UMD Sweep Colorado

NSO – NEWS RELEASE

For the second straight night, the University of Minnesota Duluth took advantage of the man advantage and for the second straight night, it resulted in a National Collegiate Hockey Conference victory.

After going 3-for-5 on the power play on Friday, the Bulldogs duplicated those numbers Saturday en route to a 6-0 triumph over Colorado College at AMSOIL Arena. Sophomore left winger Noah Cates scored twice and set up another goal while junior defenseman Scott Perunovich was credited with three assists for UMD, which ran is home unbeaten streak to six games (5-0-1).

At the other end of the rink, senior netminder Hunter Shepard made 25 saves for his school-record 17th career shutout (and second ever against Colorado College in eight starts) and his 61st lifetime win. That gave the 2018-19 All-American sole possession of first place on UMD’s all-time victory chart list (one more that Rick Kosti; 1983-85 and Taras Lendzyk; 1992-96).

Junior right winger Kobe Roth, junior center Justin Richards and rookie right winger Luke Loheit also chipped in goals as UMD (7-4-1 overall and 4-1-1-0 in the NCHC) completed its first league sweep of the 2018-19 season. Perunovich finished with seven assists on the weekend to boost his season total to 18 — the second highest output in the nation.

“Both of our power play groups were effective this weekend,” said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin. “Once again we capitalized on the power play and that was a big difference in the game.”

The Bulldogs will remain at AMSOIL next Friday and Saturday to host top-ranked Minnesota State University-Mankato in their final home appearances of 2019.

Friday night the Bulldogs struck for three power play goals, including the game-winner from sophomore left winger Cole Koepke with 18.2 seconds to go in third period, and took down visiting Colorado College 4-3 Friday night in the front end of a weekend National Collegiate Hockey Conference series.

Koepke’s scored on a one-timer from the top of the left faceoff circle off a feed from two-time All-American junior defenseman Scott Perunovich, who has now picked up an assist on each of the Bulldogs’ last eight goals. Perunovich’s four-point evening equaled a career high,

The No. 9 Bulldogs, who outshot the Tigers 43-22, improved to 6-4-1 overall and 3-1-1-0 in NCHC play,

The Tigers (4-4-1 overall; 2-2-1-0 NCHC) got on the board first at 1:01 of the second period before sophomore Jackson Cates took a pass from his younger brother and linemate, sophomore left winger Noah Cates, in the low slot and buried his fifth goal of the year at the 14:15 mark of the same period. Colorado College’s Nick Halloran responded a little over three minutes later with a man advantage score of his own to put the Tigers back on top. UMD took its first lead of the night with back-to-back third period goals from junior left winger Kobe Roth (4:06) and sophomore left winger Tanner Laderoute (on the power play at 15:08). With its goaltender pulled for an extra attacker, Colorado College drew even on Halloran’s second goal of the night with 1:41 to go in regulation, ultimately paving the way for Koepke’s heroics.

Senior All-American netminder Hunter Shepard, making his  92nd consecutive start, finished with 22 saves en route to posting his 60th lifetime victory. That ties him with Rick Kosti (1983-85) and Taras Lendyk (1992-96) for the UMD program lead.

“Our power play was big tonight,” said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin. “It was a good game game for us, but we still need to clean some things up.”