Gophers men’s hockey finds right combination to beat Penn State in Big Ten tournament opener

With his Gophers men’s hockey team looking out of sorts offensively and tied at a goal apiece with Penn State in the second period Friday night, coach Bob Motzko figured it was time to switch things up on a couple of lines.

Motzko swapped Jimmy Snuggerud, who usually plays with center Oliver Moore and left winger Rhett Pitlick, with Bryce Brodzinski, who usually plays with center Jaxon Nelson and left winger Mason Nevers.

The move paid off quickly as Snuggerud scored the go-ahead goal off a beautiful pass from Nelson at 14:21 of the second, jump-starting the Gophers to a 5-1 victory over the Nittany Lions in the opener of their Big Ten quarterfinal series at 3M Arena at Mariucci. Pitlick added two third-period goals, including an empty-net tally.

“We were in the dentist’s chair for a period-and-a-half before the Novocain wore off, and then we started to play,” Motzko said. “Once we started to get pucks deep, we had a good look to us. … I made a switch there, and it worked. All four lines got going for us.”

Sam Rinzel and Aaron Huglen also scored for the Gophers (21-9-5), who got two assists from defenseman Carl Fish. Goalie Justen Close made 20 saves and assisted on Pitlick’s empty-net goal.

Jacques Bouquot scored for Penn State (17-14-3). Goalie Liam Souliere stopped 22 shots.

With Gophers students on spring break, the boys hockey state tournament going on in St. Paul and Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark playing in the Big Ten women’s basketball tournament at Target Center, the Mariucci crowd was only 4,296. It took awhile for both teams to get going, and they traded goals from Rinzel and Bouquot in the first period.

“We came out a little bit slow in the first,” Fish said, “and we kind of got a whuppin’ in the locker room from Coach. We knew what we had to do.”

Motzko’s line-shuffling paid dividends when Nelson sent a backhand pass from the left corner below the goal line to the right side of the net, where Snuggerud tapped the puck past Souliere for a 2-1 lead and his 20th goal of the season. Snuggerud, a sophomore, reached the 20-goal mark for the second consecutive season.

“You saw his reaction,” Motzko said of Snuggerud’s relief. “You saw the air leave the building.”

Minnesota stretched the lead to 3-1 at 2:18 of the third when Brody Lamb sent a pass to Fish at the point. Fish fired a slap shot into traffic, and Huglen got credit for a tip-in for his 11th goal of the season.

“I wasn’t really trying to score,” Fish said of his shot. “I just saw two guys down there at the net front, and their two ‘D’ were down there, too. I just figured, ‘Throw it in there and see what happens.’ Good thing I hit Hugie in the breezers.”

The Gophers bumped the lead to 4-1 at 10:43 of the third when Pitlick backhanded the rebound of a Cal Thomas shot for his 18th goal of the season. Pitlick’s empty-net goal with 3:01 to play completed the scoring.

“I might see if I can grab that puck. I might split it in half for me and him,” said Fish, who has three assists to Close’s four this season.

Gavin Katz, a high-scoring forward on the Shattuck-St. Mary’s Under-16 team, announced Friday on Instagram that he has committed to the Gophers. Katz, 5-9 and 159 pounds, has 30 goals and 52 assists in 52 games this season. The 16-year-old is from Dellwood.