Stellar work on the power play helped push No. 2 Minnesota past rival Wisconsin, 3-2, Friday night in WCHA hockey action in Madison.
The visiting Gophers (20-5-4 overall, 12-5-4 WCHA) scored three goals on the power play and owned a decisive shots-on-goal advantage all night, as they drew closer to first-place St. Cloud State in the conference standings. Minnesota, which outshot Wisconsin by a 43-30 margin, now has 28 points in the conference standings; St. Cloud State tops the WCHA with 31 points.
Minnesota seized a 2-1 advantage late in Friday's second period, after Nick Bjugstad blasted home a goal while benefitting from the man advantage.
"I just let it rip," Bjugstad said afterward, "and we were fortunate there."
With 7:12 left in the night's final stanza, Minnesota's Seth Ambroz handed his squad a decisive, 3-1 lead, when he trickled in a power-play score. Wisconsin pulled its goalie late and got a goal from Tyler Barnes with just 62 seconds remaining, but it wasn't enough for the Badgers, who dropped to 12-10-7 overall and 9-7-7 in conference play.
"It's a good rivalry with Wisconsin, and they've been playing awfully well right now," noted Minnesota head coach Don Lucia. "What I liked tonight was our second unit had two of our three goals."
Minnesota got 28 saves from netminder Adam Wilcox. Wisconsin also got a solid effort between the pipes, from Joel Rumpel (40 saves).
Minnesota and Wisconsin return to action Sunday at 3:30 p.m., in a unique outdoor game at Chicago's Soldier Field.
"Now we can turn our attention to that," Lucia said late Friday night. "It's a lot more fun to turn our attention to that game Sunday after tonight, I'll tell you that."
