Gophers Shake Off Rust in 6-2 Win Over Mercyhurst

Minneapolis, MN – Behind a 3-point night from Erik Pahlsson in his first game back from injury since early November and 20 saves by Nathan Airey, the #3 Minnesota Gophers (16-3-2 Overall (1-1 OT), 7-1-1-1 B1G) beat the Mercyhurst Lakers (2-16-3 (1-1), 1-10-2-1 Atlantic Hockey) 6-2 Friday night.

Mercyhurst is ranked #64 out of 64 in the country in the Pairwise rankings this year, so a Minnesota loss would be catastrophic in the rankings. For most of the first period, Mercyhurst hung in there, fending off shot after shot by the Gophers. Minnesota finally cracked the scoreboard on a Jimmy Snuggerud snipe from the right circle at 15:05 of the first. The goal was Snuggerud’s 10th of the season.

Connor Kurth netted his 10th of the season 3:02 later when he roofed it from the low slot to give Minnesota a 2-0 lead heading into the first intermission.

Brody Lamb scored his 13th goal of the year (good for second place in the country) just 1:57 into the second period on the powerplay to give Minnesota a big 3-0 lead.

Mercyhurst made it interesting after the Gophers went up 3-0, with two goals in 4:22 in the middle of the period to cut the Minnesota lead to 3-2. The home Gophers bounced back to close out the second period strong, with Matthew Wood and John Mittelstadt scoring to restore Minnesota’s three-goal lead at 5-2.

The Gophers seemed content to milk the clock in the third, only putting nine shots on goal in the final frame. The aforementioned Pahlsson put the icing on the cake with an empty netter at 18:03 of the 3rd to put Minnesota up 6-2. The goal was Pahlsson’s second of the year.

Pahlsson was last in action November 9th at Wisconsin. His return buoys a depleted Gophers squad who is currently missing Brodie Ziemer and Oliver Moore at the World Juniors, and still is without the services of August Falloon and Cal Thomas due to injury.

The two teams battle it out again tomorrow at 5PM, with the annual Skate With The Gophers event after the contest.