One and Done For Gophers

MANCHESTER, N.H. (GopherSports.com) – Gopher Hockey’s quest for a sixth national championship came to an end on Friday night in a 4-1 loss to Minnesota Duluth at the NCAA Northeast Regional.

Seth Ambroz scored Minnesota’s lone goal in the contest in his final collegiate game, but it wasn’t enough after the Bulldogs jumped out in front in the opening period and didn’t look back.

Minnesota Duluth scored a flurry of goals in the second half of the first period to take a 3-0 lead into the first intermission. Within a span of six minutes, the Bulldogs picked up goals from Tony Cameransi, Justin Crandall and Willie Raskob – all even-strength goals in a game that saw just three combined penalties. Carson Soucy scored the game’s only power-play goal midway through the second as Minnesota went 1-for-2 on the penalty kill and 0-for-1 on the power play.

One of six Minnesota seniors who closed out their careers on Friday night, Ambroz cut into the lead with just under five minutes left in the third for his 12th goal of the year after being set up by Vinni Lettieri and Travis Boyd.

Adam Wilcox made 29 saves on 33 shots to move to 22-12-3 on the season.

The Gophers close out the 2014-15 season with a 23-13-3 overall record after earning an NCAA tournament bid for the fourth-straight season and the 36th overall time in program history. Minnesota also earned its second-straight Big Ten regular-season title (12-5-3-0 Big Ten record) and fourth-straight regular-season conference title before winning the Big Ten tournament title for the team’s first conference playoff championship since 2007.

In another opening tournament game, Judd Peterson scored at 8:11 into overtime to give St. Cloud State a 3-2 victory over Michigan Tech.