University of Minnesota Athletics
Patterson Stops 40, Gophers Tie Bulldogs
2/5/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Hockey
The Minnesota Golden Gophers battled to a 2-2 road tie against the No. 4 Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs in front of a sell-out crowd of 6,794 at the brand new Amsoil Arena on Friday night. The tie was the second of the season between the two teams as they also ended up knotted at 2-2 at the end of 65 minutes on Dec. 12 at Mariucci Arena.
The Gophers, who are now 1-0-2 against the Bulldogs this year, opened the scoring with a Cade Fairchild power-play goal at the 9:34 mark of the first period. His point shot made its way through heavy traffic in front of the Bulldogs' cage, banged off the post and in to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead with six seconds remaining on the five-on-four advantage.
The goal was Fairchild's fourth of the year and the first for the Duluth native since Dec. 4 at Minnesota State. It also ended the Bulldogs' school record shutout streak at 169:29. The Gophers led 1-0 after the first 20 minutes and were 10-1-1 on the year prior to tonight when leading after the first period.
The game's final three goals were scored in a five-minute span in the second period. Minnesota-Duluth tied the game on a wonky goal a little more than five minutes into the second period. Justin Fontaine's initial shot was saved by Kent Patterson but a sliding Nico Sacchetti knocked in the rebound for a Bulldog goal.
Jay Barriball put the Gophers back on top 2:54 later after he created a takeaway in the offensive zone and then beat UMD netminder Kenny Reiter five-hole for his team-leading 15th goal of the season. Reiter had made a spectacular glove save on a Barriball breakaway less than a minute before the Minnesota captain scored.
The back-and-forth game, which featured a combined 80 shots (38 for Minnesota and 42 for Minnesota-Duluth), was tied again 90 seconds later. Kent Patterson, who made 40 saves for the second time this season against Minnesota-Duluth (made 41 saves against UMD on Dec. 12), made back-to-back-to-back saves on Mike Connolly before the Bulldog junior finally finished the scoring and tied the game 2-2.
The Gophers took 10 shots in the third period to Minnesota-Duluth's 14, but neither team could find the back of the net forcing overtime. The five-minute extra session saw Patterson make five more saves and also yielded a power-play opportunity for the Gophers. Minnesota ended the game with a 1:20 power play, but the closest the Gophers came to scoring was a Mike Hoeffel shot from above the circles that drilled the side of the net.
The overtime game was Minnesota's fourth the year and it is now 0-1-3 in games that require extra time.
The Gophers and Bulldogs play their fourth and final game of the regular season on Saturday night at Amsoil Arena at 7 p.m.
