Update: Despite a strong comeback effort from Brown, Minnesota holds on tonight to win 6-2 and advance to play No. 6 Northeastern tomorrow night. After only tallying three shots on goal in the games first 42:44, Brown’s Jordan Pietrus made shot No. 4 count. Well rather, shot No. 4 did count. The junior center scored his second goal of the season when he sent a strong shot from long range over Alex Kangas’ glove to cut the lead to 4-1. Pietrus’ goal was unassisted. Ryan Flynn got caught up in the moment early in the third period and cost Minnesota dearly. Flynn shoved a Brown skater over Rosen post-whistle to draw a trip to the box and at 6:07, Timberlake cut the lead to 4-2 thanks to assists from Jeff Buvinow and Matt Vokes. After tallying just two shots in the first two periods, Brown has scored two goals on five shots this period so far with 12:15 remaining. But Minnesota’s Patrick White scored a what I thought would be a momentum killer when his wrist shot bounced off Rosen’s pads and into the net. Wehrs picked up his second assist of the game on the goal, which came at 8:52. Wehrs only had one assist coming into tonight while White scored his second goal of the year. But it didn’t even phase the Bears, who had doubled up Minnesota on the shot chart 12-6 with just over seven minutes left thanks to a hail storm of shots on Alex Kangas. But they did eventually wear down, and after Joe Miller carried the puck into the empty net with an assist from R.J. Anderson with eight seconds left, it was all over. Looking forward, I didn’t see a ton of the Northeastern/Western Michigan game, but the few minutes of the third I did catch showed me tomorrow’s game should be much more interesting that most of tonight’s (can’t lie the third period was quite thrilling). Plus it’s a match-up between the No. 6 Bears and the No. 4 Gophers – one of the better pairings hockey fans have seen this year. All that I got out of Maturi’s speech on the health of Don Lucia was what somebody else in the press box told me. I was there, I just couldn’t hear anything. Even that didn’t make the situation much clearer. I’m told Maturi said Lucia contacted him first on Monday about not feeling well and has since seen several doctors although every test he has taken has either been positive or non-conclusive. Again, Lucia hopes to be present for tomorrow’s game. More or less: Lucia doesn’t feel well and doesn’t know why. Jay Barriball made it 2-0 when he tapped in his sixth goal of the season at 4:16. Aaron Ness found Barriball open in the slot to pick up an assist, and David Fischer tallied a helper as well. Later in the second, Barriball almost scored again from near the same spot, but the junior’s wrist shot bounced off the cross bar. Justin Bostrom made it 3-0 at 9:38 with the help of two Gophers who recorded their first assists with the team. Nick Larson slipped the puck to Sam Lofquist at the point to start the scoring play. Then Lofquist blasted a high slap shot off of Rosen’s pads that bounced even higher. When it finally came down Bostrom was there to slip in his third goal of the year. Tell you what, Justin Bostrom is doing a fine job filling in while several of his teammates are out of the roster. Counting his goal, Bostrom was a player in at least five scoring chances this period. And while his goal was the Bostrom of norm; a hardworking “dirty” goal, two of his other chances were skillful attempts. And the senior assistant captain factored into Nico Scacchetti’s goal at 15:36 that made it 4-0 Minnesota. Kevin Wehrs also assisted on the play, which ended when Sacchetti found the puck outside of a pile in front of the net to score his second career goal. Wow as if the 4-0 scoreboard doesn’t say enough, Minnesota is now up 33-2 on shots (although one of Brown’s other attem First Period: Despite only leading 1-0 after one period, the first was all Minnesota. Brown didn’t even record a shot on goal until 15:03 into play and even then it was only an attempt to get the puck deep in the corner by Bears captain Devin Timberlake. That was Brown’s only shot in the period – which I’m told is a Minnesota record. Brown’s Sean Connuaton inadvertently skated over the puck to take Ryan Flynn out of the play, but left the entire D-zone open for Mike Carman to wrist his fifth-goal of the year past Dan Rosen in net. Flynn along with Jake Hansen, who recorded his first career assist on the play, got the helpers for Carman’s goal at 7:40 of the first period. Rosen has been the savior for Brown thus far. He’s stopped 16 of 17 shots on goal including several pretty plays on his part. Not bad for a guy sporting a 3.66 GAA and a season save percentage of .902 coming into tonight.

Pre-game: Biggest news of the night so far: Don Lucia will miss tonight’s game with Brown due to an undisclosed illness. Lucia, who hopes to return for tomorrow’s game, has never missed a game in his 22-year career as a head coach. Minnesota AD Joel Maturi will address the press box during the first intermission, so we’ll know more then.