Gophers Explode for Nine Goals in Border Battle Opener

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Oct 9

8:00 PM

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7:00 PM

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at North Dakota

MINNEAPOLIS – The Gopher Hockey team produced their most offense in three years with a 9-4 victory to open the border rivalry Big Ten series against Wisconsin at 3M Arena at Mariucci on Friday night.

Minnesota (10-10-4, 7-5-3-0 Big Ten) opened up a three-goal lead in the first period, but a combined nine goals in the third including six for the Gophers pushed the home team past Wisconsin (8-11-4, 4-5-4-1 Big Ten). The Maroon & Gold last scored nine goals against the same Badger team: a 9-2 win in Madison on January 23, 2016.

Jack Sadek wristed in his third of the season to get the scoring started for the Maroon & Gold at 7:20 of the first, catching an assist from Sammy Walker and Brent Gates Jr. on the play. Tyler Sheehy maintained the momentum for Minnesota with an unassisted, short-handed goal at 10:40, ripping a shot from the top of the circle after intercepting a Wisconsin pass at center ice. Rem Pitlick's one-time shot on the power play put Minnesota up by three and chased Badger starter Jack Berry from the net at 16:49. He made six saves. Sheehy and Tommy Novak each tallied an assist on the goal.

In a quiet second period for both teams, Wisconsin trimmed the deficit by one. Mick Messner broke up the shutout at 14:04 of the period, assisted by Jarod Zirbel and Max Zimmer. The Badgers would inch closer yet early in the third when Jack Gorniak found the back of the net at 4:01, but Ryan Norman had a quick answer for Minnesota. After Ryan Zuhlsdorf rang a shot off the pipe, Norman backhanded in the rebound at 5:56. Clayton Phillips also added an assist on the play.

The Gophers regained their three-goal advantage at 8:50 of the third when Brannon McManus got a lucky bounce off the skate of a defender for his tenth goal of the season, a second unassisted score for Minnesota on the night. McManus now has a five-game point streak, the best in his career, and goals in 4-of-5 games.

The high-scoring third period continued as Wisconsin pulled within 5-4 with back-to-back goals from Brock Caulfield at 10:43 and Seamus Malone at 12:28, but Minnesota responded with three goals in 1:14. Tommy Novak scored on the power play at 15:02, Sammy Walker netted an even-strength goal at 16:02, which also another Badger penalty, and Gates buried a rebound with the man advantage to extend the lead to 8-4. Walker scored his second of the night at 18:50 to cap off the scoring.

Mat Robson made 42 saves for the Gophers in the victory. Berry and Daniel Lebedeff combined for 19 stops on the night for the Badgers.

Minnesota finished 3-for-4 on the power play, while holding Wisconsin to a 0-for-2 night with the man advantage.

Notable: Sadek's third goal of the season gave the senior tallies in back-to-back games for the first time in his career as the Wild prospect matched his single-season career high for points at 11 ... Sheehy snapped an eight-game goal drought with his first goal of 2019. He still had nine points in those eight games and at least one point in 14-of-15 contests … Sheehy has points in 10-of-15 career games against Wisconsin and six multi-point games including Friday for 17 points (six goals, 11 assists) … after missing the last four games, Norman returned to the line-up a games to score his fifth career goal against Wisconsin.

The same two teams will battle once again Saturday in front of a sold-out 3M Arena at Mariucci. The game will be broadcast on Fox Sports North, Fox Sports Wisconsin and the Gopher Radio Network (1130 KTLK AM and 103.5 FM) with puck drop set for just after 7 p.m.

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