University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
St. Cloud State
Warning's Late Goal Lifts Gophers
1/28/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Hockey
Jan. 28, 2012
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One night after bucking the trend of losing on Friday nights, the third-ranked Minnesota men's hockey team continued its dominance on Saturdays by completing a sweep of in-state rival St. Cloud with a 3-2 road win at the National Hockey Center. Sam Warning's goal with 1:19 to play propelled UM to its third straight victory.
The Gophers, who now have a five-point lead atop the WCHA standings, outshot SCSU 46-12 on the night.
In the opening 20 minutes, Minnesota controlled the play and came away with a 14-5 shot advantage, but trailed 1-0 at the intermission.
The period began with several flurries by the Gophers, but UM could not find the back of the net. St. Cloud freshman goaltender Ryan Faragher denied Gopher forward Jake Hansen on a rebound try and sophomore Erik Haula redirected a shot off the crossbar moments later.
With 6:06 to play in the first, Nate Condon was hindered from behind by the sticks of two SCSU defenders while skating in alone on Faragher, before losing control of the puck. The Huskies then opportunistically broke the puck out of their zone and ended the deadlock seconds later when Ben Hanowski crashed the net for his 14th goal of the year.
It took 21 shots and over 28 minutes for Minnesota to finally solve Faragher.
On a power-play just before the midway point in regulation, Ben Marshall rocketed a shot from the blueline over Faragher's shoulder to tie the game at one.
Marshall's goal was he first in conference play and was his first overall since he scored on Nov. 26 against Michigan State. The tally also broke a string of 12 consecutive scoreless power plays for the Gophers dating back to Jan. 14 against North Dakota.
Minnesota took the lead for the first time in the game on its next power play. Erik Haula snapped a quick shot from the slot past Faragher at the 15:48 mark of the second period to make it 2-1 after receiving a nice feed from Kyle Rau.
The Huskies managed to knot the score before the end of the frame when Hanowski snuck a sharp-angle shot past Gopher netminder Kent Patterson with 62 seconds left in the period.
Hanowski was the only SCSU player to score on the weekend. He finished the four-game season series against Minnesota with a hand in six of St. Cloud's seven goals.
The third period was again dominated by the Gophers, who outshot SCSU 18-3 (27-4 on the weekend) in the final stanza. The game looked to be destined for overtime until Warning converted on a pass from Justin Holl on the tail end of a three-on-two rush with just over a minute to play.
Warning's goal, which sealed the win for Minnesota, was his first career WCHA point in 17 games and was his first road point of 2011-12. It was the freshman winger's second game-winning goal of the year.
The Gophers have now won three games in a row all by one goal for the first time since they reeled off four consecutive victories of the sort in the 2007-08 WCHA playoffs.
Minnesota will be off next week before beginning the final eight games of its regular-season schedule. The Gophers visit Denver on Feb. 10-11 and will next play at Mariucci Arena the following week when Bemidji State plays UM in Minneapolis for the first time as a member of the WCHA.
