Analysis: Frustration is a familiar feeling as Gophers make another NCAA tournament exit

COLLEGE HOCKEY INSIDER | RANDY JOHNSON

FARGO — The scene was chillingly familiar for the Gophers men’s hockey team in a cramped locker room at Scheels Arena early Friday morning. Players with tears in their eyes, some still sobbing, and others with anger across their faces.

Their season had just ended Thursday night in a 5-4 overtime loss to Massachusetts in the Fargo Regional of the NCAA tournament, and how it happened included Minnesota losing a two-goal third-period lead that carried a large dose of controversy.

If that sounds a lot like what occurred two years ago in Tampa, Fla., when Quinnipiac erased a two-goal deficit and beat the Gophers 3-2 in overtime in the national championship game, it should. History repeated itself in a way in Fargo, and the Gophers were on the wrong end of it again.

Thursday’s result sent UMass into Saturday’s regional final against Western Michigan, and how the game will be remembered depends on which lens you’re using to view it.

For the Minutemen, it was a gritty comeback triumph from a 3-1, third-period deficit. “The way the kids were playing in the third, it was pretty lopsided,” said UMass coach Greg Carvel, whose team outshot Minnesota 16-7 in the third period. “You could just feel it. I didn’t have to say much.”

Using the lens of Gophers coach Bob Motzko and a lot of national observers, the Minutemen’s winning goal came after Gophers defenseman Ryan Chesley was tripped by center Dans Locmelis, who grabbed the puck, skated down the ice and fed a backhand pass to Aydar Suniev for the winner. No call came from the officials on the trip, nor was there an earlier high-sticking call on Daniel Jencko, who hit Gophers defenseman Luke Mittelstadt up high immediately before feeding Suniev for the goal that tied it 3-3 in the third period.

“Two goals tonight,” Motzko said. “We all get the mandate from the NCAA on sportsmanship. I shouldn’t be sitting up here right now. Two goals tonight. Two.”

Did Motzko and his staff coach too conservatively when the team got a two-goal lead Thursday — an accusation they faced after the lost lead against Quinnipiac in 2023? That will be debated, but Carvel didn’t notice a difference in strategy.

“They did what I expected,” Carvel said. “They make a lot of plays in the slot, and they scored their third goal that way and had chances. … It’s usually just about ‘compete.’ We spend way too much time breaking down film and having the kids sit through pre-scouts when it’s all about wanting the puck more than the other guy.”

In the 2023 national title game, the Gophers’ issue with officiating came when center Logan Cooley was called for a high-sticking penalty late in the third period while battling with Quinnipiac’s Sam Lipkin, who had Cooley’s stick trapped in a chicken wing hold. Shortly after the power play expired, the Bobcats tied the score 2-2 with 2:37 left in the third period. They needed only 10 seconds to win it in OT and deny the Gophers a sixth NCAA championship.

The locker room scene then: Captain Brock Faber in tears. Cooley biting off words to describe his reaction to the penalty call.

Like then, the Gophers can only move forward and try to chase a national championship that’s eluded the program since 2003. This was their fifth consecutive NCAA appearance under Motzko, and the first in which they didn’t advance out of the first round.

They will face some rebuilding in 2025-26. Top scorer Jimmy Snuggerud, who scored the Gophers’ first goal Thursday and forced overtime with their fourth, signed an entry-level deal with the St. Louis Blues on Friday. Fellow first-round draft picks Sam Rinzel and Oliver Moore could be tempted to sign with the Chicago Blackhawks.

First-rounder Matthew Wood could hear from the Nashville Predators. Dependable seniors Mike Koster, Aaron Huglen and Mason Nevers have exhausted their eligibility. They will miss goalie Liam Souliere, too, the graduate transfer from Penn State who made 32 saves Thursday.

In the end, Motzko was left with frustration.

“These guys deserved better,” he said.