October 14th, 2023: Gophers get great defensive play and goaltending in their latest 3-0 win over St. Thomas, finishing off the two game sweep.
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Minneapolis, Minn – In last night’s game the Gophers had a lot of costly turnovers and missed zone exits that costed them. But more specifically their play along the boards wasn’t the best and resulted in three goals for St. Thomas.
“Much better game for us tonight,” Gophers head coach Bob Motzko said on the Gophers game. “We needed to tighten it up and I liked a lot of the things we did. A lot of things we stumped our toes on last night, we were better on tonight. That’s just the start of the season with growing pains but I liked our group tonight.”
Tonight the Gophers played much better defensively along the boards and cleared way more pucks from the defensive zone than they did yesterday. Minnesota had ten failed zone exits yesterday and only had seven failed zone exits tonight with four of them coming from Ryan Chesley.
Minnesota allowed five goals on 36 shots yesterday but tonight they allowed zero goals on 24 shots as Justen Close notched his tenth career shutout ensuring us that Close is still the same goalie even without the All-American d-core he had in front of him the last two seasons.
“Last night wasn’t on him, it was on us,” Motzko said on Close. “It wasn’t him, he was very good last night and tonight. That’s Justen, he makes it look very easy.”
Not only was Close sharp but the defense in general looked a lot better. Sure there where some mistakes by some defenders but that stuff gets cleaned up in viedo conferences and will be stressed about to change come next weekend.
The Gophers blocked 16 shots tonight with 12 of them coming from the defenders. The Gophers in general, exited the zone successfully 71 times and converted on 90 percent of them. Yesterday the Gophers only converted on 86 percent of their zone exits, which isn’t a big difference but it can be in a close game which yesterday’s 6-5 win was.
Brody Lamb had another great game tonight for the Gophers with an assist and an empty net goal. Last year as a freshman, Lamb only notched four goals but has now started the year with three in the first two games.
Motzko has talked about the growth they are expecting from their sophomores and how much they have seen it in all of them already. Another freshman they have seen a lot of growth from in the offseason and now, is Garrett Pinoniemi.
I have been tracking analytics on the Gophers since I took the opportunity to write about the team, and last year Pinoniemi didn’t show up much at all, on any of the analytics I have tracked. But tonight Pinoniemi had a great game defensively.
He broke up two high danger scoring chances with a great stick play in front of Close in the second period and another in the third period. He also was tied for the team lead in successful zone entries with Rhett Pitlick tonight.
In the 19 games I tracked last year, Pinoniemi had 11 successful zone entries. He had six tonight, in just one game and eight through two games this year. He had 16 successful zone exits last year in 19 games and this year the native of Mound, Minn. has seven.
“He was very good tonight,” Motzko said on Pinoniemi. “There is things behind the scenes, Pino went through two surgeries the summer before and couldn’t train. I’ve watched this and when that happens to an athlete the next year is really a struggle.”
There is no doubt Pinoniemi struggled a lot last year for the Gophers and it showed with some healthy scratches and limited ice time in the 30 games he played where he only notched two goals and one assist. But this year he looks and is playing a lot better.
“He had a great summer, he looks like the Pino we saw when he was a younger player,” Motzko said. “He’s gaining confidence and he has to stay on top of that wave because it’s got a really good look to it.”
The other sophomore who is currently on fire is Jimmy Snuggerud. With two more goals tonight, Snuggerud is off to a very impressive start to the season and looks great between his two new linemates.
Oliver Moore is centering Snuggerud after Logan Cooley spent the whole season in that role last year. Moore looks to fit well with Snuggerud as he has notched four assists in the first two games of the season.
The Gophers got a power play chance in the second period after James Marooney went to the box for elbowing. Bryce Brodzinski fired a pass towards Moore who redirected the pass to Snuggerud who ripped home another rocket, this time past Jake Sibell.
Later in the third, Lamb sent a pass to Snuggerud in the neutral zone and watched Snuggerud fly into the zone before taking a slapper off the back of the bar and out. No one thought it went in because of how hard it came out of the net, but Snuggerud sure knew.
The Gophers evcentually got an empty net goal from Lamb after Luke Mittelstadt sent a breakout pass up the gut for the New York Rangers draft pick. Lamb’s empty net goal was the final blow for the St. Thomas Tommies as the Gophers walked away with a 3-0 win.
Minnesota will head to the road next weekend with two games in North Dakota against the Fighting Hawks before returning home to host the Wisconsin Badgers.