Saturday, February 20, 2010

Gopher Pucksters Get Crucial Victory

The Gopher hockey team absolutely needed a win Friday night and received one with an impressive 3-0 victory over visiting Colorado College. Junior goaltender Alex Kangas stopped all 26 CC shots, including 13 in the third period, to record his first career shutout.

Minnesota controlled the play throughout and fired 35 shots at the Colorado College net. They seemed to go unrewarded after a fine first period until Patrick White's goal with 0:00.3 remaining gave the Gophers a 1-0 lead. The game remained the same through two periods, despite Minnesota holding a 26-13 edge in shots on net, and despite CC enjoying two 5-3 power play situations to that point.

In the third, Jordan Schroeder scored 1:38 into the frame to put the game farther out of reach. Josh Birkholz's tally at 11:36 sealed the deal; all that was left was waiting to see if Kangas would get the shutout.

 CC's Joe Howe kept the game from being a laugher with 32 saves.

The win came at a great time for the Gophers, who moved two points ahead of Alaska-Anchorage and moved within five points of fifth-place CC for the final WCHA playoffs' first round home ice spot. It makes one wonder if the Gophers had beaten UAA in the finale in Anchorage a few weeks ago, no?

Elsewhere in the WCHA:

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