Minnesota Duluth blanks MTU

Courtesy of MTU Athletics

DULUTH, Minn. — The Michigan Tech hockey team was involved in its third
straight shutout tonight. Unfortunately for the Huskies, it was Minnesota
Duluth posting a 1-0 victory at Amsoil Arena.

Pheonix Copley made
41 saves, the most of a Tech goaltender this season. A first-period goal by UMD’s Joe Basaraba held up as the game winner.

“You’re going to have nights like tonight,” said head coach Mel Pearson. “We needed to be around the net more and work a little harder.

“I didn’t think our puck touches were very sharp all night, and that affected both ends of the ice.”

Tech certainly had its chances to score. The Huskies had 5:13 of power play time including 22 seconds of 5-on-3 in the third period.

The Black and Gold hit two pipes in the final 20 minutes as well. David Johnstone rapped
the left post while on the power play just 30 seconds into the third. Jacob Johnstone banked one off the inside of the right pipe later in the period, prompting the officials to review the play. It did not enter the net, and the Bulldogs remained on top 1-0.

Pearson pulled Copley for the extra attacker with 1:02 remaining, and the Huskies finished with a flurry. Matt McNeely made several big saves in the final moments to preserve the Bulldogs’ shutout. He finished with 28 saves.

Copley, who was coming off back-to-back shutouts at the GLI, had his shutout streak come to an end at 143 minutes, 32 seconds. The freshman has stopped 111-of-112 shots in his last three games.

“Pheonix played really well and gave us a chance to win,” said Pearson. “You can’t win if you don’t score goals. We’ve got to re-evaluate our play and get ready for tomorrow night.”

The teams will wrap up their two-game weekend series and four-game season series tomorrow night at 8:07 p.m. ET (7:07 CT).