Swaney, Shepard help No. 1 Minnesota Duluth rebound for 2-1 victory

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Nick Swaney (23 - Minnesota Duluth) (2019 Omar Phillips)
Minnesota Duluth winger Nick Swaney scored the game-winning goal as the Bulldogs  knocked off UMass Lowell, 2-1 (File photo: Omar Phillips)

A night after falling in its season opener to UMass Lowell, No. 1 Minnesota Duluth bounced back with a hard-fought 2-1 victory to earn the split of the weekend non-league series with the River Hawks.

Nick Swaney executed a perfect redirect of a Scott Perunovich shot at 4:58 of the third period to break a 1-1 tie.

The goal came just 1:31 after the River Hawks tied the game on an Andre Lee goal. That goal came four seconds after the Bulldogs killed a too many men on the ice penalty but before the man coming out of the box could impact the play.

Justin Richards opened the scoring at 5:19 of the second period scoring shorthanded on a feed from Cole Koepke.

Easily the two best players in the game were the goaltenders. Tyler Wall (3-1-0) took his first loss of the young season despite stopping 36 shots. Hunter Shepard (1-1-0) stopped 22 of 23 shots to earn the victory.

National scoreboard

Non-conference

Ice Breaker Championship Game
No. 12 Ohio State 3, RIT 1

Ohio State used two power play goals to pace its offense and goaltender Tommy Nappier stopped 24 of the 25 shots he faced as the Buckeyes skated past RIT to capture the first hardware of the season taking home the 2019 Ice Breaker title.

The Buckeyes fell behind in the game on Alden Dupuis power play tally at 17:51 of the first.

Ronnie Hein, though, had his own power play answers. Goals at 9:37 of the second and 1:58 of the third, both with the man advantage, gave Ohio State the lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

Tate Singleton’s insurance marker at 16:42 of the third put the game away.

No. 14 Western Michigan 5, No. 17 Bowling Green 2
In Saturday’s only game featuring two ranked teams, Western Michigan got goals from five different scores en route to a 5-2 win over Bowling Green in the consolation game of the Ice Breaker.

The Broncos blew open a 1-1 game with three goals in the second period. Ethan Frank, Ronnie Attard and Austin Rueschhoff all posted goals in the middle stanza. And though Taylor Schneider’s goal with :03 left in the second drew the Falcons within striking distance, Wade Allison’s empty-net goal with 45 second remaining iced the game for Western Michigan.

No. 14 Wisconsin 11, Merrimack 4
A night after dropping its season opener to Boston College, the 14th-ranked Badgers watched its offense explode, scoring 11 goals with three different players recording two-goal performances.

Cole Caufield, who scored twice in Friday’s loss, added goals three and four of his freshman campaign, while fellow rookie Alex Turcotte and sophomore K’Andre Miller each added two goals themselves to pace Wisconsin over Merrimack, 11-5.

Nine different players for the Badgers recorded multiple point games. A total of five goaltenders – three for Merrimack and two for Wisconsin – were used in the game.

Bemidji State 2, No. 7 St. Cloud State 2 (OT)

The visiting Beavers struck twice in the third period to erase a two-goal deficit and escape St. Cloud with a 2-2 tie.

Owen Sillinger pulled Bemidji State within a goal at 14:58 of the third before Nick Leitner netted the equalizer with 5:36 remaining.

The host Huskies grabbed the lead with two goals in the middle stanza. Nick Poehling opened the scoring at 16:10 before Easton Brodzinski extended the lead with just 36 seconds left in the second.

Both goaltenders were stellar as David Hrenak finished with 39 saves for Bemidji State and Henry Johnson stopped 30 shots for St. Cloud.

Clarkson 3, Michigan 1
The visiting Golden Knights rode a 36-save performance by goaltender Frank Marotte to a 3-1 victory over Michigan to earn a win and tie in the two-game weekend series.

Adam Tisdale, Nick Pastujov and Grant Cooper all score goals for Clarkson, while Anthony Romano notched the only goal of the game for the Wolverines.

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