Hunter Shepard was back in his 2017-18 form Friday night and his University of Minnesota Duluth teammates were the beneficiaries.
The junior goaltender turned aside 32 of 33 shots in backstopping No. 6 to a 2-1 nonconference triumph over No. 19 Michigan Tech University in Houghton, Mich.
The win was the first of the young 2018-19 season for the defending NCAA champion Bulldogs (1-1-1), who are now unbeaten in nine of their last 10 visits to Michigan Tech's John MacInnes Student Ice Arena (8-1-1).
Gavin Gould's goal with 4:22 remaining in regulation spoiled what would have been Shepard's school-record ninth career shutout. Shepard (nine saves) and his Husky counterpart, Devin Kero (11 stops) were both impenetrable during a scoreless first period and that 0-0 stalemate held up until 3:09 into the second period when sophomore left winger
Kobe Roth struck on the power play. Roth pounced on a rebound off a shot from senior
Peter Krieger and tucked in his first goal of the season.
The Huskies, aided by a five-minute power play (following a major/game misconduct checking from behind penalty assessed to sophomore defenseman
Dylan Samberg), outshot the Bulldogs 17-10 in the second period. Midway through the third, senior right winger
Parker Mackay gave UMD some insurance and scored what proved to be the game-winner, banging in a rebound from the low slot.
UMD went 1-for-4 on the power play while Michigan Tech, which was making its 2018-19 debut, was blanked on all five of its man advantage opportunities. Both long-time rivals had one power play chance that spanned only three seconds.
"I liked our first period," said UMD Head Coach
Scott Sandelin, who has won more lifetime games against Michigan Tech (he's 32-17-0 lifetime) than any other opponent in his 19 season behind the Bulldog bench." We knew they were going to come out with energy and I thought we had our legs moving . We didn't have enough shots on net, but I thought we did some good things".
The two teams will meet again -- for the 232nd time -- at 6:07 (CT) Saturday night in Houghton.
