It took 53 games, but David Fischer finally scored his first collegiate goal tonight in a 3-0 Minnesota win over Alaska Anchorage.

The sophomore defenseman lifted a less-than-spectacular shot from the point that beat a screened Seawolves sophomore net-minder Jon Olthuis high on the glove side at the 16:50 mark of the first period.

“It’s been like a year-and-a-half since I’ve scored a goal, so I had to take advantage of it,” Fischer said. “To watch that twine snap in the back of the net, it’s a pretty special feeling to score a goal in this building.”

Fischer’s early goal came in a game that was otherwise fairly lack-luster in the first two periods apart from the amount of penalties that both teams failed to capitalize on.

A total of nine penalties were called in the game with eight solid power-play opportunities between the two teams.

But neither team could manage to score on the advantage. The Gophers were 0-for-4 and the Seawolves went 0-for-5.

I thought we did what we had to do to try and win a game on the road,” Seawolves coach Dave Shyiak said. “We had the table set for the third period.”

But Alaska Anchorage never could quite find the back of the net although it had several shots go just wide or hit the post.

Finally, there was a little more action during the third period when the Gophers made it 2-0 at the 9:32.

After a give-and-go with sophomore forward Jay Barriball took Olthuis out of position, all sophomore forward Kyle Okposo had to do was tap the puck in for his fourth goal of the year.

And then just over three minutes later, junior forward Blake Wheeler snuck a shot in with assists from senior forward Ben Gordon and freshman forward Patrick White.

And while the two security goals added to the deficit, Minnesota wouldn’t need any more room to work as junior goalie Jeff Frazee picked up his first shutout of the season and fourth of his career.

The junior was relatively untested stopping 24 shots on only a handful of potential scoring chances, but picking up Minnesota’s first shutout of the season deserves respect no less.

“I knew it was going to be a close game,” Frazee said. “Their goaltender played really well, really solid the whole game. I just wanted to keep our team up by a goal at minimum.”