On an emotional night at AMSOIL Arena that watched the No. 00 head to the rafters in honor of Dale "Hoagie" Haagenson, the No. 9 University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey team played to a 2-2 draw with the No. 22/RV University of Minnesota.
The tie keeps the Bulldogs unbeaten in their last four outings against the Gophers and secures another regular season series grab for a second-consecutive year.
"I thought the game started off even, they came out with what we thought they would," said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin. "Thought we got better as the first period went on, second period was still okay. I thought our third period was really good and you got to bury opportunities. When the shootouts do start to matter for points, we got to start winning them if we get in them.?They came with what we what you expect, right?. ?We were ready. They were trying to get to their game early, and I thought it was a pretty pretty even game. And then took that soft D zone coverage, and then we took a penalty, not a good penalty, and we gave up our first power play goal."
Senior defenseman Aaron Pionk ended his early season scoring drought with 29 seconds left in the first period, a slapshot from the left point that found the twine for his first of the season and UMD's first of the game.
The Bulldogs doubled that 4:28 into the second period on Braden Fischer's second goal of the series. Fischer won the faceoff draw back to Pionk, who threw it over to Carter Murphy as UMD's power play ticked down. Fischer tipped in Murphy's goal to make it a 2-0 game, an unlikely power play goal scorer on a team deep with power play talent for the team's fourth goal with an extra skater in the series.
The Gophers crawled back, however, netting goal by Brodie Ziemer less than two minutes later to pull within a single goal. Exactly six minutes later, Ziemer scored his second of the game on the power play – the first opponent to solve UMD's nationally ranked penalty kill this season.
The two sides played to a 3-on-3 overtime where UMD hit two posts – including one with less than 90 seconds left when Zam Plante beat Gopher netminder Luca Di Pasquo cleanly over his right shoulder only to be denied by the metal. Despite a 7-1 shots on goal advantage for the Bulldogs, Minnesota was able to escape with a 2-2 tie in the nonconference skate.
UMD and the Gophers took part in an exhibition shootout that Minnesota eventually won 2-1, but the outcome had not bearing on the official tie already in the books.
"It's tough when you're, you know, again, up 2-0," said Sandelin. "We've been in a lot of 2-0 leads and we've got to find ways to hopefully extend that and these are good games to play in. But I really like the third. I thought our third period was our best period, gave ourselves some chances. Yeah, we didn't win the shootout, which doesn't mean anything. Well maybe it meant something to them."
Overall, the Bulldogs outshot Minnesota a whopping 36-18 Saturday and doubled up in the series an impressive 74-43. Carl Axelsson made his third-consecutive start in net for UMD, and finished it with 16 saves. Di Pasquo had 34 for the Gophers, who went 1-of-2 on their power play and are still searching for their first win this season (0-3-1).
UMD was 1-of-3 with an extra skater and ended their consecutive penalty kills to start the season without allowing a goal to 21 attempts over six games. The Bulldogs now own a 95.5 kill rate and after going 4-of-10 on the power play on the weekend, jump up to a 22.2 power play conversion rate.
The Bulldogs (3-1-2) will continue their nonconference stretch with a home-and-home with Bemidji State University next weekend. UMD will host the Beavers Friday night at 7:07 p.m. before heading to Bemidji, Minn. on Saturday game two.
BULLDOG NOTES: Carter Murphy had two assists in the game, his second mulitiple point game this season…Murphy and Aaron Pionk were UMD's lone multiple point scorers…UMD ranks fifth in the NCAA in goals scored with 24 through six games played…the Bulldogs are averaging 4.0 goals a game while allowing just two…Dale "Hoagie" Haagenson became UMD's seventh number retired to rafters on Saturday.
