Forks.
