Down to 9 Forwards, #1 Gophers Gut Out Tie with #3 Spartans

Minneapolis, MN – At this point of the college hockey season, seemingly everyone is dealing with a trickle of bumps and bruises.

For the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers, it’s been more like a tsunami.

In Friday night’s heavyweight fight, the #1 Minnesota Gophers (15-2-2 Overall (1-1 OT), 7-0-1-1 B1G) had to make do with what they had against the #3 Michigan State Spartans (12-2-1 (2-0), 4-1-2-0). Injuries to four skaters, plus Matthew Wood’s absence at Canada’s World Junior camp, left Minnesota with just 10 forwards to start the game. A Nick Michel 5-minute major early in the 2nd meant the Gophers skated 9 forwards the rest of the way. Even shorthanded, Minnesota was able to rally late, scoring on the power play in the 3rd period to earn a tie against an MSU squad that has all the ingredients to make a run in March.

When asked after the game what the fatigue level was like on the bench, Gopher captain Mike Koster quipped that “no one’s going to complain about ice time.” The team seems to be of the mindset to embrace the opportunities rather than complain about the struggles.

Indeed, Minnesota’s players that were available tonight were each relied on heavily, but they all seemed to relish the challenge.

The Gophers got off to a quick start, with Brodie Ziemer scoring on a rebound just 23 seconds into the game. Minnesota nursed that 1-0 lead throughout the rest of the period, but failed to capitalize on two powerplay chances in the opening stanza that would have given them some breathing room.

Michigan State capitalized on Minnesota’s lack of finish early in the second, scoring 2:20 into the period on a change-up type shot that beat Minnesota’s Nathan Airey five-hole to knot the game at 1-1.

The Gophers’ other Brody gave Minnesota the lead back less than two minutes later, when Brody Lamb roofed a wrister off of an Oliver Moore two-on-one pass at 4:09, to move the Gophers back ahead at 2-1.

Minnesota struggled with penalties the rest of the second, taking 21 minutes of penalties in the last 16 minutes of the middle frame, punctuated by Nick Michel’s contact-to-the-head major at 4:22. The Gophers did a nice job of killing that penalty, generating several shorthanded opportunities, but five minutes is a long time to withstand against a quality opponent and MSU made the Gophers pay. Tanner Kelly streaked up the left wing and deposited a Shane Vansaghi seam pass at the back door to tie the game at 2-2. Minnesota gave up another PP goal at 15:51 on a 4-on-3 chance for the Spartans, when Karsen Dorwart’s one-timed goal put the Spartans in the lead for the first time all game.

The shorthanded Gophers showed a lot of grit in the third, scoring on their own five-minute powerplay to tie the game. In an all-Brodie game for the Gophers, Ziemer scored at 11:06 on the man-advantage, dragging the puck into the center of the slot before beating MSU’s Trey Augustine five-hole to tie the game at 3-3. The two teams exchanged chances and big saves throughout the rest of the period, and settled on a regulation tie.

In the 3-on-3 overtime period, both teams had quality chances, with each goalie stopping a breakaway to keep their team alive.

Neither team was able to score in the five-minute OT, so the game went to a shootout, where not even the Gophers’ brand new “Taconite Alternate” jerseys could break Minnesota’s bad juju in the slam dunk contest. In typical Gopher fashion, Minnesota did not score on their two shootout opportunities, while MSU scored on both of theirs to earn the extra point in the Big Ten conference standings. The Gophers have not scored in a shootout in their last 23 chances, since Brannon McManus scored against Notre Dame on 2/14/20. Since that time, Minnesota has lost nine-straight shootouts.

In a bit of welcome news, coach Bob Motzko mentioned after the game that Matthew Wood should be back from Canada’s WJC camp in time to suit up for Saturday’s rubber match between Minnesota and MSU. Minnesota also welcomed Aaron Huglen back to the lineup, who missed last Saturday’s series finale with the Michigan Wolverines after sustaining a head injury the Friday before. Huglen went 17-for-28 in the faceoff dot and enabled a lot of the opportunities skating alongside Ziemer and Snuggerud.

The result goes down as a tie for Pairwise purposes, meaning Saturday’s game will be a big one for both teams heading into the holiday break. The break itself is much needed for Minnesota, who would like to rest up and get healthy before the second-half push.

Saturday’s contest starts at 5PM, and can be seen on Fox 9+, streamed on BTN+, and heard on AM1130 / FM103.5.