There’s not much disagreement. Minnesota knew its power play that had produced only three goals on 31 chances before this weekend wasn’t good enough.
So, all week in practice leading up to this weekend’s pair of games against Clarkson at 3M Arena, the Gophers went to work.
The result? Three power-play goals and two wins for No. 7 Minnesota after a 3-1 victory Friday and a 2-1 triumph Saturday, when it produced both its goals through the power play.
“We’ve been working a lot on the power play this week, especially special teams, and I think that showed,” said senior Leon Britsedt, who scored the first goal with 10:15 left in the first period. “We won the games here with special teams. We were plus-2 tonight and plus-1 last night, and that got the win for us.”
The Gophers also blanked the Golden Knights on their three power-play opportunities, which only produced three total shots.
Mike Szmatula scored the eventual game-winner only 23 seconds into the second period. Like Britsedt, it was the senior’s first goal of the season.
“That’s a really good team over there, hard-working and take pride in their PK, but we knew it was about time and that any day it would click for the power play,” Szmatula said. “We got it going and we’re headed in the right direction.”
Coming into the weekend set, Minnesota coach Don Lucia said he tweaked his power play and penalty kill combinations.
Britsedt said those alterations were similar to how the units looked last year, which he said helped break down a compact Clarkson penalty kill that had allowed only three power-play goals in 36 opportunities.
With that familiarity and experience, the Gophers were able to break down a small and narrow Clarkson penalty kill that makes it difficult to string together passes closer to the net.
The solution to that, both he and Szmatula said, is constant puck movement, whether that be with passes or a player penetrating the box himself.
On the first goal, Britsedt received the puck above the right faceoff circle and carried it down to the lower edge of the left faceoff area before sniping his shot into the corner.
On Szmatula’s game-winner, it was a series of quick deliveries from Rem Pitlick and Casey Mittelstadt to set up Szmatula at the post for a tap-in.
“Obviously it’s frustrating throughout; I think it was six games we had one or two off the rush and didn’t have any in the zone,” Szmatula said. “It can get frustrating, but at the end of the day you just have to work hard, keep going, and eventually they’re going to start going in.
As much as the power play stood out for the Gophers, their penalty kill might have had an equally impressive weekend.
Entering Friday night, Minnesota had surrendered 10 goals in 31 tries, but held Clarkson scoreless on its four attempts.
This all came after the unit’s meeting with associate coach Mike Guentzel that centered around a need for aggression on the penalty kill.
“You have to play like that,” Lucia said. “You can’t just sit back and be tentative. You have to go when you have a pressure point, and I thought we were more aggressive with that this weekend.”
All together, that special teams performance equated to Minnesota’s first weekend sweep of the season before it returns to Big Ten play next weekend at home against Michigan State.
“It’s something to build on,” Britsedt said. “We weren’t off to the start we wanted. We play a tough schedule, but we have high expectations. We want to be a winning program and that’s the way it should be.”
Big Ten roundup
St. Lawrence 6, No. 5 Wisconsin 3
St. Lawrence benefited from three unanswered goals to close the third period, all from different sources.
Callum Cusinato and Jacob Pritchard started the scoring for the Saints in the first period. Cameron Hughes and Ryan Wagner score to tie the game 2-2.
Bo Hanson put St. Lawrence back in front with 13 seconds to play in the second period before Wagner scored the equalizer just 32 seconds into the third. Jacob Pritchard, Ben Finkelstein, and Ryan Lough then closed the scoring to help St. Lawrence win its first game of the season.
Michigan 5, No. 15 Penn State 2
Tony Calderone put the Wolverines in front early with his second goal of the season barely four minutes into the game before adding the game’s second with just under five minutes left in the second period.
Brendan Warren, Dexter Dancs, and Nick Pastujov piled on to cement the upset against the Nittany Lions, who received scores from Nate Sucese and Nikita Pavlychev.
Ohio State 3, Robert Morris 1
Tanner Laczynski’s scored the game-winner with 2:31 left in the third period before adding an empty-netter with eight seconds left.
Matt Miller scored the first goal of a game that entered the third period scoreless, while Alex Tonge notched the lone Robert Morris goal on a power play to tie the game 1-1 with 12:09 left to play.
Michigan State 6, Lake Superior State 0
It took nearly the whole first period for Michigan State to score, but once Mitch Lewandowski scored his second goal of the year, the Spartans couldn’t seem to stop.
Lewandowski added a second goal 22 seconds before the end of the second period, while Brennan Sanford, Mitch Eliot, Jake Smith, and David Keefer also scored. Cody Milan added a pair of assists for the Spartans, who have now won four out of their last five.
