Cal Thomas celebrates a goal with Luke Mittelstadt. Photo by Craig Cotner.
Cal Thomas celebrates a goal with Luke Mittelstadt. Photo by Craig Cotner.

Gophers Earn Share of 24-25 Big Ten Title with 5-3 Saturday Win vs. Penn State

ByChris Eckes

State College, PA – The final regular season series of the 24-25 season did not lack for drama, with Penn State winning an overtime thriller Friday night to move onto the good side of the Pairwise bubble and deny Minnesota a chance to win the Big Ten title outright.

Saturday night, it was the Gophers’ turn to win in dramatic fashion.

Mike Koster scored the go-ahead powerplay goal with 3:04 left in the third period as the Minnesota Gophers (24-8-4 Overall (1-4 OT), 14-3-1-6 B1G) beat the Penn State Nittany Lions (18-12-4 (3-1), 7-10-5-2) by a 5-3 score. The win locked up a share of the Big Ten regular season title with the Michigan State Spartans, as both teams finished with 50 conference points on the season.

After a hard fought, scoreless first period, it was PSU’s Simon Mack, Friday’s OT hero, who got the home team on the board first at 6:01 of the second period. His shot from the point looked to have deflected in front past Minnesota goalie Liam Souliere and into the back of the net.

The Gophers were not deterred by the 1-0 PSU lead, scoring 3:44 later to tie the game. Matthew Wood beat Penn State’s Arsenii Sergeev on a rebound opportunity to make it a 1-1 game.

At 15:11 of the second period, Mason Nevers scored his second goal of the weekend to give Minnesota a 2-1 lead. Mike Koster fired a shot from the point, which was deflected high right to the stick of Nevers in the right circle. Nevers looked like Jimmy Snuggerud burying his high wrist shot in the back of the net to put the Gophers ahead.

A key turning point in the game happened late in the second period, when it seemed that Jimmy Snuggerud himself had scored in the final minute of the middle stanza to give the Gophers a huge 3-1 lead heading into the third period. However, Penn State challenged for a major penalty on a Ryan Chesley hit that had occurred two minutes earlier (there were no stoppages between the Chesley hit and the Snuggerud goal). After review, the referees determined that it was a 5-and-game for Chesley, which both gave Penn State a 5-minute powerplay and wiped the Snuggerud goal off the board (since it occurred after the penalty, which should have been blown dead at the time).

Penn State of course scored 50 seconds into the major powerplay tying the game at 2-2, a huge two-goal momentum swing heading into the third period.

In the third, with a banner on the line, the Gophers stepped up. Matthew Wood scored his second goal of the night (and 14th of the season) 3:44 into the final period on a nice two-on-one rush with Connor Kurth. Kurth fed Wood to his left, who beat Penn State’s Arsenii Sergeev with a quick wrister to make it a 3-2 game. Penn State doesn’t quit, though, and 59 seconds later Charlie Cerrato stuffed a turnaround rebound home to tie it at 3-3.

It was a tense battle tied going down the wire in the 3rd, but Minnesota caught a break when Reese Laubach took a 5-and-game penalty for a slash to Sam Rinzel’s head at 12:25. A golden opportunity for the Golden Gophers, a 5 minute major powerplay with the title on the line, and fifth-year captain Mike Koster willed the team to victory.

With just 30 seconds left on the major penalty, Jimmy Clark found a pinching Koster with a nifty spin-around back-door pass, and Koster beat Sergeev to put the Gophers ahead for good at 4-3.

Oliver Moore put it away with an empty netter in the final minute of play, and Minnesota skated away with a share of the Big Ten regular season championship, their seventh in the 12 seasons the league has been alive. Michigan State is the only other team with more than one championship (2), while Michigan is the only team that has not won the league title.

Minnesota draws the #2 seed in the Big Ten tournament, and will host cellar-dwelling Notre Dame next weekend in the first round of the Big Ten playoffs. #3 Ohio State hosts #6 Wisconsin, and #4 Michigan hosts #5 Penn State, each for a best-of-three series. From there, the lowest-remaining seed travels to East Lansing to face Michigan State in a single elimination game, while the highest-remaining seed hosts the other team for a one-and-done game to advance to the championship. If the Gophers win their first round series with Notre Dame, they will host the following weekend no matter what, and would have a chance to host the championship game yet again with a win and a Michigan State loss in the semifinal.

The Gophers have all-but-locked up a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament as well, and will very likely be the #2-#4 overall seed in the Pairwise rankings. Michigan State will also likely be a #1 seed, with Ohio State (98%), Michigan (85%), and Penn State (49%) still alive for at-large bids. The Michigan-PSU first round series will be one to watch next weekend, with both teams fighting for their NCAA tournament lives and PSU “needing it” more than Michigan, who could still make the tourney even with a series loss.

Gopher Hockey fan since birth. Avid golfer. Fantasy Sports enthusiast.

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