ST. CLOUD, Minn. âÄî Sam Warning entered SaturdayâÄôs game at St. Cloud State with just three goals on the season. He hadnâÄôt scored since late October.
He added a crucial fourth tally against the Huskies this weekend to seal the GophersâÄô first sweep since early December.
Warning shelved the game-winning goal with less than two minutes remaining and led No. 3 Minnesota (19-9-1, 15-5-0 WCHA), to a 3-2 road victory Saturday in St. Cloud.
âÄúItâÄôs been a long time so it felt pretty sweet, but I thought the two points was bigger than the goal,âÄù Warning said.
Warning has been in and out of the lineup this season and was a healthy scratch just last weekend against Colorado College. His play against the Huskies may have solidified his spot in the lineup.
âÄúHeâÄôs a good player, but at times heâÄôs lacked confidence,âÄù MinnesotaâÄôs head coach Don Lucia said. âÄúI thought HaulaâÄôs line was our best line all weekend long. It was only fitting in some ways that Sam got the game-winner.âÄù
Warning, Erik Haula and Jake Hansen make up the second line âÄî a line that imposed its will in the series.
Haula, Hansen and Warning accounted for six points and all three broke out of their goal-scoring slumps over the weekend.
âÄúWe need [HaulaâÄôs] line to play like they did tonight âÄî it just makes our team so much better,âÄù Lucia said Saturday. âÄúThey were our best line last night, and they were probably our best line tonight.âÄù
Hansen got Minnesota going early Friday and scored to open the first period to give the team a 1-0 lead.
Ben Hanowski answered in the second period and did what the Gophers have been unable to do on the power play in recent weeks âÄî score. The Gophers were 0-for-3 with the man advantage Friday.
Despite the ineptitude on the power play, the Gophers retook the lead in the second period and never looked back.
Hansen raced into the zone and set up Nick Bjugstad to give the Gophers a 2-1 lead they never relinquished.
âÄúIt was a backdoor tap in,âÄù Bjugstad said. âÄúIt was wide open for me, and I almost missed it. I knew it was coming âĦ and luckily it went in.âÄù
SCSU recorded only one shot in the third period, which made any hopes of a comeback nearly impossible.
Minnesota was in the passing and shooting lanes all night and blocked 13 shots in total.
âÄúWe didnâÄôt get many shots, but I thought the key was all the shots they blocked,âÄù SCSU head coach Bob Motzko said. âÄúThey went into the lane with a purpose.âÄù
The Gophers replicated that defensive mentality Saturday and drastically outshot the Huskies 46-12 en route to a 3-2 victory.
Ryan Faragher recorded more than 40 saves for the fourth time this season, but it wasnâÄôt enough.
Despite the HuskiesâÄô abysmal 25 shots in the series, Hanowski scored efficiently and netted a goal midway through the first period Saturday to take a 1-0 lead.
The Gophers finally broke through on the power play in the second period after a nearly month-long struggle. They went 2-for-2 on the power play in the period âÄî Ben Marshall and Haula both scored to give Minnesota a 2-1 lead.
âÄúObviously, we caught St. Cloud at a good time when they had some injuries but to our kidsâÄô credit, we took advantage of it, and I thought we played a really good game tonight throughout our lineup,âÄù Lucia said Saturday.
HaulaâÄôs goal came on a feed from Nate Schmidt and Kyle Rau and silenced the announced crowd of 6,102.
Hanowski soon got the crowd back into it.
He was the only player on the HuskiesâÄô roster to score in the series and evened the score at 2-2.
Hanowski put a puck on net from a near-impossible angle, but it deflected off the side of the net and Kent PattersonâÄôs stick and into the net.
Similar to Friday night, SCSU struggled to put the puck on net in the third period.
The HuskiesâÄô recorded only three shots in the final frame, but FaragherâÄôs stellar play kept the game tied.
Warning, however, would not be denied on his team-leading seventh shot of the game.
âÄúI give all the credit to Justin Holl,âÄù Warning said. âÄúHe made a good pass to me backdoor and all I had to do was put it in the back of the net.
âÄúIt wasnâÄôt going my way there for a little bit, but I kept in there and hung on and ended up getting one at the end of the game.âÄù
SCSU (10-14-4, 7-10-3 WCHA) nearly tied it after it pulled Faragher to gain the extra attacker but hit the post in the waning seconds.
Minnesota-Duluth did not win a game over the weekend, and the Gophers opened up a five-point lead in the WCHA with the series sweep.
âÄúIâÄôve said it,âÄù Lucia said. âÄúLetâÄôs just worry about ourselves.âÄù
Minnesota will have next weekend off before traveling to Denver in two weeks.