Gophers Score Six to Get Series Split with Sharks
Minneapolis, Minn. — It hasn’t been the start that Pride on Ice fans have expected, but it’s the season they’re going through and a 6-3 win over Long Island University for a series split was important for this team to keep moving forward.
“That was the response we needed tonight,” said coach Bob Motzko. “And we got it throughout our lineup.”
Six different Gopher scored for Minnesota on Saturday night as Brodie Ziemer, Brody Lamb, Teddy Townsend, Jimmy Clark, Beckett Hendrickson and Mason Moe all put pucks in the back of the net. Townsend’s goal was his first college goal at Minnesota.
Motzko thought his team put a little adversity on themselves by deflecting two in their own net, but he was happy with the result tonight after being frustrated to see Friday night’s game slip away.
“We got pucks deep… last night, after the halfway point of the game we started to panic because we were down,” said Motzko. “We turned umpteen pucks over trying to make a play through their maze and that’s not how you can play against that. You have to get everything deep and go to work.”
The other difference was net front traffic which has been very inconsistent all season. The staff said despite giving up six goals on Friday, the entire emphasis tonight was to play in the offensive zone and take away the goalie’s eyes.
“I think last night we had a lot of pucks in front of the net where if we were that net front, it would have been different,” said Beckett Hendrickson. “So a big emphasis on that tonight.”
Hendrickson was in the crease for a goal that ended up being waived off, but he then got a goal of his own in the third period and assisted on the Moe goal in the third as well.
Coach Motzko liked the play he saw out of Lamb and Clark tonight, a pair that has quietly been getting pressured by the staff to take a step forward this year and lead the team. Motzko also said Brodie Ziemer may have had his best weekend with all the chances he generated with six shots Saturday and eight shots Friday.
The coaching staff made one adjustment to the power play between games flipping Lamb to his off wing allowing him a better opportunity to shoot puck and LJ Mooney to his strong side so that he’s able to playmake a bit more finding seams on entries and reloads.
“Moons, everyone sees it is, he’s so good with the puck, and Lamber has a heck of a shot,” said Luke Mittelstadt. “It’s funny that after Moons got a few shots on the pp, he says to me, ‘I think I’m gonna find Lamber on the backside’ and then, sure enough, next play, backdoor Lamber.”
Mittelstadt didn’t think the Gophers played terribly last night, but he liked their response tonight against a good team that won 20 games last season and has played well enough this season to rank in the top 20 of the NPI so far.
“Give them a lot of credit, they played good and they’re good all over the ice. They don’t make any bad plays,” said Mittelstadt. “I’d love to say that it’s not hard [dealing with things that aren’t going your way] but it is. You feel tension out there and the game’s not perfect. There’s adversity you’ve got to overcome and we did a great job of that tonight.”
Minnesota has a big test next weekend as Penn State and the Gavin McKenna circus comes to town. Friday night’s game will be on FS1 and Saturday will be back on Fox9+ and B1G+.