Feb. 18, 2006
Box Score
MINNEAPOLIS - The No. 1 Minnesota Golden Gophers used a three-goal first period and goaltender Kellen Briggs stopped 22 shots in a 5-1 win over the No. 7 Denver Pioneers in WCHA action tonight before 10,215 fans at Mariucci Arena. With the win, Minnesota (21-6-5, 16-5-3 WCHA) completes its two-game sweep of DU (18-12-2, 15-7-2 WCHA) and moves two points ahead of second-place Wisconsin and three points ahead of third-place Denver in the battle for the MacNaughton Cup.
Danny Irmen scored two goals and Ben Gordon, Ryan Stoa and Alex Goligoski added one goal each as Minnesota improved to 7-0-1 in its last eight games. Co-captain Gabe Gauthier (Buena Park, Calif.) extended his point streak to seven games by scoring DU's lone goal and Peter Mannino (Farmington Hills, Mich.) stopped 36 shots in defeat. Phil Kessel added three assists and Goligoski and Chris Harrington two each for Minnesota.
"We never recovered after Minnesota's fast start," DU head coach George Gwozdecky said. "Our guys battled in the final period, but it was too late. We're a resilient group and we'll bounce back."
Minnesota struck twice in the first 1 minute and 37 seconds of the game. Minnesota capitalized on the power play after a questionable slashing call on Matt Carle (Anchorage, Alaska). Irmen redirected a Harrington shot past Mannino at 1:08 for the first goal and Gordon buried a Kessel feed 29 seconds later to make it 2-0. Irmen added his second goal when he ripped a Kessel rebound past Mannino at 8:34. Minnesota dominated the period by outshooting DU, 17-8.
Stellar goaltending by Briggs and Mannino kept it a two-goal game until Gauthier banged in a rebound to get the Pioneers on the scoreboard in the second stanza. However, Minnesota's Stoa buried a feed from Ryan Potulny off the faceoff just eight seconds later to make it 4-1 after two periods.
Goligoski's power-play goal at 10:01 in the third period made the final 5-1. Minnesota outshot DU, 41-23, in the game and converted 2-of-8 power-play chances. DU finished 0-for-5 with the man-advantage.
DU returns home next weekend on Feb. 24-25 for a two-game WCHA series against No. 12 North Dakota. The teams split a two-game series in Grand Forks on Oct. 28-29.
