After the #1 Minnesota Gophers played to a 3-3 tie Friday night against #5 Boston College they do battle again today at 1:10PM at Mariucci Arena. Here is a recap of Friday nights game by the Gopher staff.
No. 1 Gophers, No. 5 Eagles Play to 3-3 Tie
MINNEAPOLIS – In an exciting, back-and-forth tilt at Mariucci Arena, the top-ranked Minnesota men’s hockey team and No. 5 Boston College battled to a 3-3 tie Friday night. Eight different Gophers recorded a point and goaltender Adam Wilcox made 31 saves on the night. Minnesota finished with a 39-34 edge in shots.
The pace of the game was quick right from the get-go.
Just 30 ticks into the game, the Gophers staked themselves to a 1-0 lead when freshman Hudson Fasching whacked home a Kyle Rau rebound. After Boston College’s Kevin Hayes took the game’s first penalty at the 3:16, Rau found fellow junior Travis Boyd on the back door at the 4:30 mark to give Minnesota a two-goal lead.
Defenseman Brady Skjei and winger Sam Warning each earned secondary assists to help put the Gophers in front.
Minnesota’s lead, however, disappeared even quicker than it came to be. Eagle forward Johnny Gaudreau potted a power-play tally at the 8:31 mark and Edina, Minn. native Michael Sit scored two goals in 11 seconds to give BC a 3-2 lead. All three goals came in a 1:11 span.
Skjei and captain Nate Condon each missed breakaway chances and Ben Marshall blasted a shot off the crossbar in attempts to even the score.
The scoring came to a screeching halt after Sit’s second tally and after combining for five goals in the game’s first 9:42, netminders Wilcox and Thatcher Demko kept the next 25:51 scoreless.
The teams exchanged chances in the middle stanza, but with 4:27 to play in the frame the Gophers’ freshman class connected for the game-tying goal.
After collecting the puck following in-zone pressure from the Eagles, Michael Brodzinski hit fellow rookie Justin Kloos with a breakout pass. Kloos zipped up the ice and dished the puck to Taylor Cammarata, who sniped his second goal of the season from the right faceoff circle.
The third period saw Minnesota carry the play with an 11-5 shot advantage, but neither team could pull ahead and the contest went to overtime.
Cammarata almost ended the game for the Gophers with 1:51 to play in the extra session when his breakaway shot ricocheted off Demko and toward the net, but BC defender Ian McCoshen kept the puck out. The Eagles then quickly transitioned for a chance of their own with a two-on-one, but Skjei, the only Gopher back on the play, broke it up.
After the five-minute overtime yielded no results, the game officially ended in a tie. BC went on to win a post-game shootout 2-1 on goals by Bill Arnold and Patrick Brown. Rau notched Minnesota’s lone goal.
This weekend’s series wraps up Sunday, when the teams meet at 1:10 p.m.