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Men’s hockey rebounds with win before playoffs
BY TAJEN STOCKDALE
STATESMAN STAFF WRITER
iISSUE: 78/24
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bulldog junior Nick Kemp uses his body to keep the puck away from Minnesota captain Derek Peltier.
The Bulldogs finished off the regular season this past weekend with a split against their archrival, the Minnesota Gophers. The woes that have plagued the Bulldogs over the past three weeks continued Friday night when they lost for the fifth-straight time, dropping to 12-15-6 on the season. The Gophers started scoring right away as they managed to get two pucks past UMD goaltender Alex Stalock in the opening period. From the start of the game the Bulldogs were down, after Gopher right wing Blake Wheeler scored just 37 seconds into the period. Halfway through the period, 30 seconds after a Mike Curry elbowing penalty put the Gophers on the power play, Ben Gordon slipped one in to give the Gophers all they would need to win.
However, the Dogs did get on the board after a Michael Gergen power-play goal in the second period, but that is all Gopher goalie Alex Kangas would allow en route to the 4-1 Gopher victory. Gergen’s goal was only the second the team had scored over their five-game losing streak, meaning something had to change if the team wanted any type of momentum heading into the WCHA playoffs. “We were in a little bit of a scoring slump down the stretch,” said sophomore wing Drew Akins. “We had been playing good defensive hockey all year, but had a little trouble scoring.”
Saturday night, the Bulldogs kept to their reputation of holding teams scoreless in the first, allowing the Gophers just four shots on goal. With most of the scoreless, but entertaining, period in the books, UMD freshman wing Cody Danberg put the Dogs up 1-0, after flipping the puck past Kangas. Mike Curry added to the lead on a one-timer halfway through the second period. Ben Gordon put the Gophers on the board later that period, cutting the Bulldogs’ lead to one. As the period was closing, though, Akins found an opportunity to give the Dogs a two-goal cushion, scoring his third goal of the season. Early in the third, Gopher wing Justin Bostrom put the pressure back on Stalock when he scored his third goal of the season.
Stalock didn’t let the pressure get to him though, stopping everything that came at him for the rest of the game, securing a Bulldog win to finish the season. “Stalock came up big Saturday and made some crucial saves,” said Akins. “That kept us ahead late in the game.”
The Bulldogs will head to Colorado this weekend to face Denver University in the opening round of the WCHA playoffs in a best-of-three series. “I think we match up really well with Denver,” said Akins. “That win Saturday night gave us momentum going into the playoffs.”
