Gophers men's hockey team already feeling impact of players leaving for NHL

TAMPA, FLA. – Helmets, gloves and sticks flew into the air, and shortly later "We Are the Champions'' played from the Amalie Arena sound system. Yes, a hockey team was celebrating a championship on Saturday night.

It wasn't the Gophers.

Instead, Quinnipiac and its fans did the hooting and hollering after Jacob Quillan's goal only 10 seconds into overtime delivered the Bobcats their first national championship with a 3-2 victory over the top-ranked Gophers in the NCAA men's Frozen Four final.

For the Gophers and their fans, who turned out in full force all week in Tampa, the expected coronation turned out to be a catastrophe.

"I'm just crushed for them and for all of us,'' Gophers coach Bob Motzko said. "Our fans were fantastic. We were in a good spot.''

That good spot was a 2-0 lead 4:24 into the second period when center Jaxon Nelson knocked a rebound of a Brock Faber shot past Quinnipiac goalie Yaniv Perets. Coupled with John Mittelstadt's goal 5:35 into the game, the Gophers seemed to have the separation they needed, even though the Bobcats were starting to dictate the pace of play.

Minnesota had a 7-4 edge in shots on goal in the opening period, but when Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold got what he calls his 1-1-3 defensive system going, the Gophers started to falter and were outshot 26-8 the rest of the way.

The Bobcats cut the lead to 2-1 on Christophe Tellier's goal at 7:41 of the second and continued to put the Gophers on their heels, outshooting Minnesota 11-6 in the second. It got worse for the Gophers in the third, when they put only two shots on goal — one by Jackson LaCombe at 3:46 and the other by Jimmy Snuggerud at 17:55.

"We started to believe,'' Pecknold said. "And I thought our culture was, again, on full display in the third period.''

Minnesota's best scoring chance in the third might have been Snuggerud's shot on a two-on-one rush that missed just wide at 11:34. Like his father, Dave, in 1989 against Harvard at the St. Paul Civic Center, Jimmy felt the sting of an overtime loss in the national championship game.

Especially in the third, the Gophers had difficulty clearing the puck from their zone. And when they did enter Quinnipiac's zone, a Bobcat was there to swat the puck away.

While one could argue that the Gophers went into a shell after taking the 2-0 lead, Quinnipiac also forced them into that shell by playing with more energy and tenacity — and not letting them possess the puck.

The Gophers had one power-play chance in the third when Skyler Brind'Amour was called for hooking, but could muster only LaCombe's shot on goal.

The game turned at 15:08 when Logan Cooley was called for high-sticking while he and Sam Lipkin were battling for position. Lipkin had Cooley's stick in a chicken-wing hold before Cooley got his stick up.

At 16:32, Pecknold called timeout and pulled Perets to create a 6-on-4 advantage. Just five seconds after the Bobcats power play expired, Colin Graf poked home the rebound of a Sam Metsa shot between Justen Close's legs to tie the score with 2:47 remaining.

"Second one never should have went in,'' Motzko said, not as an indictment of Close but rather from frustration of the penalty call. "That was the unfortunate situation right there.''

Said Tellier, "We kind of knew we had them, to be honest.''

In overtime, Quinnipiac proved that.

Nelson won the opening faceoff, but the puck went out of play, so the refs called for a do-over. This time, the faceoff led to Quinnipiac's only odd-man rush of the night. Quillan won it back to Metsa, who passed ahead to Lipkin at the Gophers zone. Lipkin then backhanded the puck to Quillan, who was surging down the left side. Quillan got Close to commit, then tucked the puck into the net, igniting the Bobcats' celebration and adding a 21^st year to the Gophers' national title drought.

What's next for the Gophers? There will be much change.

It started Sunday morning when Faber signed with the Wild, giving up his senior season. By late afternoon, Matthew Knies had signed with the Maple Leafs, who made him a second-round pick in 2021.

Cooley, the No. 3 overall pick by the Coyotes last year, is another candidates to leave early. The blue line presumably won't have LaCombe and Ryan Johnson back. The team won't look the same, though Motzko has a strong recruiting class waiting.

Throughout the season, Motzko spoke of his enjoyment of this team and how cohesive it was. The Gophers accomplished a lot, just not what they wanted most.

"That one's going to sting,'' Motzko said. "That's a crusher.''