Gophers win season opener over Lindenwood
Power-play goals from Jaxon Nelson and Logan Cooley pushed the No. 2-ranked University of Minnesota men’s hockey team to a 4-0 season-opening victory over Lindenwood Saturday night from 3M Arena at Mariucci.
The Maroon and Gold (1-0-0 overall) celebrated Homecoming in style during the first game of the 2022-23 campaign getting a three-point night from Cooley in his college hockey debut and a 16-save shutout from senior goaltender Justen Close. It was the fourth time Close held an opponent off the scoresheet in his career.
The Gophers opened the scoring on their first man advantage of the contest as Nelson ripped home a one-timer from the right circle in what turned out to be his fourth career game-winning goal. Matthew Knies made a slick feed over to Nelson 20 seconds into the power play, while Cooley picked up his first collegiate point on the secondary assist.
Cooley made it a 2-0 lead early in the second period as the Pittsburgh, Pa., native flipped a backhand past the Lions goaltender off a rebound from a Rhett Pitlick chance. Ryan Chesley tallied an assist on the play in his first outing for the Maroon and Gold six minutes into the second stanza.
Close had to come up with a post-to-post save for Minnesota keeping the visitors off the scoreboard a minute later before the Gophers tacked on their second power-play marker of the night. This time Knies redirected a Nelson pass into the top corner stretching the margin to 3-0 at the 12:14 mark with Jackson LaCombe also picking up an assist.
The Lions generated some momentum after killing off a five-minute major penalty that carried over into the third frame as they were whistled for a slew footing match infraction late in the second.
Holding a three-goal lead in the final frame, Cooley added his second goal of the night, again on the backhand, as he sped behind the Lindenwood defense and showed off his quick hands going forehand to backhand in a flash. Pitlick and Ryan Johnson were credited with assists on the play as Pitlick registered the third multi-assist performance of his Gophers career.
Minnesota closed the night holding a 34-16 edge in shots on goal and killed off all three penalties it was assessed, while finishing 2-for-5 on the power play.
Noteworthy
Four different players recorded multi-point nights for the Gophers coming from Cooley, Knies, Nelson and Pitlick … Aaron Huglen won a team-best 59 percent (10-of-17) of his faceoffs … Minnesota had nine freshmen make their first appearances in a college hockey game accounting for a plus-six rating combined … The Oct. 1 game date was the earliest game ever played in the 102-year history of Gopher hockey … Saturday marked the first-ever NCAA men’s hockey game for the Lindenwood program.
Coach Motzko’s Comments
“We liked a lot of things we saw, there’s an arrow pointing in the direction of things we need to get better at, exciting with a couple of the young guys, but it was a good hockey game,” Minnesota head coach Bob Motzko said. “We’re real pleased after game one because it gives us a starting point of what we got to do moving forward.”
Next Up: Home vs. Lindenwood
The Gophers close the season-opening series against the Lions Sunday night at 7 p.m.