ANN ARBOR, MICH. – No. 3 Michigan, a team loaded with seven first-round NHL draft picks, could never have seen this coming.
The Gophers scored the first, second … and fifth goals of the game to rout the Wolverines 5-1 on Friday night at Yost Ice Arena. Freshman forward Chaz Lucius had two goals, his fourth and fifth of the season.
"We've been practicing at a real high level, and now we've brought it two Fridays in a row," Minnesota coach Bob Motzko said. "We have the chance tomorrow to end [the first half] strong against a heck of a team."
No. 11 Minnesota (10-7, 6-3 Big Ten) beat No. 7 North Dakota 5-1 a week ago. Now this win vaults the Gophers into first place in the conference over Michigan (12-5, 5-4) — which had a one-point lead over the U into this series based on two overtime league losses to Minnesota's one.
The Gophers took a 3-0 lead in the opening period.
Defenseman Brock Faber scored at 8:33 on a two-on-one break with Jaxon Nelson. Then Lucius got a drop pass from Matthew Knies, and scored with a quick flick of the wrists at 10:28. Lucius' second close-range goal, with 19 seconds left in the period, came with Wolverines goalie Erik Portillo maybe being partly screened.
Michigan's Dylan Duke appeared to score at 11:34 of the second to make it 3-1, but Minnesota challenged the goal. And, after a review, officials waved it off for offsides.
If that was not disheartening enough for the Wolverines, only 59 second later Blake McLaughlin made it 4-0, stuffing in he puck during a scramble. Jonny Sorenson scored on a rush up the slot to make it 5-0 with 1:29 left in the middle period.
The Wolverines ended Jack LaFontaine's bid for a shutout on Thomas Bordeleau's goal at 1:33 of the third.
LaFontaine finished with 30 saves, 13 in the final period. Portillo and Noah West combined for 27 saves for the Wolverines.
