Gophers Break Out Late, Sweep UMD Bulldogs with 5-1 Win

Duluth, MN – The “spread offense” might be more commonly heard during a Gopher football broadcast, but so far in the 24-25 season this year’s Gopher hockey team have been the ones spreading the offense around.

Behind five goals from five different goal scorers, the Minnesota Gophers (3-1-0 Overall (0-1 OT)) earned a rare road sweep of the Duluth Bulldogs (1-4-0 (0-1)) with a 5-1 Saturday victory at Amsoil Arena in Duluth Saturday night.

Despite the rather lopsided 5-1 final score, Saturday’s game was much closer than Friday night’s 7-5 Gopher victory. Minnesota has not yet trailed in a game this season, and the Gophers again got on the scoreboard first Saturday, when Brodie Ziemer dented the twine midway through the first period to put the visitors up 1-0. Connor Kurth added to the Minnesota lead with a goal at 17:23 of the first, assisted by linemates Matthew Wood and Jimmy Clark. The combo of Wood / Clark / Kurth has been especially effective early in the season, and with coach Bob Motzko still shuffling lines around trying to find the right combinations, this trio seems to have stuck so far, combining for 7 goals and 22 points through four games.

UMD scored what could have been a momentum-changing goal with less than 5 seconds left in the first period to draw within one heading into the intermission at 2-1.

The second period was well-played by both teams and featured good chances on both ends. Gopher goalie Liam Souliere turned aside all 18 UMD shots that came his way in the 2nd and 3rd periods, and Minnesota was able to get a few more goals to pull away. Jimmy Snuggerud scored his first goal of the year on a wicked turnaround slapshot midway through the second to build the Gopher lead back up to two-goals at 3-1.

Minnesota weathered nearly back-to-back Bulldog powerplay opportunities in the first half of the third period to maintain their two-goal lead, and Jimmy Clark scored his first goal of the season on the Gophers’ lone powerplay opportunity of the third on a beautiful passing play from Oliver Moore and Connor Kurth at 13:37. The goal put Minnesota up 4-1, and Matthew Wood added an empty netter to close out the scoring at 14:51 after an early goalie pull by UMD coach Scott Sandelin to try and get his team back in the game.

The Gophers through four games played have had 13 different players score at least one goal, with Connor Kurth’s four goals and eight points leading the way.

Liam Souliere had a chance to tilt the starting goalie meter his way after Nathan Airey allowed five goals Friday. Souliere generally played well Saturday, allowing only the one goal on 32 Bulldog shots. It’s probably still a timeshare between Souliere and Airey, but in this writer’s eyes Souliere took a step forward this weekend.

Up next for Minnesota is another in-state battle with St. Thomas. The Tommies are 1-1-1 this year, with a 1-0 loss to St. Cloud two weeks ago, and a win and tie against Vermont this last weekend. Minnesota hosts St. Thomas at Mariucci arena on Friday night, before the Tommies are the home team at Xcel Energy Center Saturday night. Both games start at 8PM.