February 1st, 2025: One line leads the way again for the Gophers in their sweep over Wisconsin.
–> Follow @Dylanloucks4 on Twitter
Minneapolis, Minn – It is safe to say that at some points of the season a 0-0 game in the third period would not suit the Gophers very well. Not because they aren’t skilled enough or talented enough to break through and get on a scoreboard but because they would get antsy and think they need to score quickly.
As Gophers head coach Bob Motzko called it, they just need to play hockey.
“When it’s 0-0 we think we have to go do something,” Motzko said. “No, we gotta go play hockey and play it the right way. It’s the beast that we recruited but they need to take ownership and they will. And they did.”
Games would have gone astray for the Gophers if there was a late penalty in the second period or an early one in the third. On Saturday, the Gophers got a penalty with ten seconds left in the second period and opened the third down a man short for a minute and 50 seconds.
The Gophers were able to kill the penalty off and that turned out to be the biggest turning point of the game. It seemed like an even hockey game until that penalty and Minnesota was able to take control of the game after that.
“Yeah that was huge,” Oliver Moore said on if the penalty kill was the key of the game. “It started with Clark winning the draw. Great sell out from Cal [Thomas] there too. That’s what we need. We need to block shots like that. I think we’re going to continue to work on our faceoffs, obviously that is a big part of our kill, but our penalty kill was huge. It got a lot of momentum for us.”
Minnesota hadn’t gone to the transfer portal much in its recent history, but they did for the 2024-25 season. They picked up forward Matthew Wood from UConn and goaltender Liam Souliere from Penn State.
The two of them have been massive additions for the Gophers this year and the two of them propelled the Gophers to a win on Saturday to cap off the sweep. Wood scored the opening goal and Souliere finished with 26 saves on 27 shots.
“We said we would dabble when needed,” Motzko said. “It sure is paying dividends for us right now.”
Wood got the Gophers on the board in the third period when he scored his tenth goal of the season. He now has ten goals and 19 assists this season for 29 points in 29 games.
“We called it,” Motzko said postgame. “We said Wood would score tonight. We called that. When he’s been a little quiet, he doesn’t need a lot of chances and we needed him tonight.”
On Friday night the Gophers trio of Brodie Ziemer, Erik Pahlsson and Jimmy Snuggerud scored all five goals in the 5-2 win. On Saturday night the trio of Connor Kurth, Wood and Moore scored all four goals in the 4-1 win.
“We had the big line last night and we had a lot of depth in our offense, and tonight we came back with another group of guys,” Motzko said. “And what a shot by Moore.”
Moore scored the Gophers third goal of the game just three minutes after Kurth made it a 2-0 lead. The sophomore forward came streaking in on the left side and was looking to pass it to Wood the whole way. He then fired a shot shortside, above the right shoulder of Tommy Scarfone. He fired the shot without even looking at the goaltender.
“Yeah, kind of the heat of the moment,” Moore said on his goal. “I mean, like you said, the deception. On a 2-on-1 you don’t want them to know what you’re going to do. If you can get a shot off, then great. But yeah, just the deception.”
Kurth was able to score into the empty net after Wisconsin scored a goal of its own with the goalie pulled.
Nonetheless, it was good for the Gophers to play in a tight game and be on the other side of it for once. These types of games you will see come playoff times. And the difference is, you don’t get to play them again the next day. You drop a close game and your season is over.
“I think our team really needed that,” Moore said on being in a tight game. “I think we’ve had a lot of games this year where we’ve come out hot or a lot of games where we’re kind of fighting from behind. But a 0-0 game like that is always good for our team.”
The Gophers will head into a bye week next week and it comes at a great time. They are banged up and have a lot of guys sick right now. The message is to stay away from the rink and heal up before they get back to work again.
“In my entire career, this might be the bye week that I look forward to the most,” Motzko said. “We are sick and need time off now. Just to heal, get better and get back to our game.”