Gophers' problems continue to snowball

David Joles, Star Tribune

Tempers flared near the end of the second period, resulting in penalties for both Minnesota and Denver.

The U was shut out for the third time and has a flaccid power play.

By ROMAN AUGUSTOVIZ, Star Tribune

Last update: October 25, 2009 - 12:43 AM

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SOS to Ryan Stoa. The Gophers need a big scorer more than the Lake Erie Monsters of the AHL.

Stoa led the Gophers with 24 goals last season, but turned pro in the offseason, signing with the Colorado Avalanche rather than returning for his senior season.

Without the first-team All-America wing, the Gophers have scored three goals in four games and have been shut out three times. Their power play is a docile 0-for-20.

The latest shutout loss was Saturday. Marc Cheverie and Denver again stonewalled the Gophers 3-0 at Mariucci Arena before an announced 9,840 U partisans.

Cheverie made 30 saves in his third consecutive shutout; he beat the Gophers by the same 3-0 score with the same number of stops Friday. A week earlier, the 6-3 junior won 2-0 at Ohio State.

"My teammates are playing great defense in front of me," Cheverie said. "They are blocking shots to make my life easy."

Said Gophers co-captain Tony Lucia: "Give their goaltender and their defense a lot of credit. They made it tough for our forwards to get to the net. We were a couple of bounces away from breaking that seal, but once again Cheverie played very, very well."

Denver took a 1-0 lead midway through the opening period on a pretty pass from Luke Salazar to Kyle Ostrow. Salazar, walking in from the left side, drew goalie Kent Patterson's attention as he threaded a pass to the opposite post to give Ostrow an easy tap-in. The goal came on the Pioneers' second shot of the game.

Denver captain Rhett Rakhshani made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 4:27 of the second period, finding the five-hole from near the left dot. In the penalty box was Gophers forward Jordan Schroeder, called for hooking while preventing a good scoring chance in the slot.

Defenseman Aaron Ness had a rare rebound chance on a Gophers power play at 14 minutes. He shot, then shot again before being crunched by DU's Jesse Martin. Cheverie, of course, made both saves.

The Gophers were fortunate to be down only 2-0 going into the third period. Patterson robbed Brandon Vossberg on a breakaway with a minute left in the second, and Pioneers teammate Matt Glasser had a close-in chance with 10 seconds to go.

Ostrow's second goal on another power play early in third period made it 3-0. Soon afterward, Minnesota had a golden chance on a 5-on-3 power play for a full two minutes after two minor penalties were called at the same time on the Pioneers. The Gophers got two shots from Schroeder and Patrick White, but whistled two other shots wide and the power play finished 0-for-8.

More frustration for the maroon and gold, now 0-3-1, overall and conference.

"The guys battled but there was absolutely no reward for anyone this weekend," Gophers coach Don Lucia said.

In the visitors' locker room, the mood was far different. The Pioneers celebrated coach George Gwozdecky's 500th career victory, giving him the game puck.

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