DULUTH – A trip Up North can be beautiful this time of year. Not so, however, for the Gophers men's hockey team, who headed home after their third consecutive loss this young season, heads down, lost in frustration.
The Gophers entered the game Saturday night against Minnesota Duluth with new combinations among the top three forward lines in front of a record crowd at Amsoil Arena.
But nothing seemed to work. The Bulldogs scored two first-period goals and went on to shut out the Gophers 3-0 for the series sweep.
Kasimir Kaskisuo became the second goalie in three games to shut out the Gophers with 21 saves Saturday. It's the series-high sixth consecutive victory for the Bulldogs (2-1) over the Gophers (0-3), who are ending the second weekend of the season still searching for chemistry and a win in 2015-16.
The Bulldogs won 3-1 in the series opener Friday night at Mariucci Arena.
"It's been two, two and a half years now and they just have our number, playing with a little more passion. It's extremely frustrating." said captain Justin Kloos after the game. "We just have to make plays."
The Gophers were outshot 17-2 in the opening period and failed to get an opportunity throughout the final 15 minutes. Not working, the new lines were discarded in favor of the previous ones after one period.
By then, however, Minnesota Duluth had already scored twice with goals by Dominic Toninato and Karson Kuhlman.
"Nothing was working in the first period," Gophers coach Don Lucia said.
Jared Thomas made up for his penalty late in the first period by scoring his second goal of the weekend seconds after getting back on the ice. Thomas took a pass from Kyle Osterberg and got around Gophers goalie Eric Schierhorn to make it 3-0 Bulldogs 1 minute, 10 seconds into the second period.
Schierhorn was tested throughout the night, finishing with 30 saves. On multiple occasions, he kept the Gophers in the game and met Lucia's expectations.
Still, despite seven power-play opportunities and an offense that tested Kaskisuo more and more as the game went on, the Gophers ended the weekend with one goal.
"You got to keep coaching, you got to keep working with them and get guys to continue to build their game," Lucia said.
Junior forward Vinni Lettieri took responsibility for not creating chances along with the team's leadership.
"Sometimes hockey is a game of bounces, but you also got to take responsibility and make your own bounces," he said, not taking the final 40 minutes as a moral victory. "We're not doing that either, so we have to reload and get ready."
As the Bulldogs celebrated at center ice with the home student section chanting "oh-and-three," the Gophers left with their heads down.
The Gophers will try again next weekend for its first victory of the season. They play host to Northeastern at Mariucci Arena with a little desperation setting in.
"I've never been in this position before," Kloos said. "Usually we start out really well my first two years here so we just got to get back to the grindstone and get ready for Friday."
