SCSU takes sole possession of first in WCHA; Gophers win another close one

St. Cloud State won its fifth game in a row by upsetting Denver 3-0 on Friday at Magness Arena in the Mile High City. Sophomore Ryan Farager made 28 saves for the shutout.

The Pioneers (4-1-0, 2-1-0) had won their first five games and scored five goals in each of them. DU was rated No. 3 in both major national polls. SCSU (5-2-0, 3-0-0) was No. 18 in the USCHO.com ratings.

St. Cloud State leads the conference with six points; DU and the Gophers, both 2-1, are tied for second with four.

This was the first time the Huskies had shut ouf Denver 6-0 on Dec. 3, 1999.

Junior forward Nic Dowd scored a power-play goal at 12 minutes, nine seconds of the opening period for SCSU. This was the first time the Pioneers have trailed in a game this season. About three minutes later, freshman forward Kalle Kossila of Finland made it 2-0, deflecting a shot in front of the net.

The first period ended with DU not scoring after 11 periods with at least one goal.

Dowd scored his second goal of the midway through the third period.He ad goals in his last five games and points in every game. He has six goals and six assists for 12 points, which puts him second nationally in scoring.

DU outshot the Huskies 28-26. On the power play, SCSU was 1-for-4, Denver 0-2.

"St. Cloud has a terrific team, they have great skill, great speed and, to top it off, great desire to win all the battles that ultimately helped them win the game tonight," DU coach George Gwozdecky said. "We struggled to match their pace and we started off slowly tonight. Certainly, St. Cloud was the better of the two teams tonight and they proved it time and time again."

Junior center Nick Shore almost got Denver a goal in the third period, hitting the right pipe on a breakaway. Shore finished with five shots on goal, while senior Chris Knowlton had seven.

Gophers 3, Minnesota State 2

The U won its third consecutive one-goal game. Earlier it beat Michigan Tech 3-2 and Canisius 1-0.

Junior center Erik Haula had a team-high six shots on goal, Kyle Rau, Nick Bjugstad and Nate Schmidt had four apiece as the Gophers outshot the Mavericks 32-25. They have outshot every opponent.

Rau, who had two assists and goal-scorers Schmidt and Zach Budish were the three stars of the game.

In the faceoff circle, third-line center Travis Boyd, who had the other goal, was 14-5, Haula 10-4 and Bjugstad 9-6. As a team, the Gophers won 36 draws, lost 19. Boyd has three goals in six games after scoring only one goal, late in the season, as a freshman last season.

Freshman Adam Wilcox is 4-0-0 for the Gophers.

Colorado College 5, Wisconsin 4

After a pregame ceremony to name the ice at Kohn Center after former coach Bob Johnson, the Badgers took a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by Michael Mersch and Brad Navin.

But coach Mike Eaves was not happy with his team's play from the start.

"Even when we were up 2-0, we weren't playing well," Eaves said. "We got a couple bounces. We talked about that after the first. We haven't skated on this sheet of ice in forever--beginning of October--and it looked like it at times.

"It's (seven) feet wider, but when you multiply that by 200 feet that's a lot more square feet. We looked like at times we had bad gap, and it made things a little more difficult for me. It's not an excuse, it's a reason. We need to fix it and get going."

The Tigers, who had a 39-26 shot advantage, tied the score 2-2 in the second period on goals by Hunter Fejes and Mike Boivin, who had eight shots on goal.

Keegan Meuer tied the score a third time at 4-4 with 4:18 left.

Joel Rumpel had 34 saves for the Badgers, Josh Thorimbert 22 for CC.

Nebraska Omaha 2, Michigan Tech 1

Zahn Rauenheimer was killing a penalty when he scored with 70 seconds left to give the Mavericks the victory. It was his second goal of the game.

Michigan Tech has 11 shots on seven power-play chances but was scoreless with a man up. UNO was zero-for-two on the power play. Tanner Kero had the lone Huskies goal in the middle period.

North Dakota 4, Boston University 2

Connor Gaarder, a sophomore walk-on from Edina, had four goals in 33 games for UND last season. But this night, he had the first three goals for North Dakota.

He scored on a five-on-three power play at 4:24 of the third period to break a 2-2 tie. Teammate Rocco Grimaldi added an empty-net goal with 20 seconds left.

"[Gaarder] is a good hockey player," UND coach Dave Hakstol said. "He goes to those hard areas. He wasn't the only one who played a good hockey game tonight, but obviously he was a key player for us."

UND is rated No. 5 or 6 in the national polls, BU No. 12.

The Terriers had a goal disallowed with two minutes left after the tape was reviewed.

PREDICTIONS UPDATE

I predicted four WCHA teams would sweep this weekend: the Gophers, Wisconsin, Nebraska Omaha and North Dakota. ... Three of those teams won Friday and the fourth, Wisconsin, lost in OT.