DULUTH – On Friday night, Minnesota Duluth coach Scott Sandelin bemoaned the Bulldogs’ slow play at the start of a series against the longtime rival Gophers. He used a sharks-and-bloody-water metaphor to describe how they stacked nearly a handful of goals in the first period — too many for the Bulldogs’ late-game surge to cover. Asked afterward if he had considered taking a timeout to settle the team down, Sandelin said no.
“This group’s got to find out,” he said. “They’ve got to figure things out, right?”
Saturday was a different game: faster, feistier. And this time when the Gophers took an early lead, it wasn’t a lopsided one. Both teams got of shots; both teams killed power plays. Both goalies left pucks sitting just short of the crease for a scary amount of time before they were knocked to safety.
The No. 6 Gophers pushed past the Bulldogs 5-1 to sweep the nonconference series at Amsoil Arena, in front of 7,066 — but it took more oomph than the opener.
For the second consecutive night, Minnesota’s Oliver Moore and Brodie Ziemer combined for the first goal of the game. This time Moore, a sophomore center, crossed the puck to the freshman winger, who tipped it over UMD freshman goalie Adam Gajan’s glove midway through the first period.
The Gophers (3-1-0) closed the first period with a late goal when Connor Kurth pushed the puck behind Gajan off a pass from Matthew Wood.
In the final seconds of the first period, the Bulldogs sneaked the puck past Gophers goalie Liam Souliere, but defenseman Ryan Chesley was able to scoop it out just before it crossed the goal line, a moment that was played and replayed, backward and forward on the big screen. No goal. UMD (1-4-0) responded immediately, with defenseman Owen Gatlin sending the puck sailing cleanly into the net from the point with just more than three seconds remaining.
Minnesota junior winger Jimmy Snuggerud caught the rebound of his own shot and turned it past Gajan midway into the second period, giving the Gophers a 3-1 lead heading into the final period.
