Las Vegas bookmakers have been known to offer their clients some rather inane wagers during Super Bowl week — the over-under on the number of trips Packers nose tackle Gilbert Brown would make to the oxygen tank, for instance, or the weight, in pounds, of the sod that Denver quarterback John Elway will remove from his teeth during the game.
But here’s one they missed: Who will score more points — the Broncos in the Super Bowl or the Gophers men’s hockey team in its series with Minnesota-Duluth?
Prior to this weekend, Denver looked like the safe bet. But with a pair of breakthrough games, the Gophers did their best to keep it close.
Minnesota swept the Bulldogs, 7-1 and 6-5, and in the process jumped to seventh place — three points behind fifth-place Minnesota-Duluth.
“This is huge,” said Gophers captain Casey Hankinson. “It came down to the wire, but it’s awesome. It was a win we were supposed to have, and it felt great to get the sweep.”
Despite dealing with flu symptoms before and during Friday’s game and dislocating his thumb in the second period on Saturday, Hankinson was back for the Gophers this weekend after suffering a hip pointer last Friday.
“The flu was probably the worst last night,” said Hankinson, who recorded his 50th career assist in the opener and surpassed the 100-point mark the following night. “The hip was the worst tonight, and then (the thumb). But, oh well, we’ve got to win.”
Senior Ryan Kraft also returned to the lineup after missing the last seven games with a broken left hand, giving the Gophers their biggest complement of players in a month.
It showed. The Gophers’ seven goals on Friday were a season high, as was the six-goal margin of victory.
“We’ve been through a lot of stuff this season,” said junior forward Reggie Berg, who had five points (three goals, two assists) this weekend, “but this week things seemed to keep building and building for us. Hopefully, we’ve showed we can pull through it and look forward to the rest of the season.”
The “stuff” of which Berg spoke is Minnesota’s prolonged scoring slump and the string of injuries to key players. But with the resurgence of the Gophers’ top line of Hankinson, Wyatt Smith and Dave Spehar and Kraft again at the point on the power play, Minnesota was primed for a turnaround.
The Gophers spread the wealth this weekend, as 13 of the 16 players in uniform (excluding goaltenders) had at least a point on Friday. Spehar and Berg each had two goals and an assist on Friday, and sophomore Rico Pagel, who had only two goals and two assists all season, had four assists in the series.
Saturday provided more of the same. Berg gave the Gophers a lead they wouldn’t relinquish with a brilliant end-to-end power play goal early in the first period. Spehar scored his third and fourth goals of the series, but was upstaged by senior defenseman Brett Abrahamson, who had the first two-goal game of his Gophers career.
“I didn’t even know what my lineup was going to be until we got to the rink,” Minnesota coach Doug Woog said after Friday’s shellacking. “So if I told you I knew what was going to happen, it would be folly.”
As has rarely been the case this season, the Gophers experienced some good luck. The score of Friday’s game could have easily been similar to Saturday’s, as the puck routinely danced in the crease around goalie Steve DeBus.
But as the puck was cleared out of the Gophers zone, so slid away the Bulldogs’ hopes for a sweep of their own — one that would have all but destroyed Minnesota’s chances for a finish in the top five of the WCHA.
Things started off equally bad for Minnesota-Duluth on Saturday, as the Gophers opened a 4-0 lead early in the second period. But where the Bulldogs might have sauntered before, they streaked. With five minutes remaining in the third period, they cut the score to 6-5.
A series of frenzied attacks by Minnesota-Duluth in the closing moments came up short, however, and the Gophers’ first sweep of a WCHA team since eliminating Alaska-Anchorage in the playoffs last season was complete.
The Gophers made it through a make-or-break series, and did so with a club operating at less than 100 percent. With a week to recuperate before traveling to Michigan Tech, Minnesota is back in the race.
“We have to play through some adversity and pain and suffering,” Woog said. “We’ve suffered mentally and on the scoreboard, so it’s nice to come back and have the guys work hard and get some results.”
SCORING SUMMARIES
FRIDAY’S GAME
UMD 1 0 0 — 1
Gophers 3 1 3 — 7
FIRST PERIOD:
Minn — Berg (Anderson, Kohn), PPG 4:58. Minn — Spehar (Hankinson, Kraft), PPG 8:45. UMD — Peluso (Doell, Rybar), 13:53. Minn — Berg (Miskovich, Abrahamson), 17:47.
SECOND PERIOD:
Minn — Senden (Pagel, Spehar), 7:50.
THIRD PERIOD:
Minn — Spehar (Hankinson, Pagel), 4:01. Minn — Westrum (Kraft, Smith), PPG 9:36.
Minn — N. Miller (Berg, Pagel), 10:47.
SATURDAY’S GAME
UMD 0 2 3 — 5
Gophers 3 2 1 — 6
FIRST PERIOD:
Minn — Berg (unassisted), 4:57. Minn — Spehar (Smith, Hankinson), PPG 16:01. Minn — Miskovich (Berg, Kohn), 16:17.
SECOND PERIOD:
Minn — Abrahamson (Kohn), :16. UMD — Rybar (Peluso, Doell), PPG 9:33. UMD — Peluso (Rybar), 12:38. Minn — Spehar (Hankinson, Smith), 19:06.
THIRD PERIOD:
UMD — Coole (Scissons, Bois), PPG 3:39. Minn — Abrahamson (Pagel, Kraft), 5:40. UMD — Dzikowski (Peluso), 12:30.