Gophers men’s hockey team rolls early, begins back-to-back series with victory over Minnesota Duluth

DULUTH – The Gophers took advantage of an early scoring barrage in a 7-5 win over a slow-starting Minnesota Duluth at Amsoil Arena, the opener of a two-game series here rather than the traditional home-and-home series these teams have played for more than a decade.

Minnesota, ranked No. 6, scored four unanswered goals, two in the first five minutes of play, to start the nonconference matchup in front of a crowd of 6,400 fans, some bursting with colorful chants. The Gophers gave up just four shots on goal before the first intermission. The Bulldogs did respond, but it came in a late frenzy in the last gasps of the third period when both teams racked up a series of goals.

“For 60 minutes, there was a whole lot of life in our team,” Gophers coach Bob Motzko said after the game. “Every time momentum kind of changed, we rassled it back.”

UMD hosts the Gophers again at 6 p.m. Saturday at Amsoil Arena.

Freshman Brodie Ziemer’s first shot of the game, which he sent over UMD goalie Adam Gajan’s shoulder to the right corner, turned into his first collegiate goal. Junior teammate Brody Lamb followed with a wide-open shot to the right side of the net during a power play.

Gophers junior Matthew Wood scored off a rebound midway through the period, then sophomore Sam Rinzel gave the Gophers a 4-0 advantage when he sent the puck into the high right corner.

“We weren’t skating, we weren’t doing anything, and we made it pretty easy for them,” Bulldogs coach Scott Sandelin said.

He recalled a moment in the first period when the Bulldogs had a series of chances, then the Gophers scored, and it “changed the complexion of that period.”

“And they’re that team again,” he said of the Gophers. “Blood in the water and they’re coming.”

Gophers sophomore Jimmy Clark had three assists and said they were just going hard at the Bulldogs to start.

“We were making plays, our forecheck was great, defense was breaking pucks out,” he said.

UMD junior defenseman Aiden Dubinsky scored his first of two goals early in the second period, finding a shot directly in front of Gophers sophomore goalie Nathan Airey. He added another at the start of the third after the puck bounced off Airey’s facemask and he seemed to lose track of it. UMD’s Dominic James added a power-play goal about midway through the period.

Both teams scored two more goals to close out the game.

There was a buzz of activity in the second, and a bit more in the third, that Sandelin was glad to see, he said after the game.

“We could’ve rolled over,” he said. “I liked the fight that I saw at the end.”