University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Claim Consolation Shootout After Tying Air Force
12/31/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Hockey
After using a dramatic rally to beat Air Force in last year’s NCAA tournament, Minnesota had the tables turned this season as the Falcons scored a late goal to salvage a 2-2 tie in the consolation game of the Dodge Holiday Classic on Sunday at Mariucci Arena.
The Gophers proceeded to get the final celebration of the night, however, by winning a penalty shot shootout. The game is still officially recorded as a 2-2 tie in the second all-time meeting between the two teams. Minnesota scored three goals in the final 8:10 of last year’s NCAA tournament game for a 4-3 victory in the only previous encounter.
Trailing 2-1 late in Sunday’s game, Air Force pulled its goalie and scored nine seconds later when Brent Olson fired a shot from the faceoff circle to the right of Gophers’ goaltender Alex Kangas with 1:02 left in regulation. Michael Mayra and Greg Flynn, whose brother Ryan plays for Minnesota, assisted the goal.
The game went scoreless through a five-minute overtime and Minnesota won the shootout 2-0, scoring on two of its three tries and stopping Air Force on four attempts. Evan Kaufmann scored on Minnesota’s first attempt when Falcons’ goalie Andrew Volkening made the initial save, but pushed the puck over the line with his stick. Jay Barriball later scored for the Gophers and Alex Kangas made saves on all four tries, including a pad save against 2007 Hobey Baker Award finalist Eric Ehn in the third round.
Entering the third period tied 1-1, Minnesota took the lead with a goal from an unusual source as senior Tom Pohl scored his first goal of the season and fourth of his career 5:05 into the final period. Pohl crossed the blue line and took a drop pass from Drew Fisher before lofting a soft shot from straight on just a few feet over the line that found the back of the net. R.J. Anderson started the play with a long pass from behind the net to Fisher.
Air Force scored the earliest goal allowed by the Gophers this season at 4:19 of the first period when Brent Olson skated in front of the net and put home a rebound for his eighth goal of the year. Kangas made a quality save on the original shot by Jeff Hajner, but the Gophers were unable to control the rebound. It was the first time a Minnesota opponent has scored in the first eight minutes of a game this season.
Minnesota tied the game at 6:18 of the second period as Ben Gordon rifled a shot from the top of the circle past Air Force goaltender Andrew Volkening. Blake Wheeler set up the play with a cross-ice pass to a wide open Gordon. Barriball also assisted the goal for the Gophers.
Minnesota owned a 35-32 advantage in shots and held the edge in each period except overtime when Air Force held a 5-3 margin. Kangas made 30 saves and Volkening stopped 33 shots for the Falcons. Both teams were 0-for-2 on the power play.
Boston College claimed the tournament title with a 6-0 rout of Rochester Institute of Technology earlier in the day. The Eagles won both of their games by six-goal margins and exploded for five third period goals in the championship game. It was Boston College’s first Dodge Holiday Classic title in its fourth tournament appearance. Nathan Gerbe had a goal and two assists after a one-goal, three-assist performance on Saturday to earn tournament MVP honors. The Eagles held a 44-24 advantage in shots as John Muse stopped all 24 shots to earn the shutout.
Muse and Gerbe were among five Boston College players on the six-member all-tournament team. They were joined by teammates Anthony Aiello, Nick Petrecki and Ben Smith. RIT’s Matt Smith was the sixth selection.
