With a perfect power play and the unforgiving goaltending of Adam Gajan, the No. 18/19 University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey team completed a series sweep over the No. 12 University of Minnesota 4-1 Saturday night inside Marucci Arena in Minneapolis, Minn.
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The sweep is the first for the Bulldogs over a Gopher squad since UMD posted a home-and-away cleaning of Minnesota on Oct. 23-24, 2021, and it marks the first series sweep inside Marucci for the Bulldogs since Nov. 20-21, 2009.
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UMD is also in the midst of a four-game winning streak and has swept three of its first four series so far this season.
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In game and on cue, the nation's hottest power play kept the Bulldogs offense warm again at 16:49 of the opening frame. Graduate forward Scout Truman's second attempt of his own rebound slipped through to give UMD the 1-0 lead, the lone goal of the first period.
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The Bulldogs doubled down on that lead with another goal off its all rookie line. A 2-on-1 between freshmen forwards Ryan Zaremba and Hunter Anderson was finished off by Anderson to give UMD a 2-0 advantage at 6:34 of the second.Â
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Less than three minutes later, the Gophers finally found their way through UMD goaltender Adam Gajan. Gajan's shutout streak against Minnesota went almost four and a half periods and concluded after 89:25 of action in the series when Gopher Tate Pritchard scored at 9:25 of the second period to make it a 2-1 game.Â
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UMD tacked on another goal to the Minnesota deficit 12:08 into the third period when arguably the nation's best power play needed just seconds to go 2-of-2 on it for the night. Jayson Shaugabay fed Max Plante in the slot, and Plante one-timed his first goal against the Gophers to extend the Bulldogs lead to 3-1.
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Plante added the empty net for UMD tally at 19:12, and the rout was on for the Bulldogs, who outscored the Gophers 7-1 in the series.
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Gajan was again brilliant in between the pipes for the Bulldogs, with 28 saves on the night and 45 on the weekend. In fact Gajan registered an eye-popping .978 saves percentage against Minnesota and a 0.50 goals against average in the series.
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The Gophers, who were held scoreless in two power play attempts, and outshot UMD 29-24 in the contest, got saves from goaltender Nathan Airey. With the loss, Minnesota falls to 2-5-1 on the season.
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The Bulldogs (7-1-0) will continue on its current road stand when it heads to Grand Forks, ND to open National College Hockey Conference play against the University of North Dakota. The Friday-Saturday series gets underway Friday night at 7:07 p.m.
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BULLDOG NOTES: UMD has seven wins in its first eight games for the first time since the 1989-90 season when the Bulldogs started out 8-0 … UMD went 6-0-2 to begin the 2010-11 season through eight games but had one less win than the current Bulldogs ... Max Plante's two-goal game was his third of the season … in all, Plante has posted five multiple point games out of the first eight … Hunter Anderson's goal was his third point of the series … he ends the weekend with a goal and two assists for three points and led all scorers … Jayson Shaugabay and Zam Plante extended their current scoring streaks to four games … Shaugabay has three goals and six assists for nine points over that span (2.25 ppg), while Plante has four goals and four assists for eight points (2.00 ppg) … Minnesota landed the most shots on goal by a UMD opponent this season Saturday (29), but were allowed just one goal … UMD outscored the Gophers 7-1 in the series and just outshot Minnesota 48-46 … the Bulldogs were 3-of-5 on its power play while it held the Gophers 0-of-5.
