February 24th, 2023: Justen Close stops 23 shots for his sixth shutout of the year and his ninth of his career in a 4-0 win over Ohio State.
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Minneapolis, MINN – The story is the same but it is worth telling again. Justen Close has been outstanding for the Gophers ever since he took over. Tonight he notched his sixth shutout of the year and the ninth of his career. Which only took him 55 games to do.
His 23 saves tonight was yet another impressive showing from the senior goaltender and he did it in front of a few NHL scouts including the Detroit Red Wings. Close’s play in his 55 career games is worth noting. The Kindersley, Sask. Native is 35-13-11 in his career with under a 2.10 career goals-against average and over a .924 career save percentage.
“The same Justen every game,” junior defender Mike Koster said on Close. “He is just steady all the time. No matter what happens he’s just laser focused. It’s awesome to see because he earned it, he worked for it, and we have all the confidence in the world in him.”
Ohio State needed one win to clinch second in the Big Ten but their seven penalties in the first two periods didn’t help. Especially their four penalties in the second period alone which resulted in two power-play goals by the Gophers.
The Gophers had a couple of chances in the first period which led to some high-danger chances but each one of the four high-danger chances ended in the net coming off it’s pegs.
Jakub Dobes is one of the top goalies in the Big Ten and is a finalist for the Mike Ritcher award for the NCAA’s best goaltender. His first period, in a game Ohio would love to win given the stakes in hand, recorded two penalties and knocked the net off four different times.
His first penalty came about six minutes left in the period. He stood out on top of his crease and stepped in the way of Gophers’ forward Bryce Brodzinski but he tried to sell a penalty too hard that he ended up receiving an interference penalty.
Ohio State G Jakub Dobeš attempts to draw a penalty with an obvious flop, gets called for interference pic.twitter.com/GaDGbMA3J9
— CJ Fogler AKA Perc70 #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) February 25, 2023
Coming into this game the Ohio State Buckeyes had the nation’s best penalty-killing unit which has converted on 90 percent of their penalties. After three more first-period penalties which they killed off the Buckeyes added to their leading “PK”.
Dobes’ second penalty came on a three-on-two rush by the Gophers. Brodzinski sauced the puck over a Buckeye defender onto the blade of Mason Nevers and the sliding Dobes knocked the net right off as Nevers shot the puck.
But after all that first-period madness Brock Faber got the Gophers on the board in the second period. Faber missed last weekend with an upper-body injury that was suffered in Wisconsin. Just as a captain does, Faber stepped up. The junior defender picked up the puck in the zone and crashed the net hard putting his fourth goal of the year past Dobes.
“He’s a big-time player in big-time moments,” Koster said on Faber. “He stepped up for us big time. I don’t think they were going to hold him out this weekend. He was pretty pumped to play.”
O CAPTAIN
MY CAPTAIN pic.twitter.com/uH4fATaA6w
— Minnesota Men’s Hockey (@GopherHockey) February 25, 2023
About three minutes later Tyler Duke went to the box for tripping and just 20 seconds later, Cam Thiesing went for hooking giving the Gophers a five-on-three power play.
19 seconds later Mike Koster ripped home his first of two goals on the night. Mason Nevers and Logan Cooley picked up the assists on the play.
After the goal Michael Gildon, who served both penalties that Dobes took, got a two-minute penalty for abuse of the officials. This sent the Gophers back to a five-on-three power play.
About 30 seconds in Gildon’s penalty Cooley and Jimmy Snuggerud played catch on the point. Cooley then dropped down and passed one to Koster in the high slot. The Junior defender sent a one-time pass over to Snuggerud who ripped home his 20th goal of the year.
Still, on the power play, Cooley picked up a pass from Faber and sent one to the high slot of Koster again. The Chaska, Minn. native ripped home his second of the night and fifth goal of the year giving the Gophers a 4-0 lead.
MIKEY IS FEELING IT pic.twitter.com/fgzklhNYSW
— Minnesota Men’s Hockey (@GopherHockey) February 25, 2023
“The game plan was the same,” Logan Cooley said on attacking Ohio State’s top-ranked penalty kill. “Last time we played them they scored two shorthanded goals on us so we had to be careful what we were doing up high.”
The third goal was scored just one second after the power play expired so the Gophers will walk away with two power-play goals against the nation’s leading penalty killing team.
They will be without Jackson LaCombe again tomorrow, who suffered a lower-body injury in practice just a couple of days ago but Ryan Chesley should be back in a week or two in time for playoffs.
Senior night will start tomorrow for a 4:30 start time against Ohio State for the last regular season game of the year.