Unfortunately for Gopher Hockey fans, these Saturday night articles have started the same way far too many times this season. Something to the effect of, “Gophers look to rebound after tough Friday night loss”. And for good reason. The Gophers are 7-6 on opening night, after starting the season 5-0 on Friday’s. They have also lost five of those Friday night games by one goal, the sixth loss coming at Wisconsin by a 3-1 margin. It’s been harsh. But one thing the Gophers have been good at, rebounding from those Friday night losses with impressive wins on Saturday. Tonight was no different, as Minnesota came out and played inspired hockey, beating a talented Colorado College Tigers by a final score of 2-1 in front of 10,087 at Mariucci Arena on Hockey Day in Minnesota.
As in Friday nights game, Colorado College scored first, popping one in at 15:02 of the first period on a goal by Jaden Schwartz. On the play, Schwartz snuck down to the front of the Minnesota goal, and poked a pass from behind the net by Patterson. There were two Gophers standing in front of their own net, but neither got a stick on Schwartz, one of those mental mistakes they had talked about eliminating after Friday nights game. Minnesota would tie it up near the end of the first period, when Nate Condon (9) scored a short-handed goal on a wrister from just inside the blue line that beat Tiger Goalkeeper Josh Thorimbert to the glove side. Taylor Matson got the first assist on the play, with the second going to Gopher Goaltender Kent Patterson, on a rare mention offensively in the box score. The two teams went to the locker room tied at one after one.
Minnesota would score it’s second goal of the game at 5:16 of the middle period, on a goal mouth score from Nico Sacchetti, his first goal of the year. Sacchetti was being tied up by a defender on the play, but muscled a rebound under Thorimbert, who seemed to have lost sight of the puck as it pin-balled around. Five minutes later, Nate Condon looked as though he had gotten his second goal of the game on the power play, but the goal was waved off for a hand pass after further review by the Officials. The Gophers went into the second intermission clinging to their one goal lead, and came out in the third hell bent on preserving that lead. Shots, which were pretty tight through most of the game, ended at 37-20 in favor of Minnesota after outshooting the Tigers 21-7 in the final twenty minutes of the game.
Thorimbert, who was stellar in Friday nights game, did not see as many quality shots from the Gophers tonight. Still, he managed to make another unbelievable stop about halfway through the third period to preserve the one goal deficit for Colorado College, keeping them within striking distance. His counterpart, Patterson, was not really tested in this one with only 20 shots, but had to make one more big save with ten seconds left in the game after Colorado College had pulled it’s goalie, to preserve the victory. Other than one lapse in concentration in the first period, Minnesota played inspired team hockey from start to finish, as play was primarily in the Tiger end for much of the third period. In a side note, it was a treat to watch Taylor Matson and Kyle Rau playing a shift together tonight. The two have batteries that never run out, and a ton of heart.
The Gophers (17-9-1, 13-5-0 WCHA) next take on St. Cloud State Friday night in the first game of a home and home series with the Huskies (10-11-4, 7-7-3 WCHA). SCSU is currently in a sixth place tie in the WCHA, but records get thrown out the door when in-state rivals are playing in the state of Minnesota. Game time is 7:00 PM (Central). The game will be broadcast on The Big Ten Network.