Minnesota Musters Only One Goal in Disappointing Tie with Alaska

Minneapolis, MN – Despite a boatload of shots, the Gophers were only able to manage one goal against a hot goalie and a defensive-minded team, resulting in a disappointing outcome for Minnesota.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before this season.

The Minnesota Gophers (12-2-1 Overall (1-1 OT), 5-0-1-0 B1G) outshot, outchanced, and outplayed the Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks (4-6-3 (1-2)) all over the ice Friday night, but a fluky Nanooks goal early set the tone, as Alaska was content to clog up the ice and prevent much Gopher offense the rest of the way. Alaska eked out a 1-1 tie after goalie Nicholas Grabko stood on his head and stopped 36 of 37 Minnesota shots on net.

The trend is starting to become concerning for this writer – in Minnesota’s four non-regulation-win games, the Gophers are averaging 43 shots on goal (compared to their opponents’ 23.25 shots) but only 1.5 goals per game. In their three non-wins, it’s 43.33 SOG/gm (versus 20) and only one goal.

Nathan Airey got his third start in as many games for Minnesota. Bob Motzko has consistently said he’d rotate goalies throughout the first half, but has gone to Airey three times in a row. We’ll see if Liam Souliere earns another start Saturday night.

Airey has been plagued with fluky early goals recently, and Alaska scored another one early in the first to give the Nanooks an early lead. Braden Birnie’s crossing pass went off of Gopher Cal Thomas’ stick and deflected into the Minnesota net to give Alaska a 1-0 lead 7:52 into the game.

The goal was one of four Alaska shots in the opening 20 minutes, compared to 12 for Minnesota, but the scoreboard read 1-0 Nanooks as the teams headed into the intermission.

Minnesota finally knotted it up 14:45 into the second period on Beckett Hendrickson’s second goal of the season. Brody Lamb (returning from a scary knee-on-knee hit he sustained against Notre Dame) looked no worse for wear tonight, and he rushed the puck up the right wing, drawing defenders and finally finding Hendrickson busting up the middle of the ice unmanned. Hendrickson tapped the puck into the open net, tying the game at 1-1.

The third period was relatively evenly played, with Alaska throwing 10 shots on net to Minnesota’s 11. Both goalies were good enough to keep the puck out of their respective nets, with Nanook goalie Nicholas Grabko stopping three on Minnesota’s lone powerplay of the third period to keep his team in it.

Minnesota won the critical opening faceoff in the 3×3 overtime period to control the puck, but weren’t really able to get anything going on it. Despite the open ice, the Gophers were unable to break down the Nanook defense. Ryan Chesley did hit two posts on the same shift at one point, and the end of the OT featured a wild flurry out in front of the Alaska net, but the game officially ended in a tie.

The game went to a shootout (even though it didn’t matter in the standings), and Alaska won it 1-0. Minnesota is now 0 for their last 21 attempted shootout shots, and 0 for their last 8 shootouts. The last Gopher player to score a shootout goal was Brannon McManus against Notre Dame on 2/14/2020 – that’s almost 5 years since a Gopher skater has even SCORED a shootout goal!

Bob Motzko stressed hitting the net and getting traffic in front in his postgame presser, said that would be the emphasis in the team’s film session Saturday morning.

The two teams battle it out again Saturday evening. The puck drops at 5PM Saturday. The game can be seen on Fox 9+, streamed on B1G+, and heard on AM1130 / FM103.5.