Freshman Logan Cooley scored two goals and had an assist as the No. 2-ranked Gophers men's hockey team defeated Lindenwood University 4-0 on Saturday night in its season opener at 3M Arena at Mariucci before an announced crowd of 6,867.
"We liked a lot of things we saw," Gophers coach Bob Motzko said. "There's an arrow pointing in the direction of things we need to get better at, exciting with a couple of the young guys, but it was a good hockey game.
"We're real pleased after Game 1 because it gives us a starting point of what we got to do moving forward."
Nine freshmen made their first appearances in a college hockey game for Minnesota, accounting for a plus-six rating combined.
For their first game in Division I, the Lindenwood Lions acquitted themselves quite well. As expected Minnesota won, but it wasn't a drubbing. The Lions, representing a private school of 7,000 in St. Charles, Mo., kept the score relatively close.
Jaxon Nelson had the only goal of the first period, almost 8½ minutes into the game, on a power play.
Cooley, the No. 3 pick in the first round by the Coyotes in the NHL draft last summer, made it 2-0 just over 5½ minutes into the middle period. About two minutes later Matthew Knies got the home team's second power-play goal for a 3-0 lead. The 5-10, 180-pound Cooley from Pittsburgh got the Gophers' final goal midway through the third.
Minnesota goalie Justen Close made 16 saves for the shutout. The Lions' Trent Burnham stopped 30 shots
