#3 Gophers Embarrassed in East Lansing in 9-3 Rout

East Lansing, MI – Mercifully for us Gopher fans, this article will be a short one.

The opening game in the highly-anticipated #3 vs. #2 matchup was a laugher, as the Minnesota Gophers (19-6-2 Overall (1-2 OT), 9-3-1-2 B1G) got absolutely rocked by the #2 Michigan State Spartans (20-3-2 (3-1), 9-1-3-2), giving up four unanswered goals in the third period to fall by a 9-3 score.

Michigan State jumped out to a 1-0 lead after one period on a Tanner Kelly goal at 6:32 of the opening frame.

The second period was wild, with seven total goals scored. Oliver Moore tied the game at 1-1 26 seconds into the second, with MSU’s Tommi Mannisto scoring 1:15 later to give the Spartans a 2-1 lead. Brodie Ziemer’s goal at 8:18 tied it at 2-2, but MSU again scored less than a minute later to go up for good at 3-2.

The Spartans scored twice more in the next 4:20 to expand the lead to 5-2, before Jimmy Snuggerud scored for Minnesota to make it 5-3 heading into the third period.

In a “show us what you’ve got” third, the Gophers fell absolutely flat on their faces. Minnesota earned an early powerplay, but like they’d done twice before in the game they could not get anything going on the man-advantage, and MSU scored just over four minutes after the Gophers failed to capitalize to seal the game at 6-3. The Spartans scored three more times throughout the third to close the books on a horrible game at 9-3.

There is going to be an awful lot of overreaction online to this one, and I’m going to do my best to not fall into that trap. However, I think tonight’s bloodbath reveals just how much daylight there is between this Gopher team currently and the true upper echelon of college hockey in 2025. To win against good teams, the effort needs to be consistently high – nobody has enough of a talent advantage at this point to take a night off, and it’s arguable whether the Gophers truly have any more talent on their team than MSU does, especially with scabs like Isaac Howard and Charlie Stramel on the ice.

Both Gopher goalies were shelled in this one, with Nathan Airey giving up five goals on 22 shots before Liam Souliere collapsed in the third, giving up four goals on 11 shots.

The good news is that this game, as ugly as it was, only counts once, and the Gophers have a chance tomorrow to earn a split. Anything less than a top-tier effort in Saturday’s series finale is unacceptable.

Minnesota and MSU battle it out again Saturday evening, with the puck dropping at 5PM.