More Questions Than Answers as Gophers Drop Game 3 To Irish

Minneapolis, MN – The good news: the Gophers will carry a high seed into the NCAA tournament in a few weeks.

The bad news: they may now carry some additional baggage with them.

After a letdown Friday and an exhilarating third period comeback Saturday, the Minnesota Gophers (25-10-4 Overall (1-4 OT)) put forth a disappointing effort Sunday to lose to last place Notre Dame (12-24-1 (2-2)) by a 4-1 score to crash out of the Big Ten playoffs.

As they’ve done throughout the year, the Gophers came out with a good first period but could not score. Minnesota got lucky to avoid an Irish shorthanded goal early in the period when Nathan Airey came out to play the puck and fell over, leaving a wide open net for several seconds and his teammates scrambling to keep the puck out of the Gopher net. Notre Dame finally scored against the run of play with 2:35 left in the period off a rebound loose in the crease to put the Irish up 1-0 going into the intermission, despite a 14-7 shot advantage favoring Minnesota.

ND scored again early in the second to increase the lead to 2-0 on another play right at the crease at 3:44. Later in the second, Minnesota suffered perhaps its biggest loss of the day when Aaron Huglen went down gingerly battling to cover defensively in his own zone. Huglen went down in a crumple into the Gopher net and laid on the ice for an extended period of time. Huglen eventually was helped off the ice, putting very little weight on his left leg. Coach Motzko after the game did not have any news on Huglen’s prognosis, more to come throughout the next few weeks.

The Gophers entered the third down 2-0 and after a few minutes of inspired play were able to draw a penalty. On the ensuing power play, Matthew Wood beat ND goalie Owen Say on a wrister from the point to get Minnesota on the board and draw within one at 2-1. The Gophers put on a mad scramble over the next couple of minutes, pressuring ND and getting chances in front of the net. However, Notre Dame’s Cole Knuble sealed it at 12:09 with a nice rush goal and put the Irish up 3-1. The Gophers pulled the goalie with just under 4 minutes remaining to try and tie it, but Notre Dame scored on the empty net with 2:20 left to win it 4-1.

Nathan Airey made his second start in as many nights after the Saturday win (and Souliere’s disappointing Friday effort), and with the Sunday loss the Gophers have a goalie conundrum on their hands. With three weeks before the regionals, coach Bob Motzko will have a decision to make come the first round of the tourney. Will he go with experience and better numbers with Liam Souliere, or the bigger body and more recent success with Airey?

Minnesota’s NCAA seeding took a bit of a hit with the first-round loss to ND. The Gophers now cannot earn the #2 overall seed, and will need to watch Maine and Western Michigan to see if they get passed in the top 4 seeds.

The only positive out of this one is that the team has a few weeks now to heal up and rest. Hopefully Huglen will be okay to go by that time.