Gophers stumble against Colorado College, lose 6-4 in return to action after winter break

The Gophers men's hockey team resumed its regular season after nearly a month off Sunday, but the team's defense might have forgotten that it's no longer winter break.

In their first competitive game since Dec. 9, the 10th-ranked Gophers fell to Colorado College 6-4 in the opener of a two-game series against the 20th-ranked Tigers at 3M Arena at Mariucci. The Gophers outshot CC 69-52, including 37-29 on goal, but a turnover-laden offense and a power play that went 0-for-3 doomed the home team to defeat.

"We played hard in spurts, they played hard the entire game," Gophers coach Bob Motzko said. "We started off great, then we got bored. Colorado College just kept digging in their heels and we took our foot off the pedal. The mistakes were too much to overcome tonight."

Seemingly every positive for the Gophers was immediately negated by the Tigers. Of the four Gophers goals, three of them were answered within three minutes by a Colorado College score.

"I think it was our shift after our goals," sophomore forward Jimmy Snuggerud — who scored twice for the Gophers to give him a team-high 13 goals — said of CC's quick responses. "We got going, we got momentum, we scored, and then the shift after was negative. I think we'll be a lot better tomorrow in that aspect."

Following a scoreless first period, a tripping call on the Tigers' Ryan Beck 95 seconds into the second period led to a Minnesota power play. The Gophers didn't let it go to waste, and Snuggerud got his team on the board shortly after the man-advantage expired. Snuggerud, who had just returned from the world junior tournament in Sweden on Saturday, picked up right where he left off before his gold medal run for the United States.

The Tigers answered quickly, as a failed attempt to clear the puck from near the net turned into an easy tying goal from Bret Link. Colorado College scoring leader Gleb Veremyev followed that up with a missile from the right wing that Gophers goalie Justen Close (23 saves) couldn't react quickly enough to, giving the visitors their first lead of the night. After a tripping call on Connor Kurth late in the period put the Tigers on a power play, senior Tyler Coffey scored from a similar spot, giving CC (11-6-1) a 3-1 lead with the Tigers' third goal of the second period.

The Gophers (9-6-4) kept their offensive barrage going, but they never could pull even. Seven minutes into the third period, they got within a goal when John Mittelstadt scored for the first time this season. Link soon responded with his second score of the game to restore the Tigers' two-goal lead.

Snuggerud scored his second goal while moving to his left only 37 seconds after Link's goal, cutting the deficit back to one. Again, though, the Gophers couldn't tie it, and Zaccharya Wisdom scored what appeared to be a dagger goal for CC with 2:34 to go. This time, though, it only took the Gophers 17 seconds to answer when sophomore Brody Lamb scored. It came to no avail, as Colorado College's Noah Laba added an empty-netter with eight seconds remaining.

“After we score, we need to get that momentum going and build off of that,” Mittelstadt said. “We just didn’t do that. We were just kind of flat tonight.”