Sophomore defenseman Nate Schmidt of the Gophers had not scored a goal in 11 games. And he had not had a game-winning goal this season.
But on Saturday, his power play goal at seven minutes, 40 seconds of the third period was the decisive score as the Gophers edged Wisconsin 2-1 at Mariucci Arena before 10,241 fans. It was his third goal of the season.
"The whole night, [the Badgers] played hard," Schmidt said. "They stuck to their system. They created some turnovers. We had to make sure we stuck to our guns, especially in the third period. It is one of the best periods that we played."
That's saying something, considering the Gophers have outscored opponents 47-18 in the final period.
But this was Senior Night, the last regular-season home game for seven seniors. And Schmidt sensed the special atmosphere.
"It was good to get out there for a third period -- the last week of the year on our home ice," he said. "You can't get much better than that."
Schmidt said Erik Haula's short-handed goal at 4 minutes, 47 seconds of the third period got the crowd going. The goal was Haula's 15th of the season, but first short-handed.
"Once the crowd got into it, it got our bench going," Schmidt said. "And after our bench got going, it was really an uphill thing for us there. It was just getting the energy and the momentum back on our side. They had done a very good job of trying to take it away from us.That goal really helped us. It sparked our last period push."
