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Lucky for the Gophers (12-12-7, 6-10-6), Anderson felt better when he woke up this morning.
The junior blue-liner notched the game-tying goal 11 minutes into the third period when he unleashed a shot from beyond the face-off circle in the Gophers offensive zone.
The shot just slipped past senior goalie Peter Mannino with a little help by senior forward Ben Gordon.
Gordon was crowding the crease during the shot ñ which caused the goal to be reviewed and eventually upheld for Anderson’s fifth goal of the year.
“I knew the team needed me, and I had to gut it out,” Anderson said. “I felt good when I got up and it was nice to get the skate under my belt this morning. If I didn’t feel like I was going to help the team tonight, I wouldn’t have played.”
Minnesota is lucky he did.
Without Anderson’s goal, the Gophers would have been in a pinch to comeback after freshman forward Tyler Bozak put the Pioneers (18-8-1, 12-6-1) up 1-0 in the second.
The freshman stole the puck off of sophomore defenseman David Fischer’s stick during a Minnesota power-play and took it all the way in before slipping a shot underneath freshman goalie Alex Kangas.
The goal was Kozak’s fourth shorthanded score of the year ñ ranking him second in the nation.
But the Gophers came out strong in the third period ñ a time where they usually struggle to keep their intensity up.
“I just like the way we tried to win the game in the third period and in overtime,” coach Don Lucia said.
When asked about Anderson’s goal, Lucia said goals like that were what the team has been working on lately.
“I think it went off of a rear-end, but we’ll take it,” Lucia said. “That’s what we’ve been talking about, just trying to get in front of the net and get some traffic and rebounds.
Minnesota suffered a setback in the third however when sophomore forward Jay Barriball pulled up lame ñ he hobbled to the locker room favoring his leg.
Lucia couldn’t comment on Barriball’s status, saying it was too early to tell.
When the rest of regulation ended in a scoring draught, Minnesota went to its fourth overtime in a row ñ it ended the extra period with the same result, no win.
After tying a school record for consecutive overtimes in a row, Anderson said the team needs to get wins if it wants to climb up in the standings.
“Our season is riding on every shift basically because we’ve dug ourselves a pretty big hole,” Anderson said. “We have to play desperate every time we touch the ice.”
1 2 3 OT Final Minnesota 0 1 0 0 1 Denver 0 0 1 0 1
Scoring:
First ñ No scoring.
Second ñ 1. DU, Bozak (unassisted) 11:04 (sh).
Third ñ 2. MN, Anderson (Wehrs) 8:59 (ev).
OT ñ No Scoring.
Saves:
Minnesota ñ Kangas 9-6-6-4-25
Denver ñ Mannino 12-5-14-3-34
