Jordy Murray did it again.
His third goal of the weekend ended with him in what seems to be his new customary position: flat on the ice. In all three tallies, the junior winger scored while either diving or sprawling for a loose puck—a testament both to his grit and that of his Badger teammates.
His final goal, with less than three minutes left in regulation, tied the game at 3 and helped Wisconsin take three points away from a successful series in Mariucci Arena.
“It was entertaining, it was a very hard fought game,” Minnesota head coach Don Lucia said.
“It was an excellent college hockey game. Both Donny and I said at the same time, ‘that’s more like it,'” said Mike Eaves.
On Murray’s second goal of the evening, Minnesota netminder Kent Patterson stopped the initial low angle shot by Mark Zengerle but Murray spotted the loose puck from in front of the net and hustled into the play to poke the puck in.
The goal was reviewed. Technical difficulties caused the review to last a long time before the goal was confirmed. The Badgers had fought back to tie the game for the second time.
“To come into this building and take three out of four points and battle back twice from being down showed a lot of heart in this team,” Eaves said.
Both teams played hard in overtime with numerous scoring chances including a point blank shot by Jay Barriball with 30 seconds left in the extra session that went over the net.
The Badgers tied the game 2-2 at 3:39 of the second on the first goal by Jordy Murray while on the power play. Murray outhustled Minnesota defenseman Aaron Ness for the loose puck in the crease and tapped in a goal on the scrum.
“Most of our goals this weekend were like that [not pretty]. Being around the net and whack it going to the hard areas. Jordy playing like that is what he does best,” remarked Eaves.
Barriball put Minnesota back in the lead 3-2 at 18:47 of the second on a power play goal. Barriball fired a shot from the top of the diamond that beat Bennett low to the blocker side.
Minnesota started fast generating three odd man rushes in the first five minutes of the first culminating in a goal by Taylor Matson at 4:18 on a 2-on-1. Matson elected to shoot instead of pass and put the puck in the upper right corner over Brett Bennett.
The Gophers made it 2-0 on a power-play goal by Jacob Cepis at 11:41. Erik Hoeffel picked up a blocked shot from the point and fed a backhand pass to Cepis who was capped out on the backdoor for the easy tap in behind Bennett.
“The result I wanted was our effort and our effort was where it needed to be,” remarked Lucia. “As long as we keep playing like that good things will happen.”
The Badgers responded with a power-play goal by Justin Schultz at 17:59. Mark Zengerle fed a pass from the left circle back to Schultz, who fired a shot form 70 feed that beat Kent Patterson.
The depleted Gopher forward lines will have three players back when they resume play in two weeks. Next weekend Wisconsin plays host to North Dakota.
