Elite Power Play at Xcel in Gophers 6-2 Win Over Tommies

Minneapolis, Minn. — It seems simple that when you have more players on the ice than your opponent, it should be easier to score goals. Unfortunately sometimes the extra space and all the coaching that comes with a power play can almost have the opposite effect. The Gophers didn’t have any complications when Tommies were sent to the box Saturday night and boosted by Brody Lamb’s natural hat trick Minnesota beat St. Thomas 6-2 at Xcel Energy Center.

“There was a lot of 50/50 hockey last night, tonight there was a lot of special teams and our power play needed to answer the bell,” said Minnesota coach Bob Motzko. “And you have to do that in a season. We needed to get our power play going and to get three of them tonight was big for us.”

The coaching staff made one switch on their top unit by starting Jimmy Snuggerud lower in the offensive zone along the goal line and letting Matthew Wood occupy higher in the zone on his off wing. The change resulted in better puck movement for the Gophers, more chaos on rebound opportunities and a night where the team went three for seven with the man advantage.

“They play more of a three high look,” said Lamb. “So we just wanted to take the focus off Snuggy at the one timer and have some room down low. It kind of opened up, up high, we got time, made some plays, and the puck went in.”

The change also came on a night when St. Thomas lost their cool during an in-state rivalry game in front of 10,104 fans in an NHL building. The Tommies took 28 penalty minutes throughout the night including a contact to the head major and game misconduct by Matthew Gleason during the second period and major cross checking penalty by Ryder Donovan at the end of the second period. The penalties allowed Minnesota to extend the lead despite the Tommies getting the first goal of the game for the second night in a row.

“Obviously the better team won tonight, but I thought we played hard,” said St. Thomas coach Rico Blasi. “I thought we came out really well again. Our emotions got the best of us and we took a couple undisciplined penalties. You can’t do that against a good team.”

“The identity of our team is to play hard and play physical. Obviously, we’ve got to keep our hands down, be smart about it and we didn’t do that tonight. So we’re going to have to continue to focus on that. I think it’s just a mindset, making sure that we do that. We know that our guys know that. We got caught up in the emotion tonight and it was unacceptable.”

Minnesota meanwhile kept their cool despite the game’s violence escalating with scrums around the net, sticks being broken on Gopher face masks and hands getting up. Motzko was happy to see his team’s maturity come through despite all the physical play as they made smart line changes, avoided hits to stay out of it and just play hockey to get through it. The coach referenced how his team got through the exhibition against St. Cloud State, the weekend in Duluth and now a series with St. Thomas as a promising start to the season.

“There were some years that [in-state games] haven’t been great for us at times,” said Motzko. “We kind of challenged our guys… we wanted to really be on top of our game and take our non-conference games against the in-state teams seriously because they do, they take it seriously against us and they want to come after us.”

The Gophers will start the Big Ten season next week with Penn State coming to Minneapolis and Minnesota will start league play with a power play brimming with confidence. 

“I hope this weekend, minus the short handed goal, is what our power play can become,” said Motzko. “Our offense has been pretty elite, we need a power play to be elite. I hope this is a weekend that points the arrow in that direction.”