Gophers coach Don Lucia said at the start of this season that his team's success will depend a lot on how big a jump his sophomores have made since a year ago.
Looks like Seth Ambroz, for one, is better.
The big right wing on the third line scored twice as the 'U' edged Michigan Tech 3-2 in Houghton, Mich., for a split in their first WCHA series.
The Gophers went into the series ranked No. 1 in both polls, but lost the first game 5-3 on Friday.
Ambroz's second goal, with 3 minutes, 35 seconds left, broke a 2-2 tie. He also scored late in the opening period.
The victory was the 600th of Gophers coach Don Lucia's 25-year career. He is the 10th Division I college coach to reach that milestone. His record is now 600-329-83 overall, 321-174-54 at the 'U.'
The Gophers had a 34-18 dominance in shots, but Tech freshman goalie Pheonix Copley stopped 31 shots. Adam Wilcox, the Gophers freshman goalie, made 16 saves.
The U was 0 for 5 on power plays, Tech 0 for 2.
Junior center Erik Haula had the other goal for the Gophers; Chad Pietila and Ryan Furne scored second period goals for Tech. Furne's tip went in off the Gophers' Nick Bjugstad.
St. Cloud State 4, Alab. Huntsville 0
This was the Huskies first sweep at home since Feb. 25-26, 2011 when they beat Wisconsin twice and improved their all-time record against UAH to 9-0-0.
Junior forward Nic Dowd, of Huntsville, scored the Huskies' first goal four minutes into the game.
Sophomore defenseman Andrew Prochno and senior forward Drew LeBlanc had second period goals. Freshman forward Kalle Kossila from Finland had the lone goal in the third.
Sophomore Ryan Faragher made 18 saves for his second career shutout. The Huskies outshot the Chargers 42-18 but were 0 for 5 on the power play while UAH was 0 for 4.
SCSU won the first game of the series 8-3.
Minnesota State 4, RPI 3, OT
Senior forward Eriah Hayes' goal 1:09 into overtime was the game-winner. The Mavericks trailed 2-0 going into the third period until scoring three times in just over the first five minutes.
Junior Johnny McInnis, senior Eli Zuck and freshman Dylan Margonari had the quick MSU Mankato goals.
RPI tied the scored with 1:36 left in the third period. Sophomore Zach Schroeder, whose older brother Jordan played for the Gophers, had the first goal for the Engineers.
The Mavericks outshot RPI 38-33 and were 2 of 4 on the power play.
On Friday, the same teams tied 3-3 after a scoreless overtime.
Bemidji State 5, Lake Superior State 0
Sophomore goalie Andrew Walsh of the Beavers had 25 saves in his third career shutout.
Senior forward Brance Orban scored in the first period, sophomore defenseman Sam Windle and senior forward Ben Kinne in the second to make it 3-0.
Freshman forward Cory Ward and junior forward Radoslav Illo added third period goals.
BSU had a 29-25 shot edge. The Beavers were 0 for 4 on the power play, Lake Superior State 0-2.
LSS won 2-0 on Friday, breaking a 0-0 tie on Chris Ciotti's power-play goal with 3:09 left and adding an empty-netter.
SUMMARY
The Gophers played the only WCHA series this weekend. In nonconference games, WCHA teams were 1-0-0 on Thursday, 5-2-1 on Friday and 5-3-0 on Saturday.
More to come on other nonconference series.
Roman Augustoviz spends Minnesota's winters covering college hockey, specifically the Gophers, and other University of Minnesota sports. During the summer, he writes about the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx, with a dose of U sports sprinkled in. Follow @RomanStrib on Twitter. E-mail Roman.
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