WCHA roundup: Only three of nine conference teams win

It was not a great Saturday night for WCHA teams. They were 3-4-2, not counting Bemidji State's exhibition win. That won't help conference teams in the all important PairWise ratings at the end of the season.

The only winners were the Gophers, Michigan Tech, their next opponent, and Colorado College.

A look at how WCHA teams fared on Saturday night:

Gophers 7, Michigan State 1

On night MacNaughton Cup banner raised, Gophers rout Spartans. This was coach Don Lucia's 599th win.

Michigan Tech 8, Lake Superior State 4

"The goals were just going in tonight," Tech coach Mel Pearson said, according to the WCHA web site. "Of course you're never happy about giving up four, but it was our night offensively and will help us build some confidence."

Milos Gordic had two goals and one assist for Tech, Tanner Kero one goal and two assists.

Northern Michigan 4, Wisconsin 2 in Green Bay

Frankie Simonelli and Mark Zengerle scored goals for the Badgers. Zengerle's goal, at 18 seconds of the third period, put UW ahead 2-1. But the Wildcats, who outshot the Badgers 31-20, scored the next two goals and added an empty-netter.

Ohio State 3, Minnesota Duluth 2

Trailing 2-0, the Bulldogs rallied to tie the score on goals by Joe Basaraba and Mike Seidel, which came on a power play. But the Buckeyes's Max McCormick scored the game-winner seven minutes into the third period.

Junior defenseman Kevin Gravel and sophomore forward Joey Holka scored for the Huskies, who were outshot 29-27 by the Wildcats. The score was tied 1-1 and 2-2 but the host Wildcats scored the final two goals. Goalie Ryan Faragher stopped 25 shots for SCSU. ... New Hampshire won 5-3 on Friday.

Notre Dame 3, Nebraska Omaha 2

The Irish won the Icebreaker in Kansas City, Mo. Junior forward Anders Lee of Edina had a goal and an assist for Notre Dame. Mike Young and Andrej Sustr, both junior defensemen, scored for the Mavericks.

Colorado College 5, Clarkson 4

Senior forward William Rapuzzi's goal with a minute left in the third period for CC was the game-winner. Junior forward Archie Skalbeck of Hopkins had two goals for the Tigers, who trailed three times.

Minnesota State Mankato 2, Alabama-Huntsville 2, tie

John Griggs made 51 stops for UAH enabling the Chargers to tie the Mavericks after a scoreless overtime. Junior forward Johnny McInnis and senior forward Eriah Hayes -- with 2:14 to play in the third period -- scored for MSU, Mankato. Freshman goalie Stephan Williams made 22 stops for the visiting Mavericks.

The Mavericks were 0 for 6 on the power play.

Alaska Anchorage 3, Air Force 3, tie

After falling behind 2-0, the Seawolves scored the next three goals. Jordan Kwas, Matt Bailey short-handed and Alex Gellet were the goal scorers. But the Falcons tied the score with one second left in the third period. John Kruse got the goal on a power play; Air Force also pulled its goalies, so it was six-on-four.

Bemidji State 4, U18 nat'l development team 3, exhibition

The Beavers rallied from a 2-0 deficit to win. BSU scored three short-handed goals in the second period. David Boehm had two of them, Jeff Jubinville the other. Brance Orban scored the game-winner at 58 seconds of the third period.

BC UPSET

Three freshmen scored goals as Northeastern beat Boston College 3-1 in a Hockey East game. BC had been No. 1 in one major poll last week, the Gophers in the other. Now U should be No. 1 in both.

Ryan Belanger, Kevin Roy and Colton Saucerman scored goals for Northeastern, which had been 0-1-8 against the Eagles in the past nine games. Steven Whitney had BC's goal. It was the season opener for BC.

OFF STRIDE A BIT

Doug McLeod, the new voice of the Gophers on FSN, struggled on his second broadcast. I heard most of it and cringed a few times.

He kept calling Justin Holl, John Holl. He referred to Christian Isackson as Chris -- maybe Christian is OK with that. Not sure.

He said the Reilly twins' 21st birthday is coming up this month. Connor and Ryan celebrated it on Oct. 1.

He said the Gophers hope to make a run in March, hopefully deep into March. Uh, they want to go farther than that. The Frozen Four is April 11 and 13 in Pittsburgh.