Gophers men's hockey scores final five goals in rout of Badgers

Min­ne­so­ta has won four games in a row and is 6-1 in its past seven games.

"We were opportunistic tonight," Gophers coach Bob Motzko said. "Every once and a while, you have to have a game where your skill guys make some plays and build a lead for you. … We'll take the win for sure.

McManus tied the score at 2-all just over 12 minutes into the second period. It was the first of five Minnesota goals in a row. Sammy Walker put the Gophers ahead 3-2 five minutes later and then Brodzinski got his first goal unassisted with 3:14 left in the period. That's three goals in 4:41.

The Go­phers (11-10-4, 6-5-4 Big Ten) kept build­ing on that lead in the third pe­riod — even though they only had three shots on net those 20 minutes — and it was Brodzinski and Mc­Man­us who found the net a­gain.

Brodzinski, a fresh­man for­ward from Blaine, scored in the eighth min­ute, giving him his first multipoint game. Mc­Man­us, a juni­or for­ward from New­port Beach, Calif., got his second goal in the 14th minute. He has four goals and four as­sists in his past three games.

Jack La­Fon­taine made 11 saves for Min­ne­so­ta in 26½ min­utes and Jar­ed Moe 18 the rest of the way.

Dan­iel Lebedeff had 18 stops for the Badg­ers (10-14-1, 5-11-1) in the first 36-plus min­utes be­fore he was re­lieved by Jack Ber­ry af­ter the Go­phers took a 4-2 lead. Ber­ry had three saves.