ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Minnesota goaltender Adam Wilcox turned away a career-high 38 shots and four different Gophers scored as Minnesota downed St. Cloud State 4-1 in both teams’ first North Star College Cup game at the Xcel Energy Center on Friday night. Minnesota will take on Minnesota-Duluth in the tournament championship game Saturday.
The win improved Minnesota’s record to 18-2-3 and clinched the team’s fourth consecutive winning season. UMD advanced to the final game with a 5-4 overtime victory against Minnesota State-Mankato in the earlier semifinal matchup.
St. Cloud State came out of the gate fast in the first period, firing off six of the first seven shots, but a Kalle Kossila tripping penalty 8:51 into the game gave the Gophers a power play and it only took six seconds for the Maroon and Gold to capitalize. Hudson Fasching got the puck to Travis Boyd, who flipped the puck over SCSU netminder Ryan Faragher to make it 1-0.
Despite carrying a 16-9 shot advantage into the middle stanza, the Huskies trailed by a goal until the 8:58 mark when Jonny Brodzinski whacked home his own rebound to knot the score. It was St. Cloud State’s 23rd shot of the game.
Minnesota captain Nate Condon wasted little time helping his team regain the lead as he zipped a snap shot past Faragher from the top of the left circle just 3:02 later. With 1:46 left in the period, Fasching cleaned up a power-play rebound in front to pot his first goal since Nov. 16 and give the Gophers a 3-1 edge.
No. 3 Union 4, Harvard 3
SCHENECTADY, N.Y. -- Third-ranked Union moved back into sole possession of first place in the ECAC Hockey standings with a 4-3 victory against Harvard before a sellout crowd of 2,169 on White Out Night at Messa Rink. With the win, Union swept the season series from Harvard (5-11-3/2-9-3), while also improving to 7-0 against Ivy League competition.
The Dutchmen (16-4-3/10-2-0) have won four consecutive games, and earned 20 of a possible 24 points in the chase for the Cleary Cup, which is awarded to the league's regular season champion.
Harvard opened a 1-0 lead behind Alexander Kerfoot's goal at 4:30 of the first period, before Union responded with three straight tallies. Mike Vecchione, returning after missing four games to injury, notched his sixth goal of the season at 13:28 to make it a 1-1 contest after the first period.
Kevin Sullivan and Matt Hatch added second period goals to put Union up, 3-1. Union finished with a 14-7 shot advantage in the second period.
After Brian Hart drew the Crimson to 3-2 midway through the third period, Union answered back quickly, striking just two minutes later. Hatch buried his second goal of the night on a one-timer after Michael Pontarelli provided a pass across the slot. Hatch's three points matched a career-high while Pontarelli finished with a pair of assists.
The Crimson added a late goal at 13:42, but couldn't find the equalizer despite pulling their goaltender Steve Michalek with 1:12 left in regulation. At the other end, Colin Stevens made 23 stops to improve his record to 13-2-1.
Michigan Tech 3, No. 6 Ferris State 2
HOUGHTON, Mich. -- A third-period goal from Michigan Tech's Reid Sturos lifted the Huskies to a 3-2 win against Ferris State in Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) action on Friday night at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena.
The loss was Ferris State's third in a row as the Bulldogs fell to 17-6-3 overall and 12-3-2 in WCHA action. The Bulldogs continue to hold a two-point lead against second place Minnesota State-Mankato in the league standings although FSU now owns only one game in hand.
Sturos ended with two goals while David Johnstone also had a goal for the Huskies. The Bulldogs got tallies from Andy Huff and Chad McDonald.
No. 8 Providence 4, No. 7 Massachusets-Lowell 4
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Despite heading into the final period trailing 4-2, Providence came out with a 5-4 win against Massachusetts-Lowell River Hawks on Friday at a sold-out Schneider Arena.
The comeback win was highlighted by third-period goals from Trevor Mingoia, Mark Jankowski and Ross Mauermann. All three goals came in the final 7:32 of play, including Mauermann's fifth game-winning goal of the season, which was scored at 3:46 left.
Providence (15-5-5, 7-4-1 HEA) held a 1-0 lead after the first period but found itself trailing 4-2 after 40 minutes of play. Keyed by A.J. White's goal and assist, the River Hawks (15-7-2, 5-4-1 HEA) had an offensive outburst in the second period, scoring each of their four goals.
Providence goaltender Jon Gillies made 25 saves in the win, including eight in the third period. UMass Lowell's Connor Hellebuyck stopped 36 shots in the River Hawk net.
No. 9 Wisconsin 5, Ohio State 3
MADISON, Wis. -- Even as temperatures outdoors continued to plummet, No. 9 Wisconsin stayed hot inside the Kohl Center, scoring four of the game’s final five goals to down Ohio State 5-3 on Friday night at the Kohl Center.
The win was the 10th in 11 games for Wisconsin (14-6-1, 5-2-0 B1G) and pushed UW’s home record to 13-1-1 for the year.
Ohio State (11-9-1, 1-5-1 B1G) didn’t make it easy for the Badgers, staying close through the first two periods, mostly due to a strong performance on the power play. The Buckeyes netted all three of their goals on special teams, but in the end it just wasn’t enough to get past a streaking Wisconsin squad playing in front of a raucous home crowd.
After Nick Schilkey’s power-play goal put the Badgers in a 2-1 deficit with 9:05 left in the second stanza, UW responded by rattling off three consecutive scores to take a commanding 4-2 lead early in the final frame.
That lead held for nearly the entire period before David Gust trimmed the Wisconsin lead to 4-3 on a short-handed goal with 2:27 to play. But nothing would stand in the way of a determined Wisconsin team, and Joseph LaBate provided the dagger on the power play just 56 seconds later when his wrister beat screened OSU goalie Matt Tomkins to restore UW’s two-goal lead.
While it’s usually basketball that’s known as a game of runs, there were plenty of runs on the ice on Friday. It was Wisconsin that started strong, finding the net just 2:20 into the game, courtesy of Jake McCabe. The junior gained the puck off an offensive-zone faceoff, sliced down the right side of the ice and slung a shot through traffic for his sixth of the season.
The Badgers seemed to be riding high when a five-minute major was assessed to OSU’s Nick Oddo at the 7:49 mark, giving UW a golden opportunity to add to its 1-0 advantage. Instead it was the Buckeyes who wrested momentum away from Wisconsin, killing the penalty before evening the score on a Ryan Dzingel goal with 5:18 left in the period.
Joel Rumpel earned his 11th win of the season by stopping 23 of 26 Buckeye shots, while Tomkins managed 24 saves on 29 offerings in the loss.
Brown 3, No. 10 Yale 1
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Freshmen Kyle Kramer and Zack Pryzbek both notched third-period goals to lead Brown past defending national champion Yale 3-1 in front of a sell-out crowd Friday evening at Meehan Auditorium.
Brown (8-7-3, 5-5-1 ECAC) is 5-1-2 during the past eight games and picks up its second win of the season against the defending national champions. Yale drops to 9-5-4 on the season and 4-4-3 in conference after the first game of the home-and-home series.
Freshman Tyler Steel made a career-high 42 saves in net to move to 6-2-3 on the season. In addition to Kramer and Pryzbek, junior Matt Lorito registered the opening goal of the contest for his eighth tally of the season. Senior Dennis Robertson set up Pryzbek's goal to become the 38th member of the 50-assist club.
