The Gophers advanced to their 20th Frozen Four on Sunday at the X.
The Gophers met North Dakota this afternoon for the sixth and final time this season at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. The two teams played for the NCAA West Region championship, and a birth in the NCAA Frozen Four in Tampa, Florida. In the end, Minnesota avenged a loss to UND a week ago in the WCHA Final Five, and are on their way to Florida after a 5-2 win over North Dakota in front of 10,974.
Minnesota Head Coach Don Lucia had commented after the game against BU Saturday evening that “This time of year, you need scoring from players other than your big guys in order to win”. That could not have rang more true this weekend, especially this afternoon, as Travis Boyd scored his first goal of the season to go along with an assist, and Defenseman Ben Marshall tallied only his fourth goal of the year. Captain Taylor Matson also contributed a goal and an assist for the win.
Minnesota would score the all important first goal of the game, when Marshall (4) scored at 12:19 of the first period. On the play, winger Zach Budish carried the puck over the line and sent a pass cross ice to Marshall, who let rip on a one timer from five feet inside the blue line that beat UND goalkeeper Aaron Dell over his glove hand for the 1-0 Gopher lead.
The score would remain 1-0 Minnesota through the first period, but Erik Haula would change that quickly as he scored his twentieth of the season only twenty seconds into the second session. Haula was left all alone in front of the net on the play, and Nick Bjugstad hit him with a perfect tape to tape pass from the corner. Haula took the pass and maneuvered around Dell as he went to the ice, easily sliding the puck into the back of the net. Danny Kristo would get one back for UND, as he scored thanks to a bad bounce off the end boards that eluded the Gopher defenders. The puck landed on the stick of Kristo, who spun around and wristed one over the glove hand of Gophers goaltender Kent Patterson at 1:43 of the second, to cut the Gopher lead to 2-1.
But from that point on, it would be all Minnesota. Nate Schmidt would extend the Gopher lead when he picked up a loose puck in front of the Minnesota net and took it up ice before putting a nice move on the UND defender, and letting a wrister go that was stopped by Dell. Taylor Matson (8) was there to clean up for the Gophers, though, as he lifted a backhander over Dell for the 3-1 lead. The Gophers would make it a three goal cushion at 14:28 of the second period on Travis Boyd’s first of the year, as he tipped home a Nate Condon pass from the side boards for one of those separation goals that Lucia has said the Gophers need more of, all season. That holds especially true when you’re playing a team like North Dakota, who came back from a three goal deficit the week before to trip up Minnesota. The Gophers apparently learned great lessons in that loss, and did not let North Dakota back in this one.
In the third period, Nate Condon would take the puck in front of the Gopher bench and outrace the North Dakota defenders to the net, firing it five hole past Dell for his eleventh goal of the year, to make it 5-1 Minnesota. Travis Boyd and Nate Schmidt assisted on the goal at 15:53. Mario Lamoureaux scored for UND just a fourteen seconds later to make it 5-2, but that would be the last of the scoring, as Minnesota withstood the final three minutes of the game down a player with the UND net empty, to preserve the win, and get a measure of revenge for last weekends loss.
The Gophers Kyle Rau, Nate Schmidt and Kent Patterson were named to the All-Tournament team, with Patterson also being honored as the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.
The Gophers (28-13-1) will take on the winner of the Minnesota Duluth/Boston College game in the Frozen Four at the Tampa Bay Times Forum – Tampa, Florida on April 5th. The Ferris State Bulldogs (25-11-5), regular season champions from the CCHA, and the Union Dutchmen (26-7-7) winners of the ECAC, had already reserved their spots in Tampa with regional wins on Saturday.