Gophers sweep Bemidji St., clinch home ice for first round of playoffs

MINNEAPOLIS -- Erik Haula had two goals and an assist as the Gophers men's hockey team completed a sweep of Bemidji State with a 4-1 victory on Saturday night at Mariucci Arena.

The Gophers (21-11-1, 17-7-0) clinched home ice for the first round of the WCHA playoffs with the win and pulled two points ahead of second-place Minnesota-Duluth (20-7-5, 14-6-4) in the WCHA standings. The Gophers are now four points in front of third-place Denver (18-10-4, 13-7-4).

The Bulldogs skated to a 4-4 tie with Minnesota State, Mankato on Saturday and the Pioneers lost 5-2 at Wisconsin. The Gophers, Bulldogs and Pioneers all have four WCHA games left as they pursue the MacNaughton Cup.

"It was huge," the Gophers' Jake Hansen said of getting the sweep. "It's all about us now. Everything's in our hands. We just keep winning, we just keep playing great and we can accomplish everything we want to."

The skinny

The Beavers had been playing hot as of late, holding a record of 11-4-2 in their last 17 games, and 3-0-1 in their last four entering the weekend.

"We played two pretty good games," said Hansen, who, along with Seth Amgroz, also scored in the victory. "Even tonight, a little sloppy at times, but to win 4-1 against a team that's that hot right now is huge especially after last weekend."

The Gophers' sweep comes after getting swept for the first time last weekend in Denver.

"What I like about what our guys did," Gophers coach Don Lucia said, "is it was a difficult week in Denver last week, and we talked about how important it is to move on. The guys mentally and physically were able to do that and get four big points this weekend."

Not able to find the back of the net on Friday, the Gophers' second line -- consisting of Hansen, Haula and Sam Warning -- was responsible for three of the Gophers four goals.

"They were very good last night, even though they didn't show up in the score sheet," Lucia said of his second line. "We watched the video. They made a lot of great plays in the offensive zone, just there was no reward last night. Tonight they got rewarded."

Haula scored his first goal on the second shift of the game, picking up where the Gophers had left off in their 3-0 victory Friday over the Beavers.

The Gophers gave way to some sloppier play in the second half of the first period, taking two penalties and allowing a Beavers power play goal in the final five minutes of the period.

The Gophers started the second period in much the same fashion as the first, Hansen scoring just over two minutes into play. This time they did not let down.

Turning point

Brad Hunt's tying tally with under three minutes to play in the first period might have caused some to wonder if the Beavers were going to make this game more interesting than the teams' first match-up.

The Gophers answered with another quick tally to start the second period, and unlike the first period, did not let down and extended their lead to rule out the Beavers' hopes of stealing a point this weekend.

Numbers game

• 13: Shots had by the Beavers through two periods on Saturday, the total number of shots they on Friday. The Gophers had 13 shots in the second period alone Saturday.

• 21: Wins by the Gophers this season. It is the first time the Gophers have won 20 games since the 2006-2007 season. They won 16 games in 2010-2011.

• 9-1-0: Gophers' record against other Minnesota schools this season.

• 4-10-2: The Beavers' road record this season; they are 11-4-1 when playing in Bemidji.

Overheard

"Our line's been playing great; it's not just me. The guys are working hard to get me the chances and luckily I was able to put one in tonight... a couple, actually."

-- Haula said -- with a grin -- on contributing three points to the Gopher victory

Summary

First period

Gophers - Erik Haula (J. Hansen), 1:17

Beavers - Brad Hunt (M. Prapavessis, J. George), 17:14, power play

Second period

Gophers - Jake Hansen (J. Holl, Erik Haula), 2:05

Gophers - Erik Haula (K. Rau, N. Schmidt), 7:07, pp

Third period

Gophers - Seth Ambroz (N. Condon, S. Helgeson), 18:27

Shots: Gophers 11-13-8-32; Beavers 4-9-9-22. Saves: Gophers, Kent Patterson (21-22); Huskies, Dan Bakala (29-31). Power plays: Gophers 1-for-2, Beavers 1-for-2.

Three stars

1. Jake Hansen

2. Erik Haula

3. Kent Patterson

Coming up

The Gophers will hit the road for their second to last weekend series of the regular season against Nebraska Omaha (Feb. 24-25) before returning to Mariucci to face Wisconsin on March 2-3.