SATURDAY RECAP: Quinnipiac posts second eight-goal game in a row; No. 1 Denver rallies to topple Minnesota Duluth; Miami upsets No. 4 St. Cloud State

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Miami’s Matthew Barbolini and St. Cloud State’s Josh Luedtke jockey for position in the RedHawks’ 5-0 win Saturday night (photo: Bella Sagarese).

Miami scored three times on a five-minute power play in the second period and pulled away for a 5-0 shutout victory over No. 4 St. Cloud State Saturday night at Goggin Ice Center.

Axel Kumlin, Matthew Barbolini and John Waldron each had a goal and an assist for the RedHawks. PJ Fletcher finished with a trio of assists, setting up the final three goals for Miami, while Ludvig Persson stopped all 36 shots he faced for his fifth career shutout and second this season.

Miami earned its first victory over a top-five team since March 10, 2018 at then-No. 1 St. Cloud State.

The RedHawks capitalized on the major penalty and game misconduct to Brendan Bushy at 15:19 of the second period.

Barbolini and Waldron each finished with multi-point nights for the second consecutive game.

In goal for SCSU, Dominic Basse made 24 stops in taking the defeat.

No. 1 Denver 4, Minnesota Duluth 3

Aidan Thompson scored 3:01 into overtime on Saturday night to give the No. 1 Pioneers a 4-3 win and second straight comeback victory over Minnesota Duluth at Amsoil Arena.

Denver, which erased a two-goal deficit in a 3-2 OT win on Friday, is on a season-long five-game winning streak and has won six consecutive road contests — all against NCHC opponents.

Thompson’s tally was his fourth of the campaign and his first career game-winning marker. The Colorado native stole the puck from behind UMD’s Wyatt Kaiser and drove toward the net before releasing a wrist shot that went over goaltender Matthew Thiessen’s shoulder at 3:01 of the extra session.

Casey Dornbach, Carter Mazur and McKade Webster also scored for the Pioneers, and goaltender Magnus Chrona made 23 saves, including a point-blank attempt in overtime.

The victory is David Carle’s 100th of his career, becoming the fifth coach in program history to achieve the milestone. Carle accomplished the feat in only 160 games, the second-fastest among Pioneer coaches to reach the century mark behind only Murray Armstrong (143 games) and five games faster than predecessor Jim Montgomery (165 games).

Just like on Friday night, the Pioneers received a goal early in the third period from Mazur to tie the contest at 2-2, but UMD retook the lead on a tally from Luke Mylymok with 9:07 left in regulation.

The advantage didn’t last for the Bulldogs, as Webster knocked in a loose puck near the crease 4:20 later to knot the outing once again and eventually force overtime.

Both teams tallied their only the power-play goals of the game in the opening stanza, as Dornbach scored at 8:03 before Dominic James buried a man-advantage marker for Minnesota Duluth with 6.6 seconds remaining in the frame.

Thiessen finished the contest in goal for Duluth and made four saves after entering at 5:46 of the third period. Zach Stejskal started in net and made 21 saves on 23 shots before leaving the game.

No. 2 Quinnipiac 8, Union 1

For the second consecutive night, No. 2 Quinnipiac potted eight goals en route to a 10th consecutive ECAC Hockey victory as it closed out the 2022 portion of its league schedule with an 8-1 victory over Union on Saturday night at M&T Bank Arena.

Quinnipiac scored the first seven of the night, continuing its scorching run of form that has seen its offense score 22 goals over the last three games. Both Collin Graf and Sam Lipkin recorded five-point nights, with Graf totaling two goals and three assists against his former team, while Lipkin tallied a goal and four assists.

With the win, QU coach Rand Pecknold becomes the NCAA’s active leader in Division I coaching wins, earning the 595th of his career.

Jacob Quillan, Graf and TJ Friedmann each recorded two-goal nights, but the former had the highlight of the night as CJ McGee sauced a cross-ice pass that was deflected in by Quillan as he crashed into the net.

Lipkin matched his career high with four assists and the most by any player in the nation. It is the seventh such performance and he is the only player to have done it twice.
Five points on the night are a career-high for Graf and it also pushed him past his 2021-22 point total of 22. He has 26 on the season in half of the games played (37 at Union, 18 at Quinnipiac).

The Bobcats put up eight goals in back to back contests for the first time since Oct. 29 and Nov. 3, 2006 when they hit that number twice against Union.

Yaniv Perets made 17 saves in goal for the win, while Noah Altman played 1:50 and Chase Clark 4:04.

Connor Murphy and Kyle Chauvette combined to stop 31 shots for the Dutchmen.

No. 3 Minnesota 6, Wisconsin 4

A scoring barrage during a six-minute stretch was all the No. 3 Golden Gophers needed to finish off a sweep of Wisconsin in a 6-4 victory Saturday evening from 3M Arena at Mariucci.

Six goals by six different skaters in a span of 5:53 across the end of the first and start of the second periods turned the game around as Minnesota erased a two-goal deficit and secured both games of the series against the Badgers in the final regular-season game of 2022.

Facing a rare two-goal deficit late in the first period, Rhett Pitlick got the home side on the scoreboard with 2:23 remaining in the first period and it was all Minnesota from there. Three power-play goals ensued for the Gophers as Wisconsin was given a late five-minute major to turn the tide and two more tallies gave the home team a 6-2 advantage that they clung to down the stretch.

The Gophers held the visitors to just three shots in the second period and now have outscored the Badgers by a 30-6 margin during a five-game winning streak.

Minnesota goalie Justen Close made 16 saves, while Kyle McClellan and Jared Moe combined to stop 20 for the Badgers.

No. 19 Notre Dame 5, No. 5 Penn State 3

Notre Dame bounced back after a heartbreaker Friday night to take game two against Penn State, 5-3 Saturday night at Compton Family Ice Arena.

All four lines contributed goals in the victory for the Irish as Justin Janicke had a goal and an assist and Jackson Pierson, Ryder Rolston, Jack Adams and Landon Slaggert added single goals.

Nick Leivermann added two assists and goalie Ryan Bischel made 47 saves.

Liam Souliere stopped 17 for Penn State as the Nittany Lions got goals from Connor McMenamin, Christian Sarlo and Kevin Wall, along with two assists from Connor MacEachern.

No. 6 Michigan 2, No. 13 Michigan State 1

A strong 60-minute effort propelled sixth-ranked Michigan past No. 12 Michigan State by a 2-1 score on Saturday night at Yost Ice Arena.

The Wolverines preserved a shutout for 59:55 of playing time before having the clean sheet tarnished by a late MSU tally from Jagger Joshua.

Michigan goaltender Erik Portillo recorded 37 saves on 38 shots faced. The Swede nearly locked up a shutout before ceding the lone goal, a 6×4 goal, with less than five seconds remaining in regulation following a flurry of late penalties.

Dylan Duke and TJ Hughes scored for the Wolverines.

Spartans goaltender Dylan St. Cyr made 25 saves in the loss.

Merrimack 3, No. 10 Providence 2

Merrimack came up with huge win in the Hockey East standings as the Warriors were victorious by a score of 3-2 at the Schneider Arena in Providence on Saturday night.

In the process, they have tied for first place in the Hockey East standings with UConn with two games in-hand.

The Warriors didn’t take long to get on the board in this one as Will Calverley won the faceoff right to Slava Demin who fired it in from the point at 52 seconds of the first period.

In the second, the Warriors were down a man but still found a way to score, taking advantage of a misplay behind the Friars net and Ryan Leibold made Providence pay, burying the puck into the empty cage for a short-handed goal and the lead was extended to two.

The Friars however would match the Warriors goal on a penalty kill of their own at 10:30, Nick Poisson getting the goal, and then tying the game up with a goal seven minutes later from Bennett Schimek.

Heading into the third period tied, the Warriors didn’t waste much time getting the lead back as Jordan Seyfert stormed into the zone and scored on the backhand to regain the lead just under four minutes in.

With the Warriors defending as Providence pushed for the tying goal, Zachary Borgiel made the save of the game. With under 30 seconds to go, Borgiel went across the crease, making an incredible one-timer save, and the Warriors were able to hold on from there, earning a huge win on the road.

Borgiel finished with 24 saves and Philip Svedebäck stopped 12 for the Friars.

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