Badgers, Gophers pucksters split weekend series
Minnesota Sports - Wisconsin and Minnesota collegiate hockey teams took a game each in their border battle series in Madison last weekend.
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From the Examiner.com
MADISON - A different Gophers team show up at the Kohl Center rink Saturday as the Gophers won 5-2 over Wisconsin to split a weekend series.
Even though both teams went 0-fer on the powerplay, the Gophers established momentum early and held onto it.
The first period saw Wisconsin outshoot Minnesota 17-6, but Tony Lucia scored the opening Gopher goal at 1:17 with assists from Zach Budish and Brian Schack. Just over five minutes later, Budish lit the lamp at 6:53 to give the Gophers a quick jump and a two-goal lead. He had assists from Tony Lucia and Patrick White.
The second period had Wisconsin outshoot Minnesota 15-10, for a two period total of 32-16, but the Gophers indeed got the last laugh. An even played period for the first fifteen minutes saw the Gophers score the decisive third goal at 15:38 when Patrick White scored with help from Kevin Wehrs.
The third period again went to Wisconsin in the shots column 15-12, for game totals of 47-28. Wisconsin scored :28 seconds in the third period when former Minnetonka Skipper Jake Gardiner scored on a deflection with help from Craig Smith and Blake Geoffrion. At 8:31, Brian Schack scored again and lifted the Gopher faithful making the score 4-1. Tony Lucia and Cade Fairchild assisted Schack. A three-goal lead would prove decisive even when Wisconsin struck. The Badgers hit twine at 12:14 when Ryan McDonagh made the score 4-2 with help from Andy Bohmbach and Craig Smith. The Gophers added an empty net goal from Zach Budish to wrap the game up (assist by defensemen David Fischer) at 18:59.
All in all, tonight's effort on offense was backed up by Alex Kangas, who got Friday's monkey off his back for a 45 save effort.
It only took :24 seconds for the Badgers to nudge ahead 1-0 in the first period Friday. Blake Geoffrion scored a goal to open the game on a tip-in from point blank. Ryan McDonagh and Craig Smith assisted Geoffrion. That was the only goal, and there were three penalties in the period. Minnesota took the brunt of those, as Jake Hansen and Sam Lofquist went in the box during the period for the Gophers. Wisconsin outshot the Gophers 12-6 in the first, while powerplays had Wisconsin going 0-2 and Minnesota going 0-1. Getting that goal off the "hop" really deflated the Gophers for the rest of the period.
The second period started more positively for the Gophers, as they hit the twine at 1:31 on an even strength play when Mike Hoeffel scored to tie the game. He had assists from new top-liner Nico Sachetti and Jordan Schroeder. Cody Goblouef put the Badgers back up 2-1 at 2:14 with assists from Derek Lee and John Mitchell. Blake Geoffrion scored his second goal of the period making it 3-1 at 10:16 with the assist from Craig Smith.
The third period saw Minnesota claw their way back in at 8:47 as Patrick White got the puck on net with his help coming from Mike Carman and Tony Lucia. A Ben Street goal at 18:08 effectively put the game on ice (pun intended) as the Badgers won 4-2. Street's goal had the official assists from Michael Davies and Jordy Murray.
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