No. 5 Minnesota stormed back from a two-goal deficit midway through the game to rout Alaska-Anchorage 7-3, earning its first appearance at the WCHA Final Five since 2009.<\/p>\n
“It’s definitely very exciting, I can’t wait,” said Minnesota forward Erik Haula on his first trip to the Final Five. “I can’t say how excited our team is to make it to the [Xcel Energy Center].”<\/p>\n
“I am just happy for our seniors right now,” added Minnesota coach Don Lucia. “They’re going to be playing at the Xcel in the next couple weeks.”<\/p>\n
The win also ensures Minnesota a bid to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2008. As a host school for the Western regional, Minnesota will also play on March 24 at the Xcel. <\/p>\n
“We needed this,” said Lucia. “We got punched in the nose a little bit tonight by getting down 3-1 and responded with six goals.”<\/p>\n
Haula’s two goals 18 seconds apart in the second put the Gophers up for good. The first came on a breakaway on a cross-zone pass by Kyle Rau on a line change. Haula beat UAA goalie Chris Kamal five hole while on the backhand. <\/p>\n
Haula crashed the net for his second goal picking up a rebound off a shot by Sam Warning. <\/p>\n
“It’s always great for our team to come back from a 3-1 lead,” remarked Haula. <\/p>\n
Seth Helgeson and Warning capped off the Gopher scoring.<\/p>\n
“At the end of the day, we ran out of gas,” Alaska-Anchorage coach Dave Shyiak said. “We got tired, fatigued, and made mistakes, and they took advantage of that.”<\/p>\n
In a classy move, with a minute left in the game, the Minnesota coaching staff put in senior netminder Jake Kremer for the first action of his career. <\/p>\n
“It was great for Kremer to get in there for the last minute as a senior for all he has meant to our program in practice,” remarked Lucia.<\/p>\n
The Seawolves’ power play got red-hot in the second period, converting on three straight chances to put the Seawolves up 3-1.<\/p>\n
The first was just 35 seconds into the second where the Seawolves tied the game up while on the power play. Matt Bailey scored by picking up a rebound that went far weak side, turned, and fired past Minnesota goalie Kent Patterson.<\/p>\n
At 12:49, Minnesota took two minor penalties – both by players named Seth. The first was on Seth Helgeson for roughing, the second on Seth Ambroz for roughing.<\/p>\n
A minute later, Anchorage tallied two quick goals. The first was a one-timer by Bailey from 15 feet directly in front of the net. The play was set up by two quick passes from Austin Caldwell and Jordan Kwas.<\/p>\n
The second was just 23 seconds later on a blocked shot that fell in the slot. Scott Allen made a quick turnaround shot, catching Patterson out of position. <\/p>\n
“They were really good on the power play this weekend [and] we are going to have to work on our PK,” Haula said.<\/p>\n
At 11:16, Zach Budish started the Gopher rally, completing a two-on-one rush with a one-time of a pass from Kyle Rau.<\/p>\n
“We had them back on their heels and then it flip flopped,” said Shyiak.<\/p>\n
Nick Bjugstad’s goal with 46 seconds left while on the power play tied the game headed into the third.<\/p>\n
“When you take that many penalties against a good team, sooner or later they’re going to score,” Shyiak said. “I thought the third goal for them was the key.”<\/p>\n
Minnesota started the scoring early as Jake Hansen redirected a shot by Ben Marshall from the point. Marshall’s shot was low. Hansen’s tip put the puck in the far upper corner of the net over the left shoulder of Kamal.<\/p>\n
Despite three power-play chances, the Gophers failed to extend the lead, giving the Seawolves hope entering the second period.<\/p>\n
The Gophers now await their opponent in the Friday night game of the WCHA tournament, while the loss ended the Seawolves’ season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
No. 5 Minnesota stormed back from a two-goal deficit midway through the game to rout Alaska-Anchorage 7-3, earning its first appearance at the WCHA Final Five since 2009. “It’s definitely very exciting, I can’t wait,” said Minnesota forward Erik Haula on his first trip to the Final Five. “I can’t say how excited our team […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":22374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[333],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15174"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15177,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15174\/revisions\/15177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15174"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=15174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}