For Minnesota coach Bob Motzko, even in this brave new world of free movement across college hockey rosters, forays into the transfer portal have been rare. And lately, they have been spectacular.

On Saturday, a pair of his veteran new guys — forward Matthew Wood and goalie Liam Souliere — were the most notable difference-makers as the Gophers frustrated Wisconsin in a 4-1 win.

Wood, a NHL first-rounder who came west after two seasons at UConn, broke a scoreless deadlock in the third period with his 10th goal in maroon and gold. Souliere, who is playing his final season of college hockey at Minnesota after being a rival for the last four years at Penn State, had 26 saves for his 10th win of the season.

Those efforts, and a little help from their friends, powered Minnesota’s season sweep over their archrivals from America’s Dairyland for the first time since the 2002-03 season. And any Gopher fan can tell you, that’s the year Minnesota raised its most recent NCAA title banner.

With the Gophers on an abbreviated power play, Wood slipped a low shot through a crowd in front of Wisconsin goalie Tommy Scarfone, after the teams had played 49 minutes of scoreless hockey. His goal seemed to rattle the Badgers’ puck-stopper, as goals by Connor Kurth and Oliver Moore followed in quick succession.

Badgers coach Mike Hastings put Scarfone on the bench for an extra attacker with more than five minutes to play, and Wisconsin got on the board via Ryan Botterill’s third collegiate goal to spoil Souliere’s shutout bid. But Kurth added an empty-net goal with 2:15 to play to quash any hopes of a comeback by the visitors.

While they would still need Michigan State to slip in the final month of the regular season to have realistic hope of catching the Spartans for the Big Ten title, Minnesota (21-5-3) gained a little ground this weekend. Michigan State split a road series at Ohio State and leads Minnesota by two points in the conference standings, but the Spartans won their head-to-head series this season.

Wisconsin (11-14-3) got 22 saves from Scarfone in the loss, which came on the heels of Minnesota’s come-from-behind 5-2 win in the series opener.

The teams traded hits and scoring chances in the scoreless first period, with Minnesota killing the game’s first penalty after Kurth sailed a shot over the Wisconsin crossbar, then was whistled for tripping just seconds later.

Souliere, who started both games of a weekend series for the first time as a Gopher, was particularly strong at close range. Early in the second, he thwarted a scoring chance by fellow Montrealer Simon Tassy of Wisconsin with a pad save when the Badgers forward was left uncovered at the top of the crease.

The total attendance of 21,641 for the two game series was a new record in the century-plus history of Gophers hockey.

The Gophers have a bye next weekend, resting up for their final three regular season series, which include two games at Michigan, two at home versus Ohio State and two at Penn State.

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