Tyler Sheehy scored in the middle of the opening period and Jack Sadek and Leon Bristedt added goals in the third as the No. 10 Gophers returned from a holiday break to edge Army 3-0 on Friday night in nonconference men's hockey at 3M Arena at Mariucci.
Junior Eric Schierhorn needed to make only 13 saves for the shutout. Jared Dempsey had 30 stops for the Black Knights (8-9-2).
The victory was Schierhorn's 54th in his 2½-season career, tying him with Steve DeBus (1995-98) for seventh on the Gophers' all-time wins list. It also was his 11th career shutout — one game after his streak of 94 consecutive starts ended — tying him for third in program history on that list.
"Eric was sharp when he needed to be," said Gophers coach Don Lucia, who was impressed with Army's goalie as well. "They don't give up many goals. Their goaltending was very, very good. … We had to work for our goals."
Sheehy, a junior forward from Burnsville, gave Minnesota (11-9-1) a 1-0 lead at 10 minutes, 1 second of the first period with his sixth goal of the season and third game-winner.
Sadek, a junior defenseman, made it 2-0 Gophers at 16:41 of the final period. It was his second goal this season. Bristedt, a senior forward, got an empty-net goal with 42 seconds left. It was his third goal this season.
"Tyler made a nice play, and it was a good shot" on the first goal, Lucia said. "It was a deflection on the second one. We wanted to win the third period. It's been a struggle for us recently."
The Gophers are now 9-2 at home.
