Sheehy Leads Gophers Over Michigan
MINNEAPOLIS (GopherSports.com) – Five Gophers tallied multi-point games including a three-point night from leading scorer Tyler Sheehy as the No. 9 Gopher Hockey program picked up a 5-2 conference win over Michigan on Friday night.
The Gophers (12-5-2 overall, 4-1-0-0 Big Ten) have now won five-straight games and seven of the last eight after multi-point games from Sheehy, Ryan Collins, Rem Pitlick, Tommy Novak and Leon Bristedt.
Sheehy led the way for Minnesota with two goals and an assist as the sophomore has now notched a point in 10 of the last 11 games. The forward leads the Maroon & Gold with a career-high 14 goals and 28 points through just 19 games – Sheehy needs two points to tie his rookie point total.
After Michigan (8-10-1, 1-4-0-0) struck first when Max Shuart scored at 8:57 of the first period, the Gophers dominated the remainder of the period including three-straight goals to close out the opening stanza. Pitlick scored the equalizer with his third of the year at 14:19 followed just over two minutes later by Novak’s fifth of the year at 16:29.
Mike Szmatula flipped in the eventual game winner with less than two seconds left in the first period for his seventh of the year. Collins and Bristedt set up the final two goals of the first period as Collins recorded his second career multi-point game.
The Wolverines cut the lead back to one when Brendan Warren scored a shorthanded goal at 6:58 of the second, but Sheehy added a goal late in the second (18:01) and a power-play score midway through the third (11:25) to close out the win.
Eric Schierhorn picked up the victory for the Gophers, making 22 saves to move to 12-5-2 on the year.
Minnesota held its opponent without a power-play goal for the fifth-straight game as the penalty kill went 2-for-2 (the Gophers are 9-0-1 this year when they don’t surrender a power-play goal) while the power-play unit went 1-for-6 and scored a goal on the advantage for the fourth-straight games. Shots were 45-24 in favor of the Maroon & Gold.