After a three week layoff, the Gopher hockey team returned to the ice Friday night in the Mariucci Classic, shaking off any rust early, and handily defeating the Purple Eagles of Niagra University by a final score of 5-1 in front of 9,844 at Mariucci Arena.
Minnesota (15-5-1, 11-3-0 WCHA) came into the weekend without the services of two of their top players, as Sophomore Nick Bjugstad, and Freshman Kyle Rau are in Canada representing the United States in the World Junior Championships. Bjugstad leads the Gophers in scoring with 16 Goals, and 27 points, while Rau has chipped in 12 goals to go along with 10 assists. But their absence didn’t mean a lack of scoring punch early on, as Minnesota pumped in two goals just over three minutes into the game, on tallies by Nick Larson (3) and Jake Hansen (9).
From that point in the game though, there would be a long scoring draught, as the next goal didn’t come until 15:39 of the second period. That goal was scored by Erik Haula, with Nate Schmidt collecting his second assist of the contest. Justin Holl would score with less than thirty seconds left in the second, as Minnesota went into the dressing room comfortably in the lead by four. Niagra would score early in the third to make it 4-1, as the Gophers came out flat to start the period. But the Purple Eagles wouldn’t see a lot of scoring chances after that as the Gophers clamped down, adding another goal by Zach Budish (5) at 13:21 to close out the scoring.
After the game, Head Coach Don Lucia was pleased with his teams performance, particularly with their fast start and work around the net in the offensive zone. Senior Jake Hansen was asked how he felt the team played Friday night, and the Assistant Captain responded “We’re happy to get a win on Friday night, because we’ve struggled on Friday’s the first half of the year. We’re pleased with our performance considering the long layoff.”
Tomorrow evening at 6:00 PM (Central), the Championship game will match the Gophers (15-5-1, 11-3-0 WCHA) against Northeastern (8-7-2, 4-7-2 Hockey East), who defeated Princeton in a shootout earlier on Friday. Northeastern is a team surging as they enter the tournament, boasting a sweep of Notre Dame as part of a seven game unbeaten streak. In the Third Place game, it will be Niagra vs. Princeton at 3:00 PM (Central).