The Minnesota Gophers started B1G Ten Conference play last night at home against the pesky Penn State Nittany Lions. The Gophers have cruised through their schedule up to this point with a 5-1-0 (W-L-T) record overall. The only blotch was a 2-1 Overtime Loss to Omaha in the IceBreaker Tournament on October 12th. In the other 5 games, they’ve outscored their opponents 32 to 12!

That’s why Minnesota Gophers head coach Bob Motzko said this during pregame to answer the question, “How do you think things are going?”:

“This team needs to get punched in the mouth so we can see how they respond.”
Gophers Head Coach Bob Motzko

Ooh… I like that!

Penn State was 4-1-0 and scored 17 goals while allowing 9 goals against.

Hey! Enough with all these words. Let’s…

Drop the

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Here’s how the teams lined up for the 1st game of this in-state battle home & home series that began at Mariucci Arena:

Minnesota Gophers

Penn State Nittany Lions

Game Recap

Penn State came into the game with a perfect Penalty Kill so far this season at 23-for-23 so maybe they were trying to show it off because they took an early high-sticking penalty and their penalty kill looked very good. The Gophers had some shots but didn’t score.

Gopher D John Whipple was called for Contact to the Head at 11:59 of the 1st period and it was reviewed to see if it should be a major penalty. It didn’t look bad enough for that but… you never know with reviews. They called it a 2-minute minor for Elbowing. The Gophers killed it off.

Penn State F Reese Laubach was called for tripping with 2:49 remaining in the 1st period. The Gophers were trying to figure out how to get around the Penn State penalty kill and as the penalty expired, Gopher D Mike Koster tried to take a shot but it was blocked by Penn State F Alex Servagno. He then swatted at the puck to try to clear the zone and Laubach, who had just been released from hockey prison, was there to help. He caught the puck and threw it behind his back then used his speed to get a breakaway and he beat Gopher G Nathan Airey through the five-hole. 

Goal – Penn State – Reese Laubach (4) from Alex Servagno (1)

This is a heckuva play by both Penn State players. The block was a kick block (or save) from Servagno and then the swat was contended by Mike Koster so the puck popped up in the air and Laubach caught it. Then speed killed. It’s hard to fault the defense here, besides saying they aren’t fast enough. It’s just a great block and play to get the breakaway.

Penn State Nittany Lions 1 | 0 Minnesota Gophers

The 1st period maybe wasn’t a “punch in the mouth”  but the Gophers were down one as Penn State played them tough the whole period then got the late goal.

The Gophers came out with a purpose to begin the 2nd period and it didn’t take long to see results from it. After a turnover in the neutral zone by Penn State, the Gophers missed on a pass in the offensive zone but they forechecked hard to get the puck back and F Brody Lamb tried to pass to F Erik Påhlsson in front of the net. He missed it but F Jimmy Snuggerud saw the loose puck and got to it and shot it as quickly as possible and tied the game up just 1:36 into the 2nd period.

Goal – Minnesota – Jimmy Snuggerud (2) from Brody Lamb (4) & Erik Påhlsson (2)

Defensively, make a better play in the neutral zone and know where you want to go with the puck before you get to it. The neutral zone play was a hope play as the player thought he could get it to his forward but it didn’t work because the Gopher player was in the position to disrupt that play.

Offensively, Gopher G Erik Påhlsson skated hard to get to the Penn State defenseman to force him to make a quick decision and quick play. This is what you want from your team because when a player has to make a play faster than they want to, that’s when mistakes happen. Speed can work for you in many ways.

Penn State Nittany Lions 1 | 1 Minnesota Gophers

Gopher F was going to the boards as the puck was coming to him and Penn State F Matt DiMarsico was coming in to check him and Kurth’s jersey numbers are facing him which means you better use some kind of caution if you’re going to hit him and DiMarsico didn’t so…

5-minute Major & Game Ejection for Checking from Behind

Penn State took an Inteference penalty with just 13 seconds remaining in the 5-minute major penalty but their Penalty Kill was doing its job as they killed off 7 minutes of power play time for the Gophers.

Make that 9 minutes after killing off a Too Many Men on the Ice penalty.

Then they took a hooking penalty as if they were trying to see how many different penalties can we get called for without repeating one. “Let’s see. We have high-sticking, tripping, boarding, Too Many Men… what else is there? Oh… Hooking! We don’t have a hooking penalty yet!” And it was former Wild F Jimmy Dowd’s kid, Jimmy Dowd, Jr. who took that one.

This time the Gophers made them pay and scored the first Power Play Goal against Penn State with a tip from Jimmy Snuggerud in front of the net that put the Gophers up 2-1.

Minnesota – Jimmy Snuggerud (3) from Sam Rinzel (5) & Matthew Wood (10)

Penn State Nittany Lions 1 | 2 Minnesota Gophers

The Gophers knew a big push was coming in the 3rd period from Penn State because that’s who they are but also because it’s the B1G Ten Conference so they had to play good defense in order to secure their 1st conference win of the season.

They were doing a good job and it came to the point of Penn State pulling their goalie. Gopher F Connor Kurth was still forechecking hard and he forced a turnover that deflected to F Jimmy Clark and he shot it immediately since the net was empty. Penn State D Simon Mack tried to stop it with his stick but it deflected off of it and went into the net.

Minnesota – Jimmy Clark (2) from Connor Kurth (7)

Weirdly, Penn State didn’t have much of a sense of urgency in their end with an empty net. Why are you trying to block a shot with your stick? Get down and block a shot! And why not try to get to the puck to keep a shot from happening? It’s easy to second guess but it’s like they didn’t know their net was empty.

Penn State Nittany Lions 1 | 3 Minnesota Gophers

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FINAL

Penn State Nittany Lions 1 | 3 Minnesota Gophers

Goals:

MN:
Jimmy Snuggerud (2, 3); Jimmy Clark (2)
PS:
Reese Laubach (4)

Assists

MN:
Brody Lamb (4), Erik Påhlsson (2); Sam Rinzel (5), Matthew Wood (10); Connor Kurth (7)
PS:
Alex Servagno (1)

Goalies:

MN:
Nathan Airey:
20 Saves on 21 Shots; .952 Save %; 2.00 GAA; 4th Win
PS:
Arsenii Sergeev:
29 Saves on 31 Shots; .935 Save %; 1.83 GAA; 2nd Loss

Game Notes

So… we did get to see how the Gophers would respond after a tough 1st period. Their one loss came in overtime so the only response you could maybe look at is how they played their next game, a 7-5 victory over in-state rival University of Minnesota-Duluth. That score doesn’t really tell the whole story though. They led 4-0 after the 1st period of that game then led 5-1 after the 2nd but were outscored 4-2 in the 3rd. So… another chance to respond after a bad 3rd or, at the very least, a lesson to keep playing your game because this is Division-1 College Hockey and teams aren’t going to stop playing.

They beat UMD 5-1 the next night. Consider that a pretty good response. What we believe Bob Motzko meant is they’ve had it pretty easy from an offensive point of view and that won’t always be the case. 

A lesson I need to remember every season is that in college hockey, there are a lot of changes from season to season so it’s always a new team and each season, every team has players who are either new to college hockey or new to your team so there’s a learning process that takes time.

Coach Motzko’s Comments

“I liked how we responded tonight,” Minnesota head coach Bob Motzko said. “In the first period, (Penn State) had all the energy and they were beating us to pucks as we were kind of standing around. I didn’t like our first period. Our game kept getting better and I thought we had a terrific third period.”

Stars of the Game

Next up:  
Same Puck Teams: Penn State vs Gophers
Same Puck Place: 3M at Mariucci Arena
Same Puck Time: 7:00 pm
Same Puck Channel: Fox9+

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