HOUGHTON, MICH. - Looking for a repeat performance of Friday night's game, the No. 19 Golden Gophers again jumped out to a lead in the opening minutes and again picked up a pair of goals from Mike Hoeffel to beat Michigan Tech 4-1 at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena on Saturday night.

Hoeffel also scored twice Friday night, when the Gophers jumped out to a three-goal lead after one period and went on to beat the Huskies 6-4.

"For whatever reason we are getting quick starts on the road," Gophers coach Don Lucia said. "I thought Michigan Tech played a much better game tonight."

Hoeffel got the Gophers on the board only 3 minutes, 9 seconds in after taking a pass from freshman Erik Haula and firing the puck at Kevin Genoe. The Huskies goalie made the initial stop, but Hoeffel stuffed in his own rebound.

"If you can get the lead in the first five, 10 minutes and kind of build off of that ... it's huge," Hoeffel said. "I was just going hard to the net and had my stick down and Erik put it in a good spot."

The Huskies tied the score at 2:08 in the second period on a power-play goal by Deron Cousens, but the Gophers (7-4-1, 5-4-1 WCHA) responded less than a minute later.

A Huskies defenseman attempted to clear the puck out of the zone, but instead he found Nate Condon. The Gophers center fired a shot that ricocheted off another defenseman and past Genoe at 2:53.

Taking a pass from freshman Justin Holl, Hoeffel scored on a wrist shot into the top corner for his fourth of the weekend at 5:35 of the second to make it 3-1. With a two-goal lead, goalie Kent Patterson took control vs. Tech (3-6-2, 1-6-1) with several timely stops to keep the Gophers in charge.

"It's great to always play with a lead ... because you know the guys are there behind you," Patterson said.

Patterson came up big again with the Gophers nursing a two-goal lead and finished with 30 saves for his sixth victory of the season. Freshman Nick Bjugstad iced the game with a second left by scoring his first career goal.

"Patterson was the difference tonight," Huskies coach Jamie Russell said.