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Gophers outclassed and outdone by Pioneers in 3-0 defeat
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Tonight's game at Mariucci Arena was a hard one to watch for 9,840 Gopher loving faithful as the Gophers and starting goalie Kent Patterson were outhustled and outplayed from the drop of the puck in a 3-0 defeat.
The first six to seven minutes seemed just like last night where the Gophers were skating well enough to play with Denver at every point. Then, the wheels fell off later on in the period. Denver opened the scoring at 10:15 when Kyle Ostrow netted an even strength shot with assists from Luke Salazar and Drew Shore. It took about nineteen minutes for the powerplay to come back from the dead, and unfortunately, that didn't net a goal for the maroon and gold. At 19:59 in the period, Chris Nutini got called for boarding against the Pioneers and the play halted quickly after that for the intermission. Shots in the first period went to Minnesota at 13-9, and power plays had Denver going 0-1 and the Gophers going 0-3.
The start of the second period saw the final 1:59 of the boarding penalty translated to power play time for the Gophers who couldn't convert even when they saw the occasional high-percentage chance. The Pioneers opened up the game to 2-0 at 4:27 when Rhett Rakshani scored on a powerplay (off a hooking penalty to Jordan Schroeder) with assists from Patrick Wiercioch and Tyler Ruegsegger. In the middle part of the period, it seemed like the Gophers were itching to make the pretty play instead of going back to basics. As we all know, that produces low-percentage shots. A roughing penalty for Denver at 13:39 again failed to produce power play numbers for Minnesota, who went without a powerplay goal this time down. At the end of the second period, a multitude of penalties were called on both teams including a delay of game call against Denver's Matt Glasser and a grabbing the facemask penalty for the Gophers on Mike Carman, among others. Shots in the second period went 6-3 to Denver for a two-period total of 16-15 to the Gophers. Powerplay numbers had Denver converting on their only man advantage of the period, while Minnesota went 0-3.
The third period saw the Gophers start the period chippy when Jordan Schroeder went in the bin for interference at 1:00 even. Kyle Ostrow netted his second goal of the game at 4:12 (another Denver powerplay opprotunity) with assists from Drew Shore and Jesse Martin. Powerplay numbers in the third period had the Gophers going 0-1 (when a double minor on Denver was called, giving the Gophers a 2-man advantage). That gave the Gophers a sparkling (not!) powerplay tally of 0-8 on the evening, while Denver went 2-6. Overall, the Gophers lacked that shine that we're all used to from years past.
The maroon and gold clad Gophers are next in action at Mariucci Arena next weekend when they host the Seawolves of Alaska-Anchorage. Game time on Friday evening is at 7pm (Fox Sports North tape delay) while Sunday afternoon's game will drop at 4pm (live on Fox Sports North). Frank Mazzocco and Doug Woog will have the action.
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