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Gophers Complete Road Sweep of Vermont
By Thom Wynn
http://www.gopherhole.com/news_article/show/196618?referrer_id=388419
After defeating the Catamounts handily on Friday night, the #4 ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers (9-2-2, 4-2-2 WCHA) dominated the first two periods of the game, and then had to scrape to hang on to get a 3-1 win over Vermont (2-7-2) tonight on the road in front of 3,583 at Gutterson Fieldhouse in Burlington, VT. The Gophers played well all weekend. If there was a weak spot for the team, it may have been their failure to score on the power play. Despite struggles to score with the man advantage, the penalty kill was solid, killing off all four penalties they were assessed. The Gophers get their first road sweep of the season in Vermont, outscoring the Catamounts 8-2 in their two game series.
Here is what I saw:
Gophers got scoring from their "grunts" tonight after the big guns ruled the night on Friday. Tom Serratore & AJ Michaelson both scored in the second period (1:10 apart), and Nate Condon added an empty netter with less than a minute to play in the third period. Michaelson got his first career point last night with an assist, and added the first goal of his career tonight.
Minnesota had balanced scoring this weekend, with eight different players notching a goal.
Kyle Rau had a goal and 2 assists in the series, leading all Gopher scorers this weekend. He is currently second on the team in scoring with 6 goals and 6 assists for 12 points. Minnesota is 9-0-0 when Rau gets a point.
Nick Bjugstad was a physical force this weekend, and had Vermont players bouncing off of him all weekend. This was even more impressive knowing that he came into this series struggling with the flu. It did get him his own hotel room thanks to being quarantined, which was probably nice!
Here are the post game comments:
Adam Wilcox
Regarding the play of the team tonight…. "Our team played great defensively. We did a good job of clearing it out"
Regarding how he felt when Condon got the open netter…. "No better feeling when you know you've locked the game down"
Regarding his assist in Friday nights game…. "It's always nice to get a point when you're a goalie. I'd like to get a goal, but I'll take an assist"
Tom Serratore
"Everyone we play is going to be good from here on out. You have to bring your A game every night"
"It was a little frantic tonight there at the end, so it was nice to see Condon put that last one in"
Don Lucia
Regarding the teams effort tonight…. "We maybe didn't play as fluid as we did last night, but we got the win. We won some wall battles, made a few plays and got the win, which is the bottom line. It's hard to win two in a row on the road. We ground it out and found a way to get it done. It was great to get some secondary scoring. AJ Michaelson had a nice weekend"
Regarding Adam Wilcox…. "Adam continues to make big saves when we need him. Just made the one mistake on the four on four, but he'll learn with time"
Regarding Vermont…. "Vermont played better, and their goalie played better. The third period was their best period of the weekend"
The Gophers come home to take on the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks next weekend at Mariucci Arena. UNO Is coming into next weekend on a six game winning streak after completing the sweep of Alabama-Huntsville this weekend. Game time is 7:00 PM (Central) both nights, with Fox Sports North broadcasting the games Friday and Saturday.
By Thom Wynn
http://www.gopherhole.com/news_article/show/196618?referrer_id=388419
After defeating the Catamounts handily on Friday night, the #4 ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers (9-2-2, 4-2-2 WCHA) dominated the first two periods of the game, and then had to scrape to hang on to get a 3-1 win over Vermont (2-7-2) tonight on the road in front of 3,583 at Gutterson Fieldhouse in Burlington, VT. The Gophers played well all weekend. If there was a weak spot for the team, it may have been their failure to score on the power play. Despite struggles to score with the man advantage, the penalty kill was solid, killing off all four penalties they were assessed. The Gophers get their first road sweep of the season in Vermont, outscoring the Catamounts 8-2 in their two game series.
Here is what I saw:
Gophers got scoring from their "grunts" tonight after the big guns ruled the night on Friday. Tom Serratore & AJ Michaelson both scored in the second period (1:10 apart), and Nate Condon added an empty netter with less than a minute to play in the third period. Michaelson got his first career point last night with an assist, and added the first goal of his career tonight.
Minnesota had balanced scoring this weekend, with eight different players notching a goal.
Kyle Rau had a goal and 2 assists in the series, leading all Gopher scorers this weekend. He is currently second on the team in scoring with 6 goals and 6 assists for 12 points. Minnesota is 9-0-0 when Rau gets a point.
Nick Bjugstad was a physical force this weekend, and had Vermont players bouncing off of him all weekend. This was even more impressive knowing that he came into this series struggling with the flu. It did get him his own hotel room thanks to being quarantined, which was probably nice!
Here are the post game comments:
Adam Wilcox
Regarding the play of the team tonight…. "Our team played great defensively. We did a good job of clearing it out"
Regarding how he felt when Condon got the open netter…. "No better feeling when you know you've locked the game down"
Regarding his assist in Friday nights game…. "It's always nice to get a point when you're a goalie. I'd like to get a goal, but I'll take an assist"
Tom Serratore
"Everyone we play is going to be good from here on out. You have to bring your A game every night"
"It was a little frantic tonight there at the end, so it was nice to see Condon put that last one in"
Don Lucia
Regarding the teams effort tonight…. "We maybe didn't play as fluid as we did last night, but we got the win. We won some wall battles, made a few plays and got the win, which is the bottom line. It's hard to win two in a row on the road. We ground it out and found a way to get it done. It was great to get some secondary scoring. AJ Michaelson had a nice weekend"
Regarding Adam Wilcox…. "Adam continues to make big saves when we need him. Just made the one mistake on the four on four, but he'll learn with time"
Regarding Vermont…. "Vermont played better, and their goalie played better. The third period was their best period of the weekend"
The Gophers come home to take on the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks next weekend at Mariucci Arena. UNO Is coming into next weekend on a six game winning streak after completing the sweep of Alabama-Huntsville this weekend. Game time is 7:00 PM (Central) both nights, with Fox Sports North broadcasting the games Friday and Saturday.