University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Wisconsin
Gophers Tie in Opener, Fall in Shootout
1/16/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Hockey
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Jan. 16, 2015
Box Score | Photo Gallery
MINNEAPOLIS (GopherSports.com) - Despite outshooting its opponent by a 49-20 margin, the Gopher Hockey program settled for a 2-2 overtime tie with Wisconsin in Friday's series opener and then subsequently lost the shootout for the Big Ten bonus point.
In arguably Minnesota's most dominant first period of the year, the Gophers did not allow a shot on goal in the first 14:48 of play on Friday night and outshot the Badgers 20-3 in the opening stanza. The home squad (10-7-2, 1-2-2-0 Big Ten) took advantage of the shooting fest with Sam Warning's sixth goal of the year at 8:14 off a feed from Travis Boyd.
The one-goal lead would stand until the 6:51 mark of the third when a bouncing shot by Jake Bischoff glanced off the glove of Hudson Fasching and in for the sophomore's sixth goal of the year. The goal was confirmed upon review with Justin Kloos also picking up an assist.
But the Badgers (2-12-3, 0-2-1-1) proved resilient with a pair of goals in the final 10 minutes to knot the game at 2-2. Grant Besse chipped away at the lead with his fourth of the year at 11:09 and Jedd Soleway evened the game with his fourth of the year at 13:06 as regulation and then the five-minute overtime session would end without a deciding goal.
Wisconsin picked up the bonus point with a 2-1 win in the best-of-three shootout with Morgan Zulinick and Grant Besse scoring. Seth Ambroz tallied Minnesota's lone goal in the shootout and has now scored in three of his four career shootout attempts.
Joel Rumpel backstopped the Badgers with 47 saves on the night to move to 2-11-3 on the year while Adam Wilcox made 18 saves to move to 10-6-2.
The Border Battle continues on Saturday evening at 5:05 p.m. CT. The series finale will be broadcast on FOX Sports North as part of Hockey Day Minnesota 2015 and will also be available via stream on BTN2Go. Radio broadcast for the game will be on 1500 ESPN and the Gopher Radio Network.
-Pride On Ice-
