University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Northeastern
Gophers Fall 3-2 in Road Finale
11/29/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Hockey
 |
|  | ||||||||||||||||
| 2 | | 3 |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BOSTON (GopherSports.com) – A back-and-forth battle between nonconference foes refused to go the way of No. 3 Gopher Hockey on Saturday night as Minnesota fell 3-2 to Northeastern at Matthews Arena.
Adam Wilcox made a season-high 37 saves for the Gophers while the Gophers’ penalty killing units blanked the Huskies and have not allowed a power-play goal in their last 10 chances over the last three games.
Minnesota (8-4-0 overall, 0-0-0-0 Big Ten) won the special teams battle with a pair of power-play goals on three chances and held the Huskies without a power-play goal on three chances of their own including a five-minute major early in the contest. But while the Maroon & Gold won the special teams battle, Northeastern (3-9-1, 2-5-1 Hockey East) won the battle at even strength with three goals.
After the Gophers killed off Mike Reilly’s five-minute major just 2:39 into the game, Justin Kloos picked up his seventh goal of the year at 10:17 (Ben Marshall, Kyle Rau) during Minnesota’s first power-play chance of the night. But Northeastern would score at 18:23 off the stick of Dustin Darou (Ryan Rosenthal, John Stevens) to tie things at 1-1.
The two teams reversed their goal scoring in the second as Brendan Collier scored at 6:32 (Dylan Sikura, Adam Reid) for the Huskies while Rau added a power-play goal of his own at 10:12 when he tipped in a Connor Reilly shot from the point – Marshall picked up his second assist of the night on the play.
The third period showcased the back-and-forth battle between the two teams as the 14-12 shot different for the Huskies was the most balanced of the night’s three periods. But in the end, the final goal went the way of the home team as Kevin Roy scored at 17:24 (Dalen Hedges, Mike McMurtry) for the game winner.
The Gophers close out the first half of the season and close out a five-game road trip next weekend at Michigan State with the Maroon & Gold’s first Big Ten series of the year.
-Pride On Ice-
