Bulldogs put Gophers into deeper hole in WCHA race

After Friday's OT win over the Gophers, UMD is tied for second in the WCHA with Denver and North Dakota. All have 11 points. Colorado College, which has a nonconference series this week, remains in first with 13.

Tied for fifth are Wisconsin and St. Cloud State with nine and then there is Minnesota, seventh with seven after nine conference games.

"I thought it was a pretty well played game," Gophers coach Don Lucia said, "and heading into overtime was pretty indicative of the game itself."

UMD outshot the Gophers 32-29 but that was because the Bulldogs had a 4-0 shot edge in the overtime.

"All of the aspects of our game, we played fine," Lucia said. "I don't have any issues with that. The first two goals went off us, that's just the way it is going for us. But you got to make the play to put yourself in that spot, too."

SCHROEDER DISAPPOINTED

Jordan Schroeder, who scored his third goal for the Gophers in as many games, was the one player made available to the media Friday night. "It's tough losing there at the end, but it's part of the game," the sophomore center said.

* On the outlook for Saturday's game: "Obviously, tonight you are thinking about it and it is kind of a bummer. You wish it would have gone the other way. But in the morning you got to forget about it. Come to the rink with a positive attitude and come back [Saturday] night and get a win."

UMD COACH HAPPY ABOUT COMEBACK

"Anytime you get down in this rink, it seems to go the other way in a hurry," Bulldogs coach Scott Sandelin said. "But our guys stayed with it and got a big power-play goal to cut it in half. Got a little break with Cody's goal."

Cody Danberg tied the score at 2-all on a shot that went in off the skate of Gophers defenseman David Fischer.

"Then we traded goals there [in the third period]."

"We had a good start to the game," Sandelin said, "Our first period was pretty good. We had some big hits. We played a good road period. Shots were even. The score was even. They got the two. I thought the second goal was kind of a weak goal for them. But our guys stayed with it..

On Nico Sacchetti's power-play goal with 2:18 left. ... This needs a bit of explanation. Fischer was called for slashing at 15:11, giving UMD a power play. But it was 4-on-4 after Jack Connolly got a holding penalty at 16:14. When Fischer's penalty expired, the Gophers went on the power play for 1:04. They only needed 30 seconds to score.

So back to Sandelin: "We deserved that penalty [on Connolly] because our power play was terrible. You've got an opportunity to get a two-goal lead and we go out there and go through the motions. And we ended up taking a penalty that cost us, could have cost us the game. They tie it and they could have won the game in overtime.