MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota’s performance on Friday night had some flashy plays on offense and an all-around solid effort on defense.
The result was Minnesota’s best showing of the season and a 5-0 shutout of Notre Dame.
“I thought our effort was really good tonight and for the first time all year, I thought our forwards really worked in the offensive zone,” Minnesota coach Don Lucia said. “We were able to get some pucks behind the defense and I thought we did a good job of controlling the puck in the offensive zone.”
Lucia said that they team had talked about the fact that they were getting too many one-chance opportunities off the rush and that they needed to improve on that.
“We had some continuation shifts,” Lucia said. “Two or three in a row where we were able to sustain momentum, and we hadn’t seen that this year.”
For the second straight game, the Gophers vastly outshot their opponent, but Friday night’s game was much more convincing than Minnesota’s 4-3 overtime victory against St. Cloud State last weekend.
Justin Kloos, who scored a hat trick last Saturday against the Huskies, opened the scoring early in the first when he received a pass from Kyle Rau near the crease, put it on his backhand and maneuvered a shot past goaltender Cal Petersen.
Minnesota outshot Notre Dame 18-6 in the first period, but the Gophers were lucky to be leading at the break. The Fighting Irish has two-on-zero and three-on-one odd-man-rushes in the period, but couldn’t solve Adam Wilcox.
“There was a couple mistakes, we had some pinches and we fell over one time and gave them a two-on-zero,” Lucia said. “[Wilcox] looked really sharp tonight. He was quiet in the net, and when Adam’s calm and quiet in the net that’s when he’s the best.”
Wilcox confirmed his coach’s thoughts and said that he felt really comfortable between the pipes Friday night.
“I started to feel like myself tonight,” he said. “Kind of like how I felt last year. I think I just needed to get a little more balanced and a little more calm. I was working on that in practice, and I had a really good week of practice and it carried over into the game.”
Minnesota took a 2-0 lead about halfway through the second period when Leon Bristedt took a feed from Hudson Fasching near the left circle and sniped a shot past Petersen. The goal, which catapulted the water bottle from its holder on the back of the net, was the first of Bristedt’s career.
“I needed that one,” Bristedt said. “I’d been struggling a little bit in the beginning. I had a couple of chances before, but I got the third one in.”
Bristedt, who hails from Sweden, said he feels like he’s getting accustomed to the college game.
“It’s so much bigger than I thought it would be – it’s a lot more north and south,” he said. “Coming from a European style with a lot of criss-cross and puck possession, here it’s more north and south, you chip it in and chip it out.
“The adjustment has been harder than I thought it would be, but I think I’m getting there, and I’m getting better every day.”
Minnesota kept its foot on the gas and peppered Petersen with 13 more shots in the second. After the game’s middle stanza the Gophers held a 32-15 shot advantage.
Mike Reilly and Sam Warning scored in quick succession in the first five minutes of the third period to put the game on ice. Reilly’s goal came off of a nice one-time pass from Jack Glover, which was the first collegiate point for the freshman defenseman.
Ben Marshall added Minnesota’s fifth goal on a slap shot from the point with two minutes remaining in the game.
The final shots on goal tally was 44-20 in favor of Minnesota.
Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson was unavailable for comment after the game.
The same two teams will conclude this two-game series at 4 p.m. on Sunday, due to the Minnesota football game on Saturday.
