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Gophers take down Huskies in season's final weekend
 Media Credit: Christine Johnson/Editor SCSU student Karl Kise cheers after the Huskies scored their first goal Friday at the National Hockey Center in the weekend series against the University of Minnesota Gophers. The second-ranked Huskies lost the game, 5-4, and then lost again Saturday, 3-1, at Mariucci Arena.
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 Media Credit: Christine Johnson/Editor Gopher defense Matt DiMarchi plows into SCSU forward Nate DiCasmirro Saturday at Mariucci Arena. The Huskies lost 3-1 Saturday after losing 5-4 Friday at the National Hockey Center. The Huskies start playoffs Friday at the NHC.
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It took Craig Dahl all of about 15 seconds to offer up an explanation as to what went wrong this weekend for his team following Saturday night's 3-1 loss to Minnesota. He stepped out of the locker room, glanced at the contingent of media waiting for him, and told it like it truly was.
"Usually when we play Minnesota, it's like 20 dogs that haven't been fed for three weeks and fresh meat is on the other side of the ice," he said. "You seriously have to question our will to win."
The Huskies, who also lost 5-4 Friday night at the National Hockey Center, suffered their first sweep of the season. Even more agonizing to the players and coaches was that they decided to wait until the last regular season weekend to do it.
"That's certainly not the way we wanted to end the season," said forward Ryan Malone, who scored the team's only goal on Saturday. "I doubt we will even see pucks in practice for a couple days, the coaches are pretty (mad)."
And rightfully so. Both nights, the Huskies waited until the third period to wake up. They outshot the Gophers a combined 27-13 in the two third periods, but were out shot 39-29 in the other four periods played this weekend.
"We just weren't good anywhere on the ice until late in the third period when the game is on the line," said Dahl. "We should have played like that 40 minutes earlier."
Friday night at the NHC, while the Huskies were going through their senior night festivities, Gopher assistant coach Bob Motzko walked into his team's locker room, took a glance around and returned outside to meet with head coach Don Lucia.
"Bob walked in there and then came back, looks at me and he said 'They are ready'" Lucia said after the game. "We are a much better team when we are ready to go."
Motzko was right, the Gophers were ready. They scored three times in the first 20 minutes to open up a 3-1 lead. The first came on a powerplay goal from Grant Potulny 1:50 in. Then at the 6:22 mark, Troy Riddle finished off a two-on-none breakaway that included Nick Anthony.
Mark Hartigan got the Huskies on the board with just under five minutes to play in the first, but Barry Tallackson silenced the crowd almost immediately, scoring from a near impossible angle just 31 seconds after Hartigan's goal.
"That one was big," Lucia said. "We wanted to keep the crowd out of it and just when they scored, we were able to come back down and get it back."
Minnesota then scored twice in the first two minutes of the second period. Jeff Taffe pounded home a pass from John Pohl while the Gophers had a five-on-three advantage 19 seconds into the period. Then Nick Angell blasted a shot from the point that squeezed through Jake Moreland's legs to make it 5-1.
Moreland was on in relief of Dean Weasler after the first.
"We dug ourselves into too deep of a hole," said Husky captain Jon Cullen. "We made too many mistakes and tonight we weren't able to get them back."
The Huskies did get close, though. Cullen scored a powerplay goal late in the second to make it a three-goal game after two. Matt Hendricks scored on a breakaway 5:11 into the third to make it 5-3 and just 1:27 after that, Hartigan swept home a rebound off a Derek Eastman shot to make it a one goal game, but that would be as close as they would get.
"There was a lot of time left when they made it 5-4," said Pohl, who entered the weekend tied with Hartigan for the national scoring lead. "But the last six minutes seemed to go by really fast and there weren't many whistles and I think that really favored us."
Saturday night was Minnesota's turn to pay tribute to their seniors, but in Minnesota's case, those seniors would make the difference. Jordan Leopold set up the game-winner. Pohl scored the third goal on an excellent individual effort and Adam Hauser would turn away 25 shots, including 13 in the third period, as the Gophers pulled off the sweep with a 3-1 win in front of an arena record crowd of 10,248.
After a scoreless first period, Matt Koalska got things going in the second, splitting the Huskies' defense and beating Moreland with a backhand 2:02 into the period. Matt Gens was called for holding a minute later and the Gophers responded with a goal 34 seconds into the man advantage. Paul Martin's shot from the point beat a screened Moreland to make it 2-0.
Pohl scored early in the third and the Huskies got on the board at the 2:25 mark on a 5-on-3 powerplay goal from Malone. They had a number of opportunities to close the gap to a single goal, but Hauser was up to the task.
"This weekend doesn't give us the license to think we can beat them every time we show up," Hauser said. "It gives us the confidence to know that we can beat them, it gives us the confidence to know that even though they are ahead of us in the conference standings and the national rankings, we are right there with them."
Hauser also said he felt fresher at this point of the season compared to how he felt around this time the last couple of years, thanks mostly to a lighter load while splitting time earlier in the year.
In the other net though, there might be a controversy stemming. Moreland has impressed his coaches in practice and in his last appearances, but Dahl said that goaltending is the least of his concerns right now.
"Both of them are very good and Dean just went through that thing with the (flu)," Dahl said. "And Jake played great tonight, so I am not worried about the goaltending, I'm more worried about what kind of character we are going to show in the playoffs."
They will find out next weekend with a series with Minnesota-Duluth. The best-of-three will start Friday night at the NHC.
Around the rink
- Mark Hartigan's national status is still on the rise. The nation's leading scorer was featured in Sports Illustrated this week. SI picked the junior to win the Hobey Baker over New Hampshire's Darren Haydar.
- Another Hartigan note. After entering the weekend tied with John Pohl for the national scoring race, the Fort St. John, B.C. native moved ahead of the former Minnesota Mr. Hockey winner with his four-point performance night on Friday. Pohl had a pair of assists Friday and a goal Saturday. Hartigan, who didn't score Saturday, laid claim to the WCHA scoring championship as well.
- In each of their appearances at Mariucci Arena this season, the Huskies-Gophers game has set attendance records. On this night, 10,248 fans showed up. With the 6,685 at the National Hockey Center on Friday, a grand total of 16,933 people watched the weekend series.
Nick Clark can be reached at: [email protected]
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