Gophers win 2-1, Carman gets game-winner.

Published January 19, 2008

The Apple Valley native missed the first half of the year due to academic ineligibility and looked average last weekend against St. Cloud State.

But this weekend he was on. He had a handful of scoring chances and setups tonight, and last night he had by far the best chance to break the 1-1 tie in the final minutes of play.

“Not playing half a season doesn’t really do much to help you and then coming back from World Juniors can be a little taxingÖ,” Carman said. “I felt good this weekend. I felt like I had good chemistry with my line, and the whole team, we just came out and played.”

Line chemistry and among the team as a whole was also brought up by sophomore forward Tony Lucia, who gave Minnesota the early 1-0 lead.

“It’s good just to get chances, when you’re getting chances that’s when you know you are making plays ñ having a good game,” Lucia said. “I was fortunate to get one early and I’d like to have a couple more. I got setup by my line-mates quite a bit. We’ve got some chemistry going, so that was good.”

Lucia, who has scored three goals in his last five games, picked up a blocked shot and beat Bulldogs’ sophomore netminder Alex Stalock for his fifth overall goal of the year.

Add on Carman’s goal, and the Gophers accomplished something that only one other team has done all year ñ beat Stalock at the DECC.

But coach Don Lucia complimented both Stalock and Gophers goalie freshman Alex Kangas for their weekend performances.

“Both goalies were sharp,” Lucia said after the game. “You had to work for your goals.”

Kangas carried a shutout into the third period ñ the fourth time this season that his shutout hopes have been broken up in the final 20 minutes ñ this time by a junior defenseman Jason Garrison wringer from the point.

Coach Lucia didn’t think his goalie saw the shot and Kangas did look like he was screened.

Either way, Lucia was impressed and might be leaning towards the freshman as his go-to-goalie.

“We gave up two goals in a weekend. We’ll take that anytime,” coach Lucia said. “It’s not often the Gophers score three (goals in a weekend) and get three points.”

Stalock made 25 saves and gave up 2 goals in the loss.

WOMEN’S HOCKEY ñ A third period penalty shot goal from senior forward Bobbi Ross gave the Minnesota women’s hockey team a 2-1 win over North Dakota.

The win extends the Gophers’ unbeaten streak to 13 games.

Saturday 1 2 3 Final

Minnesota 1 1 0 2

Minnesota-Duluth 0 0 1 1

Scoring:

First ñ 1. MN, Lucia (Wehrs, Anderson) 12:24 (ev).

Second ñ 2. MN, Carman (Barriball, Hoeffel) 5:31 (ev).

Third ñ 3. UMD, Garrison (Oberg, Gergen) 9:02 (pp).

Saves:

Minnesota ñ Kangas 4-10-11-25