Bulldogs slip past Gophers

An unlikely bounce gave Minnesota Duluth a second one-goal win and a weekend sweep.

By ROMAN AUGUSTOVIZ, Star Tribune

Last update: November 22, 2009 - 10:11 AM

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MINNESOTA DULUTH 3, GOPHERS 2

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Considering the bad luck plaguing the Gophers defensemen, maybe all they need to practice this week is stopping shots with their skates.

For the second night in a row on Saturday, Minnesota Duluth scored a goal that bounced off a maroon and gold defenseman guarding the net.

What's worse, the Bulldogs' second ricochet goal of the weekend was the game-winner. Defenseman Mike Montgomery's seeing-eye, dump-in-front backhander gave UMD a 3-2 victory over the Gophers and a sweep of their series at Mariucci Arena. His goal came with 2 minutes, 2 seconds left.

Minnesota Duluth won the first game 4-3 in overtime.

The Sporting News this fall called the Gophers-Bulldogs hockey series the state's best rivalry.

Certainly, it has been the closest. Eight of the past 11 games, if empty-netters are tossed out, have been decided by one goal or two have ended in ties.

In the latest white-knuckler, viewed by an announced crowd of 10,078, Montgomery was near the extended goal line deep on the left side when he gave up the puck, hoping a teammate might be crashing the net or he would get a friendly bounce.

He got the latter. The puck hit defenseman Cade Fairchild's skate and ricocheted in. Brian Schack, another Gophers defenseman, nearly stopped the puck at the goal line but was a split-second too late with his attempted skate save.

"In that big a game, you wish it was a little prettier [goal]," Montgomery said, "but we will take it.

"Obviously, I was not trying to bang it off a skate into the net. I was trying to throw back out in the trouble area. It took a lucky bounce for us."

This second game and Friday's had many parallels. In both games, the Gophers took 2-0 leads and lost. UMD won the first game 4-3 in overtime.

The Gophers still hold a 5-4-2 edge over the Bulldogs in those tense last 11 games, but UMD is closing fast with three victories in a row.

That mini-streak began when the Bulldogs beat the Gophers 2-1 in the play-in game of the Final Five last season.

On Saturday, Minnesota (4-7-1, 3-6-1) scored twice in the opening period to go ahead 2-0.

Mike Hoeffel got his sixth goal on a deflection and Kevin Wehrs scored on a 5-on-3 power play.

UMD, just like Friday, started its rally with a power-play goal.

Jack Connolly, who scored two goals on Friday, scored at 6:27 of the second period on a rebound.

Still following Friday's script, the Bulldogs tied the score 2-2 early in the third period.

Kyle Schmidt, a fourth-line winger, beat Gophers goalie Alex Kangas from the top of the left circle for an unassisted goal.

UMD (8-4-1, 5-3-1) appeared to take a 3-2 lead nine minutes into the third period. A sliding Wade Bergman crashed into Kangas and the puck ended up in the net. The officials waved it off after a long video review, presumably because Bergman may have kicked the puck in.

"Maybe it was justice that last goal went in," UMD coach Scott Sandelin said.

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