Erik Haula had a goal and an assist and Adam Wilcox tossed the 4-0 shutout as host Minnesota won Saturday in the semifinals of the Mariucci Classic college hockey tournament.
The win sets up a title showdown Sunday between two top-five teams: the fourth-ranked Gophers (12-3-3) and top-ranked Boston College. It will be a rematch of last season’s Frozen Four semifinal, which the Eagles won 6-1.
“It’ll be a great test,” Wilcox said. “We’re ready to go and we want a little revenge for last year.”
Haula scored in the first period and assisted on Kyle Rau’s goal in the third period. Nick Bjugstad assisted on two goals. Jason Torf made 29 stops.
“We played very well tonight,” Minnesota coach Don Lucia said. “They came at us for 60 minutes and we had to work.”
Wilcox turned away all 18 shots by the Falcons (5-8-3). It was his third shutout of the season.
“The most disappointing thing about this game is that we didn’t put a scare into them,” Air Force coach Frank Serratore said. “After two periods, we put ourselves in a position to win the game or at least scare them. We were down 2-0 and we had the power play. We didn’t get it done on our power play and then our penalty kill didn’t get it done. We did have some things I liked in the game. I was impressed with our defense. They reacted very well to the speed and skill of the game.”
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