DULUTH, Minn. – No. 4 Minnesota Duluth scored four unanswered goals to earn a 4-1 win over the Omaha hockey team on Saturday night, sweeping their NCHC Quarterfinal series.
The Mavericks season came to an end at 9-24-3 while the Bulldogs improve to 23-11-2 and move on to the NCHC Frozen Faceoff in St. Paul, Minn. next weekend.
The Mavericks opened the scoring at 9:40 of the first.
Fredrik Olofsson cleared the puck from the UNO zone, sparking a 2-on-1 break.
Mason Morelli fed
Taylor Ward who zipped a shot over the glove hand of Hunter Shepard for his ninth goal of the year.
UMD countered a little more than two minutes later. Mikey Anderson's shot from the right point ricocheted to Jackson Cates at the left post. He fired the puck past a diving
Evan Weninger at 11:46.
The Bulldogs took their first lead of the game on a power play at 7:14 of the second period when Kobe Roth tipped in a shot by Mikey Anderson.
UMD doubled the advantage on a goal with just 5.8 seconds to go in the second. Justin Richards set up Cole Koepke who fired a shot just under the crossbar, making it 3-1.
Peter Krieger added a goal at 6:11 of the third period to complete the scoring.
The Bulldogs outshot the Mavericks, 33-19. Weninger finished with 29 saves while Shepard made 18 for UMD.
GAME NOTES:
- Ward's goal stopped a string of eight straight games in which the Mavericks had allowed the first goal.
- Weninger finished his career first in school history in both career shutouts (8) and saves (3,260).
- In addition to Weninger, the game marked the end of the college careers of seniors Alex Blankenburg, Lukas Buchta, Riley Alferd, Mason Morelli, Jalen Schulz, Ryan Galt, Steven Spinner and Fredrik Olofsson.
- The Mavericks were 0-for-4 on the power play while UMD went 1-for-6.
- The Mavericks fell to 2-12 all-time in NCHC Playoff games.
