FARGO – Jackson LaCombe and Logan Cooley decided to play a game of catch a couple of times Saturday night, and they did it so well that the Gophers are going to the NCAA Frozen Four for the second consecutive year.
LaCombe, the senior defenseman, and Cooley, the freshman phenom forward, hooked up for pair of goals against St. Cloud State in the NCAA Fargo Regional, the two biggest plays in Minnesota's tougher-than-it-looked 4-1 victory over the Huskies that sent the Gophers to Tampa, Fla.
The top-seeded Gophers (28-9-1) will face Boston University, a 2-1 winner over Cornell in the Manchester Regional final, in the Frozen Four semifinals on April 6 at Amalie Arena. Last year, the Gophers ended an eight-year Frozen Four drought, making it to Boston before losing 5-1 to Minnesota State Mankato in the national semifinals.
Regional Most Outstanding Player Bryce Brodzinski scored in the first period, and Jaxon Nelson added an empty-netter late for the Gophers. Justen Close made 27 saves in front of a revved-up crowd of 5,326, a record for an NCAA regional at Fargo.
Adam Ingram scored a second-period power-play goal for the second-seeded Huskies (25-13-3), who got 26 saves from Jaxon Castor.
"Terrific effort from our group," said Gophers coach Bob Motzko, who is taking a team to the Frozen Four for the third time after leading St. Cloud State there in 2013. "High, high battle level. … We were just so strong tonight to finish that thing out."
The first game of catch between LaCombe and Cooley came at 5:57 of the second period with the score tied 1-1. The defenseman spotted Cooley up the ice and hit him with a perfect stretch pass of about 60 feet. Cooley took it from there, breaking alone on Castor and beating him five-hole to give the Gophers a 2-1 lead. Cooley celebrated by twirling his stick and slamming it back in its imaginary holster. The goal was Cooley's 20th of the season and extended his point streak to 15 games.
"The play just kind of opened up, and obviously Cools has some blazing speed," LaCombe said.