Strong Final 40 Minutes Leads Gophers over Badgers
Minneapolis, MN – As Jimmy Snuggerud goes, so goes the Gophers.
The nation’s leading scorer helped dig his team out of a 2-0 first period hole, scoring twice and adding two assists to lead the Minnesota Gophers (20-6-3 Overall (1-2 OT), 10-3-1-3 B1G) over the visiting Wisconsin Badgers (11-13-3 (2-6), 5-4-1-7) in front of the third largest crowd in Mariucci Arena history.
Since the calendar turned to January, the Gophers have not been a model of consistency. Coming into tonight’s game, Minnesota was 2-3-1 (with a shootout loss) in their last six Big Ten games, with several inconsistent performances sprinkled in there. Friday night against Wisconsin, it seemed like it might be the same old story, as the Gophers came out flatter than flat.
Wisconsin went up early, with goals at 3:03 at 11:14 to build a two-goal lead midway through the opening stanza.
Perhaps it was a message from the coaches, or perhaps the players themselves realized they needed to pick it up, but the Gophers that came out for the second period were a different team than the one that left the ice after one period. The second period team wearing Maroon and Gold contested puck battles, made quality passes, and slowly started to tilt the ice the other direction.
It really got started when Jimmy Snuggerud scored his first goal of the game 12:49 into the second. Brodie Ziemer released Snuggerud up the right wing on a one-on-two rush. The Badger defender played it well, steering Snuggerud to the wall, but Jimmy got half a step on the d-man and fired a snipe from the outside of the right circle in the upper corner to get Minnesota on the board.
The Gophers tied the game at 2-2 with 1:03 left in the middle stanza, when Brodie Ziemer took an Erik Pahlsson pass from behind the net and knocked it into the net to draw even heading into the third.
The stage was set for a knock-down drag-out third period, with everything to play for, and thankfully for Minnesota fans the Good Gophers showed up.
Erik Pahlsson gave Minnesota their first lead since January 17th at 5:43 of the 3rd period – Pahlsson called his own number on a three-on-one rush and beat Wisconsin’s goalie five-hole to put the Gophers up 3-2.
It was tight all the way to the finish, with Wisconsin piling up shots and chances, and Minnesota’s Liam Souliere (starting on Friday for the first time this season in place of an ill Nathan Airey) was up to the task, making lots of calm saves on quality Badger opportunities to keep the Gophers in the lead. Souliere was the second star of the game for his 33-save effort.
Jimmy Snuggerud scored his second goal of the night to break the game open at 17:28 of the 3rd to put Minnesota ahead by two at 4-2. Snuggerud, Ziemer, and Pahlsson connected again, with Pahlsson finding Snuggerud streaking towards the back door. Snuggerud tipped the Pahlsson pass into the net to effectively seal the game.
Brody Ziemer tacked on an empty net goal just 20 seconds after (the single assist to Snuggerud) to finish out the scoring at 5-2.
The trio of Ziemer, Snuggerud, and Pahlsson each had four-point nights, and Snuggerud’s four points give him 41 points on the year, one ahead of Michigan State’s Isaac Howard for first place nationally.
The win gives Minnesota 20 wins on the season, the second team to reach the 20-win mark this year (Michigan State has 21 wins).
The two teams battle it out again tomorrow evening, with the puck dropping at 5PM.
Post game video