Justen Close made 25 saves for his second consecutive shutout and the Gophers beat North Dakota 4-0 on Friday in Grand Forks.
Close made 13 saves in the first period, four in the second and eight in the third to earn the 11th shutout of his career, moving him within two of tying the program career-record of 13.
"That was an excellent team victory. Justen Close was brilliant tonight," Gophers coach Bob Motzko said.
Added defenseman Luke Mittelstadt: "That guy [Close] is so good. As far as calming influence goes, he's by far the calmest guy I know. In the net, he's calm. Off the ice, he's calm. We're so lucky to have that guy."
In the first game between the two with each ranked in the top five of the USCHO.com poll since March 2004, the top-ranked Gophers improved to 3-0, while the No. 5 Fighting Hawks fell to 2-1.
"I've been coming up here now for 25 years. It's the first 10 minutes, it's a little bit of craziness," Motzko said. "Justen did what he does and we withstood that. And then we started to play hockey. You survive the first 10, you've got a pretty good hockey game."
The Fighting Hawks outshot the Gophers 13-10 in the scoreless first period and opened the second period on the power play after the Gophers' Aaron Huglen was assessed a penalty for cross-checking with a second remaining in the first period. One second after the Gophers successfully skated off the penalty, Brody Lamb scored to give the Gophers a 1-0 lead.
"Penalty killing was outstanding," Motzko said. "All of our lines really were contributing and giving us hard, heavy minutes. And we just kept getting confidence as the game went."
