Gophers men’s hockey team thrashes Ohio State, moves into first place in Big Ten

When the Gophers men’s hockey team endured a 2-3-1 slump in conference play to start January that included a six-goal drubbing at Michigan State, the thoughts of Minnesota winning its seventh Big Ten regular-season title seemed remote.

Saturday night, those title aspirations got new life when the Gophers completed a sweep of Ohio State with a 6-3 victory in front of 10,565 at 3M Arena at Mariucci. Coupled with Michigan State’s 3-2 home loss to Penn State, the Gophers moved back into first place in the Big Ten standings with one weekend left in the regular season.

“We’ve got a chance again,” said Gophers coach Bob Motzko, whose team has 46 points in the standings, two more than second-place Michigan State. “… We’ve had a hell of a good year. We got through our little adversity in January, and here we are with a chance."

The Gophers finish conference play at Penn State — which is on a 5-0-1 run — next Friday and Saturday, while Michigan State travels to last-place Notre Dame. If the Gophers gain five or more standings points, they would win the Big Ten title regardless of how the Spartans finish. With that title comes a first-round bye into the conference tournament semifinals and home-ice advantage throughout the tournament. Should the Gophers and Spartans tie for the title, Michigan State would get the bye because of its better head-to-head record.

“Penn State is super-hot right now … and we’re going into their barn," said Gophers forward Connor Kurth, who scored two goals Saturday. “The ball’s in our court to try and get first place here, and that’s all you ask for.”

Along with Kurth’s two tallies, the Gophers (23-7-4, 14-5-3 Big Ten, No. 3 in the PairWise Ratings) got goals from Oliver Moore and Matthew Wood, plus empty-netters from Brody Lamb and Jimmy Snuggerud. Goalie Liam Souliere made 16 saves.

Minnesota took a 3-0 lead in the second period only to see Ohio State (20-10-2, 13-8-1) rally to within 3-2 and 4-3 in the third.

The Buckeyes appeared to make it 5-4 with 1:13 left in the third on a goal by Jake Rozzi, but Motzko successfully challenged the play for offsides, and the goal was wiped out. Shortly after, Snuggerud’s empty-net goal sealed the win.

Aiden Hansen-Bukata, Max Montes and Ryan Gordon scored for Ohio State. Logan Terness made 35 saves as the Gophers outshot the Buckeyes 40-19.

Motzko put an emphasis on having a net-front presence, and that paid off in the first period when Kurth took a pass from charging defenseman Mike Koster and hammered the puck past Terness at 12:41 for a 1-0 Gophers lead.

Moore made it 2-0 only 19 seconds into the second period with a power-play blast, and Wood showed off his baseball skills by batting the puck out of the air and into the net on a lively rebound of a Jimmy Clark shot.

“We play a game after practice, and he does that a little bit,” Clark said of Wood. “So yeah, cool to see.”

After Ohio State pulled within 3-2 in the third, Kurth scored his second goal, sweeping a rebound around Terness for a 4-2 lead at 10:35. Ohio State struck again at 13:22, but the successful challenge and the two empty-net goals ended the drama.

“I loved what our guys did tonight,” Motzko said. “We made a couple mistakes, but our overall play for 60 minutes — awesome. We dug in."