Patterson at his best when he faces more shots

The Gophers had lost six of seven games to UMD when the Bulldogs came to Mariucci Arena on Dec. 10.

Junior goalie Kent Patterson put a stop to that streak. He beat Minnesota Duluth 3-2 that Friday night, stopping 37 shots, 16 in the third period.

The Bulldogs close within one goal with five minutes to play on a power play, but Patterson didn't let anything else past him.

The next day, a snowstorm postponed the Gophers-Bulldogs game for a day. And senior goalie Alex Kangas aggravated his hip injury. That made the decision to start Patterson again in the second game easy.

And again, he was solid. He stopped a career-high 41 saves, 21 in the second period, none in the scoreless overtime.

Why was he so good in that series? "I just think because they kept me so busy," Patterson said. "As long as I am staying busy and they keep me involved, those games are a lot easier to play than games where you don't get shots for a couple of minutes and so it is off and on."

Patterson expects to see a lot of shots this weekend. "[The Bulldogs] will keep me busy, I know they will," he said. "They've got good scoring, good skill. So I expect nothing less."

CEPIS EXPECTS BULLDOGS TO BE MAD

"Right now our trouble is, the top half of our guys are not scoring," Gophers senior left wing Jacob Cepis said, explaining the team's recent scoring woes. "That's where we have struggled. You can get a lot of shots but it doesn't matter unless you score."

Cepis is convinced the Bulldogs are still a little upset about getting just one point on their trip to Mariucci in mid-December. And he is sure they will be fired up for the Gophers. "A new rink, a packed house I am sure," Cepis said. "They are going out there -- I am sure they are a little bitter about last time they were here.

"They came in hot and we kinda put them down. It will be the same type of series. It is going up and down, physical. We just have to play our game like we did last time. We stayed off the penalty kill -- in both the games actually. And we ended up beating them five-on-five. Those are the big keys for this weekend."

The Gophers were 2-for-12 on the power play in the last UMD series, so were the Bulldogs.

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