Gophers Win Ugly
The Gophers (15-3-3, 7-3-3 WCHA) had to rally to beat the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves (3-12-4, 1-11-3 WCHA) 4-3 tonight at Mariucci Arena in front of 9,625. It took two power play goals in the last four minutes of the game to get it done, both scored during a five minute major penalty for checking from behind.
Here is what I saw:
* Gophers came out flat. About as flat as they've been all year. At one point there were five Gophers standing in a circle with the puck in between them and nobody wanted to take it. They stood there looking at each other. Alaska-Anchorage came out, outshot and out hustled the Gophers 7-2 in the first six minutes of the game, and Adam Wilcox was forced to make a couple of difficult saves.
* Tom Serratore was a wrecking ball out on the ice tonight. I get all warm and fuzzy when it comes to guys like Serratore that will sacrifice his body for the benefit of the team. Serratore does it, Kyle Rau does it, and Ryan Reilly has had his moments. And when you look at those guys, they're not real big, but they know how to throw around what they've got.
* The Gopher power play has looked terrible since Erik Haula went out with a hand injury, despite getting three of four goals Friday night with the man advantage. After looking pretty shabby in the first and second period, the special teams finally started coming around at the end of the game, when it counted.
* Adam Wilcox improved his record to 14-2-3. A pretty solid performance, save for a bump in the road in the third period. He made some difficult shots look easy early on when Alaska-Anchorage was buzzing the net in the early going. He let a short sider in late in the third that he'd probably like to have back.
Here are the post game comments:
Nick Bjugstad:
Regarding their slow start… "Yeah, it was a slow start for us. The first ten minutes we came out really flat. We got a hard time in the locker room, which we really deserved. We recouped and had a comeback, and then they came back, so it was a good tilt. We gotta clean up the defensive errors we had"
Regarding his two goals… "Yeah, I talk to the coaches a lot, and they emphasize the little things. When I'm physical I produce a lot more, so I'm trying to be more physical in the corners and good things happen from there. It was a tight game. It was a nice penalty we received there. FIve minutes, we got a little pressure and capitalized, so that was definitely a monkey off the back. We all kind of looked at each other and said, all right, it's time to go here. Five minutes and you can score as many as you want. That was definitely a time for us to take advantage, and thankfully both power play units did"
Ben Marshall:
Regarding his goal… "It was a good feeling. The last goal I had was against Anchorage too, at their place. Regardless of the outcome, it was good feeling scoring a goal"
Regarding Nick Bjugstad… "When Nick's playing good, we're all playing good. I know he was having some trouble at the beginning of the year, but when things start to click, they really click for him"
Regarding their slow start… "Um…….I don't know? (Laugh) It seems to be a Friday night case. I don't want to blame it on our legs, they just outworked us in almost every category in the first period. Coach got on us, and it was a wake up call. We came out for the second period and went up 2-1, and then the third periods been our period. today it really wasn't, but we found a way to win. That's what coach has stressed, that there are games during the season that you've gotta find a way to win. You dig away, and that was one of those games tonight"
Regarding the major penalty on Alaska-Anchorage… "Definitely, it was a blessing. Obviously, we don't like to see it happen, especially to our Captain (Zach Budish). But the positive side was we got two goals out of it. The first power play unit, they get most of the goals. We try to lighten the load, and try to contribute when we can, and tonight we did"
Minnesota Head Coach Don Lucia:
Regarding the game… "I don't think it was a shock in light of the last couple of weeks. Anchorage has always played us well, especially in our building. They're fresh. They had a month off before Christmas, and they got a couple of games under their belt last week, and this is their first trip. We had to work for it. You gotta find a way to win some nights, and tonight we did. They (Alaska-Anchorage) played extremely hard like I expected them to, just like they did up in Alaska. They came out and had a really good first ten minutes of the game. We started getting a little more rhythm after that, and were pretty good shape when we were up 2-1. Then Izy (Christian Isackson) got his stick broke, and the guy he would have been covering ends up scoring the goal, and it was 2-2 game back on. The third one, I'd have to look at the tape to see exactly what happened. I give our guys credit. The power play came through at the end of the game, and each unit scored a huge goal to get the win. We had to come from behind. We gave up the first goal, battled back to take a lead, then fell back behind. We were given an opportunity on the major. The guys on the bench were confident because the power play had looked good all game long. They said on the bench, both units will get a goal and we'll go home, and that's what happened. Bjugstad had a nice one timer, and Ben Marshall had a nice one timer. They (Alaska-Anchorage) do a good job blocking shots. You've gotta get pucks out to the point and be able to shoot it off the pass. They gave us room on the outside to move it around, but they were blocking shots, they were selling out, and doing the things you have to do to win a game. Give them a lot of credit for how well, how hard they played. They had a plan coming in, and they competed from start to finish. Things haven't gone their way this year, but it doesn't matter. The puck drops every night and they come to play. This is the way the games are gonna be from here on out"
Regarding Nick Bjugstad… "We're hopeful. It was nice for him to get a couple more tonight. Nick type goals. When he's on, we're better"
Regarding the Goaltending situation for Saturday night… "We'll evaluate that. Shibby (Mike Shibrowski) is in a position now, and it's something we talked about before the weekend, you know, possibly giving him a game, but we haven't made that decision yet"
The Gophers will take on the Seawolves again tomorrow night at Mariucci Arena. Game time is 7:00 PM (Central). The game will be broadcast on Fox Sports North.
The Gophers (15-3-3, 7-3-3 WCHA) had to rally to beat the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves (3-12-4, 1-11-3 WCHA) 4-3 tonight at Mariucci Arena in front of 9,625. It took two power play goals in the last four minutes of the game to get it done, both scored during a five minute major penalty for checking from behind.
Here is what I saw:
* Gophers came out flat. About as flat as they've been all year. At one point there were five Gophers standing in a circle with the puck in between them and nobody wanted to take it. They stood there looking at each other. Alaska-Anchorage came out, outshot and out hustled the Gophers 7-2 in the first six minutes of the game, and Adam Wilcox was forced to make a couple of difficult saves.
* Tom Serratore was a wrecking ball out on the ice tonight. I get all warm and fuzzy when it comes to guys like Serratore that will sacrifice his body for the benefit of the team. Serratore does it, Kyle Rau does it, and Ryan Reilly has had his moments. And when you look at those guys, they're not real big, but they know how to throw around what they've got.
* The Gopher power play has looked terrible since Erik Haula went out with a hand injury, despite getting three of four goals Friday night with the man advantage. After looking pretty shabby in the first and second period, the special teams finally started coming around at the end of the game, when it counted.
* Adam Wilcox improved his record to 14-2-3. A pretty solid performance, save for a bump in the road in the third period. He made some difficult shots look easy early on when Alaska-Anchorage was buzzing the net in the early going. He let a short sider in late in the third that he'd probably like to have back.
Here are the post game comments:
Nick Bjugstad:
Regarding their slow start… "Yeah, it was a slow start for us. The first ten minutes we came out really flat. We got a hard time in the locker room, which we really deserved. We recouped and had a comeback, and then they came back, so it was a good tilt. We gotta clean up the defensive errors we had"
Regarding his two goals… "Yeah, I talk to the coaches a lot, and they emphasize the little things. When I'm physical I produce a lot more, so I'm trying to be more physical in the corners and good things happen from there. It was a tight game. It was a nice penalty we received there. FIve minutes, we got a little pressure and capitalized, so that was definitely a monkey off the back. We all kind of looked at each other and said, all right, it's time to go here. Five minutes and you can score as many as you want. That was definitely a time for us to take advantage, and thankfully both power play units did"
Ben Marshall:
Regarding his goal… "It was a good feeling. The last goal I had was against Anchorage too, at their place. Regardless of the outcome, it was good feeling scoring a goal"
Regarding Nick Bjugstad… "When Nick's playing good, we're all playing good. I know he was having some trouble at the beginning of the year, but when things start to click, they really click for him"
Regarding their slow start… "Um…….I don't know? (Laugh) It seems to be a Friday night case. I don't want to blame it on our legs, they just outworked us in almost every category in the first period. Coach got on us, and it was a wake up call. We came out for the second period and went up 2-1, and then the third periods been our period. today it really wasn't, but we found a way to win. That's what coach has stressed, that there are games during the season that you've gotta find a way to win. You dig away, and that was one of those games tonight"
Regarding the major penalty on Alaska-Anchorage… "Definitely, it was a blessing. Obviously, we don't like to see it happen, especially to our Captain (Zach Budish). But the positive side was we got two goals out of it. The first power play unit, they get most of the goals. We try to lighten the load, and try to contribute when we can, and tonight we did"
Minnesota Head Coach Don Lucia:
Regarding the game… "I don't think it was a shock in light of the last couple of weeks. Anchorage has always played us well, especially in our building. They're fresh. They had a month off before Christmas, and they got a couple of games under their belt last week, and this is their first trip. We had to work for it. You gotta find a way to win some nights, and tonight we did. They (Alaska-Anchorage) played extremely hard like I expected them to, just like they did up in Alaska. They came out and had a really good first ten minutes of the game. We started getting a little more rhythm after that, and were pretty good shape when we were up 2-1. Then Izy (Christian Isackson) got his stick broke, and the guy he would have been covering ends up scoring the goal, and it was 2-2 game back on. The third one, I'd have to look at the tape to see exactly what happened. I give our guys credit. The power play came through at the end of the game, and each unit scored a huge goal to get the win. We had to come from behind. We gave up the first goal, battled back to take a lead, then fell back behind. We were given an opportunity on the major. The guys on the bench were confident because the power play had looked good all game long. They said on the bench, both units will get a goal and we'll go home, and that's what happened. Bjugstad had a nice one timer, and Ben Marshall had a nice one timer. They (Alaska-Anchorage) do a good job blocking shots. You've gotta get pucks out to the point and be able to shoot it off the pass. They gave us room on the outside to move it around, but they were blocking shots, they were selling out, and doing the things you have to do to win a game. Give them a lot of credit for how well, how hard they played. They had a plan coming in, and they competed from start to finish. Things haven't gone their way this year, but it doesn't matter. The puck drops every night and they come to play. This is the way the games are gonna be from here on out"
Regarding Nick Bjugstad… "We're hopeful. It was nice for him to get a couple more tonight. Nick type goals. When he's on, we're better"
Regarding the Goaltending situation for Saturday night… "We'll evaluate that. Shibby (Mike Shibrowski) is in a position now, and it's something we talked about before the weekend, you know, possibly giving him a game, but we haven't made that decision yet"
The Gophers will take on the Seawolves again tomorrow night at Mariucci Arena. Game time is 7:00 PM (Central). The game will be broadcast on Fox Sports North.
