FINAL SCORE: Minnesota 4, St. Cloud 2

FIRST PERIOD

1-0 Minnesota-Nick Bjugstad gives the Gophers an early lead when he picks up a loose puck out front and scores. (Rau, Isackson)

1-1 St. Cloud-Joey Benik notches the first goal of his career when he rips one past Gopher goalie Adam Wilcox 14:48 into the first period. (Thorson)

First period notes:

-Zack Budish had TWO goals waived off during the first period for goalie interference.
-Wilcox stoned Andrew Prochno just one minute into the game on a great line-rush.
-Ben Hanowski hit the post three minutes into the game for St. Cloud.
-On top of his two goals being waived off, Budish also hit a post in the period.
-Shots were 9-7 Minnesota. Faceoffs were 12-8 Minnesota.

SECOND PERIOD

2-1 Minnesota-Erik Haula comes down the wing on his off hand, and then quickly snaps one under the blocker of Ryan Faragher. (Alt)

Second period notes:

-St. Cloud's third defensive pairing of Tim Daly and Taylor Johnson is really struggling to keep pace with the Gophers.
-Seth Helgeson dove to break up a line-rush from the Huskies. Great play by Helgeson.
-Gophers' top two lines are pretty much a fluid situation right now. Haula started the game on the top line on the wing, but has spent time at center between Budish and Warning. Haula also centered a shift with Warning and Condon as his wingers.
-LeBlanc and Hanowski had a two-on-zero late in the period, but LeBlanc passed it to Hanowski instead of shooting. Hanowski was on his wrong hand and couldn't get a shot off.
-With under a minute to play, Faragher stopped Haula on a break twice as he cut across the front of his net.

THIRD PERIOD

2-2 St. Cloud-Drew LeBlanc evens this one up on the power play as he rips a shot from the point past Wilcox for his 9th goal of the season. Lot of energy in the building at this point. (Kossila, Jensen)

3-2 Minnesota-Haula nets his second of the night on a two-on-one. Great play by Nate Schmidt picking up the loose puck and starting the transition the other way. Schmidt carries the puck the length of the ice and dishes it to Haula who cuts back against the grain on Faragher for the 3-2 Gopher lead. (Schmidt)

4-2 Minnesota-St. Cloud native Nate Schmidt extends the Gophers' lead by two goals as he absolutely hammers a slap shot past Faragher from the faceoff circle. (Skjei, Rau)

Third period notes:

-Erik Haula broke a tuuk on his skate that had to be replaced early in the period. The equipment manager had to run across the ice to the locker room and find him a backup skate, and then run back out to the bench to give it to him. Then the poor equipment guy had to take the broken skate back to the locker room, fix it, and bring it back out for Haula to wear. He missed about five minutes of action.

-Outstanding transition on Haula's second goal from Schmidt. Shocking how quick the Gophers can turn things around the other way on opportunities like that.

-The Nic Dowd line had a really nice shift down two goals with about six minutes remaining, but couldn't find the back of the net.

-St. Cloud's Jimmy Murray had a clean break away with a little over three minutes to play, but Adam Wilcox was solid in the net and shut him down.