University of Minnesota Athletics
No. 15 Minnesota Upsets No. 8 Michigan
11/29/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Hockey
Minnesota closed out the College Hockey Showcase in style, as it upset No. 8 Michigan 3-1 at Mariucci Arena on Sunday afternoon. The win improved the No. 15 Gophers to 8-5-1 on the season and helped them avoid back-to-back defeats in the College Hockey Showcase for the first time since 2000-01.
Goaltender Alex Kangas, in his first start since Nov. 5, made 36 saves and three different players scored to make sure Minnesota won last game in the 18-year history of the nationally recognized tournament.
"It was a very good game on our part," said Minnesota head coach Don Lucia. "It started with Alex [Kangas] and it's amazing how the penalty kill improves when your goalie plays well. He was sharp Friday when he went in and this is the best he's looked all year and I think our team was able to feed off that."
The two teams played an up-tempo, penalty-free first period that remained scoreless until the 14:50 mark when freshman Nate Condon tallied his fifth goal of the season.
Cade Fairchild made a hard blueline-to-blueline pass to spring Condon and Jacob Cepis on a 2-on-1 to start the play. Cepis, after controlling the pass, took the puck over the line and into the Wolverine zone before and fed Condon with a saucer pass over the stick of Michigan's Lee Moffie. Condon then cut in from the left against the grain and slipped a shot through Michigan goaltender Bryan Hogan's five-hole to put the Gophers up 1-0 heading into the first intermission.
Midway through the second period, Minnesota defenseman Aaron Ness received a game misconduct for hitting from behind, but the Gophers killed the ensuing five-minute Michigan power play to gain momentum.
Just over two minutes after killing off Ness' major, the Gophers struck again.
Kevin Wehrs picked off a Michigan pass at his own blueline and carried the puck past two Wolverines and into the offensive zone. Wehrs then made a cross-ice pass to Nick Larson, who rifled a slapshot over the glove of Hogan for his first goal of the season.
Michigan answered quickly, though, scoring 55 seconds later when Scooter Vaughn collected his own rebound and beat Kangas on Michigan's 25th shot of the game.
The Gophers struck back with a goal of their own before the end of the period to regain a two-goal lead.
With Moffie off with his second penalty of the contest, Erik Haula buried a Mike Hoeffel rebound with 15.4 seconds remaining in the second stanza.
The Wolverines put on the pressure in the final frame, but Kangas turned away all 12 third-period shots he faced, including a shorthanded Luke Glendening breakaway that he knocked down with his blocker with just over 11 minutes to play to help preserve the win.
"We gave up a goal in the second and to come back like that was great," said Haula. "We played the toughest team we've played so far this year and it feels good to beat a team like this."
With the victory he Gophers finished with an 18-13-5 record in 18 seasons of College Hockey Showcase play and defeated Michigan for the first time since Nov. 25, 2006.
Minnesota returns to WCHA action next weekend with a road series against Minnesota State. Friday night's game starts at 7:30 p.m. and the puck drops on Saturday at 7 p.m.
