No. 8 Minnesota continued its blistering begin to the season, dominating No. 10 Ohio State in a 4-1 victory on the 3M Area at Mariucci on Monday.
The Gophers outpaced the Buckeyes, ending with a 27-18 shots-on-goal benefit.
13 of Minnesota’s photographs got here within the first interval, when the Gophers assault remained within the Ohio State zone for almost all of the primary 20 minutes of play.
Two of Minnesota’s first-period photographs discovered the again of the web, the primary coming simply over 11 minutes into the competition when sophomore defenseman Ryan Johnson skated previous a Buckeyes defender and hit freshman Brock Faber throughout the ice.
Faber fired a shot previous Ohio State goalie Tommy Nappier for the early 1-0 lead. It was the primary purpose of his faculty profession.
“I at all times dreamed of scoring at Mariucci for the Gophers,” Faber stated. “Clearly, probably not what I pictured. I pictured there being a giant crowd or no matter. However superior feeling and extra importantly we acquired one win, so hopefully we will get one other one tomorrow evening.”
With simply over a minute left within the interval, junior ahead Sampo Ranta fired a shot that was saved, however junior middle Sammy Walker tipped the rebound previous Nappier to offer the Gophers a 2-0 lead.
The Buckeyes, in the meantime, solely registered one shot on purpose within the interval.
However Ohio State recovered from its abysmal begin, placing collectively a way more balanced second interval.
The Buckeyes stored tempo with Minnesota, matching the Gophers’ shot whole at eight.
They usually discovered the scoreboard halfway by means of the interval when junior Ryan O’Connell discovered Gustaf Westlund throughout the ice, and he slipped one previous Minnesota goalie Jack
LaFontaine and located the bottom-left nook of the web.
“I simply thought that they hadn’t performed a recreation but (so) we had just a little little bit of benefit. You noticed them get higher as the sport went on,” Minnesota coach Bob Motzko stated. “They’ll be rather a lot higher tomorrow.”
The Buckeyes dedicated an unlucky penalty late within the second that put Minnesota again on the facility lay.
From simply contained in the blueline, freshman defenseman Mike Koster fired a wrist shot that was deflected by sophomore ahead Bryce Brodzinski and slipped underneath Nappier for Minnesota’s third power-play purpose of the season.
“The final two video games we have now three power-play targets and we’ve gained the particular groups battle two video games in a row,” Motzko stated. “We’re clicking fairly good on our energy play proper now and we had some beauty tonight.”
Down two targets to begin the third interval, Ohio State was unable to capitalize on an early offensive surge or a pair of Minnesota penalties.
LaFontaine stopped 17 of the 18 Buckeyes photographs, ending with a .944 save share on the evening.
“He’s a horse,” Motzko stated. “I imply, this child; he desires to be in that web and that’s been the spine.”
Minnesota added another purpose late on the penalty kill, as sophomore Ben Meyers fired one down the ice for an empty-net purpose with lower than a minute remaining within the recreation.
Minnesota, which has performed three video games within the final 5 days, didn’t look like bothered by the heavy workload.
“We didn’t attempt to preserve something,” Motzko stated. “We needed to shut this recreation out. And we simply acquired to empty the tank tomorrow.”
Minnesota (3-0) will face the Buckeyes (0-1) once more on Tuesday with an opportunity to finish the sequence sweep.
